News Stories

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Mind you, there are a number of my peers who are wanting to become parents, but unable to do so or even get a decent house to live in. I am glad I am single, but probably not in 10 years because I would want a couple of lolis then, one which would call me "Honey" and another to call me "Daddy".

Petite also has the advantage of needing less space and eating less so you'd only need a smaller place to live ...

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Petite also has the advantage of needing less space and eating less so you'd only need a smaller place to live ...

Oh, the "eating less" part isn't always true. I should know.

[DonQuigleone]

@Singapore: Considering it's small and dense nature, wouldn't cycling be pretty effective? Why doesn't government encourage that?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

@Singapore: Considering it's small and dense nature, wouldn't cycling be pretty effective? Why doesn't government encourage that?

Because we don't have someone like Boris Johnson to champion cycling in Parliament.

It's not for the lack of trying (Seven towns to have dedicated cycling paths by 2014; July 15, 2010). But there is a very distinct lack of enthusiasm to make cycling a viable form of transport here (Be a cyclist in Singapore? No chance at all; Jan 4, 2010). So, you get officials giving platitudes like, "Oh, but we got to consult all stakeholders to make this work." Yeah, right.

By Tan Hui Yee

IT IS a sight that would make the skin of any driver crawl: A weathered old lady hurtling down the road's fastest lane on a kamikaze bicycle ride against the flow of traffic.

Kamikaze Auntie is usually found in the central districts of Singapore. She is robust enough to ride her bike without wobbling, but old enough to give you a tongue-lashing if you dare tell her she is riding dangerously. After all, it is illegal to cycle on footpaths in Singapore, she will snarl.

Meanwhile, Singapore's most popular seaside park, East Coast Park, is home to a whirlwind of high-speed cyclists, in-line skaters, joggers and campers. Jaw-dropping pile-ups are common there, as unsuspecting park strollers stumble into the paths of speeding skaters or cyclists.

It is true that dangerous cyclists are a hazard both on roads and on footpaths. Kamikaze Aunties aside, there are also clumsy cyclists who wobble along the road at low speed, as well as professional-looking athletes who are apt to weave from road to footpath, or vice versa, on a whim.

These cyclists stand little chance on the roads in a country known for bad driving. At least 15 cyclists lose their lives each year, many to drivers who feel that the roads belong to cars — especially their cars.

[DonQuigleone]

LOL at Tan Hui Yee article. It's like they're making bicycles out to be a public menace...

The simlple solution is bicycle paths, and you can get a lot more throughput on a road with bicycles. And I'd say a fair number of singaporeans would appreciate how cheap and economical it is.

And with the low crime levels bicycle theft would be no problem at all!

[ganbaru]

If the street are wide enough, there's not much need for bicycle path in city. There's always the threats from parked car but...

[Ithekro]

Al-Qaida second-in-command killed in Pakistan.

Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior Obama administration official said Saturday.

How does one guage it "to be on the verge to defeat" anyway?

[solomon]

Frankly I think that's just spin from the Defense Department

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by solomon

Frankly I think that's just spin from the Defense Department

i think it is the reporter quoting out of context. I seriously doubt the dept of def thinks they go AQ on the ropes and just waiting to land that out punch.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Oh, the "eating less" part isn't always true. I should know.

Yeah, I should disclaim that.... an engineer friend of mine who was an elegant, thin, Hong Kong lass used to traipse into my cube saying "I feel like Chinese today, you're driving".

And then she'd eat an entire herd of anything they'd toss on the table.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Yeah, I should disclaim that.... an engineer friend of mine who was an elegant, thin, Hong Kong lass used to traipse into my cube saying "I feel like Chinese today, you're driving".

And then she'd eat an entire herd of anything they'd toss on the table.

Chinese food sure comes in large portions... you could feed a village with what you get.

Strange that with Japanese food it's the opposite...

[JMvS]

After the Chinese announcing their plans for a high speed railway network connecting China with Europe, Central and South-East Asia, it seems the Russians are also on the move.

And that involves a tunnel under the Bering Strait.

In what could easily be one of the boldest infrastructure developments ever announced, the Russian Government has given the go-ahead to build a transcontinental railway linking Siberia with North America.

The massive undertaking would traverse the Bering Strait with the world’s longest tunnel – a project twice the length of the Chunnel between England and France. The project aims to feed North America with raw goods from the Siberian interior and beyond, but it could also provide a key link to developing a robust renewable energy transmission corridor that feeds wind and tidal power across vast distances while linking a railway network across 3/4 of the Northern Hemisphere.

[andyjay729]

Oh yes, I've heard about that. Thing is, they need to build railroad or road links to both ends of this tunnel, over hellish arctic wasteland. On the Russian side, that's where they used to send their prisoners.

Probably not going to happen.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Chinese food sure comes in large portions... you could feed a village with what you get.

Strange that with Japanese food it's the opposite...

I'm told the "immense quantity" is a Westernization (actually its a problem with US Japanese restaurants as well --- the SuperSize phenomenon for our ever-growing population of gargantuan gullets).

I can routinely get 2 or 3 meals out of the "one dinner" thrown at me...

[JMvS]

Originally Posted by andyjay729

Oh yes, I've heard about that. Thing is, they need to build railroad or road links to both ends of this tunnel, over hellish arctic wasteland. On the Russian side, that's where they used to send their prisoners.

Probably not going to happen.

In 2007:

The scheme is being championed by Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at Russia’s Economic and Trade Development Ministry. He has long advocated a tunnel under the Bering Strait to provide a land route between Russia and the US, and published a feasibility study in the 1990s.

He told journalists that state and commercial companies would form a public-private partnership to fund and run the project. A conference in Moscow next week will propose an inter-governmental agreement with the US to underwrite construction of the transport link in return for a stake in the business.

Russian Railways is said to be examining the construction of a 3,500km route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk, to Uelen on the Bering Strait. The tunnel would connect this to a 2,000km line from Cape Prince of Wales, in West Alaska, to Fort Nelson, in Canada.

The project could save Siberia and the US $20 billion a year in electricity costs, according to Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive of Hydro, a subsidiary of Russia’s main electricity producer, Unified Energy Systems. The company plans to build two giant tidal plants in the Far East to supply tengiga-watts of electricity by 2020.

So the update shows that things are moving.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Petite also has the advantage of needing less space and eating less so you'd only need a smaller place to live ...

Plus they are so cuddly that you don't need a dakimakura when you sleep!

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Oh, the "eating less" part isn't always true. I should know.

Stop ruining my dreams.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

LOL at Tan Hui Yee article. It's like they're making bicycles out to be a public menace...

The simlple solution is bicycle paths, and you can get a lot more throughput on a road with bicycles. And I'd say a fair number of singaporeans would appreciate how cheap and economical it is.

And with the low crime levels bicycle theft would be no problem at all!

They ARE. I had my foot run over a few times when walking back home during my NS days. The last time I got pissed I gave the bicycle a taste of my combat boots; had I have my rifle I would have given the cyclist a public execution too.

Nowadays I just walk at the side with my IPod plugged in...if they keep ringing, I show the middle finger. Bicycle thieves need to work harder - everybody is trying to take on the paths which are meant for walking, and they SUCK at controlling their bicycles. Bicycle paths don't work at all in a city as congested as Tokyo.

And those "dismount and push" signs are stupid. How can the cyclists give a hoot when they can't read English?

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by JMvS

After the Chinese announcing their plans for a high speed railway network connecting China with Europe, Central and South-East Asia, it seems the Russians are also on the move.

And that involves a tunnel under the Bering Strait.

What the? Given that part of the course goes through US territory -- how much is the US shelling for that? I'd be surprised if the Federal Government would actually be willing.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

What the? Given that part of the course goes through US territory -- how much is the US shelling for that? I'd be surprised if the Federal Government would actually be willing.

They are trying to copy the Eurotunnel.

[ganbaru]

What we’ve learned from 25 years of famine
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...ars-of-famine/

[solomon]

Well Irene is unleashing her fury on the Northeast US.

Here in DC, we got a lot of rain but the Potomac isn't expected to explode with water. People in the mountains are fine. But the Chesapeake Bay is getting pounded.

Philadelphia itself is under a hurricane warning along with pretty much most of New Jersey. The storm is so huge, that right now, half of Pennsylvania is covered in heavy rain.

Everyone in New York City and Suburbs are really worried about Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, Montreal and the Canadian Maritimes will be dealing with this.