Yin and Yang

As seen in Straits Times Forum, surely you jest Ms Wee?

THE population dearth is indeed a desperate situation which requires desperate measures. Are Singaporeans prepared to face the desperate truth, which is that the Singapore identity and culture that we were debating not long ago is fast becoming extinct? In recent years, Singapore has had to 'fake' its population by opening the floodgates to foreigners.

I agree with Mr Thomas Ling ('Tackle the problem not the symptoms', Aug 20) that upping financial incentives and maternity, paternity or childcare leave is barking up the wrong tree. This illustrates the adage that money cannot buy everything. Much reflection is needed on attitudes to life, career and relationships.

For one thing, young women today are almost totally lacking in fu dao (the way of women), a Confucian ethic. According to Confucius, 'a woman should serve her family first and herself last'. Young women today are too arrogant, too loud and don't even know how to sit properly. It makes one wonder about their parents and shudder at the thought of them becoming mothers.

Give the men a break. Changing nappies is a woman's job. Men are made for greater things than this. You wouldn't ask a woman to carry a tonne of bricks, would you? Girls have to be taught their domestic duties and women have to be more hardworking at home. Girls should not grow up thinking the home is not their responsibility.

It is best for women to sacrifice a few years of their working life to nurture their families. Men, too, should be made more accountable on their role as breadwinners. This will create a win-win situation for all parties, including employers and children.

Our neighbourhoods are cold these days because of the absence of chatting mothers and mingling children.

In Chinese philosophy, women are yin and men are yang. They are complementary but not equal. When their energies are not balanced, there is disharmony.

A country that was built on Confucian ethics should perhaps rebuild on Confucian ethics. Unfortunately, this will not create the instant results we need. However, whatever is worth having will not come easily.

Jennifer Wee (Ms)

Mini-me

To those who do not know yet - I have a baby, and he's due in December.

But I have to confess - I have been keeping a secret. I really want to name him "Evil", and get him to pursue some doctorate or medical degree. So that he can be officially called Dr Evil.

_sigh_

Why is it the wife always gets veto-rights?

Seriously brain-dead way to round off numbers in Python

import decimal
def Round(value, precision = 3):
  return float(str(
       decimal.Decimal(str(value)).quantize(decimal.Decimal("1") 
           / (decimal.Decimal('1' + '0' * precision)), decimal.ROUND_HALF_UP)))

Computer Go Advances

A professional 8-dan player has been defeated by MoGo, a computer Go program that uses Monte Carlo tree search algorithms, in a 9-stone handicap game on a 19x19 board. [usgo.org] [slashdot.org]

This represents a major milestone in computer Go, and is also, evidence that the Monte Carlo tree search algorithm is a viable search technique that works in high branching factor domains. In my honest opinion, the budding graduate student in computer games research can easily find applications of this technique in emerging problems which are unsolvable by traditional techniques.

Think RTS, think war games, think huge risk mitigation situations like epidemic simulations. sigh I had a research proposal rejected a year ago based on this concept, and, as a result, made me switch from academic research to industry.