Anybody Miss Mangletooth My gf would not get this, but having spent a good part of my time in the Barrens as a Tauren Warrior I love this a lot Boom De Yada for WoW I love the video… Boom De Yada… Koizumi as Anime?! WTF?!! This is too funny not to share. I look forward to more subbed episodes. Something Strange You know I was looking at the most recent UNDP Human Development Index, and something caught my eye. In terms of percentage of population that was made up of immigrants it was 31.8% in 1960 and 35% in 2005. I guess all those immigrants in 1960 became citizens in 1963. For those who’d like to know our rank, it’s #23 out of 187. That puts us on the Very High Human Development scale. In terms of richest 10% to poorest 10%, I think we are 2nd highest amongst the Very High Human Development group with HK just ahead by 0.1. Then again there is missing data from certain oil rich countries like Brunei, Kuwait and UAE, so who knows. It seems countries based on the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism in the top tier group have larger gaps between the top 10% and bottom 10%. Japan has the lowest at 4.5, but that could be due to almost 20 years of recession. Strange Weather we’re having I find it funny that when the PAP had a member who was not very sure he wanted to be part of the party when he joined, and then did not participate at all, the entire Singapore blogdom seemed aflame with how the PAP does not select its members well. On the other hand, when the Reform Party’s Central Executive Committee member has to step down because he is wanted on charges in the US for aiding and abetting terrorists (freedom fighters, po-tay-to, po-tah-to), all you get is a tiny peep. Or when the PKMS decides to implode, again there is not much criticism on the party. Instead its all about how the incident is hurting the Opposition. Not about the party’s choice of members. If I were an outside observer, I would think that Singaporeans are rather indulgent of opposition parties and willing to forgive all sorts of indiscretions (including nude pictures with his maid), but the minute PAP recruits someone who isn’t sure if the party is his cup of tea it is a cardinal sin. So if the opposition were to actually win an election, we could potentially have terrorist sympathisers, perverts and what not alongside honest and good men. NB: I am not saying all opposition politicians are bad men, but the fact that the good and the bad mix together is not a very heartening prospect should the opposition ever become the government. Next Dean of NUS Law? As you know there are now two shortlisted candidates for Dean of NUS Law school. On one side we have Professor Michael Hor (who taught me Criminal Law in Year One) and on the other side we have Professor John Phillips from King’s College London. Personally I’m hoping for Professor Hor to succeed Dean Tan Cheng Han. I suppose I’m plumping for a know entity rather than an unknown outsider. That might make me close minded, but I feel a foreigner might have a hard time negotiating the Byzantine politics of the NUS system. Add the potentially highly politicised, but under-utilised role of the legal fraternity here (uniquely Singapore), and a foreign Dean might feel a little out of place for a couple of years. Valuable years that may cost NUS its high ground against its local competitor, SMU. Plus we’ve done just fine without a foreign Dean since 1968. All the foreign Deans that we have had, outside of founding Dean Sheridan, stayed for about a year or 2 before leaving. It was not until Thio Su Mien (yes of recent AWARE fame), who took over in 1968, did we have a Dean who remained for a much longer time than 2 years. Who knows? Maybe I am wrong to pick the familiar over the foreign, especially since I have not had an opportunity to meet Professor Phillips, other than a quick glance before he entered the room for his interview today. I am sure those on the search committee will carefully weigh all pros and cons, but I think I’ll bet on Professor Hor. Disney’s Secret Club Wow. I did not know that Disney had a Club 33 that is so exclusive. It has a 14 year wait list for membership. It’s located on the second floor of the Blue Bayou in Disneyland Original. You know… the Restaurant by the Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe I should express interest now. I should be able to afford membership in 14 years… Nerd Venn Diagram This is too funny, but helps clear up the whole confusion between nerd, geek, dork and dweeb. I sure as hell hope I am a Geek. D&D Drinks?! OMG! My inner geek is going off. Jones Soda is selling D&D themed sodas. I wonder if they will ship to Singapore. Potion of Healing, Sneak Attack, Bigin’s Crushing Thirst Destroyer, Dwarven Draught,  Eldritch Blast and Illithid Brain Juice. YUMMY! What an idiot. From a lapsed Catholic to a converted atheist: don’t be one of those self-righteous pricks. Dear TJC student, It’s just a “God bless.” Give it a rest. People are entitled to their religious beliefs. He/She did not give a long speech about religion nor prayed. I think the person just meant well to the incoming Council. I don’t get what the big deal was. It probably just slipped because this person is religious and to him/her it’s what is said to mean good will. I hate fundamentalists of all stripes, and my advice to you is to temper your righteous rage with some tolerance. You don’t win people over by being a self-righteous prick, you win them over by being tolerant without compromising your values. If that person were to wish you “god bless,”  you should wish them “good luck” in reply. Or even “may the force be with you” or “live long and prosper” depending on which geek you are (and I am sure TJC students are geeks). So once again, breathe and let it go. There are bigger battles to fight. Sincerely, PMG Belligerent and Self-Righteous The Online Citizen seems to have pissed off NMP Viswa Sadasivans for taking a private speech and turning it into a piece that was belligerent and self-righteous. I always knew they were engaged in some kind of spin, but credit is given for publishing the letter criticizing them. Although their defense of being unbiased seems a little like the ST’s claims of being the best news source in Singapore… Hollow. Change locks also must fight? Don’t get me wrong, I think there needs to be a credible opposition, but if they keep fighting amongst themselves, there never can be one. I don’t think the PAP really needs to be “fixing” the opposition. They seem quite ready to “fix” themselves. WTH?!?! And during the month of Ramadan. I thought this period was for reflection and to avoid all the negative things in life. I’m not a Muslim, but that’s what I gather from my Muslim friends. From Wikipedia:It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the Muslim patience, modesty and spirituality. Ramaḍān is a time for Muslims to fast for the sake of God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramaḍān, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. To be honest this is such a terrible move by a constituent party of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA). I can’t seem to find a SDA website, but the Singapore People’s Party website has said nothing on this matter as of 8.35am. To be fair though, it is before office hours, and I bet no one was informed of this until they heard it on the radio, TV or newspaper. Guess PM Lee can sleep a little better at night knowing that some Opposition Parties are busy “fixing” themselves at night. Singaporeans are unbelievable Stop whining. You got to see a free NDP show. You got a free goodies bag. You still want to complain you did not get the colour you want?!? Spoil your mood?!?! WTF?!?! Unbelievable… Dali & Disney Who would’ve thought I used to fly United This is a real funny video about United’s lousy customer service. I thought their air crew was ok, but I guess their ground crew sucks monkey balls. Monkey Alcoholics This is so strange indeed! Honduras Situation For all of you not in the know there is a political crisis brewing in Honduras. The President was deposed for doing things unconstitutionally, but the multinational organisations (UN, OAS) want him reinstated. A frater of mine has asked me to share this with as many people as possible, so blogging it is a good way to share. He’s from the pro-deposition group. Roberto CalderonKX 460 I write this report to try to explain the situation from my point of view, and try to clear the scenario for as many international eyes and ears as possible. I also know that thousands of Hondurans think alike and are ecstatic about the events that occurred this day. Events which will live in our history books as the day that good and decent citizens stood up against a criminal in order to make democracy prevail. Mr. Zelaya was elected president of Honduras through popular election on November 2005, for the 2006-2009 period. He was elected on a narrow margin, mostly due to the ruling party’s candidate desire to push for the death penalty in our country, which is not allowed in our law. We are a peaceful and tame people, and do not like such drastic penalties. Mr. Zelaya was elected because he opposed death penalty, and he promised to continue his party’s work on improving the situation on our country’s education, health and social situation, while promoting democracy and swearing to protect our Constitution. He also promoted a so called “Citizen’s power”, which was supposed to be a channel for the people to express their thoughts to the government. In the first 2 years of his term, he seemed to be trying to fulfill his promises, but then we see him starting to engage in relations with Venezuela’s leftist president Hugo Chavez, which per se is not a bad thing, but he starts to support his ideologies. This is where Mr. Zelaya stabbed the Honduran people in the back. He makes an unpredicted turn to the left, which the majority of the population is against, but nevertheless, he goes on with the integration of Honduras to the ALBA, Hugo Chavez’s initiative, which has caused nothing but civil unrest on countries that have joined. This mostly motivated by promises of easy money by Chavez. Zelaya starts also to take a populist stance, first approving a huge increase in government workers’ wage, then approving a general increase to the minimum wage to levels where small and medium business were not able to cope with. He uses his “Citizen’s power” initiative to promise the poor areas of Honduras a thousand and one benefits with the integration to the ALBA. This all seems good, but in the background, he is asphyxiating our country’s air-thin budget with these initiatives, and forgoing such responsibilities such as the fight of crime, drug trafficking, diseases, the World’s economical crisis, and many other social matters.This is Zelaya first crime. With this strategy, Zelaya “purchased” the support of some in-country blocks, such as peasant and indigenous organizations.This all would have been good, until you see Zelaya’s true intentions. His purpose was of gathering support for his new project: to dispose of the current Constitution, over which he was sworn in, and create a new one, similar to ones crafted by Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, with which he would be allowed to be re-elected. This is Zelaya’s second crime. In trying to create a legal and “democratic” facade for his project, Zelaya used one of the statutes of his “Citizen’s power” initiative, which is the “Law of Citizens’ participation”, in which the people can put request to the government to conduct surveys about the peoples opinion. The problem is that no one to be asked about their will to change the constitution. This was fabricated by Zelaya, by threatening public employees to fire them, if they do not bring in a quota of “voluntarily” signed requested for this inquiry. So public employees, trying to safeguard their jobs, started forcing people to sign this if they wanted to be treated at hospitals, sold needed medicines, and even have a phone line repaired. This is Zelaya’s third crime. After gathering a certain number of “requests”, he started moving for the installation of a popular inquiry, in which he would ask if the people wanted a new constitution, and which was going to take place today. The issue here is that this “popular inquiry” was not sanctioned by any independent and legal body, such as the Supreme Electoral Tribunal,  and, furthermore, was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Justice, on the grounds that our Constitution forbids anyone on changing the basic, or petrous, articles of it, which state the form of government and the impossibility of re-election. He also fired our Military Chief of Staff because he would not follow his orders after being declared illegal by the supreme court. This action was immediately reverted by congress. Because the job of the military chief of staff is to uphold the constitution, and not the whims of a single person, even though he is the president. Remember the president is there to UPHOLD the constitution, NOT break it; which was Zelaya’s intention. This was his fourth and last crime, against the Republic of Honduras. This day’s event, where just a consequence of Zelaya’s moving on with this illegal inquiry. After his stubbornness to continue with it, his arrest was ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice, arrest which was conducted by the brave men in the military. I believe he was taken out of the country due to imminent threat of Hugo Chavez. Chavez has vowed to reinstate Zelaya, “no matter what it takes”. Yes, Zelaya was democratically elected, but he also betrayed the Honduras’s people vote by trying to take the country to a path that we do not chose (ALBA and Chavez extreme socialism), forgetting important country affairs for promoting his Chavist agenda, and using the country’s poor for this purpose. If he promotes democracy through the voice of the people, why didn’t he asked us if we wanted to join the ALBA? Finally, I want to remind everyone that this was not a military coup, this was the ARREST and DESTITUTION of a criminal president (call it an impeachment if you like), with the help of the military. Proof that it is not a coup, is that as of this moment we already have the Constitutional State of Right re-established, with a new president, and new cabinet. Let us Hondurans be, we have already defenestrated what was causing us such stress, division and unrest, and we will reunite ourselves, to again perform our right of suffrage in 5 months. Also i want to clarify that what Zelaya has been saying about revolts in the cities and power shutdown are not completely true. It is true that some sectors in the country had a power shortage for a few hours and a couple hundred of his supporters came out to the streets to protest, but not even near to what he is saying. It was a very peaceful transition as more than 80% of the Honduran population agrees on what happened today. Before I finish, I would like to leave you with a last comment.  How often do a couple of hundred people (our CONGRESSMEN) of different backgrounds, social standing, and POLITICAL PARTY unanimously agree on the same thing. It is hard enough for every member in a single party to agree. So how can OUR CONGRESS come to an UNANIMOUS vote regarding the illegal activities of Zelaya’s actions. We Hondurans are extremely proud today of our political leaders who had the courage to do the right thing and stand up against a CRIMINAL. This is what we want. We ask the international community to take a closer look of our situation, and not allow other states such as Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador, to interfere with what we have chosen. We, the people of Honduras, have chosen: that is Democracy. Iran = Soviet Union I’m not a Kremlin-ologist nor am I an Iran-watcher, but I have this nagging feeling that the latest going-ons in Iran feel similar to how the great Communist project died in Russia. Mind you the Communist project died with the rise of the Nomenklatura, not with the actual physical collapse of the Soviet Union. The rise of a tiny elite from the ideology always marks the beginning of the end for that ideology. It seems to me that the great project of an Islamic Republic is coming to the same sorry end: the rise of a distinct elite. While I may not agree with all that Iran does, I have always admired the daring experiment of meshing Islam with Republicanism. Considering that Islam has always had close ties with the State, and that most States have been monarchies, Iran stands out as one of the few that is an avowed Islamic state that tries to put clerics in-charge while trying to maintain some semblance of a republic. As to the success of that, I will leave it to the experts to decide. From what I hear about Iran from friends with experience there, it is not as repressive as most people think. The current round of protests and electoral rigging, feels like the start of repression. A far more repressive regime seems to have begun on Iran. The power grab by certain sections of the Iranian establishment smells to me like the rise of a Nomenklatura where they feel they know better than the people on how to guide the grand project. Furthermore this tiny elite seem to be in the process of shutting down dissenting views amongst the other clerics. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strikes me as a Stalin-in-waiting, seeking to despose of the moderate clerics who have a different vision of the Islamic Republic (Trotsky, anyone). It’s just my 2 cents… I am sure I could be totally wrong since I am not an Iran-watcher or a Soviet expert. I just feel sad that some great experiment is about to come to an end due to human flaws. Nap Nap… Good Taken from here. Nap… Good… Go nap now… • Increase your on-the-job alertness by 100 percent [Tell your boss. Now! Do it!] • Sharpen your thinking so you make more accurate judgments and better decisions [Follow up point one with this point] • Ramp up your productivity [Then slam your boss with this finishing point] • Regenerate skin cells so you look younger [instead of spending hundreds of moolah on useless skin products, just go to sleep] • Increase your sex drive [mmmm... honey if you have a headache, take a nap] • Help you lose weight by altering metabolism and shifting chemicals that affect appetite [hmmm... doesn't seem to work for me] • Reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular problems [ doctor says I need to nap more] • Lift your mood by bathing your brain in the neurotransmitter serotonin [ instead of arguing, lets take a nap] • Speed up your ability to perform motor tasks, like typing, operating machinery, even swimming [never tried this before] • Improve your accuracy—in everything [see the point on sex drive?] • Improve the way your body processes carbs, which reduces your risk of diabetes [got to work that nap into my schedule] • Sharpen your senses so you take in what’s important in your environment—and screen out the 24-hour culture chatter that surrounds us [by sleeping I get to avoid people] • Put your brain into its creative gear so you can come up with fresh ideas [good for the ad agency guys] • Trigger a naturally occurring hormone that blocks the destructive chemicals produced by stress [stressed? take a nap] • Boost your ability to learn something new—and, better yet, remember it [so always neap before studying, but no napping through class] • Zap the need for drugs like caffeine and alcohol to manipulate your mood and energy level [save money, sleep more] • Relieve migraines [yeah it works for me]• Improve your nighttime sleep by eliminating that wired feeling and thus shutting off the brain chatter [my brain is such a chatterbox] • Make you feel good all over [it does. it really does] Literal Music Videos This is totally funny. 80s MTV just makes no sense Total Eclipse of the Heart = Zombie Cult and Weird Dancing Kids We Built This City = Not making any sense with a singing Abraham Lincoln Take on Me = Really weird comic worldP.S. There’s another weird dancing clip with Darth Vadar and Storm Troopers. The Hunt for Gollum Independent made film that is real high quality. Made with only $5000… Maybe it’s not that bad If impression is everything, then Singapore really is not doing so bad. We ranked 3rd least affected by the Recession in a survey done by the Sun and Servcorp (source here). At least impression-wise we’re doing fine, but of course you can say it’s just businesspeople opinions. Then I again I always prefer to look on the brighter side of life. A dog’s life Muscovite dogs seem to have adapted well to post-Soviet Russia. They even take the subway. I am amazed. They even engage in ambush tactics where they tap you gently then bark, you get scared and drop your food. But they mostly beg. (WSJ report) Here’s a video of one riding the trainTaken from here. Civil Society should stay above the fray SDP has called for a civil society alliance with the Opposition (no prizes for guessing which party they had in mind), but I beg to differ. I am a firm believer in civil society, and they act to fill in gaps where the political parties cannot. I also believe that civil society groups should work with political parties to bring about their goals, but there should not be an alliance. An alliance means being tied to one another and coming to aid each other in time of need. That defeats the point of being a civil society organisation. Governments come and go, and sometimes to achieve a goal it may be necessary to work with the party in power. If one is associated with a certain political party, then one can only ride the coattails of that party to get things done. Also Ms Chee has pointed out civil society organisations must speak out against government abuse. Working too closely with an opposition party that could become the government party some day makes it difficult then to criticise that ally’s abuse of governmental power. So my advice to all CSOs is to stick to an independent line and work with whomever the situation calls for. Alliances can be a dangerous thing if one is not careful. What a great guitar Obviously there’s one Japanese kid not content with guitar hero on the Wii… His guitar playing is off the charts. Ozzy Osbourne Crazy Train. Singing not so good, but guitar is amazing. It’s cool that his idol Ozzy comes out later to congratulate him. Ancient Porno From the Economist Seems this mammoth tusk carving comes from about 35,000 year ago. Even then the porn industry was already in action. Perhaps porn is the greatest innovator of art and technology after all. Those Frenchies Tongue-in-cheek reasons why the Brits hate the Froggies (Telegraph) 9. Because they’re allergic to customer service In London eateries, it takes an average 3.4 minutes to get a glass of water once a waiter has been alerted; in Paris it takes 17.9 minutes. [Yeah. By the time the hotel fixed the problem I was checking out the next morning]10. Because they’re rude The “Paris Syndrome” is a medically recognised type of depression which afflicts foreign visitors, caused by the sustained rudeness of French people to outsiders. [I've experienced that one before. Nicest people I met in Paris were two Englishmen] 19. Because of their incessant wining Does France still make the best wine? Not if you go by the infamous Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, when an English wine merchant organised a “blind” tasting before a jury of French experts. To their horror, they rated Californian wines as winners in both the red and white wine categories. The French press first denied any tasting had happened, then claimed the results were fixed. [Strangely I don't drink French wines. Mine are mostly new world wines or German ones. German grapes would own French grapes any day, because the French ones would just surrender] 21. Because they took the cow pat… and turned it into a hat Well, that’s what the beret is, isn’t it? [That's a good one] 26. Because the French health service is the best in the world However, during a 2003 heat wave, the French health services, rated as a “world best” by the WHO, failed to prevent the deaths of 16,300 elderly people. [It is amazing how they screwed that one up] Asian Economies first off the block? Crouching Tigers (The Economist) But Singapore, HK, Taiwan and S Korea might be slower than the rest…There is more argument, however, over the smaller, more export-driven economies, such as Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Robert Subbaraman, an economist at Nomura, offers several reasons why they are likely to remain sluggish for the time being. The recent rise in exports and production, he argues, largely reflects the fact that firms are no longer running down stocks. This will provide only a temporary boost unless global demand picks up. Firms’ spare capacity also means that investment will continue to fall, while rising unemployment threatens to dent consumer spending. Nor is China’s stronger growth likely to save the region. Over 60% of China’s imports come from the rest of Asia, but about half of these are components which are assembled in China then sold to the rich world. It’s not all doom and gloom though… we might still pull out earlier than the rest of the worldA second reason for expecting a stronger bounce is that fiscal stimulus in Asia is bigger than in other regions. China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia have all announced fiscal packages of more than 4% of GDP for 2009, twice as large as America’s stimulus this year. The pump-priming should also work better in Asia than in America or Europe, because modest corporate and household debts mean that tax cuts or cash handouts are more likely to be spent than saved. Banks, moreover, are in much better shape and so have more freedom to support an increase in domestic spending. So let’s hope we’ll be coming round the mountain soon. Star Trek Nerd Nerd Alert… 25 most memorable Star Trek Characters… I did not even know #25 Captain Benjamin Maxwell Really cool bets you can’t lose Courtesy of Neatorama. I really like this one… I’ll Bet … “I can jump higher than this house.” Setup: Just jump up in the air six inches or so. Payoff: You’ve just jumped higher than any house ever could.