Earthquake in China

These slides of scenes after earthquake in Sichuan were created or complied by Oliver Ding on SlideShare.

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Map of epicentre.

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How can you help? Here are 24+ ways to give. Choose one you are comfortable with.

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Check update from CN Reviews of agencies you can donate to.

Self Reliance. What you need to know.

More photos by other contributors at SlideShare.

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Heroes of the earthquake

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Create this awareness. Tell your friends about about the earthquake in China.

Rupiah 100 passing off as S$1

Rupiah 100 passing off as S$1

Take a good look at the two coins - the one on the left is a one-dollar coin, the one on the right is 100 rupiah.

A friend of STOMPer Merlin ended up shortchanged - when a drinks stallholder gave her an Indonesian rupiah instead of a Singapore one-dollar coin.


In an email today (26 Sept), the STOMPer said this happened yesterday at Pioneer Mall (Jurong).

'My friend bought drinks at the foodcourt. Our drinks cost $1.40 and so she gave the stall owner $5. The drink stall gave a change of a $2 note, a $1 coin and $0.60, and she just kept it in her wallet without looking," Merlin said.

"Then, after we left the mall, she realised that the $1 that was given to her was in fact a indonesian Rupiah 100 (equivalent to only S$0.016)!

"After comparison to our S$1, we realised that both look similar. Just want others to beware and take note when people give you coins

Beijing Airport

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New Robbery method @ Ngee Ann city

Just received this latest theft technique used by robbers. It seems feasible so take heed.

Warning for all the ladies out there and men please inform your significant other. (And, hey, it could happen to the guys!) The
Latest Scam: Robbing Females using the restroom/'ladies'/bathroom at a Shopping Mall......

The way the scam works is, a man slips into a women's rest room and sneaks into a unit. He waits until there is only one woman in the restroom in a neighbouring unit/stall. The criminal then stands on the toilet ! seat and points a hand gun into the next stall, demanding the woman's valuables. After getting her cash and jewellery, he demands that she remove all of her clothing and kick them out of the unit/stall. The thief tosses the clothing into a shopping bag, hangs a! n 'out of order sign' on the restroom door outside, and slips backinto the mall.
The 'out of order sign' ensures no one will soon come to the woman's rescue. It usually takes an hour or two for the woman to work up the nerve to leave the rest room in the nude, giving the criminal ample time to make his get away. The woman is left naked humiliated in a mall full of strangers.

The best defence, say police, is to never go into a shopping mall restroom alone, as only women who are by themselves are targeted.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. This has so far been a nearly perfect crime, as none of the perpetrators have been caught.

Have you heard of YingLing?

Can't sleep? Are these the problems you are facing right now?

1) Your children are always arguing, disobedient and disrespectful.
2) You and your spouse argue over the slightest issue.
3) Yours or your spouse's business is not doing well.
4) You are indecisiveness and always contradicting yourself.
5) You are indifferent to the wellbeing of your children.
6) Your family members are plagued with ailments and problems one after another.

Try to recall when your problem started. If it is not too long after your first or second child and you have lost a baby or aborted one in your life, it may well be the presence of yingling (嬰靈). This is what I have discovered from The New Straits Times article, Restless Souls, by Chai Mei Ling.

Yingling or ghost of the foetus can cause disharmony in your family because they are envious of siblings who live on and enjoy life while they cannot move on and be reincarnated. Can anything be done to appease these young souls if you have one lingering on in your life?

According to Taoist master and feng shui practitioner, Yu Even, the YingLing is not being vicious but is actually sending an SOS signal to it's parents that it needs help to move on to the next realm.

She said that YingLing do not have as much wisdom as a full grown human to be qualified for reincarnation. She is able to appease and arm them with more wisdom by performing a ritual of sending them off in a boat.

Some temples offer ceremonies to placate YingLing and there is one in Taipei that also offers the service online. Read more about it and the experiences of people who used this service on Taipei Times.

Seeking shade with the eldlerly

While seeking shade under a hugh old tree, my husband stumbled upon some elderly folks. They were all waiting for children at a school nearby, to be released, to fetch them home. While eating some deep fried snacks from a stall nearby, they started chatting.

They talked about oil used for deep frying from restaurants being sold to small stall holders instead of being discarded. I have heard of that before. While I advocate recycling, I think this is a bad business practice as the over used oil can become carcinogenic.

If this is the first time you have heard of this and think that is scary, wait till you hear what the elderly have to say. Be ready to give up eating deep fried food.

In Thailand, some shops deep fried plastic bags in their oil as the chemicals leached from them makes the deep fried food crispier. Nah, that can't be true, right? The old man added that in his younger days, he has seen a shop owner, deep fried plastic drinking straws in his kuali of oil first before he deep fried what he sold.

So, the next time you seek shade, go to where the elderly are seated to see if you can have their thoughts recycled and committed to memory. Pass the stories down for them before they are lost and forgotten.

Playing With Numbers for a Living!

Today I am going to talk about numbers and should you skim through what I have written and came across the words, "lucky" and "prospers" please read me through before you rush off to punt with my numbers.

A Memory Aid Technique
Do you know that there is a memory technique that will help you remember numbers better? The idea is to build up pictures in your mind through association of things that rhyme with the numbers you want to recall. Example, 3 sounds like "tree", 7 sounds like "heaven", 10 sounds like "hen", etc.

This kind of association is commonly practiced by the Cantonese speaking community in Asian countries. In fact, they are drawn to and are willing to pay extra money for ownership of things that are linked with numbers that are perceived lucky through association of such rhyming.

Choosing the Right Numbers
The most highly favoured number is 8, as spoken in Cantonese, "bat" sounds like "prospers" followed by 3 as "sam" sounds like "life" or "longevity". You can make such lucky numbers more auspicious by saying "10" before it, as "sap" sounds like "must" or "surely" in Cantonese.

Businessmen in Singapore also appreciate the number 5, as in English, "five" sounds like fast (fi) in Cantonese. So, when said with the number 6 in Cantonese, which is "luk", they like to mispronounce them to sound like "fi loh" which means "fast moving or prospering quickly".

If you are in Malaysia, Singapore or Hong Kong, just take a look at the commercial or residential addresses and car number plates the affluent Asians associate with and you will get the picture.

So, doesn't it make good business sense to associate your product with lucky numbers if you are interested in selling them in Asia? What product can you create based on this concept? Swirlinwhirl is what I have created.

Good luck in your new venture.