Singapore Fountain Pen said:

Maybe I can begin by saying that true to the title, the H1N1 virus has indeed found its way to our very home. It's just too bad that my six-year old cousin, Matthin, had to be its first victim. What worries me is that he has asthma and is therefore considered to be among the higher risk group.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "There are indeed lessons to be learned from this."

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Totobobo blog said:

The recent H1N1 flu triggered a sudden sales increase for face masks and Totobobo, the first customizable face mask is now hitting 25 countries across the world. The reusable mask is more reliable than N95 masks in determining face seal and this feature is greatly appreciated by parents traveling with young children during this holiday season.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "A smart Singapore invention is making a global impact."

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Mr Wang said:

The fact that town councils invest your conservancy fees into stocks, shares, bonds and structured products really just goes to show that Singaporeans have been paying way too much in conservancy fees.

What do town councils need so much money for, anyway? As of last year, they had more than $1,000,000,000 of excess cash in their sinking funds! Surely it doesn't cost that much to build a few playgrounds and basketball courts, and to pay some Bangladeshi workers to clear the rubbish and sweep the floor every day.

Note that town councils aren't responsible for maintaining everything in your HDB estate. Organisations like the National Parks Board pay for the maintenance of the parks; while the Land Transport Authority pays for maintaining the roads and bus-stops; the Singapore Sports Council pays for the maintenance of the public swimming pools and sports stadiums etc.

Recommended by at82: "Since when did we pay our S&C fees to Town Councils so that they can play Hedge Fund Managers?"

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Where Bears Roam Free said:

“All you investors took the risk, so you better swallow the bitter pill that you have to pay for your consequences.”

In other words, don’t blame the banks, MAS or any other government regulatory body. They are not at fault, you are. So far so good. But then, what about the Town Council Funds?

The main crux of investors’ grouse is that they the banks have misrepresented the product as safe. MM Lee implies nothing was done by the banks that was unethical.

The problem with this argument is that if investors are “stupid” enough to get burnt, then hell, the Town Councillors, which include PAP MPs, as well as their staff, are “stupid” too.

Recommended by at82: "That's life. Just like what our SM Goh had said."

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Gerald Giam said:

SP Services has announced that it has raised electricity tariffs 21.89% from 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2008. The Online Citizen's Leong Sze Hian has pointed out that SP Services' parent company, Singapore Power Ltd, made a profit of $1.086 billion in 2007. I checked out their website and indeed this is true.

They made over $1 billion in PROFITS and they are increasing tariffs by 22%! And all this when oil prices are actually decreasing.

Recommended by at82: "No wonder they can earn $1 billion profit..."

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BBC Sport said:

One assumes the city authorities will waive their escalating fines for littering (£192-384 for the first offence; £768 and a corrective work order for a second offence) when it comes to the F1 drivers' tear-off visors - at least five of which tend to be used in a race.

Recommended by woonie: "BBC Sport's Andrew Benson provides a rather detailed write-up about the preparations for the upcoming Singapore GP."

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acroamatic said:

Peter Chan, a Friend of Yesterday.sg, took a walk around the Marina Bay Street Circuit this afternoon. He emailed me the photos and kindly gave me permission to post them here. So, here goes!

Recommended by tinkertailor: "Close-up photos of the F1 circuit, including racecars?"

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Yahoo! News said:

The problem is we don't know if the circuit is good enough, if the surface is good enough, if we have enough run-off areas, if the safety is good enough for a night race in wet conditions.

"There are several question marks and several concerns. I'm not saying that I don't want to race there, but that we might encounter some more problems than in Valencia."

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Will this come out in the local media news?"

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Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games website has started a logo design competition.

Make history. Design the logo for the first Youth Olympic Games.

Singapore will host the Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and some 3,500 youth athletes from all over the world will arrive on our shores to compete in the spirit of Excellence, Friendship, and Respect.

We’re inviting everyone to submit a design for the Singapore 2010 logo! This competition is open to anyone, regardless of nationality or design experience. So don’t hesitate, have your say in the logo for the first Youth Olympic Games!

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nerd|geek said:

What’s even more ironic is if you look at youdeservebetter.sg, which is M1’s site, and look at the options for their “survey”. I rofled at number 1, then proceeded to fill up the form.

Gah. This sucks monkey balls. I want a decent data plan damnit, but can’t switch to Singtel cos I’m stuck on a 1 year contract with MonkeyOne.

Oh and if you’re reading this M1, I’m not really walking on sunshine over here, and no it doesn’t feel good.

Recommended by rationalneurotic: "How they're "you deserve better" ad is just exactly what they are hyping their competitors to be doing, and mostly just a bunch of crap."

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Claudia spots this photo submitted to the Singtel Grid Girls contest.

Gosh! Like that also can? Is this consider a new media marketing stunt?

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The Guardian (UK) Sports Blog said:

"Then someone from Singapore got in contact with my agent about going to south-east Asia. I hadn't even heard of Singapore before. I met the [Singaporean Football Association] representatives in Leeds and they asked if I could be a 'fox-in-the-box'? I wasn't a striker but I thought I could blag it. I thought it would be for a year. But I met my [Singaporean] wife the first day I arrived."

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Very interesting interview with John Wilkinson, Singaporean football player. "

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F1 Wolf visits Singapore and went throught he entire circuit for the F1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, taking photos of every part of the circuit.

One of the reasons I picked Singapore as a destination was to check out the place and the future F1 street circuit. I downloaded and printed out this circuit map from f1Singapore.com, took my camera and started walking.

Link to part 1 of the report (Part 2 is in the making)

Simply Me said:

I thought they were going to increase my free bundle (of 5GB) up to 50GB (to compete with Starhub’s bundle of unlimited data usage). Then I realised that… it’s not the case! What they actually meant was that instead of charging you up to 10GB, now they can charge you up to 50GB!

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "This letter is, as the title suggests, seemingly misleading to give the impression that M1 has increased the free data bundle for all M1 broadband users, when in actual fact, it's just telling their customers that more can be charged to them as a result of the increase in data usage cap."

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Royston says

Actress Mindee Ong suffered eye and back injuries when two assailants on a motorbike pelted eggs at Royston & the casts during their travel to the 881 roadshow at The Atrium, Plaza Singapura. *Note: We do know who is responsible for this despicable act.

CNN said:

Perhaps Singapore's biggest handicap is its lack of famous sights: it has no Angkor Wat or Taj Mahal. For many years, it prided itself on its innumerable shopping malls, and promoted its annual "Singapore Sale".

Abroad, it is often better known for its authoritarian ways -- it canes vandals, executes drug offenders, crushes political opposition, and bans the sale of chewing gum. Culturally, its development has been crippled by restrictions on freedom of expression and censorship of films and plays.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Not exactly the celebratory messages we get all the time from the local media."

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Littlespeck said:

Informed media watchers in Singapore couldn’t help but chuckle when they came across this recent headline: “Straits Times keeps No 1 spot, drawing 1.35m readers.”

I’m not sure why it bothered to proclaim this victory considering the newspaper is running in a one-horse race. It’s the only national English-language broadsheet on sale here, competing against itself.

It’s tantamount to SBS Transit claiming to be Singapore’s best bus operator. I doubt it will get any message of congratulations from the public.

Recommended by at82: "When you are competing against yourself, can you be anything other than "number 1"?"

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Mr Hardy said:

Reverend Hong was an expert at feng shui and after taking lots of readings he said that the proposed constellation of MRTs tunnels and the huge amount of metal being driven deep into the Singapore bed rock would sever Singapore's Dragon Vein which is bad, bad, bad for the nation. Reverend Hong then offered the following advice: "If you want to continue with project, then u must give every Singaporean household - Indian, Malay, Eurasian, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim - every single one of them a Chinese Ba Gua. Or else Singapore will sink."

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Its a popular myth that MM Lee consulted a feng shui master before he set about constructing MRT tunnels. Also, have u noticed the Octagon on the coin? Why an octagon? Why not a nine-sided coin? Or for that matter a 10-sided coin? why an octagon?

Even the SAF Cap Badge - "Yang Pertama, Yang Utama" has an OCTAGON. I remember my old CSM used to say if you go guard duty carry a 1 dollar coin and always have ur beret with the capbadge facing out and in front of u and when you turn, don't just turn ur head, turn your entire body so that any bad spirits will be driven away by your energy.

Sort of like a Street Fighter Ryu energy "Odugan" fireball effect.

Chinese Ba Gua Fengshui elements are everywhere."

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Formula-1.updatesport.com reports that F1 cars from the Williams Team have plans to make a public appearance in Singapore.

Photo courtesy of Formula-1.updatesport.com

Formula one, the pinnacle of global motor sport, will continue to reach out to the people this year. After Minardi and Williams sent cars down to Dutch city Rotterdam last weekend, the latter, Grove based team said 'similar events' may be held in 2005 in Edinburgh and Singapore. In March, Williams' Mark Webber drove an F1 racer across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Later, tester Antonio Pizzonia tore around a city circuit in Melbourne CBD.

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Kumar blogs about each Formula 1 race, including the recent Canadian Grand Prix:

As much as I was happy to see two red suits on the podium on Sunday, everyone within the team and the Tifosi would unwillingly acknowledge that the two podium places were gifts from Renault rather than hard earned points.

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