"No, he was truly outstanding: he was head and shoulders above the rest of the students. He was not only the first, but the gap. I think that he did computer science (after mathematics) mostly because his father didn’t want him to stay in pure mathematics. Loong was not only hardworking, conscientious and professional, but he was also very inventive. All the signs indicated that he would have been a world-class research mathematician."
"I’m sure his father never realized how exceptional Loong was. He thought Loong was very good. No, Loong was much better than that. When I tried to tell Lee Kuan Yew, “Look, your son is phenomenally good: you should encourage him to do mathematics,” then he implied that that was impossible, since as a top-flight professional mathematician Loong would leave Singapore for Princeton, Harvard or Cambridge, and that would send the wrong signal to the people in Singapore. And I have to agree that this was a very good point indeed."
Not weird but common. For Chinese family who uses 3 letter names, the boys will use the same second-letter in their name, the girls will use the same but different second-letter. Example Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Hsien Yang. So at home their parents probably call them Ah Loong or Ah Yang when they were kids. You can call him Loong if you're close to him or his senior relatives or his teachers. Chinese in south-east-asia still prevalently uses 3-letter name. But in China, more people have two-letter name.
His father also called him Loong (not Hsien Loong), at least sometimes:
"He was still young and it was better that someone else succeed me as prime minister. Then, were Loong to make the grade later, it would be clear that he made it on his own merit."
Hsien Loong is his first name. Chinese usually don't have middle names. Calling him "Loong" is the equivalent of calling Tommy Tom. But it's more intimate, usually only used by someone closer to the person.
They are from Singapore, not China. I have seen that such notions as last name, etc. are a bit distorted in immigrant communities, particularly for nth generation immigrants. A good example is first and last names of Indians in the Caribbean and South Africa, which are often distorted, weirdly spelled, etc.
It may be true that this particular sample is too small; I haven't looked at the experiment in detail. However, just pointing out that n<=20 per group isn't enough of an argument to justify this statement. Significance is about more than just the sample size. The idea that it's impossible to get significant statistical result with small samples is a common misconception.
I do. (The number of layers varies with the temperature.)
May I ask the opposite question?
Why do many people change outfits almost every day? Do they derive satisfaction from the process of choosing clothes? Or do they derive satisfaction from the fact that other people notice these changes?
As you point out, choosing and owning different outfits comes at a cost, and people who choose to do so must have a reason for this behaviour.
Some people just like dressing up. Other's like to feel confident and they choose to take that confidence from their choice of clothing. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is another discussion.
So yes. "Most" people are superficial in the sense that, given that they look good, they are more likely to feel confident. I personally think that one shouldn't have external influences as a source of confidence (as that can be taken away) but that doesn't say that a lot of people don't feel that way.
Sometimes you just want to feel pretty, I figure.
On top of that, fashion is all about context. If I wear leather shoes I am dressed-up more than 99% of my peers. However, if I wear leather shoes in ... let's say Paris, I'm just one of many. Fashion is all about context. Imagine Steve Jobs going to a black turtleneck and dad-jeans con ... lol
>Why do many people change outfits almost every day? Do they derive satisfaction from the process of choosing clothes? Or do they derive satisfaction from the fact that other people notice these changes?
I like to match different colours and materials, it's fun to try new things and styles. After a while you will learn what fits together and what don't, and then you can start experimenting even more
Human language is all about optimizing for context. Abbreviations, contractions, etc. For humans, most of the time the current year and/or "com" are the default context, so it makes sense to present the most significant differentiating information first. If you think about it, that's also why "www." got dropped.
When I make a phone call, I have a "default context" -- my area code -- but people still seem happy enough with phone numbers that go from most general to most specific.
I'm old enough to remember when people would drop area codes. Long distance was expensive so 95% of the numbers you'd call were local. That being the default context, people would drop the area code in most local situations. There's plenty of archival newspaper ads that demonstrate this.
With cell phones and unlimited nationwide calling plans, it's more common to find an assortment of area codes in contact lists these days. What you're describing is not actually a default context. It's just your personal area code. The person next to you might very well have a different one.
It's not my "personal area code", it's... well, the area's area code, and it's the default for people in the area. People and businesses locally routinely give their number without the area code, because it's implied and doesn't need to be dialed. Even my cellphone has the default context of the area in which the SIM card was bought.
So I'm not sure what "old enough to remember" means when it's still true today. 95% of the numbers I call now are local businesses, so I only dial seven digits.
I don't know, maybe you're from the future or something.
It's only the default for new numbers. People carry their old numbers with them when they move, unlike the olden days. Bottom line, contact lists have a lot more mixed area codes now.
> 95% of the numbers I call now are local businesses
That might explain the difference of perspective here. Most people call other people on their phones, not just businesses.
At least according to the FCC, number portability was intended to allow moving between service providers. If you move across the country, there's no guarantee you'll be able to keep that number if you initiate service with another carrier. So in a sense, area codes are "supposed" to be meaningful (even if that's not so true today).
The US (Great Plains Shelterbelt project), China (Great Green Wall, or Three-North Shelter Forest Program), and Russia (Siberia) are precisely the inspirations for this project.
Writing out long variable names while working on a mathematical model is like writing the same text with ten times the number of characters. It's neither elegant nor efficient.
Imagine you're playing around with variables and model configurations in complex mathematical terms, but one formula stretches over two pages and you always need to cross out and rewrite whole words.
It makes sense to use Greek letters for exogenous parameters so that we can use Latin letters for endogenously determined variables. The distinction between capitalized and uncapitalized letters is useful for a similar reason.
Pointernil is referring to the effect when you video conference with someone and they're talking, and looking at the TV screen (ie 'at' the other people). Since the camera is off-centre from the TV, it looks like they're not looking directly at the audience. While it's unintended, it's quite distracting.
The Pico CMS website features an attractive description / value proposition: "Pico is a flat file CMS, this means there is no administration backend and database to deal with. You simply create .md files in the "content" folder and that becomes a page." Perhaps you can add a similar sentence to the Baun website as well?
"No, he was truly outstanding: he was head and shoulders above the rest of the students. He was not only the first, but the gap. I think that he did computer science (after mathematics) mostly because his father didn’t want him to stay in pure mathematics. Loong was not only hardworking, conscientious and professional, but he was also very inventive. All the signs indicated that he would have been a world-class research mathematician."
"I’m sure his father never realized how exceptional Loong was. He thought Loong was very good. No, Loong was much better than that. When I tried to tell Lee Kuan Yew, “Look, your son is phenomenally good: you should encourage him to do mathematics,” then he implied that that was impossible, since as a top-flight professional mathematician Loong would leave Singapore for Princeton, Harvard or Cambridge, and that would send the wrong signal to the people in Singapore. And I have to agree that this was a very good point indeed."
http://therealsingapore.com/content/cambridge-professor-lee-...