Monday, September 30, 2013

Hiring Courtesy Helper instead of paying for courtesy advertisements

There seems to be an ongoing campaign on our mass media to be polite, courteous on our public transport, for example, to give way to alighting passengers, rather than pushing your way into the train.




Kudos to the relevant authority for posting such reminders, as long as it is not a habit of Singaporeans, we need gentle reminders to be a polite society.

However, instead of paying good sums of money for advertisement on mass media (which i presume would amount to quite a heft figure), I think it would be much more cost effective to hire senior citizens, donning simple uniforms, to serve as MRT staff at the platforms.
They will just smile and give gentle reminders to passengers to queue up, and to let alighting passengers alight first before boarding the trains.

I believe a real human giving such gentle reminders is more effective at getting people to stop their nasty habits and cultivate better ones. When the staff is there everyday, the usual commuters would eventually get used to those better polite habits, so that eventually society would be a better one, and these society would be no longer needed.

Pardon me if I am wrong, I am assume a mass media campaign would probably costs $200,000? Assuming you just hire some staff (can be senior citizens or students) on a part time basic during peak hours, with a wage of about $1000? That would be 200 additional staff all across stations in Singapore.
(I know my figures may be wrong, but it would be around there)

I think it would be much better than blasting advertisements that we all ignore.

Also, these staff can help out in additional duties such as providing directional helps to lost commuters, a source of help in minor crisis, guide people to correct place in term of peak hour breakdowns (not that unusual nowadays) and help to maintain cleanliness.

Beside, it would have a bonus of employing more senior citizens students and giving them extra duties in society.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Great, sincere pickup line....

For those who are single, I think this is a great pick up line.
Go out and find the One! Happy dating!


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dedicated to stupid people

Unfortunately, I have finally understand how much pain a person can go through because of 1 person's stupidity.


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

What does the fox say? (Answer here)

If you have watched that video.....
(Music Video of What does the Fox say)



What does the fox say?

ANSWER below....





Monday, September 23, 2013

Let passenger alight before boarding the train

This is from NYC (New York City) but I do believe it applies to trains everywhere around the world.

I do know that many kiasu Singaporeans want to dash into the cabin to find seats... sigh. Please leave the seats for the elderly, pregnant ladies and those who need them more..



Saturday, September 21, 2013

The tortoise and the hare


Kelong match...

Of course the tortoise is in this as well... syndicate betting... :P

Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Secret World of Sleep: 4 Weird Things About Catching Zs



From the mental floss
http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52697/secret-world-sleep-4-weird-things-about-catching-zs


What happens after we head to bed each night? Do we simply snooze, or do we enter into a dimly lit place of wonders, terrors and peculiar science? Given that this is mental_floss, do you even have to ask?

1. FATAL FAMILIAL INSOMNIA

Have you ever not been able to fall asleep, yet felt so tired you think you might just die? Those unfortunate enough to have this disease actually do. An exceptionally rare, heritable condition, it's 100 percent fatal. According to scientists who have studied the disease, it’s caused by malfunctioning brain proteins. The brains of those afflicted look much like sufferers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of mad cow disease).
But don’t freak out just yet—you almost certainly don’t have fatal familial insomnia. It’s been documented in only 28 families worldwide, and only five of those are in the United States.

2. FIRST AND SECOND SLEEP

The usual eight hours a night aren't the only way to snooze. Historians have found that before the industrial age, people actually slept in two parts. The first sleep, right after sundown, was for a few hours. Around midnight or 1 a.m., folks would get up, have a bite to eat, converse, possibly make love, and eventually settle down for their second sleep.
Virginia Tech historian Roger Ekirch theorizes that the two-part system is actually more natural for humans, and that many sleep problems stem from our insistence that we stay in bed for eight hours straight.
“For most of evolution we slept a certain way,” sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs told the BBC. “Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology.” So if you're wide awake tonight, don't beat yourself up. Take the opportunity to live like your ancestors.

3. HYPNIC JERK

You’re drifting off to sleep. It’s peaceful, your white noise machine is on, and all is well with the world. Until it’s not. You’re jolted back to awareness with a peculiar muscle spasm. What just happened?
You just experienced a hypnic jerk—and you’re not alone. Researchers believe they happen to some 70 percent of the population. What causes the condition isn’t clear, but it can be worsened by anxiety, over-exertion before sleep, or caffeine.
And while most people have experienced a hypnic jerk, just be glad you likely haven’t had to deal with exploding head syndrome

4. DEMON ON YOUR CHEST?

Some 40 percent of all people have experienced at least one episode of sleep paralysis—disturbed REM sleep in which you feel trapped and unable to move. While the experience can be terrifying, it isn’t actually dangerous, according to sleep experts.
Multiple cultures have explained the phenomenon by claiming that demons are pinning down the sleeper (in medieval legends, we know those demons as a succubus or incubus). The human brain wants to explain the unexplainable—and if it has to blame evil supernatural forces, so be it.


Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/52697/secret-world-sleep-4-weird-things-about-catching-zs#ixzz2esZCSyor 
--brought to you by mental_floss! 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Kishore: Singapore fails to develop a world-class ecosystem of public transport



Someone who dares to tell the LTA that they have been doing it wrong... for the past decades.
I still remember that time when the government refused to build the NEL because the NEL on its own is, "not profitable". Each line must be assessed on its own to have its own profitability, based on that, we would never had the Circle Line today.
We have wasted a few decades of public transport development, and this is why Singaporeans would not, or could not give up their cars...

I wish they would learn from HK authority on transporation, but I guess thats another speaker or another post of the day...
I am so favourable of HK, because the rail system have 185% fare recovery, and yet their MTR is affordable, on time, and yet cover much of the city. Not to mentioned their widely successful minibus system and their public bus. Octopus card is widely used by many retailers, unlike our lousy EZ link card.. whats the big deal on having NET Flashpay to compete with EZ Link card? useless competition

Note: This opinion piece is labelled "Singapore fails to develop a world-class ecosystem of public transport" by The Real Singapore and "Fewer cars, fewer roads" by Straits Times.
The Straits Times is more pro authority, while the Real Singapore is, imho, trying its best to pin everything wrong on the government... a
-------------------------------------
[Opinion piece by Dean of LKY School of Public Policy Kishore Mahbubani first appeared on ST forums]
A few weeks ago, on Aug 28, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the famous speech given by Martin Luther King Jr entitled "I have a dream". He said: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."
The goal of his speech was to open the roads to advancement for his fellow black citizens. I too have a dream for my fellow Singaporeans. However, while the goal of his speech was to open the roads to advancement, my goal is to close the roads to advancement for my fellow citizens. The only difference between him and me is that while he was speaking metaphorically, I am speaking literally. We do not need many more physical roads or much more physical road space in Singapore.
One undeniable hard truth of Singapore is that we live in one of the smallest countries in the world. This is also why we have one of the most expensive land costs in the entire world. Apart from Monaco, no other United Nations member state has land as expensive as Singapore has per square foot. Hence, we should value every square foot. Every square foot we give up to road space is a square foot taken away from other valuable uses: pedestrian walkways, bike paths, green parks and so on.
To be fair to our road planners, they are caught in a bind because Singapore is continuing to grow its population of cars. If we expand the number of cars, we have no choice but to expand the amount of roads to carry more cars. So the real solution is to reduce the demand for more cars in Singapore. How do we do this?
The problem here is that a car remains an essential part of the Singapore dream. Yet, if every Singaporean achieves his or her dream, we will get a national nightmare. To prevent this national nightmare from happening, we have created harsh policies to raise prices and reduce the demand for cars.
Status symbols
Paradoxically, the high prices of cars have made them even more desirable as status symbols. This is why luxury brands trump cheap brands in Singapore sales. If the desirability of cars keeps rising, our efforts to curtail car ownership will be as successful as a dog chasing its tail.
So what is the alternative solution? The solution is obvious: Change the Singapore dream!
Yes, almost every Singaporean reading this article will laugh out loud at this suggestion. How can any well-off Singaporean deprive himself of a car? It serves as the most reliable form of transportation as well as a powerful status symbol. The minute you own a car, especially a Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Lexus, your friends know that you have arrived.
But for 10 years of my life, I have actually lived on another even more crowded tiny island where it is not rational to own a car. In fact, it is considered downright stupid to buy and own a car if you live in Manhattan. All this came home clearly to me one evening in Manhattan when I saw the former chairman of Citibank, Mr Walter Wriston, and his wife Kathryn standing on First Avenue with their arms raised and trying to hail a cab.
Clearly, Mr Wriston was then one of the richest men on our planet. He could have easily bought a car in Manhattan. Yet, it just did not make sense.
The eco-system of public transport that Manhattan had created with a combination of subway trains, public buses and readily accessible taxis meant that in a crunch you could get anywhere in Manhattan using public transport.
More significantly, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another clearly very rich man, used to take a subway train to work in Manhattan.
The former mayor of Colombian capital Bogota, Mr Enrique Penalosa, put it very well when he said: "A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
I have been to Bogota. When I visited it in 1992, the city was so unsafe that I was given a private bodyguard to walk down its equivalent of Orchard Road. Mr Penalosa transformed the city so much that Latino Fox News described him as "one of the world's pre- eminent minds on making modern cities more liveable."
Mr Penalosa is quoted as saying: "When we talk about car-free cities, we're not talking about some hippie dream. Not only do they exist, but they also are the most successful cities on the planet. The ones where the real estate is the most valuable, the ones that attract most tourists, the most investment, the ones that generate the most creative industries."
There was a time when Singapore's experiments in improving its urban environment would get global attention. Today, it is a man like Mr Penalosa, with bigger dreams than our dreams, who is described by Latino Fox News as a man whose "work and ideas have gained him international attention and a loyal fan base that includes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg".
Mr Paul Steely White, executive director of New York City's Transportation Alternatives, has also said about New York City that "the way the streets of the greatest city in the world are being used is changing fundamentally… People are beginning to understand that it's entirely possible and really very desirable to lead a life without being tethered to an automobile".
We therefore have to replace the Singapore dream with the Manhattan or Bogota dream.
We have to give up this insane dream of owning a car and replace it with an ecosystem of a public transport system that makes it irrational to own a car.
Singapore's failure
And this is probably one of Singapore's biggest failures in its first 50 years: We have failed to develop a world-class ecosystem of public transport. We do have a good public transport network, but this has not kept pace with the population's expectations, which include a more reliable MRT system with fewer breakdowns, predictable bus services, taxis available in thundery showers, and pools of electric cars for ready rental.
So why did we fail? The answers must be complex. But one fundamental error could be simple. We expected every artery of this ecosystem to be financially viable. The disastrous result of looking at each artery and not looking at the ecosystem as a whole is that while each artery made sense in isolation, the combination did not result in a good ecosystem. Even more dangerously, by looking at each unit in isolation, we did not consider its impact on the island or the nation as a whole.
Let me give a specific example from the area of expanding road space. Many Singaporeans of my generation are still puzzled that the road planners of Singapore destroyed our precious National Library on Stamford Road to build a little tunnel under Fort Canning to save two minutes of driving time. The road planners who designed this tunnel had no idea that they were effectively shooting a bullet through the soul of Singapore by destroying the National Library.
This is why we have to be fair to our road planners. The only key performance indicator (KPI) given to them is to make traffic flow smoothly. With this KPI, it is logical to build more roads or expand road space. Hence, it was perfectly natural for our road planners to announce recently that Clementi Road and the Pan-Island Expressway would be expanded. I am sure many motorists who use that stretch of road daily will approve. But when do we say that enough is enough?
This is why we need a new dream. Does this mean Singaporeans will stop driving cars?
Absolutely not. My dream is to walk out of my house, use a smart card to pick up an electric car on rent and drive it anywhere I want to. We can replace car ownership with car pools. In fact, other cities have begun trying this. In Vauban, a suburb of Freiburg, Germany, 70 per cent of residents choose to live without private cars due to excellent city planning and a car sharing system. Before you scoff at electric cars, let me tell you that electric cars have faster torque than petrol-driven cars.
In short, we can have an alternative dream for Singapore. Let us dream of an island with fewer cars and fewer roads. It will be closer to being paradise on earth.
 The writer is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Another legitimate use for incognito mode

You know your web broswer's incognito mode?
That is, the secretive tab browsing that allows you to surf websites without any history log in your company.

AKA. Porn surfing.


anyway, its not just for porn...


Friday, September 13, 2013

Paper cup lids can double as coasters



The disposable cover-lids on your paper cups can be flipped over and used as a coaster for your drinks.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Sauce cup can be doubled in size



For those who needs more ketchup or chili sauce (this disposable sauce plate is the same as Singapore McDonalds), you can gently pull the edge apart for a bigger cup!


Sunday, September 8, 2013

Best Summer song- What does the fox say?

Latest update:- Answer to what the fox says....



The song of the summer is just out.
Best Music Video of 2013.

What does the fox say?


Norwegians BÃ¥rd YlvisÃ¥ker and Vegard YlvisÃ¥ker go by "Ylvis" and have their very own talk show on TVNorge, they just released a music video for a song, aptly named,  "The Fox" which went on to set the world ablaze.

Listen to it. And be prepared to smile....

Saturday, September 7, 2013

For banana lovers



To keep bananas longer, wrap the crown of a brunch of bananas in plastic wrap, this will keep them fresher and last longer 3-5 days longer than usual.

Also keep bananas isolated as it produces ethelyne gas that makes other fruits ripe faster.






Thursday, September 5, 2013

How to store food in your fridge

How to store food in your fridge in the smartest way?
Organize your fridge correctly!






Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Settled (UFO, Lake Monsters, Ghosts, Bigfoot etc...)


Link from xkcd.com

This single comic frame... answered all my questions about UFO / Ghosts / Flying Saucers etc....
As the number of cameras we are holding increases, the number of "authentic photos" of all these supernatural stuff has decreased.

I wasted my childhood reading UFO books.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Glorified Metal Underwear



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