Irwin Felled By Stingray

Sometimes the truly ironic thing in life is that one can be killed by the very creatures one loves the most. In Australia, there are plenty of ways to get killed by wildlife. I'd recommend the first chapter in Bill Bryson's very funny Down Under.



Two months ago I printed out a technical manual meant for salespeople, and put Steve on the cover. It only seemed natural for such a fun car. The guy had appeared in Toyota TV ads, and his infectious joy for wildlife was just perfect... what a feeling! [jumps!]



The interesting thing about Steve's death is that some folks choose to criticise his career choice. Why did he have to do such a dangerous job. Shouldn't he be thinking about the risks involved? What's going to happen to his wife and kids if something terrible happened to him? Some thought that he was provoking the sea creatures, which is now shown to be untrue. It was a freak accident.



I think it'd be more appropriate to ask how many of us can claim to have a job we truly love? True, dying for what one loves might be a little extreme, but lots of people put their lives on their lines every single day. I guess most wildlife documentary makers encounter similar risks as Steve. A few weeks ago, I watched Jeff Corwin get close to the most deadly sea creature in Australia or something like that. There are others in high risk jobs: soldiers, miners, taxi drivers... doctors (especially in situations like SARS), reporters in war zones. Others risk less things, but we can't ignore those. Counsellors, teachers and others in high-stress/emotionally demanding jobs risk their mental health on a daily basis. I could go on...



I guess what I'm trying to say is that folks who love their jobs so much, and are able to make a significant impart on the hearts and minds of people (in Steve's case, it's describing wildlife as... 'what a beauty!' probably wouldn't want to trade that for anything else. Crikey, Mr. Irwin!



Update(!): I've subscribed to the Geographics for over 15 years now. The very first issue in my 'collection' has stingrays on the cover. I wonder how Steve would have liked the world to see them now that he's the victim of a cruel accident. I'd bet he'll still say these creatures are indeed a ... beauty... but be careful, they kill, too.



'I never forget-and diving guides like Jay and Pat never let tourists forget-that stingrays can be dangerous. But these were so gentle that I became accustomed to having heir tails cares the back of my neck or scrape across my faceplate...' -David Doubilet

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How Do Search Engines Work?

I was looking at my logs recently and found something quite bizarre. Go to Yahoo! Singapore, and put in 'xiaxue' in the search box. (She is Singapore and Asia's most popular blogger.) The first search result would be her blog, right? Strangely, no...

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The Social Sciences All Mixed Up Together

School has been lots of fun, even though right now I'm still stuck at a 400-word short essay trying to argue why 'the English Language Syllabus serves no useful purpose for the English teacher.' Hmm... maybe I should be arguing for the opposite...

Besides dealing with languages, I'm also doing this thing called Social Studies. Now, in my experience, this was one subject that few kids were interested in (at least in my time during primary school). I was told before my job interview that it would be one of my teaching subjects if I got hired. For someone like me who regularly thinks in ironic terms, the idea that I was asked to teach this was quite funny.

Now a lot of folks see this subject as Pr*po**n*a, and rightly so. During the interview (paneled by obviously wise and experienced ex-principals), one question was: 'Now, how do you feel about teaching Social Studies?" And I said, "Well, many people think that Social Studies is Pr*pog*a**a/National Education. [laughs] While that is somewhat true, I think it's much, much more that. It's history, geography, political science, citizenship studies... blah blah blah... very interesting... blah blah blah... I love it...blah blah... more people should be studying this! blah blah blah..." And the interviewers were smiling because I think they knew where I was going with this: the interesting question of balancing the positive/useful P with the very important introduction to the various social sciences (essentially, the study of the world around us).

Naturally, one worry I had was whether teachers have any room in the classroom for critical thinking and the 'look-the-emperor-has-no-clothes!' sort of questioning. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be the case so far. The two tutors (one local and the other American prof) that we have seem to understand this tension, and it's discussed very openly in class, which was, like, so refreshing to see. Asking questions and having a constant sense of inquiry seem to be a main purpose of the subject. Of course, the reality in a real classroom might be totally different. Nonetheless, it's good to see intelligent folks in class, both tutors and students. The honeymoon is going great so far...

Anyway, happy Teachers' Day to all the real teachers: heros working hard on the front lines!

Update(!): Archaeologist Xenoboy engages in some excavation.

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Tiger Woods Is An Alien/Swing Portrait

For many years, I've had the suspicion that golfer Tiger Woods isn't really a human, but an alien from the planet SasQuatch. That guy is a bloody machine, for crying out loud! A new feature that appeared a few days ago at NikeGolf's website seemed to confirm my worst fears.

The Nike folks used a digital camera capable of capturing 4000 frames per second, pointed it at Mr. Woods, and requested him to do a swing. As I watched the swing portrait, I realised it should be obvious that anyone who can repeatedly replicated that sort of deadly power and grace, winning 50 PGA titles by the age of 30, simply can't be human. As Sherlock Holmes once said, once you eliminate all possibilities, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Anyway, even if you don't like golf, have a go at watching Tiger swing if only to see what a 4000 frames per second camera can show you. The cello background music is very nice too...

I just started golf lessons for the first time and I was determined to learn as much from this alien as much as possible. I think watching the swing sequence numerous times might have helped; I got my breakthrough with the second set of 50 balls I hit last night. Everything just fits together when the ball flies, it's like a point of singularity so precise and yet so elusive. Anyway, here's a writeup I did 10 years ago if you're interested about this 'slow' sport works...

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In The Jungle/Teacher's College

So a few weeks ago I started school again at Teacher's College. This place is really cool. It's in the middle of a thick secondary tropical forest and they simply cleared away some land to make way for a very nice campus. The library is especially wonderful. I'm writing this sitting at the circular balcony on the fourth floor, it feels like I'm in some exotic place, with trees stretching as far as the eye can see...

The instructors have been wonderful so far, way better than what I'd heard or expected; the students are supportive and intelligent. Eventually, I'll be teaching political science, human geography, history, and languages, all of them English, so that'll be really interesting. But let me just enjoy the oasis of green until that happens...

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Truth In Advertising: Real Reason For GRC

As I was flipping my paper version of The Straits Times a few hours ago, I thought their editorial office had been hacked by The Onion or something. Something got published that just wasn't supposed to be revealed to the populace. But it's one of those things that makes this country just absolutely fascinating for someone like me who likes to read National Education pronouncements and somehow try to make them relevant to my daily life. I've always thought that pigs would fly before something like this happened. It now seems that either the editorial office got hacked, or pigs really do fly!

GRCs make it easier to find top talent: SM
Without good chance of winning at polls, they might not be willing to risk careers for politics
By Li Xueying

SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday gave a new take on the role of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) in Singapore politics.

Their role is not just to ensure minorities are adequately represented in Parliament, he said. They also contribute to Singapore's political stability, by 'helping us to recruit younger and capable candidates with the potential to become ministers'.

'Without some assurance of a good chance of winning at least their first election, many able and successful young Singaporeans may not risk their careers to join politics,' Mr Goh said at an event marking the appointment of members to the South East Community Development Council (CDC).

'Why should they when they are on the way up in the civil service, the SAF, and in the professions or the corporate world?'

But he was quick to add that GRCs themselves do not guarantee victory...

For the full version, please subscribe to the online version of the newspaper. This article alone is worth the entire year's subscription!

What really happened that induced an 'admission' of this sort? I don't know, but developments in the next few days would be very interesting indeed! :)

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Aussie Socceroos Win!

Wow!!! A few hours ago, I switched off the TV with 10 minutes to go between Japan and Australia; Australia was trailing 0-1. I thought the Roos weren't really playing inspiring stuff and a few minutes won't make much of a difference. I just read that the Roos had beaten the Japanese 3-1!! Substitute Tim Cahill scored three times in eight minutes!

Go Aussies! I like this team because the kangaroo is my favourite animal, but I also wish the Japanese would win because I have the same hair colour as them, and my last name is the same as their national currency. So I'm happy no matter who wins hehe...

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GSM Mobile Phone Tells You Where You Are

La what?! When this appeared on the handphone today, I thought I got a handphone virus and promptly switched it off! hahaa... It's about time the telcos switched on this feature. When I was in Perth, I would get Northbridge in the bedroom, and East Perth in the living room. It's really quite fun...

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How Does One Understand Irony/Satire?

"If you're going to tell the truth, you'd better make people laugh. Otherwise they'll kill you."
~(probably) George Bernard Shaw

I was just thinking about what Mr. Wang wrote about Dr Lee, our Information Minister. I've talked about him before, and this time, it's about mrbrown's podcasts. At Wang's comments section, there's an interesting discussion about whether mrbrown is doing the right thing, whether humour will dilute the message or make it less respectable. As I see it, mrbrown has totally neutralised the bizarre tactics of the Ruling Party with that single podcast episode, at least in the blog-sphere of influence. mrbrown is so good at this, he's been doing it for the past eight years.

To be fair, it's sometimes quite difficult to 'get' what mrbrown is trying to do (especially if one's feels the same as Dr Lee), specifically, the idea of satire or irony to tell the truth about something, even if it's sometimes rude and irreverent. Although I think strictly speaking, these two terms are not exactly similar, but they do share some characteristics. These dramatic tools require one to become illogical. Yes becomes no, no becomes yes. 'There are no 300 taels of silver buried here' becomes 'there are actually lots of treasure buried here'. A different set of logic might thus be needed. Now, I'm fascinated by how folks understand or think about these sorts of things, but let me just sidetrack to non-humans for a second...

I was at the zoo earlier this year. The zoo is actually quite an ironical and funny place, because it should occur to some that it's unclear whether humans are actually visiting the animals, or whether humans are being met by animals. This sort of bizarre relationship was not lost on one particular orang utan, at least that's what I thought.

From the zoo's website

There's a 'photo taking' area just beside the orang utans' enclosure where visitors pay a few dollars to have the opportunity to stand beside one orang utan to have their photo taken together. When I was there that day, there weren't any visitors queing up, so the orang utan and his keeper were just hanging around, looking a little bored. I could see from the expression of the orang utan (at the risk of being anthropomophic!) that he was getting restless, and had the 'this is bloody ridiculous!' look on his face. Waiting for people to pay us money just to take a picture with us?! What's wrong with those humans? The keeper was probably thinking the same thing.

Then something bizarre happened. The orang utan started to punch the keeper on his upper arm! Now, those weren't just feeble punches. It really looked like he was going for it! And he started to hit the keeper again, again, again, again and AGAIN! And the orang utan was SMILING. And the smile was really WIDE! (It's hard for me to describe it, you got to see it yourself!) Real punches from an arm that could open up a coconut without any tools!

Now the keeper decided to play along, so he started faking and twisting his face as if he were in real pain. The orang utan didn't care, and continued his assault, smiling. He was obviously having lots of fun. Moments later, the keeper decided he had enough, and started to bring his hands around the orang utan's neck and strangle him! Of course, it wasn't real, but the orang utan was STILL SMILING from ear to ear! It's very funny, but those two chaps were just bored out of their wits waiting for visitors wanting to take pictures with them.

Now, I was just STUNNED as I watched this mock interplay of violence between animal and zookeeper. Aside from the fact that an orang utan's face looked like a human's face, this sort of behaviour seemed to me to require 'higher-level thought processes'. While it's not strictly satire or irony, I suspect it requires a 'different set of logic' to appreciate. How is the orang utan aware of this? Maybe I'll punch an orang utan next time and see what it would do...

Anyway, coming back to court jester tactics, the only way to tell the truth around these places is to make people laugh. Getting killed for doing the same is just not worth it!

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Maths: Election Rally Attendance Numbers

Phew! The NDA agreement I signed with myself has expired today, so I can start writing again. I've got a few entries backlogged. This one is about the election. I attended only one rally; the Last Night of the Proms at Serangoon. I wrote then in the forums...

I just came back from the Serangoon Stadium rally...darn it, this is the first time I've truly felt Singaporean... at the end LTK and SL led the probably the standing room only 40k crowd to recite the pledge in both English and Chinese... really class act campaign...

It was standing room only at Serangoon Stadium that night and many were turned away, but it didn't compare to the rally at Hougang held a few days earlier; the field there was much larger than the stadium. This picture by Yawning Bread was probably the iconic picture of the resistance movement in this election.

I was curious about one thing: how many people attended this rally? YB did some calculations based on estimates of the density of people within a certain area, then projecting the numbers to cover the whole field. He felt there were 100-120,000 people that night. Tym also attended the rally and she estimated that 10-20,000 people attended. Malaysian newspaper The Star mentioned 10,000 folks (via SGWatch).

There's quite a difference in estimates here. Was there another way to solve this crowded problem? I realised I did have another lead: Google Earth. I already know the capacity of the National Stadium. The rest is straightforward.

Step 1: Use Google Earth and find the two locations. Print both locations out using the same scale.
Step 2: Cut out the seats of the National Stadium.
Step 3: Continue cutting the stands and placing in on Hougang field.
The capacity of the National Stadium is 55,000 (source). You can see above that all the seats of the Stadium covers about half of Hougang field. I believe this is a conservative estimate. People stood at the rally, and they most likely stood very close to one another, compared to the seating arrangement found at the Stadium. Therefore, I think the number that night at Hougang Field was very nearly 100,000 people. YB's estimate was quite accurate according to this methodology!

Anyway, the folks who organised this rally won the Hougang seat, but lost the larger Aljunied Large Area Constituency in a close fight. More good years! (And thanks for the memories!)

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Sony Ericsson Z520i

This morning, the screen of the Nokia 8210 that I've been using for the past five years suddenly went dim. So I had no choice but to look for a new handphone. Problem was, my impression of the latest handphones was that they just wouldn't good enough. Yes, they have colour screens and so on whereas the venerable 8210 has a monochrome screen, but the newer phones that I'd seen just felt confusing.

My benchmark for these sorts of thing is the 'inbox test'. How many buttons does one need to press to read the latest SMS? (And without using 'shortcuts'!) It took 4 quick presses on the same button on the 8210. I think the newer models need more presses.

The other thing was infra-red. I didn't need Bluetooth, but I need infra-red because I dislike typing SMS messages with the keypad; I never do it unless absolutely necessary. Instead, I write on my Palm and send it to the phone through IR. The newer Nokias and other manufacturers seemed to have phased out IR in favour of Bluetooth.

So I was resigned to the fact that this new purchase would really be a 'downgrade' from the 8210. Not only would I need to endure a worse user-interface, I couldn't use my Palm to do SMS too. Luckily this week, M1 had a few models to give away (they put out newspaper advertisements every Saturday), and there were two 'cheaper' models. One was the Nokia 6020 ($0), and the other was the Ericsson Z520i ($38). The Nokia doesn't have IR, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Ericsson has both IR and Bluetooth! That was all I needed to know, and I promptly bought it. The build quality is really good, the buttons are nice and the user-interface is quite straightforward. Hopefully, this phone will last four more years...

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Travelling Great-grandparents

Stranger! If you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?
~To You/Leaves of Grass/Walt Whitman

If you meet someone that you don't know on the streets, it's reasonable to think of that person as a stranger. But I just read in this month's Geographics that even though he's not someone you know, he's still someone who's related to you!

"Scientists now calculate that all living humans are related to a single woman who lived roughly 150,000 years ago in Africa, a "mitochondrial Eve." She was not the only woman alive at that time, but if geneticists are right, all of humanity is linked to Eve through an unbroken chain of mothers. Mitochondrial Eve was soon joined by "Y chromosome Adam," an analogous father of us all, also from Africa. Increasingly refined DNA studies have confirmed this opening chapter of our story over and over: All the variously shaped and shaded people of Earth trace their ancestry to African hunter-gatherers."

The stranger you meet on the train is technically a distant relative with the same great-great-great...grandparents!

The Geographics also has this very interesting thing going, called The Genographic Project. It invites folks to pay USD100+++ to have their DNA samples analysed to see how exactly their ancestors travelled from Africa to Europe, Asia and so on. Yeah, I know my most immediate ancestors look Chinese. But before that, they were Africans. So how did they walk from Africa? What route did they take? Very intriguing indeed...

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Straits Times Survey: Almost Half Of Respondents Don't Trust Straits Times

Oops! From today's Straits Times:

Believe those blogs? Only 1 per cent find them credible

IT MANAGER Jerry Chia, 34, trusts the newspaper in his hand more than a fleeting TV snippet for his daily dose of local news. To keep up with local politics, he would rather read a page of analysis in the newspaper than catch a newsflash on TV. His preference is typical of 88 per cent of young Singaporeans who rely on newspapers for news on local politics, according to a survey commissioned by The Straits Times [1]. TV is a close second, with 87 per cent...

When it comes to credibility, newspapers top the list. They were considered most credible by almost 60 per cent, while 35 per cent picked TV... [2]

Agreeing, magazine writer Sim Jui Liang, 31, said: 'Newspapers have more depth. You can't compare full-page coverage in print to a one-minute coverage on a news bulletin.'

Lagging far behind on credibility are news websites (3 per cent) and Internet blogs and forums (1 per cent). [3]

Miss Poon Jiat Ling, 22, a pharmacy student at the National University of Singapore, offers a possible reason: Mainstream media is more comprehensive and objective in its coverage while blogs are more personal and 'can be heavily biased' [4]...

[1] It's time people with online diaries and folks from TVLand start commissioning their own surveys!

[2] Even the survey commissioned by the newspaper found that 40 percent of respondents don't find the newspaper to be credible, assuming that the article title is correct! I mean, wow! The title of this article shouldn't be about bloggers; it should really be: Almost Half Of This Newspaper's Readers Don't Find It Credible !

[3] One percent of respondents find blogs credible. I really do hope that most, if not all, of the readers of this blog make up the 1 out of 100 people who find blogs mildly credible!

[4] Too funny, considering [2] LOL.

Update (!): Mr. Miyagi was nice enough to feature this blog in his weekly column for the Today newspaper. More from tomorrow.sg.

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Bibbulman Track / Hewett's Hill Campsite

Two days ago, I walked the Bibbulmun Track. Well actually, just 1% of it since the whole trail is almost 1000km long! Took the first 7am bus to the Kalamunda, found the Northern Terminus traihead, but promptly got lost within the first 100m. Luckily, that didn't happen too often for the rest of the 20km return hike.
The view before the descent to Piesse Brook. The plan was to walk 10km to Hewett's Hill Campsite, and then walk back. It was quite straightforward because of the cool morning, except for the ascent immediately after crossing the bridge at Piesse Brook over loose, eroded rocks. That was tricky because I was wearing running shoes and not hiking boots. The yellow triangular signs tells folks where to go. If it points to the right, it means 'turn right'. They're nailed onto trees along the trail.

I reached the first Hewett's Hill Campsite in around three hours. The place was fantastic! Beds for eight people, tables, benches... And the most important thing as far as I was concerned as I'd seriously underestimated my water requirements, two large tanks of rainwater! There was an American hiker from Minnesota there. He'd already walked 100km from the south for the past five days and was finishing up the trip back to Kalamunda.

The blue box on the table contains visitor logbooks. Some of the entries were like long essays; most of it very funny, and others more heartfelt. One person wrote in an entry that his life wasn't going too well and maybe something better would come out of this experience; the trip was also his way of staring danger in the face... Little did I know that I was close to experiencing the same thing on my way back to Kalamunda.

I guess it's a combination of several things: the heat, the limited water supply, and probably the climbs. If the ground were flat, it was probably OK. On hindsight, I definitely need another water bottle for trips like these... The GPS was a lifesaver, without the electronic breadcrumbs and the indication of distance travelled, it's much harder to ration the available water.

So apart from that, the hike was really wonderful. The trail was well maintained, and the campsite was great. The thing I love about the Australian bush is that the trees and plants are much 'neater' compared to tropical rainforests. It doesn't seem as 'overgrown'. Another very dramatic thing is that it's so quiet in the bush. There aren't a lot of the loud insects or whatever, there's only the rustling of the leaves in the warm wind. But sometimes the silence was interupted by jumping kangaroos. I saw around four, and the 'thump thump' they made as they moved around so effortlessly like Zhang Ziyi hopping from rooftop to rooftop in Crouch Tiger was a thing to behold. It was like flying... Anyway, I reckon if I go to Perth once a year to spend 5 days hiking 100km, I would finish the route in 10 years! Oh well, the journey of a thousand kilometres begins with the first 10...

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Heirisson Island

OK Amy, here's proof that 1) there's an island called Heirisson Island, and 2) kangaroos live on this island! LOL
This place rocks. The last time I was here, there were I think six kangaroos. This time I either saw two, or four (because I was unsure if the two that I saw initially were the same two that I saw a few minutes later.) Can you see them 'roos?!

The good thing about the 'roos here is that they aren't really afraid of people, so it's quite possible to get closer to them. Anyway, a plug for the Singapore Zoo, it seems that more grey kangaroos are joining the existing colony. Crikey!

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Geocaching!

So I've been doing some Geocaching in the past few weeks, but have only found one so far. The fun thing is not just finding the cache itself, but the walking, sometimes for a few hours, which I did one weekend from Bukit Timah but didn't find anything despite reaching all the locations. Last week, I was in Perth, and I found six! I think I'm getting better, there seems to be this 'feel the Force' thing that more experienced Geocachers possess. LOL

Geocaching is essentially a treasure hunt. One person hides a tupperware that contains goodies and a log book somewhere (adhering to 'leave no trace' and other guidelines), then posts the coordinates on the website so that others can find it. Visitors sign a logbook and leave comments if they are able to find the cache. They may also want to take stuff from the tupperware, but they need to put something back in, sort of like an 'exchange'. Alternatively, it's quite all right to 'take nothing, leave nothing'.

As the tagline at geocaching.com says, 'The game where you are the search engine'. It's like being a member of a Star Trek Away Team; you're given some coordinates, now bring your Tricorder, go to that location any way you want, and do some investigation!

In our case, we don't have a Tricorder. Most people use a GPS. Although it's possible to do this without a GPS, it becomes almost impossible unless there are lots of hints and pictures that's provided by other people who've found the cache. Other things that I use are Google Earth with the geocaching.com addon, a compass with a base plate, and CacheMate for downloading all the coordinates into my Palmpilot.

Now, the fun thing about this is that folks who hide caches often choose very interesting places that a reasonable person would probably never have a chance to visit if not to participate in the search. For example, the first cache I found in Singapore was a picnic ground next to an expressway! It's really a nice place to stroll to...

Here's a screenshot of the geocaches currently in Singapore. There're more than 100, which will probably take me some time to go through them.

I had a bit more luck in Perth last week when I found six caches. Another fun thing that's found in some places were 'travel bugs'. TBs are 'released' by their owners all over the world, and they 'hitch hike' across the oceans to be deposited in new cache locations, and the cycle repeats itself. I've obtained two travel bugs, and one originated from the States a couple of years ago. Hopefully it can go on to the rest of Asia...

King's Park was a special place to do some Geocaching. The Aussies are quite elaborate, making interesting name cards put into the tupperware (or in this case a big ammo box!) so that the owner knows who has dropped by. This particular Travel Bug Passport Centre is a place where interstate and international visitors can come and pick up hitch-hiking TBs.

Anyway, I'd probably be doing treasure hunting every weekend. It's a very 'explorer-type ' activity, and a good excuse for me to take the train to that station that I've never been before, or to walk to that rock next to the Tower in the middle of the 10 km trail between Timah Mountain and MacRitchie Reservoir just to write some notes in a logbook LOL.

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First Aid Course

There was an interesting article a few days ago in the newspaper about this girl called Esther in ACS (I didn't know ACS had girls?!) who performed CPR on a heart attack victim. Her efforts bought enough time to keep him alive.

Student, 17, keeps heart attack victim aliveBy Jessica LimTHREE times, the news magazine vendor's heart appeared to have stopped beating. It made 17-year-old Esther Tan's heart skip a beat too. But she battled on, pumping the man's chest and giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Then, professional help came. Esther, a student at ACS International, may well have saved the life of a familiar figure in Holland Village - Mr Logadasan, or Uncle Loga as he is known at Mama Joe Magazine Corner.

Esther and three friends were having breakfast at Crystal Jade Kitchen yesterday morning when they heard a scream across Lorong Liput. Uncle Loga, who is thought to be 72, had keeled over, seemingly from a heart attack. Pushing through the gathering crowd, Esther applied what she had learnt at a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) course and at the Singapore Red Cross Society - cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR.

'It took me a few seconds to play out the entire CPR procedure in my head before actually performing it,' she told The Straits Times.

She continued for six minutes, before SCDF paramedics arrived. Mr Logadasan, who has an ailing wife and a daughter working in New York, is now in the intensive care unit at the National University Hospital. Said an SCDF spokesman: 'When the victim collapsed he had no pulse reading. The actions of the bystander in keeping his heart alive with CPR, helped our paramedics bring his heartbeat back to normal. And that gave him a fighting chance of survival.'

This is truly impressive; you might be interested to read Book of Aletheia's interview with Esther. Last month, I attended the basic 4-day, First Aid course at the Red Cross, and today I went back there to collect my Red Cross First Aider card. It basically says I know a little bit about first aid and can thus be considered a certified first aider, and that if you should ever have a cardiac arrest right in front of me, I shall try my best to save you. But seriously, it's not easy. No matter how many times you rehearse the Airway, Breathing, Circulation mantra in your head, in an emergency, everything can just go blank. That's why I think Esther deserves a medal or something...

Anyway, I think everyone should go and learn first aid. One reason is that if a loved one is in real trouble, at least you might be able to do something to help, rather than be completely helpless. Time is of the essence. A person with no bloodflow to the brain has only four minutes to survive. An ambulance will take at least 10 to 15 minutes to arrive, which is too late.

Obviously no one can guarantee that a person who takes a first aid courses can perform as well as Esther did, but at least there's a fighting chance that might happen. The Red Cross, and St. John's Ambulance, regularly hold courses. Go sign up, and maybe save your own life in the process, if you happen to choke on your own food. (Yes, they taught that in the course, but I've forgotten how to do it! I'll go read up on it again soon...)

Update(!): New guidelines for CPR were released today. Read the details here.

Only 1 in 5 who has cardiac arrest given CPR
Lack of confidence, apathy may be reasons many bystanders do not attempt procedure
By Radha Basu

ABOUT only one in five people who suffers cardiac arrest here receives cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), doctors said at a seminar where they released new guidelines on the proper way to perform this life-saving routine. The help rate is low compared to places such as Seattle in the United States, where more than half the victims receive CPR.

The procedure is performed on patients who suffer cardiac arrest, a condition where the heart stops functioning suddenly. Such an attack occurs when heart abnormalities, such as a blocked artery, hinder blood flow and starve the brain of oxygen. It can kill in five to 10 minutes. CPR involves pressing a victim's chest repeatedly to restart blood circulation. It also involves offering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, to help the patient breathe. It can be performed by trained personnel only so it is imperative for more people to undergo training, said cardiologist Teo Wee Siong, a senior consultant at the National Heart Centre.

About 30,000 people, mainly health-care professionals and emergency workers, receive CPR training here every year. But this number could include repeat attendees as health professionals in public hospitals are expected to renew their training every two years.

'One of the big problems is that in about four in five cases, bystanders do not even attempt resuscitation,' Dr Teo said yesterday.

He suspects that in some cases even those who have undergone training may not attempt to revive a patient as they are not confident enough. 'That must change.'

Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan also backed the call for more CPR training while speaking at the seminar yesterday. 'The public mindset must change, from apathy and the belief that learning CPR is someone else's duty, to one of shouldering the responsibility, not only for oneself, but also for the community.'

In Singapore, only about 5 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside hospitals survive, said Dr Lim Swee Han, head of emergency medicine at Singapore General Hospital, who did a study of survival rates of 1,000 such patients. However, survival chances double if patients are given prompt CPR. Timely use of machines known as automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, that can shock the heart back into action, also boosts a victim's chances.

Aside from training emergency personnel and lay people, some countries have targeted CPR programmes, said Dr Lim. In some places, high school students, for instance, are trained. In others, employees at places where people have been known to suffer cardiac arrests - such as casinos, airports and sports stadiums - are given special training. Such targeted training has proved effective in the US, said Dr Michael Sayre, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Ohio State University.

If there are no trained personnel around to offer CPR, bystanders should call an ambulance immediately, said Dr Teo. 'Too often people wait too long and it's too late.' Nurse manager Ismail Sheriff, 53, who has undergone CPR training, could not agree more. A few years ago, he received a frantic phone call that his 72-year-old neighbour had collapsed with chest pains. He rushed over and tried to revive the unconscious woman. But it was all in vain - she was dead. 'It was only later that I realised that they had called me more than 20 minutes after she had collapsed,' he said. 'It was much too late.'

radhab@sph.com.sg
-----------------------------------
New guidelines

DURING CPR, rescuers need to frequently press hard against a victim's chest and offer occasional mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

New CPR guidelines released here yesterday say rescuers need to perform at least 30 chest compressions followed by two rounds of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Earlier guidelines said only 15 chest compressions were required. Studies have shown that a victim's blood pressure may fall if chest compressions are done only 15 times in a cycle.

Chest compression jump-starts blood circulation. Mouth-to-mouth helps the victim breathe. CPR should begin within four minutes of a person collapsing.

Rescuers should also:

• Push hard and fast, pressing the chest at the rate of about 100 compressions per minute.
• There should be no interruptions in the 'pump and breathe' routine. CPR should continue till paramedics arrive.

More information can be found at 2005 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care. Parts 4 and 11 elaborate on the rationale for the new 30:2 ratio.

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Crashback Mountain

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow morning's Oscar telecast. It's the first time in months that I'm going to watch the local English free to air TV Channel 5, woohooo! Three reasons: Crash, Mountain, B., and Stewart, J., in alphabetical order.

I haven't recalled any Oscar in the last three decades that had such a compelling and important lineup. Crash forces folks to think about racism, which probably exists in all of us. Mountain is not just documentary about gay cowboys, it's really about a grand love story that hits you in the stomach long after the movie has ended. And one of the most intelligent, sexiest and incisive news anchors on television today, Stewart released early on that his destiny lies not only in reading the news (which he's very good at, having earned multiple Emmys and Peabodies), but challenging his viewers to think about the spin they absorb daily from the media and press releases.

Anyway, Ang Lee or Lee Ang (李安) will win the Best Director award. I hope Mountain wins the Best Film award, but it's OK if Crash and Mountain are tied. Fingers crossed...

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For SPUGers

This is a public service announcement for SPUGers who read this blog. I've just been informed that the website is currently down as the hard disk has crashed. The backup can only be restored this weekend The downtime might last for another week, so in the meantime, you can take the opportunity to surf other websites instead of just SPUG hehe... please spread the word, thanks!

Update (!): The server is now back online.

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Garmin eTrex GPS Receiver / Celestia Addon

I got myself a 2005 edition of the Garmin eTrex GPS receiver a week ago (available at Sim Lim Square and Sim Lim Tower for less than S$200). This is like a high frequency radio receiver (tuned to a frequency of 1575.72 MHz) detecting signals sent by 29 satellites hovering overhead at an altitude of 20,200 km. If you are able to get the signal from four satellites, the GPS unit can tell you where you are, anywhere on Earth, with an accuracy of less than 15m. It's pretty remarkable.

My first encounter with a Garmin GPS was in a computer game simulation. The GPS wasn't simulated in its entirety, but it was good enough to illustrate how the thing works and its usefulness in navigation.

A basic GPS handheld with no mapping functionality, the 'yellow' eTrex is a solid product. Here's a picture I took on 11 Feb, 2006 at 9:17 (GMT 01:17).

Here's a wonderful GPS tracking software called... uh... GPS. It shows the movement of the various satellites at any date and time. You can see that the satellite numbers correspond with that seen in real life!

I wanted to install the orbital information of the GPS satellite constellation in the Celestia space simulator, but there wasn't any on the Motherload, so I decided to make an addon myself. You can now download it here.

No. 27 satellite (model not mine) beaming information to me.So essentially, the receiver is a navigation device. You can set a waypoint, and return to that point easily. As long as the sky isn't obstructed by buildings or lots of trees, you won't get lost. It can also be used for tracking running routes; Garmin has a few models of these sorts of GPS 'watches' like the Forerunner 205. Anyway, last night I went jogging , and here's my route.

Nice stuff! And to think it was initially designed (and is still used) for the military in the 1970s. The 1983 horrific downing of Korean Air Flight 007 by Soviet fighters prompted President Reagan to open up the technology (costing US taxpayers USD 15 billion by last count) to civilian users worldwide, free of charge.

Here's a cute animation of the startup screen, courtesy of the US Patent Office.

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God Of Weath II

Last year I saw the God of Wealth (Fortune) going into a car. This year, he's smiling upon me. May you be successful in ten thousand things! LOL

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Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness In A Sex Ed Class

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
~Deuteronomy 5:20, The Nineth Commandment

I last wrote about the separation of Church and State eight months ago, and I wondered then whether Singapore would see a similar 'intrusion' of faith into the public space as what's happening in the States and to a less extent Australia. It now looks like this might indeed happening, but probably few people are aware of it.

So it started with this person who posted a thread at the SPUG forums on what he experienced at a 'brain-washing' sex education workshop in school. I thought at first it's just one of those interesting ad-hoc workshops that are organised for students in junior college and secondary schools. But as I continued reading, I was quite shocked to find that these types of workshops were organised by religious groups such as a local affiliation of James Dobson's Focus On The Family. Did the Ministry know about the background of these groups? Maybe not. There's not one mention of religious affiliation at Focus' local website. It's not unreasonable for the folks at the Ministry of Education to not know what their activities are if they don't follow US politics.

But there's more; it became apparent that some of the ideas presented at the workshops such as those conducted by the Catholic group Family Life Society, were quite disturbing. Among other things, students learnt that condoms are not effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases because the size of the virus is smaller than the holes in the material used to manufacture condoms.

It took me 10 seconds to go to Columbia Uni's Ask Alice service to verify this claim. The thing they taught in the workshop was absolute hogwash. I was furious to later find that this sort of misinformation had been around since 2003 when the Vatican said basically the same thing, which was later condemned by UNAids. The FDA has more information about condoms.

Was this an honest mistake? How could they lie to people about such things? I couldn't believe it! But then I remembered, if it's possible to adopt and market the same 'faith-based' community way of thinking that the political right wingers have so successfully done in the US, it's not that unreasonable for this fiasco to have occurred in Singapore! If you have one (inaccurate) research paper that talks about the size of virus molecules, it can easily be used to justify the argument despite the objections of health-care professionals. I'm thinking the rationale might work like this: Hey, we have this paper that tell us that condoms don't work in preventing STDs. We know that some doctors oppose this, but I think we should go ahead and promote this idea because we don't allow the use of condoms anyway. Yes, we might be misleading people, but it's all in the name of doing God's good work. And ultimately, we're saving lives if we scare people enough.

Now, if this is indeed the rationale for gross misinformation to appear in the workshop, we really have an urgent and serious problem on our hands. The issue is far bigger than the original objection of faith-based groups teaching secular topics in public schools because it's become a matter of life and death. Why? Because this issue is really about trust.

Who should young people turn to for accurate information on sexuality? We hope their teachers and folks who conduct sex ed workshops are their first source of information. Here's the rub: what happens when these young people later learn they have been misled and lied to, and have not been given objective information? You would lose their trust, probably immediately. Young people are not stupid. They'll eventually know whether their mentors are honest with them or not.

I can easily imagine the following scenario. A young woman drops her blouse before a young, keen, male person. He's considering whether to take the next step. He remembers what his sex ed educator told him, and how some parts of the lesson are just not true. He says to himself, 'If his information about the virus molecule size is not correct, maybe other things he told us isn't really true too. He did tell us that the only 100% way of preventing STD is abstinence. Oh what the heck, I think he's just exaggerating, these guys always have a religious agenda, I don't trust him at all. What are the chances of getting infected after just one time? Screw it...'

This guy gets infected with the HIV virus as a result. Too bad the misleading person who did the workshop happened to be right about the abstinence thing. Anyway, I'd present the lesson this way: condoms are effective against STDs (except for use during anal sex). However, there are such things as failure rates due to operator and manufacturing error. Therefore, to be 100% safe, practise abstinence. If that's not an appropriate choice, know the risks of condom use; the risks can be very high if they aren't used properly...

More from Tomorrow.sg, and Han who has scanned pages from the materials used at the workshop. It's quite unbelievable...

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Seeing Stars With Stellarium

I think one way to be less stressed is to look at the skies and the stars. However in big cities, that's usually not very feasible due to the light pollution. So, an alternative thing to do is to look at your computer screens.

I've a couple of astronomy simulators like the excellent Celestia and OrbitSim, but what I need is something that simulates what the scenery outside the window will be at any location on Earth. The traditional 'star charts' programs are usually just computer versions of the standard charts one finds in astronomy books; these are quite 'boring' and not like the 'wow!' feeling one gets with Celetia...

So it's been a long time since I tried to find something like that on the web, and I just found this free new software called Stellarium. And my goodness, it's just stunning, and really classy...

The wonderful thing is that you can accelerate the time, and see how the celestial bodies move. And the zodiac representations are so beautiful. In the morning, the sun rises and the scenery changes. It's magical... This seems to be the perfect starcharts program...

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Yes, Singapore Is An Open Society, But You Can't All Wear The Same T-Shirts

A few days ago, George Soros was in town for an open dialogue about 'democracy, open society and Singapore'. Gabriel and HuiChieh have the details. In responding to someone's question about whether Singapore can be considered an 'open society', Soros replied, 'Obviously, Singapore does not qualify as an open society...The use of libel and financial penalties can be a tremendous hindrance to freedom of speech and freedom of expression... Singapore is a prosperous society, and prosperity and openness go together...I hope Singapore will become an open society.'

Now, I don't profess to be an expert on what an 'open society' really is or should be. Is it about openness in the sense that you can stand of elections without being sued or feeling afraid? Is it about the freedom to speak your mind without someone coming along in the middle of the night and dragging you away? Is it about a fairly independent media that isn't afraid to not toe the party line? I'm really not too sure. But one thing I definitely know is that in an open society, everyone should be able to wear any T-shirt that they desire, especially if the T-shirt promotes an Asian, endangered mammal, say, maybe, the great elephant. So in that regard, yes, I'd agree that Singapore is an open society, simply because people can wear whatever T-shirt they wanted, unlike some other less open societies.

But today, I realise to my horror, that Soros might be right, that Singapore really might not be an open society after all! It turns out that folks aren't allowed to wear T-shirts with elephants printed on them. The following is my amateurish translation of the article from today's Chinese Zaobao newspaper; for some reason, the English newspaper Straits Times is totally silent on this. [Ed.: This was reported in the Today newspaper yesterday. Tip hat: Wayne Soon]

This T-shirt Can't Be Worn At Buangkok MRT Station Today!
by Pan Xing Hua

Do you have this T-shirt? If you're planning to wear this to Buangkok MRT Station, or to participate in this morning's festivities, please be careful because you might just find yourself in trouble!

The organising committee of this morning's Buangkok MRT Station opening ceremony celebrations (Punggol South grassroots leadership) has been warned by police that if people turn up for the festivities wearing T-shirts printed with 'white elephants', they might cause misunderstanding to others, and even contravene the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act.

A police spokesperson said, 'When the police receives any calls or complaints from the public, we will investigate as we've always done.'

So, if you happen to have this T-shirt, should you wear it today, or not? Please think thrice.

Applying for a fund-raising permit
This 'white elephant' T-shirt was designed by 27 Secondary Four Raffles Girls School students last October. They told reporters then that they hoped that young people might be encouraged to legally express their views, and also to promote active citizenship. All profits that they received from the sale of the T-shirts would be donated to Youth Guidance ["a charity organization which works with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police in mentoring and reaching out to youths at risk"].

The organisers of the MRT Station's opening ceremony festivities have invited the girls to set up a stall and sell their T-shirts.

Charles Chong, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Pungol GRC [the constituency in which the Buangkok MRT Station is located at] confirmed that yesterday, the organisers received a directive from the police requesting the girls to apply for a fund-raising permit. Also, the police mentioned that if more than five people wear this T-shirt, the police would carry out investigations if they received any complaints.

MP Chong said that it normally took three days to apply for the permit, but due to the cooperation of the police, the girls were able to get it in less than a day.

An ex-RGS girl who's now in Raffles Junior College, Ms Chang said yesterday, 'We applied for the permit last night, and were given the permit this morning. So we can legally sell the T-shirts tomorrow.'

Due to the fact that the police have advised the organising committee not to collectively wear the T-shirts so as not to break the law, Chang said, 'Tomorrow we'll have 20 students selling the T-shirts. We have all decided not to wear the T-shirts, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble.'

RGS Girls 'home-made' T-shirt project
This creative 'white elephant' T-shirt designed by RGS students costs $12. At that time, they printed 300, and they are still left with 60, which will be sold today at Buangkok MRT Station.

Speaking of those who've bought the T-shirts, will they collectively wear the shirts to the celebrations today, and inadvertently break the law? Chang said, 'We don't have their contact numbers, and so we're unable to contact them.'

MP Chong said, 'Today, 3000 people will wear a T-shirt that's designed by the organising committee. This purple T-shirt will not have any images of animals. We hope no one will make a complaint to the police.'

A ticket for the opening ceremony festivities costs $3; 5000 people have already bought tickets. The event starts at 8.30am. A 240m long red sash surrounds the MRT Station; it's decorated to resemble a gift for the Buangkok residents. MP Teo Chee Hean will cut the ribbon with 400 residents at 10.45am. The station opens at 1pm.

Seriously, I don't know what to think. Would someone make a complaint about the purple 'endorsed' T-shirts that 3000 people are going to wear? So what if someone does indeed make a complaint?

A little background (as far as I've understood it) about this weird issue. Buangkok MRT Station is along the new MRT north-east route. The stations before and after it have all been opened, but I think the national train operator doesn't want to open Buangkok at the same time as the other stations because they felt there weren't enough passengers living around Buangkok station. So the station was built, and it just stood there, doing nothing.

So one day, someone printed these very cute 'white elephant' pictures on boards and displayed it around the station. Now, this might be so trivial in any other place, but in Singapore, it created an uproar! Normally, people would not think of 'dissenting' but here is someone putting up 'protest signs' in the middle of night, and the message was unmistakable: the train station was a 'white elephant'. Some members of the public allegedlly complained to the police (because it was probably horrifying for that person that folks were protesting to the authorities), and the police promised a full investigation. I think (though I've forgotten the details) it was later found that the sign was designed by the constituency's own grassroots personnel, so the police just gave them a warning. Until now, I don't understand how those elephant signs had even a remote chance to break the law.

So, what is there left to do? I'll congratulate the RGS girls for their bravery and ingenuity, to MP Chong for being behind the girls and his constituents , and the Singapore Zoo, for building the new Elephants of Asia exhibit a few years ago. It's really quite wonderful!

More background reading: SingaporeAngle, SingaporeInk, Yawning Bread, Wikipedia entry on Buangkok MRT Station.

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Sony BRAVIA Colourful Bouncing Balls Advertisement

I am not really a fan of the advertising industry. Part of my discriminatory feelings may have come from something that physicist Richard Feynman talked about in his Caltech commencement address, Cargo Cult Science. There seems to be a lack of 'intellectual honesty' in the world of marketing and advertising.

"The easiest way to explain this idea [of intellectual honesty] is to contrast it, for example, with advertising. Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest; but the thing I'm talking about is not just a matter of not being dishonest; it's a matter of scientific integrity, which is another level.

The fact that should be added to that advertising statement is that no oils soak through food, if operated at a certain temperature. If operated at another temperature, they all will--including Wesson oil. So it's the implication which has been conveyed, not the fact, which is true, and the difference is what we have to deal with..."

Here's another example.

When I first saw this, I thought to myself, 'This is technically impossible and just ridiculous! In the first place, what family would bring a printer to the beach? In the second place, is there a power socket in the sand?!' Don't laugh now. There are other fundamentalists when it comes to interpreting advertisements literally.

I was selling Palms for a few days at Millenium Walk some years ago, and this guy came by and bought an m505. The following day, he came back, and demanded a refund. 'Take a look at the screen!', he screamed at me. 'See how dim the display is?! It's unlike anything shown in the brochure!"

I love dealing with folks like him, so I smiled at him as he kept on screaming, and explained, 'Yes sir, it's dim all right, but I think you'll get used to it soon enough.' The m505 was Palm's first audacious attempt to squeeze colour into a Palm Vx form factor, so I knew sacrifices would need to be made somewhere. I told the angry man that his expectations were unintentionally raised due to the brilliant colour screen seen in the brochure. I pointed out the asterix beside the picture, and if he was able to find the fine print with an *, he would have seen that the colour screen was just a 'simulated picture'. I also said, because I believed it myself, that he couldn't go wrong with a Palm, so he might like to try to get as much out of it as possible.

From a certain perspective, the whole idea of marketing is to spin things, to make things appear better than they actually are. But if we take away the possible lack of honesty in ads, there's something I like about advertisements. It's the beauty of the advertisements themselves, that doesn't have anything to do with the products being sold. 30s of television poetry for its own sake.

The latest advertisement I've found (hat tip: SPUG forums) that falls into this category is the new Sony BRAVIA LCD television ad. There's even an official website dedicated to it. that contains behind-the-scenes videos and other downloads. Essentially, they threw 250,000 bouncing balls of various sizes and colours down the slippery slopes of SF, and just filmed it. The end result, with the exquisite cover version of Heartbeats done by Jose Gonzalez, is just gorgeous. I don't really think I'd care too much about the BRAVIA after watching the ad numerous times, which is what makes the whole thing so wonderful. An ad that has transcended its usual objective: to sell things. If a lot of people are like me, and don't necessarily buy the BRAVIAs after watching the ad, the bean counters would probably pronounce the ad to be an expensive failure. Too bad they don't realise it's the best ad I've seen in a long time...

More from sfist, Noe Valley Voice, shots.net. Amateur video, making-of video.

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I'm Lovin' McDonald's Nutrition Labels

From the Strait Times two days ago:

McDonald's takes healthy bite with nutrition labels

All its food to carry such labels by mid-2006; also more balanced choices coming
By Krist Boo

BIG Macs - and all other McDonald's food sold here - will carry labels detailing their nutritional value by the middle of next year. The move by the fast-food giant in Singapore is part of a healthy-image makeover the Golden Arches is undergoing globally.

The burger chain said last month that by the end of next year, two-thirds of its 30,000 restaurants worldwide would label the fat, salt, calorie and carbohydrate content of its food. McDonald's revealed its Singapore labelling deadline as it launched two new offerings - Asian-style chicken and beef rice burgers...

The Health Promotion Board (HPB), which is working with the fast-food chain on providing nutritional education, hopes McDonald's will not only indicate nutritional values but that it would also help consumers make sense of it. A label that indicates an item has 400 calories, for instance, is helpful only if it explains that 400 calories make up almost half a day's calorie needs, it said...

The interesting thing about the title is that nutrition labels, per se, don't make the food any more, or less, healthy. Second thing is that since I like Big Mac meals, I've decided to read up on what the numbers mean.

Here's what you'll find on the tray.


The first column shows kcal, or calories. This is the amount of energy that's released when foods are digested.

When the supply of energy—that is, the number of calories consumed in foods—exceeds the body's immediate needs, the body stores the excess energy. Most excess energy is stored as fat. Some is stored as carbohydrates, usually in the liver and muscles. As a result, weight is gained. An excess of only 200 calories per day for 10 days is likely to result in a weight gain of nearly ½ pound, mostly as fat. Source.

Health Promotion Board has a list containing some estimates of daily allowances. I probably need around 2800 cal?

The second column shows total fat.

These complex molecules are composed of fatty acids and glycerol. Fats are the slowest source of energy but the most energy-efficient form of food. Each gram of fat supplies the body with about 9 calories, more than twice that supplied by proteins or carbohydrates. Because fats are such an efficient form of energy, the body stores any excess energy as fat. The body deposits excess fat in the abdomen (omental fat) and under the skin (subcutaneous fat) to use when it needs more energy. The body also stores excess fat in blood vessels and within organs, where it blocks blood flow and damages the organs, often with devastating results...

Authorities generally recommend that fat be limited to less than 30% of daily total calories, or fewer than 90 grams per day, and that the amount of saturated fat, trans fatty acids, and cholesterol in the diet be reduced. However, people with high cholesterol levels may need to reduce their fat intake even more. When fat intake is reduced to 10% or less of daily total calories, cholesterol levels tend to decrease dramatically. Source.

So how should we make sense of this number? Let's choose my favourite Big Mac. Two all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese, pickles-onion-on-a-sesame-seed-bun contains 28g of fat. 28 multipled by 9 is 252; the Big Mac has 252 calories of energy in the form of fats. So this constitues how many percent of my daily allowance? 252 divided by 2800 is 9%. Phew, I'm well below the recommended 30%.

But wait, there's more! I'm assuming an allowance of 2800 calories because this is the figure given by the HPB. In reality, I may have only consumed a much lower amount of calories. For example, I missed my lunch yesterday. Assuming I only had 1400 calories, the calories-from-fat number would be 252/1200 = 20% of my daily intake! But wait again, there's more yet! I'm only calculating for a single Big Mac. I always have the Big Mac meal (no upsize, thank you) that has 44g of fat, so if I take that into account, the figure will be 14% (for 2800-cal diet) to 20% (for 2000-cal diet) . Essentially, I'm not supposed to consume not much more fat for the rest of the day. (On McDonald's US website, the numbers are more conservative. They assume the typical person takes in 2000 calories per day.)

You can find a fun-to-use nutrition calculator from McDonalds Singapore. However, ignore the pie chart at the bottom of the numbers. There seems to be an error in the programming script; the resulting chart is almost certainly wrong. Maybe they'll correct it when they next revise the page.

I'm not exactly sure what to do with the Cholesterol number. From this FDA website, it seems that the daily allowance for Cholesterol (and I'm not sure whether this is refering to the good or bad kind) is 300mg.

For the sodium (I think it's found in salt), according to Merck, the daily limit is 1000mg. Just look at the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, my favourite. It has 1147mg of sodium!

The last number is fibre. The Big Mac has 3g of fibre.

Authorities generally recommend that about 30 grams of fiber be consumed daily. In the United States, the average amount of fiber consumed daily is about 25 grams. An average serving of fruit, a vegetable, or cereal contains 2 to 4 grams of fiber. Source.

So these are some superficial things I've learnt from the nutritional labels. Your mileage will vary. Note that I'm not a trained nutritionist (obviously!), so please take things with a pinch of sodium.

And have a great and nutritious New Year!

Update (!): Heavenly Sword has more nutritious things to say!

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What Football Team Should I Support?

I haven't been following the UK football scene for a long while now, and now that I think about it, why support any team that is situated 11,000km from where I live? However, the weekend fixture between Arsenal and Chelsea intrigued me. I thought to myself, 'What is Chelsea, and why is it at the top of Division 1?!'

I think they call it the Premier League nowadays. I used to support Liverpool many years ago, and stopped when these three players vanished from the scene: John Barnes, Ian Rush, and Peter Beardsley, who had a really bad haircut but could play football rather well.

I also miss Peter Shilton, who was once England's goalkeeper, and whose home team was Derby County. It was listening to the BBC sports reports that I first knew how to pronounce Derby (DAHbi), so that's nice. I know the Americans pronounce this as DERbi, but my allegiance is to the British Empire (despite the fact that Britan is located 11,000km from where I live), so I shall stick to the former.

Anyway, lots of people gain seemingly easy satisfaction from supporting a top team. Fans don't need to do anything remotely resembling the actual physical activity called football to feel they belong to the team, and to feel wonderful and great especially when the team wins. Probably the closest thing folks ever do is scream at the TV and gesture dramatically, pretty much like what a real manager does. So, they are actually getting quite a good deal out of all this investment. No work and all gain.

So, I feel I need to take advantage of that. I need to choose a team to support, which is a rather lame excuse of saying, 'You guys really work so hard every time there's a game, and I would like to imagine I am the one doing the running and dribbling, and feel great when you guys win! I would like to use the phrase "we won!" when in fact it's you guys who actually did all the hard work. But I know you won't mind!'

Where do I start? Let's start with the current League leader Chelsea. I don't really like Chelsea; I'm not in favour of their blue uniforms. And isn't Chelsea a girl's name?! Chelsea Clinton! Nope, I don't think I'll support Chelsea.

Manchester United? I like their uniforms, there's this big O on the front of their jerseys. (Actually, I just discovered it's Vodafone's logo.) And there's even a Man U shop in town so buying merchandise will be quite convenient. But Fergie seems to be quite a bad coach, throwing things at David Beckham or something like that, I heard once. So I don't think I'll support Man U.

How about Arsenal? Well, I think the coach Wenger seems cute. But the thing I don't like about Arsenal is that firstly, it reminds me of war. Like bombs and stuff. Their nickname is The Gunners. So I don't think I like them too much.

That leaves me with only one option, given the fact that I should choose one of the top three teams currently on the charts. Liverpool!! Wikipedia describes Liverpool as 'the most successful English football team'. Now we're talking, where do I sign up?! I only wish Beardsley were still playing, sigh. I do hope they top the league though, or else I'd have wasted my emotional and physical investment, especially the constant waving at the TV when my players don't know what the heck they're doing!

Merry Christmas to everyone reading, especially to Liverpool F.C., of which I'm the greatest fan. May you top the league and beat Chelsea!

PS. What's Chelsea, again?

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Konfabulator Becomes YAHOO! Widget Engine

Some months ago, YAHOO! acquired Konfabulator. They've just changed its name to Widget Engine. Get it now!


Chrome Clock

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My First Voting Experience

And I voted for Xiaxue, since she is my hero. She has the sort of editorial integrity I wish I could match. (Sorry mrbrown, it's not that you're not my hero, it's just that you're not a woman.)

It's funny how a lot of Singaporeans don't get to vote. My dad, who's lived in Singapore for more than 30 years, hasn't had the chance to vote in any election. Now, this is not the fault of anybody, since no one is technically prevented from running for office, provided you meet the criteria. It's just that none of the residents in my area want to run for office, for reasons known only to themselves!

So I was very excited to take part this important election, to vote for someone to the high office of Best Asian Blog at The Weblog Awards. The interesting thing is the toing and froing between the two contenders Xiaxue and mrbrown. Xiaxue had a huge lead in the beginning, threatening a landslide. But she and her fans shouldn't have underestimated the political acumen of mrbrown, who crawled back yesterday to take the lead. I thought that was very remarkable achievement. And now Xiaxue is back in the lead, and she is urging her voters not to cheat. She has some political skills herself! And to see her actually beating America's most popular liberal political blog DailyKos in the initial stages just seems so surreal...

Now, let's see if we have this much excitement in a real General Election. Someone in my area, please stand for election!

Update (!): I just voted for DKos in the Best Blog category, and DailyKos has a huge lead there. However, it's still far behind XX and mrbrown. Oh my goodness, if the voting patterns continue, Xiaxue is going to be the best blogger in the world! How weird is that?! LOL

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