This video is underappreciated!
Presidential elections tomorrow – I hope Dr Tony Tan/Tan Cheng Bock wins! Dr Tan’s Chinese is incomprehensible, but I find it admirable that he actually made the effort to try. He could just have taken the easy way out and opted to have his speech dubbed, like Tan Cheng Bock.
# Here lay a long unwieldy paragraph on the Presidential election that was deleted for viewing pleasure#
Today, I shall categorise and number my thoughts, starting with
1. Math!
An ode to Math that I devised on the spot! Technically it’s a haiku but stylistically it isn’t …
Abstract Algebra
is one of the reasons why
I still go to school
The concepts taught are interesting and non-obvious (okay perhaps if you’re Ryan Chan/Ang Yan Sheng they’re kindergarten standard), though a mild headache is a frequent after-effect. And although an A+, or even an A, isn’t guaranteed, I still do look forward to the revelations of Abstract Algebra. Call it the one irregular, exciting activity in an otherwise predictable school regimen.
(Also, after looking through Ryan Goh’s notes the other day, I felt an urge to stamp on myself for not taking Graph Theory. I never thought I’d second my father’s views on the merits of signing up for every module in sight, but in this case he was probably right. I do think I’m overly cautious sometimes.)
Naomi and I were talking the other day and we agreed that Complex No.s should have been taught alongside Polar Coords in Year 4- firstly, because at that time we wouldn’t have had forgotten most of the Trigo needed for both modules, and secondly because their standards are comparable.
2. Increase in transport fares
I feel that Singaporeans are making a needless fuss about this latest development. In an era of ballooning inflation (and now another impending financial crisis -goodness-), I find it neither surprising nor remarkable. At most it seems a symptom of larger economic problems. IMHO, the complaints about the quantum of the raise do not really merit consideration (because 2 extra cents for every adult trip –> an additional 0.02*2*5 weekdays+0.20 if you go on an Amazing Race around Singapore every weekend = $0.40/week, is really going to burn a hole in our pockets).
If people are objecting to the stagnation of service standards or the poor timing of the fare increase, then (while I don’t concur) I can put it down to a difference in opinion/experiences. I am quite a skeptical person, yet I must admit that these days even Bus 97 no longer arrives grossly late, and peak hour overcrowding on the North East Line seems to have been alleviated by more frequent train services. (But perhaps my experiences are anomalous – maybe more seasoned commuters know better that there has been zero improvement in public transport services.)
I don’t see why people expect that the fare increase should translate to better service if the motivations behind the fare increase have already been expressly stated to be otherwise. Yes, we have a right to demand better service, but this demand should not have been exacerbated by news of fare increases,which are unrelated. If the transport operators say, we want more money from you because we need to finance training programmes for our staff, but later commuters find that there has been no corresponding improvement in service standards – then complaining is justified. But no one has made any pretensions that the additional fare will be channeled towards raising service standards, so I don’t think commuters have a right to complain that service standards have not improved in line with fare increases.
I could go on about this…
Stats is such a lovable topic that I can only think of 2 reasons to like it:
1. It will be over tomorrow! If I get 5 for AP Stats, I will be exempted from it in Uni! 
2. Stats is such a mean topic that it makes even the most Normal of students go into thinking mode.
For instance, if not for Stats, we wouldn’t even know that descriptions of boxplots are wrong unless they mention the centre, shape and spread. We would be ignorant of such fundamental truths as: 1) One cannot derive any conclusions from an observational studies and 2) If we wish to accept a null hypothesis we must not reject it!
Pause for a moment, my friends and fellow Singaporeans. Let us be silent as we ruminate on the erudition that Statistics has introduced into our lives. Without Stats, where would we be when our future bosses demand to know what the conditions are for significance tests? 
