It seems this Tibet issue became well-known recently.

People usually like simple answers. However, simple answers always fail to explain what's happening.

If we trace to 1000 BC, there is no "nation" called Tibet or China. In fact, at that time people may not have the concept of a "nation". Nation is seemed to be social constructed. The reality is no nation contain purely one race, one language, or one religion.

As Mr BB Sensei said, "If we look at the culture, history and traditions of Tibet, if we consider Tibet as an entity that does have some separate identity from China."

Some people say that The Tibet should be free. What is the meaning of the word "free"? Free what? How to become free? Is "free" better off than the currently situation. Obviously talking is different from executing.

Not all Tibet people have the same need of religion. Some also has the need of modern life style. They also have the freedom to be modernized. Their need should not be negalected as well.

Sometimes I feel that I am too focus on grades. Every semester towards exams my mind will become exam result orientated. The fact is I have no choice. Some lecturers set exam papers to make students become dictionary. (Don't worry, EG1471 is not the case.)

Last semester, in my assembly language(EE2007) course exam, we were asked to write the function of a specific programming command which can be easily checked out online. The fact is even professional programmers may not remember all the commands, and they also need online references. So what is the point of setting this kind of questions.

I disagree this way of setting exams. Because in real life the ability of understanding is more important.

I think EG1471 is a fantastic module, because we have a fantastic teacher Mr Brad Blackstone. His English knowledge covers almost everything in English. He has perfect teaching skills including communication skills and presentation skills. To conclude, he is the greatest teacher I have ever seen.

(Mr Blackstone, do you feel warm in your heart now?)

Windowing Effect

Life is difficult, simple ways usually don't work in real life.

------Prof C.C.Ko(NUS)

In signal processing, both time domain and frequency domain analysis are important. The frequency domain plot is usually called the spectrum of a signal. In theory, a signal's spectrum can be calculated by using Fourier transform which is in a form of integration from minus infinity to infinity in time domain.

However, this way only works theoretically. It can't be applied in real practices. The reason is very simple. It is not possible to get a infinite time range. For example, if we use the theoretical way to estimate a patient's heart signal spectrum. we can only calculate it after the patient dies. Because if he or she doesn't die, the signal doesn't end and we can't get the point "infinity". Obviously it is not practical.

The practical way is to get the signal in certain time range which is called window. Then the spectrum is estimated by the information within this window. The estimated spectrum may be different from the theoretical spectrum. This difference is called the windowing effect.

Things in real life are complicated. We usually can’t get the perfect solution. Practical approach is a necessary extend of theories.

Intelligence vs Wisdom

I think intelligence is more important than wisdom for people in leadership in today’s modern society.

It is difficult to give definitions to both intelligence and wisdom. Generally speaking, Intelligence and wisdom are both ways of saying someone knows what to do. The difference is that wisdom means one has a high average outcome across all situations, and intelligence means one does spectacularly well in a few.

What is the reality in today’s society? Human are experiencing a knowledge booming world which everything is in fast changing. Some people call today’s society “the Transient society”. As human’s knowledge has grown more specialized, there are more and more types of work in which people have to make up new things. Intelligence has become increasingly important relative to wisdom because everyone need to be specialize in something first. Off course, this rule also applies to leaders.

A leader is the one who takes responsibility of an organization. The goal of a leader is to lead people and benefit the whole organization. To do that, both wisdom and intelligence are required. However, today’s organizations are also highly specialized. They specialized in different areas like politics, economics, education, and manufacturing. To be a leader of such an organization, one needs high intelligence to know enough knowledge. For example, a CEO of a software company must know programming and marketing. Otherwise he or she won’t know what the company’s staff’s daily work. As we has seen, intelligence is more important than wisdom.

An EC1301 Example

First let’s recall one of the famous economic effects which is the substitution effect.

"Substitution Effect - Describes the effects of changes in relative prices on consumption. According to the substitution effect, an increase in price of one good causes a buyer to buy more of the other good, since the first good has become relatively expensive, and vice versa. The buyer substitutes consumption of the second good for consumption of the first."

Yes, that is what has happened in our National University of Singapore last week. The two products are flat outside campus and hostel inside campus. Obviously they are necessary consumption products for everyone, especially for international students.

The rising rental of flats outside campus cause students to get more CCA points in order to bid for hostel on campus. The supply of hostel is fixed while the demand increased. The amount of points is needed for accommodation increased.

Then let's look at the other important reason. Let's recall the effect of inflation.

"The rate at which the general nominal level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, purchasing power is falling."

It means as inflation rises, every dollar will buy a smaller percentage of a good. For example, if the inflation rate is 2%, then a $1 pack of gum will cost $1.02 in a year.

If the right of living in campus is a kind of products, we can see CCA points as purchasing power to buy that product. In last two semesters, the nominal level of CCA points rised. It is mainly because OSA (office of students affair) give some points too easily and the aim of a lot of CCA groups is only to get points.

Due to the subsitution effect and inflation, the cut-off line is 46 points which is much higher than last year's 38 points.

I believe the main problem is not the cut-off points. In current situation, demand exceeds supply. This situation won't be changed until the new hostel is built in year 2010.

The importance of APA style

I just found something interesting yesterday.

Through the talk with some of my Iranian friends, they told me that some Iranian do believe in Christen in Iran. However, that Christen belief in Iran is not as same as the western type. It is an ancient belief. They said some stories in bible accurately come from the ancient Persian Christen which was found much earlier than the current popular Christen. And it is more like Catholic.

I am not saying what my friends said is 100% true. At least it shows that religion is something that constructed by human.

In this world some people think some religion is true while some is false. There is no such thing. They all are true, because they all exist in this real world.

In this modern media plays an important rule of affecting people’s thinking. We can take media news and reports as reference. However, if we want to see the truth, we should use academicals attitude to judge all the information. The first step is to use APA style.