Smart mosquito traps – To laugh or to cry?

There is an article  in the ST with a photograph of a foreign talent pushing a platform of potted plants and a water contraption, the aggregate is called Ovitrap, or in layman language a mosquito trap. It is supposed to be a smart device that would lure mosquitoes to lay their eggs there and the water would be purged regularly and refilled automatically. NEA has granted a patent attorney to a Martin Schweiger to conduct a pilot trial on this smart device on condition that he would have to closely monitor to see that it works.

I remember during the dengue outbreak a few years back, a local lecturer, I think, conceived of a similar concept, by laying water contraptions in strategic locations around housing estates for the mosquitoes to lay eggs and then to pour the water away. It is as simple as that. Some laughed at the simplicity of the idea without wanting to know how effective it could be and how cheap and efficient to operate the concept given the abundance of resident committees to give a hand.

The problem is that he did not call the idea a smart idea and did not put in a few batteries and water pump to do the job automatically, in the current thinking calling it a smart mosquito trap. Also I think he is a local and is not recognizable as a talent. In this island, locals are branded as daft and foreigners as talents.

So the same concept, one is laughed away, another is seen as a smart device and approved for trial. The first one, not so smart, can be operated cheaply and efficiently, the other is going to cost a lot of money. Oh, the mantra, it must be expensive to be good.

Shall I laugh or cry for the increasing stupidity of a people that no longer thinks, incapable of thinking, and is in complete reliance of foreigners for ideas?

Xiaxue granted court order to expose Internet Brigade for harassment

‘Local Blogger Wendy Cheng known mainly by her online moniker, Xiaxue, has gotten a court order to force Satirical Facebook Page SMRT LTD (Feedback) to stop harassing her.
The court order also apparently requires the page to post an apology and reveal their identities.
Acknowledging the receipt of the court order and legal letter from Xiaxue’s lawyers, SMRT Ltd (Feedback) posted an update on their facebook page explaining that they intended to follow the requirements and will reveal their identities:’


The above is quoted from an article posted in TRS. The new anti harassment act is taking effect with the first batch of anonymous bloggers waiting to be reviewed under court order after an application by blogger Xiaxue.

The bloggers that are here with an intent to harass me or anyone personally, please take note of this new act. I can be generous but don’t push your luck too far. I am waiting for an apology from Raymond. I have given him enough time to apologise for the life threat against me. I have yet to press the button.

To all my fellow bloggers, I hope we will all have some peace in our provocative and thoughtful discussion on national and social issues from now onwards and be free from harassment by Internet Brigades posting as anonymous bloggers henceforth. We can accept and even tolerate strong and robust views, but nothing personal and degrading. Let’s raise the level of discussion on matters close to our hearts.

Redbean

SMRT – Revisiting the thinking of the sick

When SMRT was first introduced, there was the thought that travelling in public transport could be gracious, clean, smooth, convenient, fast and stylish. Then the money making mind set in. We want to be like Tokyo, crammed them in to the fullest, hire pushers to get as many commuters into the train as possible. Make the seats as small and narrow as possible to max the limited space. Good for the revenue. Nevermind the squeeze, discomfort and inconvenience. Nevermind the smell in this humid tropical island, never mind the unwashed foreigners. Who cares about gracious living. Gracious living was just a thought or meant for the rich.

After some crying and kpkb, there was a return to sanity. Instead of squeezing everyone into the train, they realized that there is another option, provide more trains. Silly that they did not think of it and only thinking of squeezing and squeezing. Have more train lines and more trains, higher frequencies, and encourage off peak travelling to create room and space.

But this kind of thinking is only meant to be short lived. They are going back to the old thinking, squeezing more people into the trains. The latest idea, tip up seats, to create room and space. Uncles and aunties, sorry hor. In this money minded island, everything is about making money. You oldies, legs weak, no seat, just too bad. What gracious living? What more trains? There is a maximum capacity, when reached, you cannot squeeze more trains on the lines. And there is a need to prepare for the 6.9m or 10m. How to increase passenger load?

I got a better idea. Shrink the population. I mean shrink the physical bodies. Feed everyone with a shrinking drug to half their size and the capacity will double. Or get our scientist to develop a shrink capsule and put the people in, and out comes all the midgets.

You want 10m? 20m also can. When you make the population smaller in size, everything will fit. Eat less, use less space, productivity sure to go up. Use Science, not dull brains of the past trying to push a square peg into a little round hole.

PS. Long time never drink kopi already.

Financial advice for the ‘have nots’

I over heard this young financial advisor offering his expert advice to a few have nots on how to manage their finances. He earnestly told them that they must learn financial planning to manage their income and expenditure. If they don’t do financial planning, they would always be in financial difficulties. And the govt cannot help by giving them handouts.  Giving them a few hundred dollars to tie things over is futile, not effective. It is all about financial planning.

The few have nots listened intently, kept nodding their heads to the good advice. Before they left, they thanked the finance advisor profusely for his wisdom.

After they have left, the couple of friends of the financial advisor turned to him and asked him why he wasted to much time explaining to the have nots about financial planning. The financial advisor smiled. Then he spoke again. I divided my clients into three categories. The first category was those who earned millions. For this group, no need to tell them anything about financial planning. They had all the money they needed, and more. Got financial planning or not, never mind. They could spent and spent, and lost and lost, but still got plenty of money left to enjoy life. Talking to them about financial planning was a joke.  But he said that he still needed to give them some advices to earn his keep.

The second group was those that had some money and needed to manage them wisely or they would lose them and money became not enough. This group came from the middle income. To this group, financial planning was important and made a big difference to their finances.

The third group was the have nots. To this group, financial planning was a waste of time. How to make financial planning when eat also not enough, everyday trying to make ends meet? Telling them about financial planning is ‘seow’. They have no money to plan. Money in money out the next moment and still not enough. What they really need is a job that paid well. What they need was money, even handouts, charity.

His friends agreed. But why did you talk to the few have nots about financial planning? The financial advisor smiled. ‘What do you expect me to tell them?’ I got no money to give them, so it is best to con them about financial planning and they would think that it was their own stupidity, dunno how to plan, that was why they got not enough money. He burst into laughter. It was so easy to con the have nots and put the blame on themselves for their poverty. ‘Financial planning for the have nots? You must be joking.’

What a talented young man.

The Finance Industry – Who are the real criminals?

Big international banks have been caught for all the things that they were not allowed to do, money laundering, cheating on their clients, selling toxic products, using computers and algorithms to cheat traders, creating fictitious derivatives that are worthless to sell, like printing money, even selling the gold in Fort Knox and the vaults of some countries even have their national gold bullions emptied.

Some banks have been fined for cheating, violation and criminal offences. Some traders have been caught and found guilty. For the banks and traders cheating on the system for profit, they knew that their acts were criminal. They knew that when caught, they would pay the price for the infringements. Oops, I have to correct this statement. The CEOs of the banks would not be made to answer, would not be put behind bars. There have a special immunity from financial crimes.

It is fair game out there for traders to try to outsmart or cheat the system. Every profession you will have people doing that, to take advantage of the system, to find loopholes, to use privilege information, to profit from them, nothing new and nothing to crow about. But they know there are cheating and can be caught. They are not above the law.

What is bad, is the ultimate crime when regulators and govt who are supposed to be regulating and approving financial system to condone or allow and approve unfair practices or systems to operate legally. How can govt and regulators knowing that a practice or system is wrong, unfair, cheat on the innocents and allowed it to be part of the system? This is the ultimate crime, when the real criminals are the govt and the regulators. And the same govt and regulators would go around talking about ethics, honesty, fair practices and not doing anything that is criminal. Just look at the financial system in the USA and the West and you will get what I mean. It is simply operated by crooks with govt and regulators backing.

Singapore is an exception. Trust me. I just cannot find any faults or flaws in our system. If you don’t trust me, you must trust the priests and monks and the highly moral and upright super talents in charge.

Welcome to the 21^st Century of hypocrisy at the highest level when the crooks and criminals are in charge.