Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Wallaby was better than expected. I guess what's most unexpected about it is the learning experience that it provided us(or rather me). Most of the signallers will beg to differ on the point that 3 weeks in a dusty(it turned a green tank brown), hot(nearly 35 in the day), cold(10 on certain nights, with the occasional hailstorm) and remote(3 hour drive from the nearest town) place is worth the while. But well, how often will u see a Armored Battle Group fighting and closing on a target with support from both the air elements(F-16) and artillery(Primus)? Well, I guess Yossarian's quote from Catch-22 can thus be rephrased 'Its bad, but it could be a whole lot worse!'
This is a by-the-way note. Notice how many seem to complain that time seem to pass so slowly in army, while at the end of it they say that time flies? Or something to the effect of its boring while you are at it, but you will find it rewarding at the end? My hypothesis on this is because when u are serving you are really not doing anything of value for the brain to absorb and pick up. Wasting your life away in some remote bunk in some remote camp in some remote part of this remote island, you learn nothing of value and produce nothing of interest. Thus time past slowly. However, on looking back, there is no 'bookmark' so to speak. The brain thinks of these 2 years and all of it is a blur of nothing-ness, no need knowledge, little new skills. So there a theory for a day.
3:50 AM
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
| adopt your own virtual pet! |
1:23 AM
9V-SMA (cn 24061/717) (Del 3/89) ex/N5573B., ANOTHER FIRST FOR SQ- Chartered into Rockhampton QLD for "Military Exercise Operation Wallaby 2000" from late October 2000 to Mid December 2000. "9V-SMA was the very "FIRST" Heavy ever to land @ Rockhampton" as the main runway 15/33 has been extended.
1:04 AM
Just read a couple of pretty interesting books these couple of months since the last update. These includes:
1) Freakonomics
2) Armchair Economist
3) Tipping Point
The first 2 books are really about the application of a very recent school of economic thought, the rational expectionist, to everyday behavior, both on a mirco and macro scale. The Armchair Economist is especially vehement about the truth behind rational expectionism. For example, he asserts that a fresh air or low crime in a certain neighborhood do not make the lives of residents any better as the residents are paying for such premiums. Any change in crime will automatically and very rapidly lead to a change in price of rent. This is not an unreasonable line of logic, indeed all schools of economic thought point in the same direction. The question is how fast will the price change to reflect real changes in environment. I personally believe that with greater information accessibility via the internet and a more transparent press, the general direction is towards faster clearing of the markets, but not at the speed approaching that which the rational expectionist are proposing.
Freakonomics takes a less extreme view and indeed is not really economics at all, merely the applications of some economic theory to everyday life. Dealing with a myriad of issues from how the money supply is altered when you decide to throw a $10 bill into the river, to how cost and benefit analyst can be used to choose a name for your child. A kind of Bohemian approach to economist that serves to demystify and popularize the subject which to find answers today for yesterday's problems.
The last book, Tipping Point is abit of an oddity. Highly popular and I would assume, widely read, it offers a different view to how ideas are spread and takes root in society. While the trends seems to be plausible, Malcolm Galdwell's arguments do not seem to when put together. With a supposed 3-prong approach to how ideas are spread like epidemics, he never really get to the point of how the 3 approaches works in real life, always repeating the same paragraph, almost word for word each time. Repetition do not make an argument, resulting a promising proposal and an unsatisfying conclusion.
12:19 AM
