Yuhui said:

This group was created in response to a comment by well known American blogger, Michael Arrington. In a blog entry, he claimed that Singaporean blogs are (largely) controlled by the government. [...] it is more likely that there are many more Singaporean blogs that are NOT controlled by the government [...].

Recommended by yuhui: "We need to educate people from around the world about the independence of our Singapore blogosphere!"

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Your SDP said:

Yesterday, Dr Chee Soon Juan posted on Mr George Yeo's Facebook to invite the Minister to an online debate. This set off an exchange of messages which we think readers might be interested to read.

Dear Dr Chee

May I suggest you write to the PAP as what you propose seems rather formal.

I don't really want my FB activities to be so formal or serious. I am happy to engage as and when issues arise, but I do so as an individual without getting the PAP or MFA involved. Short responses, not long exchanges if possible. So far it has been fun for me and I hope to keep it that way. Hope you understand.

George

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Chee Soon Juan and George Yeo face off on facebook."

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SocialPR said:

Surprised? If you have access to Facebook advertising management system, that’s what it says about the number of users from Singapore.

The top number of users in South East Asia? Indonesia with 2,358,400 users in Q1 2009.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Some interesting figures about Facebook users from Singapore and SEA.

Note that the daily circulation of the Straits Times is about 300K+ daily."

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yjsoon said:

Facebook apps to help users count down to their ORD. Two versions: one for NSFs and one for bonded skolahs (or teachers, or anyone with contractual obligations to an employer involving linearly-decreasing liquidated damages).

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Wrote these applications in a fit of boredom, and just thought they need a bit more promotion with the new app-unfriendly Facebook profiles."

NS counter
Bond counter

Choong Yong said:

Think about the money spent and the media coverage on the new Reach Singapore [Facebook] profile, I wonder what happens when Facebook discover this violation and terminates the account.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Another instance of Singapore government jumping onto the new media wagon, and looking silly and ill-prepared in the process. One wonders how much of taxpayers' money has been wasted by Reach Singapore to create and publicize such a Facebook profile that violates Facebook's Terms and Conditions."

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The Nation said:

The smallest member of Asean geographically is often touted as one of Asia's great success stories - a gleaming city that emerged from the tropical swamps under a strict but wise autocrat, Lee Kuan Yew.

But a fascinating new book by Australian Rodney King looks deeper into the "the Singapore Miracle" and reveals that a lot of the city's supposed successes are in fact hot air.

Reports of Singapore being a dynamic commercial melting pot are, King says, simply the oft-repeated claims of a government that tolerates little dissent, and city leaders who may actually have stifled the sort of entrepreneurial dynamism you get in places such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan and maybe even Bangkok.

King is a Perth journalist who lived in Singapore for a number of years and worked briefly at the Straits Times.

"The Singapore Miracle - Myth and Reality" casts doubt on the city-state's claims of cutting-edge efficiency, global competitiveness, economic freedom and transparency. Most Singaporeans are not as affluent as their government makes out, King says in his extensively documented, 500-page tome.

Recommended by at82: " Perth analyst and former Straits Times journalist writes a book on what he calls the city's 'hot air' successes."

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Amazon said:

In late twenty-first-century Singapore, detective inspector Wei Chen is a snake agent, a detective whose beat reaches to the fringes of Heaven and Hell. Married to a demon wife and surrounded by wary colleagues, he is nevertheless bored with investigating routine exorcism scams and bogus feng shui licenses. Then the newly deceased ghost of a wealthy industrialist's daughter fails to make her appointed arrival in Heaven. When it quickly becomes obvious that the industrialist himself is implicated in a netherworldly soul-trafficking scheme and is responsible for his daughter's death, Chen has to work with an unlikely sidekick, Zhu Irzh, one of Hell's own vice detectives and a demon cursed with a conscience. Twice nominated for Philip K. Dick awards, Williams should easily qualify for another with this original and stirring blend of futuristic technology and chilling excursions into postmortem landscapes.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "First in a series of novels set in a future Singapore which is on the fringes of Heaven and Hell. "

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youngrepublic said:

S$3.1 million = £1.04 million = US$2.048 million.

That's right, he's going to be paid that much. The rest of the government's getting hefty pay rises too.

Invite as many Singaporeans as you can! We can't stop them giving themselves a peanut's raise, but they can't do anything to us just because we're expressing our annoyance at this...

Recommended by at82: "If you are pissed too, join the group!"

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squareCircleZ said:

This is a thought-provoking video. Should we teach math via algorithms? Should we be concerned about whether students understand what they are doing, or whether they can just get the right answer? How does technology fit into this? Should 10 year-olds use calculators for multiplication?

Recommended by tinkertailor: "While the context is American, the lady in the video plugs the Singapore mathematics textbooks"

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Metroblogging Singapore will be queuing up to collect the new Harry Potter book at Borders. It also provides live updates from Borders, including photos.

On 20 July, I will be queueing outside Borders from the early dusk till 7.01am on 21 July 2007 when Borders opens its doors at Wheelock Place for the launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'll be queueing with a friend who has decided to bring a sleeping bag and camp over that day while I've got a full strategy planned out since I have to rush off to an event by 730am!

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Rambling Librarian said:

It's official -- Singapore has been recognised by BookCrossing.com as the first BookCrossing country... ... It gets more interesting -- some of the bookcross hotspots are Taxi Cabs!

Recommended by ramblinglibrarian: "For Singapore BookCrossers who are fed up of having the cleaning aunty clear their books before their books get a chance to be crossed (besides, someone nudged me to submit my post leh). "

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Alvinology said:

If you saw News 5 at 9.30pm this evening (Wednesday, June 6, 2007) or the news on Channel 8, you’d have heard about the exposé: a graphic novel with overt sexual content was sold, unlabelled and not shrink-wrapped, at the recent book fair.

The informant, Rachel Chan, is my friend!....

If I might add my two cents’ worth, I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of a media hullabaloo, like the time they talked about whether cyclists should cycle on the road or pavement (thought that one would never blow over) and whether Singaporeans are truly happy.

Recommended by alvinism: "The other side of the story beyond what you see on mediacorp TV...."

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Youth.SG said:

IT’S TIME TO CHUCK ALL THE PAST MEMORIES ASIDE AND START AFRESH!!!

Why?

Because for the GRAND FINAL, everyone is allowed to send in their entries! Yes – we decided to throw the submission open to everyone – whether or not you won any prizes from the previous rounds, one of the bi-weekly top bloggers, or a newbie taking part for the very first time! Everyone stands an equal chance!

In addition, we also added a judging component. Meet our five cool judges here:

Recommended by alvinism: "Angelique from Tomorrow.SG is one of judges, together with Power 98 Deejay- Rosalyn, Alan Leong from Shearnation (the guy who designed Xiaxue's blog masthead) and blogger, Charles Ng."

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ketsugi said:

BookMooch works on a points system. For each book you add to your inventory (ie books that you’re willing to give away), you get 0.1 points. To mooch a book from someone in the same country as you, you spend 1 point. If the person who owns the book you want is in another country, it costs you 2 points.

Recommended by ketsugi: "BookMooch is a new service that connects people who have books to give away, and who want free books. It's beginning to attract a strong Singaporean community, so I thought I'd try to get the word out to more people."

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My Muzingz: Where Are Kermit's Keys? said:

I found the title under the TumbleBook Library collection of animated, talking picture books. I liked that I could choose either to read aloud to my son, or have the story read out on 'auto' mode.

Recommended by ramblinglibrarian: "Other (blogging) mums might want to check it out."

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Ondine said:

And I had such great memories with those books. I wanted so badly to have a cave, a secret meeting shed with passwords. I wanted to go to boarding school and have so many friends and have midnight feasts.

Recommended by Tym: "Singaporeans who grew up reading Enid Blyton books will appreciate this trip down memory lane."

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Justin Lee said:

Facebook for Singapore is here! If you’re in NUS, NTU or SMU, you can go to www.facebook.com to signup using your school’s email address. If you can’t receive your confirmation email, do check your spam mail folder and set the email address to be on the approved sender’s list so that you can receive notifications of invites and messages.

Recommended by bigsurf: "finally, a better alternative to Friendster has landed in Singapore.. Facebook has photo-tagging, faster messaging and it's quite a cool tool to manage your friends!"

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Billy Tan said:

What really first came to my mind when I was reading this book was how perfect it was. Perfect in the sense of a perfect pop song, the kind where there’s just a basic hook, something so simple and catchy that you know you’ll can pick up a guitar and come with something just as good. Well, this book made me want pick up a pen and write a sci-fi story.... ... is a fantastic book, and I recommend everyone and their mother to read it.

Recommended by ramblinglibrarian: "Here's a guy who's set himself a goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks. So far, he's 10 down and 42 more books to go. Talk about setting a goal and achieving. Even I don't have that discipline to read one book a week. Oh, and his reviews are pretty good too."

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Nicholas Eng said:

Books have always been a major part of my life and I thought it would be great if I could make a living and indulge in my passion at the same time. So I started Fingerbooks (www.fingerbooks.com), which is an online secondhand bookstore. I followed up with this blog as part buzz marketing, part self-indulgence (I love to write!) and part sharing with people with the same passion for reading.

Recommended by avalon: "Discovered this blog through a new local secondhand online book store, fingerbooks.com, the blog is an offshoot from it. Am encouraged to see more people who are passionate about reading, and smart enough to use that love to make money through a business too! Nicholas writes about the online book store business and shares his favourite reads too."

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Herryanto said:

I find myself doing repetitive task of searching good books in amazon site and checking NLB online catalogue if they are available in the library. Very time consuming, so this site combines information from Amazon and NLB under one page. Do check it out.

Recommended by johannes: "easy to use.. though still beta and a bit slow.."

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