It’s been finalised and confirmed - that same-sex civil partnerships can be registered. Mind you, it’s not a marriage, but just a civil partnership. However, just like marriages, it can be registered and recognised by the law.

There are some differences for civil partnership-registered couples though, that they are not allowed to adopt children, unlike married couples. Despite this difference, they will have the same rights as married heterosexual couples in inheritance, taxation, and other financial matters. For a country that had banned same-sex marriage, this is certainly a step towards liberalization.

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Came across this about banning stuffs in Malaysia. Apparently, there’s a scratch and win scam going around, whereby people were approached to scratch and win some stuffs, but in order to collect them, they need to buy more stuffs, usually expensive stuffs.

What I find perplexing is that people actually take loans to find these expensive stuffs just to collect the prizes, which is usually a car. Doesn’t this sound suspiciously like that happens in Singapore? Except that they don’t tell you that you’d won a car - probably something less expensive, but they want you to buy into their timeshare s*ahem*c*cough*a*ah-choo*m…

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA has banned scratch-and-win contests after thousands of people complained they were duped and did not receive the promised prizes, an official said.

The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has made it illegal to hold such contests, said ministry Enforcement Deputy Director Iskandar Halim Sulaiman on Tuesday.

In scratch-and-win contests, consumers are given paper cards with an area coated with coloured plastic that can be scratched with a coin to reveal whether a prize has been won.

Mr Iskandar said direct sales staff often duped consumers at supermarkets or at their doorsteps with cards that showed they had won cars or other expensive items. However, to get the prizes, consumers were asked to first buy the company’s products, and in the end ‘never get the car’, Mr Iskandar said.

Almost 1,400 complaints were filed in the first 10 months of this year, with many people claiming they lost thousands of ringgit in the scams, often used by direct marketing companies, Mr Iskandar said.

Companies found illegally conducting such contests risk a fine, up to three years in prison and a loss of their business licenses, he said.

The Star newspaper quoted a 42-year-old civil servant, Ms Satilah Mahmood, as saying she lost RM27,000 (S$12,000) in a scratch-and-win scheme this year.

The home theatre system and massage chair she bought - to be eligible for more prizes - broke down within weeks, the newspaper said. It said the people who lured her with prizes moved out of their rented office.

‘My family is now saddled with debts,’ it quoted her as saying. — AP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 4th December 2007

Some people do it for the money, some people do it for a glimpse of hope for a cure while others do it just to volunteer. For whichever reason you do it, do find out more about the consequences of going for it.

Clinical trial programs are where new drugs or treatment are tested out on actual people before the drug or treatment is released commercially into the market. The purpose of the trial is to note and monitor the possible side effects that it can have on a random sample. These drugs are usually quite safe, but may at times be deadly, just like a previous incident involving a clinical trial in London, where a few people had adverse reactions to the extent that some lost their limbs.

In New York, where a clinical trial for HIV vaccination was carried out, many volunteers reported social stigma from friends and relatives who knew about their participation. In some cases, their HIV results came out positive, probably because of a false-positive results.

It was also reported that some contracted full-blown HIV, but it was not mentioned if it was a result of their participation. However, the PI chided that the test providers should always confirm if the patients had participated in any HIV-related trials, which I thought was rather irresponsible if he had not briefed the volunteers first.

He, and the volunteers, should realise that in the real world, people just by what your test results say, not by any other facts that may be present.

NEW YORK - MANY volunteers who take part in clinical trials of experimental HIV vaccines report negative social consequences because of their participation in the studies, according to a new report.

‘Since a majority of the negative social impact events were due to negative reactions from friends and family who misinterpreted what a preventive HIV vaccine trial entails, trial sites need to continue their educational efforts with both study participants and with local communities emphasizing that you cannot become HIV-infected from the vaccine itself and that these trials seek HIV-negative individuals to participate,’ Dr Jonathan Fuchs said.

Dr Fuchs, from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and his associates evaluated the negative social impacts reported by 5417 mostly male volunteers in an HIV vaccine efficacy trial.

Just under 1000 volunteers reported negative social events during 36 months of follow-up.

Most such events were negative reactions from friends, family, and partners, the authors report in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. These reactions were primarily attributed to a misunderstanding of the volunteer’s HIV status or risk of infection.

Less than 1 per cent of the group reported problems with disability or life insurance, employment, medical or dental care, health insurance, government agencies, or housing.

Among the 368 participants who became infected with HIV after enrolment in the trial, only 12 reported a negative social incident, the investigators say. Most involved personal relationships, such as friends or family members asserting that the vaccine caused the individual to become HIV-infected or more susceptible to infection.

Although the vaccine could affect HIV test results, none of the HIV antibody-related negative social events reported by 29 volunteers were attributed to vaccine-induced antibody results, the researchers note.

‘A substantial proportion of vaccinees may test ‘false-positive’ on a standard HIV antibody screening test,’ Dr Fuchs explained. ‘Providers should remember to first ask whether their patients have participated in an HIV vaccine trial before they perform HIV testing, to avoid potential misinterpretation of antibody results and possible social harm.’ — REUTERS

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 30th November 2007

For those who had been following the news and looking over the counter of the money changer near your place, you would have realised that the US$ is dropping. Like mad.

Gone were the days where US$1 is worth about S$1.75 or more, and it was so bad that even people in Seoul refuse to accept the equivalence of 1000 won as US$1.

Now, it seems to be getting worse became even visitors to the Taj would have to pay in the native currency. US dollars are no longer preferred as their value keeps going down the slippery roads.

So what does this mean for all of us? It’s probably a good time to start shopping on Amazon.com or other US sites to get stuffs. There only thing is, I wished their freight charges could be cheaper. =(

NEW DELHI - THE US dollar will not get you into the Taj Mahal from this week.

The Indian government, reacting to the falling value of the greenback, has decided that it will no longer accept the greenback as payment for visits to its historic sites.

Until now, foreign tourists to sites such as the Taj Mahal, Delhi’s Red Fort and the Mahabodhi Temple have had the option of paying in dollars or rupees.

But from this week, visitors will have to pay in rupees to visit the 120 or so sites run by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the BBC reported.

Entrance fees will be either 250 rupees (S$9.20) or 100 rupees.

‘These rates have been fixed in line with international practices, and in order to take care of the fluctuation in the dollar rates,’ a spokesman for the Ministry of Tourism told the BBC.

Officials say the ministry wanted to act fast so that tourism revenues are not hit. Earnings from tickets to historic monuments in 2006-07 was 608.4 million rupees.

Where once the rate was 50 rupees to a dollar, the going rate now is just about 39.25 rupees.

The plunging dollar has been having an impact worldwide, affecting not just tourist takings but also incomes of models as well as revenues of French fashion houses and aircraft makers.

The world’s top-paid super model Gisele Bundchen was reported recently to have spurned the dollar, preferring to be paid in euros.

At Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), it has had Chief Executive Valerie Hermann thinking about the number of pockets on a skirt and the price of embroidery on a dress, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ms Hermann is adamant that YSL include in its ready-to-wear offerings cocktail dresses that cost no more than 1,900 euros (S$4,000).

Six months ago, that was the equivalent of US$2,565. Today, she would have to sell the same garment for US$215 (S$310) more to make the same profit. So if she can eliminate a pocket on a garment without sacrificing the integrity of its design, she will.

The euro’s rise and dollar’s slide are hitting European exporters particularly hard.

The euro has gained 11.5 per cent since the start of the year against the greenback. It closed on Friday at US$1.46.

Said Airbus chief Tom Enders: ‘If the dollar decreases by 10 cents, we are challenged to save another 1 billion euros.’

Last week, Infineon, Germany’s top semiconductor maker, announced that it lost 150 million euros in the latest quarter because of the weak dollar.

And Mr Reinold Geiger, president of L’Occitane of Provence, complained recently that 12 per cent of his annual US$400 million in skincare sales had ‘evaporated’ over the last year because of the falling dollar.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 19th November 2007

I was reading this article about a French guy who apparently beat the world record of calculating the 13th root of a 200-digit number in just over 1 minute! Most people will almost shout "geek" in their heads because I admit that I am one of them. =P But wait! You’d have to take a look at his photo to see that he’s not the typical geek!

See? He’s doesn’t look that geeky right? Erm… maybe just a little because of his glasses and beard, but I think he looks quite good compared to the common image that most people have of a geek - big glasses, thin, blur-looking eyes… ok, that sounded a little too much like me for comfort.

But I say, look at his feat! If I can do that, I’d probably be graduating soon. =)

NEW YORK - FRENCH ‘mathlete’ Alexis Lemaire showed off his rare mental agility on Thursday, claiming a new world record after working out in his head the 13th root of a random 200-digit number in just 72.4 seconds.

Mr Lemaire, a 27-year-old doctoral student in artificial intelligence from Reims, near Paris, sat at a laptop computer that randomly selected the figure and displayed it on the screen. The number was so long it Mr ran over 17 lines.

Lemaire, who says he does not consider himself a nerd or a geek, then took just over a minute to identify two quadrillion, 397 trillion, 207 billion, 667 million, 966 thousand, 701 as the 13th root.

In other words, the number multiplied by itself 13 times produces the 200 digit number originally generated by the computer.

‘The first digit is very easy, the last digit is very easy, but the inside numbers are extremely difficult,’ the mental gymnast said after the performance at New York’s Hall of Science.

Mr Lemaire, who sports a beard and glasses under thickly-matted eyebrows and a furrowed brow, previously performed the feat in 77 seconds and has been working at the 13th root problem for years, repeatedly eroding his best time.

‘I use an artificial intelligence system which I use on my own brain instead of on a computer,’ he explained, matter-of-factly.

‘Personally, I believe most people can do it but I have also a high-speed mind. My brain works sometimes very, very fast.’

Pressing his point, he adds: ‘Sometimes when I do multiplication my brain works so fast that I need to take medication.’

‘I think somebody without a very fast brain can also do this kind of multiplication but this is maybe easier for me because my brain is faster.’

Mr Lemaire says he first realised he had a knack for numbers when he was around 11 years old, but perhaps surprisingly he did not do well in maths at school.

‘I was not top of the class. I was an autodidact, mostly by books,’ he says.

He practices regularly and jogs every day, doesn’t drink coffee or alcohol and avoids foods that are high in sugar or fat - to help him think faster.

‘I use a process to improve my skills, to behave like a computer. When I do something wrong, I learn from that,’ he says. ‘It’s like running a program in my head … to control my brain,’ he says.

But he says he takes days off once in a while and listens to music to relax, although he is unable to name a band or a genre he actually likes.

‘It is important not to work too much,’ he says. ‘I can’t do multiplication all day because otherwise my heart or my brain would fail. Too much training, thinking too fast could be bad for my health.’

He talks repeatedly and intensely about ‘controlling my brain’ and ‘running a program on my brain’, adding that part of his technique is to shut out ‘useless information’. He has earned the nickname the ‘human calculator’, but says with a rare smile he thinks the sobriquet of the ‘human computer’ would be more accurate.

His nearest rival, he says, is a German whom he declines to name. But he says he has no fear that any other competitive mathematicians will be able to challenge his record.

‘It is too difficult for them,’ he says, explaining that most of his rivals are only able to work out the 13th root of a 100-digit number.

He says he does not yet know what he will do when he finishes his PhD, but has been approached by banks and computer science companies keen to tap the power of his grey cells.

‘Many people at the banks think my gift can be very useful,’ he says. — AFP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 16th November 2007

Nope, this is not a mis-post or a post that had it’s post-date dated wrongly. This will be what you’d be hearing if you visit Australia during the Christmas Season.

Apparently, Santas in Australia are told not to use the standard greeting of “Ho ho ho” because it sounded too close to the word “whore”, which means “prostitute” and is thought to be offensive to women. Santas were also also told that “Ho ho ho” may frighten little children and are encouraged, instead, to greet with “Ha ha ha”.

What’s this got to do with the all-year round island of Singapore? Well, to start with, Horlicks may have to withdraw their ads of “Ho… ho… ho… horlicks!”. Come to think of it, doesn’t Horlicks sound offensive too?

Muahahahahahaha….

SYDNEY - SANTAS in Australia’s largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas’s traditional ‘ho ho ho’ greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported on Thursday.

Sydney’s Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say ‘ha ha ha’ instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use ‘ho ho ho’ because it could frighten children and was too close to ‘ho”, a US slang term for prostitute.

‘Gimme a break,’ said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

‘We are talking about little kids who do not understand that ‘ho, ho, ho’ has any other connotation and nor should they,’ she told the Telegraph.

‘Leave Santa alone.’ A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was ‘misleading’ to say the company had banned Santa’s traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself. — AFP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 15th November 2007

3 people died during a stampede outside Carrefour when the store opened as people rushed in to purchase discounted rapeseed oil that is used for cooking. This is the result of the inflation of cooking oil in the last year. In Singapore, cooking oil isn’t the only thing that had risen in prices for the past few weeks. Essentials such as flour, sugar and bread has all risen in cost as was reported earlier - some of which have risen by as much as almost 50%. With everything going up in recent months, it’s no wonder that things will start becoming chaotic, but I am sure that my eminent government will be able to do something to prevent such things from happening here. Really.

THREE shoppers died and at least 31 others were injured in a stampede when the doors opened at the start of a sale at a Carrefour supermarket yesterday, state media reported.

Some shoppers slipped while rushing into the Carrefour outlet in Chongqing city when it opened at 8.30am. They fell and were crushed by other shoppers, Xinhua news agency and the People’s Daily reported.

The People’s Daily said shoppers began lining up outside the store in south-western China at 4am to buy discounted rapeseed oil used for cooking.

Seven of the injured were in serious condition. The other 24 were also taken to hospitals, said Xinhua.

Police in Chongqing said they had heard about the accident but declined to confirm the media accounts.

A doctor at Chongqing’s Shapingba District People’s Hospital said the emergency room was treating some of the injured but declined to give numbers.

The local government immediately ordered the store closed and began an investigation into the cause of the stampede.

The accident is the second known supermarket stampede in recent weeks.

Fifteen shoppers were injured in a Shanghai market last month.

Both incidents were apparently caused in part by sales of cooking oil, prices of which have soared by more than a third due to inflation in the past year.

As part of promotions to celebrate its 10th anniversary in Chongqing, Carrefour offered 20 per cent off 5-litre containers of rapeseed oil, the People’s Daily said.

The French retail giant moved into the Chinese market in 1995 and has since built up a network of 100 supermarkets.

The company says it plans to expand at a rate of 20 to 25 stores a year.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 11th November 2007