I’ve now downloaded several apps onto my iPhone, all free. The obvious ones are Facebook, Google Earth, NYTimes reader, Gmail reader. The less common ones are Mosaica, a photo montage program, and the Shakespeare reader which is very cool. The title of this post is from sonnet #1.
Archive for August, 2009
The world’s fresh ornament
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Mattress sumo
Thursday, August 6th, 2009This week is orientation week at NTU. The incoming dorm students have team-building activities. These are fun to watch. They usually involve a made-up game of some sort. Mattress sumo is one example, below:
orientation game, ntu
Duku Langsat
Monday, August 3rd, 2009I tried this fruit recently. It tastes good, though it’s not what one might expect from a tropical fruit: it tastes like a sweet grapefruit. And it leaves a sticky latexy residue on your fingers afterwards that is not easy to wash off. Don’t try using an iPhone after eating them.
Benevolent Fascism
Saturday, August 1st, 2009Recently I had a conversation with an American friend in California. She characterised the Singaporean political system as “benevolent fascism”. I knew what she meant, though I would not use the word “fascism”. Singapore doesn’t have a recognizable political debate, but there’s no fear of the govt — in fact, it is a civil society where people have basic freedoms.
The USA can claim to be the most free nation in the world, but it is one where the political system is seriously screwed up. I was appalled on my visit by the level of discourse, particularly over the health-care reform. The ads on CNN, sponsored by groups with orwellian names like “citizens for responsive health care”, spread lies, fear and disgust with the aim of killing any meaningful change. They seem to be effective at that. Paul Krugman, writing in the NY Times, recounts a “town hall” meeting where a person demands that their legislator keep govt from taking over Medicare! Jon Stewart shows clips on the daily show of town hall meetings where people ask Pres. Obama to stop govt workers from choosing how people die.
And then there’s California, with its raving lunatics in Sacramento that can’t even agree on a budget without resorting to $10 billion in accounting gimmicks. Even the local newspaper, the Mercury News, breaks the budget deal down into “cuts” and “accounting tricks” as if it were a fact of life.
I never thought I would say this, but the Singaporean govt appeals to me as a better system every time I read the news.