Rigel Kent

Normally students are given closed-ended problems with nicely labeled diagram in math exams. This type of problems usually has only one standard answer. Ocassionally, however, some not-so-well-conceived open-ended problems found their way into our exam papers. This year, some SPM candidates fucked up their add math paper because they couldn't even get their engines started for a number of problems in the question booklet. And when the exam was over, traumatised students burnt their math book to show their discontent. Traumatised students burnt their math book after the exam In Question 5 for example, students were horrified by a strange-looking diagram. The diagram has absolutely no labels and students are expected to prepare the answers with only two ingredients: (a) that the three dark-coloured leaf-shaped objects are congruent and (b) that the perimeter of object is 20\(\pi\). The given leaf-shaped object is a peculiar type of folium formed by glueing two...

James Charles Jackson received his doctorate from the Department of Geography, University of Malaya in 1965. Planters and Speculators is adapted from his PhD thesis entitled “Chinese and European agricultural enterprise in Malaya, 1786-1921: a geographical study of expansion and change." At the close of the eighteenth century the Malay Peninsula was a scantily-populated, jungle-covered wilderness politically divided into a series of small states of varying degrees of independence and isolation. Settlement was restricted to small, traditionally-organised and often temporary Malay coastal and riverine kampongs, to a few diminutive mining centres in the foothills and to a shifting aboriginal population elsewhere. Internal communication was limited to the rivers and occasional jungle-tracks, and the peninsula produced little for export to the outside world save small quantities of tin; gold and jungle produce. It was a region almost totally devoid of export-orientated agricult...

( Monday, 4 February 1822 ) On the stony point which forms the western side of the entrance of the salt creek, on which the modern town of Singapore is building, there was discovered, two years ago, a tolerably hard block of sand-stone, with an inscription upon it. One part of the Singapore Stone, currently on display at the entrance of the National Museum of Singapore. Other pieces of the original epitaph are believed to be at the Indian Museum of Calcutta . The epitaph was destroyed by the British in 1843 but a few fragments with inscriptions were rescued and shipped to Royal Asiatic Society in Calcutta for decipherment. This I examined early this morning. The stone, in shape, is a rude mass, and formed of the one-half of a great nodule broken into two nearly equal parts by artificial means; for the two portions now face each other, separated at the base by a distance of not more than two feet and a half, and reclining opposite to each other at angle of about forty de...

( Sunday, 3 February 1822 ) I walked this morning round the walls and limits of the ancient town of Singapore, for such in reality had been the site of our modern settlement. It was bounded to the east by the sea ( BR ), to the north by a wall ( RMN ), and to the west by a salt creek or inlet of the sea ( NCB ). The inclosed space is a plain, ending in a hill of considerable extent, and a hundred and fifty feet in height. The whole is a kind of triangle, of which the base is the sea-side, about a mile in length The length of the shoreline estimated by Crawfurd is probably incorrect since the length of BR is approximately half-a-mile. In order to match Crawfurd's description, we need to extend the shoreline to Point A . From Point A , we can then draw a nice straight line to the base of the hill, N . If this reconstruction is correct, then AMN should form the line of the old Malay Wall. Since RMN is the actual line of the old Malay Wall, Crawfurd's original descript...

This article was written by Long Pow Ang to announce the establishment of a private library to house the book collection of Hsü Yün Ts‘iao 許雲樵 (1905 — 1981), and was first published in The Strait Times on March 12, 1981. The book collection of scholar Hsü Yün Ts‘iao 許雲樵, subject of much controversy, will not leave Singapore after all. A private library will be set up in Lim Teck Kim Road, off Cantonment Road, specially for the 30,000 books, periodicals and newspaper clippings, most of which are Southeast Asian history. China trip. The library will be financed and administered by a proposed company, the driving force of which is Mr. Kho Bak Weng 許木榮, assistant managing director of Sindo Timber Enterprises Pte Ltd 森都公司. Mr Hsü, 76, had planned to sell his collection to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) 馬來西亞馬華公會 in Kuala Lumpur for $150,000. Local libraries, he said, were not interested in the collection which he wanted to sell a...

Long division of numbers is usually taught in primary schools to children as one of the basic arithmetic skills. Consider, for example, \(486 \div 5\). It technically requires the child to atomize \(486\) into blocks of fives. There are a few ways to handle this problem. Since we know that \(90 \times 5 = 450\), one way to do \(486 \div 5\) is: $$\begin{align}486 &= (\mathbf{90} \times 5) + (480 - \mathbf{90} \times 5) + 6\\ &= (90 \times 5) + 30 + 6\\ &= (90 \times 5) + (6 \times 5) + (5 + 1)\\ &= (90 + 6 + 1)\times 5 + 1\\ &= 97 \times 5 + 1 \end{align}$$ We can also repeat the process with a different seed number, for instance, instead of \(90\), we can start with \(80\): $$\begin{align}486 &= (\mathbf{80} \times 5) + (480 - \mathbf{80} \times 5) + 6\\ &= (80 \times 5) + 80 + 6\\ &= (80 \times 5) + (50 + 30) + (5 + 1)\\ &= (80 + 10 + 6 + 1)\times 5 + 1\\ &= 97 \times 5 + 1 \end{align}$$ This essentially means that \(486\) can be a...

In 1960, Bahasa Melayu was gradually dosed into our national schools as the language of instruction. But it wasn't until 1970 that the Bahasa Melayu paper in MCE (Malaysia Certificate of Education) was renamed to Bahasa Malaysia and was made a compulsory subject. It means that you need to pass your Bahasa Malaysia in order to pass your MCE. And in order to get into Form Six, which was then the only way for a middle class student to get a university education, a pass was not good enough, at least a weak credit is needed to secure a seat in HSC (Higher School Certificate). The introduction of the Bahasa Malaysia July Paper was essential because a lot of good students failed to obtain a pass or a credit when they sat for their Bahasa Malaysia paper for the first time. The MCE 1972 result, as announced by the then Education Minister , Inche Hussain Onn, on Wednesday, 4 April 1973 Group Passed Failed Bahasa General failure Total ...

The opening title of the 1988 film Nobita no Parareru Saiyūki 大雄平行西遊記 . This film is perhaps the only film where you can find Mahavira 大雄 and Nobita 大雄 together The main hall of a Mahayana buddhist temple is normally known as the Mahavira Hall or 大雄寶殿 (Dàxióng Bǎodiàn) in Chinese. The following calligraphic plaque, for instance, was photographed two years ago when I was at Kaiyuan Temple 開元寺 in Quanzhou 泉州. Mahavira Hall of Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou The four chinese ideograms symbolising both Mahavira and the hall are rendered by a certain magistrate of Quanzhou named Sun Chaorang 孫朝讓 in standard script 楷書, probably on the 15th day of the 8th month of the year of Renwu of Chongzhen 崇禎壬午仲秋 (Proleptic Gregorian: August 29, 1642). If you pay attention to the two vertical lines on the plaque, you will notice that the regnal name of Emperor Zhu Youjian, 崇禎, and the name of the calligrapher were both written in red ink. Apparently writing your name with a re...

罵髒話和一個人的文化水平沒有直接的關係。 罵髒話不代表妳文化水準低。相反的，不罵髒話也不代表妳文化水準高。比方說，我跟車間的同學去喝酒，同學問我要不要唱歌，我接連搖了幾次頭。同學便開玩笑地說：你的小鳥應該會唱歌唄？ 同學所指的鳥並不是動物學的 鳥 ，她所指的鳥其實是 屌 。 鳥 ( n iǎo)是 屌 ( d iǎo)通過聲母撤換之後得來的，轉音之後， 鳥 的不雅指數似乎有所降低。 中國有許多文人有時也跟同學一樣喜歡用 鳥 來稱呼人。著名學者胡適先生就曾經用 鳥 來形容北洋政府。 大家合起來，趕掉這群狼，推翻這 鳥政府 ，起一個新革命，造一個好政府，那才是好政府的紀念了！ 首見於1921年10月，為紀念辛亥十週年而發表的《雙十節的鬼歌》。《胡適文集》卷九，第178頁 幾年後我們看見魯迅先生在文章裡面也用 鳥 來稱呼人。 問什麼荊棘塞途的老路，尋什麼烏煙瘴氣的 鳥導師 ！ 首見於1925年5月，魯迅在《莽原》週刊一篇叫《導師》的文章。《魯迅全集》卷三，第56頁 Blue Bird 的手作羊毛氈—兩隻可愛的羊駝娃娃 鳥語一番後讓我接著說馬，我要說的其實是一種不馬不羊不駝、一種叫 草泥馬 的動物。這種動物，你可以在吉隆坡塔旁邊的 小動物園 找到。草泥馬其實是髒話「肏妳媽」的淨化版， 據說 它是十年前中國網友的發明。 吉隆坡塔動物園靠近出口的地方養了一只叫草泥馬的羊駝，我在出園前給它的四隻腳趾頭照了一張特寫。 因為馬的閩南發音是bé／beh，所以我們也可以把羊駝叫成nabeh。Nabeh和草泥馬一樣，是「我肏你媽」的淨化版。不同的是，nabeh省略的是主詞「我」、動詞「肏」還有「媽」的「女」字旁。 跟nabeh同源的髒話還有niamah和walaueh等，我的許多同學都喜歡把nabeh，niamah和walaueh等字掛在嘴邊，習慣性將它們當語氣助詞來強化語句。當然nabeh，niamah和walaueh是在眾多髒話裡頭相對比較乾淨的幾個，所以聽入耳也不覺有太大的殺傷力。不過，我孩子的媽媽還是不喜歡她的兩個兒子開口閉口walaueh。 Nabeh | niamah | walaueh，草泥馬和其他比較乾淨的髒話 當我們用這...

山東的單親媽媽和她的獨生子 孟軻 先生搬兩次家的故事，是出自《 列女傳・母儀・鄒孟軻母 》裡頭的一段文字。原文是這樣的： 鄒孟軻之母也，號孟母，其舍近墓。孟子之少也，嬉遊為墓間之事，踴躍築埋。孟母曰：此非吾所以居處子也。 乃去，舍市傍，其嬉戲為賈人衒賣之事。孟母又曰：此非吾所以居處子也。 復徙舍學宮之傍。其嬉遊乃設俎豆揖讓進退。孟母曰：真可以居吾子矣。遂居及。 從G點搬去M點，我們叫一遷。若再從M點搬去S點，也是一遷。從G到M再到S，總共搬了兩次家，理應稱為二遷。例如。舊時秦國從周朝最初的封地 西犬丘 到嬴政時代的 咸陽 城，總共換了九個首都，我們叫九都八遷。 M：媽媽不喜歡孟子以營銷(marketing)為主題玩遊戲 所以，孟媽媽從G點搬去M點再到S點的過程，應該叫「孟母二遷」而不是「三遷」。東漢文人趙岐先生（108年－201年）在給《孟子》一書寫的序的時候，第一次為孟媽媽搬家的次數做出錯誤的統計： . . . 孟子，幼，被慈母 三遷 之教。長，師孔子之孫子思，治儒術之道 . . . 出生於清朝乾隆年間的 梁無非 小姐（?年－1825年）在為《列女傳》做校注時，也是同樣支持趙岐在《孟子・題辭》所提的「三遷」。 G：媽媽不喜歡孟子以葬人(funeral)為主題玩遊戲 趙岐先生和梁無非小姐的「三遷」論，身為業餘天文學家的 劉向 肯定不敢苟同。劉向是《列女傳》的原創作者，是西漢的皇族，他的太公是漢高祖 劉邦 同父異母的弟弟。劉先生常常在家看星星看到天亮，他兒子 劉歆 受他的影響，後來也成為了數學家。劉歆可了不起了，他可是第一個不用圓三徑一的中國人。 《列女傳》裡面的105則故事，很多是劉先生瞎編的。他主要想是用漢朝大男人主義的角度，來約束女人和媽媽的行為。所以你讀《列女傳》的時候，需要小心一點。 劉先生在寫孟媽媽的故事時，用了兩次「此非吾所以居處子也」。第一次是孟媽媽看見孩子以葬人(funeral)為主題玩遊戲，第二次是孟媽媽看見孩子對營銷(marketing)有興趣。兩次都彰顯了孩子潛在的興趣，但兩次都被媽媽壓制。如果當時孟媽媽能給予適當的鼓勵，孟子長大成人或許能將「葬人」和「營銷」融會在一起，搞出一些像 富貴山莊 的生意。 S：孟子最後以俎和豆(ritual and ceremonia...

In the English-speaking world, the word fuck is usually abhorred by many parents because it is a taboo-word to them. The word is almost as old as the written language. The first recorded use of this monosyallable verb in the English literature can be found in the following 516-year-old lines, composed by the Scottish poet William Dunbar in 1503: His bony berd was kemd and croppit Bot all with kaill it wes bedroppit And he wes townich, fulich and gukkit He clappit fast, he kist and chukkit As with the glaikis he wer ourgane Git be his feirris he wald haif fukkit Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane! H. Bellyse Baildon (1907) The poems of William Dunbar, with introduction, notes and glossary, Cambridge University Press, p. 5. Fuck is perhaps one of the most flexible word in the English language, it can be used (a) as a verb or (b) as an imprecation (as the coarsest version of damn ) or (c) as an adverb or (d) as an adjective, because of its expletive nature. For examp...

Men and women see things differently. You do not have to be a married person to get my point, but if you are a married person, you can appreciate this fact more readily. To explain this, I have to start from the beginning. In the beginning, as we were told by the Abrahamists , God created the light. The light, as James Maxwell would like us to believe, is an electromagnetic wave. To be able to see the world in colors, you need to use a special type of protein called opsin to convert the wave signal to electrochemical signal and feed it to the brain. Behind the beautiful eye lays the mythical polychromatic opsin And in the beginning, God created a number of opsins, some of them are good at processing long wave (yellow and red), some of them are good at handling medium wave (green), and some of the them are only short wave sensitive (blue and ultraviolet). After the creation exercise, the instruction for building the blue opsin block was carefully saved in ...