Hi guys, in case you have been unable to read Chinese words in the SMB. I will be teaching you how to do so in this post. For Internet Explorer 7 users, first press Alt. to bring up the menu bar, then click on "View". A drop-down list will appear and you should place your cursor over "Encoding". Alternatively, you could just right-click on any blank area in your open browser window, then select "Encoding". Click on "more" and this a long of list of encodings will appear. You should be able to see "Chinese Simplified (HZ)". Click on it and refresh the page. Your browser should be able to detect Chinese characters now.
For Mozilla Firefox 3 users, it is the same, except that after you are done selecting the encoding, you should also click on "Auto Detect", then "Chinese". After this, Firefox will be able to view Chinese characters.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Elements Song
Sorry, in the previous post I have embedded the wrong video. It was supposed to be this one instead:
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Elements song
Hi everyone, I shall be telling you a little bit more about Tom Lehrer and the Elements Song.
Tom Lehrer was born in New York City in American and was a talented pianist and a mathematics teacher. He was part of a Jewish-American family and he showed great interest in music at a young age.
After graduating from high school, he went on to study mathematics at Harvard and eventually got himself a degree in math in 1947.
He wrote the Elements Song in 1959 and the song contained all the elements which were discovered at that time; it had up till nobelium. The song was not written in order of the elements in the Periodic Table, but rather in a way such that it went with the tune of the song.
After the song was written, it became rather popular and it was even sung in a talent show. Here is the video recorded and posted on YouTube:
I copied the lyrics for your reference:
There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium, (gasp)
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.
There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium, (gasp)
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Hahvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discahvered.
Tom Lehrer was born in New York City in American and was a talented pianist and a mathematics teacher. He was part of a Jewish-American family and he showed great interest in music at a young age.
After graduating from high school, he went on to study mathematics at Harvard and eventually got himself a degree in math in 1947.
He wrote the Elements Song in 1959 and the song contained all the elements which were discovered at that time; it had up till nobelium. The song was not written in order of the elements in the Periodic Table, but rather in a way such that it went with the tune of the song.
After the song was written, it became rather popular and it was even sung in a talent show. Here is the video recorded and posted on YouTube:
I copied the lyrics for your reference:
There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium, (gasp)
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.
There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium, (gasp)
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Hahvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discahvered.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
NPCC Bronze Proficiency Badge Test
Yesterday, I had something different during my CCA. Instead of foot drills, we had a test instead. I was not too prepared for it as my senior just emailed me on Wednesday night.
In the email, he said that the content tested only included the five aspects of Total Defence, national symbols, national pledge, Singapore's history before WWII, and nation building after WWII. But in the test, I was also assessed on my knowledge of the Japanese Occupation. I had to depend purely on my memory for this part of the test.
Before the test, I was rather nervous as I did not revise sufficiently for the test. I had only memorised the five aspects of Total Defence, the national pledge and national symbols. I still had Singapore's history to go through, which was making me panic quite a lot. I revised as much as I could until it was time to assemble at SALT Centre.
The squad was brought to the NPCC activity rooms and the test began. I flipped through and discovered that it only had 50 MCQ questions. Most of them were rather easy, and some had really ridiculous answers.
e.g.
What can an aggressor potentially do to Singapore?
a. Cause racial and religious tension by exploiting the fact that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious country
b. Make Singaporeans lose confidence in their defence
c. Kidnap the country's citizens to a faraway place
Option C is obviously wrong so the answer was options A and B only.
What was the wartime currency used in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation?
a. Papaya money
b. Yen
c. Banana money
The answer is C.
I am quite confident that I can pass the test and attain Bronze as the passing mark is 70%, which means that I can have 15 wrong answers.
In the email, he said that the content tested only included the five aspects of Total Defence, national symbols, national pledge, Singapore's history before WWII, and nation building after WWII. But in the test, I was also assessed on my knowledge of the Japanese Occupation. I had to depend purely on my memory for this part of the test.
Before the test, I was rather nervous as I did not revise sufficiently for the test. I had only memorised the five aspects of Total Defence, the national pledge and national symbols. I still had Singapore's history to go through, which was making me panic quite a lot. I revised as much as I could until it was time to assemble at SALT Centre.
The squad was brought to the NPCC activity rooms and the test began. I flipped through and discovered that it only had 50 MCQ questions. Most of them were rather easy, and some had really ridiculous answers.
e.g.
What can an aggressor potentially do to Singapore?
a. Cause racial and religious tension by exploiting the fact that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious country
b. Make Singaporeans lose confidence in their defence
c. Kidnap the country's citizens to a faraway place
Option C is obviously wrong so the answer was options A and B only.
What was the wartime currency used in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation?
a. Papaya money
b. Yen
c. Banana money
The answer is C.
I am quite confident that I can pass the test and attain Bronze as the passing mark is 70%, which means that I can have 15 wrong answers.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
NPCC CIP
Hi again, everyone. Yesterday, NPCC organised a CIP activity for the whole sec. one squad. We assembled at SALT centre at 9.15 a.m. and proceeded to Clementi at 9.30 a.m. for the activity. Our task is to let the residents in Clementi be more aware of saving water. We split into groups of threes and were given brochures and pamphlets. Each group was assigned to one person from the PUB. The PUB officer was to install thimbles (round pieces of silica gel) on to the water taps while we tell the residents tips on how to save water.
We went to the first household and it was a small Malay family. The PUB officer turned on the tap and saw that the water was flowing out at a high rate. Using his spanner, he loosened the head of the tap and removed a small circular piece of rubber, replacing it with a thimble. When he turned on the tap again, this time a light jet of water shot out. Satisfied, he went to the bathroom tap. He did the same and soon every tap in the house had a thimble installed. The owner of the house seemed to a little unhappy with the change and asked the PUB officer a few questions in Malay. The officer answered the questions and seemed to tell him that, with thimbles installed on his taps, he would be able to save lots of water and money. We left and went on to the next household.
We visited a total of about 15 houses and about 11 allowed us in. The remaining 4 either did not answer the door or refused to let the PUB officer install thimbles on their taps.
At about 1.00 p.m., we were dismissed.
I feel that it had been an enriching experience and I have learnt things which I did not know about before. I got to know about tips on how to save water and how to install a thimble on to my tap if the need arises.
We went to the first household and it was a small Malay family. The PUB officer turned on the tap and saw that the water was flowing out at a high rate. Using his spanner, he loosened the head of the tap and removed a small circular piece of rubber, replacing it with a thimble. When he turned on the tap again, this time a light jet of water shot out. Satisfied, he went to the bathroom tap. He did the same and soon every tap in the house had a thimble installed. The owner of the house seemed to a little unhappy with the change and asked the PUB officer a few questions in Malay. The officer answered the questions and seemed to tell him that, with thimbles installed on his taps, he would be able to save lots of water and money. We left and went on to the next household.
We visited a total of about 15 houses and about 11 allowed us in. The remaining 4 either did not answer the door or refused to let the PUB officer install thimbles on their taps.
At about 1.00 p.m., we were dismissed.
I feel that it had been an enriching experience and I have learnt things which I did not know about before. I got to know about tips on how to save water and how to install a thimble on to my tap if the need arises.
Monday, March 23, 2009
March holidays
Hi, everyone. This is my first post and you shall listen to my side of the story for the March holidays. I will begin my post with the most interesting event, the 90th Anniversary celebration, which took place during the one-week holiday.
On Saturday, there was the 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner. The function began at 7.30 p.m. and extended well into the night. It was a huge celebration - more than 10000 people attended the dinner, and I was one of those who turned up on HCI''s sports field that day.
When I arrived, I saw that the clock tower had lights placed at the foot of it and it turned a different shade of colour every few seconds. It was definitely a feast for the eyes and my impressed mother took many pictures of it.
At around 7.00 p.m., guests were told to take their seats and there was the singing of the school song. Food was then served up immediately after that. I found a pink bun, raw fish, sushi and a red ball of meat which was actually a baby octopus on my plate. All of them tasted fantastic. Then, we had shark fin's soup, roasted duck meat and another soup which contained vegetables, prawns and sea cucumbers. While we were allowing the food to grace our taste buds, the chinese orchestra, string orchestra, school band and choir went on stage to perform. I spotted CJ and Wei Yang during the singing of "满江红". The musical groups certainly have both talented voices and skill with their musical instruments.
Sadly, I had to leave at around 10 because I had something urgent going on at home. I left with regret (at not being able to have the fish and dessert) and on my way out, I saw shuttle buses waiting in the school. A bit puzzled, I read Ziying's blog and found out that they were to transport the people at the dinner to Turf City where all their private cars were parked. As I have left early, I was not caught in the jam along BT road.
The Gala Dinner was excellent and everyone who turned up for it was well-fed afterwards. It was pity that many of my classmates did not attend it.
Other than the celebrations, there was the homework, as usual. All the holiday homework that we had was essentially Chinese and Science. The Science worksheets were quite easy to complete but I took a longer to time to complete the Chinese worksheet.
That was basically what I did during the holidays, and I shall end my post here. Bye, folks!
-Shilin
On Saturday, there was the 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner. The function began at 7.30 p.m. and extended well into the night. It was a huge celebration - more than 10000 people attended the dinner, and I was one of those who turned up on HCI''s sports field that day.
When I arrived, I saw that the clock tower had lights placed at the foot of it and it turned a different shade of colour every few seconds. It was definitely a feast for the eyes and my impressed mother took many pictures of it.
At around 7.00 p.m., guests were told to take their seats and there was the singing of the school song. Food was then served up immediately after that. I found a pink bun, raw fish, sushi and a red ball of meat which was actually a baby octopus on my plate. All of them tasted fantastic. Then, we had shark fin's soup, roasted duck meat and another soup which contained vegetables, prawns and sea cucumbers. While we were allowing the food to grace our taste buds, the chinese orchestra, string orchestra, school band and choir went on stage to perform. I spotted CJ and Wei Yang during the singing of "满江红". The musical groups certainly have both talented voices and skill with their musical instruments.
Sadly, I had to leave at around 10 because I had something urgent going on at home. I left with regret (at not being able to have the fish and dessert) and on my way out, I saw shuttle buses waiting in the school. A bit puzzled, I read Ziying's blog and found out that they were to transport the people at the dinner to Turf City where all their private cars were parked. As I have left early, I was not caught in the jam along BT road.
The Gala Dinner was excellent and everyone who turned up for it was well-fed afterwards. It was pity that many of my classmates did not attend it.
Other than the celebrations, there was the homework, as usual. All the holiday homework that we had was essentially Chinese and Science. The Science worksheets were quite easy to complete but I took a longer to time to complete the Chinese worksheet.
That was basically what I did during the holidays, and I shall end my post here. Bye, folks!
-Shilin
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