Why I Voted Against Syria Intervention

From http://on.wsj.com/13312hd, feel that the whole argument is quite logical, therefore sharing here:


Two and a half years ago, Britain sent troops to Libya to stop a massacre. Parliament emphatically endorsed the United Nations-backed military intervention and its aim of protecting Libyan citizens from Moammar Gadhafi’s troops.
Perhaps that is why some were shocked when, last Thursday, Parliament ruled out any military role for Britain in Syria. Just like Libya in 2011, Syria is plagued by civil war and led by an embattled, evil dictator who is prepared to slaughter his own people to keep power. How could MPs produce two totally different answers to the same question?
In fact, the similarities between Libya and Syria are only skin-deep. With Libya, there was a clear moral case for intervention. Gadhafi’s forces were closing in on the last rebel-held areas, a humanitarian catastrophe was on the cards, and it was clear that military action could stop this from happening. In Syria, such military action would almost certainly make things worse.
The Syrian regime is undoubtedly evil, but we have known this for years. Parliament was asked to support military action against President Assad not simply because his regime is despotic, but because evidence emerged that it has killed hundreds of Syrian civilians with nerve gas.
The use of chemical weapons is a truly horrendous crime, but it is only one on a long list of horrendous crimes conducted by both sides in Syria’s civil war.
Assad’s forces have shelled, bombed and shot their opponents with impunity. The U.N. puts the death toll at more than 100,000. Civilians have been gunned down by snipers, burned to death by napalm, dismembered by bombs and crushed in falling buildings. These are no less unpleasant than getting caught in a gas attack. Many of us were left asking last week why, after sitting on the sidelines of this war for more than two years, the British government was suddenly in a rush to launch cruise missiles.
What’s more, the recent reports of chemical-weapon attacks raise more questions than they answer. Both the British and American governments say only Assad could have carried out the gas attacks, but the evidence is not clear-cut. Even the U.K. government’s own Joint Intelligence Committee admits it cannot understand why Assad would use chemical weapons when he knows this could force the West to intervene on the rebels’ side.
This also raises questions about how much Assad knew about the gas attacks. American spies have reportedly intercepted phone calls in which a furious Syrian military commander demanded to know why army units had deployed chemical weapons. This could suggest the attacks were ordered by rogue or panicking officers, without Assad’s knowledge or permission. It might suggest they took everyone in the Syrian army by surprise.
The gas attacks may even have been the work of the Syrian rebels. President Obama previously identified the use of chemical weapons as a red line for the U.S., and with Assad gradually gaining the upper hand, the rebels have a clear motive for trying to drag America into the conflict. There have been some credible reports, one from a U.N. representative in Syria, that Assad’s opponents have some access to sarin and are not afraid to use it. Without better intelligence about what is really happening on the ground, Britain risks being tricked into battle.
In last week’s parliamentary debate, David Cameron’s government said Assad should be “punished” for his crimes. It is far from clear what this would achieve. First, Syria boasts a powerful military, and could respond to any punitive air strikes. Second, even the precision-guided missiles that British forces would have used against Syria are not always as accurate as advertised. In previous wars, a significant number misfired or missed their target. By attempting to punish Assad, we would almost inevitably have caused more civilian deaths.
What is more, any military intervention would have consequences far beyond Syria’s borders. Vladimir Putin has supplied Assad’s regime with anti-aircraft missiles. If we attacked Syrian military targets, Russia would respond in kind. Whatever British cruise missiles destroyed in Syria, Mr. Putin would replace twice over. Punitive attacks could easily push peace further out of reach.
It is always uncomfortable to see your own prime minister defeated in the House of Commons. However, while the government’s motive was clear—to prevent the deaths of more innocent civilians—its strategy was not.
I am not an anti-interventionist, but I am not an automatic interventionist either. When military action is on the table, it must be clear what that action is designed to achieve. In the case of humanitarian intervention, the cornerstone must be to protect civilians. It is hard to see how this could be accomplished in Syria by adding cruise-missile strikes to an already volatile situation.
However desperate the circumstances might appear, it is never right to rush into war armed with plenty of missiles but only half of the facts, least of all when there are so many “known unknowns” on top of the “unknown unknowns.” Parliament was right last week to stop the government in its tracks.

辐射过程

发现 facebook 的发展过程，是一种辐射的过程，从美国一些名校开始，然后辐射出去。facebook用了一年的时间攀升到百万用户 - 辐射过程的好处是，在辐射点建立期，也就是辐射扩散之前，很多的问题都会显现，这时就将问题解决掉；等到扩散之后，问题就少很多。Zukerberg说facebook选择这些名校作为小起点，让facebook可以预见一些问题，并将他们解决掉，这也是facebook成功的原因之一。

无独有偶，stackoverflow也是这样建起来的。

世事多变

这之前去过的美国优胜美国家公园林火了，那地方挺漂亮的，最近我们有一批同学要去那里开会，不能去参观，着实可惜了。

我们去的时候的照片，现在的情况，
世事多变化呀。

Cousera

To understand machine learning,  I have discovered the cousera website, which accumulates the lectures from some well-known universities.

During registration, I discover the way that put out the form is very user-friendly, really put user in mind.

I discovered there are several things that worth mentioned in the lecture given by Andrew Ng.
First, he has minimal assumption on what students know - e.g., it assumes student does not know calculus and linear algebra. Second, the contents of the lectures are more on application of machine learning, and for maths, it use example to concretize our understanding; for advance level math that do not hinder our understanding by not knowing their working details, it omits them, and only provides the general idea for us. Thirdly, it uses electronic pen to draw picture, and this makes him easier to communicate the idea to us. Forth, it provides some review questions in the midst of the talk, to let us review the materials immediately.

The video player is also very good - it provides function to increase/decrease speed of video, where such functions are necessary for lecture video so we can quickly get through the contents that are easy or is already known by us. It also retains all the slide materials that are used in the video, so that students could download.

All in all, it puts students in the shoes, let students understand the materials in a shorter time, and it also uses interesting example to increase the interest of student.
Nothing is perfect. One thing that worth improving is to provide summary note for lecture contents so that people can revise from those notes. Lecture slides provides many details, but it is not useful for efficient review for knowledge that we have learnt. Furthermore, the playback of video sometimes make the screen stagnant, while the audio keeps going.  Sometimes, it just buffer till certain stage, and it won't be playing anymore, need to reload the screen to make it playing.


最近为了了解machine learning，发现这个大学教科网站，聚集各所著名大学的讲课。
这个网站做得相当不错，相当为用户考量。
register填form的时候，发现用最少的功夫，很容易就将他填好了。我觉得Andrew Ng讲课有几点值得学习的。第一点，对学生做minimal assumption，基本都是assume学生不懂calculus 和linear algebra, 这个我觉得还是挺好的，如果是比较难，或者比较简单的，会有一些 optional 的章节，然后让学生optional的章节会说些什么，让学生决定要不要看；第二点讲课内容偏实际，着重在实际运用，数学方面用example来concretize 我们的观念，一些比较深，但是不太需要知道的观念，就进行省略；第三点，就是用电子笔花图，来着重我们的了解；第四点，lecture中会有一些习题，让我们能够及时复习思考。

Video Player 的制作也相当不错。能加快，变慢，lecture video 最需要这样的功能了。易懂的内容，就给他赶快的过去。同时也能share 和 provide comment。那些在教科过程中用电子笔画过的slide，也保留下来让学生下载。

整体来说，很为学生着想 - 让学生用最少的时间，来了解，并懂得运用。用各种生动的例子，来增加学生的兴趣。

可以进步的地方是，可以有个summary note，让学生容易复习所讲重点。有时候slide比较着重的是讲的过程，没那么着重在重点，summary note 重点在去其糟粕，取其精华。

CS opportunity

看来CS还是有很多的机会滴

交 thesis

终于把thesis交了，四年的博士生涯，就快要接近结束了。岁月如梭呀。来流水帐再记录一下。

下午两点去NUS 靠近staff club那边装订thesis的，发现当天拿的一本要SGD16，三天拿的一本只要SGD 9! 由于明天就是deadline了，所以等不了三天，今天就选择当天拿。staff说五点弄好。这个交thesis本身就要到student service center交SGD 535 - 所以我这次submit 一本thesis 总共花了SGD 615，不过还是很愉快的交了这个钱，submit了thesis，顿时也轻松多了，要不过了deadline，就要多交一学期学费呀。

两点给它装订后，就到utown 去，弄thesis的CD。路过卖utown运动器材哪里，买了两把羽球拍，和一些乒乓球。CD弄好后，就去找SAM machine 交机票的钱，网上查了一下，正好singapore polytechnic空手道学习场地靠近foodcourt 5那里有一台。于是从utown 走到singapore polytechnic去，后来发现，那台SAM machine因为建筑在扩建被移走了! 不过也一年没来singapore polytechinic了，发现singapore polytechnic 还变化了不少，在foodcourt 5, 本来卖pizza hut 的地方，现在变成了starbucks, 其他的摊位统统都不认识的了。而且一整个food court现在都有空调的了。值得一提的是 DMIT foodcourt 6的云吞面，最喜欢那边的云吞面了，可是不知道是不是生意太好了，他们家开到中午就关了，要很早去才能吃到，去年就是为了吃他家的云吞面，特地跑到SP去的呀。

接着就前往clementi mrt 找SAM machine，终于找到并付钱了。付完钱之后，到麦当劳买了我最喜欢的oreo mcflurry来吃，大热天吃这个最爽了。然后96回到学校，那时估计4:45pm把，发现也已经装订好了，于是就把这些都submit到ngs去了。帮我查文件的是 Wendy, 学费单子上面显示2600++未交余额，不过她说如果交了thesis两三个礼拜会自动取消掉，这个得好好看着，要不giro会自懂扣钱滴。然后她数我的module credit，一直数到28，连数两次，不过幸好我注意到她都是22+4=24，于是数一遍给她看，总共有30没错。然后她再给我仔细说了一遍交了thesis后面的流程，包括会send两封email给我们，一封是tentative date for receiving thesis comment,一封是confirm date。希望review过程一切顺利的哇。

submit完thesis后，就在science canteen吃了个印尼烧烤，结束了这一系列紧凑的活动啦。

回馈

最近一直在思考，是不是可以在闲暇时间，写些神马Open Source Software, 或者写些像CodeProject.com之类的科技教材, 又或者分享自己是学习CS方面的知识的心得，来回馈一下这个Community呢，看来这真是很不错的idea呀。