Lucky Tan said:

This week the govt passed amendments to the CPF Act that allows the govt to vary the payout on CPF Life at the Government's discretion. The reason given was that they may have to cut down the payout to ensure the solvency of the CPF Life scheme (due to incompetent management?). What is happening is this : in a life annuity risk is transferred from individual to the insurance company. However, with CPF Life, the govt passed the risk right back to the individuals. So ordinary Singaporeans are forced buy an annuity that we can't count on for a guaranteed income stream. Even with a guaranteed income stream, we are already forced to bear the risk of inflation ...like I said in earlier post, the basic scheme may not even provide enough for McDonald's Happy Meals due to inflation. However, with the guarantee on the income stream removed, the basic scheme may not even be enough for maggie mee! ...all to protect the govt's own scheme from insolvency....(hmm....protecting itself from its own lack of competence?)

Recommended by at82: "What good is an annuity if income stream from it is not guaranteed?! "

Link

xblogger said:

But because of her good attitude compared with some other participants on the show, like the woman who wanted to do up some spicy good Indonesian food who blamed everything on everyone else except herself. Sometimes appearing on such reality show would be a publicity booster but yet one has to becareful because small mistakes can turn you into a monster only to be exaggerated by a thousand times.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Great show that really helps hawkers!"

Link

fgb said:

One of the most depressing thing about NP is that most courses have a hidden grade that is not reflected in your results. This particular grading apparently happens for all your modules that you will take during your 3 miserable years in NP. This portion of your grading is called “Kissing Ass”.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "it was an interesting take on what really happens in the school."

Link

Jeremy Toh said:

NP Mobbers@Orchard is an initiative by Ngee Ann Polytechnic to bring the arts to the public. This initiative provides our enthusiastic youths a platform to express themselves. While our youths may not be the best in what they do, they are certainly the most passionate. For more of these highly-charged performances, catch us at our open house from the 17th to the 19th of January 2008.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "200 people dancing and just having fun!"

Link

Yawning Bread said:

Dear Dr Thio,

This is a personal note to you.

I think you are absolutely fucked up.

As long as you exist, with your hatemongering and your vicious crusades against sexual minorities, I will never leave Singapore. I hope I outlive you long enough to see the repeal of 377A and on that day I will piss on your grave.

With love, Alfian.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "There is a limit to civility."

Link

Vinyarb said:

"Please tell me I've mis-intepreted the statement above. If only 86 out of 1000 in Singapore live beyond 65 (a measly 8.6% of all population), meaning a whopping 91.4% of singaporeans will DIE before even retiring... what's the point of having an annuity?"

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Funny why these statistics don't surface unless somebody really needs them to justify something...."

Link

King Kong Jane said:

King Kong Jane covers Rihanna's "Umbrella"

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Check out this awesome cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella" by a local band named King Kong Jane. "

Link

Ping.sg said:

The party will be on 070707 (Saturday) at Geek Terminal, 4pm - 9pm, followed by post-celebration party from 9pm till late. On top of the birthday celebrations, we will also be announcing the winners for the Ping.sg inaugural Blog Awards.

To thank for your support throughout these 1 year, the dinner will be on us! There are even goodies to be given away on the day, courtesy of our sponsors. All you have got to do to join in the fun is sign up, now!

Recommended by Veron: "We're celebrating the first anniversary of ping.sg! Look forward to freebies, food, and blog award winners being announced! Places are limited so sign up now!"

Link

Josef Lee said:

I've recently started a web comic titled 'The Life Of Mann'. This project is best described as a collaboration in creative storytelling. I started this as an experiment to explore how a single idea, when passed through different hands can be pushed much further than possible with a single creator.

The online graphic novel tells the story of the main character - Mann. The interesting part, however, is that every 5 pages of the story will be continued by a different artist/writer. There are no restrictions to the style of drawing, direction of story, or way of presentation. Only condition is that the story MUST CONTINUE.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "The Life Of Mann is a collaborative project initiated by The Museum of Modern Fiction, led by Josef Lee, a designer / illustrator from Singapore. Through this project, he hopes to collaborate with creatives from around the world and in the process, see how a single idea can evolve when passed through various hands.

So interesting!!!"

Link

Amanda said:

3. we had our faces smothered by the GROINS and ASSES and SHOES of a slew of bodysurfers, some of whom were topless...(not a pretty picture when you discover, HEY I AM SUFFOCATING. OMG. SOMEONE'S CROTCH IS OVER MY FACE.)

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Humorous but true account of an experience of the crazy moshpit crowd yesterday at the Muse Concert at Fort Canning. Worth a read. "

Link

Tribolum.com - Making Light of Things said:

Like many of you out there who made V for Vendetta the number one box office hit when it opened in Singapore, I was all hyped about getting the DVD upon release. So I headed down to my favourite DVD store, and was subsequently told that it was banned in Singapore for language that was anti-Christian.

Recommended by acroamatic: "We watched it in the cinema but won't be able to own a copy on DVD. At least, not a locally bought copy. Apparently, the VCD is available, which makes this even more confounding. Perhaps the DVD extras are of concern?"

Link

Christopher Lydon said:

He said: "People mix up the words modernity, modernization and modernism. They're three different things. We have had modernization, but not modernity. Being modern is about autonomy. We don't have it."

And this was the killer line as he drove me around the shining streets of Singapore. "We know now from a lot of history that the human spirit is invincible in the face of adversity. But I've decided that the human spirit is defenseless in the grip of wealth."

Recommended by at82: "Interesting radio program in S'pore"

Link

Singapore Critic said:

Here I am paying tribute to the greatest computer company in the world - Apple Computer. Here's to the insanely great 30 years that has come and gone, and to many many more to come.

Recommended by yuhui: "It's the 30th anniversary of the makers of the Macintosh and iPod (and Quicktime and iTunes and Newton and Apple II...). Think Different."

Link

Rich Fuester said:

I work at amazon.com which gets returns for many reasons. One being the Media Development Authority of Singapore has opened the box and found a DVD it doesn't want in the country. Amazon has a list of 150 DVD's known to be returned from conservative countries. Then there is another list of approximately the same size of additional titles known to be refused from Singapore. That list has not been updated in many years. However I have the fun job of processing recent returns that need extra research and a good percentage are from Singapore. Since it is a mild annoyance for me and probably a big annoyance for people in Singapore I've constructed a site that will continually grow as new titles are refused by the media development authority of singapore.

Recommended by chrisloup: "lets you see what's in the sordid minds of the film censorship board, where even men in black is banned."

Link

Thum Ping Tjin said just before becoming the first Singaporean to swim across the English Channel (in 12 hours 24 minutes):

Barring any sudden change in the weather, I will attempt to cross the English Channel on Saturday 6 August 2005, departing from Shakespeare Beach at 0830 BST.

Wish me luck.

Link

Harosingapore has pictures of the new foam bath at the Ngee Ann City fountain:

Link

Flying Chair was interviewed on Channel NewsAsia:

When asked whether blogging could lead to more unsavory activities on the Internet such as online sex I did actually respond that such a statement was akin to saying losing one's your virginity would lead to a life of prostitution.

I wonder how many bloggers work in Orchard Towers?

Link

Cheeky releases another edition of his hit spoof 'Wake Up Your F***ing Idea Singapore!', where Suzanne interviews mrbrown only to be interrupted by late breaking news:

Suzanne: A breaking news. Wow. It has been a long time since we got one. How exciting.

Richard: Yes I know and I like to remind our viewers you are hearing it first on Channel News Asia.

Suzanne: Hurry up and tell Richard. The suspense is killing me.

Richard: *Looking very serious* We just received news that Pope John Paul II is dead.

Link