Jetlag

I am not going to recover from this jetlag any time soon, what with the Euros and all that. I might have to just stay out the entire day to prevent myself from falling asleep.

L'origine du Christianisme is engrossing; it's probably the most intellectual documentary I've ever seen and for that reason would never run on the History Channel. I mean, all it consists of are professors talking about the Bible!

Back to school for a bit now.
Posted by kungfuzi at 7:16 am | 0 comments

  Technology and thought

The Atlantic on how Google and the Internet are changing our ways of reading and thinking, and not necessarily for the better:

So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism. Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet as Luddites or nostalgists will be proved correct, and from our hyperactive, data-stoked minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom. Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may replace the printing press, it produces something altogether different. The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.

This explains our current educational malaise better than anything I've read.
Posted by kungfuzi at 9:08 pm | 1 comments

  For students deciding between UK and US universities

Admittedly, I'm not a neutral observer in this: the US is, for most of you, a better place to spend your undergraduate years than in the UK. Here are several reasons:

• Specialisation is the wrong way to go in this day and age, even in tried-and-tested subjects like Law and Economics. You want to be flexible and adaptive.

• And how do you know that Law is right for you? Have you any idea what it means to be a lawyer in this overlawyered country? How do you know that you won't like something else better? In other words, committing to a future career or even university subject/major at this point in time is to ignore the possibility that more attractive alternatives will crop up in the future.
  

• It doesn't matter what you major in. I repeat: it DOESN'T MATTER what you major in. You can major in Classics and still get a job at an investment bank.
  

• In general, top-end US universities have smaller classes than their British equivalents. Smaller classes tend to be more conducive for intellection (which should be one of the great joys of university life overseas), because they allow for more interaction between students and professors. One of the great things about studying in the US (at least for me) was forming friendships with my professors. Unless you're in Oxford or Cambridge, this probably won't happen in the UK. Don't believe me? Ask around.
  

• Nearly all American universities have a campus. The London universities (King's, UCL, LSE, Imperial, SOAS, etc.) don't.

• You can get more financial aid from (private) US universities than UK ones. In fact, the following US colleges are need-blind for international students: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury. Of these, the last 3 are well within reach for RJC students. I'm fairly confident that other US universities are moving in this direction too.
  

• On a similar note, US universities have much more money available for undergraduates looking to pursue independent research.
  

• LKY is on record as saying that he'd have gone to the US if he were a young Singaporean today. Ok, maybe this isn't a very good reason.
  

I'd like to hear the arguments for the other side, e.g. less time needed for a degree in the UK, making education there cheaper. And please, no silly claims about the superiority of British to US culture. This makes for interesting chatter, but it not a legitimate reason for choosing one country over the other. Only if you're 101% committed to a particular career and are manifestly uninterested in or hopeless at everything else apart from your chosen subject should you choose the UK.
Posted by kungfuzi at 1:25 am | 1 comments

  Reality check

Paris and France were a glorious break from the constraints of domestic life: striding through the Louvre to the tunes of Handel's Wassermusik and Bach's Goldberg Variations; visiting Marlinspike (or Moulinsart); biking in the Loire Valley (and getting lost); fine Corsican cuisine; meeting Alistair Horne in person; Shakespeare & Company; watching the Dutch crush Italy; the conversations on religion, history, Singapore, and mutual acquaintances; and all the museums in Paris.

Now it's time to get ready for the most hectic term of working life.

Edit: I hadn't realised that this is my 100th post. So I'll make it a bit longer. In point form:

• My my, how productive I've been since returning. Finished most of Vatikiotis' Political Change in Southeast Asia, answered a couple of important emails, and should be done soon with one item on my lengthy checklist of school-related things to do.

• Starhub's coverage of Euro2008 is awful, and makes the Football Channel look good. I mean, Darryl David and Mark Richmond? Weren't they out of fashion in the mid-1990s? That and the need to start the pre-match coverage an hour before games start...by showing the players arriving at the stadium and warming up. It doesn't help that we have solo commentators, none of whom are immediately recognisable.
  

• I sometimes wonder how this students these days are going to survive in university and working life. Then again, getting thrown in at the deep end does sometimes work. I'd employ this approach more, except that it usually results in a few drownings.
  

• Speaking of university, it's been four years since I graduated. Approximately half of my bond is up. By the way, if you're a JC2 student of mine reading this, and are thinking about studying in the US and obtaining a recommendation from me, you should see me at the earliest possible opportunity in Term 3 so that we can work out a plan. There are certain things that US universities look out for.
  

Posted by kungfuzi at 12:24 pm | 0 comments