That's what we call news...

with mass media as it is... it is no wonder that the majority of our generation and the youths are as weak minded and lacking of critical thinking as they are. of course one could argue that the mass media is just a symptom of a far deeper affliction. regardless, i think that it forms a negative feedback loop.

Money Honey

the chorus of this song has been stuck in my head since i heard it yesterday. it is just so tremendously catchy.

Random Poignant-ness

saw this on someone's MSN nick:

人生几时真相惜，
长叹增岁人非昔，
几寸红尘覆前尘，
故人忽思已末及。

and it triggered a wave of poignant emo-ing.

JibJab

i think that this is fantastic. really questions the value of 'democratic' elections. i am sure that the cumulative costs of campaigning is indeed billions of dollars. is it really worth it?

Too good to be true...

if you live in a country whose government gets 100% of the votes, then you should be very wary. that government is probably not a good custodian of taxpayers' money. because in every society, there are bound to be scoundrels, wastrels, cheats and general bastards. and if even these people support the government, it means that such a government is giving in to the demands of these people and pandering to their desires. this includes just giving money to people who, even thoughthey could work, don't work because they would rather survive on financial hand-outs.

Soundtrack to my life...

if i had a soundtrack for my life... this song would definitely be in it. and i know just how that scene would look like. and the next scene would have this song as the soundtrack (don't bother about the video...)

Argh...

i think i'm falling, if not already fallen, ill.

it's that sensation... the itch in the gums, the soreness of the throat, feeling cold one moment and hot the other and sometimes both at the same time, aching bones, snifles and coughs.

argh...

Random Findings

We don't see any purpose dictated to human beings in nature. Human life does have a purpose, but it is a purpose that we invent for ourselves. It takes a certain act of courage to look at nature, not see any plan for human beings in there and yet go on and live good lives, love each other, create beautiful things, explore the universe. All these take more courage without having some divine plan that we discover, but one that we rather create for ourselves.

~~ Steven Weinberg, interview with Newsweek

this so much better describes what i was trying to say in response to the question Emz posed regarding the meaning and purpose of life.

i'd rather not have a divine plan that i merely follow. i'd rather be the one creating my own story, for better or worse, blemish and spots and all.

i pulled of the quote from XH's blog. he had something about how he thinks it is not right to concoct the essence of human and attribute that to a glorious creation. this reminded me of the analogy of a lotus that is so often used in Buddhist philosophy.

a lotus grows out from mud but yet it is beautiful. we may start off as base, grow up in less than ideal conditions, but that doesn't mean that we have to be tainted by our environment, that should not stop us from being beautiful.

Meaningless Debate

i laughed till i doubled up. i think this is a very good example of how human beings, despite our much vaunted intelligence, can be stubborn as mules. to the extent of creating whatever 'information' we like so as to support our believes and how we reject anything else that is not within our schema of reality.

the problem with 'debating' with such people is that there is no middle ground upon which to meet. if the person only accepts that things in the Koran (in this case... but could just as well be the Bible, the Mahabharata, any of the tens of thousands of Buddhist sutras) are true, then naturally he cannot possibly lose this debate. because this debate is whether the Koran is right about the shape of the Earth and the motion of celestial bodies. and that is the problem with attempting to hold certain discussions with religious fundamentalists. they reject anything that contradicts whatever is found in religious scripture, regardless of evidence. and therefore these people, while pretending to be reasonable, are actually resorting to a "i don't care what you say, you are wrong because i say so" attitude. that's not a debate. it's intellectual dictatorship that stifles not only the mind, but the human spirit as well, shackling us in anachronistisms that prevent us from progressing.

that said. the 'scientist' in the above debate also has gaping holes in his scientific knowledge. the mass of the moon is not a sixth that of the Earth's. the gravitational field strength of the moon at the surface is about a sixth that of the gravitational field strength of the Earth at the surface of the Earth, the mass of the moon is only about 0.0123 that of the Earth. the reason for the gravitational field strength of the moon being a bigger fraction of that of the Earth despite the relative masses is due to the fact that the moon also has a much smaller radius.

Evolution

evolution serves the survival of the species. it therefore attempts to give the species an edge over its own greatest threats. for humanity, our greatest threat is, rather uniquely, ourselves. so the next step in evolution would have to save us from ourselves.

Password

Johnny tried to use 'penis' as his password. but the computer said that his password was not long enough.

Random Thoughts

so i was having an MSN conversation with my brother (who's in Australia... we are not that dysfunctional) about whether the Government could do anything via legislature to make the country more accepting of diversity and less prejudiced against what it currently holds as taboo.

he thinks that it can be done. he believes that if we have a constitution that institutionalises acceptance, then we will have a society that is more accepting. however, i countered, a constitution (or any law for that matter) is only as good as it is able to be enforced. and who does the enforcing? the people. so if there isn't good enough reason to get enough people to enforce any laws, then the law is powerless and therefore pointless. worse, it might lead to resentment against the government.

what the government can do is to slowly prod the society this way and that and gradually encourage the populace to change its opinions, become more liberal or conservative, depending on which will enable a more survivable society.

my brother then said that this is a sad reality because he feels that it seems like Singapore is becoming a society of robots and robot minded people where there is no freedom of expression. which i disagreed with. it is precisely because there is freedom of expression that there are such prejudices. people with these prejudices are free to express their prejudice. and it is just unfortunate for the people who suffer being prejudiced against that the people who hold these prejudices are the majority and hence have a louder voice, thus their opinions and prejudice becomes the accepted social norm. what most people call freedom of expression essentially means we are taking away the freedom of expression of that group which has a louder voice. is that then fair?

of course, it isn't fair. but nothing is. which led my brother to bemoan the lack of equality. of course there isn't equality. because, i think, the only way for there to be equality is for all of us to be the same. i.e. to be a society of identical robots. ironic isn't it? either that or we become the Gaia at the end of Asimov's Foundation series. or the Buggers in Ender's Game. or, for a more dystopian version, Huxley's Brave New World.

is this really a sad state? perhaps. perhaps not. it all depends on what standards we use to define the state of affairs. i choose to measure it with how survivable the society/nation/species is in that state. if a change makes the society/nation/species as a whole more survivable, then it's good. rather... evolutionary, i suppose.

Rise, Denizens of the Nether World!

that's what my one of my students said she did as one of her most significant achievements in school.

she was involved in the event where the host city for YOG was announced. and she was responsible for 'bringing up the spirits amongst the crowd'. so she brought little Casper up, nurturing him into the matured ghoul to haunt the Padang. i'm sure propsective employers would be rather amazed by the accomplishment.

Wall.E

SPOILER WARNING...

well... not quite. don't worry... i won't overtly reveal the plot of the show.

i think Pixar has lived up to expectations.

Wall.E was enjoyable, touching, entertaing and funny, all rolled into one. the animation was fantastic, definitely cutting edge technology.

that's not the best part. the best part is that the show can be watched at so many different levels. if you just want to watch it as a kiddy cartoon show, you can. and still get great entertainment value out of it. if you want to watch it as a romantic action comedy, you can too. and get much laughs and aww-factor out of it.

but you can also dig deeper and look at it as an incisive critique of the current state of humanity.

through its very simple plot, the show talks about the need for environmental conservation, it discusses our dependence on technology, to the point where we lose our humanity, it looks at how because of technology, we are so plugged in, so greatly networked together, yet so distant, so out of touch with one another. the show illustrates how a stale stability devoid of struggles stifles the spark of creativity that makes us human. it questions whether it is right for us to divest the responsibility of taking care of ourselves to others, be it an institution or another being which we somehow trust to have our interests at heart, i.e. of whether it is better to live without volition under a benevolent dictorship (similar VIKI in I, Robot). the show also demonstrates how very often, it takes a renegade, who isn't quite programmed to follow the set rules and hence free to choose and decide upon his on actions can set an entire society free from its incarceration of stability.

oh... i could go on and on...

in a sense, the show is very prophetic, showing us the shape of things to come if we do not alter the course of 'progress' that we have set ourselves on now.

all in all... i think Wall.E is definitely worth watching in the theaters.

Just out of curiousity

if you met a young person, say 17 years of age, and this person told you that he/she wants to be a member of parliament, what would you think? what would you say to him/her?

Marriage and procreation

had an interesting conversation with Ying and Jasmine about marriage and procreation. it started out because Ying told us how she got reminded about how much older she is now because one of her friends is going to get married and is buying a flat.

i asked the girls whether they feel compelled to get married and then have kids. Jasmine said that it is like the sale mentality, when you feel that "it's now or never, and it's the fear of the never that pushes you more than the attractiveness of the now that draws you."

i think it is particularly difficult for people to have kids now because we have grown up having so many other things that we could otherwise be doing, which we find to be equally meaningful as having kids. and it's not only that we are afraid of how much it might cost to bring up a child, but also because we think that we might be bringing up a child in an environment where the child ends up being completely unhappy. so we keep considering, analysing whether we can help the child cope, whether we can give the child all the opportunities we had. we become paralysed by our own need to think, to calculate and analyse. and the result of this analysis is that we are afraid to bring a child into this world, this society with its systems because we are more sure that it would unhappy regardless of what we are able to do than we are sure it would be happy because of what we can and will do.

so monetary incentives will not be enough. society would have to change so that mindsets change. else birthrates will not rise significantly.