Factory Sale

There is a row of food factories along Woodlands Terrace and many have signs and banners that scream "factory sale".



There is one named Fassler which offer frozen sea food.
The salmon shasimi is a favourite among the walk-in customers.
The small box is priced $10 while the bigger one is $16



And if you are there at the right time, they give away FOC salmon fish head, good for a pot of fish stock.

wasabi @60 cents

Most Expensive Condo

Ardmore II. One of the most expensive condominium in Singapore.
With Shangrila Hotel as neighbour and with Orchard Road at its doorstep, it has to be.
Each unit in the 118 units in the two 36 storey towers block has floor area of 2000 sg ft. At the current price of $2,600 per sq ft, those without a pocket depth of $5m can only wish about it.

For panorama view click here: Orchard Road

But no worry DBS Bank has come up with an offer you cannot resist. They are giving buyers 80% loan, which mean forking out $1m upfront. With a 30 year loan, the monthly instalment is well, only $18,000. So Ardmore II anyone ?

The Marq @Paterson

These projects have breached the $4,000 psf level: Orchard Residences in Orchard Turn, Parkview Eclat in Grange Road, St Regis Residences in Cuscaden Road and The Marq in Paterson Road. Will it sustain at this level under this economic downturn ?

Packed MRT Trains

It is now well known that MRT trains are packed to the brim during peak hours. Complaints and comments are fast and furious about younger people not giving up seats to people who neat it.



There was an incident few days ago on a working day peak six something at the Tiong Bahru Station.
When the train stop, a station staff squeeze into the carriage, go to the mid section and unceremoniously gestured a young twenty something guy to stand up. He then go into the next carriage and guide a pregnant lady to the vacated seat.



While this is good service on the part of MRT, but somehow it leave the matter in a bad taste. How do the young man know there is a lady in need of a seat ? And the manner he was asked to give up his seat in full view of the packed train.

Solar Eclipse

China @9.20 am

The anticipation was a no-show. Woke up to overcast sky and then it opens up cats and dogs.

India enjoying the historic event

And when the show was over in Shanghai, the sun came out in a blaze of glory over the Singapore sky...

The standing by of welding glass, camera have been completely futile. And this to view just 20% of the blocked sun hailed as once in a lifetime event.

Durian Tales

All durian lovers go through baptism of fire. Conned by Ali Baba style durian stalls especially the red light district of Geylang, complains come fast and furious in internet forums.


"was shocked to pay S$130 for 2 D24 durians along Geylang"
"we finished up the 3 durians which in the end cost us $140"
"4 durians he had put into our basket $240+ - $60 for one durian"
"he open two durians and key in the cash register, $75 !"



Smarter wheels endowed durian gourmets travel to Malaysia particularly Segamat where the real things are. For the same money that they got Madoffed in Geylang, the small Malaysian town will give you a feast one will never forget.

Sultan Durian or the D24 used to be very expensive that only the Malay sultans get to eat them. Those sold to you at $10 for 3 boxes are not the real thing.

Brand Name

Thanks to Wikipedia it's fun to discover how top brands derived their names from. Enjoy.

3M - Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
7-Eleven – Started as convenience stores called "U-Tote'm" in 1927. renamed 7-eleven to reflect their newly extended hours, 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.
ABN AMRO - merger between 2 banks in the 1960s named Algemene Bank Nederland. in 1966, the Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form the Amro Bank; and in 1991 ABN and Amro Bank merged.
Adidas - the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.
Apple - the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs.
Casio - the name of its founder, Kashio Tadao.
DHL - after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn.
Esso - initials S.O. in Standard Oil of New Jersey.


IKEA - first letters in founder Ingvar Kamprad, names of the property and the village in which he grew up Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.
Kodak - letter "K" was a favorite with founder George Eastman; tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K".
Lego - combination of the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well".
Nike - named for the Greek goddess of victory.
Nokia - started as a wood-pulp mill, rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia.
Qantas - Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.
Sanyo - meaning three oceans in Japanese.
Sega - Service Games of Japan founded by Marty Bromley (an American) to import pinball games to Japan for use on American military bases.
Sony - Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang word used by Americans.
Starbucks - named after Starbuck, a character in the novel Moby-Dick

Dangers of Sodium Benzoate

Sodium Benzoate is a commonly used preservative in such items as soft drinks, fruit juices, and jams as well as a variety of soya sauces.
This chemical additive serve the important purpose of stopping the growth of bacteria and fungi. It ia also known as E211.

Sodium benzoate occurs naturally in several fruits like apples, plums and cranberries including cloves and cinnamon. The presence does not necessarily act to preserve them.

Although the FDA has previously classified sodium benzoate as a safe preservative, this classification is now being questioned.
Sodium benzoate forms a chemical known as benzene, carcinogenic when taken in the presence of vitamin C.




Another reason sodium benzoate may be considered an unhealthy preservative is its health risk on children.
To this effect, the Coca-Cola Company has announced that it is in the process of phasing out the use of food additive sodium benzoate in Diet Coke in the United Kingdom but could not confirm if any other countries would follow suit. It also say there are no current plans to remove sodium benzoate from any other of its brands, such as Fanta, Sprite, Oasis and regular Coca-Cola.





In 2006. Australian beverage makers are being asked to review existing products and new formulations to minimize the presence of benzene, a carcinogenic chemical recently identified at levels several times the WHO guideline in some US and UK beverage brands.

Singapore Turf Club

How much does it cost to own a racehorse?
First the price of the horse is about the same as a small car, $50,000.





It is the cost of maintaining the animal that can drain the bank account.



A stable need to be engaged to house, feed, train and groom the horse to racing fitness. And there are hidden cost like race fees, insurance, dentists and vets. Expect a monthly bill of $2,500.00



To race in K.L. add the transport fee of $7000 to be shared by 6 horses.



There are several ways to own a racing bred.
Sole owner: All the glory, but all the cost too.
Partnership with friends. Or join a syndicate.

It is adrenalin pumping excitment when your own horse is in a race.
But be warned: One third of race horses bred for racing never start.
More than half of those that do make it to the track, never win a single race.

Fermentation

Fermentation has been used as a form of food preservation since biblical times.
Soy sauce and Bean Paste are one of the world's oldest condiments and began in China more than 2,500 years ago.

Dou Jiang

Cheese appeared for the first time in approximately 7000 B.C.
It is said that cheese was first manufactured in the Middle East.

A tradition of Korea, Kimchi is made mainly by salting cabbage and dressing it with red pepper powder, garlic, ginger, scallions and radish. placed in clay containers and left to fermentate for weeks. American Magazine ‘Health’ named Kimchi, Olive oil, Soy, Yogurt, Lentil as the best healthy food on earth.

Kimchi

Prosciutto is a popular Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served uncooked; Fermentation of prosciutto can take anywhere from nine to eighteen months, depending on the size of the ham.

prosciutto - whole and sliced

In Spain they called preserved ham Jamon. The curing after salting can be up to four years !

jamon - whole and sliced

Hams of various regions of North America and Europe go through a month of dry salting, a month of smoking and 12 months of maturation.

Ham

More Guitars

Upturn or Downturn

The recently concluded PC Show 2009 saw record visitors spending $52 millions during the 4 days event.
Pop concerts see good ticket sales, despite four shows lined up by Asia mega stars.
Restaurants with long queues are a common sight islandwide.
Car sales are up alongside increased COE prices.
Stock market is bullish. Property is on the rebound.

All this despite worrying reports of shrinking export, and fresh predictions that the USA will again be hit with another banking crisis.

Ships @ Singapore

NODX 2009 - Yr on Yr
-20.8 percent in December 2008 - S$10.47 billion
-34.8 percent in January 2009 - S$10.04 billion
-23.8 percent in February 2009 - S$12.87 billion
-17.3 percent in March 2009 - S$11.88 billion
-19.2 per cent in April 2009 - S$11.32 billion
-12.1 per cent in May 2009 - S$10.94 billion
-11.0 per cent in June 2009 - S$11.38 billion

Aerial view - landing @Changi

Ghost. Seen One Yet ?

Scientists theorised that all humans have electromagnetic brain waves. The earth is enveloped by the same frequency. When a person dies, the wave remains in the atmosphere. Ghosts are just brain waves without a body. The waves go right through your skull and make you see what looks like a ghost.
Your eyes see a living being, then your brain. With ghosts, your brain sees them directly.


One who has a frequency of brain wave ,which a part of it is produced by the oscillation of the organales in our brain called 'crystal ' , exactly resonant with the ghost's electromagnetic waves frequency, see ghost.





Most scientists dismiss the vast majority of ghost sightings as hoaxes. But researchers in Canada, England are exploring what happens in the brain to create the illusion that something is "haunted." So far, they have found evidence that some apparitions may be brain benders caused by spiking EMFs (electromagnetic fields), and possibly even extremely low-–frequency sound waves (known as infrasound) so subtle that the ear does not register them as noise.



Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, has conducted research on the topic.
In 2001 in Perceptual And Motor Skills chronicles the experiences of a teenager who in 1996 claimed to be receiving nocturnal visits—one sexual—from the Holy Spirit. The 17-year-old girl, who had sustained mild brain damage at birth, said she also felt the presence of an invisible baby perched on her left shoulder.
When Persinger and his colleagues investigated (at the behest of the girl's mother), they found an electric clock next to the bed that was about 10 inches from where she placed her head when she slept. Tests showed that the clock generated electromagnetic pulses with waveforms similar to those found to trigger epileptic seizures in rats and humans. When the clock was removed, the visions stopped. Persinger determined that the clock, in combination with the girl's brain injury, were highly likely to have been contributing factors to the perceived nocturnal visits.

Casino

Marina Sands casino looks like it's on target to the 2010 opening. This will be the new kid on the Singapore economic block.




Will the duck tour move its operating point to the casino area ? It certainly look out of place at Suntec convention center.

Amazing Biometric

Fingerprint ID has served mankind the past 100 years to provide accurate identification of people. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in 6 billion humans.
Other visible human characteristics change - fingerprints do not.
The patterns of ridges on our finger pads are unique: no two individuals—even identical twins—have fingerprints that are exactly alike.
The first systematic use of fingerprints in the U.S. by the New York Civil Service Commission for testing began in 1902.



Like the fingerprints, each person also has a unique DNA.
Fingerprint can be altered by surgery, DNA fingerprint is the same for every cell, tissue, and organ of a person. It cannot be altered by any known treatment.



Do identical twins have identical DNA?
A DNA test can't determine the difference between identical twins, while a simple fingerprint can.

Demolition Technology

Explosive demolition technology has become most popular in the USA. High-rise office and residential blocks are brought down in a matter of seconds. Often such demolitions provide a spectacular show for the people who live and work in the area. But the actual preparations leading to the countdown could take months, such as laying of explosion charges, safety precautions around the neighbourhood.




The non-explosive method is now widely used in Singapore using hydraulic breakers mounted on excavators, which are lifted to the top floor of the building and demolishing downwards, floor by floor.





In November 2007, Kajima Corporation began demolition of its former head office buildings, which had served the company since 1968.
Kajima devised a world-first technique called the Cut & Take Down method, which enables demolition work to be done on the ground floor. By starting at the bottom, cutting one floor, and then lowering the entire building down on jacks one floor at a time, all the work can be performed safely at ground level.

You can catch the revolutionary method here.