I've just learnt that the word "Goodbye" originated as a contraction of the phrase "God be with ye."

God be with ye -> Godbwye -> Goodbye

See! Even then people used "b" to represent "be" and "w" to represent "with"! Contractions are clearly not a modern thing.

In the Star wars world, shouldn't they be saying "Foorbye"?

So nowadays, when we say "bye" when we are leaving each other, we really mean "be with you"?

If I just want you to scram, should I be saying "Debye"?(Wait, that's a unit for dipole moment)

Or if I wish you future success in your political career in Singapore, I should say "Leebye"?

I'llbye sounds pretty cryptic if you ask me.

While commenting on a post, I had this random thought.

Normally, verbal conversations are one-tracked. That is, the participants of a verbal conversation can only engage in one topic at a time, and usually there is a point when there distinct change in topic. I think that this is the case because we cannot listen to others speak while we ourselves are speaking. However, in MSN conversations, multiple topics can be engaged simultaneously, because it doesn't require listening or speaking.

But have you wondered, do deaf/mute people have single topic conversations?

I mean, just because you can't listen and talk at the same time doesn't necessarily mean that you can't watch and gesture at the same time. If that is the case, wouldn't deaf/mute people be more adept at multi-topic convos on MSN?

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Another random thought:

In evolutionary biology, traits of beauty are linked with traits that demonstrate health, youth, and in turn fertility. There has been research done on beautiful faces, and by geometrical studies, it has been shown that if certain ratios can be made to obey the golden ratio, the face would be perceived as beautiful. With this model, cosmetic surgery would have a guide as to what modifications would make a person look better.

Now, what about beautiful voices? Since beautiful voices are linked to young-sounding voices, it makes some sense in terms of evolutionary biology. Now, I'm sure someone would have done fourier analysis on beautiful voices before. Are there particular physical properties of beautiful voices that separate them from not-so-beautiful voices? Can voices be modified to sound better?

If there are people who do cosmetic surgery to please their partner, would there be people who would consider voice modification to please their blind partner?

If both beautiful voices and faces are indications of health, youth, and fertility, why is it that not all people with beautiful voices have beautiful faces? (e.g, Ou de yang)

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CTW did a 16km route march along East Coast Park. Being the wayang kias we were, we sang extra loud when there were people watching. When a few girls walked past from our left side, Cpt Daniel had to tell us, "Oei, pandan ke hadapan[or how something like that]! (meaning 'face front')".

I told my mother about this, then she said that when she was younger (about 16+) and working near taman jurong, the marching army boys caught her attention, and she watched with admiration as the guys marched past, filled with gusto and spirit as they sang and cheered in unison.

No, really.

"Our higher-ups are very proud of this new equipment which they have procured. In actual fact, it sucks. It sucks so much that we only use it when we have no better alternative."
"Why do you say it sucks?"
"I'm sorry, that's classified."

I recommend you play Fantastic contraption.

Why not?

It's just another planet right?

Not as if planet earth is the only unique thing in the universe. Every point in time is unique. Everyone we meet is unique. Every interaction we have with others is unique. Yet we don't cherish them.

So, why this? From what you've been doing so far, saving the planet isn't consistent with your actions.

... so why not?

It's just a human life, right?

How's a human life worth any more than another animal's life? How do you even judge the worth of a life? People don't judge the lives of everyone equally; it's worth more if they can relate to it and empathise with it, and worth less if they can't. In fact, most people would be more affected by the death of their pet than a fellow countryman whom they can't relate to.

You trust such judgements on the worth of life? Then why preach about the sanctity of life? It isn't consistent with your actions.



Conclusion: unbounded insistence on consistency would get us nowhere, even on the most obvious things.

Common sense is common sense even if they are wrong, because everyone else think that everyone else don't know it is wrong except themselves, and they wouldn't admit it because it's obviously true.

context: YCX and amyas are my godlike juniors, now in j1. based on my impression from 2 years ago, amyas was slightly more godlike. just today,

YCX: did I tell you abt what happened last ct
YCX: abt the first qn
YCX: it was some graphing qn
YCX: find intersections btw Y=xlnx n some other graph
YCX: is sposed to use solve by GC
YCX: dan [amyas] go and do lambert W
YCX: T_T
me: wait.
me: wad is that?

(then i go and wiki "lambert W")

me: HOLY SHIT


AMYAS IS OFFICIALLY BEYOND-GODLIKE.

Watch There She Is!! It's good.

What's the deal with spending 8 hours cleaning arms? Could it be that having a very clean weapon gives you an edge in battle?

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Rifleman: The rifleman is the bedrock of the army, also known as the Queen of the Battlefield, despite being male-dominated (thus can be politically-correctly called "rifleman" rather than "rifleperson" or "riflefighter" or "rifletrooper"). He is assisted by the support arms and service support sectors in the neverending battle to defend Blueland, and occasionally Goldland, against the onslaught of Redland Armed Forces(the choice of colour appears to be an indication of our stand in the Cold War). Through the valiant efforts of DSO, DSTA, and BTKinetics, he has been equipped with an increasingly superior technological edge in engagement. The 3G transformation also includes a Battlefield Management System, enhancing situation awareness which is crucial to the outcome of any campaign.

Learns: Dig in, Discipline, Reinforce, Rifle cleaning

Dig in:
Morale cost- 100/200/300/400.
Casting time - 1 hour/6 hours/12 hours/48 hours

Level 1: Shell scrape. +50% Evasion against low trajectory fire, +5% Evasion against high trajectory fire.
Level 2: Fire trench. +80% Evasion against low trajectory fire, +30% Evasion against high trajectory fire.
Level 3: Alternate shell scrape. +80% Evasion against low trajectory fire, +30% Evasion against high trajectory fire, takes twice as long to be overrun, and enables another Rifleman to Reinforce.

Level 4: Communications trench. +90% Evasion against low trajectory fire, +75% Evasion against high trajectory fire, takes twice as long to be overrun, and enables unlimited number of Rifleman to Reinforce.

Reinforce:
Morale cost- none.
Casting time - K+45/K+30/K+15/K

All levels: Increase one rifleman of firepower in occupied knoll.

Discipline(passive):

Level 1: Automatically engages in all-round defence when undeployed.
Level 2: Automatically casts Dig in when asked to occupy a knoll + level 1
Level 3: Automatically casts Reinforce when undeployed and near to a friendly occupied knoll +level 1 and level 2
Level 4: Automatically casts Rifle cleaning when undeployed+level 2 and level 3

Rifle Cleaning(Ultimate):
Morale cost- 100/200/300.
Casting time - 15 mins/1 hour/24 hours
(Casting times stack, also takes 1 minute to uncast)
Level 1: Reduces IA by 50%.
Level 2: Reduces IA by 80%.
Level 3: Reduces IA by 90% + Clean Rifle Effect (Orb effect. Your Rifle is so clean that your enemy's weapons in 500 range would IA out of jealousy, 20% chance of 3.75X critical hit, 15% chance of firing an M203 grenade, 5% chance of firing a MATADOR round, 1% chance of firing an 84mm HEAT round, and 0.1% chance of the enemy exploding out of sheer awesomeness of your clean rifle.)


Bonus:

Your mission readiness is so high that you are on negative 2 hours Notice to Move.

Your ET blade is so sharp that when you put it in your field pack, it cuts through the ET blade pouch, cuts through your field pack, and falls through the centre of the earth and kills everyone in Cuba with the Sharpness Aura of the sharp blade.

Your Ziploc bags are so reinforced that if a sniper tries to shoot you in the back with your field pack on, the bullet would ricochet off your Ziploc bag and fly back at him.

Your Mine-prodder is so free of rust, that it alone can sacrificially protect all metallic objects within a 1 km radius.

Your ET stick fits your ET blade so well, that once you put them together, they cold weld.

Your drills are so good, that when your company does "hentakaki", the entropy is so low when coupled with a tabletop set-up, breaking the hentakaki would make cold fusion spontaneous.

Your fighting spirit is so strong that you always man-pack a full jerry can, just in case you need to do 10 more 24 km route marches.

Your can-do spirit is so great, that you can turn white tape into anything.

You have so much élan that even Redland civilians are willing to obey your FCO.

Your situational awareness is so high that you already know where and when Vincent would lose another ADM safety pin.