Ridz, Tian Hong and myself were talking about boyfriends and girlfriends and Valentine’s Day and all when we suddenly draw the conclusion that there will come a day when everyone will eventually not get attached and the human race might just come to standstill. Sounds exaggerated? Well, not really if there is such a thing as “real love”. =P

One of us, I shall not mention which of the guys, related the following incident:

• Guy has a crush on a girl. Well, it’s only a crush and nothing happens. It’s when you idolise somebody
• Then the guy may move on to the “like” stage - when the guy will be attracted to the girl but he is not sure if it’s the kind of “boy-like” feeling. You know? Puppy love?
• Then the guy moves on to the “love” stage. That’s when the guy is really concerned about the girl and makes sure that she gets the best and is really happy. Now since no guy would ever say that he’s the best for the girl, he’d move into this cyclic thing when he starts thinking that there will be someone else better for her. Eventually, the girl doesn’t get attached if everyone who likes/loves her start thinking the same way.

Going by this logic all the girls who are loved will eventually not be attached and all the guys… will just remain single.

Quite sad to think of things like this when it’s just less than 1 week before Valentine’s Day =P

Sometimes, I wonder if the ERP UI was a necessity, given that we can “tag” cars and deduct the fees owed via Giro at the end of the month? Of course, someone mentioned that the ERP IU was created so that there would be some use for the Cashcard - in a time when people started questioning the use of it. Now that we have EZ-link, people started wondering if the Cashcard was indeed a redundant thing of the past.

Given the impending implementation of GPS-based ERP, one can’t help but wonder if the LTA will come up with a device that does not require the physical insertion of a cash-valued card but instead bill the owner for the fees owed at the end of the month. As for foreign vehicles who come into Singapore, they can always rent a unit and leave their credit card number or some form of deposit when the take it.

 Then again, I may not be seeing the big picture. Hmm…

THE Chinese New Year mood dimmed for several Bukit Merah View residents when they discovered that their cars were among 22 vehicles whose windscreens had been smashed early yesterday morning.
A serial screen smasher had apparently used an umbrella-shaped tool to pierce the glass and then reached in, hand in glove, to pull out CashCards from the vehicles.

The rampage had taken place at about 2.15am, said resident Mr Andrew Oh, who had seen the thief from his flat window.

The suspect, who is of medium build and wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans, targeted cars with tell-tale covers on their CashCard devices.

One of the victims was Madam Adeline Lim, who is in her 30s. Her grey Honda was one of 14 cars on the fourth level of Block 126A to be hit by the thief, who struck eight other vehicles parked on the fifth level of the multi-storey carpark.

The thief took Madam Lim’s CashCard, worth about $20, but left parking coupons valued at about $100 behind.

Ms Lim said: ‘I’m really disgusted and flabbergasted. This is Chinese New Year.’

Another victim, engineer Low Chor Liang, who lives next door at Block 126, said that he was saddened by the smash and grab.

‘I have no choice but to get over it,’ said Mr Low, 30.

Mr Oh, who is in his 40s, said that he had heard a noise coming from the carpark at about 2.15am.

He peered out of the window and saw the suspect, carrying a long umbrella-shaped tool, near one of the cars.

‘He appeared to be quite professional, not looking around but just looking at the car only.’

Mr Oh said that he then walked over to investigate, but by the time he had reached the block, there was no sign of the suspect.

‘I was lucky. I would have parked the car on the same level as the others but there was one empty spot left on the third level, which I used that night,’ he said.

The police are investigating and ask anyone with information to contact them on 1800-255-0000, said spokesman Ng Siew Hua.

‘At least 20 owners have confirmed that their CashCards were stolen and police would like to remind owners not to leave their cash cards in the IU while their vehicles are parked,’ she added.

vijayan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 9th February 2008

Ah Meng - Singapore Zoo’s long time (unofficial?) mascot passed away on Friday - the second day of Chinese New Year. She had been an all time favourite with visitors since the Singapore Zoo got her from a family who kept her as an illegal pet.

There will be a memorial service for her at 11am on Sunday at the zoo, and the public will be able to view Ah Meng’s body from 9am.

Rest in peace, Ah Meng.

SHE was a great-looking Singapore girl who rubbed shoulders with royalty, movie stars and statesmen.

People paid to sip tea with her, and countless others liked nothing better than to be photographed next to her.

So when Ah Meng the orang utan died yesterday, aged 48, it marked the end of an era at the Singapore Zoo.

Saddened by the news, former zoo chief Bernard Harrison remembered: ‘She had the character to be a mega-star, the personality to pull that off and became a legend.’

Ah Meng was a household name and remained the zoo’s star attraction, even as age slowed her down. In human terms, she was nearly 95, and is believed to have died of old age.

Born in Sumatra, Indonesia, she arrived at the zoo in 1971 after being removed from a family who kept her as an illegal pet.

Stardom came in 1982 with the zoo’s ‘Breakfast with An Orang Utan’ programme, which featured Ah Meng at centre stage.

Within four years, she featured in almost 30 travel films and more than 270 write-ups worldwide.

Among those who dropped in on her were Britain’s Prince Philip, pop superstar Michael Jackson and actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Such was her pulling power that the then Singapore Tourism Promotion Board made her a Special Tourism Ambassador in 1992, the first non-human recipient of the award.

The zoo’s former head of public relations, Mr Robin Goh, said part of Ah Meng’s charm was how she took to people.

‘She came from a domesticated background as a pet and behaved differently from wild orang utans. She could drink tea from a teacup and looked good for an ape,’ he said.

Ah Meng is survived by four children and six grandchildren.

A memorial will be held at 11am on Sunday at the zoo, and the public will be able to view Ah Meng’s body from 9am.

Reacting to the news, President SR Nathan said at yesterday’s Istana open house that Ah Meng had long been a symbol of the Singapore Zoo.

‘A lot of people, both local and foreigners, have enjoyed her company,’ he said. ‘I’m sure the patrons of the zoo will miss her. But that’s life.’

vijayan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 9th February 2008

Do you love to make videos? Enjoy funny and satirical music? Better yet, need something extra to celebrate Chinese New Year? Then this contest is just for you! All you have to do is create a music video of the Chinese New Year parody song. The winner of the best music video gets an exclusive hamper worth S$50! How to enter? Just follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Film the music video.
2. Upload the video to a public video hosting site, like YouTube or MetaCafe.
3. Submit your entry by leaving a comment here with your name and valid email address.

So whip out that camera and let your creative juices flow! Closing date is Sunday, 10 February 2008.

Thinking of beating that red light when there’s no red-light camera? Thinking of making that ILLEGAL U-turn? Thinking of parking or waiting at that Zig-zagged yellow line with no one watching? You’d better think NOT TWICE, but THRICE (or more) now. Singapore is poised to be equipped with the state-of-the-art GPS that’s able to track where your vehicle is, how long it’s been on the road and if it’s parked at a non-gazetted area.

Singaporeans will now have to watch not only their back, but high in the sky whenever they think of committing a traffic offence. This is because the GPS is also able to determine if you had been speeding along any roads, including going beyond that 15km/h speed limit at the road outside your car park. The GPS is also poised to aid in deducting ERP charges based on the roads that you take and if you are contributing to a jam. The method in which this is carried out, is currently not know.

However, a trial done recently confirmed that this is indeed feasible and the LTA hopes to move on to the real thing without having to go through another round of trial. Not only will your GPS-enabled unit notify you of an approaching toll ("invisible gantry"), it’d also help guide you if you are lost. Of course, it’s expected that the unit will be equipped with either a screen or some form of communication tool.

Alas, it was not made know if alternative routes will be made known to you if the tolls are adaptive, i.e. on-the-fly. This could potentially wreck havoc while driving. Read: sudden e-brakes (that’s emergency brake, not electronic brake).

Here’s a big ang-bao to all Singaporeans: making life easier for you in the future!

A SATELLITE-TRACKED electronic road-pricing system that could charge drivers for using congested roads anywhere in Singapore may be ready as early as 2010.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has just completed a series of field tests spanning over a year to determine the reliability of such infrastructure, which operates without gantries and is based on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

While many details, including pricing, have yet to be worked out, the LTA indicated that Singapore is poised to be one of the first cities in the world to use such a system.

It will rely on GPS-enabled in-vehicle units (IUs) to track where drivers go, as well as the distance they clock.

Drivers are likely to be charged based on how long they stay on the road, to better reflect their actual contribution to congestion.

It is understood that one advantage of the new system is that it can determine quickly when and where congestion is occurring, and levy charges accordingly. Motorists will also benefit: The IU can notify them that they are approaching a priced road.

Dr Chin Kian Keong, the LTA’s transportation chief engineer, called the satellite-tracking system ‘a sharper tool’ for controlling congestion than the current fixed gantry system.

He told The Straits Times on Monday that system trials were completed last December, and participants were from 10 companies, five of which were local. Each fielded between four and 10 vehicles equipped with GPS hardware and software.

Using such a system, which The Straits Times learns could be ready by 2010 or 2011, could mean that ERP rates would be more commensurate with a road user’s actual contribution to congestion.

The current gantry system does not differentiate between, say, a vehicle that enters the CBD and is parked in an office building all day, and one that stays on the road for hours - a taxi or delivery truck, for example - and increases congestion.

One of the main aims of the recent field tests was to determine if a gantry-less system could be as reliable as the current decade-old scheme.

LTA chief engineer Leong Kwok Weng said results showed that accuracy was ‘well over’ 90 per cent in open areas such as expressways, and 30 per cent in the city.

The reason for the low accuracy rate in the city is what engineers call the ‘urban canyon effect’, where satellite signals are reflected off high-rises, causing distorted readings.

But Dr Chin said that there are ways of working around this, including setting up signal beacons on curbs or buildings.

Using such a system will also benefit motorists, he added.

For instance, it could help drivers navigate in unfamiliar areas and alert them to congested roads and suggest alternatives.

Dr Chin said that Singapore hopes to be the first in the world to use the new system, adding that the LTA ‘hopes to proceed without having to have another trial’.

London is another city which has been looking at implementing a similar scheme.

Although Germany uses a GPS-based toll system, it is only for billing heavy trucks on the autobahn.

christan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 7th February 2008

To all our readers out there, here’s wishing you a Happy Lunar New Year with many good returns for the Year of the Rat.

- Authors of Simply Jean

Yeah… It isn’t a grammatical error here where people would expect "did anyone watch it" instead of me using "did anyone see it". What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, basically I would link "watch" with an intention to view the program while "see" is probably unintentional; i.e. happened to be having dinner with family and suddenly the person "sees" me on TV.

Yeah, I was quite surprised that they got fresh footage of this blog - but probably because they are unable to get archived copies, I guess. Anyway, speaking of which, guess what? I missed my section of the show. Did anyone manage to "happen to record it"? I think there’s a re-telecast at 1130pm tonight, but I’d probably be squeezing my way through in Chinatown.

Recording, anyone? =P

The match of 30th January 2008 was one of the most spectacular that I have ever seen this season. Not only did the Slingers defeat the Dragons, they smashed them completely with a 108-93 score.

Before the games started, anyone would have thought that the Slingers would be up against a very strong team. The Dragons had 3 points done very gracefully and accurately - almost without stress nor pressure; and when the Slingers did their warm-up, one can only worry about the outcome of the match. "We are going to get smashed again" was the statement of the day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, there are big mistakes and there are small mistakes. There are serious mistakes and non-serious ones. However, when some mistakes are made in critical times, the size and severity of the mistakes may not always matter anymore - especially when the mistakes have a permanent effect. Well, today, Straits Times made just this boo-boo, in the midst of Super Tuesday; not that this will have any effect, but still, it’s undesired.

So there you go, Clinton’s photo where Ms Bhutto’s photo should be. Then again, there *are* common keywords like elections, endorse her husband (not that Hilary endorsed her husband in any manner), and a "wave" (from the statement "… her Parkistan People’s Party may yet ride a wave of sympathy to victory in the Feb 18 vote." that can actually "intelligently" (as in artificial intelligence) link them together. Of course, Hilary Clinton is still well and alive now, with all due respect to Ms Bhutto.

However, I am sure Hilary would not appreciate this form of publicity in the midst of Super Sunday - not that Straits Times will have any bearing on the results of the polls.

ISLAMABAD (Pakistan) - BENAZIR Bhutto’s opposition party made public the will in which she endorsed her husband to succeed her as party chief - a move that could polish his leadership credentials ahead of this month’s elections in Pakistan.

In the handwritten, one-page letter dated Oct 16 - two days before her return to Pakistan from exile and two-and-a-half months before her assassination - Ms Bhutto urged supporters to keep up her struggle.

‘I fear for the future of Pakistan. Please continue the fight against extremism, dictatorship, poverty and ignorance,’ she wrote in the will, made public on Tuesday.

Ms Bhutto died on Dec 27 in a bomb and gun attack as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital, Islamabad.

Her slaying prompted a six-week delay to parliamentary elections and damped Western hopes that the vote could produce a government able to win an escalating war against Islamic militants based near the Afghan border.

However, her Pakistan People’s Party may yet ride a wave of sympathy to victory in the Feb 18 vote.

The party quickly named her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairman and de facto leader, citing Ms Bhutto’s last wishes.

Mr Zardari is a divisive figure in Pakistan. He acquired the nickname ‘Mr. 10 per cent’ during Ms Bhutto’s two governments, in which he served as a minister, for alleged corruption.

But Ms Bhutto maintained that the accusations were politically motivated and described him as a hero for surviving years of detention on charges that were never proven.

In the letter, Ms Bhutto recommended that Mr Zardari lead the party ‘in this interim period until you (party officials and members) and he decide what is best. I say this because he is a man of courage and honour … He has the political stature to keep our party united.’

Her political last wishes were made public amid growing media speculation that Mr Zardari is jockeying with other party leaders to become prime minister, should the party triumph in the ballot.

Party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the will was being made available to halt speculation about its contents.

He said it was not a deliberate attempt to strengthen Mr Zardari’s position within the party.

He said the party would discuss who it might put forward to lead a new government only when the election results are in.

The ballot is going ahead despite concerns about the security of voters and candidates and accusations from Ms Bhutto’s party that the military-dominated establishment will rig the vote to ensure his survival.

President Pervez Musharraf popularity is waning, not only among Islamist radicals but among liberal-minded Pakistanis, retired military officers, lawyers and intellectuals.

The elections are meant to usher in democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf, a key US ally. But if the opposition gets a two-thirds majority in the legislature, it could impeach him.

Critics have alleged that Mr Musharraf has failed to stem an increase in Islamic militancy. — AP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 6th February 2008

I think I wrote something about buying alternatives some time last year here, and was pondering on what is defined as "buying alternative kinds of food". Today, I seem to get the answer - it probably means buying house brands like FairPrice, Carrefour and perhaps Sheng Siong’s if they have it. I don’t usually pay attention to "quality of food" when I eat and I probably don’t bother if it’s Golden-something brand or some other house brands. While the article ran by Straits Times seems to be neutral, I almost thought that they were trying to promote house brands. Haha…

Can you tell the difference between house brands and more popular brands?

FACTORY operator Loke Yew Whye, a 54-year-old father of three school-going children, is finding it hard to cope with rising food prices.

The family, which survives on about $2,000 a month, which he and his wife earn, has been buying house brands from one of supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice’s Bedok branches to save money.

Last night, for example, a 5kg bag of FairPrice Thai fragrant white rice cost the family $4.70, half the price of a similar-size bag of Royal Umbrella fragrant rice at $9.50.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan yesterday urged Singaporeans to consider alternatives, such as by buying house brand products, as a way to cope with rising food costs worldwide.

Last year, food prices were 2.9 per cent higher than in 2006, going by the consumer price index (CPI).

Globally, market forces pushed up food prices.

Record oil prices raised the cost of producing and transporting food, while increasing wealth enjoyed by people in China and India have pumped up demand for meat and other food items, edging them northward.

On the other hand, bad weather reduced crop yield, so the mix of higher demand and lower supply have sent prices up.

Mr Lee added: ‘As Singapore imports most of its food, we can’t run away from this worldwide trend of rising prices.’

But the Government is not going to step in to impose price controls, he added.

‘From the experience of other countries which have done so, price controls have always led to hoarding, empty shelves and black market pricing,’ he said.

Instead, the Government is fighting the problem by diversifying its food sources to reduce the impact of supply disruptions from any single source.

For example, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has looked beyond Malaysia and China for vegetables. The supply of greens now also comes from Vietnam and Indonesia.

NTUC FairPrice is doing the same with rice and other produce.

Its managing director, Mr Seah Kian Peng, said FairPrice is buying Vietnamese rice, which is 20 per cent cheaper than Thai rice.

NTUC also packages items from cooking oil to soap under its house brand. These are generally 10 to 15 per cent cheaper than branded items, he added.

Meanwhile, it appears that businesses have not passed on the full brunt of increased prices to consumers.

Last December, the prices of imported food increased by 12.1 per cent from prices in December 2006, but the non-cooked food component of the CPI, such as rice and meat, went up by only 7.1 per cent during the same period.

What this means, Mr Lee said, is that supermarkets and shops have not passed on their full cost increases.

He pointed out that inflation among food items here has remained low by international standards.

The Republic has one of the lowest rates of inflation when it comes to food, going by a survey of 14 countries by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Only Japan, Australia and South Korea had lower rates than Singapore.

But the question is: Will food prices continue rising?

Mr Lee said did not know, because food prices were shaped by a variety of factors.

For a consumer like Mr Loke, the rising costs of utilities and public transport, as well, add to his worries. He said in Mandarin: ‘The price increases all add up. The cost of living is becoming a bigger burden by the day.’

theresat@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 4th February 2008