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[ January 2009 ] | |
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TCHS 4O 2000 [4o's nonsense] alvinny [2] - csq - edchong jenming - joseph - law meepok - mingqi - pea pengkian [2] - qwergopot - woof xinghao - zhengyu HCJC 01S60 [understated sixzero] andy - edwin - jack jiaqi - peter - rex serena SAF 21SA khenghui - jiaming - jinrui [2] ritchie - vicknesh - zhenhao Others Lwei [2] - shaowei - website links - Alien Loves Predator BloggerSG Cute Overload! Cyanide and Happiness Daily Bunny Hamleto Hattrick Magic: The Gathering The Onion The Order of the Stick Perry Bible Fellowship PvP Online Soccernet Sluggy Freelance The Students' Sketchpad Talk Rock Talking Cock.com Tom the Dancing Bug Wikipedia Wulffmorgenthaler       |
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- tagcloud - academics [70] art [8] changelog [49] current events [36] cute stuff [12] gaming [11] music [8] outings [16] philosophy [10] poetry [4] programming [15] rants [5] reviews [8] sport [37] travel [19] work [3] miscellaneous [75] |
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An eventful few days. Let's see - tried playing football at Fico with zy and his friends on Saturday night. I didn't even know such a place existed within reasonable walking distance (20 minutes should do it), and had always wondered what The Cage (which I did know about) would be like.  Lights, cameraphone, action As you can see, it's essentially artificial turf bounded on all four sides (and the top) with strong black netting, with the pitch the size of perhaps a basketball court. Bears some resemblance to street soccer, only that one can hit relatively high balls into the netting on the sides, the netting doesn't provide much of a rebound, and all balls touching the netting at the ends or top belong to the goalie of the side that didn't touch it last (probably a house rule). Far too unfit for prolonged play, but at least I got a cheap tap-in more or less about the stroke of my birthday's midnight. Hooray. United vs. Spurs after that, which was at 0-1 when I returned. Wasn't too concerned given the way United were going, however, and Paul Scholes soon made it one-all with a trademark cracking (deflected) strike from outside the box. Cue my newly bought Scholes pillow (from the NUS Central Forum) making an appearance:  He scores goooooaaaallllls (and gets headrubs from O'Shea) Carrick (formerly of Spurs) excellent pass to Berbatov (formerly of Spurs) for a great first touch for 2-1 was just rubbing it in far too cruelly for my taste. Dad drove me to my paternal grandparents' home for the reunion dinner as always, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a new Acer Aspire L5100 Mini computer at my parents' home (long-term local exchange student here). For a tiny box running Vista, it held up pretty well. Spent a couple of hours trying my luck on Forumwarz' INCIT, essentially a game where a random photo is thrown up and people try to attach a short and witty (and admittedly often very vulgar) caption to it. Everyone then votes on the one they think best, or inevitably one they think is lame so as not to diminish their own chances of winning. As with my old essays, the ones I thought best were seldom acknowledged...  Not my finest moments (but they won!) Couldn't cure myself of the bad habit of trying to figure out magic tricks as they were performed on TV, though often the answer is just one Google away (see: Omnideck [$14.79] for example). Played Big 2 with my siblings for five cents a card (we have yet to settle any accounts), whereupon I was again reminded that ending with a two is not a legal move. Couldn't complain about my luck however, with one particularly satisfying win coming from spotting two straights out of consecutive pairs. Oh, and have I mentioned that it was my birthday too? 
Felt like I was on double damage as some of my generous elders promptly responded with two red packets, and while I did feel rather too old to continue receiving them, I reluctantly swallowed my personal principles in the interests of proper decorum. Watched the Liverpool vs. Everton FA Cup tie, with Everton duly scoring in the couple of minutes during which my mum switched channels. Thought of asking her to repeat the trick, but my sense of fair play prevailed, resulting in a 1-1 draw which Everton probably felt rather pleased about. Ate noodles direct from the cooking pot for supper (saving the need for a plate), and ended up sleeping only at four. I took pride in introducing the resident baby at my paternal grandparents' place to the harsher realities of life, by tempting it with a roasted cashew nut; (S)he took it in good humour, which should bode well for his/her future, and if I were more optimistic I would say that (s)he gave me a neat farkew b*****d b*****d farkew look - but I dare not hope for such an educational breakthrough off the bat. Thought a bit of the implications of my dad hiring a Myanmese graduate for S$1.4k a month on the ride home, given my own imminent graduation. Given the average wage in Myanmar (ballpark figure of US$6 to US$20 a month from quick Googling), I suppose that's not too shabby, comparable to say my landing a job in the U.S. of A at US$20k/month as a fresh graduate; also it's not even bottom rung as grad salaries go! More on this soon... Presented the hamsters with some tidbits that I had saved for them, and was pleased to discover that were fast becoming minor celebrities back in Jurong. The rotund and pliant Mr. Bacon was quite the lady-charmer in particular, and when they were all done with him, he looked like he had mumps, with overloaded cheek pouches from being dreadfully overfed. My sister was the exception, and thus Mr. Bacon was able to aid my Big 2 strategy by nibbling her toes at critical intervals. Advised my brother to follow in my footsteps by buying hamsters first and getting the requisite permission later. Measured pressure did not succeed in getting him to regurgitate their contents, so the next best course of action was taken - a particularly juicy prize was dangled between both hamsters in the hope that they would at least sweat off some extra calories from some intense wrestling. No bets were accepted, but Mr. Bacon's additional weight appeared to put him in the ascendancy. He was duly primed with a bite of bak kwa later in the night.  "Full? No, hardly, beg pardon ma'am, they barely feed me here... the cheeks? A sign of malnutrition, I tell you... Oh, the hunger pangs... Starving, I'm literally starving... A bite, m'lady, to keep body and soul together? To eat, perchance to dream..." (note emergency claw of death at bottom right)
- current events - Painful geek humour on finite state machines for the Failblog, from Natural Language Processing:  STATEMENT FAIL - Minister of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Charles Chong, quoted in Today The latest MP-foot-in-the-mouth incident sees an MP ostensibly refer to certain sections of the general populace as (gasp!) lesser mortals, which has dredged up the dying Le Cordon Bleu affair once more. Actually, to give Mr. Chong the benefit of the doubt, the term might just have been a playful figure of speech. I could imagine that with a suitably self-depreciating smile, the statement would have sounded far more palatable than it does in black and white (which does not convey the tone); more than, say, "S$600000 a year is peanuts!" or "Please, get out of my elite uncaring face", which would be quite a stretch, in the class of accidentally messaging one's boss "I FARK U LAH" and trying to clear things up with "Sorry, that was a typo, I really meant THANK YOU". Another reason for my sympathy is that the original issue, in which Mr. Tan Yong Soon, a permanent secretary at the Environment and Water Resources Ministry, was lambasted for spending S$46000 on a five-day trip for his family to learn French cooking, is more or less a non-issue to me. His superior, Mr. Teo, going as far as to say that "...the article showed a lack of sensitivity and was ill-judged." in Parliament was I feel more a popular sop to restless public opinion than anything else. The original article itself is reproduced here, and nowhere does it note the cost of the programme, which therefore had to be dug up elsewhere. Personally, I didn't detect anything particularly noteworthy, other than a mention that his wife is a senior investment counsellor and his son is going to Brown, but that's clutching at straws. If the main thrust of public anger were directed towards the cost, I would say it is quite misguided. It was his money, after all, and the issue of whether high-level civil servants are overpaid (the civil servant part is important, as a businessman doing the deed could hardly be criticized) should rightly be treated separately, in that if they are overpaid, they are overpaid whether they splurge part of it on holidays or not. Indeed, during an economic boom, probably nothing would have come of this at all. As to whether it was insensitive to go on the (expensive) trip and write about his experiences (again, remember the cost was never stated) - I would say that it did not appear to be Mr. Tan's intention to rub others' faces in it. Realistically, would anyone here be better off had he saved the S$46000 instead? In fact, in general, spending during a recession is a positive thing for everyone! Interestingly, if he had spent the money locally, I would expect that the outcry would have been far less severe. Too bad he chose to make it an outflow of funds instead. DEVELOPMENT FAIL - Tautology by our Development Economics lecturer Several development theories were discussed this week for the module, beginning with the Harrod-Domar (a "growth model/theory") and Lewis ones, and then the Solow Neoclassical (or Exogenous) Growth Model (which if I didn't mishear, is a "productivity model/theory" - tricky!) The most captivating one to me was the International Dependence Approach, though, which essentially states that all the airy-fairy equations are for naught, and what happens in the real world is that wealthier countries maintain poorer ones in a submissive position through various extensions of their power (such as sending "expert" advisors, whom as the lecturer quipped, are only considered experts if they stay a short time, and nothing special if they become long-term residents), and deny them real independence and development through economic sanctions and military action. This can be thought of as a "sure, we can help, but it's most important that we end up ahead" mentality, where richer countries are willing to spread their largesse, as long as there's something in it for them (profits), and the majority of the production reverts to the foreign investors. Then again, is there any particular reason for countries to actively seek to raise other countries to their own level, i.e. give power away? Thus, poor countries are like indebted workers living in a company town, who are paid a pittance to start with (there's only one world economy), and have nowhere else to go (there's only one world), have to buy most of their stuff from the company shop which charges high prices, and somehow end up never being able to put any savings away after paying their bills. All above board, of course. And a good portion of their best and brightest will invariably be attracted to the bright lights of richer countries, resulting in a "brain drain". But is this all just an excuse, since every country existing now was once poor by today's standards, and there are a number who have more or less made it, despite all the points above (i.e. Singapore)? Perhaps. It is likely not the full picture, and the will of a nation (or at least its leaders) also plays a role, but as the text says, "...The relatively weak position of the poorest countries in the world economy is analogous to that of a 1500 meter race between a young athlete and an old man, in which the former is given a 1000 meter headstart." - the argument goes that when today's rich countries were developing, there were no far richer countries to exploit them. It follows that one might wonder why one studies Macroeconomics to master macroeconomics and not, say, Political Science (for a more detailed exposition, see Axel Leijonhufvud's 1973 paper on Life Among The Econ [suggested by roastbird], which observes that Development Economics is not looked highly upon by economists in other subfields: "...the low rank of the Devlops is due to the fact that this caste, in recent times, has not strictly enforced the taboos against association with the Polscis, Sociogs, and other tribes")
- academics - love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. - The Prophet by Khalil Gibran Tuesday Microeconomics III. The class was held in a room due to the relatively small enrolment. Will have to sit closer to the front next time if I hope to make head or tail out of it. Wednesday Ah, the 8 a.m. day, covered a couple of posts down. Perused a tome on traditional Chinese folk religion while waiting for the meeting with my FYP supervisor. Supposedly we have three souls, one that stays in the grave, one that resides in the memorial tablet and one that reports to the nether world. Quite a bother if you think about it. Getting into the library was an issue in itself as my matriculation card had expired. A reminder that I really should be a graduate by now. Bought the Development Economics textbook (appropriately titled EC3371 Development Economics I) to round off the day. Thursday Natural Language Processing. This professor also printed the notes, which I again didn't need. Recognized finite state machines from the Theory of Computation module I took years ago, though I must admit I had forgotten most of the finer points. Learnt that ambiguity is the main issue in natural language processing (the module seems to be focused a bit more on English here rather than natural languages as a whole, with good reason I gather). Got introduced to Google Language Tools (more of an Altavista Babelfish guy myself, shown by having it on this blog) and the Columbia Newsblaster, which automatically summarizes news by drawing on multiple sources. Wondered why internet translation tools require one to specify the source language - if a person doesn't understand a language, is that any reason to suppose he knows what language it is? Contrasting English with Chinese or Japanese may be easy enough, and some may be able to make an educated guess, but I suppose telling stuff like Spanish and Portuguese apart isn't trivial. There is a simple rough-and-ready solution, taking a standard translation service as a black box: One simply requests a translation of the unknown text in all available languages, and presumably only the correct language will return something intelligible. The downside is of course greatly increased load for the translation server, but if implemented by the service itself they could probably reduce this overhead significantly by doing away with the multiple connections an external wrapper service would demand. I was almost ready to write such a wrapper, when I discovered that Google had stolen a march on me with a Language Detection API. Ah well. The most natural use of this technology would probably be some sort of browser plug-in that automatically translates everything into one's target language, while translating all responses (e.g. comments, forum posts, etc) back to the original language, possibly with a disclaimer stating that the text is machine-translated. But someone's probably done that. Oh, Google has also incorporated some form of NLP into Gmail - accessing an email about a bowling event organized by NUS resulted in a suggestion to add the date to Google Calendar. Since they got the wrong date, however, I suppose more refinements are possible. Bought the NLP textbook (Speech and Language Processing by Jurafsky & Martin) to round off the day. Friday Environmental Economics at 4 p.m., but I arrived at 11 a.m. for a spot of badminton. The bus trip was quite eventful towards the end, as an old guy who hadn't been behaving normally suddenly threw his arms up, started screaming and then eventually collapsed face first on his seat. No-one quite knew what to make of it, as he seemed more mentally unbalanced than in pain (to me at least). After the passenger behind him tapped him and got no response (other than his breathing), the bus driver was informed and the bus stopped and cleared at the ITE Dover (i.e. opposite NUS) stop awaiting an ambulance. What a start to the day. Was rudely reminded of my flagging fitness levels during badminton, where I got acquainted with the new scoring system (adopted from 2006 on). Still feel closest to the old 15-point days. Met a few of the 4O guys for lunch (and ice-cream), and discovered that I had no access to the computer labs either thanks to the expired matriculation card, which had to be renewed at the Computer Centre. Read TIME magazines while waiting for the Environmental Economics lecture instead. Having no lecture slides posted in the IVLE workbin beforehand should have been a hint that the lecturer hadn't prepared any digital copies, but it still came as somewhat of a shock (with audible groans and sharp intakes of breath) as he dragged out the overhead projector and began flashing handwritten transparencies - I can't even remember the last module when this happened. With experience born of years of note-taking, I wasted no time in whipping out pencil and paper and scribbling furiously. There is something of an art in copying slides, especially at the beginning, since it is unknown whether the lecturer will leave the slide up for long enough to transcribe fully (while they might agree to put the slide back up upon request, it is also possible that they could dismiss copying as unimportant). The technique is then to pick out the most important points first, and then fill in the less important ones if the lecturer drones on, kind of like interlacing GIF image files. Proper knowledge of shorthand may help - I might get on that sometime after I master true touch typing, from my current bastardized six-finger-pecking method (blame my right index finger for being too hardworking). Anyhow, there may be something to be said for transparencies, as they sure do increase one's concentration during a lecture. As it turned out, this lecturer tends to spend rather more time talking about each slide than needed to copy them in their entirety, so I ended up able to retype an unabridged version of his notes in Powerpoint (with diagrams) just for kicks. The Environmental Economics textbook was out of stock, so I couldn't get it to round off the day. Sob. Saturday/Sunday Finally annotated my notes for the week. Manchester United left it very late to beat Bolton 1-0. Looking at their recent games, it might be worthwhile to watch the kickoff and the last half-hour, and skip the part in between: 21 Dec - LDU Quito 0 Man Utd 1 (Rooney 73) 26 Dec - Stoke City 0 Man Utd 1 (Tevez 83) 29 Dec - Man Utd 1 Middlesbrough 0 (Berbatov 68) 4 Jan - Southampton 0 Man Utd 3 (Welbeck 20 Nani 48 Gibson 81) 7 Jan - Derby County 1 Man Utd 0 (Commons 30) 11 Jan - Man Utd 3 Chelsea 0 (Vidic 45 Rooney 63 Berbatov 87) 14 Jan - Man Utd 1 Wigan 0 (Rooney 1) 17 Jan - Bolton 0 Man Utd 1 (Berbatov 90) I couldn't see how they were going to pull the bunny out of the hat for their latest escape, though, but they somehow did it again. Top of the table deservedly: Chelsea too got their comeback in the last minute, to ensure things remain tight at the top; West Brom and Villa likewise won to get my Challenge back on track. Yippee! Monday Continued clearing stuff off my to-do list. I thought I had seen the last of my internet problems after switching to Starhub, but a sudden spate of seemingly-random Resolving Host... errors had me groaning. Solution: OpenDNS on my router, worked like a charm.
<g!ys> but damn qiang illegal parking <MK> ya, rabbit big f**k Thanks to smk for getting occ's photo (seen in the previous post) onto a computer via infrared/Bluetooth. The bunny itself looks alright, but personally I prefer floppy ears. Will leave the anecdotes from the first week of classes for later - I'll just take the opportunity to post Bush's farewell pic (that has been lingering on my desktop for far too long):  Warning: 2.12MB animation Have to say that the guy (Muntadar al-Zeidi) has a good throwing arm on him. Bush's reflexes weren't too bad either, and since the whole incident appeared wildly popular in the Middle East and mildly amusing on the whole elsewhere, I guess it's win-win for everybody (other than Muntadar, who got badly beaten up)! Reviving the virtual Challenge (at $1138.25/$1500 - last edition Dec 7)... $50 on West Bromwich Albion to beat Middlesbrough (at 2.25) $50 on Aston Villa to beat Sunderland (2.05) N.B. The New Paper appears to have stopped publishing odds on total goals/HT-FT.
Can't recall the last time I woke at 6:30 a.m. (staying up till five or six, yes), and was pleasantly surprised to find that I kinda liked it - perhaps from nolstalgia, after doing so for most of my secondary school/JC/army years. The air was clear and cool, the world was dimmed, quiet and peaceful, everything seemed new. Then I arrived at the lecture theatre half an hour early, couldn't find a comfortable position in which to nap, and remembered just why I'm not in the business of waking up at 6:30 a.m. by my own free will. The professor almost made it worth it, though, lugging in a huge bag with free notes for the nearly 200 people in the class. Unfortunately I had jumped the gun and printed most of them (along with the past year papers as has been my custom). From the looks of those, Environmental Economics should be less of a worry. Titles to be sold this time round: [EC3312] A Primer in Game Theory by Robert Gibbons [EC3353] The Economics of Health and Health Care by Folland, Goodman & Stano [EC3361] Modern Labor Economics - Theory and Public Policy by Ehrenberg & Smith [EC3361] Labor Economics by Borjas [LSM1301] Biology - Life on Earth by Audesirk (x2) & Byers Got some new direction on my FYP from my advisor. That's good. Queueing for books/food led me to a strange realisation - let us assume that one has been in a long queue for many minutes, and a guy comes in, strikes up a conversation with his friend just in front of you, and tries to merge into the queue. I would gather that some would be quite pissed at this act, as having an acquaintance currently in the queue should not entitle a person to just cut in, or from another angle, being in a queue should not entitle one to invite others to join the queue at one's position. So far so good. However, if the guy instead makes a call to his friend in the queue, or even just walks up and tells him what to order, one might find it harder to raise an objection - especially as they could very well have arranged to consolidate their orders beforehand and left nobody any the wiser. This is not exactly equivalent to having both in the queue, one might say, since their carrying capacity would be reduced, but often it doesn't matter, as a person can quite easily cram four plates on a single tray (in the context of food). Furthermore, the time taken to order might even be marginally reduced! So, it seems that there is really no reason to stop a person from allowing his friend(s) to cut the queue right in front of one's nose, especially as by cutting the queue they would at least be queueing for part of the time. Well, maybe there is a reason - to prevent an unbounded growth in queue-cutters as friends-of-friends join in the act, leaving poor friendless schmucks forever stranded at the back of the line... 
occ's contribution to my abundoned bunny collection, taken near his home in Bukit Batok. The quality of the photo leaves much to be desired, but him not being able to send MMS messages forcing me to snap the pic on his phone on my phone should explain it. Wouldn't mind more stray bunnies instead of the usual cats and dogs if they were up to it. Today's site recommendations: Forumwarz, a parody game based on internet stereotypes (warning: pretty offensive in places) and F**k You, Penguin, a.k.a Cute Overload! for tough guys. The hamsters' favorite post here.
- Fable II (currently played by my cousin) achievement The Last Timetable (as an undergrad) 
Four day week :( (Tutorials unconfirmed) Discovered to my chagrin that near 2000 Programme Account points isn't all that much for a final year student, as my bid to take Financial Economics II was flattened by a mere 55 points in the first round, and thereafter it cost well over my total holdings. Considered appealing, but thought it unlikely to succeed since I had several other options, thus I snapped up Environmental Economics at the end, with nary a point to spare (Your bid: 801 Winning Bid: 801). I currently have absolutely no idea what Environmental Economics pertains to, but if it goes the same way as the last time I took an economics module under the same circumstance (hint: Health Economics), it should go just fine. Tutorials will be packed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so if push comes to shove skipping the Tuesday and Friday single lectures would leave me with a two day week (one of my grand ambitions) . Historically lecture attendance has generally had a slightly inverse relationship with final grades (Physics notwithstanding), so I figure that if I think I can safely skip these, I'll do well. I Look Like Who?  So those of you who don't know what I look like can imagine it... not. The site doesn't work on hamster faces, btw. Books, Books Returned my recent haul, which off the top of my head was Emperor: The Gods of War (a mostly-historical retelling of Julius Caesar's life and deeds, the ending which should be familiar to any high school student tasked to read Shakespeare's tragedy, or [probably more willingly] Asterix and Son [whose creator has kindly provided for to continue after his death]); Ludlum's (co-authored) The Hades Factor (N.B. If you wish to get acquainted with Ludlum's true powers, don't use this - or anything from his Covert-One series, for that matter. Same for Clancy and Net Force/Op-Center, IMHO). Also Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Giant; David Edding's The Younger Gods (found the title by searching god temple insect novel from what I remembered); Some collection of Lovecraft's (forgot the title, but certain of the stories within like The Doom That Came To Sarnath, The Strange High House in the Mist and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath may be found here, sadly none really scary), and finally some short work on Artificial Intelligence. Oh, and I about-completed Midnight's Children. And I got about paying my library fines too, since the NLB finally got smart (or poor) and stopped those with outstanding dues from borrowing stuff (soon). There goes another inflation hedge :( My new loans: Roar of Honor (yet another BattleTech novel, an acquired taste), Asimov's Gold (a SF collection), Card's Prentice Alvin (not yet read, and no not that Alvin), and Jeffery Archer's Cat O'Nine Tales. Say what you want about Archer (who by the way is a bona fide criminal author, having served time for perjury, but he wrote Cat O'Nine Tales with material gained in prison - talk about lemonade from lemons), but boy is he some storyteller. For want of a better word, Archer is simply... readable. The pages turn naturally. He won't win many prizes for allusions, depth, turn of phrase or vocabulary here, and nor are some of the plots even a surprise, but he doesn't pretend - or try - to be what he isn't. No stretching for a Booker or Pulitzer (ok, he's not American, but you get the idea), but for what he does there are few better. He lays down a tale, and gets the reader into it without any heavy lifting. And it goes on. And on. And when it's done, the next one is ready and waiting. It sounds simple. Maybe it is simple. But very few can do it. Not that many might care to try, as in Gold, Issac Asimov (one of the few science fiction writers the general population should be aware of) mentions that three years after he sold his first story, he could sell every story he wrote, and thus could be considered a successful writer. Unfortunately it would take him seventeen years as a successful writer before he reached the stage where he could support himself comfortably from his earnings as a writer. Incidentally, on the point of writing being simple above, the very first story in Gold deals with a robot programmed to be able to write like a human. The book I have been itching to discuss in slightly more detail is none of these, though. It is Naked Empire (part of the Sword of Truth series), which I obtained from a different source. For those who have not sampled the series, the Sword of Truth is set in a fantasy world, the sort which corresponds roughly to the medieval age, with its own magic and rules, the usual. What makes it stand out, other that the realistic (voyeuristic?) depiction of villainous acts, is that much of the book is spent by the main character (and others) reasoning out what he (they) should do, often by way of dialogue. He is the Seeker of Truth, one who is charged with knowing the truth, after all. (Plot details yadayada follow...) In Naked Empire, there exists a group of people, previously cut off from the wider (and unkinder) world by magic, who have now become exposed to it after that magic failed. Generations of exile have left them with a uniformly pacifist philosophy, and conflict is virtually unknown amongst them. When their children misbehave, the worst punishment is to be left alone and cut off from the community for a time, which is dreadful enough to them that it usually suffices to enforce better behaviour for quite a time. Serious crimes do still occur (though they do not like to be reminded of their existence), and though at first it is taken that the criminal needs help, and utmost effort is put into reforming him, it so happens that sometimes all their reasoning is in vain, and it is obvious that the person will not change. These people are completely against violence, and so if it comes to this, their very worst sentence is that of exile beyond the safety of their realm (some sort of chasing and wrestling to restrain the criminal seems permissible) - which for all intents and purposes is equivalent to death, to the best of their knowledge. They cross the protagonist's path after their land is taken over by a horde of cookie-cutter evil barbarians, the sort that beat women up and pull the fingers off kids. Their initial strategy was one of concession and appeasement, of delivering property and wives to the intruders in a show of good faith, which unsurprisingly fails. However, being enlightened, they are not the sort to raise their hands in defense of their own, under any circumstances - they are not that enlightened as to be willing to put up with having their children's fingers yanked off, though, and in their desire to reconcile their two opposing needs, come up with the obvious solution of getting an unenlightened (and capable) foreigner to do the shedding of blood and drive the invaders away. (Ta-dah!) Now, our protagonist is just such a capable and unenlightened foreigner, and as such a representative approaches him to be their liberating hero. He refuses, not wholly without justification, as he is also needed elsewhere. Plan B is activated, and they slip him a poison that has the antidote distributed amongst several of their villages, so that our protagonist will have to free these villages or die, aligning their goals. At this point, it is easily observed that these people are not above killing (however they may regret it) for their own purposes, both in exiling recalcitrant criminals, and poisoning an unwilling saviour. The thing that the author drives across (rather bluntly at that) is that they do not contemplate doing it themselves (directly, at least). They want a certain result, and know the price required, but are unwilling to recognize reality. There are obvious parallels to groups and movements in real life, such as Gandhi's non-violent and peaceful resistance against the British in India, and closer to home, religious groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to serve in the armed forces - but I must hasten to add that the comparisms are not perfect. Let us take Gandhi first. In his book Non-Violence in Peace and War, Gandhi's advice to the British people (who were then under imminent threat of invasion by Nazi Germany), was: "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them." which is frighteningly close to what was proposed by the people in Naked Empire, though Gandhi does draw a distinction between non-violence and cowardice ("...that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence"). There are important distinctions between the circumstances of India and of the fictional people in the story, though - while the British were hardly always proper gentlemen in India, they were reasonably civilized, not the sort who would go on wholesale rampages and murder senselessly as a rule. Had their occupiers been outright barbarians, I believe that ahimsa would have been a mere footnote; far more of the oppressed would be motivated into armed resistance, and perhaps more importantly there would be no public opinion pressurising the occupiers to leave. The British wanted the status, power and wealth of Empire, and presumably had some basic decency, and thus could be realistically expected to leave through these methods. Thus the sacrificial strategy of non-violence was buttressed by the very real prospects of success. Take these prospects away, and the willingness of the many to continue would indisputably be drained. The relevant response by our protagonist follows: "...We are loyal to an ideal - an ideal of liberty wherever man lives. We do not guard territory, bleed for a piece of dirt. We don't fight because we love violence. We fight for our freedom as individuals to live our own lives, to pursue our own survival, our own happiness." "Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think it's a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement." "Evil grants no mercy, and to attempt to appease it is nothing more than a piecemeal surrender to it. Surrender to evil is slavery at best, death at worst. Thus, your unconditional rejection of violence is really nothing more than embracing death as preferable to life. You will achieve what you embrace." In the context of India's independence, the British might be thought of as evil for setting out to control India and enforce their wills - but as evil goes they were a pretty benign evil (please don't hawk the all evil is evil line, littering is not equal to murder and the penalties should rightly be different). More generally, if non-violence is to be truly practised, can there be armed forces at all? or even police? Even Gandhi admits that police will probably still be needed, but posits that "The people will instinctively render them every help and through mutual cooperation they will easily deal with the ever decreasing disturbances". How then do they deal with, say, gun-toting robbers? Preach to them after each break-in? Might not their unfettered success encourage more to follow their lead? One might suggest contraptions such as nets and blowdarts, but these are not proscribed methods in reality, and are presumably not commonly used since they are impractical. I would surmise that in equilibrium, given human nature, true non-violence is simply a pipe dream. Put it this way: A man who, upon seeing a wild dog maul a baby, fervently dreams and hopes that a branch falls and pins the dog, instead of plucking a switch to beat the dog away, can hardly be admired. Indeed the chance that all humans become sufficiently enlightened for total non-violence to work is probably lower that that of all the constituent atoms in the branch to spontaneously shift themselves over the dog... This is not to say that non-violence never works. It is just that, while it works in particular instances, it does not work in general. When Gandhi said "When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always.", did he realise that he also acknowledged that tyrants and murderers have always risen, and likely will always exist, especially if given leeway? In civilized nations, the rights of protestors for peace are protected by the "sublimated" violence of law. The entire edifice of law was forever built upon the ability to (legally) commit violence as a last resort! Property may be seized and people removed, by force; Dangerous criminals are met by proportional violence such that the (more) innocent may sleep well. Has it ever been otherwise? This is not to glamorize or encourage violence, but to recognize it and its reality - those who live and firmly renounce it in its totality while enjoying the protections it affords may be gentle but are certainly delusional. If they truly are as Thales and have transcended life and death, then so be it that they be prepared to die, and even Thales said nothing about pain incurred. IPPT FAIL Should have expected this, given the sedentary lifestyle I have led these years - apparently brisk walking is not a substitute for an old-fashioned 10-klick run. Most horrifyingly, I discovered that I couldn't even do thirty proper crunches in a minute, something I had thought quite impossible in primary school (btw, the world record seems to be 77 a minute - averaged over 24 hours. This crazy world). Got to build those core muscles all over again... IPPT at Maju would be quite enjoyable if I were fitter, though. They have moved all the stations to a ground floor location (as opposed to a second-storey hall the last time I went), with the 2.4km run in a covered carpark, complete with electronic lap timing through our number tags! Not disheartened at all by the results since I know full well what I can do, with a few months of thrice-weekly intensive training. Thus it is a matter of getting my butt off the chair, which is rather a problem since they are good friends. IPPT reminded me of the satisfaction that could be gained from a good long run, though (ah, for the days of a 1km/5min pace, kept up for 15 or more km). And at least I ached the next day, which should be a good sign (haven't pushed myself physically for... um... this is embarrassing). Next time, next time. The army standard-issue Brooks running shoes (+ SAF boot medicinal insoles, tip by cousin) were quite comfy at least. Too bad I haven't found a sole with decent grip on slippery surfaces yet. Ong Bak 2 Lots of cliches, but one has to cut Tony Jaa some slack for doing his own stunts. Hero's parents killed? Check. Orphaned (cute) girl companion who later works her way into the plot? Check. Bad guys taking turns to attack? Check (mostly). Animal (elephant) companion coming to save the day (for awhile)? Check. Biggest bad guy not killing hero when he has him at his mercy, in preparation for the sequel? Check. Japanese ninjas in Thailand? Okay, that's new. Then again most action films should be able to fit in a ninja and pirate or two... Footy Note: There has been no $100 challenge for some time, which is just as well since results these few weeks have been more unpredictable than the usual, if that is possible. Nothing juicy this week either, so it'll continue being on hiatus. United dismantled Chelsea out of the blue in the wee hours of the morning, made all the more enjoyable by being at the local kopitiam with several fellow Manchester United supporters (and one occ). Despite all the goals, the highlight of the match must be this corner by Giggs (from 0:33 onwards): Everybody present justifiably thought Giggs had gone bonkers (and this not long after Scholes' volleyball-spike goal), but it turned out that the replay didn't show the whole process, and it was actually a cunning plan that was as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University. The trick: Rooney had been first up to take the corner, but only tapped it very slightly such that it just rolled out of the corner. This is not that uncommon, and with Giggs running up most would expect that Rooney was just leaving Giggs to take the kick. Their actual intention however was that Rooney's touch would be considered the corner kick itself, and since Giggs would then be the recepient of the corner kick in that case, he was well within his rights to dribble the ball. N.B. This trick is not even very original (Roma among others have tried it), and quite often disallowed. Question is, is this legal? Referring to FIFA's Law 17 pertaining to corner kicks, it seems so - the ball was kicked and moved by Rooney, whereupon it should be considered in play, and Giggs went to receive it. So strictly speaking, the move was completely above board. The problem is that players commonly use their feet to position the ball before taking the actual kick in all kinds of dead ball situations, and there is no clear indication as to which touch signals the start of play, though it is usually obvious; thus opposition players (and the referee) seldom contest moves that might strictly be interpreted as a valid restart of play. For example, if Giggs had instead rolled the ball back to the corner arc and taken a conventional corner kick, there would have been nary a whisper. So why was it disallowed? Beats me. It was likely the wrong call by the assistant referee (who wasn't very quick on the uptake), as the attacking team is generally given the benefit of the doubt in situations like this (e.g. quick free-kicks), though at least he was quick about it and raised his flag to signal for the infringement before Giggs released his cross. Technically, it might be considered Unsporting Behaviour, which is a catch-all available to the referee whenever he isn't sure what the heck is going on. Still, Vidic scored from the retaken corner anyway, so all's good! Half-time adverts...  ...then goals from Rooney and Berbatov as the Chelsea machine collapsed. Good way to start school.
For me, that is. It was a fateful 4th of January, when my modem simply refused to connect. Did it have anything to do with the ongoing upgrading projects? Beats me, but for a month or so now the modem had required about an hour for the initial connection, with the router log flooded with "Sending PADI..." messages. Not that the phone lines around here are the best either - a few years ago, frequent disconnects stopped only after the wires got replaced. In the end, I just signed up with Starhub's cable broadband service. It was even free for a year as we were already Starhub TV subscribers, and would have been effectively about fifteen bucks a month over two years (with a cable modem thrown in) had I not required an extension to my room, rather than gamble with wireless. Never really trusted wireless, especially for gaming purposes. And on the subject of gaming, I recently discovered Garena for pickup DotA games. 
Access Point at $107 Come to think of it, January 4 was probably the first time since... last year's Genting trip that I hadn't accessed the Internet for a whole day. And the first time that it had happened unplanned for years. Among other things, it nudged me towards trying out some of the games that I had installed but not touched for a long time, and I discovered that I didn't really have the heart for single-player games - a blind monkey would beat most of them given enough time, really. Then I rediscovered Hamsterball, which I had spent some days mastering while still serving out my National Service back in 2004. That was the only game that held me for more than ten minutes. Try it. 
Postcard! (Thanks lawrence) Mucho little stuff going on. Drafted a short introduction to Drupal, cancelled my Pioneer subscription (three copies for a household is overkill), went for a JC class outing where half of the class were out working and earning real money (soon, Gilbert, soon), watched the stairways become an impromptu waterfall after some pipe upstairs burst (the floors appear to be sloped such that water tends to flow downstairs freely and not accumulate), retrieved Mr. Fish F. Chips after yet another daring escape attempt that saw him reach the balcony and scratch his head vigorously behind a dustpan, as if deciding whether to stake his claim on liberty with a hundred-foot drop... Starting writing background and setting game mechanics in earnest for the long-delayed webgame, got a few new shirts, finished up the library books, watched the Champions of the World (Manchester United) struggle to get into gear, continued worrying about outstanding projects, ran a solid fifteen minutes in front of the TV on the elliptical trainer after finally getting motivated to drag it out (not a bad experience)... Busy days ahead.
- + hamsters - Ham G. Bacon back at your service! Welcome to a bright and fresh new year, with suitably edited timestamp to make it look like I was punctual enough to post this on the minute!  Celebrations! With a raisin!  It's gone! Both 2008 and the raisin! And thanks to my  Hamster cleans mouse.
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