NUS AY 12/13 Semester 2 Module Review

Once again, I’m going to review the modules that I took this semester. 
If you have any questions, please send it to my email  atqhteo@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

The modules covered in this post:

PC1323/GEK1510 (Great Ideas in Contemporary Physics)

GEM2901 (Reporting Statistics in the Media)
PL4207 (Social Psychology: Theories and Methods)

LSM1303 (Animal Behavior)
PL3231 (Independent Research Project)

I’ll answer 5 questions for each: What is it about? How’s the workload? How difficult is it? Any miscellaneous tips? Should you take it?

If you want to see previous reviews for

• PC1325/GEK1508, MKT1003X, PL3252, PL3234, PH2211, click this link.
• GEK1519, SE1101E, PL3236, PL3233, PL3240, click this link.
• PL1101E, NM1101E, PH1102E, LAF1201, PL2131, click this link.
• For PL2132, PL3232, SSB2216 , PL3235, PH2110, click this link.

Do note that modules do vary across semesters, depending on which professor is taking it, so I will include the name of the professor for your benefit.

Fitness Journal #12 - Reboot

Wow the last fitness journal was so long ago. Anyway I'm back! With more personal updates that noone will read besides myself.

I did gym quite a bit in the US but for some reasons didn't really make much progress. Then I stopped by gym sessions last year during Thanksgiving period, and didn't gym again till February this year. After not gymming for so long, my muscles were all weak again and I had to start from scratch in progressing my lifts :(

Anyway, it's been about 2 months since then, and I've been trying to regain my original weight of 68kg (I actually dropped to below 66kg. The horrors!), and now being fairly close (67.7 for over a week) I'm going to stop trying, and start bulking! The goal is to get rid of my tummy heh. Cardio and diet here I come! Target weight is 65kg before I start eating more again.

As for my weights, here are my improvements: (First number was what I started at)

Bench Press : 45kg -> 55kg

Machine Flies: 27kg -> 41kg

Hammer Curls: 8kg -> 12kg

Forearm Swinging Curls: 10kg -> 12kg

Squats : 40kg -> 45kg (barely did this, will prob do it more since I want more cardio)

Shoulder Press : 22.5kg -> 37.5kg 

Deadlift - 50kg - 65kg - 50kg (I started doing just 1x5, but now I'm switching to a 3x5 routine)

I really want to get my bench press up, with the target weight being my body weight. Will take a while more though, I think I'll take another 2-3 weeks to bring it above 60kg. As for Squats, I think I'll start doing them every session if the gym permits.. I hate waiting for machines and the Squat rack where I go always seems occupied. If have to wait too long I won't.

I have some photos taken too, but I will post them together when I hit 65kg heh. Ok bye

Aggressive chickens get more sex? Don't talk cock!

[caption id="attachment_54" align="alignnone" width="300"] Source: Myself[/caption]

 

Ok I wrote this blog entry for a school assignment, but I decided it wasn't good enough so I went to do an entirely new topic. Rather than just delete this, I decided to post it here. So. Tahdah.

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We eat chicken so often, but how much do we actually know about them? Off the top of my head, I know that roosters crow every morning, hens lay eggs, and breast meat is really delicious. As you can see, my chicken knowledge is quite limited, so I thought it would be interesting to find out more about them.

Some animals have harems where a single dominant male has sexual relations with multiple females, and this harem master will protect his harem from other competing males. The most dominant male is usually the most aggressive/strongest one, as he is able to fight off other competitors. As a result, he is likely to be the most sexually active as well, given his control over the harem. The case is slightly different for the domestic chicken (Gallus domesticus).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="275"] The Brown Leghorn, a breed of chicken. (Source: Bullitt from Backyardchickens)[/caption]

Firstly, the proportion of males/females is artificially determined by the farmer/chicken-handler, usually harem-like with a few cocks and more hens. Next, Wood-gush (1957) found that aggressive behavior in the Brown Leghorn cock (a breed of the domestic fowl) was actually uncorrelated with sexual activity! In other words, the most aggressive cock did not want the most sex, despite winning the most fights. Wood-gush proposes that these two drives (aggression and sex) are stimulated by different hormones and thus operate independently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxWwrRO7oII

A video of a cockfight in the Philippines, where cockfighting is very popular.  

 

This leads to the question - if cocks do not have more sex despite being the dominant male, why do they expend so much energy to win fights to become the dominant male? I suppose the benefit is that they have 'first pick' at the hens of their choice, and it's their instinctive nature to want to ensure the reproductive success of themselves by dominating the social hierarchy, despite not actually having or wanting to have more sex.

 

 

Word Count: 299 words

References: Wood-Gush, D. G. M. (1957). Aggression and sexual activity in the Brown Leghorn cock. The British Journal of Animal Behavior, 5(1): 1-6.