Credit for Bad Behaviour

Credit for Bad Behaviour. If buying offsets can excuse excessive [tag]carbon[/tag] use, why not other irresponsible acts?

This is a cool article that appeared in the latest edition of Time magazine (July 9, 2007, pg 17)

For most JC Economics students, you would most likely completed studying about [tag]Market Failure[/tag] and the solutions to counter Market Failure….And one of the solutions to counter environmental problem is to have a tradable carbon permit scheme to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

Based on this tradable permit idea, the writer, Michael Kinsley wrote about a myriad of other applications of this concept in our life. Some sort of new capitalism I would say.

“The genius of carbon credits is that it opens up a whole new inventory of things that people can buy and sell. And there is no reason that the principle should be limited to environmentalism”

What sort of other applications can this be applied in? Already it’s complicated enough for the concept to work in the environment area….

“For example, how about a “[tag]bad parenting surcharge[/tag]”. It would work like this.
Suppose you come home after a hard day of work, and there is your acne-ridden, foul-smelling brat of a son - if, indeed, he is you son, which is hard to believe - playing video games with his friends. Your living room is strewn with Dorito crumbs and other detritus that doesn’t bear close examining. Needless to say, the lawn has not been mowed as promised. How would you like to slug him? You know you shouldn’t. But what if by slugging him, you could actually reduce the total amount of child abuse in the world? Wouldn’t that be a good thing?

What’s needed us a market in child abuse credits. Somewhere in the world there is a parent who is slugging his kid every night. For a price, he would refrain for a night, or even two. By paying that parent not to slug his kid twice, you gain the right to slug you kid once.

It’s a win-win-win. You get to slug your id. This other father gets the money. The other guy’s kid is happy - he gets a night off from being slugged.”

Sounds too optimistic to be true…And for me, it’s an idea that is incredibly theoretical in nature and has absolutely no chance of seeing light in reality…

A market in child abuse credit? Laughable….And how will the system work? How will you know that the parents will be honest? There is absolutely no measuring or accountability system in place….

A creative idea, but a real theoretical one indeed…..What do you think?

Don’t Click It

I was surfing around the webbie and I can’t remember how I’d stumbled upon this website, but this is one of the coolest website that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s called [tag]DontClick.It[/tag]

Cool name right? And as the name suggests, users can’t [tag]click[/tag] on the website. All you can do is just hover you mouse over the link and you will be transported there - minus the clicking….

This is what will happen if you click anywhere on the page…

Will this new technology be a breakthrough technology? And will we be able to surf around websites without the need to click around some day in the future? Or will we see mouse without buttons to click?

I personally feel awkward surfing around that site without clicking at all…Perhaps clicking has been too ingrained into my habit…..

The 80/20 Rule aka Pareto Principle

This will be the super theory of the year for me. I just learnt about this rule which states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes…

This principle was introduced by Quality Management pioneer, [tag]Dr. Joseph Juran[/tag]. He named the principle after the Italian economist, [tag]Vilfredo Pareto[/tag]who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population.

For my fellow JC students, just in case you are wondering why the name Pareto sounds so familiar in Economics, well, he is the exact same guy who introduced the concept of Pareto Efficiency which states that once the welfare of society is maximised, it is impossible for one individual to be better off without another individual being worse off.

This [tag]80/20 Rule[/tag] or also known as the [tag]Pareto Principle[/tag] has been applied to many areas. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.”

Dr. Joseph Juran recognized this universal principle he called the “vital few and trivial many” and reduced it to writing.

The original observation of wealth in Italy occurs in many different and mundane aspects too. For example, we wear our 20% most favoured clothes about 80% of the time and we spend 80% of the time with 20% of our acquaintances.

If you remembered last week, during the heat of the exam period, I tried to plot a graph relating effort, result and time? I call it the Effort-Result-Time Concept. Click on the link to see the graph.

Well, back then I didn’t know about this concept. A visit to my uncle’s place enlightened me about this and for students out there, I believe this is extremely true…

80% of the grades come from 20% of the effort. So why work so hard to get 100% when 80% is enough for an A? 20% of effort….Much less than what I had anticipated…Lol

Graph of Number of Pimples against Stress

Before all you people start buying axes and start throwing them at me, let me make this clear first. This [tag]graph[/tag] doesn’t apply to all. I plotted this graph because I saw some relationship on certain teenagers between the [tag]number of pimples[/tag] on their heads and the amount of [tag]stress[/tag] that they are undergoing…

Plotting (or designing) graphs are fun….I’ve plotted 2 other graphs during my exam period. You can check it out here and here.

Brunei and Singapore Currencies are Interchangeable

Wah, I didn’t know this fact. [tag]Singapore Dollars[/tag] can be used in Brunei while [tag]Brunei Dollars[/tag] can be used in Singapore. They carry the same value, meaning a Sing dollar is equal to a Brunei dollar in value, vice versa…

I have no idea that both currencies are legal tender in both countries. And this has been going on for decades, from June 12, 1967 to be exact! 40 years!

I only came to know about this when I was reading Thursday’s edition of The Straits Times (Singapore) this morning. According to the cover story, the [tag]Currency Interchangeability Agreement[/tag] came into light when both Singapore and Brunei signed the pact.

Previously, before 1967, Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia were in a monetary union with a common currency. After the union, each country issued its own currency. For the pact to have lasted 40 years, it really had stood the test of time.

To commemorate the event, both countries launch new S$20 bills….

Reading this article brings my mind to one thought. Because Singapore and Brunei signed this pact, both their currencies stand on equal ground….What if, Malaysia had signed this pact too and all three countries’ currencies are interchangeable and of the same value. I’m pretty sure 40 years back, the [tag]Malaysian Ringgit[/tag] is on equal value with the Singapore and Brunei dollar.

Now it’s in the range of 2.2 Ringgit to 1 dollar…..Malaysia’s Ringgit had devalued (or is it because of less stronger economic growth as compared to both countries)?

Exams Are Finally Over! Yay!

Tanggal seluar dan baju,
Mari kita menyambut Merdeka
MERDEKA, MERDEKA!
Sudahlah [tag]Merdeka[/tag]!
Saya happy exam sudah habis…..

I’m done with the bloody exam….Bloody exam-oriented education system….Is there a better way of evaluating students? I really believe there’s a better way….Let me crack my brain to devise some way in the next few days….

As I have said a few times before, living in a hostel during the exam week and the week before is scary….Everyone is studying….I’m okay with people studying, but I get scared when people study 15 hours per day…From 8 to 9 in the morning all the way till 11 at night….Some study till the wee hours in the morning, around 2 am….

Honestly, I’m stressed out not because of my own exams but because everyone is studying like crazy….I’m stressed out because of the rest…So weird….

To me, exams is not a competition with the rest. It’s a challenge with your own self….It’s a measure of your own ability….You are fighting against yourself to score the grade, not with the others….

I talked to some China guys from [tag]Raffles Junior College[/tag] (Singapore’s top JC) who were studying like crazy

“Yo bro, chill la….No need study already….You’ll surely get the A”
“Cannot….”
“Why? What for? The A is already in your hand….Enjoy life”
“No….Need to score 100”
“For what?”
“For position”
“Who cares about positions?”
“I care” - WTH??!?!?!?
“But you’re A-level result slip won’t state that you have scored 80 or 100”
“Well, if I score 100 in all my exams, my teacher will write that in my school graduation certificate”
“………”

Suck man….People are studying like crazy…..Not to score the A but to score 100!?!?! WTH?!?!

What has happened to this world? Have we taken perfection to a whole new level?
And does getting 100% help us in our future?

Scoring well in exams = Doing well in life?
Is that equation true???? Is it?

How Do Cleaners Clean the Urinal?

Someone has to do it, but we never ask how it’s done. Cleaning the [tag]urinal[/tag]….How?

Use MOP la…..

Look at the pix closely; u can see the leftover strands of mop (hair? What d’ya call that?) at the urinal…..

Ewww…..they use mop to clean the urinal and then the same mop to clean the floor? Yucks….the more I think about it, the yuckier it becomes…..

Btw, for those friends who tried to access my site in the morning/afternoon, I’m sorry that it’s down. The server that my site is hosted was experiencing [tag]downtime[/tag] and it took the webhosting company one whole day to get it fixed…They said it’s a serious hardware failure, but then…..Hmmmm….I guess the service you get = the price you pay……

Chasing ‘A’s, Money, Girls

Any of you realised I changed my tagline like a few days back? It used to be only .::{LIFE UNDEFINED}::.
Now I’ve added another short sentence after the tagline so it now looks
.::{LIFE UNDEFINED}::. - [tag]Chasing ‘A’s, Money, Girls[/tag]

I believe the new sentence summarises my life at its current state more accurately than anything. Isn’t life a race? And if it’s a race what are you chasing?

For me, the most important thing now is chasing the ‘A’s….It’s a race that I do not which to partake with, but being in my situation, that is not an option, cause it’s either I get the grades or else I’m outta Singapore…

And this tagline is unique in a sense because to be successful, I must first complete chasing the first target before moving on to the next….If the sequence of order is not followed, it’s deep shit….

Only once I’m confident with my studies will I have the extra time to find ways to start my own business, to find my own $$$….And only when I’ve got the $$$, can I chase the girl…

And of course people always want pride and respect in life right? Why not chasing pride and respect too? You can’t simply chase pride and respect. It comes together with the things you do….You can’t demand to be respected, but you have to earn that respect yourself….Jose Mourinho, I hope you have learnt your lesson….