Life is either a daring adventure or nothing

Incident Report

On 27th October 2008 (Monday) at around 10:00am, the owner of the Samsung D880 Dual Sim Handphone woke up and made his wake to the toilet to wash up. En route to the toilet, the owner picked up his handphone to read some of the SMS sent to him in the night. He brought the handphone into the toilet and after reading the SMSes, the owner placed the Samsung D880 handphone on the flushing system cover of the toilet bowl before proceeding to wash up.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, without drying his hands, the owner reached out to grab his Samsung D880 handphone from the toilet bowl flushing system cover and wanted to proceed out to the living room for breakfast.

However, for unexplainable reasons, the owner didn't manage to get a good grip of the Samsung D880 handphone and it slipped through his fingers and tumbled into the toilet bowl below.

The Samsung D880 handphone executed a 1.5 somersault move before a perfect plunge into the waters of the toilet bowl. The owner watched in despair and within a split second plunged his right hand into the murky toilet bowl waters to rescue the Samsung D880 handphone. Within 5 seconds, he managed to rescue D880 out of the waters, but it had already been knocked unconscious.

The owner immediately rushed out, grabbed a dry towel and quickly started drying Samsung D880. He took out D880's battery, SIM cards and Memory Card to dry them and also performed CPR (by blowing away any excess water) in hope to resuscitate Samsung D880. However, at this point, Samsung D880 was still unconscious.

After 5 minutes of frantic attempts, the owner decided to bring Samsung D880 down to the Ah-Beng handphone shop nearby and seek immediate help. While at the Ah-Beng handphone shop, the "doctors" opened Samsung D880 up and found traces of rust on its metallic parts. At that point, the "doctors" declared Samsung D880 dead, and there was no way of reviving it.

Attached along is a detailed autopsy report:


News Reporters from the Cha-Pa-Rang Times caught up the distraught owner of the Samsung D880 handphone. Check out what he says about the sudden death of Samsung D880:

"It's just so sudden! I never thought such things could happen... I mean... I have heard about such freak accidents happening to my friends before and I always laugh it off. I never thought it could happen to me! *Sob sob*"

"I will NEVER bring my handphone to the toilet again!!!" Read more on this article...

News and photos taken from Telegraph.co.uk

Giant spider eating a bird

The pictures show the spider with its long black legs wrapped around the body of a dead bird suspended in its web. The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland's tropical north.

Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver. "Normally they prey on large insects… it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.com .... "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said. (full report here >>>)

Leopard savaging a crocodile


The giant cat raced out of cover provided by scrub and bushes to surprise the crocodile, which was swimming nearby.

A terrible and bloody struggle ensued. Eventually, onlookers were amazed to see the leopard drag the crocodile from the water as the reptile fought back.With the crocodile snapping its powerful jaws furiously, the two animals somersaulted and grappled.

Despite the crocodile's huge weight and strength, the leopard had the upper hand catching its prey by the throat. Eventually the big cat was able to sit on top of the reptile and suffocate it... The whole scene happened in the course of about 5 minutes. Then the leopard was gone. (full report here >>>)

Mouse bites snake to death


A mouse bit a venomous viper to death after it was thrown into the snake's cage as a lunchtime snack. The tiny rodent killed the snake after a fierce 30-minute battle, emerging with "barely a scratch on him", according to on person who saw the fight. The furry creature had other ideas. Instead of cowering from the 12in snake's gaping jaws and long fangs, it went on the offensive.

"It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it," one firefighter said. (full report here >>>)

Heron catches rabbit


Enjoying a leisurely wade in the waters of the Dutch undergrowth this grey heron decided to go in search of lunch when he came across this unsuspecting black rabbit.

Undeterred by its size, the grey heron, the largest bird of its kind in Europe, swooped down and gobbled the rabbit up in one mouthful... The rabbit screamed loudly when it was hanging helplessly in the bill of the big heron.

The heron tried to kill the rabbit by putting it under water. After about half a minute the rabbit was almost dead but as it moved it was put under water by the heron again.

When the poor little rabbit had finally died the heron swallowed the rabbit completely. It was not that easy because of the size but finally the heron was successful. (full report here >>>)

Food 4 Thoughts:

Am totally struck dumbfounded by these news.... It wonder what got into these animals that made them react/behave this way. Genetics? El Nino? Or have they just gone bonkers? Mother Nature also has her whacky days....Not everything can be explained by science itself. Yicks!!! Read more on this article...

Article from Mail Online

Well, we have all read news about Siamese twin babies all around the world. Check out this news about Siamese twin FISHES!! Here's an excerpt from the article:

"It is so incredibly rare that you would think Siamese twin fish attached at the stomach would never survive.

But at eight months old, these two Nile Tilapia fish in Thailand have found the perfect way to cope with life upside down... or the right way up if you're the lucky twin.

The bigger fish protects its smaller sibling on the bottom, while it in turn looks for food.

The Nile Tilapia fish is a common freshwater species found in tropical rivers, canals, lakes and ponds but these two were found in a Bangkok aquarium.

The fish can reaches a maximum of 2ft in length and can weigh up to 9lb.

Originally from waters stretching from Africa to the Cape Horn, the fish was introduced to freshwater irrigation systems so as to fight algae growth but has now become a pest.

Behind shrimp and salmon Nile Tilapia is the third most imported fish to the U.S."

Food 4 Thought:
Life can be somehow very unfair at times... even to fishes! But do they give up and just die? NO! Though born with handicap and deficiencies, this pair of conjoined twin, they have somehow developed a sense of resilience and continued to pursue survival in their unnatural environment! (Try living your entire life upside down man!)

If a fish can develop such tenacious, never-give-up attitude... Why can't us human beings? Think a bit more about it... we are more than a fish right?!?! Read more on this article...

I have read about such explicit marketing SMSes in the newspaper recently, however I didn't pay much attention to it until two weeks ago, I received a somewhat similar SMS. I brushed it off assuming again that it was probably just a mis-sent. However, I received this above SMS on my handphone just two days ago. It raises my concern and seems that the content of this "marketing" SMS is getting more raunchy and explicit!

Let me translate what the SMS says:

ADV: Sexy voices hotline, quench your desire for love, re-igniting the passionate love within you @ XXXX-XXX-XXXX (island-wide lowest rate of $0.78/min. Indulge yourself in passion! To unsubscribe, reply 'CR')

Shocking! A couple of thoughts flashed through my mind the moment I received it. How in the world did these people get my handphone number? What happens if a young child receives such an SMS? Gosh! The propagation of pornography is really rampant... seemingly EVERY platform of information transmition has been 'utilized' to become avenues of flooding pornography or sexual connotative materials!

You may or may not have received such SMSes before, but brace yourselves for them to come. Such spams and floodings are going to be the common thing in this digital age as everyone is working through all channels to get everyone's attention via every means.

Honestly, there's just no way to track down how they got my mobile number and try to ban them. After a while it will still come back again. But there are still ways we can help ourselves.. so let me, the Cyber Wellness guru, share with you some practical tips:

1. When you receive such spam SMSes, delete it immediately! You never know.. some of these SMSes may be tagged along with a virus that will damage your handphone! Do not forward to your friends as well!

2. DO NOT be drawn in and call back to these hotline. Firstly it is for your personal well-being. A lot of these SMS are just but a front to attract people. Behind it lurks the danger of pornography and sexual services. Secondly, you may think that 0.78cents/min is petty cash. You're WRONG! Once you call, the hotline services will just lure you with those purring and seductive voices and before you know it, it's 30 minutes! 30 minutes X 0.78 cents = $23.40!

3. DO NOT unsubscribe from these marketing SMS by replying to them. E.g. in my case above, replying "CR" back to the sender won't help. Because most of these SMS are mass spamming - they are just randomly sending out to everyone within this series of mobile number i.e. 9100 0001, 9100 0002, 9100 0003.....etc. By replying, you are effectively telling them that your number is Active and they will just keep spamming you with more of such SMSes! So the best way is to just ignore and delete. Read more on this article...

A month ago, I had a rather traumatizing encounter while shopping at a shopping mall. This incident happened while I was traveling up on the escalator. Sited ahead of me, next to the step out point from the escalator, there was a shop brandished with perfumes and cosmetic products. What shocked me at that particular point was that one of the salesgirl, back facing the store entrance and wearing a mini flair skirt, was climbing up on a ladder and stocking up products in the cabinet. She was totally oblivious to the fact that in that position, she was going to almost let everyone around have a free upskirt show!

It didn't need to take supersonic senses for me to understand what was coming next if I were to continue staring for another 10 seconds. Instantaneously as this salesgirl started her climb up the ladder, I immediately turned my eyes away to look elsewhere. Phew! A huge sigh of relief.... (I will explain my point later in this post. Read on.)

Traumatized enough, I wasn't prepare to stay around to spot the "Ti-Ko-Pek"s whom may be drooling at this free view nor see if there were anyone whom would go and get this salesgirl down from the ladder. I zipped off to the next level and carried on with my shopping.

Gosh! What has happened to the dressing culture of the teenage girls of today? Aren't they worried of over (or indecent) exposure when they wear such short flair kind of skirts? Honestly, I have nothing against girls wearing skirt, but I just feel strongly that there's got to be a limit to how far this can go. There has been enough horror stories of molest cases and people using handphone cameras to capture upskirt pictures. I seriously think girls can go one step further to protect themselves by giving their mini-skirts a bit more cloth-lengthening.

To the Girls: Yes, you do have the free-will to wear anything you like. Yes, guys should learn to be more self-controlled and not have wandering eyes. But the truth is that you will do yourselves and the guys a huge favor by re-considering your approach the next time you want to wear those short skirts. You can take active measures to protect yourselves. Example: If you are wearing those mini-skirts, do use you handbags to block or get a friend to stand behind you while you travel up the escalators. and for goodness sake, girls please do not climb ladders when you are wearing skirts. I am sure there are plenty of gentlemen around whom can lend their muscles to help you. Honestly, we guys are all visually stimulated, that slight upskirt/buttline/over-fleshy exposure will trigger a lot of reaction through our mind.

Having said this, Girls, you do not need to wrap yourselves up like a dumpling. Either opt for longer length skirts or learn to take proper preventive measures. I am certain beauty and proper cover can co-exist.

To the Guys: Now, be truthful and do not just bluntly shift all the blames to the girls. Let's also learn to exercise self-control and respect the ladies. Be alert at ALL times! And learn to turn your eyes away when you expect some of these exposure may come. If you have a girlfriend, learn to share this with your girlfriend and ask her to help give you warning signals! And sometimes if by accident you do catch a glimpse, just turn away and walk off. DO NOT allow yourself to be glued!

Some of you may say, "Wah.. but free show mah, why don't see? Anyway it's not harmful mah!" WRONG! Honestly, how is staring at upskirts of ladies different from watching pornography???? The end results and effects are the same - our values and moral standards towards sexuality becomes eroded! And some may end up becoming perverts whom take upskirt photos as their secret obsession!

So guys, be alert and stay clear!!! Read more on this article...

Article and pictures from: The Straits Times, 31 August 2008

Honestly, when I first read this article, it was nothing new to me because I have experienced this during my days in NUS since I started out as a Freshmen and all through the subsequent 6 years as a Senior. However, since my Freshmen years 8 years ago, I have really seen an "advancement" in how more and more explicit these orientation games or forfeits have become. If this concern or alarm was not raised, we might as well brace ourselves for the days ahead where even secondary school orientations are playing such lewd games!

Check out some of these "games" being played and let this serve as a warning so that you will learn to prepare yourselves and guard yourselves from such lewd acts.

Lewd Game #1: Passing Sweets from Mouth to Mouth


This is an all out 'sabo' game. Usually the toothpick that is given to the freshmen is only half the length of the normal toothpick or even shorter! Using that, you are required to pass polo sweets from one toothpick to another! Secondly, while in the midst of focusing on passing the sweets, some seniors would 'accidentally' bump the two freshmen (typically a guy and girl) so that they would 'accidentally' kiss onto one another!

Lewd Game #2: Human Polo Dance


Typically a forfeit game. The girl would be the 'pole' and then the guy supposedly the dancer. No meaning to this game. In fact I find this very disturbing and degrading for the girl. It seems to be portraying her as the object of sexual desire!

One way I got around this was to dance around the pole instead of doing pole dancing the sexual connotation way. It makes the crowd laugh because it's funny but yet not degrading.

Lewd Game #3: Passing Egg Relay


Somehow all these orientation games doesn't seem to like using hands and feet the usual way. It always has to involve face, chest, lips, buttocks...etc. This game probably ends up more dirty than lewd because most of the time the raw egg or water bag would break in between the faces.

Lewd Game #4: Licking Whipped Cream / Colgate


This would probably be the most sexually explicit orientation games evolved. Typically makes it look like sexual foreplay. This game sometimes is done with the girl being blindfolded and trying to feel her way to find the cream and lick it off. Gosh! Whoever came up with this game is sick man!

Lewd Game #5: Push-Ups


Ok, this game speaks for itself. I don't need to explain it any further.

You know what is upsetting about such lewd games?

1. Most of the games would portray women in a degrading way.

2. It's quite humiliating because most of these games are forfeits. Which means that when two person are performing this forfeit, the entire camp or group are watching and cheering them on!

Honestly, what has become of Orientation? Isn't it supposed to be one where you make a lot of friends, build rapport and teamwork and get adjusted to campus life? Since when has sexual connotative games been a way to achieve these objectives? I strongly believe we can still have fun and building relationships the 'clean' way!

To the girls especially: Do not feel compelled to join in such games. Make a stand and maintain your moral standards. You do have a choice to say NO to such games. It's ok to have fun, but not at the expense of compromising your values and principals. Read more on this article...

[Disclaimer: This post has been rated PG by the author. In any case if you are stumbled, responsibility will not be borne by the author]

Well... I bet I have caught your eyes with this attention-grabbing title right?

These past few days, I have observed some disturbing matters which really caught my attention and shocked me totally! Check out this news article from NewPaper on 25th August...


Gosh! Teenagers today, regardless of their academics standards, are engaging in sexual activities at a really young age.. and not to mention even without protection measures! And this article even highlights that most of our teenagers do not know anything much about sex and sexuality i.e. can get pregnant after having sex, STDs...etc. Then why in the world do they still get involved not knowing the potential dangers that lie ahead?

Check out this next article which is even more disturbing....


Having sex with the boyfriend just because out of boredom?!?! My goodness!

What infuriates me most was this... this teenage couple only tried using condoms as an experiment and it was purely out for fun! And having nothing better else to do, each time they came together, all they did was just having sex! *Faintz*

Another shocking article...


Having no idea how a woman can get pregnant? Having no idea that one can contact STDs from unprotected sex? This teenage girl ended up having unprotected sex 4 times a week with a man more than twice her age!

And check this out... despite having discovered this man's real identity, this girl still refused to leave the guy, but still want to stick with him just because he is caring. Honestly think about it, do you think this girl will have a future or even get married with this guy?

Pause.

It's really shocking to hear that young people today grow up with rather loose moral standards. Of course we can push all the blame on the Internet and new media that has been bombarding our youths' minds today with all sorts of sexually stimulating materials. Just a stroll on the MRT cabin, or picking up an islandwide popular free newspaper, you will catch a full view advertisement as this....

What do you think goes through the teenagers' mind when they see such advertisements? And not to mention all the magazines displayed in stores which shows scantily dressed women on the front cover. It's really difficult to walk around without seeing ANY advertisement that is promoting its product without using any tinge of sexuality to draw the crowds' attention. Honestly, I am rather disgusted at how perverse and low the methods have become. Internet, blogs, social networking websites.... these platforms have become tools which speed up the process or made easy a teenager's access to these sexual materials.

Having said that, we can't just throw all the blame on new media. On the other end, Education has got to play an important role as well. Honestly, the law and ministry system will always play second fiddle to the degree that new media is penetrating to our teenagers. But what should be of key importance is really considering pushing sexual education to the teens at a younger age and allowing them to have avenues where they can be free to share some of their struggles without being condemned by the adults or laughed at by friends.

This is the challenging scenario right now: Without proper and healthy way of sex education, the teenagers grow up clueless about sex and sexuality. And with the bombardment of provocative pictures and sexually connotative materials from the new media, youths seems to hit puberty at an earlier age and they are keen to find out more and experiment in this area. However, without the proper curriculum in place to teach them about the dangers and consequences of unsafe sex or premarital sex, AND with adults still seeing SEX as a taboo topic to talk about with young people, the only place they learn about sexuality will be from the new media and the friends around whom have tried the 'forbidden fruit' before!

Some of my personal comments....

To the boys: There is no denying that we are hot blooded and testosterone-driven at this young age and want to explore our sexuality. However, do not be distorted by what you see in the TV programmes and Internet. Do not be rash to jump into sexual activities in your relationships. You can have a healthy, fulfilling relationship with your girlfriend without engaging in sexual activities. Use the brain on your head to think rationally, not the brain below your waist which is always irrational. The only difference between human beings and animals is that human beings know how to control our sexual urges and desires. Don't be an animal!

To the girls: Learn to guard and protect yourself, especially your emotions. Don't be sweet talked by guys into giving away your body to prove your love. You don't need to have sex to proof your love to your boyfriend. If your boyfriend does demands sex to prove your love, than I think such a boyfriend is not worthy to have, you can jolly well abandon this relationship. Learn to draw boundaries in your relationship with your boyfriend and not allow him to touch you in places that are forbidden. At the end of the day, you would want a boyfriend whom cares and love you for the way you are and who you are, not for what you can do with him (sex). 要学着自爱!!! Read more on this article...