6 months alr..

Sighz, been sometime since I updated about life.. Well, there's gonna be another ops soon with another infantry regiment. Haiz, there's 1 more month of slave driving. Plus another weekend burn. Zzz.. on that particular weekend too..

How to describe leh.. Life's can be considered slack, relative what other guys in other units are experiencing. But that said, its more 'shiong' than outside civilian life. Its stupid in my opinion, if you got something to say to everybody, and that everybody is there, but you just simply have to appoint one 'IC' and whisper to him what you want to say, and then get him to reconvey the message. But then, its the bureaucratic structure.

Or how we when we see anybody approach, the first thing that we look at is the beret colour, followed by the collar(to see if the word 'Singapura' is there, and how many 'crabs' or 'bars'), followed finally by the sleeves, by the stripes. Higher ranking ppl, must shrink away and remain as low profile as possible. All of us are well-practised with the familiar upwards flick of the eyes, followed by the quick downward sweep, and stop finally on the floor, pretending that you've never seen anything.

Or how we got to drink at least half a litre of water, after dinner. Or how we gotta run in a group, under the pretense it helps everyone to improve. -_-. This programme got as much chance of prospering as the command economy under Stalin/Lenin.

But on happier note, at least I can do 3(!!!) pull-ups now. Soo gratifying. Thanks man to ppl out there who have encouraged me, pushed me, trained me in one way or the another. Definitely, my sergeant would claim credit for having produced a 'student' that improved within 1 week of going to the gym. But I know better. Its not the last blow that finally cracked the stone, but the accumulation of all the hundreds of hammering that have gone before. So, thx Mr. Lee.. If you happen to read this, that is. Passing IPPT seems to be in reach finally. All that remains is for divine miracles to point the way to allow me to jump further and let me pass finally.

Political instability <-- Govt. intervention in markets

The woes of governments faced with frequent strikes and riots, complaints and political instability, is one that stems essentially with a government policy of meddling in the economy.

Certainly, for various reasons, governments try to interfere with the workings of the economy, be it to correct market failure, or simply a politically attractive move to gain more power and support. But governments frequently fail to consider that there are very little things in life that only affect 2 people engaged in a trade. Choices made often affect some other third party. In this case, what about government failure?

In trying to meddle with the economy, the government has also taken on the responsibility for scenario of failure. People will blame the government if things go wrong. We are certainly a bunch of people who loves to complain alot. The government simply can control so many things. Consider if the government has one less job to do, that is, the trouble of trying to correct the market. Essentially, allow the free market to work on its own. Nothing is ever perfect, nor utopian. Certainly, mistakes will be made, pain will occur, suffering will occur. But that will be the most optimal level given that the market is allowed to work on its own, and the government simply provides the rule of law, and the enforcement of privacy.

Never seen God interfere to prevent us from sufferings and pain.

101th post

Hoho, I just realised that my previous post was the the 100th post! Woot!

Ok, that aside, just a technical idea, if electrostatic motors work by converting dc high voltage to mechanical rotation action, then surely the reverse should be able to occur: an electrostatic generator, using mechanical work to generate DC high voltage. Such devices definitely exist, but are largely ignored by people because of the Age of AC current generation, with the use of motors primarily driven by magnets.

But there is still hope for a world partially powered by both DC and AC. Because nowadays, quite a few alternative means to output DC type of electricity. Besides, there is the recent discovery of super ultra capacitors, with a lot more capacity. Such capacitors look set to replace batteries, because batteries are expensive, are toxic stuff, and don't last very long. While capacitors are easier to charge and use. I think it is very possible for a country running on a main grid of AC generator, with a whole host of smaller DC generators, to supplement.

For one, portable devices require DC. Nowadays, we need a lot of juice to power our high tech portable devices. A few hours is not enough. We want them to last as long as possible without having to frequently recharge. Perhaps we can once again tap on the combination of capacitors and electrostatic generators to run our devices.

The evils of inflation

Not so very long ago, I learned that demand-pull inflation was the result of the aggregate demand of an economy rising. At least according to Keynesian theory. With the many parts of world now experiencing inflation, it is a good time now to see if its a demand-pull inflation or a cost push inflation.

According to the definition of demand pull inflation, if there is a general rise in demand of all the goods in an economy. Now how can that be? Usually, given a fixed income, if you demand more of one good, you need to give some of other goods. So the only case where this is violated is when everybody, at least on average, has higher income than before. Higher average income?? That implies that there should be more money circulating in the economy? Consider the case of a 'mini economy' of 2 persons, A and B. A has $2 in his hands, B has none. B just made some nice clay pots that A likes. A pays B $1 to buy 1 pot. B notices that A has some excess food that he needs. B pays A $1 to buy some food. Lets say one day, A suddenly fancies B's pots more, and gets 2 pots. To B, B's income has just risen. B goes to A to splurge his money and bought more food. But notice that throughout this whole exchange, even total demand of goods has risen(now A buys $2 worth of pots, and B buys $2 worth of food), there is no way inflation can be occurring here. If B raises the price of his pots, A will have to cut back buying of pots. We can generalise this case further to an economy with more people and more goods in it, and notice that if quantity of money does not increase, its hard to see how a rise in demand of all goods can lead to general price level rising. Money supply must be rising for demand pull inflation to occur. Also an inflation in one country and spread to another, since currencies of different countries is interchangeable to buy goods of different countries.

Cost push inflation is another thing, and that's for future post to say.

Bad policies

Sighs.. why can't I just be a driver.. gotta go for a operators' maintenance course next week, and that means they are teaching me how to be a better mechanic when it comes to servicing the armored vehicle. Ok, I hope it is not too a dirty job, I certainly don't envy the hands of those professional mechanics.. but the physics to be learnt maybe interesting. Sighs, its like 6 months since the start of my service to the government, still got 3 6 months duration to go. Other people are definitely getting a more fruitful life out there, socialising with people. In here, what's there much to socialise? The hierarchy of ranks is heavy, a flatter organisational structure with people working more like a team would be better.

Moving to another home soon, to some EC known as La Casa; basically still remaining in the same region: Woodlands. Well, when the renovation is over after July I think you people are free to come over, something like that, when I'm free enough, say during my longer breaks.

On a more serious note, looking at the newspapers these days, people are complaining everywhere about price hikes. People in Malaysia and Indonesia are close to rioting. Why don't they understand that the move is necessary? I think if the government was more open in explaining why, people might be able to understand. But the thing is, I think the media is not reporting the right thing. People must be under the impression that the government has plenty of money to support fuel subsidies. I'm not clear about the taxation structure in these countries, but maybe the feeling is that the citizens are already paying alot in terms of taxes and public utility bills, so why shouldn't the government continue to pay for them?

The government should not have in the first place implemented fuel subsidies. People become dependent on cheap fuel, and when prices suddenly increase they are 'not used to it'. It is understandable that energy is crucial to the economic functioning and growth of a nation. Subsequently, for a poor nation to consume expensive fuel.. well, its hard. Therefore, a poor nation remains poor because it simply cannot consume the energy that it needs that is required for economic activities.

Well, fuel is definitely expensive. But then again, many things are expensive, like so many of the capital the firms need to use. So what to these firms do? They raise money from other people who do have the money, by promising to repay them a percentage of future profits. Other countries can loan money to allow poor countries to buy expensive fuel to good use. A percentage of future national income is remitted back to the countries whom have invested in these poor countries. If a country squanders its loan through corruption, then that government has no business to remain on the international stage.

Sadly its up to these governments to ask for loans. If they want to implement things like a fuel subsidy, well, its only a matter of time before the whole thing collapse and they are pushed out from the system by disgruntled citizens, at great cost like riots. Its high time that governments understand that theirs is the hardest job in economy, for they have to guard the interests of a whole nation. The best way to do this, is to compete of international basis. Laissez-faire.

IQ test.. hmm

The Super IQ Test

My Result: Complex Intellectual

People who are Complex Intellectuals are highly intelligent and have extraordinarily strong verbal and math skills. Compared to others they are highly conceptual and complex thinkers and are able to understand information in an abstract form. They also show great attention to detail. In fact, it's hard to find something they're not good at.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=superiqogt&c=50652

Lol.. my my, " hard to find something that your're not good at" ... I'll i can find plenty, non-intellectual stuff that I cant do.. This website rates me with IQ 126.

Leaders

I think I have perfected the arguments for the ineffectiveness of command system in the army.

The best sort of discipline is self-discipline. That is, without being told, one practices self-restraint. Clearly, for anyone to do anything without being told, he must be believe what he is doing, and is willing to do what he is about to do. Therefore, the way to do this, would be to persuade people about your ideals, and vision.

You can of course, impose your will upon others through force. But what would that achieve. People will never be convinced of your ideas. To follow you, they must have reason to do so. For they are giving up some of their own ideas, their own freedom, to follow yours. If you impose your will on others, then they will only feel resentment. Trust and respect is to be earned, and you earn it by proving it. By sincerity of actions or persuasive arguments, or just pure dangling of incentives infront of others.

When your ideas are the entire peoples' ideas, anybody who tries to fight against you, will not just have to fight you, they will have to fight your ideas. If your peoples' belief in your ideas is firm to begin with, anybody who tries to fight your ideas would have a hard time, for there is a lot of people to persuade otherwise.

If in the first place, your followers never had full belief in your ideas, or were never fully persuaded by you, then you are all that is holding them together, either by force or by circumstances. Clearly, such a following is weak; all the enemy have to do is to target you. If you fall, the entire group falls. But if you had fully persuaded everyone about your ideas, the enemy would find that targeting you the leader is not enough. For another one would step forward to continue your ideas. And another, and another.

The art of leadership? Sincerity of actions, and your ability to persuade. Surely there natural leaders, born with the gift to easily persuade people, or just do great things. For the rest of us, we will have to train it ourselves. I am certain your average command school does not teach you this.