animal tested metal

The other night I was at this engineering networking session. I had a chat with this chap who used to work in a steel plant in this particular developing country. He shared that in the manufacturing process, carbon monoxide is a by-product which normally is collected and sold to other industries. But somehow, some carbon monoxide still would leak out into the manufacturing plant and some workers would die from carbon monoxide poisoning. The sight was ugly as the casualty's muscles lost tension and his body waste would make a mess. That's besides the point.

As carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless, but lethal, the people in the factory thought of an idea. They brought in animals in cage. These small animals, being smaller in size than human beings, logically would die first before human beings when taking in carbon monoxide. So when the workers saw the animals laying motionless in the cage, they knew something was not right and they would evacuate from the manufacturing plant.

So, not only food and medicine can be tested on animals.

rsaf open house 2011

And so I had the chance to visit the RSAF Open House 2011 on the preview date today. I've visited almost every single open house at Paya Lebar Air Base since primary school, and to put it simply, this time round I was there just for one bird: the F-15SG.

Of course, there were other new stuffs on display, such as the Gulfstream G550 AEW and the S-70B Seahawk with its dipping sonar (no torpedo though), and the C-130 Hercules in its 30th Anniversary livery.

I caught the aerial display which was heartening. They scrambled 2 F-15SG and 2 F-16C. As you see them taking off and climbing to a near vertical with afterburner on, it was something. Then you had 2 Apaches providing cover while the Chinook and Super Puma did their unloading.




Yeah I know the F-15SG's twin engines drown out even my own voice when they fly over my house, but it doesn't irritate me. It gives that sense of reassurance that someone is watching over our head (no, I don't mean big brother). That bird is arguably the best fighter jet in the region.

Aerial display will be at 11am and 4:30pm, so plan your time if you intend to visit the open house.

minimum wage with minimum satisfaction

Hong Kong recently passed the Minimum Wage Ordinance, guaranteeing workers with the Statutory Minimum Wage rate of HK$28 per hour. It stirred up quite a bit in the society and I happened to be in Hong Kong during the Labour Day period to observe a little.

The move towards minimum wage started with the good intention of protecting the working class of the society. But things turned out to be quite messy. The government mandated the 28 bucks, but was silent on lunch hour and paid leaves. So employees rolled out no-pay lunch hour and no-pay leave. Some forced employees to declare self-employed, while others went for apprentices. I mean, which employer would want to pay more? On the other hand, employers felt the pinch too. Some were faced with the situation of workers earning equal if not more than their foremen. Older/senior workers found themselves getting almost the same pay cheque as newbies. To maintain staff morale, some bosses had no choice but to raise the salary across the board in the face of rising raw material and operating cost.

Personally, while I recognize that the intention was good, I still feel that some things are best left to the free market to decide. If a company employed 2 workers but now had only enough money to keep 1, who would suffer in the end? The worker who lost the job, the worker who has to take up 2 man's load, and the company which sees a drop in productivity. The company will then lose its edge in the competition, forced by market circumstances to close shop, now both are unemployed.

I kind of wish ours would think it through, seriously.

same underground movement

I have this habit of observing people's behaviour at MRT stations. Like how they don't queue up, how they rush into the train before people can alight, how they don't move in, how they blast music, whether they offer their seats, etc. I thought these are uniquely Singapore, but during my recent trip to China and Hong Kong, I realize some of these could be universal.


I got the chance to ride on the Guangzhou Metro and the Hong Kong MTR. People generally queue up, but don't really wait for passengers to alight first before boarding. They are quite considerate though when it comes to listening to music on the earphones and reading newspaper.

As for offering seats, the culture in Guangzhou was quite obvious (and many people here have this general perception that people from mainland China aren't cultured). Passengers spring up from the seat when they see old folks. And the thing about the Guangzhou Metro train is that the seats are one long flat metal bench, so if you are thin you can squeeze a few more chaps. So I saw these few youngsters trying to "squeeze a bit" to let toddler or old folks to have a seat. The scene kind of touched me as people working together to bring about a better living space for all.

But what struck me most was the Guangzhou Metro's interval was only 1 minute apart.

hong kong x china 2011

And so the GF and I just came back from a trip to China and Hong Kong (yeah yeah, HK is part of China...). Having only decided to go for the trip one month ago and not really having an itinerary, you can say it was an unplanned trip. That kind of added to the fun. *smirk*

This trip was symbolic in many ways. It was my first long trip after I stepped into the working world; It came at a time when I was taking on new challenges at work; It was my first time seeing the GF continuously for 9 days except when she went to the toilet; and yes I missed _the_ GE.

It was a physically tiring trip but mentally refreshing. My mind was free from work and housework (work is work, housework is unpaid work) and I think I totally bochup-ed. Call it our unofficial labour day golden week. We went museum hopping, going to places the tourist maps won't show you, taking transport that you can't find on tourist guide, and doing helluva things that tourists won't do. I can't remember how many meals we had roast goose, and can you imagine eating a meal inside a hawker's kitchen?