[redbean]

Best advert on TV

Lately there is a very exciting advertisement on TV. I think it is in Channel 8. It goes something like this. A celebrity asking a young girl if it was her boy friend's birthday and whether she needed a birthday gift. Then she recommended her to go to a pawn shop to get some loan for the gift.

Given that we are in the midst of the Big Singapore Sale, it sure fits into the spending mood of the shoppers nicely. Now not only they can shop with credit cards, there is also the pawn shops available.

Good for the economy. And an attestment to our shopping culture.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

A better advert

This one is about filial piety. The mother was curt, aloof, insensitive, rude, abusive, arrogant etc etc. The son was so filial and pampered her with tender loving care despite her ill treating and bullying his wife, the daughter in law, in front of his son. The daughter in law suffered in silence like all good and suffering daughters in law were supposed to be. The grandson could not take the bullying and abusing thrown at her mother but were convinced by his father that the grandmother took very good care of him when she was his mother. There were gratitude and filial piety all thrown together.

The moral of the story is that grandmother can be abusive and disgusting as long as she had taken good care of her son. Daughter in law must take the abuses and ill treatments and suffer in silence to be exemplary.

And grandson should not be thoughtless and must appreciate that the grandmother was once good. Oldies can be arrogant, rude, abusive and must be tolerated.

My moral of the story, don't ever marry a filial son unless you want to suffer in silence.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

What kind of stupid values do we want to impart?

The advert on the abusive and unreasonable grandmother is getting praises daily in the media. The part on filial piety and looking after the parents is reasonable. But shall we encourage the oldies to be abusive, unreasonable, difficult and be a bully?

In the early days of ignorance and feudal values, many suffered very badly under very harsh and authoritative oldies. Being abused, ill treated, beaten, starved, ostracised etc were very common. The oldies saw it as their right.

Can modern society continue to accept such abuses and cruelties inflicted by the oldies and to accept them meekly as filial piety? Only a feudal mind, unemancipated mind, a sick mind, could sing praises on such bad practices. To respect and care for the oldies are good things. But they cannot be taken for granted as a given.

Oldies that are suffering from dementia or mental illnesses are exceptions. But oldies that are still vivid in their mind processes have to behave reasonably. It is not a right to abuse the children or grandchildren. And it is not their damn right to abuse daughter in laws.

Such oldies need to be bungled and sent to some desolate homes to throw their tantrums and be difficult with whoever they want. It is oppression and mental torture to the victims of such abuses.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Be thankful for the gripes

What would this island become if there is no gripes? One thing for sure, we will continue to see 3,000 public flats being built annually and the resale price of 3 rm flats could be $1m by now. And yes, our population will have hit 6m! And SMRT will be happily recruiting pushers to push the commuters into the sardine packed trains and happily announcing more profits.

What else could happen? Ministers would be laughing to the banks with $10m salary. Floods in Orchard Road will be time for celebration and parties. Car insurance would be more expensive than the value of the car itself. And there will be many more mind blowing stuff that would be taken for granted, or as normal and acceptable.

Gripes are like symtoms of a sickness. The symptoms appear, crying for attention to treat the disease. Failing to heed will only see the disease going from bad to worst. Imagine if there are no symtoms, like no gripes, the victim could be dead sooner without knowing why.

Be thankful, be very thankful, that the people are whining and griping. Only deaf frog would not be bothered with whining and griping. They would not know and live in their own state of oblivious bliss. And some choose to be deaf frogs. The drones of vuvuzuelas are irritating. But they serve a very important purpose.

Why have Reach? Waste of time and money indeed, if griping is seen as unhealthy and to be ignored, buried under the carpet. Don't want to know. Put on that 4m smiles and everything will appear fine.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

What Hsien Loong did not say

We all know that he did not talk about the recent hike in transport fare. We know that he did not say anything about the high cost of living or the high medical fees. There are many things which obviously he did not touch on. More pertinent are the sources of feedback that he depended on and acted on.

The frustration of first time flat owners, the jam packed trains, the overwhelming presence of foreigners leading to a citizen versus foreigner controversy and tension, the high property prices, the concerns of parents of their children’s education, these were some of the key issues that he spoke about intensely and announced measures to deal with them.

What he did not say is that these issues were the daily grinds in cyberspace, the kpkbs, the whinings and gripings that were hardly reported in the main media. If left to the main media, or if Hsien Loong were to rely solely on the main media for his feedback, there were no problems to talk about. Everything is perfect and blissful. Report only the good stuff and hear only the good stuff. Only the irritants in cyberspace are complaining incessantly, deafening at times, on these issues that really hurt them badly.

What Hsien Loong did not say is that he read the feedbacks from cyberspace, probably mainly from Reach for sure. He may also read some of the frustrations and whinings from other non govt blogs and forums. How else would he come to know that the people were grousing if the grouses were not reported in his normal channels of communications?

The whinings and gripings are important. Who say not so? Without these kpkbs, the problems will not have surfaced or taken notice of. No complaints means no problems to look into.

And what Hsien Loong did not say is that he took these kpkbs seriously as well. And if the complaints are legitimate, the govt will take actions to resolve them. There is an important role for the alternate media or new media in throwing real issues for the govt to tackle. The new media can tell the truth and can be a good source to listen to. They may be the messengers of bad news, but still important news and can be taken seriously by the govt. Relying just on the main media is a handicap and many problems may not be given the appropriate airings.

And lastly, what Hsien Loong did not say is to tell the new media to shut up. There is a complimentary role for the new media as a source of feedback to the govt.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

The credibility of media and reporters

Many media pride themselves as serious and credible institutions reporting and producing news that are reliable and newsworthy. But when it comes to political agenda, many drop their guards and went on a rampage printing silly news, ridiculous news, unsubstantiated housewives gossips etc etc.

The darling of such gossips and petty news, if they are news, is North Korea and its leaders. It is almost a daily occurrence, and the source is often western, and often reproduced in silly Asian media, things like the successor of Kim Il Sung has gone for a plastic surgery to look like his grandpa? Or Kim Il Sung is buying French wines etc etc.

How credible are such media and their reporters when they resort to petty gossips of little minds and published them as news! At best it makes their newspaper like evening tabloids famed for scandals or comic strips. At worst, it puts off serious readers for insulting their intelligence.

Why would serious and reputable media willing to put up such craps as news? Do they have a special agenda or are they paid to do so?
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

A Sunday morning mood

I have not had a Sunday morning mood for a long time, the kind of feeling or sensation of doing nothing or just relaxing and smell the roses. Browsing through the Sunday Times this morning did that. It actually tells me to reframe my mindset into the less serious or more pleasant things, like food and food and how in the hands of genius chefs, simple stuff could be turned into something so appetising and mouth watering, even a sight to behold. There were plentiful of articles about food this morning.

Or perhaps I shall reflect on the number of top notch gyms and their programmes or where they are located and how they could have such a great influence on the people’s lives. And there is the iphone and ipad to marvel at the wonder of technology and how to live my life around them. They make the best companion in a modern world, so nice to have, so nice to hold. Now I understand why so many people are hooked on to playing games or watching movies in the trains and buses.

Maybe I shall take the train and go malls counting. It can be a delightful past time for an oldie that has nothing better to do. They can exercise the mental by trying to do some calculation on how many malls are necessary and efficient to serving the population.

Oh, there is an interesting article that made me turn a little serious. It is about expert advice to the widows and widowers who are griefing over the loss of their life long partners. The recommendation points to the visit to a shrink, or a psychiatrist, or is it psychologist, to help them overcome the difficult period of grief. Other than trying to share their grief, ask them to cry it out, talk about it, go out and mix around, try a new lifestyle, even relocation, not to live in the same room, house or location, professional help is still the best answer.

And another advice, don’t throw away the deceased personal belongings too quickly, they bear many memories for the surviving spouses.

Good, now I know what to do to help the grieving spouses, especially the older ones. The older they are, the more help they needed. The Sunday Times can be very educational on a Sunday morning.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

An oasis for freedom of expression

I am proud to say that mysingaporenews.blogspot.com and redbeanforum.com are two rare gems where you can find freedom of expression as best as it could be. Seldom are post deleted, nor are they moderated, or subject to a moderator's whims and fancies. All posts are posted as they are.

Rarely were there be exceptions, thanks to the mature bloggers posting in these the blog/forum, that the moderator would have to remove a piece. I have done it a few times on grounds of extreme vulgarities for the sake of vulgarites, or when the posts were inciting violence on religious or racial grounds. I am happy that this simple ground rule is observed by all here.

Thank you and continue to post freely and sensibly. Cheers.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

The art of investigative journalism

The amount of work and effort put in by a reporter to reveal the true identiy of Dr Joseph Ong Chor Teck as the anonymous writer in Temasek Review deserves a lot of praise. Not only that it is newsworthy, it also set a new direction on what investigative journalism is all about and what it can do to tell more interesting stories about people and their backgrounds.

We can expect that such important news and news trend would gain more acceptance and popularity both in the main media and in cyberspace. The other new media like TOC and TR and some others with the resources may also feel encouraged to do their own investigative journalism and tell their versions of interesting and newsworthy stories. It will add a lot of zest and jest in cyberspace and the media reporting as a whole.

Great development!
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

War Dead Medal Tally

What I would like to see is for Asian media to maintain a War Dead Medal Tally similar to the Olympic or Commonwealth Medal Tally to be viewed by their audience daily during news presentation. In this case instead of Gold, Silver and Bronze, the count will be war dead by nationals, those killed in the ensuing wars in Asia.

The Tally Board shall read for example,

Iraqi 1200
Afghan 800
Pakistan 600
Palestinian 500
Israeli 100
American 300
English 150
German 30
French 20
Australian 10

Such a Tally Board not only serves the purpose of tracking the number of war dead, it also gives a clear picture of the people that have been sacrificed in the name of country and nation or as war collateral. It also helps to remind the politicians who support and promote the wars to know the number of lives they have killed.

For the moment I think only the Americans and the Europeans are interested or care about the lives of their citizens killed in wars. The rest don’t matter. Or is it? I am sure the rest of the countries too value the lives of their citizens and those killed in wars, directly or indirectly.

The statistics should not be difficult to obtain as every country involved will have their reporters reporting in the war zones. Not only that the media will be doing its duty to report and tell the pain and sufferings of wars, it will also remind people that as long as wars are not stopped, people are being killed daily. By not reporting them, by not knowing the numbers, no one feels guilty, no one can relate the horrors and grief of the victims of wars.

I really hope some Asian media will take up this proposal as the Western media do not think it as their responsibility to do so, nor would they want to tell the evil side of the story of wars started by their trigger happy Presidents/Prime Ministers. Al Jazeeera and Channel News Asia are suitable candidates to take on this task to educate the people on wars, and indirectly to stop proliferating wars. Countries waging wars should also know that the world is watching at their evil and wicked deeds. It is a duty to humanity to tell the story of wars and war dead to keep people from thinking that war is only a movie.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Nikon staff must be pulling their hair off

Hot pixels is the rage today with the launch of the superd Nikon D7000. Unfortunately some of the sensors are troubled by hot pixels and this has led to a pixel hunting exercise. Everyone in the know who have bought the camera will be hunting for hot pixels by pushing the camera to the extreme, and of course the hot pixels will pop out under such testing conditions.

What is important is that the camera should function within the specifications and with no or very few hot pixels. Hot pixels appearing under normal operation is a problem, not when pushed to the limit.

Below is an article by Bryan Biggers that explains what hot pixels are all about. I copy it from webpages.charter.net. For more details, photo buffs can look at Ken Rockwell's site for more infomation.

Introduction:

I am writing this section because not a day goes by without someone discovering hot pixels on their camera and wanting to know if they should return it. This is usually because they have run one of the several software packages that can identify hot pixels for you. Here I am just going to present some brief information, if you want more detail on hot pixels see the hot pixel section.


Fact. If you want to test your camera by taking a dark frame, you HAVE to control the exposure and ISO. The longer the exposure and the higher the ISO and the hotter the temperature of the camera the more hot pixels you will see. It is MEANINGLESS to test or post about your hot pixels results without considering this. Taking an 8 second exposure at ISO 400 is MEANINGLESS. See the hot pixels section for how to test.

Fact. Every camera will have hot pixels showing if you test long enough exposures.

Fact. The programs that are available to test your camera will show you some hot pixels. The author of the program may have set some arbitrary levels for what is a "hot pixel". They made this up. You can change the levels. The only thing that matters is if you see hot pixels and they bother you on normal exposures. YOU MUST TEMPER THE RESULTS OF THESE PROGRAMS WITH COMMON SENSE. If you don't know what you are doing, and don't see a problem, don't run the programs, because they are going to show you something that you will have to interpret, and it is all going to boil down to opinion; yours or someone elses.

Fact. The ONLY thing that really matters is if you see the hot pixels on your pictures and they bother you on your normal exposures. You will NOT be able to get a camera that is perfect at 30 seconds, or 8 seconds at high ISO.

Fact. All cameras will develop more hot pixels over time. So don't post a smug "well my camera is perfect" message to someone that has hot pixels. Yours will come. It might take a month, it might take 2 years, but they will come. Cameras are shipped from the factory with all hot pixels mapped out. As many as 1% of the sites on a CCD will have some sort of problem over the CCD lifetime. Posting a "mine is perfect" message just makes everyone think that that is the way things should be. As your camera ages you will have more and brighter hot pixels.

Fact. Some manufacturers have dealt with the problem in their newer cameras by allowing user mapout of the hot pixels. To date, the Olumpus E-10 and E-20 offer this feature, as does the Sony 707 (press the reset button). Nikon, Minolta, Fuji have not, and some will charge you a considerable amount to map out your hot pixels at the repair center. Nikon has charged over $200. Since every camera will likely develop hot pixels if you keep it long enough, you might want to consider this when buying your next camera.
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what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

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