To specialise or not to specialise

Over 500 people, probably including you, have read the previous post in the last four days. If you’ve joined in the dialogue, you’ll be glad to know that the schools have been following the post and they’ve been reading the comments. Let’s continue airing our views and tell them what we students think.

Duplication of courses: Why, and why not

The latest issue of npTribune (downloadable PDF) highlights a disturbing trend of new courses being set up apparently without much consultation from students in current courses. I think this is big - because it also affects the Singapore media in the coming years, and is not just a petty political issue within Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Note: The views expressed in my commentary following are my own and may not neccessarily be the opinion of the School of Film & Media Studies (which I study at), nor npTribune (the polytechnic’s newspaper which I will be editing from next semester).

new paper redesigns: Not too new after all?

Yeah, nice colours. But it really doesn't matter as much as their forever-one-day-old website.

I picked up a copy of the new the new paper (confusing?) yesterday, and another today. That means I’ll review the redesign it in a week when I’ve collected a week’s worth of new old papers.

In short, the redesign’s great - uncluttered, sticks to just three fonts (of which one is definitely Helvetica - the nameplate’s now Helvetica Neue Condensed, just like npTribune). I like it. It’s now on par with mypaper’s design.

The Sunday edition was great. They have an index to show how happy Singaporeans are depending on the news each week, and shoutouts, and pull-out quotes are sprinkled all over.

Singapore wins silver: ST loses the game

CNA released this immediately after the score was finalised. Straitstimes.com, however, hasn't updated their "Top Stories" section.

Moments after Singapore wins our first Olympic silver in almost half a century, straitstimes.com misses out on the game - thirty minutes since the announcement, and nothing’s updated on their website. Channelnewsasia, however, filed the story minutes after the result. And CCTV has an in-depth interview about the lives of Lee Jiawei and Feng Tian Wei. Where’s the same in Singapore?

Score: ST 0, CNA 1.

Confounded by time

From the moment you were born, Time has always been there. You just never noticed. She was there when you took your first step, when you sneakily cheated during that Math exam - but she never noticed either. Somewhere during primary school, while sitting cross-legged on a concrete floor, you learnt about her and Clock, her fat, round friend.
- Ruiming

Warning: This blog post will give you a headache. Question: Is time and history linear or cyclical? Discuss.

Was faking it really necessary?

Photo: The Guardian

Word has it that Beijing used some “videotape magic” in its broadcast of the fireworks leading to the National Stadium, according to the Beijing Times as reported by Sky News and MSNBC, an official Olympic Games broadcaster. Although the fireworks really happened, the footage itself was faked and inserted as a VT to ensure that the ‘footsteps’ could be seen clearly on television despite the haze and smog.

“Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter,” said SkyNews.com. “But in reality they were watching a 3-D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce.” 

Update: The voice of the little girl singer was also faked; dubbed over (Guardian).

Watch the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 Opening Ceremony Highlights (Part 1) on MediaCorp Channel 5 tomorrow (Wednesday), 8:30-9:30pm, then Part 2 from 10:00-11:00pm.

Something for the Olympics

I haven’t written about the Olympics yet, so here’s one to do with Beijing.

Beijing Natives (北京土著) by 张伯宏, Chinese folk music in Flash animation. About 90% of the lyrics and the Flash are about the native culture of Beijing reflected in the everyday life, such as the melodic hollers of street vendors, the aroma of jasmine tea in the Siheyuan, the intoxicating bouquet in the Hutong, the Beijing opera and comic dialogues, the food, the drinks, the clothes, the people, etc.

A repeated line, “Beijing Natives are somewhat said,” conveys the Beijing Natives’ nostalgia for their disappearing cultural heritage as the towering buildings replace the city’s old Hutongs.

Now slightly better, but not much

The Straits Times Front Page for August 8, 2008

The Straits Times unveiled its redesign three days ago on August 8. After looking at two days of the new look paper (Sunday Times retained its look), what’s my verdict?

Nothing much changed.

It’s still the same old The Straits Times with a change of clothes. Inside though, everything remains. It still toes the party line (which party you know quite well), and the Review & Forum pages have the same old boring stuff.

The day after, a whole page was dedicated to self-praise, with readers writing in to praise the editor, the colorful pages, and how “interesting” everything looks.

Nothing much really changed. You still have the self-congratulatory writers, and the old mindset: Print Is King.

Advice for Mass Commers

“Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.” That’s Adrian Tan’s advice to NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information graduating students. Part of his speech goes:

Here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Read the whole speech at Mr Wang Says So.

Chicken Sketch

Day 22

Mieke Roth, a professional science illustrator, sketches the first two months of her pet chicken’s life. Check out her detailed drawings.

I have given myself a maximum amount of time I can spend on it: one hour. I don’t use real pen and ink, but the pen and ink equivalent in Painter combined with my Cintiq.

A nice surprise is that I don’t know how this specific chicken will turn out: it is a third generation crossbreed of my Breda fowl and Silki Bantams.

via BoingBoing