Top Posts of the Year: 2009

It’s been a relatively short year for this blog, but it has nevertheless been a fruitful one with nearly 40 posts in a short 2 months period. Here’s a round up of the top posts of 2009.

1. IB Results

SIS had its first batch of IB students completing their exams and the results of this was released sparsely with only certain staff members insisting that they were wonderful. However, in an ironic twist, the school carefully choose to exclude a number of important statistics of comparison.

2. Principal Interviews

With the announcement that Mr. Wray was due to go to another school, the process of selecting a new principal began. Ultimately, Mr. Graham Silverthorne was selected. You can read his bio here.

2009: The Year

Aretha Franklin's Hat

The decade has ended, so too has 2009. Here’s a roundup of how it went. From political triumph and failure to sporting tragedy and comebacks. Of course we said our fair share of farewells and both sad and fond memories of special anniversaries.

Climate Change: Global Drowning in Brokenhagen

The world had high expectations. But once again, the world was disappointed by bickering and selfishness amongst national leaders. Copenhagen was intended to hammer out an intentional consensus to solving Climate Change. Even before it began, the conspiracy effort to lower expectations and allow nations to skive off requirements began.

First was the questionable time of events of ClimateGate. Admittedly, the emails raised considerable questions. The fact that such phrases were ever used calls for the scientists to review their actions. But a few dubious emails don’t sustain a denial. The few emails that were stolen don’t suddenly overturn the thousands of pages of evidence that shows Climate Change is real and present. In the wider picture, it is still painfully clear that Climate Change is real and that we need to do something about it.Even the political arm of the White House tried to shy away from the issue by scheduling Obama’s appearance at an unimportant time before the realities of the world forced him to make a prime-time visit that created both failure and success.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Boeing 787 Dreamliner recently finally took flight. You can see the test flight here :

Not only does the exterior look smashing, so too does the interior. Here is Wired’s inside look into the beautiful and innovative interior.

Boeing’s 787 Is as Innovative Inside as Outside

Tabulator V.4.0

I’ve been interested in debate tabbing for a while now. After quite some experiences, both good and bad, I’ve built my own tabbing spreadsheet designed for Macs. It still requires insider knowledge no tabbing, no automatic generation, but it certainly makes the process easier.

You can get more information of it’s current state at : http://paullau.wordpress.com/interests/intellectual/tabulator/

If you want to try it, download tabulator v.4.0 here.

5 Lessons from Mock Exams

Mock Exams are finally over. Everyone is taking a short break. But one must learn from the past to improve in the future.
Here’s 5 lessons from the 2009 December Mock Exam.

The moment you walk into the hall, you are under exam conditions. No communication, even to invigilators.

Remember that the chairs are a regulation distance away. They are far away enough to prevent you from cheating, but close enough for you to kick the person in front of you.

Check for wobbly tables. Despite the fact that dozens of people have already used those tables before, they’ll always be wobbly. Why? Nobody knows.

If you forget to bring a calculator, just use your phone. (Courtesy of Khin-Shwe).

At the end of exams, you are released in ‘rows‘ that are actually ‘vertical‘!

Happy Christmas Holiday and Enjoy the Break.

ESF Costs

Adapted from ViewPoint editorial in The Standard dated 8th December 2009

Children of the sandwich class can forget ESF

Kent Ewing

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Warrior wins Nobel Peace Prize

It’s a simple, stark and striking contrast. The contradictory and ironic juxtaposition of President Barack Obama.

Health-Care Reform: Overview

The issue has dragged on for months, even years if not decades and multiple presidencies. Presidents have come and gone and yet no substantive health-care reform has taken shape. Hillary Care was defeated during Clinton’s time and Obama care is walking a political tightrope in the senate. There have been both legitimate questions and pointless bickering on both sides of the political divide. Regardless of political affiliation, we need to move forward on the issue. Here’s where I think the debate should go on the issues of cost, scope, public option and abortion

Health-Care Reform: Cost

The issue has dragged on for months, even years if not decades and multiple presidencies. Presidents have come and gone and yet no substantive health-care reform has taken shape. Hillary Care was defeated during Clinton’s time and Obama care is walking a political tightrope in the senate. There have been both legitimate questions and pointless bickering on both sides of the political divide. Regardless of political affiliation, we need to move forward on the issue. Here’s where I think the debate should go.

Cost

To increase or decrease the national debt. That is the question