MSF: 85% satisfied with family life

I am sure that I am not alone in becoming skeptical about survey results. Many are done these days and they regularly contradict each other. They are effectively useless. The truth is out there unseen but sometimes felt.

Just a few days earlier I read about the growing number of young people committing suicide. But in the same report social workers blamed too much smart phone use as the culprit. I thought they were confusing the cause and the effect. That was as inane as blaming crying for sadness.

Given time nobody will trust any survey results and few people are trained to judge if a proper survey was carried out. So there is no point even if the process is transparent.

For me, it is best to be agnostic; as good as no surveys were done.

Update: 10:30am

Just came across this by Andrew Loh. Posting it here because it is convenient. I could have looked for and use any examples. We are spoiled for choice.

The new economy: Too fast, too furious?

Some gold plated economists warned that our efforts to restructure the economy is failing. The government begged to disagree. Who is right?

Some companies will leave and some will fail. I think the government will press ahead hard as long as the employment situation is good. Businesses who feel that they are perishing naturally complain the loudest. Many who are working on reforming themselves are not yet confident they have navigated themselves out of the woods. They are busy and keep quiet. We must not be too alarmed by the noise and the words of the prophets of doom. How can many numbers not get worse before they get better? Even when they upgrade HDB flats, you can't use your loo for a few days while they built you a new one!

Update: 9:45pm

If we do this right, business people at the end of the journey should be thinking in new ways quite different from what we are used to. I don't think this is going to happen. Transformation like these comes with a lot of pain than we are seeing. Of course economists don't think in such terms. Their reference points are often too narrow to be any good.

NUS orientation camps crazy about sex

With annual regularity there will be one or more such stories about university orientation camps in our papers.

As surely as the sun rises everyday, we can expect such stories next year. The university leadership frowned on them but don't do enough to stop them.

I think freshmen should just boycott these orientation camps. They preyed on your fear that if you do not participate you will not make the necessary friends to succeed in university. Use your head and think if you are clever enough to be admitted to NUS or NTU that this is not true.

Replacement USB fan

I didn't expect to need to buy a replacement so soon ($10.90 vs $7.90). In fact, I thought the spoilt  one would last years because it had replaced one that seemed to go on and on.

Let's see how long this one lasts.

I have one of the older ones working 24/7 to keep the router cool.

Alternative to burning Forests

A friend States side emailed me this. Boy, this monster is so much better than using fire to clear the forests in Indonesia. I believe this isn't the only option depending on what you want to do with the product.

MOH: More courage on Ebola please

A media rush job. No explanation, no risk to SPH, just dump onto us MOH full statement.

What does MOH means by low risk of Ebola appearing in Singapore? We are a major air hub too. I think more frightening but rational is if Ebola makes its appearance here we can isolate and contain it quite easily. More people here will die of Dengue than Ebola.

Ebola may be deadly but it is hard to pass on to another without very close contact. I think this is key to how it will be contained. The quality of the health system is critical which is absent in West Africa.

MOH could be more credible with a more anticipatory media release. Isn't it obvious that readers will challenge their line of reasoning? I wished they were more courageous in deciding how to disseminate and inform the public.

Always strive to do what is right than what is easy.

Swatch for the Daughter

Finally found a watch for her daily wear to campus:  a Swatch for $167. Got to retire her Baby G, which was very pretty when we got it for her before she went to JC.

I would like to get her a smart watch like the one we got for her sister but her wrist is just simply too small.

Got this at Swatch Suntec City outlet last evening.