Diversifying Ruined

Can't stop laughing at these two videos. Can you imagine me eating porridge while watching it and puke out everything onto my notebook screen? Of course I'm joking :)

Chelsea 2 - 1 Manchester United

Anyway, received a call from SMU telling me to go for their Business Progamme interview next Wednesday. Not sure if I would want to spend 4 years at SMU. Nevertheless, ace the interview first, decide later.

Wall Straits's "The Prehistoric Investor" book was written by its founder Curtis J. Montgomery. The book talks mostly about human's prehistoric mindset (i.e caveman) vis-a-vis modern stock market. How our mind works and how it did and did not evolve from our caveman mentality.

One of the many extracted quotes inside caught my attention. It is concept thats so true in human; beautifully explained and expressed by Thomas Schelling, an Economist.

This was the conclusion of the Committee of Inquiry (COI) on Mas Selamat's escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on 27 February this year.

The findings of the three-member panel were presented by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng in Parliament on Monday afternoon in a Ministerial Statement.

First, there was a physical security breach as the ventilation window in the toilet – from which Mas Selamat made his escape – did not have grilles.


Second, the guards watching Mas Selamat allowed him to close the door of the urinal cubicle when they should not have done so.

And third, there was a physical weakness in the perimeter fencing outside the Family Visitation Block, where the toilet was located, which made it easier for Mas Selamat to get out of the detention centre's premises.


On the day of his escape, Mas Selamat was escorted by two Gurkha guards and a Special Duty Operative - who is an Internal Security Department (ISD) officer - from his cell to a locker room to change into civilian clothes for his family's visit.

At the locker room, the guards lost sight of him when he stood behind a column of lockers to change. He was then escorted to the Family Visitation Block, where he used a toilet, renovated in 2007, to shave and comb his hair before meeting his family members.

He then entered a urinal cubicle, closed the door and turned on a water tap inside the cubicle. One guard stood outside the cubicle door, while the other was outside the main toilet door.

After a while, the guard outside the cubicle felt Mas Selamat was taking too long. But instead of checking, he alerted the second guard outside the toilet, who alerted the female Duty Operative.

The Duty Operative then alerted a male Assistant Case Officer, who ran in, kicked open the door and found Mas Selamat gone. The ventilation window in the cubicle was left open.

Mr Wong said the delay by the guards and their failure to keep Mas Selamat in sight was the second most critical security failure which led to the terrorist's escape. By this time, 11 minutes had lapsed since he first entered the toilet.

The COI found that during renovations in 2007, grilles had not been fixed to that particular toilet window due to a misunderstanding between the ISD and the contractor.

The superintendent of the centre, who was alerted to this weakness in May 2007, asked the contractor to saw off the window handle as a security measure instead, which Mr Wong said was a bad judgement on the superintendent's part.

In addition, the CCTV coverage of the area was being upgraded to add motion-detectors, but the cameras were not yet operational.

While there is no conclusive evidence as to how he had escaped from the centre after that, the COI believes Mas Selamat may have climbed onto the roof of an enclosed staircase which converges with the perimeter fencing. He could then have jumped over the fencing out of the centre.

The COI also believes that the JI leader had planned his escape over time.

DPM Wong said: "Prior to his escape, during previous family visits, Mas Selamat had partially closed the urinal cubicle door on some occasions.

"On 5 February 2008, he had closed the urinal cubicle door completely and turned on the water tap. The COI believes that these actions by Mas Selamat could have been done to test how the guards would react. This could also have helped him prepare for his actual escape attempt.

"This planning had not been noted by the guards, possibly because the guards are frequently rotated to avoid over familiarisation or fraternisation with detainees."

The COI – comprising Mr Goh Joon Seng, a retired High Court Judge; Mr Tee Tua Ba, a retired Commissioner of Police; and Dr Choong May Ling, Deputy Secretary of Security at the Home Affairs Ministry – was given full access to all information in its investigations of Mas Selamat's escape.

This included highly classified and sensitive information on operational systems and processes, as well as access to interviews with ISD intelligence and field personnel.

The committee submitted its report on 10 April and Mr Wong said he is "satisfied" that it has "held nothing back" in its conclusions and recommendations.

He added that in view of the keen and valid interest of MPs and the public, an Executive Summary has been released on the COI's findings.

In response to a question from opposition non-constituency MP Sylvia Lim, Mr Wong said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is expected to make a ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday on government responsibility for Mas Selamat's escape.

Source.

Been rather addicted to the song "Spending my time" by Roxette after listening to it on 88.3fm. Shall share the song with my readers here.
Came back from morning soccer as usual. Today has a pretty good turnout with Matthew, Jin Hao and Zhen Hui and the usual suspect Joel. Not very evenly match between the two teams as we were the better side against the Uncles team with Joel joining them. Ended the game at around 12pm. Played the 2nd half as defender, not much running to do as we controlled the game up front. Nevertheless, still a good kickabout.

oh ya forgot, I'm looking forward to my peanut tonight while watching the match. Of course, there is still my favorite banana cake courtesy of Sim Li Ling :)

Celebrated my 23rd birthday yesterday with my colleagues during lunch and with Li Ling after work.

It seems that she is enjoying my birthday more than me. Heres the reason. She applied urgent leaves on Thursday and Friday. On Friday afternoon, she came to Raffles Place to get my house key for me as she got something up her sleeves. A while later, she called to say shes having lunch, chocolate and yakult in my house. Laying flat on the sofa watching TV after that.

Anyway, we went to Marina Square after work to have dinner before catching the show "The Forbidden Kingdom" starring Hollywood Mega stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I reckon this is their first movie working and starring together. If you have not catch it, CATCH IT. Its worth every penny. Shall not write any review of it cause its too good to be reviewed by me. I would not mind watching it few more times in the cinema really.


We had our dinner at Hotpot Culture. Its located near Thai Express, just below Paris Buffet. A single pot cost $7.90 with additional signature dish costing $3.90. In total, it cost $30, not really worth it in my opinion.



After the satisfying movie but unsatisfying dinner, we took train back to my house. Wendy bought my favorite banana cake and left it in my fridge. Its so nice that we ate 1/6 of it.

Time to cut the cake.

I am glad to announce that the soccer team has been formed. I can sense the eagerness, especially from Amos, Siong Wei, Joel, Zhen Hui etc. No worries, I will send out a mail to you all soon. I will also create a new blog for our team.

Today, I did a timing of my 2.4km run at the stadium. Freaking hell, the time was close to 11min argh!!

Good things have to come to an end. So are our precious weekends.

Not much significant things did over the weekends in particular. Managed to finished a Wall Straits book which I will give a little introduction to it soon.

As per Sunday morning routine, I will hop down to Bishan park to have a game of soccer with some uncles. The pitch is really getting from bad to worse after the heavy rain in these few weeks. Sooner or later, we have to re-locate to another pitch.

Or will we? The core of my soccer team is more or less there already. Just pending for a few more replies to get it going. I am looking to build a decent squad of 16 strong players committing every Sunday for friendly matches. The only severe area we are lacking as of current is Goalkeeper. We are still contacting our army unit goalkeeper William, hopefully he will give us the nod to be our first choice keeper. Or you just happen to drop by and would like to join our passionate soccer team, feel free to drop me a mail.

It will be another hectic working week starting from tomorrow as the deadline is drawing nearer and nearer. Heads will roll if we do not complete in time, but definitely not mine :P Been working OT for the past week; haven't been training for my Marathon. I read on today's Sunday Times that one of the lady been doing cycle session at gym during her office lunch break. And during the weekends, she would clock 30km of distance on foot. Thats quite an amazing discipline she had. I am been motivated again to clock long distance over the weekdays, particularly Tuesday and Thursday.

Its 10.40pm now and I am going to have a shower before settling down in front of my notebook to catch the Clash of the Titans: Manchester United VS Arsenal. Hopefully it won't be another hammer by Manchester as I am expecting some brilliant and exciting exchange between them. Of course, with my favorite peanuts.

Cheers.

Derby County 0 - 6 Aston Villa
First Half


Second Half

We are constantly amazed and envy about the earnings of top footballers in Europe, especially England. But do you really think that football, the world's hottest sport these few years, are really generating the highest sports earners in the world? Below is an article extracted from The Sun.

CRISTIANO RONALDO is set to sign a new £40million deal with Manchester United.

He will become the highest-paid player in England on a massive £150,000 a week.

Ronaldo, currently on £100,000 a week, is enjoying a sensational season. He has scored 37 goals for United in all competitions and is the hottest property in world football.

Ronaldo’s new deal will dwarf that of team-mate Wayne Rooney on £112,000 a week.

He leapfrogs the Chelsea quartet of Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko — both on £130,000 a week — and Frank Lampard and John Terry, who are on £120,000 a week.

But he has some way to go to match the biggest earners in world sport. Tiger Woods pulls in £50m a year, boxer Oscar de la Hoya earned £22m in 2007 and golfer Phil Mickelson was just behind on £21m.

David Beckham’s pay at LA Galaxy is about £16m a year — but he earns millions more in sponsorship deals.

Yes, you see nothing wrong here. Tiger Woods, the golfer, earns £50m a year. Thats estimated to be around £1m a week. And Beckham is earnings ~£300k a week at LA Galaxy, a club in the United States, far more than the amount he earns while at Man Utd or Real Madrid. Where did LA Galaxy find the amount of money to pay him?

If you have missed out this post, I am actually intending to form a field soccer team with my friends hoping to build a good relationship and understanding before going for weekends matches. Main motivation is to satisfy our football hunger and to have fun together. Of course nothing beats winning a match on Sunday and going to work/school on a Monday morning. The sensation of winning a match, scoring goals and keeping a clean sheet is unexplainable. If you have the same feeling as I do, what you waiting for? Contact me now!

Man Utd 1-0 Roma (agg 2-0) 04/09/2008

First Half


Second Half


Barcelona 1-0 Schalke 04 (agg 2-0) 04/09/2008

Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal 04/08/2008 (agg 5-3)







Chelsea 2-0 Fenerbahce 04/08/2008 (Agg 3-2)

Its called Cooling Breeze. They are a one-stop aircon solution provider based in Singapore. As a new start-up, he is offering a free inspection. Just book an appointment with them, no obligation after the inspection. Other services his company provides include General Servicing, Chemical Servicing and Contract Maintenance.