Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Gaming Photography Politics & government

[683] Of lost in reflection

Yeah, I know. I know. That’s a lame entry title. Unoriginal. But they say, it’s a form of flattery.

This one was taken near Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur ; in front of a shoe store.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Some passersby noticed me while I was taking the photo. And there was this WTF-kind of expression on their face. I’m sure that they were thinking, what so interesting about shoes.For people that know me quite well, and as the picture suggests, I’m interested in the reflection, not the shoes.

This idea of shoot yourself in a mirror started when I first stumbled upon The Mirror Project. As of currently, I have 13 photos there. w00t!

p/s – god. I hate this shaman. I think I’m going to log into World of Warcraft again sometimes soon. I miss all the people in Sanct.

pp/s – What’s going on here? (via)

ppp/s – now, this is what I call shrewd diplomacy.

Iran Offers U.S. Share in Nuclear Plants

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 11, 8:18 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran –
Iran opened the door Sunday for U.S. help in building a nuclear power plant � a move designed to ease American suspicions that Tehran is using its nuclear program as a cover to build atomic weapons.

…

“America can take part in international bidding for the construction of Iran’s nuclear power plant if they observe the basic standards and quality,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a news conference.

Erm…

p4/s – Wizards of Winter (via).

Categories
Humor Photography

[682] Of when a conservative comes to a university…

They’ll get booed. Well, maybe not all but Ann Coulter sure had earful. She also brilliantly called her audience stupid. No. She actually called her audience stupider.

Ann Coulter to hecklers: You’re stupider than I am

STORRS, Connecticut (AP) — Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead.

“I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am,” Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.

Boo!

Somebody at Norwich Bulletin wrote something marvelous about the uber-polemicist’s speech:

The UConn College Republicans’ stated reason for inviting Coulter to speak, for $16,000, was to promote conservative thought on campus. In actuality, they paid for a circus, and they got one.

Right on.

Too bad she graduated from Michigan.

Categories
ASEAN Economics

[681] Of India’s deal is no FTA

India must be dreaming. It wants a free trade treaty with ASEAN but at the same time wants too many stuff excluded from the FTA. What was India thinking? Did they think they can bully us into it?

I’m glad to know that ASEAN, represented by Malaysian trade minister, gives India a solid no today. I think India hasn’t realized that ASEAN doesn’t take shit.

No FTA is better than one-sided FTA. ASEAN deserves a better deal.

Categories
Economics Politics & government

[680] Of Pengkalan Pasir and Malaysian general election in 2008: hypothesis testing

So, Barisan Nasional won Pengkalan Pasir with a slim margin. A recount confirmed BN’s victory. But does this mean PAS in deep shit? More precisely, if this by-election acts as a signal for the next Malaysian general election, does this mean support for Barisan Nasional’s growing in Kelantan?

Quite hard to say. Let’s see some statistics to see how hard it is.

First of all, we know from the New Straits Times that the first count showed that BN received 7419 votes, PAS 7290, Ibrahim Ali 414 and there were 160 spoiled votes. In total, 15283 votes.

Now, let’s assume two things to make life simpler.

Kick Ibrahim Ali out of our equation, like how he was kicked from UMNO. And then, we shoved all the spoiled votes into Ibrahim Ali’s throat before we kick him. That leaves us a total of 14709.

Thanks to the two assumptions, now we have only BN and PAS to worry about. The assumptions help making things easier since it allows us to use bootstrapping method – the easiest way to get a standard error. Bootstrapping gives us a standard deviation of roughly 0.5 with 60.64 for SE.

Now, my hypothesis is that the difference between BN and PAS – a difference of 129 votes – is zero. That makes t = 129/60.64, which makes t about 2.13. t is as in the t-distribution.

Using t-test, the hypothesis at 25% significance level is rejected.

However, at 10% and lower significance levels, the hypothesis is significant. Doesn’t necessarily mean it must be accepted but it can’t be rejected.

So, did anybody win outright statistically? I don’t know. It’s likely the answer is no. More importantly, if this is a signal of things to come in 2008, Pengkalan Pasir is a crystal ball with industrial defect.

Anyway, given this entry is written at 2 AM, you might be reading crap with bad statistics. Hah!

Heh. I myself am not convinced with the statistics; the hypothesis testing in particular looks odd. I’ve done this before extensively but I haven’t touched real statistics in a long time. So, you are more than welcomed to check them up or even refined them to include Ibrahim Ali and the spoiled votes.

Categories
Politics & government

[679] Of BN won Pengkalan Pasir by-election

According to national TV, at 2120 Malaysian time, Barisan Nasional won Pengkalan Pasir by a small margin. Because of the small margin, a recount is due tomorrow – thanks to that, this win is unofficial. But somehow, I doubt there that there will be a different picture tomorrow.

Whatever it may be, I hope the Election Commission will publish the standard error for the by-election. Let’s see how uncertain the result really is.

For those who want to know about why a recount is due, statistically, read more about confidence interval at Wikipedia. Quite light, compared to what I had to suffer during my junior year at Michigan.

And heh. What did I tell you?

Pay up.

I wonder, how Ibrahim Ali did in the competition. Hmm…