Dream, Write and Love

Why Chinese shouldn't have Christian names

2008-12-04T12:16:00.000+08:00

A funny email I got from my sis about why Chinese shouldn't have Christian names. You would need to understand a little bit of chinese dialects and chinese to be able to get the jokes though. Disclaimer: Purely for laughs and nothing else.

Here goes:

Anne Chang => Dirty (Mandarin)
Anne Chin => Keep Quiet (Mandarin)
Faye Chen => Dusty (Mandarin)
Carl Cheng => Buttock (Hokkien)
Monica Cheng => Touching your buttocks (Hokkien)
Lucy Leow => You are dead (Hokkien)
Jane Tan => Frying eggs (Mandarin)
Suzie Leow => Lose till death (Hokkien)
Henry Mah => Hate your mum (Mandarin)
Corrine Tai => Poor fellow (Hokkien)
Paul Chan => Bankrupt (Mandarin)
Nelson Tan => Bird laying eggs (Mandarin)
Leslie Tong => Rubbish Bin (Mandarin)
Carmen Teng => Leg hair long (Hokkien)
Connie Mah => Call your mother (Cantonese)
Danny See => Squeeze you to death (Hokkien)
Rosie Teng => Screws and nails (Hokkien)
Pete Tsai => Nose droppings (Hokkien)
Macy Koh => Never die before (Cantonese)

My terrible experience on the bus

2008-11-22T16:41:00.002+08:00

Are there moments where you feel like cursing and swearing at commuters in the early morning or evening when you are commuting? Here's my own experience(not too long ago).

I was on the bus some time back. Guess what? I witnessed one of the most atrocious and ridiculous behaviour of commuters in Singapore - refusing to move in when there's plenty of space.

Here's the picture. See the stark contrast?

If you still can't see it, try looking at this. It should help.

If the difference dosen't appear significant at all, try imagining yourself at that seat and you would probably get what I mean. It's not a very good photo because of the seat that I was at(not that I could help it...)

Really, what's their problem? Being a commuter myself, I went through several of the reasons in my head.

1. The person that refuses to move in is alighting soon. To save himself from the inconvenience of having to move all the way to the door again, he stays rooted to his position and refuses to move in.

2.He dosen't really care as long as he is comfortable with his position.

Don't we all hate people like that? Both of these reasons don't seem significant enough to justify such irresponsible behaviour.

I know that some bus captains do raise their voices and get the commuters to move in. Very nice of them I must say. But, some bus drivers(note the use of the different nouns used to describe them) really don't care. What? They are afraid of getting bashed up by someone who needs an emotional outlet? Or they couldn't care less?

It used to be the case for commuters who get away scot-free not tapping their Ez-link card. Now, when you board the bus, you will notice a pair of eyes scrutinising every single one of the commuters, making sure everybody taps their cards. Why? It's probably because the bus companies impose some kind of a regulation on bus drivers to do that or else they would probably have to bear a penalty of some sort(I think). Even if it's not the case, I'm sure the bus companies did something to get the bus drivers to check that people pay their fare.

It's high time the bus companies do something about that. Sure, the problem may lie with the commuters which most certainly needs to be told to move in. Maybe something can be done about the commuters. Even so, just because the fault lies with the commuters, the bus companies should seriously do something about it. That's why we have laws for criminals, right? Going by the same logic, something should be done about this problem that has been persisting for really long.

Anyway, such irresponsible behaviour causing inconvenience to people is one of the reasons that compell people to turn to private transport(at least that's why I intend to drive in the near future... after i get my license that is. =P). If the government wants to help reduce traffic on the road, perhaps it's time to look at something else other than ERP and COE.

Some commuters seriously need to be taught a lesson!

An error in 2008 'A' Level Chemistry Paper 1?

2008-11-18T08:33:00.001+08:00

Like many of the other thousand 'A' Level candidates taking H2 Chemistry, I was stumped by one of the organic chemistry questions for H2 Chemistry Paper 1. Well, for those of you who don't know what I am talking about, it's question 20 for paper 1. The question was basically "Which two-srtage process will not give a good yield of 1,2-dibromocyclohexane?" The reaction is basically a two-step process.

What's wrong with the question? Nothing very wrong except that there were some weird reagents in the question. The first step's reagents were "normal" reagents but not the second. There were two options with these "weird" reagents. One of them being Br2,hv and the other being red P, Br2.

Some kind soul told me that red P is red Phosphorus which is a catalyst for bromination. I'm still not quite sure what hv is yet. I searched the net and came across it a couple of times but it didn't shed any light on what hv is. Anyone knows what's that? Anyway, now we all know that it's not some kind of printing error or error on Cambridge's side(as I thought it might have been during the 1 hour paper). It's kind of weird though that it was never taught(to me at least and some friends from other jcs) and I never came across it.

Is meritocracy a form of elitism?

2008-11-14T20:06:00.009+08:00

Meritocracy. It seems like an ideal way to reward people for their efforts and appears to have been successful over the past 40 odd years. Is that system really FAIR? It seems to have a slant towards elitism. Why?

I got my inspiration for this piece from Full Metal Alchemist(that's an anime) and it's main theme which centrals around the idea of equivalent trade. Pardon me if it's not that well written. I need to oil my brain.

Meritocracy. I'm sure many of us are familiar with the concept of meritocracy. Reward those that do the best, yea? Is that really fair? If you look at it from a certain way(like I did after I got "enlightened"), it's just another form of elitism. Just that it's a more subtle form.(i think, at least. open for debate i guess) Why? Let's simplify it. Put it in the context of a school. Someone of higher intellect can easily accomplish a task much faster and probably much more better and much more efficient than someone who is of lower intellect who would, arguably, have to put in more effort. The same goes for work. Someone who is more talented in singing would not have to put in as much effort as someone who lacks the talent in singing to achieve the same results. Sure, they get rewarded with the same carrots for their brilliant achievements. The flaw with this entire concept of meritocracy is that it looks at only the end. The END and perhaps, nothing else.

Whether meritocracy is really seen as fair really depends on how you look at it. What is fairness? To be rewarded in the same manner for similar achievements? OR should someone who works harder(despite having the same result or something that is less impressive) be rewarded more? The former, of course, encourages efficiency. But there are always those that can never achieve the same result regardless of the effort they put in. That's talent. And it's a word that people always look out for. In actual fact, the less-abled or the less talented aren't very much better off as compared to if they were under some form of system which subscribes to elitism. Shouldn't someone who puts in more effort,but achieves the same result, be rewarded more? That's if you look at rewarding for effort. Well, which system works better? I don't know. But objectively, it appears the more efficient of the two, that which rewards results, seem to be better. But still, it's not completely unrelated from it's slant towards elitism. We may not have an egalitarian society but perhaps one day, there might be a better value to guide the way some of us work, apart from meritocracy that is.

2008-11-14T20:04:00.000+08:00

I'm terribly sorry for the long hiatus without any notice. I've been on hiatus for this blog for like a couple of months. I have been really busy with school and all. But, to my relief, exams are drawing to an end. =P.

What $90 can get you at the arcade

2008-09-06T21:33:00.001+08:00

Ever wondered why anybody would spend so much at an arcade? My mum and my elder sis did just that. $90 at a stupid machine... Want to know what we got in return? Read on...

Well, it happened at Jurong Point. That's near Jurong West for anyone who dosen't know where it is... It happened at Zone-X which was newly revamped. Apparently, there's a relatively new machine, at least I think it is, where you basically use the machine to scoop candies from an area and deposit it at another area. At the area where you deposit the candies, there's two boards there. One of the boards is stationary while the other(above the stationary board) basically just slids forward and backward, pushing whatever candy it can into the collection area(whatever goes in here belongs to you. Can't think of a better word than a collection bin off-hand >.<) That's how the game works, more or less.

There's this additional segment where there is this LED display that has about 12 bars showing where you are now. The display is divided into 3 segments and there are 4 bars which are labelled C,B,A and JP respectively in the order from the bottom of the bar to the top. If you hit C,B or A, something special will happen to the boards to help push more candies into the collection bin(Hitting C,B and A does different things). JP stands for Jackpot and if you hit, you get the big prize i.e. the soft toy. So how dos the bar go up? I think a certain number of credits or successfully pushing a number of candies into the collection bin will trigger this wheel which starts spinning and will land on either a 1,2 or 3 which determines how much the bar will increase by. Sth like tt. I know it's confusing.

A picture of the LED thingy..

So my sis and mum were at like somewhere near B when they wanted to stop. Guess what? They then decided to continue playing again because it's such a waste to spend $50 and only get candies and they continued playing till they got the jackpot of course. All in all, they spent $90 on that stupid game. -.-"

Let me show you some pictures. =P.

20 Amazing and err.. ??? Pictures that you probably never saw in your entire life

2008-09-05T23:34:00.000+08:00

What happens in your body when you sleep

2008-09-04T10:47:00.002+08:00

Ever wonder what happens when you sleep? Here's a breakdown of your sleep cycle and why you should sleep early and wake up early.

Evening at 9 - 11pm: is the time for eliminating unnecessary/toxic chemicals (detoxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes). This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music.. If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will have a negative impact on health.

Evening at 11pm - 1am: The detoxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 1 - 3am: Detoxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 3 - 5am: Detoxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the detoxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.

Morning 5 - 7am: Detoxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 - 9am: Absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 - 10am rather than no meal at all.

Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4:00 am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood. Therefore, have a good sleep and don't sleep late.

Disclaimer: The above information may not be 100% accurate. If you are going to make use of this sleep cycle to adjust your sleep time or use it in any other way, please double check it against other sources. I hold no responsibility. =).

Poem dedicated to the Twilight series

2008-09-03T20:03:00.001+08:00

A poem I composed dedicated to the books in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It started off more to express myself in words but i thought it would suit the Twilight series as well. So i thought i might as well dedicate it to the series as well.

The sun sets,
the night creeps.
The cold ever so binding,
the dark shrouding like plague.

Those eyes, ocher,
ever glowering.
It gets to me,
even in the darkest of nights.

It burns like frost,
not one left unscathed.
The chill bites in ravishment,
body torn and lacerated.

A contract of my soul,
one that clings to flesh and blood.
The covenant,
spellbound.
Indemnification,
unnegotiable.

Convalescence was a dream,
only to be fulfilled in death.

Author: Arthur

Annoying Skins-Haven Spammer

2008-09-02T22:52:00.000+08:00

Are you a victim of this user who goes by the name of Skins-Haven and spams your blog no matter how much you try to delete her messages and ban her but to no avail? Read on...

I am annoyed. And yes, for real. It first started off with someone by the name of Skins-Haven who started off by posting a tag describing all about her blog. Well, what's her blog about? Some skins that you can download. Why did he or she spam my blog? I dont' know. I contacted Cbox about this and hope that they would do something about it. They haven't gotten back to me and I highly doubt they would do much about it...

These people are really desperate. Going around to advertise on other people's blog. They just can't seem to find any other avenue and go around invading other people's blog. I just can't take it anymore. For goodness sake, the skins aren't absolutely stunning and no matter how much you advertise it's not going to help if what you lack is pure quality. No amount of advertising will make up for that. Face up to it.

Here's a typical example of the person's tag. I got this from the control panel

Let's all boycott this blog. I'd rather not download skins from someone who invades spaces other than their own which are not meant for advertising.

A real life story about a Haemophiliac

2008-09-01T10:56:00.001+08:00

This is about Haemophiliacs and why we should donate to The Haemophilia Society of Singapore. There's a personal story from a Haemophiliac himself and some information about Haemophilia such as the treatment cost. It apparently was started by a schoolmate of mine who's a haemophiliac or at least his story was included in the email i got. I suppose the story's true since i guess most of my schoolmates forwarded it to me as well. Presumably true i suppose. Besides, the person included his real name... Dosen't seem like a cock and bull story... I thought I will just do my part and put it up on my blog. Put it up on your blog too if you empathize with him or think it's a worthy cause people should support. :)

Hi all,

Haemophilia is a genetically inherited bleeding disorder where there is a deficiency of a clotting factor in the blood. This results in a form of bleeding tendency. Thus, the haemophilia patient often suffers from easy bruising and bleeding into muscles and joints. Because of the genetic pattern of inheritance, the disorder generally affects males only. Females with the haemophilia genes are known as carriers.

I am one of the many haemophilia patients in Singapore and I am here trying to reach out to all of you to help us out in one way or another. With the advance medical technology these days, there's still NO CURE to haemophilia. We, the patients, rely on the injection of Factor 8 or Factor 9 into our body in order to live life like any normal human beings.(Details of the conditions can be read from www.haemophilia.org.sg)

Here's the cost of medication(for me):

5 Units of factor 8 per injection: S$22.74 X 5= S$113.70
3 injections per week: S$113.70 X 3= S$341.10
4 weeks per month: S$341.10 X 4= S$1364.4

Note: cost of each unit of the factor 8 has been heavily subsidized by hospital grant as well as Haemophilia Society's subsidy. Actual cost per unit is $122 for factor 8 and $242 for factor 9.

The point is, after the incident of NKF as well as the Ren Ci monk (Damn these pple), the haemophilia society of Singapore lost her greatest donor. Donations is very low and the society is basically falling on the balance that we have to help subsidize the patients costs. If this situation carries on, the society will soon be unable to subsidize the patients. In other words, it will become and other burden for the patients.

You can help, by just forwarding this message to whoever is unaware of the existent of this group. Yes, we are small, and thus we are vulnerable. Please help in whatever way you can. Some examples:

Corporate leaders: Donate money to help us through this difficult time.

Students: Spread this message around. Especially to those student leaders who are in search of beneficiaries for any charitable event, add 'The Haemophilia Society of Singapore' into your list of beneficiaries!

To anyone else: simply forward this message to as many people as possible in your address book!

Please direct all donations to the following:

The Haemophilia Society of Singapore
www.haemophilia.org.sg
Or email to secretar@haemophilia.org.sg

The financial records of the society can be obtain from the webpage mentioned above. Don't worry, your donations will definitely be put to good use.

IF U ARE STILL NOT CONVINCED ENUF TO DONATE , Please READ ON...

My Story:

I am a student, currently studying in Jurong Junior College. I am a haemophiliac (a term for haemophilia patient).

I don't remember when i started to know about this disorder in me. My mum takes extra care for me, and my father works extra hard to support the family. And my role, is to use up half of the family income each month. Let's drop the issue about money.

Being a male, I am a very active person. I play all kind of sports that i come in contact with, only to get scoldings by my mum. 'Others can play, but u cant, you are different.' That's what my mum told me. 'you are unique' might be something that one might one to hear, but all i heard is ' you are different'. That makes me sound like a freak.

But my doctors encouraged me to take on sports as long as i know how to take care of myself. All my classmates and teachers know about my disorder and took special care of me. I shud've been glad about it, but i felt so different.Why cant i be like others?

Until one day, wen i turned up for the Annual General Meeting for the Society, I spoke to this mother of a haemophiliac. She told me 'My son dare not do anything, PE , camps in schools, outing, he skipped them all. All he does is staying at home and play computer.'

This is a very common thing that happens to haemophiliacs, they close themselves in. We can lead normal lives if we receive prompt and adequate treatment. We could be like any other person out there, do the things that we want to do, if we are able to support ourselves for the treatment.

A summary of the story:
a.) Haemophiliacs close themselves in due to factors such as cost of treatment, views from society etc.
b.) Not able to pick up life skills like any normal person. Miss out things in life.

Not only everyone has the right to live, everyone has the right to live life to the fullest.
Surviving for survival is plain emptiness without a dream, let us have dream..
WE are a minority, but we have our rights to live and dream as well...
Grant us the chance, by donating now. Thank you...

With regards,

Wong Yang Ping (18 years old)
yangping90@hotmail.com

Card magic by David Copperfield

2008-08-31T15:30:00.000+08:00

A magic performance for free. :). By none other than David Copperfield. Got this off from an email. It will leave you pondering over the trick. If you have seen this already and still don't know how it works, scroll to the end of this post to understand how it works. If you haven't seen this yet, check out the trick first and see if you can figure out how this works

Scroll down...

The mystery behind this wasn't included in the email. I figured it out so i decided to share with everybody in case you can't figure out and thought that it was really magic. Haa. The first thing you needed to do was to think of one card. If you followed the instructions, like any other rational human who wants to see the "magic", most if not all your thoughts would be directed towards that card. The number and the shape, be it clubs,spades,hearts or diamonds.

All the subsequent instructions that followed such as not touching it and not clicking it jsut served as a source of dsitraction away from all the other cards that were available for you to choose from. This includes that of telling you that he dosen't know you etc etc. blah blah blah. Even if you "cheated" and memorised two or three cards, you would notice they would all disappear. Why?! How did it happen?!

There are several levels to this trick.

Firstly, the cards have two elements, namely the number and the shape. Typically you would have to try a little harder than usual to remember the card you chose as compared to just memorising a number(that's a lot easier).

Secondly, when you focus on a particular card, you would most likely ignore all the other cards. Even if you looked at them, they wouldn't leave much of an impression in you, unless you have a photographic memory, which I highly doubt so.

Thirdly, it's the very nature of this "game" in itself. Your objective is to look for the card you chose. Naturally, you would forget all about the other cards you came across previously and would be focused on looking for the card you chose, only to find it missing. If you looked carefully enough or didn't fall for the trick or if you tried the trick for all the cards one at a time or otherwise, you would notice that none of the cards were there when the cards were shown to you again subsequently. You wouldn't notice that unless you paid really close attention to the cards.

Interesting play of a trick on the human mind. How easily we believe what we read or see... Or rather in order to obtain or get something, we would do what's necessary without really thinking much about it or doubting it. Such is the nature of trust. Unless, your a very skeptical person of course. Then maybe you wouldn't follow the instructions and tried something funny.

Malaysian ID Card(Funny joke)

2008-08-29T19:08:00.000+08:00

This is about the Malaysian Future ID Card. I got this in an email from a friend. I'm not sure if there's really such a thing coming up in Malaysia though.Read this and you will know. It's quite funny. No harm or offense intended. Just for laughs. :).

Bring your own bag day? A failure?

2008-08-28T16:42:00.001+08:00

Does "Bring your own bag day" work? I really think more needs to be done. The campaign itself is insufficient. In fact, I think the campaign's objectives would not be achieved and it's a failure. Can we really bring about a revolution to change the impending global meltdown or perhaps our fate is sealed.

I was out yesterday in town at Borders and I was asked if i needed a bag by the staff over the counter when i was making my purchase. I was charged $0.10 for the bag. I was happy, somewhat. It was heartening to discover that companies are doing more to help in climate change, although whether the driving force is to maximize their profits (by cutting down their cost on plastic bags by getting consumers to pay for them) or whether it's truly for a greener environment is debatable. But, it dosen't matter, does it?

Why does NTUC restrict it's campaign only to Wednesdays? I feel NTUC should just implement it every single day. Perhaps, now it's the right time to make this change as people are getting increasingly used to the idea of bringing your own bag. Anyway, I was at NTUC a couple of weeks ago and while I was queueing up, I saw the counter staff giving the customers the plastic bag without even asking if they need a bag. I am not sure if she got the customer to donate $0.10 for the bag though. But, this can't be the attitude that the staff have to adopt. I think it's important for them to ask if people need the bag and not just issue the customers with the bag and charge them for it. Ultimately, the purpose is not to charge the consumers but to inform them of it and try to deter them from using the plastic bags. Even though this campaign has been implemented for quite a while already, staff should still continue to ask that question. "Do you need a bag?" It's to keep that thought in the people's mind, bugging them, keeping them constantly reminded about the bags. Then, it would make an impact. If the campaign comes to a point where people are so used to this sort of a lifestyle, I say, the campaign failed.

Why? If it's part and parcel of their life already, people are unlikely to change. Think about it. The ultimate goal behind this camapign is to get consumers to change their lifestyle and not to charge them. It's simply just that. When people get used to this, they wouldn't change their consumption pattern and go on shopping and use the bags indiscriminately, the only difference being that they pay $0.10 more. On that note, did you notice something? The can that NTUC places at the counter askes for you to donate $0.10 for the bags you take and not pay for it. I suspect it's a marketing strategy to avoid an overwhelming response from consumers. But, again, what's the point if you don't put your point across strongly just like the cashier who dosen't make the effort to remind the consumers? It wouldn't work well. The use of diction has to be changed. Stronger words have to be used to drive the point across. The use of the word, donate, particularly disturbs me. It seems the least bit impactful and the fact that those funds are donated to sustain environmental causes irks me even more. It quenches the guilt in people. They know they have used a bag and paid for it and they wouldn't feel that guilty because they know they are helping to offset their carbon footprint by contributing to a fund as compared to if they were really just paying for a bag. If you were really just paying for a bag, I think it does more in terms of trying to get you to think about the issue at hand and to get you to change your lifestyle.

If we don't do something about the campaign or throw in some other campaigns, I think our efforts are futile. Perhaps what the doomsayers are talking about might just become a permanent reality.

Flavour your milk with your straws!

2008-08-27T22:14:00.000+08:00

Here's how to get your milk flavoured hassle free. No Cocoa powder. No flavoured milk. All you have to do is to use a straw! =P

There's this new product out in the market called Sipahh... My mom sorta got it for free when she bought some milk and ya, that's how I got to know about it. It's basically an easy and fuss-free way to get ur milk flavoured without having to add in cocoa powder, buying flavoured milk etc etc. U get the idea.

So what's the product? It's basically a straw filled with flavoured beads. It comes in five different kinds of flavour namely Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Banana, Strawberry and Cookies and Cream. It's pretty simple to use. Just insert the straw into the glass of milk, either way will do, and suck the straw! =P. You can vary the intensity of the flavour depending on how hard you suck the straw. It's quite simple. Oh ya, the beads disappear magically. I suppose they dissolve in the milk or something? Anyway, it goes for about 4+(I think...) per packet (10 straws per packet)

A rather interesting product. :D. I love innovation. Some pics. =P

Tube-meat

2008-08-26T17:15:00.004+08:00

Fresh meat from the butcher? Frozen meat from the supermarket? How about Tube-meat from the laboratory? Test-tube grown meat seems like it would become a reality in the future to come. But would anyone want to eat it?

I was browsing through the blogs that I provide links to as usual, keeping myself updated with my friends and one of them talked about growing meat in the laboratory. It isn't a very new breakthrough but still relatively recent, given that the first report on it was released in 2005.

Apparently, meat can be grown in the test tube just like how we culture stem cells. Cells are extracted from the meat of animals and grown in test tube to allow them to divide and eventually grown into meat. It all started when NASA researched into growing fish meat in test tubes to save space since storage has always been a problem in spaceships. It subsequently led researcher Matheny and a team of scientists to propose several techniques for growing meat in test tubes. This would however require different tissues such as muscles and fat so that it really is the meat that we are familair with. One huge challenge faced has been trying to get the texture right since research in this area is geared towards mass production for human consumption. Nobody would want to eat it if it tastes awfully different from the conventional meat we know.

Nonetheless, this still yields substantial benefits because we would be able to reduce our impact on animals. We wouldn't be eating poultry filled with so much growth hormones. I don't know if they can even be called poultry or animals, as a matter of fact. Sounds more like a hormone tank. This would probably put an end to the pressure we have been putting on the animals in order to sustain food production. With the world population growing still, the pressure we put on animals could pose a problem if we don't adopt a solution, i.e. growing meat in test tubes.

Just this year, the animal rights group Peta is putting up a million dollar reward for anyone who by 2012 can grow in-vitro meat that looks and tastes like the real thing. Money does wonders. This provides impetus for researchers to research into this area more extensively and more intensively than ever because not only would they be able to get the reward but would most likely be able to secure patent rights for such production and produce these meat for commercial purposes, reaping in millions and probably billions of dollars.

Most importantly, a team of 10 Peta jurors will taste the entries to make sure they match the texture and flavour of chicken, and they must score at least 80 out of 100 points to win the prize. There goes the worries about the texture and flavour of the chicken. However, even with this in place, can we convince ourselves to eat it? If we were to look at Sinapore's NEWater, it seems to have yet to achieve this. We have created an alternative source of water but it isn't accepted by everybody. I know of friends and relatives who refuse to drink NEWater. The thought of it being recycled from sewage water is repulsive enough to keep one from opening the cap and taking a gulp out of the treated water. Not to forget, the difference in the taste of NEWater as compared to the water we usually drink due to a lack of minerals is also one of the factors contributing to why people don't want to consume NEWater. The same might just happen to meat grown in test tube. Rejection from the public, that is.(Edited)

The meat produced from test tubes might have the same texture and taste, but would we eat it? Can we, creatures of habit, switch to consuming meat produced in the test tube? Will the thought of the meat being produced in a laboratory pose as a psychological barrier to the commercial success of such meat? All these, we don't know. But I'm sure we would find out soon enough.

Perhaps, we need to look at how morally wrong it is for us to OVERCONSUME meat. It has turned from a need for growth, development and survival to an addiction. A habit. A consumption pattern. We need to rethink the pressure we put on other animals. But, the question remains, how many people would truly switch to meat which do not put such pressure on animals for the sake of animals? My guess would be that very few would do so. Draw a parallel to global warming. It's been rightly described as a moral imperative by Al Gore and we are facing the problems of global warming. How much effort have we really put into solving global warming? Seriously. Would reducing plastic bags help to SOLVE the problem of global warming? No doubt, it reduces the impact but it's foolish to think global warming would go away one day just because we all decided to turn to using recyclable plastic bags. Would we really turn to consuming meat in test tube for the sake of animals? Cognitive dissonance, I say. Our voracious appetite for worldly possessions seems to suggest so too.

We would switch to such forms of meat. Yes. In the future. When animals are in the face of extinction, that is. Just like how we are turning to alternative sources of fuels when fossil fuels run low and oil prices jump. I can envision in the many light years to come, that is if we still thrive, how people would reflect on our consumption habits in disgust just like how we condemn slavery and authoritarianism.

Meat in the slaughterhouse and butchery. Frozen and packaged meat in the supermarket. Tubed-meat(as i would like to call it) in the laboratory. The question, "What nutrients would you like in your meat?", dosen't seem very far fetched now. Does it?

More Political Freedom in Singapore?

2008-08-24T11:29:00.002+08:00

This talks about the increasing political freedom in Singapore. Do we really have more political freedom? Should we already had been entitled to this long ago? Should we have more? Can we take it? Is PAP trying to maintain dominance through these legislations? Hmm... I question

PM Lee has announced that we will be having more political freedom in Singapore. Yay. Let's clap.

Now, before we all get too happy, let's think about this in greater depth.

Podcast, videocast and election materials will be permitted, finally. Probably because of the increasing pressure from the people to liberalise the political scene here. These materials have to be factual though. The reason given for banning these materials in the past was because the government felt that visual materials would interfere in our decision making process and influence our decision making process as compared to cold hard words where we are supposedly able to make a more informed and better choice. Really? Should we all then stop visiting the theatres and youtube videos and turn to the thick volumes of books that had been collecting dust in the library for our facts? Really, the minimum age limit set there for electorates isn't just for show. Given that the electorates are of a certain age and know the seriousness of the matter, they would make an informed decision and I personally don't think they would be so easily swayed just by visual images because afterall, it's not some mindless decision making process. People do think through their decisions even after watching the images. That's of course assuming that our people are concerned about politics in Singapore.

If these people aren't really concerned about politics, I think they would just vote for anyone and most likely PAP because of the fact that they are already the ruling party and because they have been running the country pretty well in terms of economic growth and development. These visual materials wouldn't make much of a difference to them, I feel. The convenience of convention. Sigh. Besides, that sort of a rule would only put the ruling government in a position of advantage, regardless of which party it is because the spotlight would be on the ruling government most of the time and people would know them best as compared to the opposition parties which tend to be rather alien if you don't really bother to read much about them.

Political apathy in Singapore? Right on. It's a vicious cycle. Most people are apathetic, I feel, because of the lack of the need to care because the ruling government is doing a good job and the opposition isn't given much room to advertise itself . We don't have the chance to look through the profiles of all the parties. When we go shopping, we look at all the products and we make a decision. But you most likely wouldn't go to some isolated area and check out the prices of their products too. In fact, you most likely don't know much about them and have a distorted impression of them. I think the same goes for politics. We shop for the best party to bring us the most benefit and serve us well in the future to come. There isn't much to care about when you aren't really engaged in the process of selecting a political party because you don't really have a lot to choose from, particularly if you are someone who dosen't bother to read up about the opposition or find out more about them which is made worst by the fact that we are very comfortable with the way of governance of PAP in many ways more than one. There's nothing much to get you to think and thus the apathy. But if you were presented with a myriad of information, you would have to process the information and look through them and leaves little room for apathy to operate. So elections after elections, we would go in circles and circles until one day we get more chances to participate ACTIVELY in the election process. Now that the government has loosened up a little on this already, hopefully this would come to an end.

Now, we allow more free speech but only at Hong Lim Speaker's corner... Who really goes there? I personally haven't been there and I don't think many people have been there. That's speaking in my own capacity of course. Personally, I don't know much about the Speaker's corner. Apathy? Perhaps.

On a whole, these "additional" liberties that we would be entitled to, note the use of the word additional, are a good thing and it's an improvement from the past. Whether it's sufficient, I leave it to you. Perhaps, we would get even more liberalised in this scene. If PAP is truly worthy of being elected as the government, then it should not have to worry about losing to the opposition and should liberalise our political scene to a greater extent, that's of course assuming that they are doing some things to secure their position in the government which I have no concrete evidence to prove nor strongly believe in for these actions taken by them do seem to root from the need for greater good.

If PAP is truly worthy, we would elect for PAP no matter what kind of videos or podcasts the opposition will try to shove right in our faces. Ultimately, my point is that I think there is not much need for trying to somewhat "suppress" the political scene here because I think it's not necessary. I still think that the restriction on the fact that the speech should not be about language, religion and race is still something that needs to be in place. With such restrictions in place, we already have bloggers that go around making derogatory remarks about the other races or religions. Think about what would happen if we lift such restrictions. That would be sinking ourselves waist down into quicksand. More should be done for the political scene but let us still be thankful for what has been done.

China at fault for deceiving audiences at Olympics?

2008-08-16T13:49:00.002+08:00

Is China really at fault for deceiving audiences at Olympics? Or are they really just doing what they are supposed to do? I think it's the latter of the two.

I'm sure everybody has heard about some of the unhappiness about the Olympics. The lip-synching for the opening ceremony and how the fireworks that were shown on the screen were actually pre-recorded. This has taken the world by storm as we all feel outraged and cheated. I'm sure some of us feel that way, if not all and i can fully empathize with these people. Is China really over-doing it or is it just doing it's best to ensure that things don't go wrong?

Personally, I think they aren't exactly at fault. The scale at which Olympics is held is extremely huge and there can be no room for mistakes. Under such pressure, one would succumb to what I'd like to call cheating which is exactly what China did. China cannot risk smearing it's reputation in one of the most important moments in sports history. The best way would to be to cheat which I think is not something new when it comes to conducting large scale events. There would always be back-ups or ways of sorta indirectly deceiving the audience. Just like when you go for an open house, you can't take the things there at face value. The environment is just so contrived and artificial. But people aren't ever outraged. People only get outraged over these things if it's exposed in an explicit manner. Allow me to draw a parallel. You enter a school carnival and the school is known for it's caring students etc and you see students providing assistance to the elderly and less-abled and on your way home, you see students from that school ignoring the existence of a physically-challenged person who clearly needs help. I think you and I would both feel outraged and cheated in a manner.

The same goes for China. Perhaps the organising committee should not have had admitted to all those things that they did. But again, it would be a matter of integrity.

Human psychology is just weird, I feel. Even though we know we are being cheated, we allow ourselves to be cheated willingly.

Are children growing up too quickly?

2008-07-24T19:03:00.000+08:00

Are children growing up too quickly? Here's what i think and what i observed from my sister. The problem is very real. We are just moving the syllabus downwards again and again. We are also preparing children for the real world at such an early age.

Although the topic seems to be suggestive of a disseration or a General paper essay of sort but don't worry it's not. I got the topic from one of my GP papers though. I'm just gonna share my own personal experience about whether children are growing up too quickly. You see, i have an elder sister and she has a son who's about to attend K1 next year. If you do the maths, you would probaly figure out that he's four this year. Is he growing up too quickly? I think so. My sister sends him for tuition classes that are meant to prepare him for K1 and he has spelling tests every week. It's just 3 words per test but i think that can be a tat too much for a kid that's supposed to be enjoying his childhood. The worst thing is not the test but the expectations parents have of their children just like the expectations of her child. She wants him to get full marks for his spelling. Sure, you may say that it is natural for parents to expect their child to do well but i still think it's putting too much pressure on the kid.

Her reasoning for what she is doing is basically just to prepare him for the future and that if he dosen't start now, then when? It's a question that we often cite to try to get proscastinators to start early. True it may be, but for children, can this hold? I don't know. My mum dosen't agree with my sister's style of preparing my nephew for the future. Ironically, my mum did that same thing to me. I was bulldozed with spelling a year before i started K1 and a lot of homework when i was in primary school. My tutor basically drove me crazy and of course she drove me so crazy that i got her to quit. I did something. Lol. Shhh... =P. Ever since then, i haven't really taken up tuition because i think it's a waste of time. I think, personally, very few people need tuition and for the majority of the people, it's a matter of attitude not ability.

Are parents to blame then for trying to bulldoze their children with homework? I think they are not the only party that should be blamed although they are usually the first to be criticized. Why can't entrepreneurs be the one to blame? Why not the tuition centres and tutors? As much as they are concerned about their living and work in the education industry, it is them that create this supply. It is with this supply that parents are able to send their children to these school although the reverse also applies i.e. there was a demand thus a supply. But if the supply never arose in the first place, it may not even be a problem today. Of course, that's not being very rational in practical terms because if there's an opportunity, the natural response would be to grab it and make the best of it. But being opportunistic may just be being selfish because these people fail to consider the larger picture, which is the wider implications. BUT THE WORLD IS NOT ALTRUISTIC.

Benefits of Health Juices

2008-07-22T15:42:00.002+08:00

Ever wondered what kind of health benefits different kinds of fruit juices offer? Here's a list of them.

Carrot + Ginger + Apple - Boost and cleanse our system.

Apple + Cucumber + Celery - Prevent cancer, reduce cholesterol, and eliminate stomach upset and headache

Tomato + Carrot + Apple - Improve skin complexion and eliminate bad breath.

Bitter gou rd + Apple + Milk - Avoid bad breath and reduce internal body heat

Orange + Ginger + Cucumber - Improve Skin texture and moisture and reduce body heat

Pineapple + Apple + Watermelon - To dispel excess salts, nourishes the bladder and kidney.

Apple + Cucumber + Kiwi - To improve skin complexion

Pear & Banana - regulates sugar content.

Carrot + Apple + Pear + Mango - Clear body heat, counteracts toxicity, decreased blood pressure and fight oxidization

Honeydew + Grape + Watermelon + Milk - Rich in vitamin C + Vitamin B2 that increase cell activity and str engthen body immunity

Papaya + Pineapple + Milk - Rich in vitamin C, E, Iron. Improve skin complexion and metabolism

Banana + Pineapple + Milk - Rich in vitamin with nutritious and prevent constipation

An alternative way to curing cancer

2008-07-20T09:29:00.000+08:00

Groundbreaking research in Cancer. A possible alternative to curing cancer or reducing the growth of cancer cells WITHOUT chemotherapy devised by John Hopkins.

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (TRY THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a.. Sugar, is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt. ( THE WEST MADE US 2 CHANGE FROM SEA 2 WHITE IODISED SALT ).

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro- intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful,especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water- best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Florssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins,minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

PLEASE READ ON :

1. No plastic containers in micro.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave. J

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This info is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.

Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.

Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.

Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as CorningWare, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food.

You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons. Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Singlish, the Singaporean Language

2008-07-19T16:12:00.002+08:00

The debate about the use of Singlish seems to have led to the conclusion that Singlish is bad. But is it really that bad just because it lacks practical use as non-Singaporeans don't understand it?

This issue about Singlish being irrelevant and useless popped up in my mind today out of the blue. Our education system discourages the use of Singlish and promotes the use of English itself for a very practical reason, that being English is one of the most widely spoken languages. The same goes towards the increasing emphasis on the use of Chinese language with China rising.

But really, let us think about this. We have heard of various American slangs which are synonomous with our "Lah", "Leh", "Loh" in terms of function which is to achieve the desired impact through selective use of words.Why is it that we don't hear about the Americans trying to get rid of these slangs and replacing them with "proper" and "accurate" English? I would say it's because Americans are proud of it.

Language is an ever evolving entity, just like culture, which evolves with influence from external factors such as the country in question and it's historical background. It's just like how a fast-food restaurant won't have the same menu throughout all it's outlets in the world. Language is adapted and anything but static. This is however, not characteristic of the modern society that we live in today because modern English itself is a result of such evolution in English. We had Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English(The Language of Shakespeare) and now Modern English. In fact, even in Modern English, we have included words from those of French and Norman. Thus, we shouldn't see it as surprising that we have adopted modern english into Singlish.

Why is it that not many people understand Singlish as compared to it's counterparts such as American slangs? I personally feel it's probably a lack of exporting of our publications and the lack of influence of our language. This could partially be because we don't have a lot of established writers and probably also because what's written isn't interesting enough to attract international attraction.

This makes it almost impossible for us to have an identity associated to us in various forms such as language and various aspects because we simply just take what's pragmatic and of economic signifiance instead of trying to spread our beliefs and ideas. This would of course mean novelty is imperative for this to happen. Much of the problems associated to Singlish by academics probably wouldn't be a problem at all if we spread our influence and in fact would promote our identity. I think developing and promoting an identity is something that is coeval. When you promote an identity, you feel proud about it and devleop it in the process.

Why discourage Singlish?

The Banana Test

2008-07-15T18:32:00.000+08:00

This is a rather interesting test i got from my friend i must say. Why not test your IQ and how smart you are by taking this test? It's a rather short test with only one question.

The Banana Test

There is a very, very tall coconut tree and there are 4 animals,
a Lion, a Chimpanzee, a Giraffe, and a Squirrel, who pass by.
They decide to compete to see who is the fastest to get a banana off the tree.
Who do you guess will win?
Your answer will reflect your personality.
So think carefully . . . Try and answer within 30 seconds !!!
Got your answer?
Now scroll down to see the analysis.

If your answer is:
Lion = you're a bit slow on the uptake.
Chimpanzee = you're a moron.
Giraffe = you're a complete idiot.
Squirrel = you're just hopelessly stupid

Read on.

A COCONUT TREE DOESN'T HAVE BANANAS.
Obviously you're stressed and overworked.
You should take some time off and relax!
Try again next year

PS. I hope that a laugh has helped to reduce some of those stress levels!

If you fell for the trick like i did, you are probably really careless like me as usual. LOL. Probably the kind that would make mistakes for MCQ questions if you are still a student.

An Incredible Love Story

2008-07-14T22:15:00.000+08:00

An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.

The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's home for the last 50 years.Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin..

In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.

At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman.. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.

In the beginning, life was harsh as hey had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives. Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you regretful?

Liu always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve.'In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother's convenience, although she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'

The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife's hand even after he had passed away.

'You promised me you'll take care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?' Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.

In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China , collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

How to cheat at blackjack

2008-07-13T12:22:00.002+08:00

Did you read my review of 21? Do you know you can cheat at Blackjack? Want to know how to cheat at Blackjack? There is an official website just to teach you how to do so and the person who is teaching is none other than Jeff Ma, who led the famous MIT team to Vegas to bring down the house as seen in the movie 21 and won as a team. Don't believe me? Read on.

There is a website created to feature one video weekly on Jeff Ma, Blackjack and how to cheat at it. It's not that i am trying to promote gambling here but it's always interesting to find out more. :D.

Jeff Ma used to give lessons on Card Counting and Black Jack Seminars but not anymore. Anyhow, this website still gives you an insight into cheating at Blackjack. The basis for cheating at Blackjack is actually the probability of High Cards(10,J,Q,K,A) or Low Cards(2,3,4,5,6) that will be drawn. When you see a high card, you -1 to the card count and when there's a low card, you add one to the card count. There are of course neutral cards(7,8,9) which are assigned a value of 0. Card counting is basically a lot of memory work and math. When the card count is high, it means the deck is hot because it would mean that there are a lot of low cards that had been dealt out and the likelihood of you getting high cards are higher and vice versa. When the card count is high, it is in favour of the players while if it is low, it is in favour of the dealer.

To cheat at Blackjack, you would probably need a few teammates and of course the Gorilla players. Gorilla players are the people who are signalled to go into the table to place big bets by their teammates who have been keeping track of the card count at the tables in the casino. The teammates usually signal the gorilla player into the table through hand actions such as placing both hands behind the chair or raising your arms etc. There are also usually code words to signal the card count at a particular table. You can devise your own. For the MIT team, Cheque=+21, Sweet=+16, Egg=+12.

To decide what you should do when given a certain card combination against the dealer's one, there is actually a table that you can memorise to decide if you should Stay, Hit, Double Down or Split. The last step to gambling or cheating would be how much you should bet. There is actually a formula too to decide how much you should bet. To decide how much you should bet, you need to divide your running count by the number of decks left(they usually have more than 1 decks at the table in casinos) which gives you your true count. You then have to subtract your true count by the offset(Gambler disadvantage determined by the House) then multiply what you get by your betting unit(the dollar value of your minimum bet) There you go.

To find out more, you can go to this website:

http://www.doubleplaytv.com/jeffma/

The MIT team actually has a website where you can find out more information if you want private mentoring sessions or seminars on Blackjack. Seminars can cost up to about $900 while private mentoring sessions go as high as $7000(But just think about how much you can earn). If you prefer to learn on your own, there are also box sets(~$135) and manuals($60) that you can purchase on the website. There are also Blackjack supplies you can buy such as the deck holder, felt and the cards of course.

The website for purchasing these is:

http://www.blackjackinstitute.com/store/index.php

Sell your body,heart and soul for $500,000

2008-07-12T22:55:00.001+08:00

Selling your apartment? How bout your body? These things are not new to society. But how about selling your heart(not literally) and soul? This woman in the US did just that with a package that includs her apartment, her body, heart and soul. Is this what society is moving towards?

I was reading this article not too long ago and i got a shock. Very soon, we would not be debating about whether we should legalise prostitution and sex tourism in some countries but whether we should legalise the sale of your heart and soul with the number of people putting up themselves and their connections for sales. This woman, Trabosh, isn't the first of her kind and in fact has several predecessors which have tried selling friends, job and body space.

Trabosh is a 42 year old single mother and works in the real estate market. She has been single for eight years and has been trying to sell her four-bedroom home in South Florida over the past year. She has tried anything and almost everything from eBay to Craigslist but to no avail. Despite being a licensed real estate agent, she hasn't been in the line for quite a while and is struggling with trying to sell her home. She allegedly claims that her attempt to sell her body as well was not a sales gimmick but because she really dreamt of being a fairytale princess. Fairytale princess? Perhaps she should be more practical and grow up. Maybe that explains why she is even divorced in the first place.

If you do buy what she says and commit to the deal, you would have to pay a whopping fee of $500,000 for shipping her which is not subsumed under the transaction for the house which cost about $340,000. Is a human worth that much? Is love worth that much? Perhaps. But it just dosen't come with any gurantee, does it? For all you know, she might just possess all the characteristics you hate and have one hell of a devil-may-care attitude which might just drive you up the wall. She wants to be a princess. Princesses are hard to fix, remember?

One of her daughters have expressed embarassment at her mom's act. I think i would be embarassed too if she was my mother. Don't you agree?

As much as websites like eBay ban the sale of human body and parts, perhaps something should be done about these... The world is just getting more ridiculous by the day as we start trading ourselves. Isn't the colossal amount of goods we trade in the world market enough? Obviously no. Just think about the recent organ sale in Singapore and the increasing number of people participating in organ trade and now, the human heart and soul. What's next? I can't imagine.

Ah Beng Jokes

2008-07-11T22:51:00.000+08:00

This is a compilation of jokes about Ah beng. It is meant solely for the purpose of entertainment and should not be taken in an offensive manner. For those who do not know what Ah Beng is, it is basically another name for Gangsters in the Chinese Dialect, Hokkien which can sometimes also be used loosely to mean someone who is ill-mannered or coarse.

Ah Beng bought a new mobile. He sent a message to everyone from his Phone Book & said, "My Mobile No. Has changed. Earlier it was Nokia 3310. Now it is 6610"

Ah Beng : I am a Proud, coz my son is in Medical College. Friend: Really, what is he studying. Ah Beng: No, he is not studying, they are Studying him.

Ah Beng : Doctor, in my dreams, I play football every night. DR: Take this tablet, you will be ok. Ah Beng : Can I take tomorrow, tonight is final game.

Ah Beng : If I die, will u remarry? Wife: No! I'll stay with my sister. But if I die will u remarry? Ah Beng : No, I'll also stay with your sister.

Ah Beng : People consider me as a "GOD" Wife: How do you know?? Ah Beng : When I went to the Park today, everybody said, Oh GOD! U have come again.

Ah Beng complained to the police: "Sir, all items are missing, except the TV in my house." Police: "How the thief did not take TV?" Ah Beng : "I was watching TV news..."

Ah Beng comes back 2 his car & find a note saying "Parking Fine" He Writes a note and sticks it to a pole "Thanks for complement."

How do you recognize Ah Beng in School? He is the one who erases the notes from the book when the teacher erases the board.

Once Ah Beng was walking he had a glove on one hand and not on other. So the man asked him why he did so. He replied that the weather forecast announced that on one hand it would be cold and on the otherhand it would be hot.

Ah Beng in a bar and his cellular phone rings. He picks it up and Says "Hello, how did you know I was here?"

Ah Beng : Why are all these people running? Man - This is a race, the winner will get the cup.Ah Beng - If only the winner will get the cup, why others running?

Teacher: "I killed a person" convert this sentence into future tens Ah Beng : The future tense is "u will go to jail"

Ah Beng told his servant: "Go and water the plants!" Servant: "It's already raining." Ah Beng : "So what? Take an umbrella and go."

A man asked Ah Beng why Ahmad Badawi goes walking in the Evening and not in the morning, Ah Beng replied Ahmad Badawi is PM not AM

Online Periodic Table

2008-07-09T19:36:00.001+08:00

Have you always been curious about various aspects of certain elements in the periodic table apart from those usually taught such as the biological roles and its' history?Did you know that Silicon is known to be required by chicks and rats for growth and skeletal development? How about working unprotected with white phosphorus causing necrosis of your jaw?

I got to know this website through my chemistry teacher who told us about this website which is basically an online periodic table. It offers rather interesting information about the elements ranging from their biological roles to the person who discovered them and how the name came about. You can also find out the percentage at which they are found in in our body, in nature and also where are the places that they occur naturally at. It also has pictures of the compounds. Ever wondered how elements such as Francium and Strontium look like? Go check it out. :). It's all in one. A pretty convenient source of information if you want to find out more about elements if you happen to be studying chemistry.

Website: www.webelements.com

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip

2008-07-07T19:10:00.004+08:00

Hi. I would not be posting anymore of the 5.12 Earthquake comics strip because it appears that they all turn out really blur though i don't really know why. They appear alright on the email though. Anyway, if you are still interested in the 5.12 Earthquake Comics strip, drop me a tag on my tagboard along with your email and i will mail it to you. :). If you don't know what it's about, check out my previous posts on this.

Your first step to an orchestra

2008-07-07T10:45:00.000+08:00

Have you ever dreamt of performing, conducting or composing a piece for an orchestra? Have you ever wanted to play the violin, viola or cello? Here's your chance to do it now. It's free and easy to use. Think you have no talent in music? Fiddle around with this a little and you might find yourself creating music you never thought you could.

It's youth day. What better way to celebrate your youth than to compose your very own song? I happened to stumble across this website about a week ago which allows you to compose your very own musical piece and it's user-friendly. No worries if you are new to music.

Firstly, you have to choose from three types of accompaniment namely two violin, four piece and metronome. An accompaniment is basically your background music. This saves you the trouble of having to compose the accompaniment yourself and allows you to focus on the main melody of the piece. For those of you who don't know what a metronome is, it is a sort of a device that gives off a beep or a tick tock sound at a regular interval. It's largely used for guiding people when they play an instrument so that they don't play the song off-beat. I don't know why it's available as an accompaniment though. It's kind of weird but you never know what you can make out of it.

Creating the melody is simply as easy as moving your mouse on the screen. The screen is basically divided into two parts. Those on the left side of the screen are notes that are not pitch adjusted(not that sweet) while those on the right side are pitch adjusted notes(sweeter in nature). You will get what i mean when you try it out yourself.

The upper part of the screen contains the higher pitch notes while the lower part of the screen contains the lower pitch notes. Depending on what kind of a note you want, you just have to move your mouse correspondingly to that location.The more often you move your cursor around, the more notes you would be playing.

For the melody, you get to choose from 4 different instruments namely two violins, viola and cello. You can use the keyboard to switch between the different instruments.

1-Violin 1
2-Violin 2
3-Viola
4-Cello
C-Clear
P-Pause

The music is recorded through a running loop playback which you will be able to see at the top of the screen. So, you don't have to worry about how to play two instruments at that very same second. :). Once you are done, all you have to do is to click on the save button at the bottom and key in your name and give a title to your own masterpiece.

You can also listen to variations created by others. There is this option, Browse Variations, at the bottom of the screen that allows you to do this.

I created my own piece too. It's titled "Walking in the dark" by Arthur. You will be able to listen to it under "Browse Variations"

Here's the website:

http://contrapunctus.thirdangle.org/

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip Part 5 and 6

2008-07-06T11:42:00.000+08:00

The 5.12 Earthquake also known as the Sichuan Earthquake(2008) is something that has been widely reported in the news. We've heard enough about the death counts. This one is about a man with an iron will and also a man's reaction to the earthquake which is rather humorous. It is drawn by a resident living in Beijing,China.

I wasn't able to post the 5.12 Earthquake comics strip yesterday because i was out for the whole day so i would be posting two today instead. Comics 5 is not that clear... I apologise for that. Did my best to make it as clear as possible.

A new layout

2008-07-04T23:50:00.000+08:00

Okie. Hi people! =P. I finally got the blog layout changed so that i can actually display my nuffnang poll. I quite like this new layout because of it's simplicity though i am still trying to align the tagboard and the nuffnang poll. Im thinking of a better way to organise the links too because they look like a mess. Nonetheless, i think it still looks good. =P

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip Part 4

2008-07-04T21:29:00.003+08:00

10 Facts about Marriage

2008-07-03T20:12:00.000+08:00

These are 10 facts about marriage that msot of us would probably know about. But it comes with a twist through the use of puns. It's pretty interesting and some are funny. Got this from an email.

1. Marriages are made in heaven. But so again, are thunder and lightning.

2. If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every word you say, talk in your sleep.

3. Marriage is grand --and divorce is at least 100 grand!

4. Married life is very frustrating. In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.

5. When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing: Either the car is new or the wife is.

6. Marriage is when a man and woman become as one; the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.

7. Before marriage, a man will lie awake all night thinking about something she said. After marriage, he will fall asleep before she finishes.

8. Every man wants a wife who is beautiful, understanding, economical, and a good cook. But the law allows only one wife.

9. Every woman wants a man who is handsome, understanding, economical and a considerate lover, but again, the law allows only one husband.

10. Man is incomplete until he marries. After that, he is finished.

11. A long married couple came upon a wishing well. The wife leaned over, made a wish and threw in a penny. The husband decided to make a wish too. But he leaned over too much, fell into the well, and drowned. The wife was stunned for a moment but then smiled, 'It really works!'

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip Part 3

2008-07-03T17:13:00.005+08:00

The 5.12 Earthquake also known as the Sichuan Earthquake(2008) is something that has been widely reported in the news. We've heard enough about the death counts. This one potrays a truly heroic soldier who feels a particularly strong sense of duty towards civllians. It is drawn by a resident living in Beijing,China.

Movie Review: 21

2008-07-02T21:57:00.000+08:00

I caught 21 just last saturday and didn't really have a time to write a review till now. Sorry for the delay.

21 is based on a real life story and features a group of students from MIT who collaborates with their maths professor to cheat at the classic game of Blackjack, thus the title 21. The students cheat in the game of blackjack by counting cards and using a slightly complex system of signals to communicate with each other in the casino to prevent themselves from getting caught counting cards. The whole story revolves around Ben Campbell, played by Jim Sturgess, who is a genius at maths aspiring to attend the Harvard School of Medicine.

Life is cruel and Ben has to pay $300 000 to go to Medical School but Ben can't afford it because his father died when he was young and his mum can't afford to pay for his education. Ben is then tempted by the alluring reward of winning at the casino when a group of students who were already in this business, led by their math professor, approached him. Following that, an interesting twist of events ensue in Sin City, Vegas as Ben takes up the offer.

21 runs for approximately 2 hours and is a rather interesting movie in my opinion. It gives a rather interesting insight into gambling, given the perspective that it was filmed from. The interesting plot line and unexpected twist of fate makes the movie rather enjoyable.

More information can be found on the official website:

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/21/index.html

Rating: 3.5/5

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip Part 2

2008-07-02T13:45:00.001+08:00

The 5.12 Earthquake also known as the Sichuan Earthquake(2008) is something that has been widely reported in the news. We've heard enough about the death counts. This potrays the love of a mother in times of crisis and when catastrophe strikes. Rather touching. It is drawn by a resident living in Beijing,China.

Blizzard : Diablo 3

2008-07-01T21:35:00.001+08:00

Are you a fan of the Diablo series? Are you someone who loves RPG or MMORPG? Then Diablo 3 is the game for you. It's not certain when the game would be released but there has been some information released to satisfy the craving of Diablo fans in the meantime.

I have been a great fan of the Diablo series and in fact, almost all the games by Blizzard. Diablo is one of the three prime evils, the other two being his brothers Baal and Mephisto. The main storyline for Diablo 1 and 2 basically circulates trying to destroy these evils and it seems that Diablo has been resurrected once more in Diablo 3, although we don't know by who. There has been a progressive increase in the number of playable characters from 3 in Diablo to 7 in Diablo 2(inclusive of expansion set) whilei Diablo 3 offers 5 playable characters.

It seems that Diablo 3 would promise more interesting characters with one of the new charcters, Witch Doctor, which was announced as one of the playable characters. Along with Witch Doctor will be Barbarian, an all time-favourite in Diablo 2, retaining some of his original skills in addition to his new skill set. The question in all our minds now is who will be the 3 other characters because there would only be 5 playable characters(That's excluding any expansion sets, if any) It is highly speculated that the Witch Doctor would be replacing Necromancer since their skills are rather similar in nature. Would Amazon, Paladin and Sorceress who have appeared in both Diablo 1 and 2, although under different titles, appear in Diablo 3 or would they be replaced?

Other questions revolving round Diablo 3 would be when it would be released and whether it would be like WOW(Pay to Play) and whether that would deter some players from playing Diablo 3. Last but not least, the release date of Diablo 3 seems to be the burning question of all who are interested in purchasing Diablo 3.

New features include:
-New Characters
-New locations to explore
-New monsters

More information can be found on: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/index.xml

A feed is also available for updates on Diablo there.

5.12 Earthquake Comics Strip

2008-07-01T14:13:00.000+08:00

The 5.12 Earthquake also known as the Sichuan Earthquake(2008) is something that has been widely reported in the news. We've heard enough about the death counts. This contains some heart-warming comics potraying heroic virtues embedded within most of us. It is drawn by a resident living in Beijing,China.

This is an email i just received today morning and there's a message attached to the email along with 10 comics strips. I will be posting one here each day and the message below is unaltered to maintain it's authencity. Some stories are truly heart-warming. The hero in us awakens in the wake of disasters. Everyone has a hero inside of us, fast asleep. Perhaps, it's time we wake up and be a hero in our own right. The world is in need of heroes. We need heroes.

"Hello. This is Coco Wang. As you know the breaking news of 5.12 Earthquake in China, almost all the TV channels in China are broadcasting 24 hours non-stop of every development and stories of all the rescue operations in all damaged locations.

I don't know how much information the BBC or any UK media received from us, I imagine the UK audiences were presented with the major developments of the incident, but you are probably unaware of many important and inside details which are only known to people inside China. The amount of incredibly moving stories of victims, rescuers, and volunteers is simply shocking at the moment. I have been collecting newspapers of all the stories, and telling them in the form of comic strips. I hope these stories could show the UK readers the love, warmth and courage of the Chinese people, also the sad and cruel reality of the horrible 5.12 Earthquake.

I am back home in Beijing now. Thousands of heart-breaking stories are happening 24 hours non-stop everyday, some are so sad that you can hardly bear, some are incredibly moving that you just can't stop crying... I wanted to go to the front to help with all those people, some of my friends have already gone there, but I heard that the traffic needed to be kept totally clear for rescue transportation at the moment, people like me without knowledge of first-aid and experience of rescue operations going there now would cause choas and trouble... but I can't just sit at home and do nothing, I have been crying my eyes out in the past three days, I have never felt more proud of my country and people... their love, courage and kindness rock me to my core! I have decided to tell these touching stories by drawing comics. I am going to send you comic strips almost everyday from now on, I hope you could know something about the earthquake in China, although you don't have to do anything, but I hope you could feel our love and hope.

Thank you all so much.
Coco Wang "

The first comics strip in the series of 10

Singapore's First Ever Toy and Comic Convention

2008-06-29T22:11:00.000+08:00

Hey everybody. I haven't been posting lately because i have been quite busy with exams and all but most of them are over now. The last one standing is my piano exams. I was down on Saturday at Suntec City for the Toys and Comics Convention and here's what you have missed out if you missed it,that is.

Toys and Comic convention? Haven't heard about it before? No worries. It's something new and it's the first one ever in Singapore. It was held on the 28th and 29th of June at Suntec City's Convention Centre.

Housed within the convention hall are booths for your favourite comics and figurines. Some of the booths there include Gloomy the naughty grizzly, Monsterism Island, DEVILROBOTS and many others. There was a booth from NUS Comics too. Most notably, there was a booth by Hasbro featuring Starwars. They had the entire collection of Starwars figures featured there, i think. They were even classified according to the years etc etc. I didn't know there was so many star wars figurines!!! I was never a Star Wars fan anyway. Never ever watched any of their movies or anything related to them but i am pretty sure if you are a Star Wars fan, you sure did miss out a lot. On the downside, entry into the Star Wars booth was regulated i.e. there was a guard out there who was basically in charge of crowd control, allowing only a certain number of people in the booth at any time.

Aren't these photo frames so nice? They cost $20 each. (Ugh!)

Looks intimidating for a toy bear

Something to reassure you that the Chinese culture thrives on

Recognise any of these? V for Vandetta!!!

This picture is just cute. Plain cute.

Tofu!

The Death Note Series

There was also a section where there were people dressed up in various costumes and characters for phototaking purposes. You could take a photo with your favourite comics character. Mine wasn't there. :(.

What's toys without Lego? Lego was there with some rather amazing displays which definitely took a lot of work to build given how intricately designed they were, albeit the fact they were just blocks for kids to play with in general.

There was this section where there were doll figurines on display and they cost a bomb. I saw one that cost $725. *Gasps* Some of them are really pretty though and they don't emit the creepy aura that some dolls give off.

This is one of my favourite.

Another one of my favourite

Simply beauty.

There were a couple of booths selling T-shirts with prints of some of the characters they designed themselves. These were the booths that were the most crowded. I only managed to peek at some of the T-shirts but they were mostly for females if i was not mistaken.

Oh ya. Did i say i saw a Macdonalds booth there? Macdonalds had a booth there. No. They didn't display their collection of toys for the kid's meal. They had a booth there for getting to know more information about setting up a party for your kid at Macdonalds. It's just so out of place. Macdonalds seems to want a pie of everything huh? *Shrugs shoulders*

Apart from all the figurines, there were the comics and animation stalls. Some of them offered animation courses. On that note, the School Of Robotics was there too though i didn't really check out what they were doing there. I am done and over with Robotics.

Something drawn by a famous cartoonist(Can't remember who)[It's not very clear because of the lighting]

Some booths sold some magazines with works of their designed characters in fine coloured print. I must say that some of them were rather impressive and i felt rather compelled to buy them. But in the end, i figured that i would probably have no good use for them so i left it back at the stall. There's an english comics for the Three Kingdoms and it looked quite interesting. For those of us who love Chinese history, it might be worth a read.

Nitendo had a huge booth there too for people to try out Nitendo DS and Wii. It was one of the most cluttered booths as well. Not very surprising though. They had a couple of games on demo that you could try too. Timezone had a booth that allowed people to play DDR(I'm not sure if it's free and for what purpose) and a couple of machines that you would find at a typical arcade.

If you love Magic The Gathering, you would have loved the Wizards of the coast booth right beside the Stars Wars one. It featured their cards and all. Reminds me of my obsession with card games in the past. But that's all history. I spent a bomb on cards. :(. I think they are still somewhere in my house. Haa!!!

I bought two postcards($1 each) and a sticker($2) from DEVILROBOTS which came with a complimentary posters. I was rather tempted to buy some of the figurines but i don't have any display cupboards so they would probably go to waste. I curbed the desire!!! =P.

Cute postcards

Sticker

Complimentary poster

It's a rather small convention, i would say, as compared to most other conventions but this is the first of it's kind in Singapore. Some of the booths that i thought should be there weren't there, for example Marvel Comics. But all in all, it's still a good headstart.

I LOVE MY APPLE!

2008-06-28T13:11:00.005+08:00

Going on a shopping trip? Taking a long train journey? Embarking on a long distance run? Here, let me tell you why you should buy an iPod shuffle based on my own experience with the product itself.

Most of us can't do without our MP3 players these days whereever we go because we just love music! Myself included. iPod shuffle boasts a 1 GB - 2 GB memory allowing you to store between 240 to 500 songs depending on the memory size of your iPod shuffle. You don't have to worry about repeating the songs on your iPod Shuffle on the train anymore because there's more than enough songs to keep you crooning to your favourite tunes on the train. I personally find 240 to 500 songs more than sufficient for an average person. In fact, usually i don't end up using up all of my memory unless the songs uploaded are of very high quality. You don't have to worry about the battery running low all the time as well with iPod shuffle's 12 hour battery life.

Going on a long journey? Can't charge your MP3 player because you don't have a computer at home or outside of home? That's nothing to fret about with iPod shuffle. You can purchase the Apple USB Power Adapter for just $55.00 and you are well on your way to charging your iPod Shuffle on the road. No need to worry about packing your bag with an extra MP3 player or other forms of entertainment. That's because now you have your IPOD SHUFFLE. All you need is to plug the adapter into the power socket. It's just that easy. This is perfect when you travel. I personally experienced my battery running flat when i was using some other brands of mp3 in the past but after i switched to iPod Shuffle, nothing more to worry about.

Bored of listening to the same old songs? Are you someone who loves surprises? iPod shuffle is the perfect mp3 for you. It allows you to play your songs randomly with the shuffle function and the autofill function on iTunes. You can alternate between playing your songs according to the order you uploaded it in and shuffling the songs with a simple slide. You never know what's the next song coming up, always giving you a surprise. It's just as exciting as opening a present every few minutes as the song fades away and the next one comes on. Convenient and user-friendly.

This is the perfect gift for your parents or friends who may not be tech-saavy because navigation with the iPod shuffle is made easy. Now your parents wouldn't have to worry about how to turn off the iPod shuffle or how to shuffle the songs because it's just all about sliding.

Going shopping? Can't bring a MP3 player because your favourite dress dosen't go well with a bag? Going running? Don't like the feeling of something heavy and bulky slapping against your thighs with each step forward on the track? No worries. All you need is your iPod shuffle which you can easily clip on to your pockets or store in your handphone pouch. That's just how small iPod shuffle is. Portability is the word. iPod shuffle's small size, measuring only 41.2 X 27.3 X 10.53 mm, allows it to be brought to almost anywhere and fits almost any occassion perfectly. This is something that i really really love about the iPod when i don't want to bring my bag and have to start thinking whether i want to bring my mp3. But with iPod shuffle, i just have to place my ipod shuffle into my pocket and not worry about bringing a bag just for an mp3 player.

Have the same iPod shuffle as your friends? Don't know which one belongs to you? You can personalise your iPod shuffle when you purchase it from the Apple Store directly which allows you to engrave on the back of your iPod shuffle. Now, you don't have to worry about which one belongs to you anymore. One of a kind personalisation. This is tested and proven when me and one of my friends met up and we couldn't figure out which one was ours, so we had to play the songs to figure out which of the iPod belongs to which one of us because i don't have the engraved version. But with engraving services, that's all gonna be history.

What's more? iPod comes in 5 colours.

Grey for the neutral one sitting in between the angel and devil.

Turquoise for those who are versatile and clear-minded like water.

Green for the environment and zen.

Purple for the royalty in us.

Red for the hot and sexy socialite.

Do you happen to like the colour Red? Or are you an active AIDS activist who wants to put an end to the suffering of AIDS patients? You bet! You are in luck because when you purchase a PRODUCT (RED) Special Edition iPod Shuffle[Red in colour], Apple will contribute a portion of the money to the Global Fund for fighting AIDS/HIV in Africa. Think about it. It's killing two birds with one stone. Getting your favourite iPod shuffle and helping to support a cause. For every iPod shuffle PRODUCT (RED) Special Edition iPod Shuffle you buy, you are contributing to the purchasing and distribution of anti-AIDS medication in Africa. Do your part as a global citizen yet satisfy your inner desires.

Where else can you find a better deal? Nowhere but at Apple! What are you waiting for? Want to know more or are you already raring to snatch the iPod off the shelves? Log on to http://store.apple.com/sg/ and order your iPod shuffle and get it shipped to you within 24 hours without any shipping fees!

Note: The pictures posted in this post do not belong to me and were taken from "http://store.apple.com/sg/"

Macdonalds killing more trees?

2008-06-27T23:09:00.001+08:00

I am sure that most of us would have noticed that Macdonalds has changed the system in which they serve their customers. Instead of getting the customer to wait, they get the customer to move to the next lane with a receipt and wait for their order. I don’t know if you realise but more often than not, you don't have to wait very long to get your order placed on your tray. This is seen as being much more efficient compared to where the staff can only serve one customer per lane and has to wait till the customer gets his or her order most of the time. Sure, I do understand where Macdonalds is coming from.

But you do realise that the printing of the receipt is redundant, don't you? It just serves as a form of identification of the customers so that the staff knows who the order belongs to. This is redundant in my opinion. Are the staff at Macdonalds so inefficient and so scatter-brained that they really can't remember who ordered what? If it was during a peak period, perhaps it is justifiable to print those receipts but what about the non-peak period? Macdonalds isn't always having a full house. I am pretty sure everybody's aware of that.

Even if the Macdonalds staff is truly scatter-brained, it is still not justifiable to print these receipts. How so? Let's first assume that the Macdonalds staff is truly scatter-brained and can't remember who ordered what. For example, there are 5 customers on the next lane waiting for their orders to be served. If let's say burger A is ready and the staff dosen't know if the burger belongs to customer 1,2,3,4 or 5 and askes the customers who ordered burger A. Do you really think that the customers would start fighting and said i ordered it? The likelihood of such a scenario occurring is arguably almost out of the world. Most of us are rationale and wouldn't go around snatching others' orders which we probably wouldn't even feel like eating in the first place which explains why we didn't order it.

There's also the napkins which you can help yourself to at the self-service counter which are made of recycled paper. I am pretty sure that the step taken to switch to napkins made from recycled materials was a step by the corporation to reduce the number of trees it has to cut down and i applaud that move. Applaudable as it is, there are some inherent flaws with that. The first one being, the receipts printed would proabably reduce the number of trees that these recycled papers can help to save or even more than offset the number of trees saved and ends up resulting in more trees cut. What's more, the very nature that the napkins are self-service makes them subjectable to abuse. Not all of us are as environmentally friendly as we think we are and thus the abuse. To say that everybody is aware about protecting the environment is clearly a fallacious statement. In the case that it's not, we would proabably not even have to promote the campaign where we get Singaporeans to bring their own plastic bags or recyclable or environmentally friendly bag to the supermarket. The fact remains as it is. Most of us are not doing our part, small and insignificant as it is, to protect the environment. I've seen people pulling out dozens of napkins when they really don't need that much.

Macdonalds has done it's part to try to protect the environment by switching to recycled paper(although whether it's because of a lower cost albeit unlikely or because of the true desire to save the environment remains unbeknownst to me) Perhaps Macdonalds should take yet another step and only print those receipts when necessary because i am sure not all of us need the receipts and also because it is not of much practical use as we eventually chuck them into the bins. It's not that i am trying to fault Macdonalds. It's ultimately still a commericial firm and being that, it's profit driven, accountable to it's shareholders and does it actions based on whatever that's best to the company. As much as Macdonalds can try to play a part, perhaps we should start playing our part by saying no to the receipts and taking only what we need.

We need to save the environment for our future generations and something closer to our heart, reduce the effects of global warming. I am sure I don't have to preach about global warming given that it's a rather popular topic in recent years and can be easily researched on on the Internet. Eitherway, we should be more conscious of our actions and the impact on the environment.

The mental hospital

2008-06-24T22:51:00.007+08:00

This is a really funny story that i found in one of my emails when i was looking through my inbox. It's kind of short but kinda funny in it's own special way.

Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.

When she went to tell Edna the news she said, 'Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displays a sound mind. The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry, but he's dead.' Edna replied, 'He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry. How soon can I go home?

Spectacular tricks to teach your body

2008-06-21T13:31:00.004+08:00

Here's a rather interesting email that i received from my friend not too long ago. I like to post interesting emails on my blogs rather than forward them to people because it seems that through posting them on my blog, i can reach a wider audience.

Anyway, i will not testify to the usefulness of the following tricks. Whether it works or not, i don't know but either way, it still makes an interesting read

1.) If you've got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear. When the nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the throat that causes a muscle spasm, which cures the itch.

2.) Having trouble hearing someone at a party or on the phone? Use your right ear. Its better at picking up rapid speech. But, the left is better at picking up music tones

3.) If you need to relieve yourself BADLY, but you're not anywhere near a bathroom, fantasizes about RELATIONS. That preoccupies your brain and distracts it

4.) Next time the doctor's going to give you an injection, COUGH as the needle is going in. The cough raises the level of pressure in your spinal canal, which limits the pain sensation as it tries to travel to your brain.

5.) Clear a stuffed nose or relieve sinus pressure by pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth.then pressing a finger between your eyebrows. Repeat that for 20 seconds.it causes the vomer bone to rock, which loosens your congestion and clears you up.

6.) If you ate a big meal and you're feeling full as you go to sleep, lay on your left side. That'll keep you from suffering from acid reflux. It keeps your stomach lower than your esophagus, which will help keep stomach acid from sliding up your throat.

7.) You can stop a toothache by rubbing ice on the back of your hand, on the webbed area between your thumb and index finger. The nerve pathways there stimulate a part of the brain that blocks pain signals from your mouth.

8.) If you get all messed up on liquor, and the room starts spinning, put your hand on something stable. The reason: Alcohol dilutes the blood in the part of your ear called the cupula, which regulates balance. Putting your hand on something stable gives your brain another reference point, which will help make the world stop spinning.

9.) Stop a nose bleed by putting some cotton on your upper gums.right behind the small dent below your nose.and press against it hard. Most of the bleeding comes from the cartilage wall that divides the nose, so pressing there helps get it to stop.

10.) Nervous? Slow your heart rate down by blowing on your thumb. The vagus nerve controls your heart rate, and you can calm it down by breathing.

11.) Need to breathe underwater for a while??? Instead of taking a huge breath, HYPERVENTILATE before you go under, by taking a bunch of short breaths. That'll trick your brain into thinking it has more oxygen, and buy you about 10 extra seconds.

12.) You can prevent BRAIN FREEZE by pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much surface area as possible. Brain freeze happens because the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, so your brain thinks your whole body is cold. It compensates by overheating.which causes your head to hurt. By warming up the roof of your mouth, you'll chill your brain and feel better.

13.) If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side. That'll wake your hand or arm up in less than a minute. Your hand falls asleep because of the nerves in your neck compressing,so loosening your neck is the cure. If your foot falls asleep, that's governed by nerves lower in the body, so you need to stand up and walk around.

14.) Finally, this one's totally USELESS, but a nice trick. Have someone stick their arm out to the side, straight, palm down. Press down on his wrist with two fingers. He'll resist, and his arm will stay horizontal. Then, have him put his foot on a surface that's half an inch off the ground, like a stack of magazines, and do the trick again. Because his spine position is thrown off, his arm will fall right to his side, no matter how much he tries to resist.

15.) Got the hiccups? Press thumb and second finger over your eyebrows until the hiccups are over - usually shortly.

Sure? Zuunbo? Yes.

2008-06-20T17:24:00.004+08:00

Tired of searching through long list of sellers on online shopping websites? Tired of comparing prices across the various shopping websites to see which one offers you the best prices?

Zuunbo is your solution. It is one of the more promising online shopping portals in Singapore. Set up by 3 students, Zuunbo offers it's product for sale at prices you will never find in the retail stores. Like most other online shopping portals, Zuunbo requires you to sign up for an account with them before you can start purchasing the goods on sale. Do note that there is a limited number of that product sold each day, so grab it while you can. I find the concept relatively easy to understand and rather well-explained on the website. The website is kept relatively simple which makes navigation and access to the various pages relatively easy. This aids in the shopping experience, making it easy unlike shopping at certain places where it can be difficult to locate certain shops or figure out where to find what.

Not only does Zuunbo offer low prices, the very concept behind Zuunbo as an online retail portal is a unique one. Zuunbo offers only one product for sale each day and they come in limited numbers. The product on sale is changed at midnight everyday but you will never know what is going to be on sale tomorrow, to keep the shoppers in suspense and raise the excitment level. The products on sale include electronics and accessories which you can buy for your home or even as a gift for a friend.

Have you been wondering what Zuunbo means just like me when i first came to know about it? Zuunbo is Hokkien for "Sure or not?" and is used to express shock or disbelief at the astonishingly low prices that Zuunbo offers. It's a rather innovative name, in my opinion.

It will take about 7 days for your good to be shipped after you make your order. Still hesitating? Go visit http://www.zuunbo.com/ for more information.

Just ordered your product? Bought something from Zuunbo? Perhaps you can share with me and any reader here about your shopping experience at Zuunbo and what you have bought. :D

Love in autumn

2008-06-19T14:47:00.005+08:00

For love is beautiful,
it will wither.
Wither it will,
falling petals gently embrace the wind.

On the bed of winter's frost,
it lies undisturbed.
In spring's river,
carried across the greatest seas.
For summer will come,
love will seed.
Autumn's prelude.
When love blossoms,
rain faintly comes to life,
for heaven knows it will wither once more.

The Camera Paradox

2008-06-17T18:09:00.006+08:00

When we think camera, the first thing that comes to mind for most of us would be the quality of the image which is in turn inevitably intertwined with the number of image sensor elements of the digital camera i.e. megapixels.

It seems that those who aren't particularly well acquainted in the area of photography would always source for cameras with a high megapixel count when they go shopping for cameras. It is true that the higher the megapixel is, the clearer and the better will be the quality of your images. But it seems that the "megapixel chase" has gone too far today. Apart from the technical parts of the camera, what is more important in affecting the quality of the picture is the technique of the photographer. If one is sloppy and not well-acquainted with the art of photography, the photo would probably turn out equally bad whether you have a 3.2 megapix camera or 7.2 megapix camera. That's the reason why photography societies still exists in some schools. As much as technology can help to improve the photos, the most important factor in determining the outcome of the photo is YOU. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars trying to make up for our lousy techniques through upgrading our digital cameras, we should invest this money into a short photography course to equip us with the necessary skills to last us for a life time. Have we become so lazy now that we choose the shorter route out as usual and employ technology (which does fail at times) to make up for our shortfalls?

Even if we choose to employ technology, not all our problems would be resolved. To truly make a real difference to your photo, you would have to at least triple or quadruple the number of megapixels. Anything less than that, the photo would probably look the same. The question then comes, why do we still purchase a camera with megapixels higher than our current one when it dosen't make a real difference? This can be partially attributed to ignorance about how a difference in megapixels makes a difference to our photos. We simply assume that increasing our megapixel would improve our picture quality, which is something we start pondering about when we look at our photos which, at times, don't turn out so well after all.

There are also the measurebators, a lingo used by photographers to describe people who like the group described above, think that higher "specs" equates to better photos and thus go chasing after the numbers as the megapixel count continues to shoot upwards. Measurebators go around comparing the prices of their cameras and specs which seems to be the category that some of us happen to fall under, knowingly or not.

For those who fall under this category unknowingly, they belong to the category described in the previous paragraph i.e. people who are unaware about how differences in the components of camera affect the photo. However, feigning ignorance in the 21st century dosen't seem like a very plausible excuse for getting caught up in the number chase. As much as we have the technology to make up for our shortfalls, we can also tap into this technology to open the doors that were once closed to us. With Internet and the library so accessible for us as transport infrastructure improves, ignorance is just an excuse, a ludicrous one in fact. It's time we open up the internet explorer and google for photography tips.

There are also those who fall under the second category, those who knowingly join the chase, albeit uncommon, relative to the first. These are the people who faithfully believe that their worldy possession, money, can purchase anything and all else is subordinate to money. I find it silly to compare the monetary value of cameras for the sake of flaunting wealth. Why not flash your bankbooks to each other instead? That would probably be a better way to compare your wealth without having to have the numbers in the bank book falling drastically.

That aside, having a camera with higher megapixels does come with it's own implications. For those of us who are more tech saavy, the story does not end after taking the photo and developing it, that's if you develop your photos. After countless repeats of snapping shutters, we plug in our USB cable into the computer and start uploading our photos. That's when the problem comes in. Do you find yourself starting to resize your photos so that they can fit both in dimension and size to the website that you may want to upload your photo to? It is a known fact that many websites out there put a limit on the size of the photos you can upload to their website and in fact the cap is usually rather low. When you start resizing your photos, the photo quality drops correspondingly as well. Is there then any point in having a photo with extremely high quality? The answer is no, particularly for those of us who love to cam whore because we usually the photos taken at our camwhore parties. The difference in a photo taken with a high megapixel camera and low megapixel camera only becomes blatantly obvious when you develop it and print it out (particularly if the photo is literally large) This is the case too for those of us who want to share our photos with friends. The problem isn't too big when it is one or two photo. When the photos amount to 50, 100 or even more, it is impossible to send all these photos in one zip file. Why? Because the file size is too big even after compressing it via zipping. The solution? To reduce the photo quality.

To prove my point, i did a little experiment with the two cameras i own. One of them is a 7.2 megapixel camera and the other is a 3.2 megapixel camera. The 7.2 megapixel camera's photo file size was on average 2-3MB and the 3.2 megapixel camera's file size was 400-800KB. The difference in file size is stark and shocking isn't it? Don't believe me? Try it out yourself.

This post was inspired by my friend, Marilyn, who recently purchased a new 10.1 megapixel digital camera which got me thinking about cameras. Thanks Marilyn.

"I bought a new digital camera." says Arthur

"How many megapixels does the digital camera possess?" askes friend

"It's more than that." says Arthur

For freedom is a crime

2008-06-17T16:35:00.004+08:00

For freedom is a crime

Pride trampled,
Dignity crumbled.
Like thieves cornered,
Desperate and hungry.
For freedom is a crime,
don a suit of celebration and mime.
For mimes are dumb,
We are left with naught.

My baby post

2008-06-16T12:39:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone! This is my first post here on this blog. This is the second blog i own currently and was set up to voice out my thoughts as compared to the first which encompasses more or less my personal life.

Here's a little information about myself. My name's Arthur and I am turning 18 this year. I love to write, be it poem, fanfictions or short stories. One of my dreams is to publish my own novel one day. But for now, it seems quite distant for a dream.

The subsequent posts here would largely be about my thoughts and my literary works.

P.S. I think a lot. I think that's why i have some silver strands of hair hidden amidst the black ones.