A 49-YEAR-OLD man, confirmed to have Influenza A (H1N1), was admitted to Changi General Hospital's intensive care unit yesterday.
The patient, who has diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, was in critical condition, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).
He was warded in intensive care immediately after he sought treatment at CGH's emergency department in the morning.
The patient had flu-like symptoms over the past four days, including severe pneumonia.
Two other H1N1 patients - a pregnant woman and a kidney transplant patient - are in stable condition in ICU at KK Hospital and the Singapore General Hospital, respectively.
Another 51-year-old male patient at CGH was moved out of ICU yesterday.
"If he continues to recover, he can expect to be discharged soon," said the MOH.
There are now 36 - down from 50 on Wednesday - confirmed H1N1 patients hospitalised.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sharks keep waters secure
FROM just 35 incidents in 2006, the number of suspicious craft the Police Coast Guard has chased away from Singapore's waters escalated to 245 last year. In the first six months of this year alone, there were 143 such cases.
The Coast Guard also conducted 18 successful interception operations, with 55 people such as illegal immigrants arrested, and seven boats and contraband items worth $845,000 seized.
With maritime security identified as one of Singapore's top homefront security priorities, the Coast Guard has received a much-needed boost to its operational capabilities.
Ten new Shark Class coastal patrol craft, costing $17 million each, will replace the existing craft that have served the Republic for close to 30 years - first in the Republic of Singapore Navy, and then in the Coast Guard since 1993.
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng called the investments "worthwhile". Noting Singapore has a porous sea border 182 km long, he said it takes an average swimmer about 30 minutes to cross from Malaysia; a speedboat takes two to three minutes.
With more than 400 vessels plying Singapore's water each day, Mr Wong said "differentiating between the genuine and the illegal seafarers among them is a daily challenge" for the Coast Guard.
Compared to their predecessors, the new Shark Class coastal patrol craft promises longer sea endurance, better surveillance and a greater punch. It can stay out at sea for three days instead of two, sailing at 20 knots, without refuelling.
The Shark Class coastal patrol craft will also be armed with an automatic firing control system, which can compute and compensate for the movement of targets, and adjust the trajectory of the 28mm gun.
Three new patrol craft, which are designed in the Netherlands but built locally, are already in service. The rest will be introduced by next year.
The Coast Guard has also built a $29-million Integrated Tactical Training Centre to enhance officer training, with simulators that can provide training in the use of firearms, navigation and systems and boat handling. The centre - which will allow some training to be carried out on land - will save some $5 million a year in fuel and maintenance costs
The Coast Guard said it is also extending the 27km of physical barriers around the coastline by more than 40km.
This BackPack makes school fun
DON'T fret when your child gets answers for her homework or school research from Windows Live Messenger.
Two Ngee Ann Secondary School physics teachers, Mr Alvin Tan and Mr Lee Chin Teck, observed the prevalent use of instant messaging among students and decided to use it as a teaching tool.
So, with help from Microsoft and a local software developer, they developed a virtual instant messenger buddy that the students can add to their contact lists.
Enhanced with artificial intelligence, "Hola Newton" can answer simple physics questions.
Hola Newton has been a hit with school children, with 99 per cent of students surveyed saying they had learned more about Newton's Law of Motion with it.
Such projects that enhance education with the use of IT will be the cornerstone of a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, the Infocomm Development Authority and Microsoft.
The BackPackLive! initiative will benefit 500,000 primary, secondary and junior college students.
This is "phase two" of BackPack.NET, a previous five-year, $20-million collaboration between the three organisations launched in 2003, said Ms Jessica Tan, managing director of Microsoft Singapore, to innovate the use of IT in education.
Over the next four years, $5.5 million will be pumped into BackPackLive! to help teachers develop ways to integrate infocomm technology in their curriculum.
Said Ms Tan: "The main aim is to make teaching and learning engaging and fun."
The aim is also to get local software developers involved in the education market, and put the spotlight on cyber-wellness issues such as security and intellectual property.
Two Ngee Ann Secondary School physics teachers, Mr Alvin Tan and Mr Lee Chin Teck, observed the prevalent use of instant messaging among students and decided to use it as a teaching tool.
So, with help from Microsoft and a local software developer, they developed a virtual instant messenger buddy that the students can add to their contact lists.
Enhanced with artificial intelligence, "Hola Newton" can answer simple physics questions.
Hola Newton has been a hit with school children, with 99 per cent of students surveyed saying they had learned more about Newton's Law of Motion with it.
Such projects that enhance education with the use of IT will be the cornerstone of a collaboration between the Ministry of Education, the Infocomm Development Authority and Microsoft.
The BackPackLive! initiative will benefit 500,000 primary, secondary and junior college students.
This is "phase two" of BackPack.NET, a previous five-year, $20-million collaboration between the three organisations launched in 2003, said Ms Jessica Tan, managing director of Microsoft Singapore, to innovate the use of IT in education.
Over the next four years, $5.5 million will be pumped into BackPackLive! to help teachers develop ways to integrate infocomm technology in their curriculum.
Said Ms Tan: "The main aim is to make teaching and learning engaging and fun."
The aim is also to get local software developers involved in the education market, and put the spotlight on cyber-wellness issues such as security and intellectual property.
MAS' $9.2 billion net loss won't crimp expenditure plans
DESPITE its conservative stance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) investment portfolio suffered a net loss of $9.2 billion for the fiscal year ended March, it revealed yesterday.
Like the other two managers of Government assets - Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) - the central bank was rattled by the turbulence in the financial markets.
So heavy were its losses that they wiped out about 80 per cent of MAS' combined gains of $11.29 billion in the preceding two profitable years, said the Authority, which invests all of the official foreign reserves. "For this financial year, there will be no contribution to the Consolidated Fund, nor return of profits to the Government."
Last year, after enjoying a net profit of $7.44 billion, the statutory board ploughed 18 per cent or $1.34 billion into the Consolidated Fund, which comprises all revenues of Singapore not allocated to specific purposes by any written law; it also returned profits of $2.53 billion to the Government.
Will the MAS' non-contribution this year crimp national expenditures? When asked, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance said: "In estimating our revenues and planning our expenditures for FY '09, we have already taken this into account. Hence, our expenditure plans will not be affected."
Thankfully, the months since April have been rosier. "With the broad-based upturn in financial markets after the close of the financial year, the valuation of MAS' foreign assets has improved and more than half of the losses have been recovered," managing director Heng Swee Keat told the media.
"The extent of loss has been mitigated as we raised the liquidity profile of our portfolio in the early part of 2008, in the face of greater uncertainties," he added. This could have included converting investments into cash.
Arguably, the losses could have been greater if not for the MAS' investment approach: It is conservative, compared to Temasek's higher-risk-higher-return style and GIC's slightly conservative stance, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had said in May.
MAS, said Mr Heng, invests largely in "highly liquid assets with a large proportion in bonds, with small exposures in equities - and almost all of these are invested in developed markets in the US, Europe and Japan".
Like the other two managers of Government assets - Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) - the central bank was rattled by the turbulence in the financial markets.
So heavy were its losses that they wiped out about 80 per cent of MAS' combined gains of $11.29 billion in the preceding two profitable years, said the Authority, which invests all of the official foreign reserves. "For this financial year, there will be no contribution to the Consolidated Fund, nor return of profits to the Government."
Last year, after enjoying a net profit of $7.44 billion, the statutory board ploughed 18 per cent or $1.34 billion into the Consolidated Fund, which comprises all revenues of Singapore not allocated to specific purposes by any written law; it also returned profits of $2.53 billion to the Government.
Will the MAS' non-contribution this year crimp national expenditures? When asked, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance said: "In estimating our revenues and planning our expenditures for FY '09, we have already taken this into account. Hence, our expenditure plans will not be affected."
Thankfully, the months since April have been rosier. "With the broad-based upturn in financial markets after the close of the financial year, the valuation of MAS' foreign assets has improved and more than half of the losses have been recovered," managing director Heng Swee Keat told the media.
"The extent of loss has been mitigated as we raised the liquidity profile of our portfolio in the early part of 2008, in the face of greater uncertainties," he added. This could have included converting investments into cash.
Arguably, the losses could have been greater if not for the MAS' investment approach: It is conservative, compared to Temasek's higher-risk-higher-return style and GIC's slightly conservative stance, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had said in May.
MAS, said Mr Heng, invests largely in "highly liquid assets with a large proportion in bonds, with small exposures in equities - and almost all of these are invested in developed markets in the US, Europe and Japan".
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Couple making love outdoors: Not just Bt Timah Hill but in China forest too
After reading reading the story on the naked couple making love at Bukit Timah Hill, STOMPer Stefanie did her own research and found out that a couple in China shares the same passion for the outdoors as well.
She said:
"I was appalled to read the story about the naked couple at Bukit Timah Hill.
"I did some search online and found that such things also happen in China.
"What is happening to the society?
"Is it because of too much influence from the West?"
She said:
"I was appalled to read the story about the naked couple at Bukit Timah Hill.
"I did some search online and found that such things also happen in China.
"What is happening to the society?
"Is it because of too much influence from the West?"
Wah lau! Couple locks lips in hot kiss in public during peak hour
STOMPer June was so shocked to see this couple kissing openly during the peak lunch hour.
She was so shocked that she exclaimed "wah lau" several times while taking a video of the couple kissing.
She said:
"The lunch hour crowd swept in, but this couple was lost in their own world."
She was so shocked that she exclaimed "wah lau" several times while taking a video of the couple kissing.
She said:
"The lunch hour crowd swept in, but this couple was lost in their own world."
Shameless couple engages in intimate behaviour in Bukit Timah condo pool
STOMPer Jason was appalled when he saw this couple behaving intimately in a Bukit Timah condo pool, and says that such acts should not be done in public.
In an email to STOMP yesterday (Mar 29), the STOMPer said:
“These pictures were taken at the swimming pool of a condominium in Bukit Timah on Mar 27 at around noon time.
“The couple seems to be enjoying their day time making out in the pool. They thought that everyone would be busy at work or school, and that no one would be around to catch them in the act.
“Well...you should think again before you do such things in a public area.
“And some advice, try to do it away from the CCTV.”
In an email to STOMP yesterday (Mar 29), the STOMPer said:
“These pictures were taken at the swimming pool of a condominium in Bukit Timah on Mar 27 at around noon time.
“The couple seems to be enjoying their day time making out in the pool. They thought that everyone would be busy at work or school, and that no one would be around to catch them in the act.
“Well...you should think again before you do such things in a public area.
“And some advice, try to do it away from the CCTV.”
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