Human Fallacy

A bus full of passengers was traveling on a hilly road in China.
Midway through the journey, 3 armed thugs who were eyeing the pretty woman bus driver forced the bus to stop.

The woman driver shouted for help, but all the passengers just kept quiet in fear.

Then a weakly looking middle-aged man came forth to ask the 3 men to stop; but he was instead beaten up. The man was very angry and appealed loudly to the other passengers to stop this uncivilized act but nobody responded.

And the driver was dragged by the 3 men to the bushes nearby.

An hour later, the 3 thugs and the ruffled driver came back to the bus and the driver is ready to drive off again.

But before doing so, the woman driver shouted to the man who tried to assist her earlier to get off the bus. The man was bewildered and said: 'What's wrong with you? I was trying to help you just now and was I wrong in doing so?"

The man was really angry. Even though he did not have the ability to save her, he should not be given this treatment at all. He refused to get down the bus and said; 'I paid for the trip and I have the right to remain.'

What was unexpected was that the passengers, who were oblivious to the barbaric act of the thugs just now, suddenly woke up and in a concerted effort asked the man to get down the bus saying:
'You might as well get off the bus, we have things to attend to and cannot afford anymore delays!'

A few stronger passengers then dragged the man down the bus and his luggage thrown out the bus window.

The bus started on its journey again. The driver tidied up her hair and turned the radio to full volume. The bus was reaching the hill top and will go downhill after a turn.

The bus gathered speed gradually and the driver's face was very calm with both hands on the steering wheel. Tears started to swell in her eyes.

One of the thug realised something was amiss and said to the driver:
'Drive slowly, what are you trying to do ?'

The driver said nothing, but the bus travelled faster and faster.
The thug tried to grab hold of the steering wheel, but the bus shoot off the cliff like an arrow leaving the bow.

The next day, the local paper reported a tragic accident about the bus plunging off the cliff and the driver and the 13 passengers were all killed. The man who was chased down the bus saw the paper and cried.

One Dollar Petrol

Bad times call for desperate measures.
This advertisement panel fixed on the roof top of a bus stop is probably a measure of the tough economic climate to milk the advertising dollar.




Shell $1 a litre petrol offer today is so successful that massive traffic jams formed across the island.

super long queue

and Shell is not visible from here

Queues like this are happening all over the neighbourhoods. Taking tough measures is making motorists queue for hours under the sweltering 33 degree weather for this promotional event.

Left, or Right Hand Drive

Who invented the driving directions ? Well nobody can say exactly. Before the automobile was invented, horses were common mode of transport. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse.

About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. Some of these left lane drive countries are:

Australia Bahamas Bangladesh Bermuda
Brunei Cayman Islands Christmas Is Grenada
Hong Kong India Indonesia Ireland Jamaica
Japan Macau Malaysia Maldives
Malta Mauritius New Zealand Pakistan
Papua New Guinea Seychelles Singapore South Africa
Sri Lanka Thailand United Kingdom Zimbabwe

Right Hand Drive

But during the 1700s France and the United States began using wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat so the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.

Countries with right lane drive system:

Afghanistan Argentina Armenia Austria
Bahrain Belgium Belize Brazil
Bulgaria Cambodia Cameroon Canada
Chile China Costa Rica Croatia
Czech Rep Denmark Ecuador Egypt
Finland France Germany Gibraltar
Greece Guam Hungary Iceland
Iran Iraq Israel Italy
Jordan Korea North Korea South Kuwait
Lebanon Luxembourg Mexico Mongolia
Myanmar Netherlands Nigeria Norway
Panama Philippines Poland Portugal
Puerto Rico Qatar Russian Spain
Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Arab Emirates
USA Uruguay Vietnam

Left Hand Drive

The trend among nations over the years has been toward driving on the right, but Britain has done its best to stave off global pressure.
Left-hand driving was made mandatory in Britain in 1835. An exception is Egypt, which had been conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency.

Although Japan was never part of the British Empire, its traffic also goes to the left. The year 1872 when Japan’s first railway was built with technical aid from the British, it took another half century till in 1924 left-side driving was clearly written in a law.

When the Dutch arrived in Indonesia in 1596, they brought along their habit of driving on the left. Napoleon conquered the Netherlands that the Dutch started driving on the right as did Indonesia. But the brief occupation by the British eventually change the direction again.

After the Second World War, left-driving Sweden, the odd one out in mainland Europe passed a law on the conversion to right-hand driving in 1963. Finally, the change took place on Sunday, the 3rd of September 1967.


As Michael Jackson once sung, it doesn't matter if you're left or right, just drive safely.

Bread and Dough

Bread is the staple food of the westerners. Today it is near staple for many and have launched a couple of old names into million dollars enterprises.



Ah Koon Coffee Stall have the beginning at Telok Ayer in the 1930s. Started off with 3 shareholders, but soon became a one man operation helmed by Loi Ah Koon.
Presently it leads the bread war with 31 outlets island wide and each stall can generate $50,000 each month. How much is that in cuppas and toasts ?



Killiney Kopitiam started in the 1950s and today have 19 outlets. It was known by a chinese name until 1993 when an investor (not a family member) bought over the shop and management and rename it Killiney Kopitiam.



Toast Box, an offshoot of Breadtalk, is the new kid on the roti block and is operating 20 outlets.
The group, comprising Food Republic and Din Tai Fung has annual sales turnover of over $200 million. Now that is the dough story.

Economy Watch

Singapore's key exports fell for the 17th consecutive month in September as demand from crucial markets including the US and European Union continued to decline.

NODX 2009 - Year on Year
-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
- 8.5 per cent in July 2009 - S$12.08 billion
- 7.1 per cent in August 2009 - S$12.1 billion
- 7.2 per cent in September 2009 - $12.81 billion

Phenomenal Disasters

Since the start of the new century disasters are getting more frequent, more violent, and the past week saw earthquakes and typhoons coming in a row. The world is witnessing this once in a lifetime phenomenon.

Samoa September 29, 2009 magnitude 8.0
Sumatra September 30, 2009 magnitude 6.7
Philippines October 4, 2009 magnitude 6.6
Papue New Guinea October 4, 2009 magnitude 5.4
Taiwan October 4, 2009 magnitude of 6.3
Japan October 5, 2009 magnitude 4.6
Celebes Sea October 7, 2009 magnitude 6.7
Vanuatu October 8, 2009 magnitude of 7.6
Santa Cruz October 8, 2009 magnitude 7.7
Vanuatu October 8, 2009 magnitude 7.3
Celebes Sea October 10, 2009 magnitude 5.3
Japan October 10, 2009 magnitude 5.2
Loyalty Islands October 11, 2009 magnitude 5.8



Typhoon Ketsana September 22, 2009
Typhoon Parma September 25,2009
Typhoon Melor September 28, 2009



"Are the multiple earthquakes a sign of the beginning of the end? And did our impact on the planet cause them?" asked Fiona MacDonald writing for Science Alert.

Kevin McCue, President of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society say the floor of the Indian Ocean is being dragged down below Indonesia, and this is going to continue to cause jerks that can result in more earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Tablecloth, Chain Mail

A church was very run down and needed much work. The pastor set a goal to have everything done in time to have their service on Christmas Eve.

On December 19 a heavy rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall, about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, and headed home.

On the way he noticed a flea market for charity so he stopped to take a look. He saw a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

Near the church he saw an older woman running from the opposite direction, trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

She sat on the bench and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder to hang up the tablecloth to cover the broken wall.

The woman walked down the aisle her face was pale as a sheet and asked, "Pastor, where did you get that tablecloth?"
The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were embroidered there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.
When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was captured, sent to prison never to be seen again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home as she lived on the other side of Brooklyn.

On Christmas Eve, the church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they had a good time.

But an older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, and knocked on the door.

What the pastor saw was the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

A touching story which has been around for a long time and the details have changed over time. It is now made into a chain letter. The story originated in the December 1954 issue of Reader's Digest.

And more recently, the tale was published as "The Gold and Ivory Tablecloth" in Christmas in My Heart: A timeless Treasury of Heartwarming Stories, the first in a best-selling series of inspirational books by Dr. Joe Wheeler.

Which Way North ?

Sabine Begall of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and colleagues caused quite a stir when they studied 8,510 Google Earth satellite images of cattle and deer herds and found that whether grazing or resting, these animals face either magnetic North or South.



Herdsmen and hunters have long known that cattle and sheep tend to face the same direction when grazing, but had believed they were simply positioning themselves according to prevailing winds or the sun's rays.


How did the ancient chinese knew about the magnetic waves ? Many millions of people have learned and practiced qigong in its many thousand year history and thought to be created at least 7,000 years ago. When exercising, they face either North or South, in line with the earth's magnetic field. Alignment in this direction is simply attuning yourself to the earth's rhythm, to nature itself.



What about feng shui ? It originated more than 3000 years ago.
And this was before the magnetic compass was invented.


The earliest document about feng shui is found in the Three Kingdom period. In one section it read: "The needle points Kan-Li determining the starting and ending locations of yin and yang."
Kan is the trigram in the north and Li is the trigram in the south.

The army boys no longer need to solely depend on the Southern Cross to find their way to base. They now have the cows.

Chilli Crab, Laksa or Mee

Laksa, nasi lemak, Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab and bak kut teh are all Malaysian dishes, according to Malaysia Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

Singapore Chilli Crab

“We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food,” she said, without naming the countries.

Malaysia Chilli Crab

Wikipedia: Chili crab is a seafood dish originating from Singapore. It was created in 1950 by Singaporean chef, Madam Cher Yam Tian with her husband, Mr Lim Choon Ngee. The couple ran Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant on Upper East Coast Road.

Singapore Chilli Crab in Sydney

In Sydney a restaurant named Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab serves the exact Singapore version.

Wikipedia specify the chicken rice is a dish of Chinese origin most commonly associated with Singaporean and Malaysian.

Singapore Chicken Rice

But the dish was popularised in the 1950s by Moh Lee Twee, whose Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant operated from 1947 to 1997.

Hokkien mee refers to fried noodles cooked in Hokkien (Fujian) style.
It is popular in Singapore and Malaysia. The Malaysian version is cooked in thick dark soy while the Singapore style is lighter in colour.

Singapore Hokkien Mee

Malaysia Hokkien Mee

Bak kut teh was believed to have been introduced to Malaya in the 19th century by Chinese workers as a meagre diet to boost their energy level.

Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh was invented by a gentleman from Quanzhou of the Fujian province in China. The secret recipe was passed to a friend who later went to Klang and became the first person to commercialise and sell Bak Kut Teh.

Construction Accidents

There is not a week without construction site accidents involving cranes.
In fact there were 162 crane-related accidents in 2008.

Balmoral Crescent

The latest happened Tuesday 29 September at Balmoral Crescent killing a 40 year old engineer who was inside a container office.

NUS

The crane collapse last year at National University of Singapore (NUS) was almost a disaster although 3 workers were killed. The toppled crane missed the bus stop full of students by metres.

A shipyard accident...

crane accident @ new school

Blown over

And this one in the USA involving a concrete pump was caught on video...