Evelien's paper notebook turns into a notebook pc, plays YouTube!

Watch how a paper notebook turns into a notebook PC in this award winning short film (video above) by Dutch animator Evelien Lohbeck. Check out all her films here.

Amazing Photo Manipulations by Russian Photoshop Master

LiveJournal user tebe_interesno is a talented Russian artist from Moscow, famous for his creative photo manipulations such as this giant man catching a space shuttle during its launch.

(Thanks primus)

Star Wars in Classic Art

Worth1000's Star Wars photoshop contest: "I went to an art gallery the other day. The artworks were all right, I guess, but you know what they were missing? Wookiees... Also no Jedis, no Storm Troopers ... in fact none of the artworks had any Star Wars elements at all! In this contest we're going to rectify the art world's mistake by placing Star Wars character, items, vehicles and scenes into classic art works."

Types of Beard Chart

Guys (those of you with facial hair), if you’re looking for some ideas on how to shape your beard to fit your style, check this expanded chart of facial hair types. All the old favorites are there, as well as some more modern styles. I'm thinking of going Napoleon. LOL.

(Thanks Mr Big)

Anatomy of a Fairy Tale

Anatomy of a Fairy Tale is an art installation by Julia Murakami. I don't have much info about this but I think it looks like some clay sculptures of famous fairy tale personalities gone awfully wrong. This one looks like Little Red Riding Hood having a bad day, no thanks to the Big Bad Wolf.

(Thanks Bel)

Quicksnap: A better ice block tray

Finally someone has come up with a better way to get ice cubes out of the tray! Graeme Davies invented Quicksnap so that single ice cubes can be popped out without the normal problems associated with twisting an ice tray. Brilliant, Graeme!

(via Ektopia)

Anakin's Lightsaber Torchlight

Every aspiring Jedi knight needs a torchlight in the dark so here's Anakin's Lightsaber Full Size Torch, a lifesize replica of Anakin Skywalker's Lightsaber which makes authentic Lightsaber sounds when turned on and off, and emits a cool blue light.

(via Nerdcore)

Google Maps Street View Car hits a deer. Ouch!

Accidents do happen even for the Google Maps Street View car! Apparently, the driver knocked down a deer while the car was taking photos for the Street View feature on Google Maps. The picture was spotted on Google Maps but Google later took it down.

Amazing Paper Airplanes

Kyong Lee teaches you how to build some really kick ass paper airplanes. Check out his folding instructions for the Harrier jet, F-15 Eagle, Nighthawk, F-16 Fighting Falcon and many more amazing planes! I'm going to try fold the F-15 because it looks so damn cool.

Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration

NYPL Digital Gallery has hundreds of images from the thirteenth through the early twentieth century, in the fields of astronomy, chemistry, geology, mathematics, medicine, and physics, as represented by manuscript illuminations, engravings, lithographs, and photographs.

1940's Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin face masks

From a 1940's Johnson Smith & Co. mail order-catalog comes this advertisement of face masks of famous personalities like Gandhi, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Hirohito: "Looks very realistic when worn. You see through eye slits and talk through mouth opening. Covers face fully from ear to ear." The Gandhi and Hirohito masks are ugly like hell!

The greatest snack food stadium ever built

The folks at HolyTaco made a stadium out of lots of sausages, nachos, tortillas, cheetos, cheese, guacamole and more, in honour of the Super Bowl! The stadium is edible of course but watch out for all those calories and fats before you munch into it.

(Thanks GeekGod)

3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites

I'm not a fan of kites but I may just want to start flying one of these X-Wing, Tie Fighter and Millennium Falcon 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites. They have to be one of the coolest kites ever made! I just hope that they can really fly in the wind.

(Thanks venda65)

Steampunk Exploding iPhone T-Shirt

Artist Kevin Tong captures the invention of Leonardo da Vinci, the imagination of H.G. Wells and the brilliance of Jonathan Ive in his iSteamPhone drawing. And the best thing, it is now printed on a t-shirt! I want one!

Starcom: The U.S. Space Force

Nemesisworld has a nice Starcom fansite listing all the figures, playsets and vehicles in the Starcom toyline. I had some of them when I was a kid! Starcom is one of my favourite cartoons and toys from the 80's era. The plot of the animated series was based on the adventures of an American astronaut brigade as they fought off invasions by a group of aliens and robots known as the Shadow Force.

Sony Vaio P is in da house!

This just in! I just received the new Sony Vaio P pocket style PC in beautiful Crystal White!! You can watch a video demo of the Sony Vaio P here and read about its launch here. I'll be posting a review soon.



Pics of the unboxing here.

Meet the real Morrie

Renowned journalist Ted Koppel conducted a series of interviews with former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz during the last year of his life after being diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). The interviews were shown on ABC's Nightline and inspired Mitch Albom to write the best-selling book Tuesdays With Morrie. Watch Morrie: Lessons On Living here (part 1 above). A must watch for those of you who read and love the book.

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Fewer than 10 bodies donated every year: Fewer than 10 bodies are donated to medical research in Singapore each year. One cancer victim who died on Tuesday decided to pledge her body under the Medical Therapy Education and Research Act.
-Retrenchments likely to surge after Lunar New Year festivities: The Lunar New Year period could be the calm before the storm in terms of the employment situation in Singapore. NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Halimah Yacob expects retrenchments to surge after Chap Goh Meh, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year.
-Primary schools to go single-session by 2016: All primary schools should be single-session by 2016. That is one of the recommendations put forth by the Primary Education Review and Implementation (Peri) Committee.
-Singapore torn over cat rights: Cat lovers in Singapore are campaigning for felines to have the same rights as dogs -- a roof over their heads and a safe home. For decades cats have been banned from Singapore's high-density Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, which house more than 80 percent of the 4.6 million population.
-Watch what you eat, price-wise: As Singaporeans start to watch their spending more closely, here’s interesting news: In the last half-year or so, cooked food prices have dropped in 10 per cent in some instances, but gone up in 20 per cent of cases, according to a Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) study.
-S'pore airport's passenger growth slows: Passenger traffic at Singapore's Changi Airport grew 2.7 percent last year, its slowest growth in five years as the economic slowdown begins to hurt travel and aviation.
-Jobs Credit scheme may help lessen impact of job cuts: The Jobs Credit scheme is designed to help employers with their cash flow, while providing an incentive to retain workers.
-The lost films of Singapore: An increasing number Singaporeans, it seems, are now beginning to appreciate home-made films. And it's a pity that the reels of some older local movies have gone missing - believed to be lost forever.
-Prince cinemas shut down: Singapore's largest cinema has gone dark, possibly for good. Prince 1 cinema showed its last movie, the Disney animated feature Bolt, on Dec 10 last year. Now, its fate is uncertain.
-Heroin arrests spike again: Heroin arrests rose again last year, making the white powder the most commonly abused drug in Singapore.
-Flyer's spinning again & look what's on board: It's spinning at last and the crowds are back. At 11.18pm on Sunday, the last night of the Year of the Rat, the Singapore Flyer got the green light from the authorities to 'fly' again.

Zombie Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

For her birthday, lucky Kristin got a zombie Hello Kitty birthday cake complete with blood, goo, worms, maggots and a tombstone. Brilliant but don't think the folks from Sanrio will be too pleased with it.

(via Boing Boing)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono spotted at Holland Village

"John Lennon" and "Yoko Ono" made a surprise appearance at Singapore's Holland Village on Saturday night. They took off their clothes at a staircase in a block of flats there and then coolly walked in their flip-flops towards the market. Yes, naked! How exciting.

(Thanks Mr Big, xXx, Lord Kimbo)

Relive your childhood with this huge toy collection on eBay

For US$29,999, you can be the proud owner of this vintage to modern toy collection which was purchased in Ohio from a retired collector/dealer. The collection with 9,185 different toys, games, etc has a retail value of way over $100,0000. Check out the pics!

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls

From the 50s to 90s, the popular home arts and fashions magazine McCall's published Betsy McCall paper dolls for kids to cut out and play with. Each edition came with a little story and then a set of paper dolls and cut out clothing for Betsy. Really cute! Read about the history of Betsy McCall here.

Eric Daigh's Pushpin Art

Eric Daigh uses coloured pushpins or thumbtacks to make beautiful portraits. A newspaper article explains how he does it: "After breaking the image down to a low resolution, Daigh produces a row-by-row grid that dictates where each color pin should be placed to form the image. Daigh then places the pins, one-by-one, following the grid map. It takes some 11,000 push pins to complete one of his 3×4-foot works."

Nikon D3 cut in half

Tokyobling visited the Tokyo Eco Products convention and took some pictures of a Nikon D3 SLR camera cut in half. No, it's not a cake! He writes: "I felt slightly incestous: a Nikon D60 photographing a crippled D3. Behold all the beauty that is Nikon technology! And pray that you never see anything like this again."

(via Neatorama)

Cartoonists redraw classic comic book covers

Covered has several talented cartoonists such as Robert Goodin, Steven Weissman and Andrew Wales, redrawing classic comic book covers in their own style. This is Robert Goodin’s version of an issue of Wonder Woman.

(via Drawn!)

Request Comics and Ben Heaton will draw them

Request Comics is a photocomic by Ben Heaton. Readers send in suggestions for things they would like to see, and Ben will make comics out of those suggestions. This one is a request by mathgrant: "Teach us how to count to 46".

(Thanks Miki)

Pac-Man Dungeons Game

Play Pac-Man Dungeons, a text-mode version of Pac-Man based on the two most popular forms of computer games in the late 70s and early 80s. From Pac-Man Dungeons:

You find yourself in the winding passages of a labyrinth. All you can think of is an urging hunger for those delicious food pellets. A little tune, which your grandma - a yellow, ball-shaped creature like you - used to sing, is nagging at the back of your mind:

"Red, green, orange, pink - Never touch such a thing, Never even dare to think. But if it turns blue, Sweet tastes a ghost so - Tries not to meet you."

You are in a passage leading from west to east. There is a sign on the wall. In the EAST you can see some delicious food just 1 step away. There is a crossing to the east 3 steps away. In the WEST you can see some delicious food just 1 step away. There is a crossing to the west 2 steps away.

Partial Solar Eclipse on Chinese New Year: Pics!!!

Took a break from all the Chinese New Year visiting to take a look at the partial solar eclipse yesterday. The bad weather nearly ruined everything but thankfully, there were some breaks in the clouds that allowed us to enjoy the first solar eclipse of 2009.



The eclipse was viewed through my 3 inch refractor using a Mylar solar filter and projection method. More pics here.

Previously: How to watch the Solar Eclipse on Chinese New Year!

How to watch the Solar Eclipse on Chinese New Year!

Update: Click here for July 22 2009 Total Solar Eclipse!

I was planning to post this on the morning of Chinese New Year which falls on this coming Monday, but you folks have been jamming my emails all week, asking about the eclipse, so I thought ok, I'll post it today since you guys can't wait. Happy now?

The first solar eclipse of 2009 is an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.



The annular eclipse will be happen on January 26 (Chinese New Year) and will be visible from a wide track that traverses the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. For those living outside this track (people in the southern third of Africa, Madagascar, Australia except Tasmania, southeast India, Southeast Asia and Indonesia), you will not see the annular eclipse but only a partial one. Timings of the eclipse viewed from respective countries here. Please note that the time given on the chart is in Universal Time.



In Singapore, the partial eclipse will be begin from 4:30PM to 6:30PM (local Singapore time). Maximum eclipse will be at 5:49 PM. The sun will be in the western sky and during maximum eclipse, 72% of it will be covered up by the moon! It will be a pretty impressive sight. Just pray that the clouds stay out of the way.

Please remember that viewing the sun without proper protection is extremely dangerous. Even when 72% of the sun is covered by the moon, the light is still bright enough to blind your eyes. And please do not try to view the eclipse using sunglasses. They will not protect your eyesight. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, please do not look at the sun through them without proper solar filters that are fitted at the front of your instrument, not at the eyepiece!

Ok so you don't have any telescope, how are you going to view Monday's eclipse then? There are a few simple ways to view the eclipse safely. One is to make yourself a pinhole projector. Get a long box (the longer the better), a piece of aluminum foil, a pin, and a sheet of white paper or you can opt for a quick and easy version using just two pieces of cardboard. Instructions here.

But of course, you can always pay a visit to the Singapore Science Centre's Observatory to view the eclipse together with other astronomers. They will have a variety of telescopes there equipped with proper solar filters but it could be very crowded. Details here.

(Graphics above taken from here, here and here)

Update: You can view my pics of the eclipse here.

Update: Lots of you are coming to this page from Google looking for the July 22 2009 total solar eclipse that will be visible in China and India (only partial in Singapore). Here's how you can watch it.

Also read: Catching the next total solar eclipse in our neighbourhood

smashLAB to Discovery Channel: Smash Lab sucks!

The folks from smashLAB, an interactive agency writes an open letter to Discovery Channel saying that their program Smash Lab sucks. Hmmm, but I love Smash Lab. Ok, maybe their first season. I have yet to watch the new season on Discovery so no comment but I do know one thing, I love Deanne Bell. She's delicious. Ahem. From Smash Lab sucks:

Since 2000 we’ve had a nice little design studio called smashLAB and we work hard on it every day. People (generally) say nice things about us, and we were starting to make a good name for ourselves.

Then along you came with your fucking awful television program with the same fucking name. Surely you researched this before airing the program. I can only suppose that you felt we were so small that you could just poach it. Fine enough--I guess that's life.

The problem is that your program seems to suck. So now when someone does a Google search for "smashLAB", they find endless posts about how badly “smash lab sucks”. Great. Now we suck by association, just because you lifted our name.

IZ Reloaded on USA Today and Computer Shopper

You can now read my review of YouTube for Television on USA Today. Meanwhile, my two posts about the new Sony Vaio P Pocket Style PC (its Singapore launch and video demo) can also be read on Computer Shopper here and here.

Professor impersonates Charles Darwin in his lecture

Professor Richard M. Eakin of the Dept. of Zoology, University of California presents a lecture in which he impersonates Charles Darwin in the words, dress, and manner of his time. Watch his entire lecture here: Parts One, Two and Three. The professor was well known for appearing at his lectures dressed as some of the world's greatest scientists.

Dude takes a 1,474 megapixel photograph of Obama's Inaugural Address

David Bergman describes how he took a 1,474 megapixel photograph of Obama's Inaugural Address: "My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes."

Inauguration Day Crowds shot from Space

GeoEye, a commercial satellite imagery company, took this image of the Inauguration Day crowds in Washington, D.C. using one of its satellites. You can easily spot the Capitol and of course the "forest" of people facing it. More than a million people were there to witness Barack Obama become the 44th President of USA.

Web Design Inspiration on Flickr

I used to create something like this when I was doing web design many years ago. Patrick Haney started a little set on Flickr where he posts screenshots of websites he found inspirational, interesting or attractive. The photoset currently has more than 400 website designs that may inspire all you designers out there. Worth a bookmark.

Masato Shimon's Japanese Sci-Fi and Anime Theme Songs

Japanese vocalist Masato Shimon, is well known for his contributions to the theme songs of various Japanese TV shows and anime. He even sang the Star Wars theme in Japanese in 1978! I just stumbled upon this neat collection of theme songs done by Masato: Parts One (above), Two and Three on YouTube. Enjoy. No one sings them like Masato!

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Bak Kwa sales still hot despite the downturn: If Singaporeans are cutting back on expenses during the economic downturn, it isn't evident this Lunar New Year. Especially when it comes to bak kwa, many families are still willing to splurge on the barbequed sliced pork.
-Better than a GST cut: Budget 2009 may be highly pro-business but individuals are not complaining. Households will benefit from measures such as increases in GST credits, U-Save accounts, rebates in HDB service and conservancy charges (S&CC) and cuts to income and property taxes.
-Lower train and bus fares soon: Commuters can expect lower train and bus fares to be announced by the end of next month. This is because the Public Transport Council will work with the Public Transport Operators to reduce bus and train fares this year.
-Singaporeans less likely to cut spending on property and renovations: Singaporeans are less likely than most of their Asia-Pacific neighbours to cut spending on property and renovations, according to a MasterCard survey that measures the resilience of planned expenditure categories to cutback.
-Corporate tax cut makes Singapore attractive: Businesses have hailed the 1 percentage point cut in the corporate tax rate, the second time the Government has done so in three years, in a move that Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said will “sharpen our competitiveness”.
-Singapore's Limits: It's not often that a Singaporean official concedes the limits of the city-state's economic engineering. But the downturn is proving so severe that the Finance Minister said in yesterday's budget speech that the government's stimulus package "will not get us out of the recession," but rather "help avert an even sharper downturn."
-MPs say Budget is bold and decisive: Budget 2009 is bold and decisive - that is the general feeling of Members of Parliament.
-Dole up by $30: Those on the dole and living alone will get more money from the Public Assistance (PA) scheme, starting from April. Single PA recipients will each get an extra $30 per month, raising their grant to $360.
-Easing the credit crunch: Companies have welcomed the Government’s move to bear a higher risk of default in Government loan schemes, but several are sceptical that banks will bite.
-Government to lower tax burden for businesses: In a move to sharpen Singapore's competitiveness, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the corporate income tax rate will be cut by one percentage point to 17 per cent from the Year of Assessment 2010.
-GST credits will double: Families will enjoy a doubling of GST credits and generous benefits to help them live on reduced incomes this year.
-Singapore taps reserves to help battle recession: Singapore, facing its worst recession on record as the global slowdown batters the trade-dependent city-state, will tap its official reserves for the first time to help fund a record 20.5 billion Singapore dollar (US$13.7 billion) stimulus package.

Pirating the 2009 Oscars

It's that time of the year when Andy Baio tracks the illegal online distribution of every film that made it to the nomination list of the Academy Awards. From Waxy:

Out of 26 nominated films, an incredible 23 films are already available in DVD quality on nomination day, ripped either from the screeners or the retail DVDs. This is the highest percentage since I started tracking.

Only three films are unavailable — Rachel Getting Married wasn't leaked online in any form, while Changeling is only available as a low-quality telecine transfer and Australia as a terrible quality camcorder recording.

Other findings: Academy members received screeners for at least 20 of the 26 films. 25 out of 26 films leaked in some form online, if you include camcorder recordings. The average time from the time screeners are received by Academy members to its leak online is 6 days.

Gaddafi writes for New York Times, calls for the creation of Isratine

Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, in his op-ed for the New York Times, calls for a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Surprisingly, he does makes sense but would anyone listen to a dictator? From New York Times:

A two-state solution will create an unacceptable security threat to Israel. An armed Arab state, presumably in the West Bank, would give Israel less than 10 miles of strategic depth at its narrowest point. Further, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would do little to resolve the problem of refugees. Any situation that keeps the majority of Palestinians in refugee camps and does not offer a solution within the historical borders of Israel/Palestine is not a solution at all.

For the same reasons, the older idea of partition of the West Bank into Jewish and Arab areas, with buffer zones between them, won’t work. The Palestinian-held areas could not accommodate all of the refugees, and buffer zones symbolize exclusion and breed tension. Israelis and Palestinians have also become increasingly intertwined, economically and politically.

In absolute terms, the two movements must remain in perpetual war or a compromise must be reached. The compromise is one state for all, an “Isratine” that would allow the people in each party to feel that they live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one part of it.

The Story of Barack Obama's Mother

Time has an incredible 7-page story about Stanley Ann Soetoro, the mother of the new US President Barack Obama. From Time:

On Feb. 2, 1961, several months after they met, Obama's parents got married in Maui, according to divorce records. It was a Thursday. At that point, Ann was three months pregnant with Barack Obama II. Friends did not learn of the wedding until afterward. "Nobody was invited," says Abercrombie. The motivations behind the marriage remain a mystery, even to Obama. "I never probed my mother about the details. Did they decide to get married because she was already pregnant? Or did he propose to her in the traditional, formal way?" Obama wonders. "I suppose, had she not passed away, I would have asked more."

The Ultimate Barack Obama Action Figure

If you have to buy only one Barack Obama action figure, then this one has to be it! The ultimate President Obama action figure is posable, with facial expressions, has interchangeable hands, katanas, 9mm gun, assault rifle and even a lightsaber just in case he needs to battle Darth Vader.

(via Gizmodo)

Edushi has 3D maps for China and Hong Kong

Google Maps is good but I think Edushi (aka E-City) is the undisputed King of online maps. Check out their 3D maps for China and Hong Kong! Truly awesome. I can spend hours just exploring them. Makes you wish they have one for your city aye. Read more about the company behind the maps here.

Sixties Coca-Cola Radio Commercials

Kevin Sartori posts a total of 108 mp3s of Coca-Cola radio commercials made in the sixties, all ripped from Things Go Better with Coke: Sixties Coca-Cola Commercials 1965-'69 bootleg CD. The commercials were part of a campaign where Coke with the help of popular acts, created musical jingles utilizing the slogan: "Things Go Better with Coke".

Barack Obama retakes Presidential Oath of Office

For those of you who thought that Barack Obama did not really become the 44th President of the United States of America after both he and Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts screwed up the Oath of Office during the Presidential Inauguration, Barack has decided to retake the oath. Ok. He is now officially the President. Really.

Confessions of a girl who became an escort to pay for her college

Emma Lee writes about her college years when she first started having sex for money. She thought since she was already having meaningless sex, it might as well pay for her tuition. From Elle:

In the movies, men who use prostitutes are rude and demanding. But a majority of the guys I met at least acted respectful. Most men aren't any more turned on by sterile, businesslike sex than women are. They tried to forge some element of connection, and they wanted me to have an orgasm, even if their ideas about how to give me one were overinfluenced by unrealistic porno flicks.

"lt's your dime," I'd tell them, after they wouldn't stop asking me what I liked, what I wanted to do. Most were nervous and didn't know exactly what they desired, so I ended up playing sex detective while wishing they'd give me some freaking directions so I could finish and go home.Sometimes they made it easy, like this guy on the Lower East Side who'd breathe, "Look at you," like he was in utter awe. That worshipful attention was almost as addictive as the money; on a good call, I felt like a sex goddess. To these men, I was never on my period, never wore granny panties or blew off shaving my legs, was never tired or in a bad mood.

Top 10 favourite George W. Bush moments

As the world awaits the inauguration of Barack Obama, let's take this opportunity to say goodbye and good riddance to George W. Bush and enjoy this top 10 Bush moments courtesy of my favourite funny man David Letterman.

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Getting Singaporeans to remain rooted: Even as Singapore inches closer to its goal of being a world-class city, and its citizens are exhorted to think globally, what efforts have been made to get cosmopolitan Singaporeans — aware of opportunities elsewhere — to remain rooted to their homeland?
-Singapore cuts government salaries as slump deepens: Singapore’s government said it will cut the salaries of its top public workers and ministers as a “sharp” recession threatens to increase job losses and hurt lending this year.
-High prices not always due to profiteering: The Committee Against GST Profiteering is adopting a proactive approach to ensure that businesses do not profiteer by maintaining high prices despite the recent fall in prices of commodities.
-Human Organ Transplant Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament: Four amendment bills were introduced in Parliament on Monday. The first was the Human Organ Transplant Amendment Bill, which aims to allow compensation to altruistic living organ donors.
-93 kids abused a year: An average of 93 children a year were abused by adults or their parents in the last five years, with the number rising to 114 in 2008.
-Job losses in recession-hit Singapore could match levels of previous downturns: Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has said the unemployment rate due to the current recession in Singapore could reach the levels recorded during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and the economic downturn in 2001.
-Singapore may see 200,000 foreigners leave: Singapore’s population may shrink in the next two years as “sizeable” job losses amid the city- state’s deepest recession force 200,000 foreigners to leave, Credit Suisse Group said.
-Permanent secretary's article ill-judged: Minister Teo Chee Hean has criticised a permanent secretary for writing about attending a cooking course in Paris, amid gloomy economic times at home.
-Recession-hit Singapore still needs foreigners: Singapore, which relies heavily on foreign workers, will still need overseas labour despite a recession, a minister said in comments released Tuesday.
-Singaporean household income grew across all groups: Household income from work grew in real terms across all income groups in Singapore in 2008 according to an Occasional Paper released by the Singapore Department of Statistics today on 'Key Household Income Trends, 2008'.
-New border facility opens: A new $4 million laboratory and decontamination unit at Tuas Checkpoint, which can spot chemical, toxic and biological agents in consignments carried by trucks into Singapore, opened on Tuesday morning.
-Singapore defends death penalty: Singapore has defended its use of the death penalty, saying capital punishment had deterred drug traffickers in the city-state, which Amnesty says has one of the world's highest execution rates.

YouTube for Television: First Impressions

Yesterday, I tried out YouTube for Television, the new service from YouTube which offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control. YouTube for Television is currently in beta and is only available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles.

Using YouTube for Television is easy. Just turn on your Sony PS3 or Wii and get to the browser and enter www.youtube.com/tv. You'll then get to the sleek, black homepage of YouTube for Television. Navigation icons are on the left side. You can click on Featured videos, Top Rated videos and Most Viewed videos. You can also do a simple search and go to your YouTube account and customise the settings. There are also the arrow up and down bars for scrolling down and up the list of videos. Over at My Account, you have access to My Videos, Favourites and Playlists.

I think YouTube for Television is a great idea. More and more people are using their TVs to surf the internet and having a dedicated YouTube site for easy playback of videos on the TV is a step in the right direction but the beta service of YouTube for Television suffers from a few flaws. The biggest flaw is the poor quality of videos. Videos look more pixelated than those found on the normal (web version) YouTube site. The quality is much worse when you maximise videos to full screen. Next, when you are on a video page and if it is accompanied by a long info about the video, clicking More Info doesn't allow you to scroll down to read the extended info. There is also no way for you to go to the YouTube page belonging to the user who submitted the video. The video page also lacks a "More From" icon to allow you to look at other videos submitted by the user. Lastly, on My Account, you don't have access to your subscriptions!

Here's a video of YouTube for Television in action.



More photos here.

Vintage Barbie collection for sale!

Charles aka tiojavi has amassed a huge collection of vintage Barbie dolls during the past 10 years. Check out his Barbie dolls here. His collection is impressive. Includes rare Japanese and European exclusives. Envious? You should be but if you have US $115,000, you can try bidding for his collection on eBay. Good luck.

How to turn an iPod or iPhone into a Moleskine Book

If you're thinking of using your iPod Touch as an e-book reader, then try converting it first into the legendary Moleskine notebook. Charlie from Wired Gadgets shows you how: "I decided to disguise my iPod as a book, and if that wasn't pretentious enough, I put it in a modded Moleskine, the notebook of choice for fops and dandies the world over."

The iWood: Wood Protection for your iPod

Miniot creates all natural protection cases for iPods and iPhones, carved from your choice of maple, cherry, oak, mahogany, padouk or walnut wood. You can also have a monogram or logo and a personalised two-line message engraved into the wooden case. Very classy!

Clicking Kitchen Grip

Now you can hold on to your hot pots and pans in true geeky style with the Clicking Kitchen Grip, a kitchen mitten/glove that looks like the pixelated hand cursor of your computer. Cool! Made by Bazar Design from Brazil.

(Thanks miraz)

The Scrabble Keyboard

The Scrabble Keyboard is a beauty! Most of the keys are made from real Scrabble tiles that were hand-beveled and built onto a USB, clicky, mechanical-switch keyboard. Not surprisingly, it was commissioned by several avid Scrabble players.

(Thanks GeekGod)

Animated films by 3 brilliant Russian animators

On his YouTube page, Pavlovich74 posts several animated films done by Russian animators Ivan Maximov, Yuri Norstein and Alexander Petrov. Above is Maximov's bizarre little gem called Provincial School made in 1992 in his home studio.

What people wear in the sixties and seventies

All the miniskirts, hotpants, bell bottoms, sunglasses, boots and hairstyles of the sixties and seventies! 1960s featured a number of diverse trends in fashion, most notably the hippie look. It was a decade that broke with many fashion traditions that mirrored social movements during the period.

Hard Format: Reaching for the sublime in music design

Hard Format showcases unique packaging design of records, CDs, cassettes and other brilliant music-related design. From the site: "Hard Format isn’t intended to become a dusty museum devoted exclusively to past glories, though there’ll certainly be some of that, we also want to highlight the brilliant new design work being produced right now."

(via Nerdcore)

Star Wars Galaxy Map

Dude makes a pretty comprehensive map of the fictional Star Wars galaxy. It shows you the worlds, colonies and territories found in the Star Wars movies, books and games - all carefully projected onto the middle plane of the galaxy disk.

(Thanks Mr Big)

Create tilt-shift style photos with TiltShiftMaker

TiltShiftMaker lets you easily transform your existing digital photos into cool miniature style pictures without the need to use a special camera lens with tilt capability. Tilt-shift style miniature photos are photos of real life scenes that are made to look like miniature scale models.

(Thanks voxchad)

This is Japan! Awesome video created from 2760 photos makes you wanna go to Japan

Eric Testroete stitched together all the photos he took on a recent trip to Japan to create this truly awesome video.

He describes it here in detail: "We never went there with the plan to do this, but one night we were looking at the pictures. We held down the button to get through the pictures faster and we noticed it looked fairly cool. I figured it would be a good idea to make a video this way.

I used Lightroom to crop and process all the images (it's good at doing batch stuff), Métamorphose to rename the exported files into a numbered sequence, Sony Vegas to cut to music, then VirtualDub to compress and scale.

The video is running at 6 frames a second. I originally took 3340 pictures, but doing the math there should be about 2760 images in the video. The camera was a Pentax k20d and I brought an external hard drive to save what ended up being 46 gigs in raw files."

Ikea Wi-Fi Booster

Dude moves to Russia, finds that there's no DSL, so he makes himself a Wi-Fi booster using an Ikea napkin ring, a USB Wi-Fi adapter and some electrical tape to connect to other wireless networks in his neighbourhood. Cool!

(Thanks GeekGod)

1738 Robot Duck can eat and shit!

In 1738, French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson created this mechanical duck with over 400 moving parts. It could flap its wings, drink water, digest grain and even defecate! More amazing retro robots can be found here.

(via Botropolis)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comics

Here's an online collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Originally created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the comic's popularity has gone on to inspire three television series, numerous video games, four feature films and a wide range of toys and merchandise.

(via Drawn!)

365 Days of Dudes

I've been following Andy Helms' Dude-A-Day project since the beginning of the year. He started it last Halloween, mainly just for laughs. The idea is to draw one dude a day for a year until October 31, 2009. There is a lot of gems there including his version of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

Japanese Chopsticks Game

The Japanese Chopsticks Practice Game lets you to practice your chopstick skills by picking up little plastic chicks. Put all the chicks into the little bowl. Then take turns picking them out. The smaller the chick, the harder they are to pick up, and the more points you get. Sounds easy.

Lego Steam War Machines

Pain Parade creates awesome Steam War Machines using Lego. He says, "The Great Steam War was characterized by the race to create never-before-seen weapons of war that harnessed the newly-discovered power of steam." One of his machines is the Steam Scout Zepplin. Armed with four heavy rifles, it uses a hydrogen balloon to provide lift in addition to the two angled propellers powered by a separate boiler.

3 classic animated films that inspired Hayao Miyazaki

I'm a big fan of famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. I've watched most of his animated films including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and recently Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I love them all! Oh btw, the cute illustration above is done by the talented Andrew Dobson. Don't forget to check him out aye.

A number of Western authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Carroll and Diana Wynne Jones have influenced Miyazaki's work but the first film that really inspired him to go into animation is The Tale of the White Serpent.



The Tale of the White Serpent is an adaptation of the Song dynasty folktale Madame White Snake. Released in 1958, it is the first color anime feature film! Part 1 above and here are parts 2, 3 and 4.



Two other animated classics that inspired Miyazaki are Hedgehog in the Fog and the Snow Queen. Hedgehog in the Fog is a 1975 Soviet animated film by Yuriy Norshteyn. It's a story about a little hedgehog and his friend, a bear cub. It is considered as one of the best animated films of all time.



And lastly, The Snow Queen, another Russian film. Produced in 1957, it is based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. Part 1 above and here are parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Girls, please don't use deodorant stick as a dildo!

Dr. Amy Tuteur, an obstetrician-gynecologist, blogs about her experience with a patient who used a deodorant stick as a dildo. From The Skeptical OB:

What could the patient have used? I’d heard of all sorts of things in the past: fruit, candles (unlit), and glass bottles, among others, but nothing that could cause burns.

“She used a deodorant stick!”

The patient had used the actual stick of deodorant, which she had pried out of the container (for who knows what reason) and the burns she had were serious chemical burns. We treated her by washing the area to remove any trace of the chemicals and applying the salve typically used for treating burns from gynecologic laser surgery. Oh, and lot’s of pain medication, too, for obvious reasons.

Women Who Love Women: A rare documentary about lesbians in Singapore

Watch this documentary by Lim Mayling called Women Who Love Women: Conversations in Singapore. It uses interview footage with three Singaporean lesbians, Amanda Lee, Sabrina Renee Chong and Gea Swee Jean to get a rare glimpse into lesbian lives in Singapore. Women Who Love Women was shown recently at the Asian Hot Shots Berlin Film Festival. You can read its blog here.

Life-size inflatable jumbo jet at the Zurich Airport

Aleksandra Mir on his Plane Landing art installation: "The inflation happened overnight at gate 44 on the actual airport tarmac. In both cases we were blessed with perfect weather conditions, impeccable security arrangements and a fantastic crew from the UK, Switzerland and Sicily combined."

(via Gizmodo)

Brenda's Nut Farm: Crazy Animal Paintings by Donald Roller Wilson

Brenda's Nut Farm by artist Donald Roller Wilson is a collection of crazy paintings of animals. Don't forget to read the words that accompany each painting. They are as crazy as the paintings themselves! More of Roller's work here.

(Thanks Sir Thomas)

Find the other side of the world!

Antipodr is a simple little tool using Google Maps and the Google Geocoding Web Service that allows you to calculate the exact spot on the other side of the planet from any location you enter. For example, if I dig all the way down from my location here in Singapore to the other side, I'll end up somewhere in Ecuador!

Darth Vader Pinata

Pinatasbymail has been making pinatas for the past 36 years. Over at her Etsy page, you can find her unique pinata creations such as this Darth Vader pinata. Her Yoda, Super Mario, Teletubby and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pinatas are also cute. You can send her a picture and she'll custom make one for you.

Andrew Colunga's Drawn Art

Lego lover Andrew Colunga shows us that not only is he good with Lego, but give him a pencil, and this guy can really draw! He says of his Drawn Art, "Usually using only pens, markers and pencils I have made these, and am still making more." Amazing stuff, Andrew!

How to make your own Big Mac

I love the Big Mac, not as much as Burger King's Whopper but it's definitely my favourite McDonald's burger after the Fillet O' Fish. The folks from Grilling 24x7 says that the Big Mac is easy to make and when you make it at home, it tastes 10 times better than the ones you get at your local McDonald's. Really?! Recipe here. I so want to try this at home.

(via guykawasaki)

Custom Lego Stargate SG-1 Battle Ship

Michael Z builds the Stargate SG-1 Asgard Beliskner Battle Ship using thousands of Legos! He writes: "After watching the series I knew that I had to build the ship out of Legos. The result is an incredibly large and detailed ship that measured five feet long, six feet wide and two feet high." Oh, he's selling it on eBay.

(via io9)

The end of I'm on Setanta Sports

It is with great sadness that I announce that one of my favourite shows has called it quits. The very funny I'm On Setanta Sports is a parody television programme starring puppet characters of Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho, Mexican national team manager Sven Goran-Eriksson and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney. All the characters are voiced by talented Irish actor, comedian and impressionist Mario Rosenstock. Catch the last episode above and all the two seasons of I'm On Setanta Sports here. Remember, "Be Champions!" Sigh. I'm going to miss you Jose.

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Amnesty urges Singapore to stop executions: Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Wednesday asked Singapore to make public "comprehensive information" about its use of the death penalty and again urged the government to stop executions.
-Technical glitch causes long queue for ComfortDelgro cabbies: Long queues of blue ComforDelgro cabs formed as early as 7 am this morning along Sin Ming Drive service centres, as taxi drivers came in to get their mobile data terminals fixed.
-Electric scooter coming to Singapore: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has given initial approval for a new electric scooter to be brought to Singapore by five-month-old local company Zeco Scooters.
-Better and more efficient healthcare service: Patients in Singapore can expect better and more efficient healthcare services with shorter waiting time and longer consultation periods with doctors.
-Pessimistic S’poreans: Pragmatic or helpless?: Pessimism is only to be expected, in times like these. But what some see as typical Singapore expect-the-worst pragmatism, others wonder: Is it rather a sign that we lack mental fortitude and the confidence in our own resilience?
-Parents sue Mindef: The parents of a former full-time national serviceman, who has remained in a coma for over three years after an incident in camp, is taking the Ministry of Defence to court over compensation issues.
-Register of Family Physicians to be set up: A Registry of Family Physicians will be set up under proposed amendments to the Medical Registration Act or MRA. A Family Physicians Accreditation Board will also be established.
-Singaporean activists detained after protesting Burmese migrants’ plight: Two Singaporean activists were detained for five hours on Monday by police after they had protested outside the Ministry of Manpower in solidarity with Burmese migrant workers in the country.
-Singapore is 1st tier arms maker: Some time this year, British troops will be deployed in made-in-Singapore Bronco armoured all-terraintracked carriers in the treacherous combat zones of Afghanistan.
-NTUC FairPrice pledges no retrenchments in next two years: Despite the worsening economy, supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice will continue with plans to open another three outlets and to recruit more management staff.

Google comes clean, err... green

Go ahead, keep on Googling! Google is claiming that the energy used per Google search is minimal and that the company is serious about reducing the energy used by its data centers. From Official Google Blog:

Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don't reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.

Growing up with Star Wars

Growing Up Star Wars: 1977-1985 is a Flickr group where you can post that Polaroid of yourself as Princess Leia in 1977 or that crayon portrait you did of the Death Star that hung on your parent's fridge for months in 1979 until someone spilled Kool-Aid on it.

The one-day Apple shopping event

Today only for all Apple fans in Singapore! Apple Singapore is having a special one-day Apple shopping event with discounts for a lot of their products. Deals include the MacBook 13-inch for S$1928 (was S$2088, you save S$160) and the iMac 20-inch for S$1808 (was S$1888, you save S$ 80).

Sony Vaio P: A Video Demo

Yesterday, I caught up with Richardson Lau from Sony Singapore at the Sony Digital Workshop located at Wisma Atria for a video demo of Sony's new Vaio P Pocket Style PC. Watch the video above. There's also a higher quality version of it. Just go to the YouTube page on the link and click "watch in high quality". In the video, Richardson talks about some of the Vaio P's features: the notebook-size keyboard, the high resolution 1600 x 768 screen, the Instant Mode, the carbon fiber bottom chasis and more. The Sony Vaio P was launched in Singapore last Thursday. You can check out the photos and a video of the launch in my previous post here.

Mantyhose is Pantyhose for Men

The folks from Project e-MANcipate are men who are avid pantyhose wearer. Disturbed by the fact that the pantyhose is still considered as a female-only clothing, their group is out to promote the idea that pantyhose for men is healthy, sexy and positive. Errr, ok. I really don't mind wearing this one pictured here. Looks like tattoos. I like! But no, I'm not wearing the pink pantyhose!

Panorama of the Marvel Universe

Every cover of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe placed side by side to create this awesome Marvel Universe panorama! The handbook is a 15 volume encyclopedic guide which details the fictional universe featured in Marvel Comics publication.

1938 Disney Rejection Letter

Kevin Burg discovers a rejection letter written to his grandma from Walt Disney Productions dated June 7 1938. The letter says that women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoon for screen as that work is performed entirely by men. Poor grandma. Looks like she can only be a tracer. Damn sexist, Walt Disney.

(Thanks Sir Thomas)

Bao Bao Long is the world's best video game console!

Forget about the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Bao Bao Long TV Game looks like a serious contender in the video game console market. The China made gaming machine comes loaded with 9999 games including World of Warcraft and Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic! How can you beat that? Someone please send me a review unit.

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-MoH to step up hiring drive: The Health Ministry is now looking to fill 4,500 positions in the public health sector over the next two years.
-NTUC FairPrice helps customers through recession: Supermarket chain, NTUC Fairprice, has introduced a slew of initiatives totalling $15 million, to help Singaporeans ride through the recession.
-Singapore bureaucrat's cooking trip sparks outcry: A Singaporean bureaucrat who wrote about taking his family on an expensive cooking course in France has sparked ire from locals, with some accusing him of extravagance given the city-state is in recession.
-ERP-free routes during peak hours?: In these tough economic times, motorists redoubling their efforts to look for ways to save on Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges have found solutions in technology and online.
-One in 5 Singaporeans expect rise in unemployment: A recent survey conducted by TNS and Gallup International showed that 78 per cent of Singaporeans expect the number of unemployed to rise this year.
-MP's T-shirt was completely gone: He heard shouting, and when he looked up, he saw several people chasing a man who was fleeing Yio Chu Kang Community Club. The next thing Mr Richard Jonathan saw totally shocked him. His Member of Parliament, Mr Seng Han Thong, was on fire.
-Seng Han Thong conscious after skin graft operation: Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong, who is recovering from a skin graft operation, is now conscious but unable to speak after being sedated for two days.
-Comprehensive plans to develop table tennis in S'pore: Big plans are afoot to develop Singapore's table-tennis, especially among the young. This comes after the Republic's silver medal win at the Beijing Olympics last year.
-Singapore is 2nd freest- Singapore has again been ranked the world's second freest economy, after long-time rival Hong Kong, which retains the top position for the 15th straight year.
-Cybersquatters evicted: Singapore Network Information Center rules in favor of Sony Ericsson against cybersquatter offering competitive Sony products on his website.

Science education in Singapore schools: Fact, Science or Science Fiction?

Amran, an educational consultant, thinks that in Singapore, we don’t teach our students science but instead what we teach them sometimes is bordering on science fiction. From Singapore Educational Consultants:

All too often what goes on is the teaching to the examinations. This implies again rote-learning and mechanical operations. Little time time is spent to teach the scientific approach which is about asking questions and testing hypothesis. Little effort is spent at making observations and inferences or deductions and classifying data and trying to understand processes. Laboratory work in schools usually only have students follow written set of instructions about what to do and is left for them to carry out the experiment and draw their conclusions from “their” experiments. Students don’t create their own experiments to answer their own questions. We in fact don’t teach them to ask questions. We don't encourage them to be curious. This was a point raised by the American master teacher too. At Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve, she noticed that at the exhibits were all in the “telling” mode. Information was given about the plants and animals found there. But what about the questions? I remember her saying that it is not important to provide the answers to the questions as what we want the visitors to do is to think. This is what science education is about.

How Facebook drove 15,000 people to the Singapore Tattoo Show

David Meerman Scott, a viral marketing strategist and the author of three books on marketing, on how an active Facebook group drove 15,000 people to visit the recent Singapore Tattoo Show. From Web Ink Now:

Andrew Peters is the brains behind the social media promotions leading up to the Singapore Tattoo Show, working on both traditional and social media publicity.

What I find fascinating as a show promotional tool was the Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry that was started three months prior to the event. This is important for all show organizers to study.

Andrew used Facebook as a way for people to connect well before the physical event and the Tattoo Artistry Facebook Group quickly gained 3,000 members, securing a place as the center of this artwork for the region. In a sense, the physical show started with a virtual group. The is new marketing for conferences and events.

Electrified Steampunk Monopoly

Dude modifies a Monopoly board game into an electrified steampunk edition complete with a chest to hold the Community Chest cards, a water tower which lights up when you land on the Water Company, a ray gun to hold the Chance cards, a train that runs when you land on any railroad, and street lights that turn on when you land on the Electric Company!

T-shirt with 2009 calendar printed on it

Petter Hanberger writes about his 2009 T-Shirt: "A pen is attached so that the owner can fill in one box for each day that the shirt is being used. After one year the t-shirt design is finished." Don't forget to email him if you want to buy one.

Penguin Book Deckchairs

Art Meets Matter sells a range of Penguin Classics including mugs, bookbags and these cool deckchairs featuring classic Penguin book covers, each beautifully made with hand made beech frames and and hand printed cotton slings. Now you can sit on these literary classics and enjoy your novel.

Amazing Dragon Cake

For his birthday, John got this dragon cake made by the folks from Mike's Amazing Cakes. It's the most incredible cake I've ever seen. The detail on it is amazing! It really looks like a real dragon. I want one for my birthday too but mine has to be able to emit fire from the mouth.

Time to throw away your mouthwash

A review published in the Dental Journal of Australia reveals that mouthwashes which contain alcohol can cause oral cancer. How scary is that?! Time to throw away that bottle of Listerine and stick to a more natural mouthwash. From The Daily Telegraph:

Prof McCullough, chair of the ADA's therapeutics committee and associate professor of oral medicine at the University of Melbourne, is calling on the ADA to urgently re-assess its seal of approval on mouthwashes containing alcohol.

"We see people with oral cancer who have no other risk factors than the use of alcohol-containing mouthwash, so what we've done in this study is review all the evidence that's out there,'' he said.

"Since this article came out, further evidence has come out too. We believe there should be warnings.

"If it was a facial cream that had the effect of reducing acne but had a four- to five-fold increased risk of skin cancer, no one would be recommending it.''

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-The "private person" who set an MP on fire: According to a news report at a local radio station, neighbours have described the elderly attacker, Ah-Ong, of MP Seng Han Thong, as a very private person.
-Anorexia mortality rate is 10%: Anorexia takes the lives of about 10 percent of its patients, according to Psychiatrist Dr Lee Huei Yen, of the Singapore General Hospital’s eating disorder team.
-Majority favour compensation for living organ donors: The Health Ministry said 86 per cent of the respondents were in favour of some form of payment to living organ donors and that a majority felt that a reasonable amount should go beyond S$50,000.
-2,000 electronics jobs to go: The labour movement expects retrenchments in the first three months of this year in the badly-hit electronics sector to equal the number for whole of last year.
-Over 8,000 turn up for Singapore's first tattoo show: Over 8,000 people turned up for the first ever tattoo show held in Singapore this weekend. Asian tattoo designs are increasingly prominent in Hollywood and pop culture.
-SPH launches inaugural Singapore Entertainment Awards 2009: It is going to be one exciting event with the launch of the inaugural Singapore Entertainment Awards to honour the best talents in the Singapore and the Asia entertainment scene.
-We do not need bodyguards, say MPs: Parliamentarians say such assaults are isolated and those whom Today spoke to yesterday said it was unnecessary for them to have bodyguards. Only Cabinet ministers have a team of security officers assigned to them.
-Business as usual for MPs: Members of Parliament and their grassroots leaders will exercise greater caution as they celebrate upcoming Chinese New Year activities with their residents.
-Seng Han Thong's incident the exception rather than the norm: Mr Seng’s fellow MP and colleague at NTUC, Madam Halimah Yacob says the torching incident is really the exception rather than the norm. In most instances, people truly value and appreciate the help rendered by MPs.
-MP set on fire, man caught: Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong was in stable condition in hospital yesterday, following an attack in which a man poured thinner on him and set him alight.

Sony launches VAIO P, new pocket style PC

Last Thursday, Sony unveiled its new VAIO P "Pocket style PC" to the media and bloggers at an event held at Singapore's National Museum. Here's a video of the Sony models doing the catwalk with the new VAIO P notebooks.



The VAIO P is an 8-inch full-featured notebook PC that is only 19.8 mm in thickness and weighs 594 g - slim, compact and light enough to fit into the back pocket of your pair of jeans! It has a full size keyboard with isolated keys, 1,600 x 768 LED backlit ultra-wide display, built-in Motion Eye webcam, noise-cancelling technology/headphones (only on the VGN-P15G), built-in wireless LAN 802.11b/g/Draft n and Bluetooth.

There's also an Instant Mode and Window Arrangement Utility. Instant Mode directly launches into Sony’s Xross Media Bar interface for quick boot up and access to music, video, photos and the Web. Window Arrangement Utility lets you organise multiple windows in an instant.

You can buy the VAIO P in Singapore from mid Feb 2009 with prices starting from $1,299. It comes in four colours: Garnet Red, Olivine Green, Obsidian Black and Crystal White. View all the photos taken at the VAIO P launch here.

Update: Sony has just informed me that the VAIO P demonstrations units are already at all Sony Style shop fronts across Singapore as well as the 3 VAIO Pro shops at Juzz1 (Level 3 Funan), V3 (Level 2 Sim Lim) and MC2 (Suntec City Lifestyle Mall). The public can visit these outlets to get a hands-on with the units and pre-order if they like at any Sony authorized dealers. Pre-order for the VAIO P will end on 8th Feb. Shipping starts mid Feb. Attractive freebies are bundled with the pre-orders while stocks last.

Update: Sony Singapore's Richardson Lau demos the Sony Vaio P. Watch the video here.

Create Obama style posters of yourself

Change. Progress. Hope. Original pics here, here and here. You too can have your very own image in a style inspired by Shepard Fairey's iconic poster of Barack Obama with Obamicon. Go ahead. Obamicon yourself!

Alex Thomson of UK's Channel 4 should win award for best TV Journalist

Kudos to Alex Thomson, UK's Channel 4 journalist for having the balls to grill Israeli spokesman Mark Regev during a live interview. Too many TV journalists nowadays are just worried about losing their jobs and are too afraid of asking the tough questions especially when dealing with Israeli officials. Well done, Alex. Well done!

The first ever Webby Night in Singapore is a dud!

The New York Times calls it "The Internet's Highest Honor" and the BBC hails it as "one of the most prestigious awards in the world” but Thursday's Webby Night at Velvet Underground turned out to be a dud. Webby Night: The Webby 5's was the first time the Webbys had come to Singapore to call for entries. For those of you who don't know, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.

Thursday's event had several Web luminaries presenting a five minute show and tell about their favorite web thing of choice. David-Michel Davies, the Executive Director of the The Webby Awards, Graham Perkins (elasticity), Kelveen Soh (Yolk) and Melvyn Lim (Ogilvy) were all there.

Singapore judge and blogging godfather Mr Brown was also one of the invited speakers but he did not show up. I was speculating with both Sabrina and Pris who were with me, that Mr Brown - an avid cyclist - probably had a punctured tire while cycling to Velvet. I asked Mr Brown the next day and he told me he always carry a repair kit with him and if anything punctured, he can always fold up his bike and take a cab. Ha! The real reason why he couldn't make it was that he was caught in a last minute recording. Ah, a good thing because the Webby Night was the most boring and pointless event that I've ever attended.

It started late, some guests were even seen leaving, internet connection not working, speakers did not make any sense, one even had the audacity to include a racist remark, and at the end of the event, you could even hear some boos. The only memorable thing about the event for me, was the booze and oh, the sausages. Yum!

Anyway, for those of you who are interested in The Webby Awards, you can take part here if you don't mind parting away with a few hundred bucks - that's US dollars btw. There are more than 100 categories in which organizations, agencies and individuals can compete in. Last year, Singapore interactive agency, Yolk won the Events category with its Got Character? website. More photos taken at the Webby Night can be viewed here.

Facebook live data as seen from space

Here's a cool video of Project Palentir in action, posted by a Facebook engineer. The project visualizes all the data Facebook receives. Each action, geolocated as it happens on Facebook, becomes a particle that floats off the earth and eventually disappears.

(Thanks Ace)

Burger King wants you to sacrifice your friends for a Whopper

Those marketing folks from Burger King are on a roll! First it was the Whopper Virgins Challenge, then came their Flame perfume, and now they want you to install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook so that you'll be rewarded with a free Whopper every time you sacrifice 10 of your friends. I love my Whopper but my friends are staying in my Facebook!

(Thanks Linghan)

Interview with the author of Bat-Manga

I previously blogged about Bat-Manga here. It's a book featuring hundreds of pages of Batman-manga comics more than four decades old. Wired has an interview with the author of the book, Chip Kidd: "I was amazed at how much material there was. I went into this project frankly worried that there wouldn't be enough for a substantial book, and came out of it begging Pantheon for an extra 32 pages."

Amy Lira's Handmade Creepy Dolls

Amy Lira has a set of really creepy looking dolls for sale on her Etsy site. She does all of the sculpting, sewing and painting that goes into each and every one of her dolls and no molds are ever used. She says of her Creepy Little Monkey, "I took an existing monkey doll and cut out his face and made him a even cuter one out of polymer clay."

Cheese Clock

I love cheese and I love my wine even more! Artisanal, makers of premium cheese, has a nice Cheese Clock which is a handy guide to the different kinds of cheese and the accompanying wine and beer that you should serve your guests throughout the night.

Gaza and Singapore

Punditarian compares Gaza with Singapore and wonders why Gaza isn't as rich a nation like Singapore. From The Astute Bloggers:

I think that the territory of Gaza alone would make a handsome state if its inhabitants would pull up their socks and devote themselves to building it up. Since I think most people think of Singapore as a thriving, prosperous, small city-state. Let's just compare Gaza and Singapore, and see if that isn't the case.

When the predominantly Chinese population of Singapore seceded from the Malaysian Federation in 1963, many voices predicted that the tiny island nation would never make it. How could it?

It was too densely populated, had too few resources, and would not be able to survive without the Malaysian hinterland to support it.

But the Singaporeans showed that they could make it, becoming one of the great Asian economic tigers. The citizens of Gaza could do the same thing.

Reflections after Gaza invasion

Victoria Buch, an Israeli stumbled into the West Bank with a group of activists one day and finally understood the criminality of the treatment of the Palestinians by her own country. She reflects on the current Gaza invasion. From Hagada Hasmalit:

I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The project started many years ago. Its seed can be traced to the basic fallacy of the Zionist movement, which set out to establish a Jewish-national state in a location already inhabited by another nation. Under these conditions, one has, at most, a moral right to strive for a bi-national state; establishing a national state implies, more or less by definition, ethnic cleansing of the previous inhabitants...

For the sake of both nations living in this country, this outrage must be stopped. It must be stopped by pressure from outside, because at present within Israel there are no significant political forces to oppose it. Please do something, my friends, and do it urgently. And kindly ignore the endless `negotiations` between our government and the powerless Palestinian Authority, they are just a cover for more ethnic cleansing. If you do not believe me, come and see the massive settlement construction in East Jerusalem and West Bank. And the walls of the Palestinian ghettos.

History of the Internet told with the help of icons

History of the Internet (video above) by Melih Bilgil is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet. The history is told with help of PICOL icons.

Wooden Ray Guns by The Builder's Studio

I love ray guns! I came across The Builder's Studio on Etsy today and almost immediately fell in love with his ray guns which are for sale! The ray guns are all designed by him and painstakingly put together and made by hand from wood and occasionally with other materials. He then uses paint and many finishes, often metallic to make sure a lot of details shine through.

US Air Force teaches you how to blog and counter blog

This counter-blogging flow chart (bigger version here) by the folks from the Emerging Technology Division of the US Air Force's public affairs arm is really handy. The chart gives guidance on how to respond to trolls, ragers, unhappy customers, etc. It's meant for Air Force personnel but I reckon it can used by us civilians as well.

Shanghai recreated in dice and poker chips

Liu Jianhua recreates the Shanghai skyline using thousands of dice and poker-chips. This was exhibited at the Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy. Close-up view here.

(via Boing Boing)

The Ear Scope TV lets you clean your ears easily

Cleaning your ears is now made easier thanks to the Ear Scope TV. It is a completely self-contained endoscope with high quality fiber optics. Attached it to your TV and you can use it to easily see inside your ear as you clean it! Also works for your nose, mouth or any other holes that may need cleaning.

Maps by Olaf Hajek

German based artist Olaf Hajek has created amazing illustrations for editorials, fashion magazines and advertising clients but I especially love his beautiful maps which he made for the likes of National Geographic magazine, Men's Journal and many more.

Michael Whelan's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Art

Michael Whelan is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy artist and for over 30 years, his work has been a window to imaginative worlds. Stephen King, Isaac Asimov and even Meatloaf have used his illustrations! Over at his website, you can view some of his personal visions and his favourite illustrations.

Watch this documentary on Kampong Buangkok before the village disappears

This short documentary produced by Retrospect Pictures in 2007, tells the charming story of Singapore's very own secret eden, its last rural village called Kampong Lorong Buangkok. Watch part one above and here are parts two and three of the documentary. Despite being surrounded by concrete housing all around in modern-day Singapore, Kampong Lorong Buangkok fiercely retains its traditional roots, evident in the rustic wooden huts and strong 'kampong spirit' reflected by the older residents. But soon, this village will disappear as the government is preparing to buy the land and the residents will be relocated. It's such a pity.

(via Singapore Indian Voice)

Inside China's internet addiction treatment center

Here's a look inside a Beijing rehab center where internet and game addicts are treated using a variety of methods including counseling, playing group games like laser tag and doing physical exercise. From CS Monitor:

"They believe the virtual world is beautiful and fair," said Tao. "In the real world, they become depressed, upset, and restless – they are very unhappy."

Jia Chunyang, a teenager from the coastal city Qingdao, is a typical patient. Wearing a military-green jumpsuit and hip black-framed glasses, he explains that Counterstrike is his "drug" of choice. A couple years ago his gaming habit – which he indulged at least five or six hours a day – started to seriously affect his life.

"My relations with friends weren't good; I only communicated with them online," says Jia. "I stole money from my family and skipped school. And the games also affected my personality. If I couldn't play for a while, I would feel upset."

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Singapore to develop cure for viral diseases: A Singapore consortium dealing in immunology research has joined hands with a French bio-pharmaceutical company in developing antibody-based therapies that could be used for specific viral diseases prevalent in Asia.
-S'poreans still travel despite recession: Mr Michael Lim, senior manager of JP International Travel, said people will still travel because of the many long weekends this year.
-Two S'poreans injured in restaurant shooting in Copenhagen: Two men believed to be Singaporeans were shot and wounded in a restaurant in Copenhagen. One of the victims is reported to be involved with the criminal underworld.
-Earlier allowance payment: Jobless Singaporeans who qualify for a Government-sponsored training programme under which they receive a $4-an-hour training allowance will not have to wait until they finish their course to get paid.
-Petrol companies raise pump prices by 4 cents: Petrol companies, Shell, ExxonMobil and Caltex, have raised pump prices by four Singapore cents per litre.
-Singaporeans second most tech savvy in the world: Proving its position as one of the most 'wired' countries in the world, Singapore came in second in a survey of 52 countries on global citizen's entertainment technology ownership and consumption habits.
-S'poreans heavy Net users: One in four Singaporeans download movies, and one in five download songs from the Internet, with the heaviest users downloading over 20 movies and songs every month, according to a new study on media habits here.
-5 times more courses including diplomas: From this month, workers looking to bump up their qualifications with a diploma will get a financial helping hand.
-Authorisation needed 72 hours before flying to US: From January 12, Singaporeans heading to the United States must obtain travel authorisation at least three days ahead of their trip. Otherwise, they may be denied boarding, experience delayed processing, or be refused admission at a US port of entry.
-Walk ban confusion: People are no longer allowed to walk between the Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints at the Causeway, but there seems to be some confusion about the new rule.

Goldentusk sings the Star Wars theme song

Watch this clip of the Star Wars Theme Song Parody done by the amazingly talented Goldentusk. The parody is the eighth in his series of movie theme song homages, sung to the tune of the theme from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. I absolutely love it!

Cosplayers at Comic Market 75

Comic Market is the world's largest comic convention, held twice a year in Tokyo, once in August and the other one in December. The latest Comic Market 75 was held from December 28-30 last year and Akihabara News' Totoro was there to take some photos of the cosplayers in action. Enjoy the 70 photos.

15 Extraordinary Photomosaics of the Famous

Quazen takes a look at 15 astonishing and extraordinary photomosaics of famous people and gives a short history of the art form. This one is an Obama photomosaic made from hundreds of national flags.

Star Wars Starships and Fighters Clock

Here's a clock that I would proudly hang on my wall. The Star Wars Starships and Fighters Clock is a beautiful clear and chrome Sterling and Noble clock boasting 12 vintage classic Star Wars Action Fleet Micro Machine battleships and vessels!

(Thanks Michael S)

Lumix DMC-LX3 Lens Cap Mod

Ian Ho modified his Lumix DMC-LX3 camera slightly so that he can fit a Ricoh LC-1 auto lens cap on it. He has instructions on how he did it here and also check out his very cool video of the lens cap in action.

(via Ubergizmo)

Today's Singapore News

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Convenient NRIC registration for students at school: From this year, Singaporean students who are turning 15 can register for their National Registration Identity Card or NRIC at their own schools.
-A tenants’ market downtown: Tenants for office space are beginning to enjoy more bargaining power as increased supply for such commercial property and a weakening economy drive rents lower.
-S'pore needs more diversity to cater to different strengths of students: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has said the country needs to become a more diverse economy, providing students with different outlets that fit their strengths and interests.
-Singaporeans unfazed by Thai blaze: Even after last week’s blaze — which has now claimed the lives of 64 people, including three Singaporeans, and injured more than 200 — Singaporean revellers say they will still party in the Thai capital.
-Consumers still wary of China-made milk products: It has been three weeks since China-made milk products were allowed back onto shop shelves, but some retailers have cut their stock of these products.
-Parents cutting back on school spending: It was the first day of the new school year last Friday, but more than half the students spotted by Shin Min Daily News were wearing their old uniforms and toting their old school bags due to recession woes.
-Retain and Retrain Local Staff, but What About Foreigners?: Send local workers for re-skilling as a way to ride out this downturn - that's what a forum today tried to persuade 150 employers from the F and B sector to do. But turns out, the greater concern from participants was why can't training grants be extended to foreign workers?
-Singapore ratifies protocol on children in war: Singapore today ratified the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
-Survey shows most firms still hiring fresh graduates: Thousands of fresh graduates are expected to enter the Singapore job market this year, flooding a labour pool that is seeing more retrenchments. Industries that are still hiring include accounting, engineering and sales.
-Sweeter travel deals as jet fuel price falls: With jet fuel trading at nearly half of what it used to cost and with travel demand contracting, air travellers may just be able to grab some pretty sweet deals.
-Budget wish list: The Budget is less than three weeks away and speculation is rife over what the Government will unveil on Jan 22 to help companies and households cope with the recession.

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series is a British parody of an Americanized and kid-sanitized edit of an animated Japanese show. I just finished watching the first episode. Damn funny. 31 more episodes to go!

(via MeFi)

Twilight E-Books for all you cheapskates

Faiez has the entire Twilight series of novels in PDF for download. The Twilight series tell the story of a teenage girl who finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire. Girls worldwide are crazy over these novels especially the Edward Cullen vampire character. Beats me. I'll try reading a bit to find out why.

(via Gothicca)

The MacBook Wheel has no keyboard

The Onion, an American fake news organization, has the scoop on Apple's revolutionary new laptop with no keyboard! The MacBook Wheel lets consumers accomplish everyday tasks like typing with just a few dozen spins and clicks of a wheel. Watch the video here. It looks so authentic that you may be forgiven for thinking Steve Jobs has gone bonkers with this new product.

Japanese "Slide Across The Bikini Girls" TV Game Show

Why don't we have game shows like this on TV? Here's a clip taken from a Japanese game show where the lucky contestant has to slide across a row of girls in bikini! The second segment of the clip is just as crazy. Ah Japanese, we love them!

7 Meteor Showers to look out for in 2009

It's always nice to see an online magazine dedicated to the culture and arts, post a story about shooting stars! CultCase lists 7 major meteor showers you can expect in 2009. My favourites are the Perseids in August, the Orionids in October and December's Geminids. I have so many nice memories of watching these showers over the years.

Vespa Scooter Papercraft

You can now download this amazing papercraft of a Vespa 150 scooter. From the photos, the model looks stunning and very realistic and I'm pretty sure it is difficult to make. Not something that I would want to try but those of you papercraft lovers with lots of patience may want to take up this challenge.

Minoru 3D Webcam

Normal webcams are so boring after you used the Minoru 3D Webcam, the world’s first 3D webcam! It takes mind-blowing stereoscopic effect videos and photos in 3D (also does standard 2D), works with a variety of Instant Messengers like Windows Live Messenger, Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, and comes with 5 pairs of 3D glasses. Just take a video and then use the 3D glasses to experience life in 3D!

iPhone Sketches

Dude did these amazing sketches and paintings on his iPhone! Most of them were drawn using the Brushes app (requires iTunes) and the rest done using NetSketch. Incredibly, he spends only 5 to 10 minutes on each painting!

(Thanks GeekGod)

Opening Titles of Psychotronic Movies

Enjoy this gallery of psychotronic movie opening titles by Mr Bali Hai. He has more than 100 screen captures of title cards in his gallery. Psychotronic is a film genre made up of horror films, spaghetti westerns, low budget independent features and exploitation films - basically B grade stuff.

(via Boing Boing)

C**t Coloring Book

The C**t Coloring Book by Tee Corinne has over 3 dozen vaginas of every size and description for you to color. The illustrations were originally used for a sex education class. You can view some pages of the book here and don't forget to check out the reviews on Amazon!

Photos of London without humans

Inspired by the scene in Westminster from the movie 28 Days Later, Ian cycled the streets of London during Christmas morning to take photos of the city nearly devoid of any people. His Flick photoset here.

Malcolm Goodman's Kite Collection

Malcolm Goodman aka the Kiteman has one of the largest private and comprehensive oriental kite collections in the world. I especially like his Japanese kites painted with various bold motifs, ranging from faces of legendary war heroes to brilliant geometric patterns.

Star Wars Misters

Let Yoda, Darth Vader and Boba Fett cool you down during a hot and humid weather. These Star Wars misters are battery operated handheld fans with built-in pumps that spray a Dagobah-worthy cooling mist.

(Thanks T Hatch)

Japanese Thriller music video will make Michael Jackson laugh

Some crazy Japanese dudes did a remake of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video featuring an inflatable sex doll/pillow as "Michael's date" and several naked guys as the evil zombies. It's funny like hell! Go watch it.

(via Topless Robot)

Previously:
Thriller performed by Filipino inmates
Indian Thriller with crazy lyrics
Thriller dance on the tube

PingMag closes down

This is a shocker! PingMag has decided to close down. I had linked to some of their amazing posts before and it's such a shame that they are calling it quits. No reason was given. R.I.P PingMag. You'll be dearly missed. From PingMag:

From today, PingMag will be taking an extended hiatus, and will not be updated for the foreseeable future.

PingMag has been running for 3 and a half years now, and over that time literally millions of you, from every single corner of the planet, have visited, read our articles, left comments, linked to us on your blogs, sent us letters of support - some of you have even flown to Tokyo to join us!

We are eternally grateful for your fantastic support over the years.

It is only because of you all that we have managed to keep PingMag going this long, and with every article - and there have been around 1000 of them! - we have made new friends, and found new, exciting people and places here in Japan and all over the world.

How to make a Wall-E sandwich

Anna has a photoset on Flickr to teach you how to make a Wall-E sandwich. You'll need four slices of whole wheat bread, turkey, mayo, American cheese singles and a blueberry. She's an amazing bento artist! And if you remember, I blogged about her bento sketches few days ago.

Download In The Rain I Like To Sing

I just discovered the beautiful haunting voice of Tuan Mac when I was reading this post on Fortean Times. In The Rain I Like To Sing is a song from her debut album and it is available for download. It's "a spooky little number visually inspired by Children of the Corn meets Alice in Wonderland but poetically inspired by the legend Beowulf." Lovely!

PM Lee sends Bush an Abs Exerciser!

A gift list prepared by the US State Department's Office of Protocol reveals that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sent an Abs Exerciser to President Bush. Not sure which brand, but I reckon it has to be the Osim iGallop. Kinda odd gift alright but I guess for Bush, any gift is better than the flying shoes he got recently. Bigger pic of Bush on iGallop here, photoshopped using pic from here.