What's In a Name

What do you call a person who drive a bus ?

In 2005 Singapore Bus Services renamed its drivers Bus Captains.

All jobs come with job hazards.

A man, who was smoking, asked a bus driver to wait for him to finish his cigarette before boarding. The driver explained he couldn't, as that wouldn't be fair to other passengers.

Soon,the man started to scold the driver using vulgar language and also grabbed the driver and hit him. This while the bus was still moving.

Soon signboards are put up in the buses.

Be Afraid

A chinese saying, Birth, Aged, Sickness and Death every human beings have to go through.

A stroke occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted either by an artery supplying blood to a part of the brain is blocked, or an artery bursts within the brain.

The annual number of stroke patients in Singapore has been increasing, from 5,463 in 2005 to 5,743 in 2010. Deaths among stroke patients increased from 641 in 2005 to 689 in 2010.

Quality of life takes a hit for stroke survivors who describe it as being worse than death.

A research conducted by McMaster University on Ontario, Cananda look into the causes of stroke. It comes up with the ten commandments of strokes.

1. High blood pressure
2. smoking
3. a fat stomach
4. poor diet
5. lack of physical activity
6. high levels of bad cholsterol
7. diabetes
8. alcoholic drinking
9. stress
10. depression

Can you name one of above not related to the present lifestyle ?

Many long-term bad lifestyles eventually result in a stroke, according to chinese traditional doctors.

Emotional stress, working long hours, excessive physical activities, irregular eating habits, poor diet and excessive sexual activity are contributing factors.

Sin Fin

Shark fin is considered by the Chinese as a treasured food .

Its popularity began in the late 18th century.




Calls to ban consumption of shark fins are getting louder.

Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament K. Shanmugam, said: "I took the view that we should avoid shark's fin on the menu for functions which Chong Pang organises".

ACRES executive director Louis Ng said his organisation is asking the Government to consider a trade ban on shark's fin.

The shark fin industry is a US$240 million business. No chinese government has yet to implement the ban.

17 countries have banned shark finning i.e. no fishing for sharks along their coast, well if they have one.

Switzerland, Austria, Bolivia, Paraguay, Andorra, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Sudan, Rwanda, Hungary, Czech Republic, Botswana, Central African Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Nepal.




Starting Jan, 1, 2012, the importation of shark fins into California is banned.

Shark fins already imported can be sold until July 1, 2013, but after that anyone hoping to enjoy a piping bowl of endangered-animal soup will have to go elsewhere.

The shark savers say fishermen catch the animal, hack off its fins, then throw it back into the sea, unable to swim and certain to die. More than 70 million sharks every year drown, bleed to death or are eaten alive by predators after this mutilation.

Australians and New Zealanders eat a huge amount of shark meat, disguised as flakes and make into fish & chips. In the UK it is called Rock Salmon.

The Americans eat 20 million lbs of sharks last year and the EU & UK another 44 million lbs of just one species.

The fin lovers say if they can eat shark meat, why can't the chinese eat the fin they discarded ?

Photography

It began by looking through the viewfinder.




Then comes the digital age.



And look what Steve Jobs created.

Hungry China

The origin of concrete pumping dates back to the 1950's in Europe.

The Germans produced the popular Putzmeister and Schwing concrete pumps.

And China being the biggest user of concrete pumps, it make sense to acquire the manufacturers.

Zoomlion has completed its acquisition of Italy's Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio SpA (CIFA), with Goldman Sachs and two other investors. It paid 163 million euros for a 60 percent stake in Sept 2008.




On April 17th 2012, SANY Heavy Industry Co, Ltd and Putzmeister Holding GmbH held a press conference in Germany to announce the completion of SANY’s acquisition of Putzmeister.




Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (“XCMG”), purchases the world’s leading concrete equipment manufacturer - SCHWING Group Co. LTD from Germany. XCMG will take a majority stake in Schwing to be completed June 2012.

SkyVille @ Dawson

SkyVille @ Dawson. 47 storeys.

Presently construction reaches 9 storey.

38 storeys to go.




SkyTerrace @ Dawson. 43 Storeys.

Today constructed to 22 storeys.

21 storeys to go.



At the rate of one storey completed every 2 weeks, SkyVille will peak in 20 months.

While SkyTerrace will peak in 12 months.

Mothers

Mothers are the pillars of our society so say the Africans.

The Malawian proverb even declares that “Mother is God number two”

Necessity is the Mother of inventions, so say Plato the Greek philosopher.

Failure is the Mother of Success goes another chinese proverb.

In 1990 Saddam Hussein declared the "Mother of all Battles"

The main circuit board in the PC is widely called the motherboard.

Many countries call their homeland Motherland, well except Germany which has traditionally been called the Fatherland.

When the alien spacecraft comes a calling, it is called an alien Mothership.