Academic Excellence in 140 Characters

Social Media - Lethal invasion of Privacy

If you're 20 years old or younger, you probably grew up using computers, cellphones, iPods and Facebook. Photos, for you, are images not necessarily printed on paper. CDs are old hat. You take digital -- digital everything -- for granted.

In such a world, how easy is it to record and be recorded, to share your -- or someone else's -- most intimate secrets by posting them on the Web? All too easy.

Easy gathering and distribution of information are hallmarks of the digital age. They played out all too disastrously for first-year Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi.

Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge in New York on Sept. 22, three days after roommate Dharun Ravi, 18, allegedly made and streamed online a secret video of an intimate encounter between Clementi and another man.

Clementi's body was identified Sept. 29. Ravi and Rutgers freshman Molly Wei, also 18, have been charged with invading his privacy, and Middlesex County, N.J., prosecutors say bias-crime charges are possible.

Clementi even said farewell via Facebook: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."

Clementi's death has spurred fierce debate, on and off campus and on the Internet, about social media, changing notions of privacy, and whether or not what happened was a crime.

Emily Nussbaum, frequent writer on social media and privacy issues and editor at large for New York magazine, said, "I am completely baffled about why people don't make a distinction between what you do and do not post."

But she also sees three important forces at work in this story: "The availability and ease of the technology; the growing normalcy of porn, especially the rise of amateur porn, in which you post sexual images of yourself or others, and the social networking change in people's attitude toward privacy."

Neil Bernstein is an adolescent psychologist in Washington and author of "How To Keep Your Teenager Out of Trouble and What to Do If You Can't." He sees two trends converging: the "dilution of intimacy" brought about by the new media, and what he calls "behavior contagion," or the tendency of people to do what those around them are doing.

The Web can connect people in strong, healthy ways, Bernstein said. But the dark side is that our notion of intimacy may be diluted.

"There's a decreased empathy that sometimes comes with social media," he said. "Because they're online, people will consider themselves intimate with people they don't really know at all. And this has an impact on relationships."

Then there's "behavior contagion." All around you, your friends and acquaintances post information once thought "private": names of boy- or girlfriends, social plans, secrets.

Technology does change attitudes, and fast. "When phones became cameras," Nussbaum said, "every friend you had became your paparazzo. All the previous ethical boundaries about taking photos of someone else without express permission, which used to be seen as an invasion of privacy -- that's all but gone now."

Which leaves all of us vulnerable. Rob D'Ovidio, associate professor of criminal justice in the department of culture and communications at Philadelphia's Drexel University, says that low-cost, miniaturized recording technology is "entering the widespread public domain."

In the past, we needed to worry only about Big Brother: government and corporate entities with the power to gather and manipulate private info. "Now," said D'Ovidio, "we're in the era where we have to watch everyone, including other consumers, our colleagues, our classmates -- we have to watch everyone from now on.

"Big Brother has trickled down to the Everyperson."

Opportunity -- and temptation -- to misuse social media are everywhere. "The will to betray, the will to deceive, is out there," said Gary T. Marx, professor emeritus of social science at MIT. Social media simply make it easier.

Also involved is the culture of "pranking," with its overtones of humiliation, harassment and bullying. According to the Associated Press, since 2003 in the United States at least a dozen children or young adults between 11 and 18 have killed themselves after some form of cyberbullying. Perhaps best known is the case of 13-year-old Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., who hanged herself in 2006 after getting MySpace messages supposedly from a boy breaking up with her. The messages were really sent by the mother of a friend.

Much of the Internet debate focuses on whether what happened to Clementi amounts to a hate-crime against gays. Hayley Gorenberg, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a national gay-rights organization, said she was "terribly saddened" but not at all shocked to learn of Clementi's death.

"We know the rates of suicide among LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth who do not feel supported are sky-high," she said. "Social media can be a fantastic source of support for youth who feel isolated, but the potential is there for depersonalization that removes perpetrators from the face-to-face interaction."

Based on an article in Times Union, a US-based online newspaper.

The impact of the Social Media tutorial

This is what is inside your head after the Social Media tutorial. Freedom huh? Interesting...

Kanye West and How Twitter Has Changed the Way We Communicate

Its amazing that Kanye West has made an impact on how we conduct ourselves in a media-dominated world. Check out this article about it and also:

Twitter vs Iran Elections

Twitter vs The Rest of the World

Iphone for charity

Egyptian Arrest

Burglars use FB to pick targets

Since the world is presently overloaded with information and as a test on how our discussion has affected you, pls post a SINGLE word that captures the said issue. Remember only ONE word yea....

"Global warming is bulls**t" by Ryanair boss

If this particular article is marked as an AQ script, it would fail miserably. Why?

Social Impact of the Web

There are many areas where the internet has led to changes and innovations. The impact of the Web is undeniable and ubiquitous. But specifically what are the different areas that have the most social impact? Identify 3 areas in which the social impact the Web is clearly seen and provide evidence via links or points.

Should I go or should I stay?

The debate continues on the need of foreign talent:

Inflow of foreigners to slow down

Why foreigners are needed?

The dilemma is in how much we need them and how much social impact that they can have. Can we ever strike a balance?

Where is GP in the world?

Its obvious that GP is about social and worldly issues. So please leave your link of your article that reflects those topics and issues in the comments below.

Facebook launches panic button

Facebook has announced it will allow a "panic button" application on its social networking site.

The button, aimed at children and teenagers, will report abuse to the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) and Facebook.

Once installed, the application appears on their homepage to say that "they are in control online".

The launch follows months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook, which initially resisted the idea.

Ceop, the government law enforcement agency tasked with tracking down online sex offenders, called for a panic button to be installed on social networking sites last November.

Bebo became the first network to add the button with MySpace following suit, but Facebook resisted the change, saying its own reporting systems were sufficient.

Pressure mounted on Facebook following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, posing as a teenage boy, who she met on Facebook.

Forty-four police chiefs in England, Wales and Scotland, signed a letter backing Ceop's call for a panic button on every Facebook page.

'Reassurance for parents'

The agreement to launch a child safety application is the culmination of months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook.

Jim Gamble, Ceop's chief executive, said in a statement: "Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented - today however is a good day for child protection.

"By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site."

Facebook's head of communications in the UK, Sophy Silver, told BBC News that the new app would integrate reporting into both Facebook and Ceop's systems.

"Both sides are happy as to where we have got," she said.

"We still have the Facebook reporting system and by having a pre-packaged application that users play an active part in, you not only help keep them safe, it makes all of their friends aware too, and acts as a viral awareness campaign.

"Ultimately though, this makes for a safer environment for users and that's the most important part," she added.

In addition to the online reporting application, a new Facebook/Ceop page is being set up, with a range of topics that, it is hoped, will be of interest to teenagers, such as celebrities, music and exams. It will link these subjects to questions about online safety.


Click here for the article

What is your privilege?

This post is for a select group of individuals. You know who you are. Leave a comment about a privilege that you have come to appreciate by Friday the 13th 2359. Sign off with a name that I can associate your identity with. No anonymous posts will be published. All comments will be published on Sunday 2300.

Privilege

Below is a song by Incubus. What do you make out the song to be? Support it by referencing to the lyrics. The audio is playing on the iPod at the right. If you are distracted by the 'moving' images , just choose the next track (it contains no images).

Isn't it strange that a gift could be an enemy?
Isn't it weird that a privilege could feel like a chore?
Maybe it's me but this line isn't going anywhere,
maybe if we looked hard enough, we could find a backdoor.
(find yourself a backdoor).

I see you in line, dragging your feet
you have my sympathy.
The day you were born, you were born free.
That is your privilege. (chorus)

Isn't it strange that the man standing in front of me
doesn't have a clue why he's waiting, or what he is waiting for?
Maybe it's me, but i'm sick of wasting energy.
Maybe if i look in my heart I could find a backdoor.
(Find yourself a backdoor).

I see you in line, dragging your feet
you have my sympathy.
The day you were born, you were born free.
That is your
That is your privilege.

(Find yourself a backdoor).

I see you in line, dragging your feet
you have my sympathy.
The day you were born, you were born free.
That is your privilege. *2

Safire article

This is the link to show the actual article.

Want a liveable city? Make it child-friendly first

Refer to the article below about how living in Singapore can be improved.

Singapore not as perfect as it seems, according to urban planning expert

By Tan Hui Yee

SINGAPORE is often cited as one of the world's more liveable cities, but a stroll through Kampong Glam, Little India, Tanjong Pagar and other downtown areas led one visiting expert to a more muted conclusion.

Yes, there is much the Republic is doing right, much the rest of the world can envy, but the country is falling down in one key area - it is not thinking small enough.

Child-sized, to be precise, because cities must first be liveable for kids before they can be liveable for all, according to urban planning consultant Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard, who was in town recently for the World Cities Summit.

And while Singapore is clearly streets ahead in terms of its crime rate, the walks around town she undertook over four days showed up other problems.

She found that traffic in downtown Singapore is a tad too heavy and street- level crossings inadequate for children to wander around on their own.

In her view, a city needs to facilitate such independent access for children if it wants to be truly liveable.

Child-friendly cities thrive because everyone needs fundamentally the same things, like an accessible environment and rich social life. By focusing on meeting the needs of children - one of the most vulnerable and physically weakest groups in the community - the city can get its basics right.

But that does not mean ever more kiddie rides, cartoon murals or playgrounds.

'The ideal play area for children is the city itself,' says Dr Crowhurst Lennard, 65, the founder of the International Making Cities Liveable Council, which is based in Portland, Oregon.

Generally, it is a bad idea to relegate children to just children's facilities because they learn best when able to freely mingle with and observe adults in an everyday setting. And catering to children is not that hard.

'On a simple level, it is a matter of walkability. Children have to be able to get around safely on their own as early as possible and explore their environment.

'That means it has to be safe not only from traffic, but also a good socially safe environment where there are familiar adults along the way who recognise them and speak to them - people of different ages,' she said.

So, buildings, roads, parks and street furniture should be designed to inspire imagination, invite exploration and serve multiple uses.

For example, steps should be comfortable enough to invite seating, walls should be low enough to be 'climbed on, sat on, or walked along', and window ledges and planter ledges should be broad enough to double as seats. Meanwhile, public art should welcome children instead of being plastered with 'no climbing' or 'no touching' signs.

'All kinds of public art should be meaningful and understandable to children. They should tell children about the history and traditions of the city. And they should be able to be played on.'

She cites, as a good example, the bronze sculptures of The River Merchants by local artist Aw Tee Hong, which details the lives of traders by the Singapore River when the island was under colonial rule. Passers-by continually stop to touch the sculptures and clamber on to pose for photographs.

And our bright shiny malls, centre of much of Singapore life? They get a firm thumbs down.

Malls are increasingly becoming meeting spots and teenage hang-outs as they are being planned around transport nodes, but Dr Crowhurst Lennard says they are 'not ideal' as a public space given the restrictions on what can occur there.

Instead, an open, flexible public space does better at engaging young minds.

'It can be used as a market in the morning, for festivals in afternoon and on a quiet (evening), just for sitting out and relating to people...It can be used for a school performance or some kind of local community festival.'

She thinks child-friendly environments make everybody's lives - especially older folk - easier. This is because they have 'very similar needs to children' - like being within walking distance to cafes, shops and libraries or other social nodes where they can interact with people as their social circle shrinks with age.

Yet, the quality of social life is all too often overlooked by city planners too engrossed with the hardware of their cities. 'Liveability' is regularly confused with 'standard of living', she says.

The latter refers to better health care, educational standards and a more comfortable environment that comes with higher incomes.

Meanwhile, liveability 'has more to do with quality of everyday social life, the interactions that we have every day and the quality of those interactions'.

In her view, a poor neighbourhood with abysmal sanitation could have a socially richer quality of life than a wealthier one with its plumbing systems in order.

'The trick is to try to figure out how to reclaim that rich social life and still keep our high standards of living,' she says.

Some cities get it right, although the one she cited might surprise - the seething tourist hot spot of Venice. Yet she notes that the 'museum city' actually hosts rich social networks supported by gracious infrastructure.

'While some people are richer, some poorer, they live side by side, everyone takes the same public transit and walks the same streets,' she says.

These social networks are based on Venetians' own home campo - the square they grew up in or live in - rather than their job or status.

The networks are strengthened by their shared memories of the city as well as the stories that collect around its landmarks.

'A community exists only when people know each others' stories. I would have to know all about you, where you grew up, what your childhood was like, who your parents were and who you played with in order for me to feel that I were part of your community or you were part of my community'.

Parents expand this community when they share memories of the city with their children. But the task becomes 'much harder' when the cityscape changes very fast - as it does in Singapore. The loss of a social landmark, like a long-reigning coffee shop, would then feel like a 'death in the family'.

She feels cities must have continuity in some measure: '(You need) social life that children take part in as they get to know their city.'

Ideally, a city should also have mixed-use environments, old and young from all walks of life working and playing in the same district. Such an integrated concept is regaining currency as urban planners realise the fallacy of zoning regulations that create buzzing business districts by day and dead zones by night.

In the United States, where middle-class families spent decades fleeing the cities for the suburbs, people are 'realising they have to bring the population back to the downtown area, and people are beginning to move back'.

'(People) want to be within walking distance of cafes and restaurants and nightlife and the resources of the city,' she says. 'This will be a trend for the future.'

The growing complaint in Singapore that only the well-off can afford to live within or close to the city as homes are so expensive gets a sympathetic response.

'That is not a good solution,' she declares, as it creates a rather skewed environment.

She thinks housing quotas for different income groups could help right the balance in the same way the Housing Board sets quotas for ethnic groups in each block and precinct.

In such an inclusive environment - where young and old, rich and poor, different ethnicities live together - people learn to 'negotiate with each other...and appreciate each others' values'. And it is these environments that will best meet the social needs of children - and ultimately, society.

'We need to live in as equitable an urban environment as possible,' she says. 'We need to live in a district where we all experience the diversity of our society as much as possible.'

Foreign Talent - Should we stay or should they go?

These 2 articles relay some differences in their viewpoints.

1) Foreign Talent by Melissa Sim http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20100503-213783.html
2) Little choice by falling birth rate by Vince Chong

1. What do you think are the roles of non-citizens in Singapore?
2. To what extent do you see non-citizens contributing to our society and on what levels? (eg. social, economical and political )
3. What are our roles as citizens when communicating and working with non-citizens in Singapore?
4. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of policies aimed at helping non-citizens integrate into our society?

Twitter means so many things...

Twitter has definitely changed the world in leaps and bounds but this article from Guardian dispels many myths. One is that the popularity of Twitter is not propelled by teens. This insight by a 15 year-old seems to be ground-breaking to Morgan Stanley. Why so?

Rockstar: Only "Terrible Parents" Buy Our Games for Their Kids

Radio personality and Rockstar producer Lazlow Jones has a message for people who buy Rockstar games for their kids: "You're a terrible parent."

Rockstar games are awesome. They're also most definitely not for kids. From Grand Theft Auto to Manhunt to the new Red Dead Redemption, just about everyone agrees that these are games that parents should keep far away from their children. And for those parents who do let their kids play them, because they don't know any better or they just don't care, Rockstar has a message: You suck.

"Our games are not designed for young people," said Lazlow Jones, who hooked up with Rockstar in 2001 by writing and performing in radio segments in Grand Theft Auto 3. "If you're a parent and buy one of our games for your child, you're a terrible parent."

"We design games for adults because we're adults," he continued. "There's a lot of kids' games out there that we're not interested in playing. Just like you enjoy watching movies and TV shows with adult themes and language and violence, that's the kind of thing we seek to produce."

He claimed that despite its reputation, Rockstar gets relatively little "pushback" from rating boards, although he noted that the videogame industry in general faces far greater challenges than other media when it comes to producing mature content. "If you tell a gritty crime drama with violence and profanity and call it The Sopranos you're handed a load of awards to put up on the shelf," he said. "You do the same and call it a videogame and you'll have certain organizations up in arms."

But times are changing and Lazlow thinks Rockstar deserves a lot of credit for "pushing the boundaries" of what's acceptable in videogames today. "I think ever since GTA IV came out and there were such rave reviews by major publications saying that this is actually art the restrictions about being politically correct have largely fallen away," he said.

Source: TheEscapist

S'pore: Lowest child mortality

PARIS - SINGAPORE is ranked first in the world for the lowest estimated rates of children under five who die each year for 2010, followed by Iceland, Sweden, Cyprus and Luxembourg.

In the United States - whose ranking has dropped from 20th to 42 since 1970 - the mortality rate is nearly double the European average. But the proportion of under-five children who die each year across the globe has dropped 60 per cent over the past four decades, according to a study published Monday.

In the last 20 years this salutary decline has accelerated, with the number of deaths among newborns, infants and one-to-four year olds falling from 11.9 million to an estimated 7.7 million in 2010, the new figures show.

That remains a staggeringly large number of young lives lost, many to preventable diseases and overwhelmingly in the world's poorest nations. A child born today in Chad, Mali or Nigeria is nearly sixty times less likely to see her or his fifth birthday than one born in Scandinavia. And progress still falls short of the trajectory needed to meet the UN's Millennium Development goal of slashing child deaths globally by 66 per cent between 1990 and 2015.

But the decline in under-five mortality is still an encouraging achievement, and suggests further progress is possible, the report says. Even at the current rate of improvement, there are 31 countries on pace to meet the UN benchmark for 2015, including Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia and Egypt.

All told, 54 of the 187 nations examined in the study are poised to reach the goal. In 1970 there were more than 200 under-five deaths for every 1,000 live births, the measure used to rank nations in this grim index. By 1990, that list had dwindled to 12, and today no country crosses the 200-death threshold, according to the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

'One of the biggest achievements of the past 20 years has been this incredible progress in countries that historically have had the highest child mortality in the world,' said Christopher Murray, Director of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and co-author of the study. --AFP

Source: ST (24 May 2010)

Game Addicts Arrested for Starving Baby to Death

3-month-old Starves to Death While Parents Spend Hours in Internet Cafes

Gaming addiction turned horrifically tragic as the three-month-old daughter of a Korean couple starved to death while her parents were caring for a virtual daughter during a 12-hour MMOG session.

The couple, identified only as "the Kims" due to Korean privacy laws, had met in 2008 over an online dating site and subsequently married and had a child. The husband, 41, and the wife, 25 were both unemployed, living with the parents of the wife. Both spent most of their time at 24-hour internet cafes, notorious for crowds of gamers and dense cigarette smoke, even during the pregnancy. The couple called the police in September to report their daughter's death after returning from a 12-hour gaming session.

The autopsy results were chilling. The child, who had been born prematurely, died of malnutrition. The couple also admitted to feeding her rotten powdered milk as well as spanking her whenever she cried. The child was generally neglected in favor of an online daughter over the Korean MMOG PRIUS, which was consuming much of the couple's play time at internet cafes while their daughter was left alone and unfed.

South Korea has had serious problems with gaming addiction, which has led to a number of deaths via exhaustion in the past few years. "There's no certain clinical indicator to define 'game addiction' but our study shows that brain PET [scan] images of suspected online game addicts are very similar to that of a cocaine addict," Dr. Kim Sang Eun of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital said. The problem is reportedly even higher in Korea due to the nation's 95 percent broadband access, and the fact that there are more mobile phones in South Korea than there are people.

While obviously an extreme example, it is nevertheless one that cannot be ignored. Fortunately, most gamers aren't this irresponsible, but it's still a very real risk in our world.

Source: ABC News (4 Mar 20101)

Is Singapore the worst environmental offender?

ST - A NATIONAL University of Singapore (NUS) study which ranked Singapore as the worst environmental offender among 179 countries has drawn a sharp response from the Government, but its authors are standing by it.

The study, jointly done by NUS and the University of Adelaide, found that Singapore's headlong rush into developing a modern megalopolis over the last 30 years had taken a terrible toll on its natural environment.

The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, however, has slammed the 16-page paper - which looks at relative environmental impact of countries - for not taking into account the 'unique circumstances of each country'.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, a ministry spokesman said that the study was based on a proportional environmental impact index, which is defined only in terms of total land area.

'As such, countries with limited land size which have high intensity of land use would be necessarily disadvantaged in this proportional index,' said the spokesman.

'Correspondingly, the main indices which contributed to Singapore's poor ranking were contingent on total land area. For example, natural habitat conversion, which is the area of human-modified land divided by total land area, unfairly penalises Singapore's high urban density.'

In response, Professor Corey Bradshaw, 38, director of ecological modelling at the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute and one of the paper's three authors, was adamant that the data spoke for itself.

'We didn't make it up,' he said. 'It's publicly available data so anyone can look at this.'

The study, which took about three years to complete, was published by peer-reviewed online science journal PLoS ONE.

Professor Navjot Sodhi, 48, from the NUS department of biological sciences and co-author of the paper, said Singapore's rapid development in the last 30 years has seen it lose 90 per cent of its forest, 67 per cent of its birds, about 40 per cent of its mammals and 5 per cent of its amphibians and reptiles.

The study is thought to be the first in the world to adopt a new rating system which looks only at environmental indicators such as forest loss, natural habitat conversion, marine captures, carbon emissions and biodiversity.

As the index focuses on modern environmental impact, it 'ignores some elements of historical degradation such as deforestation in Europe', the authors said in the paper. It therefore 'might penalise developing nations more heavily'.

Although a country like Brazil, for example, has chopped down more rain-forests, Singapore, proportional to its size, has wreaked greater destruction as nearly all its forests have made way for urbanisation, explained Prof Bradshaw.

He added: 'Singapore's development over the last 20 to 30 years has meant that it has done the worst damage to its environment.'

Developing and developed nations such as South Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Netherlands were also penalised by the proportional index.

While Singapore fared poorly in terms of proportional environmental impact, it is too small to figure in terms of global or absolute environmental impact. For that, the 10 worst countries are: Brazil, the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia and Peru.

The authors conceded that Singapore was something of an anomaly as it is a city state, and a fairer comparison would be between it and other cities such as New York City and Hong Kong.

The negative rating is not the first Singapore has received in environmental studies.

The Republic has frequently been cited as having one of the highest per capita carbon emissions globally by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which provides energy statistics to the US government, factoring in data such as carbon emissions from bunker fuel, aviation and refining processes.

Latest EIA data taken in 2006 indicated that Singapore emitted 141 million tonnes of carbon emissions, ranking it as the 33rd-highest emitter of greenhouse gases among 215 countries.

Singapore - which adopts a measurement standard that does not include bunker fuel, aviation and refining emissions, which is in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines - puts its own carbon emissions figure as 40 million tonnes.

In this year's Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks 163 countries on both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality, Singapore did better, coming in 28th with 69.6 points. Iceland fared the best with a score of 93.5 and Sierra Leone came in last with 32.1.

Speaking to leaders at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong defended Singapore's environmental record, saying it had taken environmental issues seriously since its independence more than 44 years ago.

He said Singapore had recently set a voluntary and domestically funded target to reduce emission growth by 16 per cent from business-as-usual levels by 2020, subject to a globally binding climate change deal.

He described this as 'a substantial commitment which will entail significant economic and social costs'.

Source: Straits Times

Last Week in Reality

APRIL

26 MON
Look, No Hands The jail term meted out to a 69-year-old magician who sexually assaulted his 12-year-old apprentice has been upped from six to 10 years. The jail term was increased after an appeal from the prosecution. The offences were discovered by chance when a neighbor saw the man walking around naked in his flat while the boy was inside.

27 TUE
The Time Of Sands Marina Bay Sands was finally opened to the public, at the auspicious time of 3.18pm. 36,000 patrons, many Singaporeans, gathered to try their luck on the opening day. Locals had to pay their $100 levies before being given a queue number to wait for their turn on the casino floor. In return, they received a commemorative silver coin, and were treated to free food and entertainment as they waited.

28 WED
Sports City? Hosting the first Formula 1 night race and the inaugural Youth Olympic Games has rocketed Singapore into second spot at the Ultimate Sports City awards. The award, given out by the UK’s Sport Business Group, recognizes a city’s quality as a host of sporting events. The ranking is based on sporting events held in the past, and also considers future events to be hosted. This is Singapore’s first appearance on the list and only Melbourne was ranked higher.

29 THU
Ultra Beatdown Two men are in court, charged with beating up a full-time National Serviceman. The 18-year-old was abducted and brought to a cemetery at night where he was beaten by six men, one of whom carried a samurai sword. One of the men is the father of a 14-year-old girl who was the girlfriend of the NSF, and the beating was delivered in an attempt to end the relationship.

30 FRI
The Birds And The Bees The Ministry Of Education has called for transparency from schools that engage a third party organization to complement their sexuality education program. Six vendors have been approved to provide the service, and they will be required to make the information they provide available to the public. The MOE’s stance on sexuality education avoids making calls on abortion, masturbation, and oral or anal sex, and does not promote homosexuality, promiscuity or sexual experimentation.

1 SAT
I Do Two A new service launched by the Ministry for Community Development Youth and Sports allows Singaporeans to search through marriage records. Names, part of the NRIC numbers and the marriage date of the two parties can be obtained. This information might be relevant for dating agencies, private investigators and anyone who wants to ensure that their partner is not already married. To prevent abuse of the system, each user is only allowed two searches a year.

2 SUN
Assassins Freed Street Wars comes to Singapore on May 10. For a fee of $50, participants are given a hitlist of people who need to be "taken care of," and they have three weeks to rub them out using H2O as ammunition. The only weapons allowed are water guns and water bombs, and the targets are other players of the underground game. First played in New York City five years ago, "assassins" can perform the jobs alone or team up with other like-minded killers to snuff out competitors with a squirt of water.

Source: IS Magazine

The impact of iPod

China clears murderer after 'victim' shows up alive

The following 2 articles shows the impact of wrongful punishment. What is the difference in the reporting of the same issue?

BEIJING - A CHINESE man who spent nearly 10 years in jail for murder has been cleared after the supposed victim reappeared alive and well.

Zhao Zuohai was jailed in 2002 for murdering one of his neighbours in a village in the central province of Henan in October 1997, Xinhua news agency reported late Saturday, quoting a court statement.

The neighbour went missing after the pair had a fight in October 1997, the report said, and Zhao was charged when a headless, decomposed body was found 18 months later.

Zhao was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to 29 years' imprisonment, Xinhua said. The supposed victim, Zhao Zhenshang, returned to the village April 30 and after confirming his identity, the court cleared Zhao Zuohai of murder on Friday, the report said.

Zhao Zhenshang, 56, told Xinhua he and Zhao Zuohai had been good friends, but fell out over a woman and money. He said he fled the village after hitting Zhao Zuohai, fearing his revenge, Xinhua reported, and stayed away as he had not earned much money and felt ashamed. A villager said that during Zhai Zuohai's time in prison, his wife had remarried and two of his children had been adopted.

Henan Provincial Higher People's Court has ordered an investigation into the case and said the judges responsible for the original verdict would be punished. --AFP

A Chinese man who spent almost 10 years in jail for murder has been freed after his supposed victim was found alive.

Zhao Zuohai had a fight with his neighbour, who then disappeared, and was charged when a headless, decomposed body was found 18 months later.

The miscarriage of justice came to light when the neighbour, Zhao Zhenshang, returned to his village in Henan province to seek welfare support.

He had fled after their fight because he feared he had killed Zhao Zuohai.

Mr Zhao's conviction for murder was reportedly based mainly on a confession. His brother said police had forced him to drink chilli-tainted water and set off fireworks above his head to extract one.

Correspondents say convictions in the Chinese court system are strongly dependent on confessions, motivating police to use force to get one. Henan Provincial Higher People's Court has ordered an investigation into the case and the original judges will be punished.

Mr Zhao was initially sentenced to death for the crime, but the sentenced was commuted to 29 years in prison. While he was in jail, his wife remarried and several of his children were adopted. --BBC

Facebook chats exposed

SAN FRANCISCO - FACEBOOK on Wednesday temporarily shut down its online chat feature after a software glitch let people's friends in the online community see each others' private chat messages.

For a 'limited period of time' chat messages and pending friend requests could be made visible to friends, according to Facebook.

For peeks at the usually walled-off information, Facebook users had to manipulate a 'preview my profile' feature in a particular way, according to Facebook. 'When we received reports of the problem, our engineers promptly diagnosed it and temporarily disabled the chat function,' a Facebook spokesman said in an email response to an AFP inquiry. 'We also pushed out a fix to take care of the visible friend requests.'

Chat was back in action for most Facebook users by 1900 GMT (3am Thursday Singapore time) and it was expected to be working across the website after.

'We worked quickly to resolve this matter, ensuring that once the bug was reported to us, a solution was quickly found and implemented,' the Facebook spokesman said. The software glitch struck as the world's top online social-networking service is increasingly scrutinised regarding the privacy of members.

Slightly more than half of adult users of social networks have posted 'risky personal information' such as birth dates or children's photos to profile pages, according to a Consumer Reports survey titled 'Social Insecurity'. The survey indicated that 23 per cent of Facebook's users 'either didn't know that the site offered privacy controls or chose not to use them.' --AFP

Click here for article

Old folks in S'pore an asset to their families

Study finds they give more help than they receive from their families, compared with the elderly elsewhere in Asia

By Carolyn Quek

COMPARED with old folk in other Asian states, the elderly in Singapore are contributing both practically and financially to their families, according to a 2008 global ageing study by Oxford University.

Unfortunately, they also get less support of the same kind from their children and grandchildren.

Said British gerontologist Sarah Harper, one of the researchers behind the study: 'We have this idea that older people are a burden on our society but that's because we tend to look at it through our tax system, that they are not in work.'

This is far from the truth, because the study showed that older people still made significant contributions towards their loved ones at home, she said yesterday, in presenting the study at a conference by the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programmes.

Around 1,000 seniors each from various places worldwide were asked if they had given financial and practical support to their family members over a six-month period.

The study also asked respondents - aged above 55 - if their children or grandchildren had done the same for them.

The results showed that older folks in Singapore were giving more help to their children and grandchildren than the other way around.

Twelve per cent of Singaporean respondents said they offered support such as shopping for groceries, or helping their children clean the house.

On the other hand, just 9 per cent of them said their family members had either shopped or cleaned house for them.

In Asia, the Philippines had the most seniors who gave practical help, with 40 per cent, and China the lowest, with 3 per cent of grandparents saying they helped out.

Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Malaysia and South Korea were included in the study as well.

Singapore was also one of three Asian countries where the elderly respondents offered more practical support to their children and grandchildren than otherwise. The other two were the Philippines and South Korea.

In terms of financial help, the younger generation in Singapore ranked third worst when it came to giving money to their parents, with only 18 per cent of respondents saying their children had given them money.

South Korea ranked the best, with 67 per cent of seniors saying they received money from their children, followed by Malaysia with 56 per cent; the Philippines with 40 per cent; India with 35 per cent and Hong Kong with 29 per cent.

In South Korea and the Philippines, the older generation gave the children as much financial support as they received from them.

Some 6 per cent of Singapore seniors also said they contributed financially to their children and grandchildren.

Professor Harper said yesterday on the sidelines of the four-day conference which ended yesterday: 'When we look at what's happening in families, we see that older people are making a large contribution.

'They are giving money to their children and grandchildren, they are providing care and they are also providing practical support.'

In his closing remarks at the conference, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Boon Heng said that he hoped to see more creative programmes encouraging intergenerational bonding being developed.

'As these seniors renegotiate the terms of their old age, so must other generations renegotiate their relationships with them,' the minister, who is in charge of ageing issues, added.

Click here for the article in the ST on Apr 30 2010

'Long-term harm' of too much TV for toddlers

The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10, researchers warn.

Go to BBC to read the original article.

RETIREMENT VILLAGE

Spotted in the ST Forum....what do you guys think?

Home > ST Forum > Story
Apr 19, 2010

RETIREMENT VILLAGE

Pulau Ubin an ideal choice

THE Government should look into the possibility of creating a retirement village on beautiful Pulau Ubin. I am sure it will be well received by senior citizens.

The small island, untouched by development, can be a resort-like green retirement village where the clean atmosphere, fresh breeze from the sea and lovely beaches will make for a healthy and relaxing environment in the golden years of life.

For families visiting their aged parents on weekends, it will be wholesome fun and a refreshing break from the chores of urban life.

The young can also spend the day on the island, cycling or going on a nature walk.

Jeffrey Tan

Apr 29, 2010

Retirement villages not best way for S'poreans

MR JEFFREY Tan ('Retirement village: Pulau Ubin an ideal choice') and Miss Angeline Elysia Tan ('The hope') meant well on April 19 about introducing retirement villages for senior citizens.

Certainly, more can be done for senior citizens to have a meaningful and wholesome life in their twilight years.

But the idea and concept of placing them on an island or in a village is not one that should even be considered, no matter how well we develop such a place with easy accessibility for visits thrown in.

At a time when we are encouraging our young to be filial and look after their ageing parents, conveniently packing their parents off to an island or village is not the solution. Spending quality time with their parents and looking after their welfare is.

And because many today are all too often busy with their career and own family, it makes more sense to live with, or at least be near, their parents.

It may be true that senior citizens will benefit from the peace and tranquillity of an island or a village.

However, by the same token, it will ultimately detach them from their family and the Singapore they worked so hard to help build.

Victor Khoo

'Why not Sentosa?'

MS TAN ENG LIAN: 'Pulau Ubin reminds me of Alcatraz. The one-time island prison off San Francisco, California, was a place where hardcore criminals were banished, ultimately dying a lonely death. If we want a retirement village, why not Sentosa? It is a resort island and who else deserves it more than our senior citizens? While there is peace and quiet in such a village, senior citizens can access a resort brimming with life and bright lights as well. The aged will cherish their golden years even more. Their children and grandchildren will have good reasons to visit them too. A retirement village must be a place where people can look forward to living happily, not a forgotten island where they may feel they have been dumped. Better still, if we provide comfortable homes for the aged, rebuilt and renovated, at all suitable void decks, those who do not live in retirement villages can enjoy the option of living nearer their loved ones.'

'HDB estates should incorporate retirement villages.'

MR SAY KIN TONG: 'I am 52 years old and when I retire I would prefer to live in a retirement village within an HDB estate. As one ages, one prefers living in a community of all ages, not alone with a group of elderly people waiting to see who dies first. HDB estates should incorporate retirement villages so elderly people can live among young families, particularly their own. The villages need not be complicated. The first few levels of blocks in an estate can be designated the village. When elderly citizens are ready to move in, the change will not be traumatic because they will still be in a familiar neighbourhood. The Government will save on land resources as well.'

'No Pulau Ubin for me.'

MS TAN LEE KHENG: 'My vision of a retirement village is a place where I can live on my own yet when I step out of my home, there are people (eventually friends) of my age to socialise with. Like-minded people who think nothing of telling the same stories over and over. Stories our children are sick of hearing yet again. Play mahjong or computer games, or line-dance with friends, happily laughing at our mistakes, arthritic fingers and stiff bodies. We will be in our league. I expect to be able-bodied, and perhaps take a bus or train to visit my children when I feel like it. Maybe go window shopping or have lunch with friends outside the retirement village. Maybe baby-sit occasionally. A retirement village should give me and my grown children privacy and freedom, and accessibility to each other and facilities. A 365-day dose of beach and nature would be suffocating. So no Pulau Ubin for me.'

Spare some change,please

Members of Parliament (MPs) will be meeting next month to debate proposed changes to Singapore’s political system. Among the changes proposed by the Prime Minister and his ruling People’s Action Party are changes to the Non-Constituency MPs scheme, a cooling-off day before the General Elections which sees a ban on campaigning, and tweaks to election contingencies. In the spirit of democracy, we, too, would like to propose the following (nothing political, of course) and request our esteemed MPs to debate them in the chamber.

Muay Thai training for female SQ cabin crew
After seeing that viral video of an SQ steward clobbering a drunk passenger, we think that—in the spirit of equality—it’s time the SQ girls got in on the act, too. They are the face of the airline, after all. We’ll send them to Commando Camp (conveniently located in Changi) for a quick Ranger crash course, where they can pick up some choice assassin skills. Once trained and airborne, there won’t even be a need for them to hide weapons like knuckle dusters in their hair buns or nunchucks up their sarongs. The next lout to screw around in the cabin will get his nuts smashed in by one of these lethal weapons.

A new approach to dealing with total diplomatic immunity.
That’s right. Let’s not pussyfoot around if a member of the diplomatic corps here gets into trouble with the law. Next time if an envoy, ambassador, charge d’affaires or any other person with a fancy job description mows a poor innocent down in a fit of drink-driving boorishness or assaults someone for correctly pointing out they’re tossers for parking in a handicapped zone, we shame the pants off them. Diplomatic immunity only means immunity from prosecution, which means we can do other not-so-nice things to them. Like making them stroll along Orchard Road in a diaper, pacifier and helicopter cap; forcing them to dance to Electrico; or forcing them to watch endless looped videos of Twilight: New Moon.

Farce up the S-League even further
It’s supposed to mean Singapore League, but really c’mon, is it? There are teams from France, Japan and China, and two of the local teams are from the uniformed groups. Plus one of the sides is the national under-23 football team. So yes, it is a joke; and no wonder the national team is struggling. But instead of completely overhauling the S-League, why not just add to its absurdity by expanding it. “Expansion” team No.1 is a squad of ditzy D-list model wannabes who have slept with Jack Neo. Team No.2 is made up of guys barred from the casino (they need something to do). And No.3 features a roster of Bangladeshi workers currently in between employers (they’ll kick butt, for sure).

Source: IS Magazine

Last Week In Reality, Mar 26, 2010

MARCH

15 MON
The Law Benz? A man refuses to pay a $30 dollar parking fine, feeling that he has been unfairly targeted because of his luxury car. Wilson Ang, 23, drives a Mercedes SLK convertible and received the fine at Circular Road for not displaying a parking coupon. He claims that none of the other cars in the area displayed coupons either, but none of them received fines.

It’s Just Fire Petroleum giant Shell assures environmentally conscious Singaporeans that a flame emanating from a chimney at their new Pulau Bukom complex is not hazardous. The spectacular flare is produced by the burning of waste products and produces only carbon dioxide and water.

16 TUE
Pole Position Parking poles will not be used in driving tests any longer. Responsible for a generation of drivers who learned to park by looking at stickers on their rear window, they have been dropped in favor of a more realistic parking scenario.

17 WED
Maid-guyver An Indonesian maid is wanted by the police after she assaulted her employer’s 15-year-old daughter with a bowl and threatened her with a knife. She proceeded to tie her up with a telephone cable and escaped through the kitchen window of the third floor condominium unit.

18 THU
Stealing Beauty A woman is in court facing up to 14 counts of theft and causing hurt by poison. Vicky Herman Quek, 44, targeted older men who appeared affluent and wore Rolex watches. After chatting them up she would invite them to have drinks with her. Spiking the victim’s drink with sleeping pills, she waited till he fell asleep before making off with everything of value. Much of the money she stole was spent on beauty treatments.

Hot Attire A woman in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee woke up to find her laundry on fire. It was caused by an upstairs neighbor who covered her kitchen windows with newspaper to prevent people from looking in. Some of the newspaper caught fire, found its way out the window, and set the clothes ablaze.

19 FRI
Unfriendly Fire Two people have been arrested on suspicion of selling illegal weapon parts for use in M-16 rifles commonly found in the Singapore army. The shop owners are from the military surplus market at Golden Mile Food Centre, usually referred to simply as "Beach Road." Parts available include firing pins, retaining pins and blank attachments. They are harmless on their own, but may be used to build a functioning weapon if other parts can be obtained.

Source: IS Magazine

Iranian women bloggers lauded

PARIS - INTERNET giant Google on Thursday joined a top journalists' rights group in rewarding a collective of Iranian women bloggers for their reporting on last year's post-election unrest.

The online journalists of women's rights blog we-change.org were given the 'Net Citizen' award, a new prize by Google and French media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to defend freedom of expression online.

Dozens of the Iranian site's contributors have been detained for reporting online on huge anti-government demonstrations that broke out amid claims of fraud in Iran's election, RSF said.

'The Iranian women's movement has always shown resistance... Now the movement is bringing its experience and methods of working democratically into cyberspace,' said one of its members, Mr Parvin Adalan, accepting the award at Google's Paris offices.

Google and RSF said in a statement that the site, formed in 2006, 'has become a point of reference for information on women's rights in Iranian society', and 'Iranian cyber-feminists have created new spaces for expression'. 'Female online journalists show the world the abuses of power suffered in recent months by demonstrators and the population in general' in Iran, they said.

Among others shortlisted for the prize was Mr Tan Zuoren, a 55-year-old Chinese journalist jailed for five years for his reporting on poorly built schools that were destroyed in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, south-western China. -- AFP

Source: AFP