My DNA Results Are Out! / Genographic Project

One and a half years ago, I wrote about the Genographic project, a DNA test that would tell me where my ancestors came from. We're not just talking about my great-great-great-grandfather, but my actual ancestors who lived 30,000-80,000 years ago! I finally got around to ordering the kit in August, and two months later, the results arrived. Here is what the kit includes. (Click for bigger pictures.)





The results are found online through a password protected site. Here are some additional information.



Update(!): Dr Hsien-Hsien Lei mentions my results in her blog entry, Genetic Genealogy and the Chinese.

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Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup O2. The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with P31, the defining marker of haplogroup O2.



If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors' route, you will see that members of haplogroup O2 carry the following Y-chromosome markers:



M168 > M89 > M9 > M175 > P31



Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now



M168: Your Earliest Ancestor

Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Africa

Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000

Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills



Skeletal and archaeological evidence suggest that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and began moving out of Africa to colonize the rest of the world around 60,000 years ago.



The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia , Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.



But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors' exodus out of Africa.



The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.



In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans' intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn't been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids.



M89: Moving Through the Middle East

Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago

Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East

Climate: Middle East: Semiarid grass plains

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands

Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools



The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.



The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.



Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.



While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.



These semiarid grass-covered plains formed an ancient "superhighway" stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.



M9: The Eurasian Clan Spreads Wide and Far

Time of Emergence: 40,000 years ago

Place: Iran or southern Central Asia

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands

Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic



Your next ancestor, a man born around 40,000 years ago in Iran or southern Central Asia, gave rise to a genetic marker known as M9, which marked a new lineage diverging from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. His descendants, of which you are one, spent the next 30,000 years populating much of the planet.



This large lineage, known as the Eurasian Clan, dispersed gradually over thousands of years. Seasoned hunters followed the herds ever eastward, along the vast super highway of Eurasian steppe. Eventually their path was blocked by the massive mountain ranges of south Central Asia—the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas.



The three mountain ranges meet in a region known as the "Pamir Knot," located in present-day Tajikistan. Here the tribes of hunters split into two groups. Some moved north into Central Asia, others moved south into what is now Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent.



These different migration routes through the Pamir Knot region gave rise to separate lineages.



Most people native to the Northern Hemisphere trace their roots to the Eurasian Clan. Nearly all North Americans and East Asians are descended from the man described above, as are most Europeans and many Indians.



M175: The East Asian Clan

Time of Emergence: 35,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Central or East Asia

Climate: Ice Age

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000



Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic



Your genetic trail continues with an ancestor who carried marker M175 and was born around 35,000 years ago in Central or East Asia. This ancestor was part of the M9 Eurasian clan that, encountering impassable mountain ranges, migrated to the north and east.



These early Siberian hunters continued to travel east along the great steppes, gradually crossing southern Siberia. Some of them, perhaps taking advantage of the Dzhungarian Gap used thousands of years later by Genghis Khan to invade Central Asia, made it into present-day China.



East Asia had been home to Homo erectus for nearly a million years, but traces of occupation disappear from the archaeological record around 100,000 years ago. The earlier hominids may have abandoned the region or died off due to a steadily deteriorating climate.



By the time your ancestors arrived in China and East Asia, the Ice Age was once again advancing toward glacial maximum. Encroaching ice sheets and Central Asia's enormous mountain ranges effectively corralled them in East Asia. There they evolved in isolation over the millennia.



Today, some 80 to 90 percent of all people living east of Central Asia's great mountain ranges are members of haplogroup O, the East Asian Clan. The marker M175 is nearly nonexistent in western Asia and Europe.



There were actually two waves of migration into this region. While your ancestors populated the region from the north, another group approached from the south. Descendants of the Coastal Clan—people who left Africa perhaps 60,000 years ago and headed along the coastline toward Australia—may have reached East Asia by 50,000 years ago.



The Coastal lineage is found at a frequency of 50 percent in Mongolia, and is common throughout northeast Asia.



The present composition of East Asia still shows evidence of this ancient north-south divide, showing a clear distinction in genetic heritage between northern and southern Chinese.



P31

Time of Emergence: Roughly 30,000 years ago

Place of Origin: East Asia

Climate: Ice Age

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000

Tools and Skills: Middle Upper Paleolithic



Roughly 30,000 years ago, one of your ancestors first displayed the genetic marker P31, which now defines your haplogroup O2. This man lived in eastern Asia, perhaps in southern China, and his descendents spread south into Southeast Asia, east to Korea, and north to Japan.



This distinctly Asian haplogroup he sired is most common today in Southeast Asian nations like Malaysia and Thailand.



This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today, ends. However, be sure to revisit these pages. As additional data are collected and analyzed, more will be learned about your place in the history of the men and women who first populated the Earth. We will be updating these stories throughout the life of the project.

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Credit Card Annual Fees / UOB Visa Infinity

I like to apply for credit cards whenever I can. The idea is to apply as many as possible, and then only use one card the whole time to accumulate the loyalty points. Some friends tell me, however, that that is a bad idea because they will then spend a lot of money if they have many credit cards. I don't have this problem because I don't see how having many credit cards is related to the amount of money I spend shopping.

Anyway, from what I've seen so far, DBS's Esso card is good for petrol discounts, Citibank's is good for dining discounts, HSBS' is useful for reducing the price of a movie ticket by $1, Standard Chartered's is nice for taking off 15% off the Singapore Marathon fees, and UOB's is good for a 13% discount on vPost shipping charges. There is just no excuse whatsoever not to apply as many cards as possible to take advantage of all possible discounts. (Actually the way I see it, these are not really 'discounts'; it's just that those who don't take advantage of such things are 'paying extra'.)

Now, the above will only make sense if you don't pay the annual fees. The banks usually waive the annual fee charges for one or two years. In the third year, people either ask for a waiver by calling customer service, or they cancel the card. There is just no reason to pay any annual fees unless one really likes the credit card in question and refuses to part with it.

So this past week, I received yet another nice invitation to apply for this UOB Infinite card. The application package is very pretty, and I feel the card seems suitable for me as I, too, 'appreciate the finer things in life', particularly if they're not too expensive. (Click below for bigger pictures.)

Here are the usual 'privileges'. The one about 'on the house dining at Hyatt' looks interesting... (Could I just waltz in and get free food?!)

So I took out my pen to fill in the application form, and my eyes nearly popped out! The income requirement is SGD$350,000 per annum. I don't even earn 10% of that. But that's OK. There are many people who earn that amount, and they should go ahead and apply. But look at the next line.

The annual fee is S1500! Which astute rich person in his or her right mind would be willing to pay anything, let alone $1500, just for the annual fee?! Then again, it's understood that a phone call can quickly write off that fee, so everything will be fine eventually. If you appreciate the finer things in life and want to apply, just reply below, and I will send the form to you. ;p

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American Generosity: Borders Bookstore / Starbucks Coffee

Of the many bookstores in Singapore, perhaps only one has a significant number of chairs and sofas for folks to sit and read. This would be Borders bookstore, the subject of today's somewhat exaggerated theme: American generosity.



Borders was something of an anomaly when it opened its first and only store in Singapore some years ago. Sofas and chairs were provided so that people could sit and read for an extended period of time. Management refused to shrink wrap books, despite the risk to the bottom line if folks chose not to buy books and just come in a couple of times to finish them, which was exactly what I regularly did. I believe this was an extraordinary development in the idea of a business affecting the cultural landscape of a place, It was also a very nice demonstration of the stereotypical generosity of an American chain, particularly with what happened next. At first, Singaporeans and others did not know how to respond. Actually, they responded quite poorly. People mistreated the books; they didn't know how to react to the possibility of browsing books for free. At the end of the day (it still closes at midnight on some days), the place looked like a war zone, especially in the kids' section. Generosity prevailed; management probably just wrote off the badly damaged books, tidied up the place and opened the doors the next day. Things have probably improved a little nowadays, fortunately. It often still looks more like a library than a bookstore, which I think is a very good thing. I've sent nights reading books that I'd otherwise had to spend hundreds of dollars on.



I read a book on Starbucks, which is the second subject in my theme on generosity. Starbucks Coffee is an interesting place to study. It's associated with American hegemony and a usual target for WTO protesters. However, from personal experience, it's also one of the few places that I really like to visit. I realised intuitively that coffee, or the Frappuccinos, while excellent in their own right, didn't represent what Starbucks was all about. What intrigued me, after my first visit to Singapore's first Starbucks at Liat Tower with a Mocha Frappuccino, was that things were done differently here that did not make sense at first.



For example, consider the large sofas at each location. For a long time, I didn't understand the rationale for this. To have big chairs presents at least two problems. 1) It takes up space that might be better utilised if smaller chairs are provided instead. 2) It encourages people to hang around, thus reducing 'turnaround' and reducing revenue.



The book talks about the reasons for this. Starbucks aims to be 'the third place' (after the 'home' and 'place of work'). It's where people would be welcomed, and that means allowing them to sit and relax and 'form communities'. The book also mentions that in Starbucks, people do not get 'chased away' when they have finished their drinks. Even if one 'has only a drop of coffee' in the mug, they can stay for as long as they like. This resembles my own experience; staff never, ever, mention, even remotely, that a customer should vacate the premises when the drinks have been consumed. This generosity has to be considered in light of new customers being turned away when the place is crowed; this is pretty common at some popular locations. Sometimes the service gets extraordinary. Another time at a crowded branch, I managed to find a seat, and put my bag on the floor. A staff came by and offered me another chair, not for my legs, but for my bag! Again, this makes no economic sense. An extra seat could have brought in another customer instead. Things are done differently here. A customer in the book said that the Starbucks concept would still work even if they stopped selling coffee and just charged people some money for them to come into the stores and relax. (I know I would pay.) This is pretty remarkable; again, it's the sense of community, and a place to relax, and not the coffee, per se.



Borders and Starbucks thus share one thing that I particularly like. The staff tend to treat people nicely, and without too much fuss, even if the business decisions they make have the possible effect of lowering sales. The service culture is also quite different; at Starbucks, it is not unusual for folks to have a decent chat while ordering (the barista would discuss the options), or while waiting for the drink. I'm not sure how much training is involved to achieve this, as it's quite difficult to train folks to be 'human' I think. It might just be that the interview process is skewed to hiring people who consistently are able to connect with customers.



I'm typing this entry at Starbucks, and observing the counter staff. Tonight's staff provide consistently good service; they smile at customers, and look into their eyes for a longer than usual time. Essentially, they seem to be genuinely interested in the customer. Since every counter staff is a pleasant female, I also have no problems conducting my field study. In almost every transaction, there is extended conversation and communication, and none of it seemed forced, nor a chore to them. Maybe it's just because they are really enjoying their work. Or it could just be another factor at work: American generosity.

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Please Read The Fine Print

I've just received an unsolicited ATM card from Standard Chartered Bank. The thing is that I don't have money deposited in my Standared Chartered account (I only have their credit card). So if I withdraw money using this card, this might be considered to be a 'cash advance', liable to a service charge of $5 or more. However, I cannot be sure of the exact charges apart from calling them up and asking because the fine print is so difficult to read! (Click for bigger pictures.)

I held the camera centimetres away from the coin to take the picture below. About 16 lines of text fit the diameter of the coin! While I can read the Terms and Conditions, it gets really tiring. And I haven't found the section that describes the service charges yet as there are no obvious headings that highlight where I should be reading...

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Stunning Nikon / Picturetown

I've been thinking of getting an SLR camera for a while now, and have narrowed my choices down to the D40 and the D80. The D40 is generally regarded as something for beginners as it seems to have poorer image capabilities, but from most serious reviews I've read, it seems that the D40 doesn't lose out in image qualities, only in certain features that might be quite irrelevant to me such as the inability to use older lens and the absence of some user interface features.

Anyway, I was aimlessly surfing the camera sites last night when I came across a new website for the Nikon D40 unveiled last month called Picturetown. 200 people from Geogetown, South Carolina were given free cameras (that each cost around S$1000 retail), and asked to take pictures of their neighbourhood, loved ones, whatever. The general idea was that anyone could take good pictures, if given a good camera (such as the D40). I thought the website was stunningly beautiful; the marketing concept, the stories from the participants, and the photos they took (300 are downloadable).

Naturally, some photographers don't really buy the idea of this campaign (e.g. comment at here, 2nd comment here, here) It's the photographer behind the camera who has the skill to pull off great pictures, not just the quality of the equipment! If this continues, then the masses will have access to the DSLRs, they will think they can then take great pictures, and what would become of real professionals like us?!

So some find the pictures 'totally mediocre'. Others, like me, really liked the whole project. I don't believe in either end of the spectrum. If one really has a terrible camera, even the most professional photographer might have problems. If one has a $20000 camera, it's still highly possible to screw things up by not being a reasonably good photographer in the first place.

The more interesting thing for me was this. I didn't think the photographs were mediocre at all, to the extent that I began doubting at first whether these 200 folks were really amateurs or really quite knowledgeable people that were brought in to shoot pictures for this Nikon website. I later found out that 200 folks were point-and-shoot amateurs who answered a casting call for this Nikon marketing campaign. So, what was it that made the difference? Did the D40 really have such a significant effect on the outcome?

I think the answer is partly yes, since the D40 was supposedly designed to enable folks to take reasonably nice pictures out of the box. (And the answer would be 'no' for those who didn't think the pictures were all that great.) I'm thinking along the lines of another possibility, and it's the context in which these photographs were taken. If one looks at the 'making of' movie at the Picturetown website, everyone was really having fun. (And who wouldn't be if they were given free DSLR cameras?!) A huge sense of community had formed in the beginning, I'd suspect. All these things come together to make great photographs. These photographs might not have the 'technical' brilliance of the professionals, but I dare say they are full of heart. And that's enough for me.

Now, when is Nikon Singapore going to give out 200 cameras for us folks to take great pictures too?! ;p

Related posts: here, here, here.

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My New File Tray

Here's my new file tray I just bought from Popular bookstore. They're having a promotion; two for $14. But I didn't buy it because of the price, but for another cool reason. Can you know why?! :p (Hint: click on the picture below.)

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BBQ / Second Life

My classmates were at my place yesterday for BBQ. Limin found an interesting caterer who provided almost everything as well as a big pit to put the charcoal in. Sabrina started the fire, and cooked for most of the night. She's very good at it. There were many small cockroaches that appeared from the crevices of the pit, but they were progressively killed by the heat.

Summer says 'hi!', with Limin, Sabrina, Rhizome, Yong 'yuan4 mei4' Li

Andre on the 'crazy horse'.

My social studies tutor Kenneth asked me a couple of days ago to help him build a 'learning space' in Second Life, the online virtual world. I've installed and uninstalled Second Life from my computer many times over the past few years, not due to any substantiative technical reasons, but for more pressing psychological and physiological ones: I get a headache/nauseous everytime I play SL. This fascinates me somewhat, for I've experienced this in other 'first person shooter' games before, but I've always managed to 'train myself' and had 'less dizziness' eventually. I'm trying to do the same with SL, and so will start learning the in and outs of the game, which holds great potential for learning, if kids have access to the resources.

So I wanted to see if others have the same physiological responses. Andre and Matilda (a Sims 2 veteran) tried it for the first time. They didn't get nauseous. Andre used my avatar and teleported to a really cool bar that continually streamed 80s music, and asked for a dance from a lady there (who didn't wear much); she was a little busy at that time to entertain him. I think for a while they felt like they were in the bar, the illusion worked to a certain extent. Andre said he would install the program in his laptop. Maybe he'll get more success with the girls next time, but what would his real life girlfriend (behind him) think about that? That's one of the fun things about the virtual world; ethical issues tend to appear rather quickly!

Anyway, if anyone has perspectives/solutions to dizziness, I'd love to hear them! ;p

My crazy classmates Sabrina, Billy, Andre, Matilda

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National Runway Cycling 2007

I wasn't aware that there was such a thing called Runway Cycling until last week, just days after I got the new road bike. It turns out that this is something that the Air Force organises every year. I'd not ridden a 45km 'endurance route' at one go before, so I worried that I might come in last or something. Still, cycling on an airport runway is probably one of the top 10 things I want to do before I die, so yeah...

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the winds were just right. So now I know what's good about a road bike. I hadn't been training, but the 45km seemed relatively easy. (I wasn't really racing hard or anything.) I don't believe I can finish the route reasonably refreshed if I were to use the mountain bike I had earlier. Pedal, pedal... At the start, it was very crowded with thousands at the waiting line. But it got progressively less crowded, and that's when you become one with the runway, especially the white lane strips/centreline, which was just huge. Each loop below was 15km. Participants had to do the loop three times...

Distance covered reported by Garmin Forerunner 305: 43.99km (.gpx obtained with this TCX convertor.)
Distance covered reported by Cateye computer: 43.98km

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Pedal Ubin

I was at Pulau Ubin today with Chin and Yuhui for Pedal Ubin; my second Ubin trip in as many months. The tour was nice. It's one thing to cycle all around the island, it's quite another to cycle, stop and have interesting tidbits about the wildlife, trees, plants, flowers and so on explained to you by the guides.

We travelled on the left side of the island. After the tour ended, I continued north to look at the campsites at the beach as I'm thinking of doing some camping here soon...

GPS tracks obtained with the GPSMAP 60CSx

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My New Car / Trek 1000

The most inspiring cycling ad of all time! Higher resolution video here



When I was in Perth, I thought that it would be good to learn a new sport, so I picked up cycling and cycled almost everyday to school along a bike path that stretched for 7km. I didn't really have a top-of-the-line bike, just a mountain bike that I subsequently fitted with slick wheels and helped me travel more than 5500km over a few years.



I'm generally not very good at sports, because I think I have a hand-eye coordination problem if I do things like kick a football (I tend to miss) or try to receive a fast moving tennis ball (I duck.) So that leaves me with 'easier' sports like running, or cycling (which doesn't involve much; I just sit on a chair and do circular motions with my legs.) But cycling, to me at least, has a much higher return on investment. It's one of the more simpler sports that gives me great pleasure. To feel alive, for one thing. To enjoy the scenery. To have a sea gull fly in the same direction, and just floating on an air thermal meters away from me. To be attacked by a crazy bird. To have the wind push me. To Live Strong.



So I hadn't been cycling for a while, and thought that I should pick it up again. I also wanted to get a road bike this time because it's much more efficient. I narrowed down my choices to a Trek and a Giant. I wasn't really comfortable with the service I got from a Giant dealership, was too lazy to find a better dealer, so went for the former. The Trek dealer in Singapore, called Treknology, seems to have a good standard of service; the folks are not condescending to newbie buyers, willing to chat and explore options, patiently help the customers test drive, and generally are just nice. Their store in town has been renovated and it's lovely, but their other branch at Holland Grove is where I think is the better location to do test drives. There's a quaint 'car park in a garden' right in front of the store to do this.



So this is the new 2007 Trek 1000, and it costs SGD1100 without accessories and the clipless pedals that I added. Happy cycling!



Background reading: Where was my bike made? Trek History.

Dashboard: Light and Odometer/Speedometer/Cadence

Lance Armstrong is not only a great cyclist, but an instruction manual writer too.

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Amazon.com Calling / ICT

I just received the latest parcel from amazon.com. The SingPost Speedpost guy carried the small box inside this huge USPS bag. I asked could I have it? He said sure! So cool... I like postmen stuff... ;)
Rod Machado's beginner's pilot bible was so thick and heavy. If I could name a few teachers who inspire me, Rod would certainly be one. (Another would be physicist Dick Feynman). These two folks are funny guys and they just love learning and evangelising their subject matter. Rod, whose flight lessons are found in many editions of Microsoft Flight Sim, explains the most complex concepts in ways that make people want to learn. Here's an interesting video from him. The other book i got was MS Flight Sim As A Training Aid. I felt it's time to get a little more serious with my computer flying.

The second book is essentially an ICT book, how to make the best use of a computer 'game' to do realistic flight training. When I'm not flying, my other hobby also involves doing ICT for long periods of time each day. (ICT generally refers to using technology to help folks learn better.) But recently, halfway into my internship doing 'reading, 'righting and 'rithmatic ICT, I actually dumped PowerPoint, and reverted to drawing words on the white board. (Technically, PowerPoint isn't necessarily ICT, but still...) Bill Gates phoned me the other day and asked me how come I wasn't using Microsoft PowerPoint anymore, and I told him, 'I'm not sure, I believe I got bored. My kids all walked out of their classroom.' OK, I made up the last part.

Anyway, Heavenly Sword has an article on just this issue. I've seen ICT work wonders when the stars align, it just blows my mind. I've also seen it not work, like in my own practice; not all the time, but sometimes. The problem is two-fold (well, maybe more than two), the lack of resources for every learner, and the pedagogy that the ICT designer employs into the learning package. If the killer app isn't present, then it doesn't make sense to do the ICT in the first place.

I bought Microsoft FSX many months after it was released. Yesterday, the new Service Pack was released, improving performance greatly. I'm not sure it's legal to do this flightplan over New York. Maybe Rod has something to say about that...

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R & R

So I'm back in Teacher's College for some R&R. Teaching Practice was fun; I had excellent mentors who were quite enlightened and progressive, so I had a really good time. Still, it's nice to come back to HQ for some paper strategising before going back to the 'real world' along the front lines.

I'm going back to this school for the third time next month, the brick-colour structure in the middle. The greenery around the place is quite wonderful. It's rare to find significant plots of secondary forests right next to residential areas. I'm not sure how long it will last though. Singapore has perhaps one of the world's boldest plans for population growth, to the tune of a 44% increase in the next 20 years. As more people come to live here, something has to give...

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This is MADNESS!

"IN THE climactic scene of the movie, 300, Persian emperor Xerxes was laying siege on the Spartans. He offered the Spartan king Leonidas a deal to save his people from almost certain death. In return for his subservience, Xerxes offered to make him ruler of all Greece, and shower him with loads of money and glory. Leonidas rejected the deal and was killed.

After the movie, I asked a friend what she thought I would do if I were in the same situation as Leonidas. She said: 'You will take the deal. You are not Spartan, you are Singaporean.'

It was hard to disagree with her. Money, power and glory versus death, albeit in honour? It's almost a no-brainer. I am Singaporean and staying alive with all the trappings of a good life is the practical, if not the most distinguished, choice. I don't think I am any different from my peers. Singaporeans, especially the post-65ers, have by and large bought into the pragmatic ideology of the People's Action Party Government, with a strong emphasis on economic development - in both the public and private spheres. Or as Professor Simon Tay wrote in these pages last week, this is a society that puts 'rational calculation' first... As a people, we have subscribed, celebrated and enjoyed an ethos of pragmatism, often marked by vulgar consumerism.

After all, most of us buy into the Singapore Dream that is a naked pursuit of the Five Cs of cash, credit card, car, condominium and country club....So if we Singaporeans define success by money, we must also accept the idea that good work should be rewarded with good money... If Singaporeans are unhappy with the increase in ministerial pay, they would do little good to lament and complain. Truth is, this issue of ministerial pay will never go away as long as we are a nation where practicality overwhelms passion. The more important question to ask is: Is it time to rethink how we define our meaning of life? Otherwise, as Cassius said in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.'"
~Peh Shing Huei, 'Why Old Guard ideals no longer apply', in the column Insight: The Post-65ers, Straits Times

So naturally, the newspaper has churned out more interesting stories today, but this one for me is especially worrisome. Peh seems to be taking the general ideas of 'rationality', 'must get high pay before people would serve', 'pragmatic ideology of the Action Party' and extrapolate it to excuse acts of treason. No-brainer, it seems. I can imagine military commanders reading this piece shaking their heads, and wondering, 'is it really so easy to buy over this group of 'post 65ers' whom Peh claims share his sentiments?'

I think there are a few things that are not quite right with this article. There are too many stereotyping and sweeping statements about our value system, for a start. Also, in the movie, the offer to surrender is offered to Leonidas (the angry guy depicted in the picture above) near the beginning of the story. Of course he refuses due to admirable sentiments, and thereafter his 300 professional soldiers manage to slaughter at least 100,000 invading Persians soldiers according to the historian Herodotus and modern scholars. If we were to say that we would surrender then for 'rational' reasons (i.e., for money) before the battle even starts, then it'll be no different from what the everyday traitor does.

The point is that this analogy about surrendering in the most awful of circumstances doesn't really have much to do with the debate of salaries in Parliament. Sure, I'd agree with Peh that I probably would break under torture. But 'practicality' in more peaceful times (when the offer of surrender is presented) is very different from the sort of 'do or die' scenario depicted in the movie's last scene. The latter should be treated separately and not to be tied to our analysis.

In Leonidas' case, money and power has long been offered to him even before this last scene. It actually happens in the 'madness' scene which starts the movie off, described below. To say that it is 'rational' to betray Sparta for Persian money is, in my opinion, high treason. This is what happened to the other government official in the movie who actually receives money from the Persians (even though he seems to have no pockets to hold the coins) to facilitate capitulation, and is discovered later. The Spartans call him a traitor, and rightly so. Let us not so flippantly excuse traitorous behaviour with 'practicality overwhelming passion', 'meaning of life is 5Cs' etc. (Anyway, aren't the 5Cs supposed to be outdated already?) I may be wrong about what Peh is trying to say, though. It just seems to me that he's saying this thing called 'practicality' is so strong that it can 'buy over' things very easily. I really don't think that's the case at all. Because if this were true, in matters of national security, we'd all be in quite a bit of trouble... And to that sort of thinking and behaviour, Leonidas would probably have said, 'This is MADNESS!!' :p

_____________________________________
Context of original 'madness' quote [Source]:
Persian messenger: All the God-King Xerxes requires is this: a simple offering of earth and water. A token of Sparta's submission to the will of Xerxes.
Leonidas: Submission...Well that's a bit of a problem. See rumor has it that the ATHENIANS have already turned you down. And if those philosophers and boy-lovers have that kind of nerve...
Theron: We must be diplomatic.
Leonidas: And of course Spartans...have their reputation to consider.
Persian messenger: Choose your next words carefully, Leonidas. They may be your last as king.
[Leonidas draws his sword and points it towards the Persian messenger, whose back is to a large, deep well]
Persian messenger: Madman! You're a madman!
Leonidas: Earth and water...you'll find plenty of both down there.
Persian messenger: No man -- Persian or Greek -- no man threatens a messenger!
Leonidas: You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city's steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death! Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian. Perhaps you should have done the same!
Persian messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
Leonidas: [He looks at Gorgo, who nods to him] Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!!. [kicks the messenger down the well]

[Source]

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With Great Power Comes...

On a certain day during the school holidays a few weeks ago, I was supposed to drive to school, but for some reason (maybe I was dreaming or something), I turned instead onto the highway and headed for teacher's college. (I do really like that place.) I only realised my 'mistake' only after reaching the expressway's exit ramp. But, on the highways of life, there're no mistakes, only possibilities. (!) I accomplished something on the highway that I'll remember for the rest of my fast life.

It was a glorious, sunny day; not many cars were on the highway. I could see the bright red flattop of a Ferrari some distance ahead of me. I had always wanted to get close to one since I first experienced the loud exhaust sound of these red cars one day on another part of the island. It was quite fantastic, their two jet engines made such a ruckus that I could feel my steering wheel tremble. Anyway, back to today's Ferrari, I sensed that something was wrong with her. She was taking the right-most lane, and in right-hand-drive areas like Singapore, this meant that she was supposed to be going quite fast. (Of course, she should be going quite fast in whatever lane she was at!) But no, the strange thing was that it seemed to me that she was going quite slowly. Another car was behind and overtook her. Bizarre...

Naturally, I decided to see how fast she was going by adjusting my speed to match hers. My odometer showed around 90km/k. 90?! That's the official speed limit; and this driver's observance of the the speed limit where the road ahead was empty for the next kilometre was just not right. I decided to do the unthinkable; I would overtake her as well!! So I came up from behind and sort of 'tailgated' her just to see if she would increase speed. She didn't. She was road hogging!

I took my chance, took the adjacent lane, drove up alongside and maintained my speed. Was an old man behind this Ferrari? No, the driver looked like JingChengWu, athletic, young-movie star! He seemed to be enjoying the ride, there was no rush at all. Everything's cool. I accelerated and overtook her (the feeling was tremendous!), but I then realised there's something rather intriguing about this whole thing.

The Ferrari could overtake any car, but this one was going rather slowly and hogging the road. The only reason why I thought there's something wrong was because I tend to equate fast with 'right', as least for a car designed to go pretty fast. But here was something that transcended this 'value system'. The driver was going at the speed he wanted, and that's probably all that mattered to him; he didn't have to care if people are horning at him to go faster. And then I realised that he had the power, and with great power comes... the option not to use it. Very measured and unassuming Ferrari driver, and the first one I've overtaken. I can't wait for the next one... ;)

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Not Prepared To Concede Non-Success In Nation-Building Efforts

Sir, I think we are all idealists in this House. We all believe in this great social enterprise that we call Singapore. We have to, otherwise we would not have sacrificed our time to be here, we would not have heeded the call of duty and served...

If we have reached the stage where money is necessary to draw able Singaporeans into public office, then I think we might as well pack up now, because we would have failed, because Singaporeans obviously do not see Singapore as a nation worth fighting and sacrificing for.

Sir, I do not believe that to be the case. To believe otherwise, is to admit failure in our nation-building efforts. I am not prepared to do so. And I hope that the Government is not prepared to do so either, and will show that in future revisions.

Thank you, Sir.
~NMP Siew on civil service salary revisions, full text here.

I mentioned a few days ago about the 'admirable sentiment' I see daily around the workplace. On Monday, NMP Siew spoke to the House, with optimism, rather than with pessimism and end-of-the-world scenarios. The Singapore Story has long being built on faith and idealism (cue your favourite national building story and NE song), hopefully it will continue for generations to come...

PS. My favourite blog is now the YP blog. It's incredibly interesting! I used to think that I was quite good at detecting satire. After reading the second paragraph of this article, I really don't know if I'm reading satire or not! It's quite a strange and disturbing feeling... The last paragraph is a real gem though! :)

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A Poverty of Ambition?

"There’s nothing wrong with making money, but focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself, and in the end, I suspect, will leave you unfulfilled.”
~ Barack Obama* to students of the Campus Progress National Student Conference, 2006. (Source, source)

I finally found something that is a bit of consolation and counterpoint to the strange pronouncements over the past few days. The reality of those who 'serve the country' in one form or other seems to be quite different from the weird straw man arguments I'm hearing. Many of the folks I see seem to do their jobs out of a fair bit of idealism. I wasn't quite aware of this sort of thing before, but in these few weeks of Basic Training, it has become quite apparent to me. The Newspaper has been working overtime to bring out feature articles about the work done by the various Departments. Today's article is on the Learning Branch, and I like what I'm reading. I think overall, we have a good system working here, all things considered. All thanks to the rank and file who possess quite a fair bit of 'admirable sentiment', I reckon. :)

*President of the United States in 2008, conditions apply.

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Evaluating Reliability

Source A: An online news report from Channel News Asia.

SINGAPORE : A police officer crashed his car into a pillar along a walkway at about 6pm on Monday. The incident happened in front of Block 274D at Jurong West Avenue 3. A police spokesman told Channel NewsAsia the plain-clothes officer had lost control of his vehicle. It then mounted the kerb and hit the pillar. No one was injured, but the car's bonnet was dented. The police are investigating the incident.

Source B: A photograph taken by passer-by Mohammad Mizan.



1(a) Study Source A. How far can you accept what this source says about the accident? Explain your answer.

P.S. Seriously, the unnecessary editing boggles my mind! :) Hat tip.

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Dixie Chicks Strike Back!

My friends from high school
Married their high school boyfriends
Moved into houses
In the same ZIP codes where their parents live
But I
I could never follow
No I
I could never follow

I hit the highway
In a pink RV with stars on the ceiling
Lived like a gypsy
Six strong hands on the steering wheel
I've been a long time gone now
Maybe someday, someday I'm gonna settle down
But I've always found my way somehow
By takin' the long way
Takin' the long way around

I met the queen of whatever
Drank with the Irish and smoked with the hippies
Moved with the shakers
Wouldn't kiss all the asses that they told me to
No I could never follow
No I
I could never follow...

Well, I fought with a stranger and I met myself
I opened my mouth and I heard myself
It can get pretty lonely when you show yourself
Guess I could have made it easier on myself

But I, I could never follow
No I, I could never follow...
~The Long Way Around/Taking the Long Way/Robison, Maguire, Maines, Wilson

This song just gives me the goosebumps... the Chicks won five Grammys on Monday including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Country Album of the Year, and Country radio stations in the States are still not playing their music. Even though they are my favourite female country group, I hadn't thought it was urgent to get their latest album Taking The Long Way released last year. Started listening to them after I got their 1998 breakthrough work Wide Open Spaces. Reason why I like country is that it's probably one of the few genres where songwriters can write mundane but truthful things and actually get away with it. Their Grammy wins prompted me to take some action. Had a fun outing with the classmates on Tuesday night, went to Borders thereafter and found that they were sold out.

Anyway, I found it at Sembawang Music store tonight. It's quite a technical album, so more time is needed to get the hang of it. But it feels so authentic and solid nonetheless. Not Ready To Make Nice, which won Record of the Year, is sort of a 'mrbrown's-fan's-response-to-Today's-treatment' song, the indignation felt when being told to shut up when one voices one's opinions. Lead singer Natalie Maines, who's from Kansas, said a week before Iraq invasion "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." That promptly resulted in a boycott from the Country radio folks, which probably contributed somewhat to their phenomenal Grammy win... ;p




Source

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Lego Mindstorms Controlled By Handphone

I've got the Mindstorms NXT for two months now, but haven't got around to making the various models yet. This is the 'Hello World' startup model, there're many more in the included CDROM and website . Since Lego is to be played as 'sandbox', one can find inspiration from hundreds of other projects too. More lesson plans here and here.

And I've just realised there's also a handphone Bluetooth application. It can be used to run programs and collect data, and drive the thing around using the handphone joystick. My first remote control car!! Run, robot, run! ;p

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Obama For President!

Full text here. What a breath of fresh air this guy is! First noticed him at the 2004 Convention breaking the mould of what a politician should, and could, be. Hopefully he beats the lady on the left! America deserves better than the current Shrub...

[Picture source]

Update (!): A most bizarre thing is happening in international diplomacy and protocol. Obama isn't even US President, and Australian PM, Bush-ally John Howard is already treating him as if he were, scolding him for his Iraq War stand (as if he's the only Democrat or even Republican advocating troop withdrawal.) Excellent comeback from Obama!

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Microsoft Vista

Woohoo, Vista is going to be released tomorrow. In case anyone is wondering which version to get, the following is the definitive guide! (Click picture to enlarge, from Joy of Tech.)

Anyway, I built a Core 2 Duo system last month, and paid more than $200 for Windows XP Pro. They'll send me a Vista upgrade in supposedly 6-8 weeks, and I'll need to pay a postage fee of $27...

Update(!): Vista arrived on Feb 4th. So far everything looks fine and loads very quickly, the Help system has been greatly enhanced, and the interface has been improved, with the exception of the presentation of the programs list that appear after All Programs is selected. I prefer the old, more 'chaotic, but usable' presentation. Drivers are not out yet for some components, which I find quite incredible given the fact that the Beta has been out for months...

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Sony Ericsson Z610i

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
~Arthur C. Clark

To keep my mental health in a more manageable state, and also to provide sufficient scaling in the years to come when my phone number would probably be distributed of hundreds of young people, I decided I needed to get a new handphone. My first preference would be an SE phone, due to the superior user-interface design (:P) of the SE phone I got last year. Angie happened to be free so we went to a downtown Singtel shop. I'd already done research on the Internets and decided to get the Z610i.

It was only when the Singtel guy inserted the battery that I experienced what Clark meant. The last time I had that feeling was then Steve Jobs did the 'expanding movement' with his thumb and forefinger to zoom into a picture in his iPhone.

For the Z610i, the magic is in the organic light-emiting diode (OLED) display at the front of the chassis. I knew that Sony had already used this in their little MP3 thingies for quite a while already, but I hadn't seen the actual product before. The display looks like surreal little pixels floating inside the glassy plastic. Magical.

The display shows the clock and other information. The icon that looks like the contour lines of a rounded hill represents 3G reception. I have no idea why. If you play music, the display changes too...

The finishing of the chassis is wonderful too. A reviewer describes it as having the 'the look of a drop of mercury over a pebble'. This seems just about right. I remember what mercury looks like from science classes, and the metallic finishing looks almost exactly like it. Then again, it's actually plastic, not metal. Reminds me of the 'is the metal chassis of the Palm Zire actually plastic?' debate years ago.

Sony Ericsson is an interesting company to watch. They were almost goners a few years ago before joining up with Sony. And then suddenly they were making great phones that had the design, the UI, and the backing of quite solid manufacturing materials; my impression is that the plastics they use were better than the competitors. (The materials used for the Z610i is quite out of this world!) And they've been doing really well recently. Anyway, this phone is available for students at $99, supposedly until Feb 16.

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Stop The Presses! EP 2

Welcome to another installment of STP. (EP 1 here.) Today we're looking at the 'foreign talents' issue. Two days ago, Channel News Asia reported on the Singapore Perspectives 2007 seminar organised by the Institute of Policy Studies. One article that was published was entitled 'Middle class wage stagnation could lead to social instability'. On 11 January, a snippet from the article read:

... However, economists are asking who this growth is for. The income of the bottom 30 percent of the population has fallen. What is more worrying is the fact that the majority of Singaporeans in the middle class has only seen about a 1 percent increase in nominal income in the last 5 years.

It is not just Singapore - economists say stagnant wages is a global problem, and the chief reason for this is globalisation.

India and China are introducing a large pool of skilled and unskilled labour to compete with the labour forces of industrialised countries.

Singapore is susceptible to this because of its open economy.

123,000 jobs were created last year and economists estimate some 70 percent of these jobs went to foreigners. [1]

The very next day, the article was amended and it read:

...Singapore is susceptible to this because of its open economy.

Manpower Ministry data shows that 124,000 jobs were created last year and 45 percent of these jobs went to foreigners.[2]

To say I was flabbergasted by this would be my understatement of the week. So I found a link to email the Editor.

Hi there, I would like to ask something about the article "Middle class wage stagnation could lead to social instability" by Pearl Forss, found here.

In this article accessed today, I found that the article says that "Manpower Ministry data shows that 124,000 jobs were created last year and 45 percent of these jobs went to foreigners."

However, in some internet circles, it seems that other people who have accessed the article yesterday saw the words "123,000 jobs were created last year and economists estimate some 70 percent of these jobs went to foreigners." Example here.

This is an overestimation of almost 56%. I wonder if there was an error in the earlier, or later copy. Which should be the correct statistic? This is an important story and a lot of people would be interested in the figure. Kudos to your team and Ms Forss for reporting it; I haven't seen it at other newspapers yet. ;)

Best regards,
Jeffrey Yen

I just got a reply.

Dear Jeffrey Yen,

Thank you for writing in. We were informed that our earlier web story had an error regarding data on employment of foreigners. We have amended the story to reflect the information as shown on TV news last night. You may view the video clip which is linked in the web story here:

We apologise for the error. Thank you again for your support of channelnewsasia.com

Best regards,
xxx (Newseditor)

While it would be unfair to harp on a genuine error, (and there's really nothing wrong with a correction in that scenario), I wonder if there's a more interesting angle to this. If we look at the original article [1], we see the word 'economists'. If we look at [2], 'economists' is removed and 'Manpower Ministry data' added. Could it be that what we have are simply two sources saying different things? The 'economists' might refer to the folks presenting at the IPS seminar. They have some numbers they crunched on their own. But there might be other numbers available, from, say, the Ministry. Anyway, the IPS website still contains the 'incorrect' version of the CNA report. If anyone attended the IPS, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. ;)

Update (!): I had originally missed the email address of Pearl Forss, the reporter (which was shown in the news video), which was why I emailed the editor. I should have emailed her first to get the real story. Here's her reply. :)

Hey Jeffrey,

The economists at IPS estimated that 70 percent of jobs created went to foreign workers, if we include PRs.

Ministry of Manpower statistics showed that 45 percent of jobs created went to foreign workers, not including PRs.

But the economists did not have exact estimates, while the Ministry of Manpower did, so we went with the latter figure. =)

thanks for watching.

45-70% of new jobs went to foreigners? Hard-hitting stuff...

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My Blog Is Being Monitored!

I just realised that someone out there has been keeping tabs on this blog! There was a story on tomorrow.sg a few days ago about defibrillators, and the person managed to dig out a first-aid article I wrote last year, and did a trackback! Whoever you are, I'm very interested in the circumstances that led to you putting up that trackback. (I'm fascinated with journeys of hyperlinks on the Internets.) Please leave a comment, thanks! ;p

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Two Classes

I just completed my two-week stint working as a teaching assistant at the Stanford Uni EPGY expository writing workshop held at HwaChong. Two weeks ago, I had another two-week class teaching folks in prison school website design and Photoshop as part of our GESL community work quota. Our group enjoyed ourselves so much, some of us are thinking of going back for more sessions with them.

By most accounts, the two classes were worlds apart; the guys from prison were years behind the academic progress of the counterparts who're not in prison and they'd most probably have trouble finding employment in the future simply because they have served time before. The second group of smart kids would probably go on to the best Ivy League schools in the years to come.

But as I thought more about it, I realised that they are probably not that different after all, or rather, they are more alike than different. Both groups were excellent students. The prison folks were among the most humble, teachable, enthusiastic and nicest group of students I've yet encountered. The smart kids were also very quick to pick up new ideas and are very motivated. I'm constantly amazed by their craft. It's just utterly fascinating to me what their minds are capable at the age of 13-15, tackling Stanford undergraduate materials. Still, great teachers are essential for the whole thing to work, and Jessica, Steffi and Raphael completed the equation...

So anyway, probably the differences between the two groups that seemed apparent to me did not necessarily pertain to the students themselves. It seems to me now that perhaps the way we view them, and how we predict they might perform on standardised tests, or what they might achieve in the future, might be the real cause for such assessments. Is this a good thing? I'm not sure...

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