dsng.net - the daryl sng blog: November 2004

Here's a rendition from the marvelous Mr Picassohead tool. (Picassohead gallery) From Things Above, which has lots of interesting art-related links.

More urban legends

Hey, I never knew About.com had a page specifically dedicated to urban legends. Like proving that the "home computer of the future" picture supposedly taken in 1954 is a fake, and that the whole "Bush states have lower IQs than Kerry states" thing is a hoax too.

A minor key - Singaporean history

A slight little "this day in history" note in The Straits Times pointed out that Singapore's second Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock passed away on this date in 1984 "at his home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia". That intrigued me - why was our former Chief Minister living in Saudi Arabia? There's not much on the web on Singapore's history, though, but the first para of this column seems to indicate the basis of the story: Lim Yew Hock had converted to Islam, and went on to Saudi Arabia to become Assistant Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The whole story made me think about these various minor strands of Singapore's history. We like to think of Singapore's cosmopolitanism meaning a comfort with Western society, but naturally the flux of people in and out of the island means there must be Singaporeans - not just those born into Muslim families - who become equally comfortable with Islamic culture and the Middle East.

Faux irony

My new coinage: faux irony. Or "fauxrony" if you must. For situations where people claim to like something in an ironic manner except that they really do like it genuinely.

"Britney Spears' Crossroads was a classic of modern cinema", he said in faux-ironic fashion.

Which adds another layer of irony, I suppose.

Blockbuster Drugs

Am I the only one who thinks it strange that pharmaceutical firms make most of their money off just a handful of so-called blockbuster drugs? I used to think they had a whole array of drugs and the profits were spread more evenly among them. Funny how billions can ride on something like Vioxx. Rangel MD has a doctor's perspective on the Vioxx scandal:

There is no data and indicates that massive litigation and class action lawsuits for millions (if not billions) of dollars against the drug companies does anything to influence the drug industry to try and improve the safety of their products. All this legal action amounts to is a giant transfer of wealth for every sensationalized drug scandal that comes along without any lasting benefit.

Need an English-English Dictionary?

I'm fascinated by the insidious process of word adoption - while people bemoan awful coined neologisms, some phrases just slip insidiously into the universal English language. Hence "run-up" and "gone missing" are now part and parcel of American English, and I presume some Americans would be shocked to even realise this wasn't the case 20 years ago. Among other British English words I've spotted making the trans-Atlantic leap: "gobsmacked". On the other hand, I guess "fortnight" doesn't look to be crossing over anytime soon, more's the pity.

Which goes to show, if a word is useful or just catchy, people will often adopt it (I still don't quite understand why "fortnight" has not been popular in America) - and then will probably insist that they've used it all their lives. One great thing about blogging I think for linguists is that it'll make it much easier to track informal usage. But it's interesting that while people fight for the preservation of British English against the presumed roaring hegemonic forces of American English (here in Singapore, British English is the language of education and there's a certain assumption of its superiority), linguistic exchange is often two-way, and British words can enter the American language just as much as the other way around.

Come to think of it, while people certain Americanisms have comfortably settled into the language without evoking too much of an uproar: "babysitter" comes to mind. Or maybe there're a few sticklers who still prefer "child-minder"?

All this reminds me, there's a story about how Paul McCartney's dad was bemoaning the introduction of Americanisms into British English, particularly with regards to the famous refrain of "She Loves You":

"My dad said, "Son, enough of these Americanisms,' " McCartney said. "Why can't you just say 'yes, yes, yes?' I don't think he got it." (Link)

Enfolded

Origami theory - you can make everything with just one cut? Best. Math. Ever.

PowerPoint in education

I've blogged about my general disdain for PowerPoint before, so I'm glad to see that AmShazam over at MIT has commented on how PowerPoint has been badly used by educators. I remember back in college that almost none of my professors used PowerPoint. I think it was a recognition that there are certain issues with using a business-presentation program as a tool of pedagogy. I remember talking to someone here in Singapore about how great it was that my profs still used chalk, and he acted surprised at how low-tech it seemed. I thought it was pathetic, really, to assume that good teaching must involve the latest technology, without even analysing whether that technology suits the needs of the teacher.

I agree, PowerPoint is only a tool, and you can be a great professor/lecturer that uses PowerPoint, but it's a tool that's much easier to use to generate linear presentations than the freewheeling discussions that good classes require. It's just not really designed for adding in new points or new ideas that arise from discussions, but rather designed more to showcase a finished product/idea. Perhaps what professors really need is collaborative software, something like GE's Imagination at Work interactive whiteboard but with more text / equations emphasis.

Articles of faith

Over in Verbal Energy, Ruth Walker has an article on the proper use of the definite article - i.e. the "the" (not to be confused with the band The The). That made me think: one thing I dislike about English usage in Singapore is the tendency to drop the "the" - for instance, in talking about a speech made by the Prime Minister, some people open with "Prime Minister said..." I've heard this may also be the internal style of the British government, so it's not necessarily wrong, but it certainly sounds unidiomatic, and certainly not the style of formal reporting (the BBC, for one, definitely uses "the PM").

The same blog entry also points to wordcount.org, a fascinating site that ranks words in the English language according to their usage in British English, based on the British National Corpus ("the" is #1 with a bullet - no surprises there). It's the tail end that has some weird relative positions: why is "drewitt" (#81662) more used than "feasibly" (#81663)? It's not even a word, more like a surname. Other strange words in the list: "anaya" (#73742). Oh wait, some peeking at the "about" portion seems to indicate that proper nouns are included in the count. So, egoist that I am, I checked out "Daryl" (#31858), which apparently just beats out "cookie" for usage. The funny part is the Querycount, which tracks the words people like to find the rank of. No surprise, most people look up dirty words. It's like when you first learn a language, everyone first wants to learn how to swear.

On the design side, I really like the way the site represents the usage of words visually, with different font sizes indicating the relative popularity of words. Elegant and clean.

Form follows substance

Been doing some minor tinkering with this blog's design, and I chanced upon a good web design article by Jakob Nielsen - "Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The Ideologies of Web Design". Basically makes the point that a good interface should get the hell out of the way so that users can get to content. It made me think about the explosion of blogs: sure, in the 90s everyone used flashy Flash sites, but who ever visited them more than once? As it turned out, what was more popular was the plain text and links of blogs - content.

Bryn Celli Ddu

More pics from my travel-writing days. Here's Bryn Celli Ddu (means "the mound in the dark grove"; best approximation of pronunciation I can muster: bryn keh-HLEE thee) on the island of Anglesey in Wales. It's a henge, aka a burial chamber, that dates back to the Neolithic era. The stone outside is a reconstruction, with the original sitting in a museum, but the thing I love is that this mound just sits there, without any need for garish signs or explanations. (Apparently, there was a sign in Welsh, but I didn't see it.) Which is as it should be, I think - why should the past be only explained in terms of the present? Of course, the cairn (wow, I rarely get to use that word - wonder what the family cairn terrier would do if I brought him here?) is quite off the beaten path so it's not overrun by tourists. To reach it, I hiked from Llanfair P.G.

More pics of Bryn Celli Ddu

Review: Blackpool Deluxe

A review of the White Stripes' Blackpool Deluxe download-only 3-song EP is up on Delta Sierra Arts.

New movie reviews

Very belatedly, I sat down and wrote reviews of two films I caught earlier this year: Under a Tuscan Sun and Spider-Man 2. Both up on Delta Sierra Arts, my reviews site. Will do up my Before Sunset review sometime soon, but until then, you can try The Suburbs Are Killing Us for music from Julie Delpy.

Edit: why the hell did I italicise the name of a blog? D'oh.

Edit 2: My Before Sunset review is up.

Drama Queen

Flipping through blogs, I found this list: Ten signs you're a drama queen:

1) You say I AM NOT A DRAMA QUEEN!

2) You refer to yourself in the third person.

3) You warn people not to bring drama into your life.

4) The problem is never you -- it's always "them."

5) You leave behind a trail of chaos wherever you go.

6) You like this (#5).

7) You ask people for help with a problem, then you tell every single respondent why they are wrong and how that is not possibly something you could do. You get mad when people get mad at you for this.

8) You keep doing the same things that get the same crappy result, over and over and over. Then you complain to everyone about how unhappy you are about it, but how you are powerless to change it.

9) You make grand declarations about yourself, your life, and your amazing personality, only to completely forget about them and/or reject them within a few weeks, if not a few days.

10) You turn a blind eye to the havoc you wreak on others by your actions.

Hell is other people

Julian Baggini on modern manners and philosophy:

You should not accept or continue a phone call if a shop assistant is serving you.

If Jean-Paul Sartre were alive, which he isn't, and he gave advice, which he didn't, he may well have shed light on the correct use of a mobile phone using his distinction between thinking of a person authentically as a being-for-itself (être-pour-soi) with will and consciousness, or inauthentically as being-in-itself (être-en-soi), a mere thing. So when we ignore the presence of someone like a shop assistant, treating them as absent and the absent caller as present, we are doing no less than denying their humanity.

Very true. Baggini also points out how rude it is to send text messages to someone else in the middle of a conversation.

Come to think of it, I like the idea of Sartre as advice columnist:

Sartre's Day

Dear Sartre,

I know I'm a grown woman and should know better, but I mope endlessly about my boyfriend who left me. Some days I just want to burst into tears; other days I stare forlornly at my empty bed. What should I do?

Sincerely,
Sad Sack in Singapore

SSS,

When we speak of forlornness, a term Heidegger was fond of, we mean only that God does not exist and that we have to face all the consequences of this.

Existentially yours,
Sartre

***

Dear JP,

I'm happily married - I think. I say "I think" because sometimes I have these thoughts about my ex-girlfriend. We were so wrong together, but I miss her and recently we've even started exchanging e-mails. Is it so bad to want to recapture the past?

Sincerely,
Thinking Back in Tampa Bay

TB-TB,

How can I, who have not the strength to hold to my own past, hope to save the past of someone else?... I have only my body: a man entirely alone, with his lonely body, cannot indulge in memories; they pass through him.

Nauseatingly,
Sartre

Geek body of work

From boingboing, the world's geekiest tattoo. Perhaps on his ankle he could tat "C:\>Run"...

Fowl tip

Someone on a message board I'm on posted this. Heh. But seriously, it's coming on Thanksgiving, and I really want to eat turkey - or better yet, turducken. Meat! Meat! Meat!

Of course, this surfeit of carnivorous cravings might mean I need to call in the Magic Meal Mobile. I don't need a diet, I just like the idea of someone making me all my meals.

And since it's already Thursday over here... happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Abalone

Here in Singapore we see abalone and think "oh, high-end special occasion food". This startup in California goes "oh, new biological nano-fabrication processes".

Dr. Belcher has studied the biology of abalones and how the mollusks are able to assemble an extremely hard shell from calcium carbonate and other minerals in an ocean filled with various microbes and contaminants. The result: she and her colleagues have developed proteins that can bind to about 30 different electronic, magnetic, and optical materials, and then assemble the materials into protein structures.

Ah, the weird and wonderful

A disparate collection of links: on being made to pay copyright for the citing of Radiohead lyrics... the bear that poops prime numbers... Yoshio Taniguchi's extension to MoMA has opened; wish I were there... everyone in a kitchen in New York is Spanish-speaking, as anyone who's read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential knows; clearly the snooty family described here hasn't caught on... after almost a whole year on hiatus, Kim Jong Il's livejournal has new content...

Earl of Sandwich

Following in the footsteps of the auction of the sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary, here's a sandwich with the image of Hello Kitty. Only US$8.49. Of course, that might have been higher if the seller were here in Kitty-krazed Singapore.

I feel as if I'm in a play

More pictures from my travels through England. This is the famed bus shelter in the middle of a roundabout from "Penny Lane", now converted, inevitably, into a restaurant living off the fame. Here's the backstory behind "Penny Lane" - as noted in that article, none of the places mentioned in the song are strictly on Penny Lane itself, but rather in the general area known as Penny Lane.

Dropped calls

You know, everyone and her grandfather seem to be obsessed with handphones/mobile phones/cellphones here in li'l Singapore. But very few people I meet have the same main criterion as I do, which is: if I drop the phone out of my pocket (fairly common occurence for me), will it still function? Those danged stores won't let me test the phones that way.

iTunes store

Woohoo! Much as I've derided iTunes, I always wanted the store to work in Singapore, and I figured out that as long as you have a US credit card you can shop for tunes online. Mmm. Quality recordings, proper tags. Well worth $0.99 a song.

Plus, by putzing around, I figured out how to make a wishlist - just create a playlist and drag songs from the iTunes store onto it. So I guess I answered this man's question. Of course, it turns out the info's buried in the iTunes website anyway.

Worst thing I've learnt from the store: there's a Jennifer Love Hewitt version of "Me and Bobby McGee"? If there's anything anyone knows about Jennifer Love Hewitt, it's that she's never been busted flat in Baton Rouge... and probably never flat-busted anywhere else.

Edit: speaking of wish lists, here's a bunch of cover songs I've been wanting. Of which I only have Jimmy Eat World's cover of the Prodigy's "Firestarter".

Charlie how your angels get down like that

Next on Fox... When Blonde Superstars With Boyfriends Who Have Been Involved in Wardrobe Malfunctions Attack.

Taxing

So I took a taxi to work today, figuring that if I'm in a cab I can get some shut-eye. Of course, then I realised my cab driver was one of those drivers who insists on accelerating as much as possible, despite being caught in heavy traffic on the ECP1. You guessed it: much acceleration followed by sharp braking, followed by an increasingly green-looking face. By the time I dropped off at my office I had a hard time walking straight; had to spend considerable time staring at the porcelain of the office loo. They really should equip some cabs with barf bags.

Oh, and I am not watching the remake of Taxi with Jimmy Fallon. Not because it'll remind me of today. Because it looks like it'll be crap. Jimmy Fallon: I would call him colossally overrated, but I don't know anyone who even thinks he's funny. Except with Tina Fey, who probably could be funny doing Weekend Update with a Chia pet.

1Singaporean expressway2

2Also known as a motorway or highway3

3"Living easy, loving free / Season ticket on a one-way ride"

Singapore idle

Here's a funny snarky post on Indian Stallion on Singapore Idol's Indian-themed episode:

So how did they go about it you ask? Well they had the Singapore Idol contestants run around trees that they set up on stage. They also talked in strong exaggerated Indian accents. It's amazing how they manage to capture the very essence of what the local Indian community is all about with that little skit. Because that's what we Indians pride ourselves most on - for dancing around trees in our Bollywood movies and talking English in really funny Indian accents.

He follows up with a parody of what would be the equivalent for the Chinese population ("instead of dancing around trees, they could have those jumping zombies you see in those Chinese horror movies fighting shaolin pugilists who will use celebrated kungfu styles like the infamous Dragon's Dick style").

Quite sad, really, the lack of cross-cultural understanding that sometimes arises (even if people like the Sari Party Girl try their best). This whole stereotype of Bollywood movies as involving running around coconut trees - where did it come from? I guess it would be too much to ask that everyone be completely familiar with various cultures, but surely there should be some recognition of what's clearly a stereotype. Was this Indian segment really put up on Singapore Idol? I haven't been following the show, but the "tribute" sounds horribly insensitive.

Speaking of Indian movies, I keep meaning to watch more of Satyajit Ray's stuff, but I haven't been able to drag my sorry ass down to the Esplanade to borrow more DVDs.

Superman lovers not so super

Here's a really interesting social psych experiment result: people who think of Superman are much less likely to volunteer for community service than people who think of other superheroes. Suppsedly because they think of Supes and go "well, I can't measure up". (From the New Scientist)

Mon dieu!

An old site: Heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio for President.

Bush twins rebuffed

From Gawker:

Freemans, tuesday night the 16th of nov. the bush twins, along with 2 massive secret service men, tried to have dinner. they were told by the maitre'd that they were full and would be for the next 4 years. upon hearing, the entire restaurant cheered and did a round of shots... (Link)

Funny how politics can slide into meals...

Encyclopedia Wiktannica

Is Wikipedia a faith-based encyclopedia? Robert McHenry, former EIC of the Encyclopædia Britannica (note: love the conjoined "ae"), thinks so.

Is branding dead?

Some think so.

Top 500?

Rolling Stone's criminal list of the top 500 songs of all time. Sure, nominate "Like a Rolling Stone" as your #1 why don't you? Great song, but there's an all too easy reference to the mag's own name. Plus, "Hey Jude" is not the best Beatles song. Not even close.

Edit: Using the sort-by date, here's a rough count. (Definitely miscounted somewhere, since it doesn't add up, but the trend is clear)

50s - 73 songs
60s - 204 songs
70s - 142 songs
80s - 55 songs
90s - 20 songs
00s - 3 songs
'VH1 Divas Live' - 1 song (hey, don't blame me if the sort by date function is weird)

That's just wrong. I love the 60s, but you're telling me there were 10 times more great songs written then than in the 90s? Pshaw.

Edit: here's a list of songs that should've made it in.

Humour me

Major standup comedy fan here. Quick point. One of my favourite comedians is Steven Wright, so here's some of his jokes.

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect"

Also, here's the list of the 100 Funniest Jokes of All Time (the top 75 formed one of my favourite GQ articles). Some good ones there.

Pennies From Heaven

I thought I was obsessive-compulsive about cataloguing my music, but that's fairly garden-variety obsession. Even the fact that I arrange my dollar notes in my wallet in order of serial number is fairly harmless. Now, collecting 1.4 million pennies and sorting them by year and mint - wow.

Million-dollar blocks

An interesting use of mapping software: finding out "million-dollar blocks" - i.e. where the authorities spend too much on incarceration instead of prevention.

I-69 to be renamed?

She sat back, and awaited the naming of I-69.

If you can't pass by an instance of the number 69 without laughing and you're above 21, you have too much sex on the brain.

And yes, it's a fake news article. Although in the strange twisted way that these things work, someone might go "hey, good idea".

Edit: kind of how the Onion's Harry Potter story found its way into anti-Satanist e-mails.

Moral codes

Just discovered Majikthise, a philosophy blog, via trying to find some information on baseball of all things. I thought in particular that this post on the reduction of the idea of morality into sexual morality by commentators such as David Brooks and Tom Wolfe was really good. Snippet:

It doesn't seem to occur to them that anyone could have a robust and defensible moral code that made no specific reference to sexual behavior. Such moral codes have implications for sexual behavior, but only because sexual choices are governed by more general principles like keeping promises, or promoting happiness, or acting according to a universalizable maxim.

Great blog, and its name being a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is cool for a H2G2 fan like me.

"I don't want to belong to a club that would accept me as a member"

Speaking of the MRT, they're now running a promotion: "use this [picture of EZ-link stored value card] to win this [picture of car key]". Isn't that weird? It's basically saying "if you use the subway a lot, you increase your chances of not having to use the subway ever again".

"Spiderman"

A hilarious collection of fake Spidey comics.

Scenes from the MRT

Snippets of a conversation by 3 teenage students on the Singapore subway train.

Girl talks about her boyfriend trying to get her to play PS2:
"Everytime I play that soccer game I'm so scared I kick the ball away."

Boy: "You do realise they're digital characters, right?"