IMPORTANT UPDATE:

If you wish to reproduce any part of this entry, you can only do so according to the conditions set forth by A*Star, which can be accessed here. If you do not accede to the conditions made by A*Star, you may be liable for defamation and I will take no responsibility for that.

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Philip Yeo has kindly commented on my previous article titled “Elia Diodati versus Philip Yeo: a watershed for blogosphere” with the excerpts of the original entry (that was deemed defamatory) by AcidFlask/Elia Diodotai, which I’ve been looking for without success. I’ve amended the original entry accordingly, but I think it’s not fair to Philip Yeo to have his response buried under a whole lot of other comments.

Therefore, in the interest of freedom of speech, I’m extracting Philip Yeo’s comment out to publish as a new entry so that everyone can read the exact writings that were thought of as defamatory by Philip Yeo and have a better understanding of the issue with this new information, instead of discussing/guessing in the dark without knowing the content of the original entry. I leave it up to readers to decide for themselves on who’s right and who’s wrong in the entire incident.

The following was directly copied from the original comment, which can be reached here:

philip yeo // Mar 4, 2007 at 11:45 am

“I originally said AcidFlask made remarks that Philip Yeo felt was defamatory, but that was inaccurate. It was a commenter that posted defamatory remarks, and AcidFlask was held accountable for the comments.” [Aaron's note: the preceding quote was taken from my original entry and was made by me, not Philip Yeo]

For the past 2 years, Chen Jiahao/Acid Flask/Elia Diodati have been pretending that he did not know what defamatory statements that he had made but nevertheless he apologized.

Now claims that “a commenter that posted defamatory remarks”.

A born coward. See the naked truth below.

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The Truth about the postings of Chen Jiahao/Acid Flask.

Postings by Chen Jiahao/Acid Flask at http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=318 (now defunct).

caustic.soda by AcidFlask
liminal musings of a graduate student

this is “a*star in parliament” by AcidFlask at 03 03 05 – 13:03. please leave a comment.

a*star in parliament
-03 03 05 – 13:03
Science, Singapore

which is perhaps why a*star feels justified in bribing universities for taking in PhD students. staggeringly enough, the cost quoted is very likely to be grossly understated, since I have been told that a*star gives out generous funding grants to specific faculty members (to the tune of us$150k/yr or so) for accepting up to three a*star scholars into their lab, as well as giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure. to the cash-strapped universities in America, the unbelievable godsend that visiting a*star contingents herald is something they can’t get enough of/f. after all, who else would be so incredibly naive and stupid as to throw money at other people instead of investing money to fund their own local research and developing their own r&d communities?

to quote a certain high-up in a*star: “if you don’t like it, then leave!” which perhaps explains the quiet turnover of more than one a*star scholar within the last twelve months. but at last, perhaps quiet no longer.

I would gladly do so, except that my sources are very likely to suffer the kind of spiteful retributive backlash that characterizes the public service. Therefore they can only remain hearsay and rumour under the current circumstances.

[AcidFlask] (email) (link) – 03 03 05 – 17:39

Lest I set myself up for libel, let me state what I know about this.
I do not recall the exact sums involved but this is the gist of what I had been told.

A fellow alumna of UIUC once attended a Chemical Engineering class in this university sometime in 2003. The subject of the lecture somehow went on to funding crunches faced by researchers in the US due to post-9/11 budget cuts when suddenly the professor remarked: Oh, by the way, if any of you are in need of money, you should consider applying to this agency called A*STAR in Singapore. They offered me $150,000 for my research with no strings attached, plus an extra $35,000 for every one of their students that I accepted into my group. Singapore seems to be a very rich country; they have money to throw at you, all you have to do is ask for it!

[AcidFlask] (email) (link) – 03 03 05 – 20:30

going further down the list.. a*star scholars seem to know that “a certain high-up” in a*star has a tendency to recommend scholars to go to some institutions, like UIUC, U of Wisconsin, and UCSD.. perhaps it is those very schools that a*star has those connections with? and perhaps the reason for asking scholars not to go to the top universities is that they tend to be awfully expensive when it comes to tuition fees too (like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton).

[AcidFlask] ( email) (link) – 04 03 05 – 11:30
==============================

Mon 9th May 2005

http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog/

APOLOGY

I recognize and accept that a number of statements that I made on my on-line journal “Caustic Soda”, in particular the blog post of 3 March 2005, were defamatory of A*STAR, its Chairman, Mr. Philip Yeo and its executive officers.

I admit and acknowledge that these statements are false and completely without any foundation.

I unreservedly apologize to A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment caused to them by these statements.

I undertake not to repeat the statements, or make further statements of the same or similar effect in this or any other forum or media. I further undertake to remove any such posting anywhere that has not been deleted.

Addendum:

Philip Yeo has provided more evidence to refute AcidFlask’s claim that A*star only sends its scholars to certain institutions.

http://www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/attach/textlet/0e44d2035bWE/(US)NSS(PhD)_Scholars’_Choice_of_Uni_20062007_US.pdf

32 out of 78 A*STAR PhD USbased scholars are at Stanford, MIT, Harvard and JHU.

By his wicked blog, all 78 should be at UIUC, UWisc, UCSD.

In fact, only 2 at UIUC (EEE and Physics, ex-PSC chaps), 1 at UWisc (biology) and 3 at UCSD (2 biology, 1 EEE).

Not a single Chem Engg scholar at UIUC as his blog claims.

Great insult to A*STAR scholars that they are in rich Stanford etc etc by bribery.