“We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.

“Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.

“Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We’re used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don’t take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don’t demand a union. We don’t retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.”

READ MORE HERE

Singapore declared independence from Britain unilaterally in August 1963, before joining the Federation of Malaysia in September along with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as the result of the 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore. Unfortunately Singapore was forced to leave the Malaysian federation two years after heated ideological conflict between Singapore’s PAP government and the federal government in Kuala Lumpur. Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965, which became our National Day. Yusof bin Ishak was sworn in as President, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of the Republic of Singapore.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND SEE THE VIDEO

TO SEE THE VIDEO CLICK HERE

Lol, yes! Apple, and its products such as iPads and iPhones do not support Adobe Flash and this has become the joke of this century, with many such spoofs poking fun of Apple floating around the Internet.

The story goes that Gray Powell, an engineer with Apple, was out celebrating his birthday at a pub and had too much German beer. Gray Powell had subsequently left the bar without his iPhone, which was picked up by a stranger sitting next to him.

This person discovered next day that the iPhone he found was actually a next generation iPhone, a potential iPhone 4G prototype disguised as an iPhone 3GS. This guy decided to sell this new iPhone to Gizmodo, who reviewed the prototype iPhone and revealed the identity of Gray Powell to the world.

READ MORE HERE

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

If you believe the opinions expressed in the RazorTV video by those ladies, Singaporean men basically need status, i.e. higher salaries and bigger cars, and they will instantly become much more attractive to Singaporean girls! For a guy who was initially rated only a 3.5 average, he is suddenly much more attractive and rated more than eight points because his salary is indicated as S$8,200 (USD $5,958).

When times are bad, the economy is down, salary is stagnant or being cut, one of the first things which people cut back on is food. Reducing the amount of money spent on food daily can go a long way to improve your savings. So what do people do? Alternative food may come in the form of sandwiches.

But when times are REALLY bad, you may end up getting sandwiches like the one shown below! These are supposedly Made-in-China sandwiches.

READ MORE HERE

You know that the craze over Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad is not over yet when you see a bunch of teens going on YouTube video smash and break apart a US$500 Apple iPad using their baseball bat. I must say this is really crazy stuff. Yet their actions prove one thing: for all the thing iPads or iPhones are touted to be, these devices are certainly not indestructible, though it will be a cool feature.

Interesting, some Singaporean netizens are saying that luckily the act to destroy the iPad did not happen in Singapore.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

The funny thing is that the team’s mascot was just bumbling around and cheering the crowd. All of a sudden, it decided to start annoying the pretty cheerleader, and lo and behold, the mascot swallowed the entire cheerleader. After the stunning act which surprised the entire crowd, the mascot round off. It is really funny and good and has apparently became viral, spawning copycat acts across the country.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

Apple’s iPad is causing quite a buzz both online and in the real world as many people are talking about this “magical” product excitedly. On January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs announced their latest flagship product, the Apple iPad, which is a tablet-like computer developed by Apple Inc.

Analysts have placed the iPad in between a smartphone and a laptop computer, with the potential to be a netbook killer. Others are calling it a giant iPod, or a larger iPhone which you cannot make phone calls on.

The iPad is currently only available in America via their actual Apple Stores or the online Apple store. The prices of an iPad starts from US$499 for the 16GB iPad (Wi-Fi). To moderate the expected demand and ensure that more people can get an iPad, Apple is currently limiting each customer to two iPad purchases.

Based on the six iPad variants available currently, the estimated prices in Singapore dollars based on April 6, 2010 exchange rates are listed below.

READ MORE HERE

Just Cause 2 is a new action video game that was recently released on March 23, 2010 in the U.S. The gaming style is similar to other famous computer games such as Mercenaries and Grand Theft Auto, where the player is free to roam the game’s open world and need not focus on the game’s storyline. This type of game has been described as a sandbox style action game.

What caught the world’s attention though is the female game character Bolo Santosi, leader of the rebel group known as the Reapers in the game. Apparently, Bolo Santosi has been voiced-over by a Singaporean with thick Singlish (a form of colloquial English) accent. Many gamers are not impressed by the less than ideal voice-over and have been mocking the accent.

SEE THE VIDEO AND READ MORE HERE

Amazon Kindle is a software and hardware platform developed by Amazon.com for the rendering and displaying of e-books and other digital media. Users can download content from Amazon and some other Kindle content providers in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW) or load content in various formats from a computer by simply emailing DOC, TXT, and PDF files to their own Kindle email address.

Some people wonder if the Apple’s iPad will be the ultimate Amazon Kindle-killer.

SEE MORE HERE

This funny picture was found at Cowboy Caleb’s blog. Bad English never fails to tickle me and this is one of those really funny cases. Wonder how they translate the innocent looking plastic straw over in China? I love literal translations. Lol.

WEIRD ASIA NEWS

The Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) has reportedly interviewed Senior Pastor Rony Tan for his contentious videos posted on the website of the Lighthouse Evangelism independent church.

Pastor Rony Tan was questioned regarding his insensitive remarks, which the the Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs said were “highly inappropriate and unacceptable as they trivialised and insulted the beliefs of Buddhists and Taoists”.

The case came to light after YouTube videos of his sermons were widely circulated on local forums and websites. Many netizens voiced their concerns and unhappiness over the way Pastor Rony Tan made fun of Buddhism. Pastor Rony Tan was seen in the videos conducting interviews with a former Buddhist monk and nun and making insensitive remarks about the central tenets of Buddhism such as reincarnation, meditation, nirvana etc.

After the incident, Pastor Rony Tan posted the following statement on the church’s website last evening, apologising for his insensitive remarks.

“I realized that my presentation and comments were wrong and offensive. So I sincerely apologize for my insensitivity towards the Buddhists and Taoists, and solemnly promise that it will never happen again.”

 

Wayang Times

The Air New Zealand national carrier was already causing turbulence with its latest uniform range, which critics said made women look like drag queens in Russian military garb.

Now they’ve ruffled the feathers of women’s rights groups and interest organisations with an online promotion portraying the habits of the mature single woman.

In the Discovery Channel-style documentary clip, a so-called cougar is shown “starving itself on sparse vegetation during the day then hunting large slabs of meat at night” by stalking young men at bars.

Despite the man’s attempts to ward off the woman’s advances, the cougar has “not tasted fresh meat for days” and drags her prey to an inner-city apartment.

The promotion encourages women 35-plus to send in photographs of themselves out on the town with their “cougar mates” to go in the draw for a deal including a flight and ticket to a sporting event.

An airline spokeswoman said the campaign was supposed to be “light-hearted” but some older women had “taken a bit of offence to it”.

“(They) felt it was an unfair kind of blanket comment,” she said.

Many didn’t, however, with 60 women signing up to go in to win flights, tickets and cougar costumes to attract the attention of young males.

Video of the controversial Air NZ Advertisement

Source: Adelaide Now

Wayang Times

The “Real” Singapore Sling

The original “Singapore Sling” wasn’t even called the “Singapore Sling”, it was known as the Gin Sling or the Straits Sling. Cocktail aficionados attribute the creation of the enticingly pink cocktail (originally created for the purposes of females who were too mannish to drink an Old-Fashioned and too coquettish to drink Whiskey on the rocks) to a certain Ngiam Tong Boon.

The earliest versions of the Singapore Sling did not have their manliness further subverted by doses of citrus juices, while the contemporary incarnation served up at the Long Bar is served up with generous amounts of pineapple and lime juice. Ironically, the current Singapore Sling is enjoyed by a much larger audience and isn’t reserved for effeminate men. But irony be damned I say, and cheers to everyone who imbibes the pallid pink drink that puts Singapore on the map.

In all honesty, the aversion to pre-mixed cocktails I get, but what of the difference in ingredients?

Singapore Sling Recipes

Here is the version served at Raffles Hotel circa 2010

30ml Gin

15ml Cherry Brandy

120ml Pineapple Juice

15ml Lime Juice

7.5ml Cointreau

7.5ml Benedictine

10ml Grenadine

A Dash of Angostura Bitters

Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

Here is a version from Robert Vermiere’s Cocktails and How to Mix Them, circa 1922

Straits Sling

2 dashes of Orange Bitters

2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

1/8 gill of Benedictine

1/8 gill of Cherry Brandy

1/2 gill of Gin

Pour into tumbler and fill up with cold soda water.

Wayang Times

Taking up classes in exotic dancing is now a growing trend among Singaporean ladies.

Class participants range from undergraduate students to professional women working in Shenton Way. This trend has its roots in the Hollywood pop culture with famous actresses like Jessica Alba who did the dance routine in her movie “Sin City” having inspired many ladies to be just like her.

Check out the six-part video feature of the dance classes in action with interviews of the trainers and some of the learners.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

by Wayang Times

CNN has recently named Ris Low, the ex-Miss Singapore World 2009, as one of the top 25 most influential person in Asia for 2009. CNN told the media that this list included Ris Low because she was singularly responsible for giving Singapore its catchphrase of the year, “Boomz“, thus naming her “Catchphrase queen”.

The ex-Miss Singapore World was initially ridiculed by many Singaporeans for her poor command of spoken English when people noticed a video of her online interview. The same video made Ris Low and her “Boomz” famous, and there were even many spoof videos making fun of her. When news broke that she was previously convicted of credit card fraud, she was under a lot of public pressure which eventually forced her to step down and give up her crown.

After all these bad press, Ris Low remained as a semi-celebrity and still constantly get into the limelight in Singapore. Some netizens have speculated that it was a deliberate move by Ris Low to court the attention from the media as she loves being a celebrity. Recently, she even planned to set up her own Singapore pageant in 2010.

It looks like 2010 may turn out to be another eventful year for Ris Low.

by Wayang Times

Google Statement by David Drummond, Lawyer for Google

A New Approach to China

Like many other well-known organisations, we face cyberattacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident – albeit a significant one – was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses – including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors – have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant US authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of US-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and antispyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People interested wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks, can read this US government report, Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that ‘we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China’.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered – combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web – have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognise that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

by Wayang Times

A blogger giving a big corporation a virtual kick in the behind does not happen very often in Singapore. And it came as a surprise when a certain Singaporean blogger who goes by the name Kitchen Tigress landed that kick recently.

The feisty lady had watched the recent OCBC Bank’s commercial which show the bank’s staff surprising their customer with a birthday cake.

She decided to take the advertisement literally and went to an OCBC bank outlet on her birthday, and requested (or forced) the bank’s staff to buy her a cake. Well, she did get the cake in the end, after “five eternities”.

Click here for full story.