Now that 'A' levels are over, some maybe forced to consider their future really hard. If anyone wants to go into the field of finance, here's some gems from the Physics Education Workshop today.
1.) One of the top earners in finance sector is the risk managers. And the requirement to be a risk manager is not a MBA but a first class degree in Physics or Maths.
2.) The jobs most at risk during the recent meltdown are the brokers and bankers. But risk managers job are quite safe because banks still need them to assess risks.
3.) Physicists probably are to be blamed for the meltdown as the complex derivatives could be the results of the many nuclear/high energy physicists plying their trade in the finance sectors.
Of course, this is from one of the Professors giving a speech there... not from me. And is a personal opinion, I'm sure the economist will disagree.
To quote "I can't remember who and I'm too lazy to open my laptop to check", the cool thing about Physics is that when you write down a theorem that agrees with nature, nature will always agree with your theory. The same cannot be said about Economics theory.
Anyway, just google finance physics to see what the web has to say about Physics and finance
P.S. I took a module on Financial Mathematics in NUS and found it interesting, though I never followed up my interest because the subsequent module have their lectures at night since I'm more interested to spend my evenings with my then love interest than monetary interest. But I still have my book on Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by Hull if anyone wants a glimpse of what Maths has to do with Finance. (For Physics, just google Quantum Finance)
This was the big question posed to us in the breakup session for the Physics Education Workshop where Physics educators from Nobel Laureates (yes, 2 of them) to University Lecturers and high school physics teachers come together. This workshop was to address the worrying trend of falling enrollment in Physics across all levels not only in Singapore but in the world. One of the speakers, the former Chief Defence Scientist Prof (BG) Lui shared one gem in the workshop which if I remembered correctly goes something like this.
Our economy was driven by engineers in the past, it will be driven by physicists in the futureThe rationale behind this comment is that Singapore needs to innovate to survive in the future, we can't be followers anymore. And to innovate, we need to be good at our fundamentals, and our fundamentals here is Physics.
So the question posed seemed to be very clear cut in this context. We need to inspire more people to take up Physics, not only in 'O' and 'A' levels, but also in Graduate and post graduate level, and the best person to inspire future generation will be someone who took up Physics in the past hence we need more Physics (trained) teachers. That's clear cut.
Of course, engineer trained teachers can bring in a new perspective and dimension to the education of the students and they are valuable to education. In the interest of students, we will need different role models for them and these are the reasons why engineer trained physics teachers are valuable too. According to estimates from an MOE officer, the ratio is 50:50 for JCs and 30:70 for Secondary. 30% physics trained, 70% engineering trained. The key question is that, is this ratio healthy for the interest of Physics and R&D for Singapore's future?
As an anecdotal experience, the percentage of Physics trained teachers in my school is 0% before I was posted there. There wasn't any good role models for aspiring physics students in the school. So when I was posted there, one student came up to me, upon knowing that I read Physics in university, to talk to me about physics in general, my experience in physics etc. We had many discussions there after, and I'm glad that I may have filled in the position of a role model for him in Physics. Now, I have a few more students approaching me about their passion in Physics, and I do share snippets of my (still ongoing) personal journey as a Physics student in class. The best engineer trained physics teacher can never be fill in this role (though they too can be a role model in engineering).
The second point is that the Physics trained teachers are facing a greying population. In one of the JC, most of the Physics trained teachers are from the older generations while majority of the newly recruited teachers have an engineering background. If we ignore this trend for another decade, the ratio of physics trained teachers will fall even further. Even if we can maintain a 50:50 ratio currently doesn't promise that we can maintain it for the future if Physics enrollment drops. Therefore we will need more Physics trained teachers to maintain a steady ratio physics trained teachers.
Of course, these points are valid if we believe in two things.
1.) That Physics trained teachers are in a better position to inspire students to take up Physics in the future compared to those without Physics background. And
2.) Singapore really need a pool of talent with firm foundation in Physics education to drive the economy of the future.
Prof Lui Pao Chuen, the previous Chief Defence Scientist shared about item 2 and I'm really not in the position to dispute him. As for item 1, let's look at it from another perspective. Jing Jun Hong, our ex-national paddler is now the National coach leading our paddlers to another team victory recently. Joscelin Yeo, our Sports woman of the year for 3 times has her own swimming school after retirement, helping young swimmers pick up her sports. Fandi Ahmad, Singapore's most famous footballer led SAFFC to the S-League champions as a football coach too. They are all passionate in their sports, expert in their sports and are now involved in coaching their sports.
Hence I propose that the best teacher to inspire a new generation of students in Physics are teachers who are passionate about Physics and know Physics best. And chances are that a Physics trained teacher will be more passionate and knowledgable in the fundamentals of Physics compared to an engineer trained teacher.
Therefore my answer is a definite yes. There is a need for more Physics trained teachers. As to how to get them.... That's another problem altogether.
Try not to have a self-plan holiday right after exams... especially if its THE most important holiday... (thankfully this is not the most important exams)
So many things to see.. so little time
Images taken just a day after the white tigers were back in exhibit.
Zzzz....
Most likely it is.
Amway, or Quixtar, or Britt Worldwide (BWW).. different names for the same thing.. is a multi-level marketing scheme. Unlike pyramid schemes of the past, MLM involves some real product. It is based on an idea as an alternative way to do business, to bring the products straight from the factories to the distributors and to the consumers without all the marketing, middle man, rentals etc. So if you sell a product for them, you get a cut from the money saved in all those areas. The more you sell, the more money they will give you for selling their products. The promised land in MLM is that you can earn up to 250K per year by doing nothing after working on the scheme for 5 years.
Sounds ideal, but there's a few fundamental problems with the scheme after hearing one out. As presented by NBC, this maybe a scam after all and here's why.
1.) One of the key characteristics of this MLM scheme, is that you are not employed by Amway, Quixtar or BWW, you become business associates. So you are not entitled to any benefits as an employee. That's not the main crux of the problem, the main problem is, you are encouraged to 'recruit' more business associates yourself because you will get a cut of the products sold by business associates recruited by you. And you get a smaller cut of the products sold by associates recruited by your associates... So if you want to get to the promised land of 250K per year by doing nothing, it is more likely that you will sell the 'MLM schemes' more than the products.
2.) There are no consumers in MLM, only associates. Wait, didn't I mention that MLM delivers products to the consumer directly hence you get a cut of the savings from the usual marketing methods, so what do you mean there's no consumers in this case? That's because if you are an associate yourself, you get to buy the products at discounted price so it makes more sense to join them for a nominal fee of about $30 (same as Challenger membership price), and save more than buy direct from other associates. And there's more, the associates stand to benefit more if you join the scheme to be a fellow associate than say just buy the same products from them. They will get a cut of the profits from you since they roped in you as a new associate, they don't have to serve you and you will serve them potentially by looking for new associates yourself. It's a clearly win-win situation.
How is that a problem? Well, if it's all about the money, who is going to do the whistle blowing if there's a problem with the products. Being a business associate instead of a consumer, what are your rights then? Products from Amway may be winning awards in Reader's Digests as being the 'most trusted' brands but remember, the people using them are the people selling them too so is it really that good? And what do you do if things go wrong? After all, it is very likely that you are inside this scheme because your friends introduced it to you... so what are you going to do then? They may have a liberal return policy if you are not satisfied with the products, but what about if the products harm you like the milk powder scandal?
3.) Suppose that their products are genuinely good and everybody in the planet gets into their scheme, can it be sustainable? It will be similar to the pyramid schemes where majority of the associates are actually at the base of the triangle. Stats has shown that only 1.6 out of 1000 associates make about $4000 a month, enough to lead a decent life. Only 1.2 out of 10000 associates are able to reach the promise land netting more than $10K a month. The key problem is how to get to that 0.012%. If you have only 10 associates and 2 of them drop out, none of them managed to recruit new associates and the average sales of the associates fall, your income will fall too. You may need to have thousands of associates recruited directly or indirectly so that you can reach a steady state. In other words, you need the law of large numbers. So if you thought that MLM can provide you with a steady income year after year, you may be in for a surprise.
4.) Amway sells many products, so many products that you will be tempted to buy everything from them since you need to use them anyway (like toothpaste). Why, because you can hit the minimum sales requirement as an associate and become eligible for a cut of the products you 'sold'. You will be driven by greed rather than purpose. You are using their cosmetics, not because it is the best for you but because you get some money back (to me, it's just another name for discounts). Dealing with MLM seems like dealing with the devil, because I'm hearing more about the money than about the product. They may have good products but it is a shame that it gets sold in this manner.
There are many ways to reach financial independence, MLM may be a slippery way as you bet on your friends (a.k.a. associates) more than the quality of a product that you are selling.
Financial independence for the sake of it may not even be a worthwhile dream at all.
AM^2 = Apps Masthead Model?
Wait till you see the new webpage.. LOL... and I thought 'A' levels still going on, yet these students are like...
Ah... reminds me of myself 10 years ago when I was still a JC student...
Moodle Masthead Model courtesy of the girl who has too much free time on her hand right now a.k.a. xueling
A hungry man is an angry man
A sleepy man is a grumpy man
-------------------------------
I find that I'm no longer grumpy for a long time. A sign of things... may not be a good thing though as it means that life is getting too predictable for me... In some sense, I'm still 'hungry' and I will need to satisfy my hunger soon...
One flash, two flashes. Wireless control.
I'm smarter in using Picasa now that I blog what is meant to be the last thing first, sort of like LIFO. Ok... something funny over the week while rushing some stuff..
All names are fictitious to protect the identity of 'man man'
Me: "Here's some mm long CNT from California"
SH: "One man man long"
Me: ???
JM: "Man Man is an SI unit so cannot change in height"
Haha... yah.. it's no longer funny here.. but hey... you just gotta have some fun when you are still in lab at 10pm. Hope they can get selected for it.
More Physics fun below...
There is hope for the perpetual machine after all! That will be good news for power hungry the Large Hadron Collider
Oh.. I did some censorship for the young audience here... Don't you love comics by physics ppl?
And we can use lasers to trim those little carbon nanotubes into tiny little shapes that we want to improve it's softness and heat retention properties. Plus we can 'engrave' your name, photos, and most important of all, fit all your physics notes on your carbon nanotube sweater for your all important Physics 'A' levels examination.
First, I know it's technically not so right to use a telephoto lens, point it to your next block neighbour to peek at what they are doing. But I'm so disgusted with what I saw so I decided to take a picture of it and share why it is not such a good idea to smoke outside the window.
(P.S. Her face is purposedly mosaic to protect her identity)
These pictures can be the perfect material for websites like STOMP but nay... nobody deserves that kind of attention because of what they did.
Adobe may be the most popular photoediting software out there but it really is disappointing for me so far. Maybe I'm too used to Sony colours which is rich straight out of camera. Hopefully, this will be the last time I deal with colours and that I have found a near solution (at least for daylight shots) a colour profile that works.
I started off with suggestions online http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22307 but thought that the colours were off so I made some adjustments myself to end up with these. Now... next is to get these images printed... is it worthwhile to print dried shrimps on A4 just to see colours? I wonder...
This shot was taken with my A700 and CZ 16-80mm lens with the following settings
1/160s f5.6 30mm equivalent ISO 200 +1 Sharpness +1 Contrast + 1 Saturation (Though I turned down saturation by a notch on IDC)
Hungry for dried shrimps?
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