Rants & Ravings

Labels: propaganda

http://www.uncoached.com/2008/10/24/13-unintentionally-gay-soccer-positions/

Labels: humour

http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?p=586

http://littlespeck.com/content/politics/CTrendsPolitics-081006.htm

Sounds like a death knell ...

Labels: Politics, stupid policies, stupid singaporeans

Labels: Politics

It's been a tiring week at work. Started off slow, but things started picking up and well it's just plain tiring. Ever notice how time speeds up/moves very quickly when you're having fun or things are just good in general? And time slows down to a crawl or a virtual standstill when things are bad and stuff?

Incidently, that might be the way to live forever or at least a longer life. Just make sure every minute and second of everyday is just plain terrible. Haha.. :p

Anyway some time related music videos for almost Friday.

Labels: introspective, music video

Labels: humour

Something nice for the mid-week. Can't remember if I've posted this before. Recommended by Emerald.

Labels: music video

http://wayangparty.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/how-the-world-and-singapore-leaders-respond-to-the-global-financial-crisis/

Labels: current affairs, Politics, poor customer service

Read your receipts and invoices carefully before leaving the shop.
http://blankanvas.bypatlaw.com/features/my-experience-with-challenger/2008/10/14/

Labels: buyer beware, poor customer service

This explanation is actually quite good. Taken from http://bygonebureau.com/2008/10/01/the-financial-crisis-as-explained-to-my-fourteen-year-old-sister/

The following is an actual conversation I had with my younger sister, Olivia. She likes to draw, play World of Warcraft, and now, she’s the only fourteen-year-old girl who understands the U.S. economic crisis.

Kevin: Have you been following the news?

Olivia: Yeah, I don’t really get it.

Kevin: Imagine that I let you borrow $50, but in exchange for my generosity, you promise to pay me back the $50 with an extra $10 in interest. To make sure you pay me back, I take your Charizard Pokémon card as collateral.

Olivia: Kevin, I don’t play Pokémon anymore.

Kevin: I’m getting to that. Let’s say that the Charizard is worth $50, so in case you decide to not return my money, at least I’ll have something that’s worth what I loaned out.

Olivia: Okay.

Kevin: But one day, people realize that Pokémon is stupid and everyone decides that the cards are overvalued. That’s right—everybody turned twelve on the same day! Now your Charizard is only worth, say, $25.

Olivia: Uh-huh.

Kevin: At the same time, you’re having trouble paying back the $60 you owe me. So what would you rather do: try and pay me back the $60 or just default and give me your $25 Charizard?

Olivia: I’d give you the Charizard.

Kevin: Exactly. Who wouldn’t? Now, the bank—I mean me—has lost $25 when I expected to make $10. What’s the lesson here?

Olivia: Pokémon is dumb.

Kevin: True, but keep going.

Olivia: That Pokémon cards might be worth less later than they are now?

Kevin: Close. You just can’t rely on them appreciating in value forever. There’s one other good lesson in this analogy.

Olivia: That you shouldn’t lend me money?

Kevin: A-ha, exactly right! You’re fourteen and have no source of income. What would convince me to lend you money if I’m not sure you can pay it back?

Olivia: Because you could’ve taken my $50 Charizard. So you could have either made $10 or gotten something worth what you gave me. If people didn’t realize Pokémon was dumb, then there was no way for you to lose anything.

Kevin: Now, instead of a loan of $50, imagine that it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars; then instead of a Pokémon card, it’s your house. The U.S.’s prosperity was built on the idea that real estate/Pokémon would never go down. Multiply this wishful thinking by thousands of people in America and you can see the scale of our problem.

Since you couldn’t pay me back, I can’t pay my bills and I can’t loan out any more money. Our country is dependent on the ability to borrow money.

Olivia: That doesn’t make any sense. If I borrow money from you, I’m going to spend it.

Kevin: Well, the idea is that you’ll spend it in a way that will make you more money in the future—like college or starting a business.

Olivia: Oh, okay. I have a question for you: did you use the Pokémon example because you think I’m a nerd?

Kevin: I just wanted to make it easy for you to understand.

Olivia: Fine. But stop telling people I play World of Warcraft. I’m totally over that.

Kevin: Don’t worry, Olivia. I used to be into way nerdier things. Have you heard of Magic: The Gathering?

Olivia: What the hell is that?

Labels: current affairs

In 1939, the Germans built the first of many concentration camps. The purpose of the camps? To hold the non-aryans. Majority of the people who were imprisoned in these camps were Jews. Why? They were blamed for the ills of their society. The country was in bad shape financially. The leaders were looking for people to put the blame on. They found their scapegoats.

A short while later, Americans built internment camps for the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even Japanese American citizens were not spared because their loyalty came under fire.

Now: 2008. Singapore is deciding to build centralised quarters for foreign workers. That sounds noble and all. But a further look at some of the details reveals a bit more. The compound will be fenced up (To keep people out or keep the workers in?) There will be rules enforced to protect the neighbourhood. Oddly enough, no one's talking about the rights of these workers who are in effect being jailed.

Sidenote: Lots of Singaporeans want to migrate/have migrated. They do realise that when they leave, they become "foreign workers" in the eyes of the citizens of whatever country that go to right? And what makes them think that they will be welcomed? Already Asians/Chinese aren't well liked in some parts of the world. Retribution is swift. Maybe one day, they'll find themselves in fenced up compounds as well.

Labels: current affairs

I want to be a Disney Character. It's cool. I mean unless your the bad guy in which case you're always guaranteed to die. But if not (excluding bambi's mum, simba's dad) most Disney characters have it good. Sure they have to break out in song every now and then but at the end of the day, they're guaranteed a happy ending. Guess what everyone wants at the end of the day is a happy ending. That's why their shows have been so endearing and have endured.

PUB hikes price of Electricity by 21% and at the same time (or almost the same time) oil prices fall by 20%. That's some nice tidy profit for PUB right there. I wonder if they are doing this because they are going to be selling some of the power plants to some China company soon (this is a very poor summary of real events, but it's something along those lines). Always good to make a company look better on the books before you sell it. Or maybe this is just to be able to show a profit on the books when they close the financial year. Whatever it is, once again the people get screwed over.

Labels: current affairs, stupid policies