LA Homework

I have chosen 2 topics to do today.
Which character would you like to play in the movie version of the novel? Explain.
and
Design a civil rights movement poster for Maycomb.

I would like to play Atticus in the movie. This is because Atticus is one of the main heroes of the novel, and is representative of principles and morals.

Atticus is a well-off character in the story, given that it is set in the Great Depression. His intelligence and behaviour causes him to be respected by almost everyone in the novel. He is the one whom characters turn to in times of need. However, his conscience, although good, causes him to (temporarily) fall out with the people in Maycomb, when he agrees to defend a black man, totally against the social code in Maycomb, to uphold his set of moral principles. Atticus understands why he is shunned by society, and forgives them for it. Through all this, he never stops teaching Jem and Scout about right and wrong, and about mockingbirds and related sins. He recognizes that people have both good and bad qualities, and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad. Atticus teaches this to Scout — this perspective of "walking around in people's shoes" helps her in understanding people, like the Ewells and Boo Radley ,at the end of the novel.
Atticus is characterized throughout the book by his absolute consistency. He stands rigidly committed to justice and thoughtfully willing to view matters from the perspectives of others. He does not develop in the novel but retains these qualities in equal measure, making him the novel’s moral guide and voice of conscience.

I view Atticus as a role model, because of his sense of morality and his consistency. He is morally upright and stands firm in the face of adversity. These qualities and all those mentioned above are good and I admire this in him. Also, his ability to argue his point (during the court case) and also his ability to accept defeat and learn from it are admirable. Thus, I view Atticus as the most important character in the novel, and naturally I want to play him.



Now for the poster:

Cheers,
ccy

MI Test

Code: pbd2jz8tpn83144. View it yourself, I cant get the image good enough to be seen here.
Basically, Linguistic 17/25 (Sorry Mr Chen)
Logical 20
Interpersonal 21
Intrapersonal 19
Musical 20
Visual/Spatial 18
Naturalistic 19
Kinaesthetic 20.

The linguistic score is a bit low... but sort of expected, since I'm more of a math/science person. I'm not the kind who will actually like writing novels etc, although I like reading science fiction ones. Then again, I'm a debater so it should have been higher.

Interpersonal was a little high, I don't think my interpersonal skills are that good, but then the computer says so. I suppose that its right then, since there's no motive to change it?

Intrapersonal wasnt the best score ever, but its reasonable so no comment.

Musical is too high!!!! I dont have any qualifications in music except for a grade 1 violin, and none at all for piano. I dont even listen to music at home. No Viva la Vida or anything.

The rest are a little high. I've never considered myself a visualiser, or a naturalist, or a spoorty person. In fact, for my NAPFA test, I managed to fail it for four years straight. I dont exactly revere animals, and I cant visualise anything for half a nut.

I think this test is reasonably accurate, but is not totally reliable nor precise. I think it should be used just for the basic purpose of a rough gauge of our strengths and weaknesses, but not for comparisions. This si because the scoring is based on questions that may have been answered inaccurately, affecting the results.
Cheers
ccy

Why is the sky blue and other random questions you always wanted to ask but never did Part 2 without Why is the sky blue

WHY ARE PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO RETURN CASH TO A STORE WHEN GIVEN TOO MUCH CHANGE THAN TO RETURN A PIECE OF MERCHANDISE FOR WHICH THEY WERE NOT CHARGED?

More than 90% of people would return $20 to a store of given that amount in excess by a cashier. Only about 10% said they would return a $20 lampshade to the store, if the cashier had not charged them for it. Why is this the case?
Honest behaviour is motivated not only by fear of punishment but also by moral senntiments such as sympathy and guilt. The customer could keep the stuffin both cases without being caught. But the two cases are likely to trigger different sets of moral sentiments.

If the customer keeps the change, the cashier would have a $20 shortfall at the end of the day, which the cashier would have to pay out of his/her own pocket. Cashiers don't earn too much, and this causes us to feel very guilty.

However, in the lampshade case, the loser is the company, which makes millions and billions of dollars every day. $20 in this case would not cause too much of a loss to the company. This causes there to be a lot less guilt than the first case, thus the difference.

WHY DO COMPANIES GIVE "FREE" CARS INSTEAD OF AN EQUIVALENT CASH BONUS?
Companies retain employees by giving higher salaries. However, many companies are now giving employees cars instead of cash.
The care aren't really free, of course. Each costs about $9000 in leasing and insurance. But if companies had given employees $9000 a month instead, no one should have been worse off, and at least some would be better off.

Or would they?

The best gifts are often things we're reluctant to buy for ourselves. People want something, but cannot justify spending so much. Having someone else make the decision for him bypasses this. If you consider different gifts for friends, people generally choose the more expensive variety, for example people generally give, say, a $10 000 pair of shoes etc. as a wedding gift, and not 100 pairs of $100 shoes. The same logic applies to the cars. The employees prefer the cars because they want it but are not able to justify their buying otherwise.


WHY DO KAMIKAZE PILOTS WEAR HELMETS?!?!?
Japanese military forces launched a campaign of kamikaze attacks in which pilots attempted to crash planes into American warships. Their planes were heavily laden with explosives, so a crash meant almost certain doom for the pilot. Why did these pilots wear helmets?

One reason is that these pilots sometimes survived these missions. Some would experience severe turbulencebefore reaching their targets, and in these cases there were clear reasons why they wanted to be adequately protected. More importantly, the aviation helmet had becomme symbolic of what it menat to be a pilot. Kamikaze pilots were pilots, and all pilots wore helmets.

But the most compelling reason is that it was not for practical purposes. Usually there would be such heavy anti-aircraft fire that survival would be unlikely. Other times the only way to deliver the explosives was to crash the plane. But the hope was that the pilots would return safely, even though the expectation was that most would not.



If you have any more irrational questions please comment, and I will attempt to explain them.

Cheers,
CY

Why is the sky blue and other random questions you always wanted to ask but never did

WHY IS THE SKY BLUE?
The first thing to note is that the sun is an extremely bright source of light. The second thing to recognize is that the atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere have an effect on the sunlight that passes through them.

­The­re is a physical phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering that causes light to scatter when it p­asses through particles that have a diameter one-tenth that of the wavelength (color) of the light. Sunlight is made up of all different colors of light, but because of the elements in the atmosphere the color blue is scattered much more efficiently than the other colors.

When you look at the sky on a clear day, you can see the sun as a bright disk. The blueness you see everywhere else is all of the atoms in the atmosphere scattering blue light toward you. Because red light, yellow light, green light and the other colors aren't scattered nearly as well, you see the sk­y­ as blue.


WHY DO DRIVE-UP ATM MACHINES ALSO HAVE BRAILLE ON THEM?
ATM machines normally have braille dots on them so that even visually challenged people can use them. However, people who can drive aren't blind, so why would they have Braille dots? The answer lies with the production of the machines. Now, when these machines are produced, the company has to pay for each mould and the materials. If there were two different moulds, then the company would have to have two different designs and then make two different factories each producing a different kind of machine. However, this would cost a lot and not benefit many people.

Firstly, even though the dots might be taken away, no-one would be any the better. How many times do you get frustrated over there being Braille dots on machines or lift buttons? Nobody actually cares, and if the banks actually made them they would have incurred costs and a visually handicapped person came by in a taxi, they wouldn't be able to get their money unless they told the driver their PIN number, which is not the most appealing option to many people.

Also, there is a law to enforce there be Braille on all machines, but the above explanation is more interesting.


IF A CUP IS COMMONLY DEFINED AS 8 OUNCES, WHY IS THE SMALLEST CUP OF COFFEE LISTED ON STARBUCKS' MENU A "TALL", WHICH CONTAINS 12 OUNCES?
For about 10 years, Starbucks has served coffee in 3 sizes: Tall (12 oz) Grande (16), and Venti (20). Yet a cup of coffee is technically only 8 oz and c,an be as small as 6. Even Starbucks' own brewing instructions say "We recommend two table spoons of ground coffee for each six ounces of water". Why doesn't Starbucks sell a standard cup of coffee?

Actually, it does. If you ask for a Short, you will be served a traditional 8 ounce. However, it is not listed on the menu and only a few people know about it.

The Short is the most discounted cup of coffee Starbucks sells. It sells for less than a Tall but contains the same amount of expresso and has a richer taste.

Starbucks does this because it is a form of hurdle price discrimination. If you are price-sensitive, you will jump the hurdle and get the discount, while less price-sensitive customers will go on without the discount. The hurdle is that the customers just don't know about it. If you are a price-sensitive customer, chances are you would have found out about the Short from one of your friends, and a buyer who is less price sensitive will just have a 20 oz Venti. In this way, Starbucks gives discounts to people who care about them, while people who don't care don't get them. This way, Starbucks gets to squeeze more money out of the most people possible.

Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry if you were looking forward to a Schrodinger's cat though.

Cheers,
CY

Blog Policy

My Blog Policy

1. I will tell the truth.
2. I will write deliberately and with accuracy.
3. I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
4. I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing. Except spelling etc. mistakes.
5. I will never delete a post, unless it was for testing.
6. I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
7. I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so if I know how to.
8. I will strive for high quality with every post – sometimes including basic spellchecking.
9. I will stay on topic to some extent.
10. I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
11. I will link to online references and original source materials directly.
12. I will disclose conflicts of interest.
13. I will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues would jeopardize my personal and work relationships.

Thanks to http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2004/11/blogging_policy.html for the outline.

Cheers,
cy

Council Investiture

On Weds was the council Investiture. I will now be going through the more interesting points of what happened.

Don't ask why the sudden deviation from Quantum Physics. I just feel like it.

OK, to explain it properly, I have to go back in time. Not the speed of light thing, just a recount. (cue: "Awwwww.") All councillors have to take part in at least one Investiture each year, and there was a mass HC Investiture which most of us use to fill up that slot. So of course I signed up.

After a while, we were informed that there would be rehearsal sessions on Weds, the Tues after, and the the third session (the real event) would be held immediately after the Tues session, that is on Weds. In other words, i would be missing all the recent RS & iVP sessions as well as Math Olympiad. : (

The first session was mainly practicing standing up at the same time (to create a orderly impression as well as the satisfying sound of 30 Audi chairs closing at the same time. We were also informed that we would have to get Council U for the next session. For most councillors that was not a problem, for even the Sec 2s had bought them last year. Except me. So I managed to purchase the uniform on Monday, and, with W SL were the only ones on Tues wearing hc uniform while all the rest were smartly dressed in council U. Bah.

Well on average everything went smoothly; people marched on stage in perfect order with minimal fidgeting etc. However, the first small screwup was followed immediately bya big one followed by an even bigger one followed by a thankfully moderate one.

1) The media techdidnt manage to coax the coms into playing the video that HSC had prepared, and even the 21 guns song was broken here and there and completely stopped halfway. The really bad thing happened during the wait for the media tech to try (later found to be in vain) to fix up the computers. The JC seniors started cheering, and being desperate, finally did Rock You. On the stage. Nick Chuan said later during debrief that he could see Dr Hon wincing through each beat.

2) the bad thing was that there was a huge jam on the way out to the reception. There was only one door available, and all the schools cheonged through it. So there was a ten minute wait for some schools to get out.

3) The guest of honour was left by himself until thankfully the President & Vp of HSC noticed. EPIC.

4) There was a FIRE at the vegetarian buffet table. Someone threw a napkin in. Thankfully, the tablecloth seemed to be fireproof so it went out within the minute without incident.

Thank you for the patience to read on through my rantings.

Cheers,
CY

An elaboration on Hawking Radiation!!!!!!!

One of the greatest scientists alive today is Stephen Hawking. Here I present a simplified-to-the-point-of-incorrectness simplification of what, basically, one of his most famous discoveries is all about. An adequate introduction would be from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation ).

Well, basically a virtual pair of particle-antiparticle is formed. Its sort of like Mr Rong's "a^3 b +ab^3 + a^2 +b^2 +1" question where you add and subtract the same term so that you can factorise it easily. As far as physics is concerned, this sort of thing can happen without any irregularities.

Now the point of virtual particles is that they are, well, virtual. Since they cancel to equal zero, and they are formed out of nothing, and are conveniently right next to each other, they annihilate eah other. Nope, no spectacular explosion either, because of the fact that one has positive energy and the other has negative.

So you might be thinking, omg theres these miniature particles flying around annihilating things. Actually no. They annihilate themselves so fast that they usually do not cause any disturbance to the nanoscopic world around them.

However, all this changes when these virtual particles are near a black hole. When they form near a black hole, there is the chance that one will fall into the black hole, and the other will escape. Normally, both are not sucked in (to annihilate a short while later) of spiral down into the black hole (where they still annihilate a short while later). But in this special case, then they are separated and forced into reality. Because of some Law the particle that falls into the black hole is always the one with negative energy. Therefore, anyone outside the black hole, it seems that the black hole has just emitted a particle.

This is because the black hole absorbs a negative-energy particle, which sort of destroys some of the mass in the black hole, and a particle exactly opposite to the absorbed particle in charge is emitted, and thus the black hole loses mass at the same time another particle of the correct specifications to have just have been emitted speeds away from the black hole. The black hole would then have appeared to have emitted a particle, although by definition black holes are objects that do not emit radiation.

So there you have it.

A quick survey: if you understood none of what was said, comment "D"
less than 1% "C"
less than 10% "B"
less than 50% "A"
100% "S"
If you noticed a mistake comment "ZOMG".

Cheers,
CY