i had earlier signed up for this NIE program with some apprehension that i might be making a mistake, all because of adverse comments from several people and favorable comments from a few others.

Much to my pleasant surprise though, the instructors of two core modules this semester turn out to be pretty good ones so far. Have been enjoying myself so much that i wish i had signed up one or two years ago.

What is Truth? When does one trust the comments of others? More pertinent questions perhaps are: Who are these ‘commentators’? Could they have different experiences, preferences, hidden agenda or other reasons that only God knows? Anyway, a group is usually only as good as its leaders and members who can come and go. Even a person can have his better and worse moments in a day. i can testify to this.

Posted by: tree#138680 on Tue Jan 27 04 3:30 pm

—

What is Truth? (Adapted from Why did the Chicken cross the road? and More… Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?):

Kindergarten teacher:
To get to the other side.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

Bill Clinton:
I’ve met so many chicks. I can’t remember.

BILL GATES:
eChicken2003 will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, balance your checkbook – and internet explorer is an integral part of eChicken.

COLONEL SAUNDERS:
Did I miss one?

Darwin:
Chickens over great periods of time have been naturally selected in such a way that they are genetically disposed to cross the roads.

Deng Xiao Ping:
A chicken that crosses the road is a good chicken regardless of whether it is a black or white chicken.

EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

FREUD:
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.

Lee Kuan Yew:
Every chicken should be given the opportunity to realise its full potential to cross the road. The brightest chickens should lead.

Machiavelli:
The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why?? The end of the crossing justifies whatever the motive there was.

Mah Bow Tan:
The chickens must pay before they use the roads.

Mahathir:
We let our own ethnic chickens which are slower cross the road first.

MARX:
It was an historic inevitability.

Philip Yeo:
All chickens have a MORAL responsibility to cross the road. If they don’t, we’ll name them.

SAEED AL SAHAF (Iraqi information minister):
The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We don’t even have a chicken.

Teo Chee Hean:
We have taught the chicken to think for itself and to cross the road in the most effective way.

TONY BLAIR:
I agree with George.

—
Posted by: tree#138680 on Wed Jan 28 04 4:25 pm

Latest… Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?:

ON A YAHOO! MESSAGE BOARD (after ChannelNewsAsia reported that Singapore’s Ministry of Health has issued a cautionary note to report all bird flu cases):
“Bird flu hits Singapore.”

ALISTAIR CAMPBELL (former British Prime Minister director of communications, after a recent Hutton report called a BBC report unfounded and its editorial system “defective” for allowing the report to air. In a radio report, BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan accused the British government of “sexing up” intelligence in a dossier on Iraqi weapons to justify going to war. British arms expert David Kelly killed himself after he was revealed as the journalist’s source.):
“What the report shows very clearly is the Prime Minister told the truth, the government told the truth, I told the truth. The BBC, from the chairman and the director-general on down, did not.”

NYDIA GONZALEZ (duty officer at operations centre, after a four-minute taped portion of an operation centre call played at a court hearing revealed that flight attendant Betty Ong sounded calm and professional beyond reason during a 23-minute telephone call to the operations centre just before the Boeing 767 she was in slammed into one of the World Trade Centre towers.):
“Media accounts claimed that Betty was hysterical with fear… those accounts were wrong.”

THAKSIN (Thai premier, after initially denying and later confirming the existence of bird flu in Thailand):
“It’s a s****-up, not a cover-up.”

Posted by: tree#138680 on Thu Jan 29 04 10:42 am