Gators won. So what? Buckeyes lost. Great - that's a better news. At least it wipes some disappointments over Wolverines' defeat in the Rose Bowl.
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
the champions of the West!
Go Blue!
(listen to the Victors)
A recent research by a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Indonesia's Public Health Department discovered that five out of one hundred high school students in Jakarta have had sex.
The research surveyed 8941 students from 119 high schools, or equivalent, in Jakarta. It grouped sexual behaviors into eleven categories: sex (I assume sexual intercourse), oral sex, petting, and eight other categories which include chatting and hugging. The survey results for the most interesting categories are as follows -- behavior (% female / % male / % total): sexual intercourse (1.8 / 4.3 / 3.2), oral sex (1.8 / 4.5 / 3.3), petting (2.2 / 6.5 / 4.5)
Here's what I found interesting; please help me understand the statistics.
First, what it means by sex is not clear. (What's not clear about sex, c'mon!) Where does the 5 out of 100 figure come from? My best bet is only when sex here is defined as both sexual intercourse as well as oral sex.
Since 3.2% of the respondents does sexual intercourse, thus there is 1.8% who does only oral sex. This means 1.5% of those doing oral sex also does sexual intercourse. So far so good. But then it also indicates that there is 1.7% respondents who does sexual intercourse (more than 50% of them) without having oral sex. This can mean three things: the definition is not correct, my argument is flawed, or these kids are having a boring life!
Second, the proportion of male-female. Taking a big assumption that the respondents are split evenly 50-50 between males and females, I can argue from the study, referring to the population surveyed, that there are more "active" male students than their female counterparts.
However, it could be that: (1) the female students who have sex are doing so with more than one male student partners, or (2) the male students have sex with not only female students (perhaps with "tante"), or (3) there have been survey errors, from both males and females (e.g. courtesy bias, prestige seeking, social desirability response bias)
The newspaper/reporter should've done a better job explaining this. But I think in Indonesia we still lack individuals with good knowledge in statistics and/or market research. Reporters or politicians can easily swing a survey to the direction they want -- intentionally or unintentionally.
Nevertheless, a good research. We probably are more interested in knowing what the 119 schools are...
Another new year's eve celebration in KL. This time, though, it got closer to the twin towers. Still in an apartment, yet better food and champagne.
Late posting -- pictures just uploaded...
While doing my 2004 summer internship in Jacksonville, Florida, my colleague shared her passion and belief about cashless society: all monetary transactions should be done with "plastic".
My experience of not carrying cash in the U.S. was good. Most shops and services accept credit cards, brick-and-mortar as well as online. Colleges and universities also promote this idea by consolidating everything into the student cards. Getting a credit card is also easy, for good and bad.
Experience in Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, however, hasn't been that good. Many shops still don't accept credit card - mostly the traditional shops and services, which are a lot in these countries. Even some big stores - electronics, watches, etc. - charge the interchange (or merchant service) fee, about 2-3% to customers.
Credit card thefts, or frauds, also seem to be more frequent in these two countries. Although I have no data, I have more friends worrying about using their credit cards or doing online transactions here in Malaysia and Indonesia. Perhaps it's the not-yet-matured infrastructure that gives more rooms for crimes.
I once was a victim of credit card fraud in the U.S. But my experience dealing with the bank to cancel the transaction was so much easier than dealing with renewing my credit card here in Malaysia. It could be the bank, but definitely it's the customer service problem in Asia.
It seems to me that the main 'challenge' to cashless society in Indonesia or Malaysia is culture. Business owners still prefer cash, hard cash. Though true, cash is king, I'd still assume that accepting credit cards brings other benefits. Despite the charges and risk of fraud, a merchant should be entitled to these benefits: potential sales increase, cash security (by not storing much cash in the store), financial management, etc.
I ain't working for bank nor am I an employee of Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc. I just don't like to have a thick wallet. I'm a supporter of cashless society.
There goes another bombing in the neighborhood. Now it's Thailand to join Indonesia and the Philippines. That leaves Singapore and Malaysia in the Southeast Asia region. Are they afraid?
More than three-quarters of Singaporeans are, but only less than 60% Malaysians are, as a recent survey shows. The survey, based on 59,000 interviews in 63 countries, was conducted by market information consultant TNS and market and opinion researcher Gallup International. The interviews were conducted between July 24 and August 22, 2006.
Specifically, out of the 1,250 urban Malaysians polled, 59% said in face-to-face interviews that they believed terrorism was a threat. This ranking was, however, among the lowest of the 12 Asia Pacific countries surveyed. Only Hongkong (43%) and Taiwan (45%) registered lesser sense of fear than Malaysia did.
In the region, Indonesians registered the highest level of fear of terrorism at 89%, followed by Thailand (82%), Singapore (78%), Japan (71%), Korea (71%), the Philippines (71%), and Vietnam (61%).
So Thai people's fear was justified. Which then makes it sensible for the Singaporeans to be afraid as well. They live among the countries attacked by terrorism.
It means no worries for the rest of your days.
It's our problem-free philosophy...
- Timon and Pumba
The words themselves are Swahili phrase which means, guess what, "no worries". Not much on the words or the language, but more the philosophy getting into 2007 -- that we probably should take it easy and enjoy more. It's probably easier said than done as many times what we want are different from what others want. Or in professional environment, not aligned.
When we take everything too seriously and too single-mindedly, it won't be a beautiful year. And we may end up having this new year's wish - a friend's favorite:
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the ass of the person who screw up your year and may his arms grow too short to scratch it! Happy new year!"
Now moved back again to blogger. Lost some comments - all of them, actually. But this seems to be easier to manage, and I seem to be having more time to write... How could that be?
[Read more...]The 2006 BW ranking is out some time ago - I was just told by my former classmate. Duke is back to top 10! :)
Here are the top 30 in the U.S.
2 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
5 University of Michigan (Ross)
13 Cornell University (Johnson)
14 NYU (Stern)
15 University of Virginia (Darden)
17 UNC - Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
18 Indiana University (Kelley)
21 University of Southern California (Marshall)
22 Georgetown University (McDonough)
23 Emory University (Goizueta)
24 Purdue University (Krannert)
25 University of Maryland (Smith)
26 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
27 Washington University (Olin)
29 Michigan State University (Broad)
30 Vanderbilt University (Owen)
4 IMD
6 INSEAD
7 ESADE
8 IESE
[Read more...]There are many Yahoo! fantasy footballers with "[TT]" in their team names, including some of the best teams (i.e. top 50). Well, TT stands for Team Talk. It's a website forum where "experts" in fantasy football share their opinions. The rest, like me, would just try to digest these opinions and get the best out of it.
Teamtalk was created with the intention of providing a comfortable place for people with a common interest in Fantasy Football, Primarily (but not exclusively) Yahoo Fantasy Football and Football itself to meet, exchange ideas, share information and enjoy each other's company.
It has two types of memberships: regular and Elite. As an Elite member (which I'm not), you can get the access to the TT Elite forum, estimate team points using BBC stats, plan ahead with access to simple YFF schedules, and many more.
The rest of the forums are pretty similar to what people throw in YFF, except TT manages the forum much better. This includes fixture information, team news, suspensions & injuries, etc.
What a busy few weeks has it been in Indonesia. First there is AA Gym, a famous religious leader who ate his own words and married his second wife. Well, he just got more famous, especially among the husbands.
Then Yahya Zaini and Maria Eva. The earlier one is the head of the biggest political party's religious affair committee. The latter one is simply a bitch, who sings, fucks, and holds evidence, such as movies from cell phone camera, for ransom.
Earlier, it was the kid who died of, presumably, some wrestling actions. Smackdown, or smekdon, as people call it.
And even earlier than that (I can't remember more than this), was Bush's visit. Yes, that freakin' arrogant Dubya. It took billions of rupiah for the Indonesian government to prepare for his visit - safety, traffic detour, and thousands of policemen.
