Singapore General Election 2011 - Returning Officer Yam Ah Mee♥

Singapore GE 2011 Results

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Infographic: Fuel at Fukushima Daiichi Reactors

Source:LiveScience

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Footballer Kicks Defenseless Owl

Infinity Chilli

Measuring a mouth-burning 1.17 million on the Scoville Scale (a measurement of the spicy heat of a chili pepper), this is the the hottest chilli in the world, and it was grown by accident in Lincolnshire, England.

Dubbed the 'Infinity Chilli' the fiery food has been tested by boffins who say it's considerably hotter than previous title holder, the Bhut Jolokia, from India.

It was grown by Nick Woods who runs 'Fire Foods' from his home and says one day he notices the crossbreed chilli in his greenhouse. Intrigued, he decided to sample it, but he soon regretted the move when a powerful burning sensation hit the back of his throat and was so strong he couldn't talk.

I wonder how the level 30 hotness buffalo wings compared with this chilli.

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How a song from the 2005 Civilization IV won a 2011 Grammy

Civilization IV is now the first game to have won a Grammy... sort of. The game's theme music, "Baba Yetu," won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) at Sunday's awards show, despite the game being released in 2005.

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Fake Seaweed From China

Only from the Lands Of Pirates

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Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold

Perhaps the only thing more prevalent than colds is the volume of misinformation about them. Science writer Jennifer Ackerman, however, was determined to get to the bottom of what she calls the "petty plague." She's certainly dedicated: for her latest book—Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold—she volunteered to be infected with a cold virus. Having endured her maladies, Ackerman talks to TIME about whether we'll ever have a cure, why you probably don't want to "boost" your immune system, and the medicinal merits of good old chicken soup.

There are so many misconceptions about colds, including the one about the weather. You don't actually catch cold from the cold—
This has been a really stubborn myth. It has been put to rest by lots of solid studies. So, Mom, relax, it's ok to go outside with wet hair. Cold doesn't cause colds, viruses do. Colds are more common in the fall and winter because the cooler, wetter weather drives people inside, and viruses can more easily jump from one person to the next.

For the sake of research, you actually volunteered to become infected with a cold. Was the experience everything you thought it would be?
Well, and more. It was an odd experience to know that you're going to get sick. The cold itself was supposed to be mild, but in my family colds tend to migrate to the chest. It was a good ten days before I was back to normal again.

Is it generally accepted that some people are genetically more prone to colds?
It's an open question: is there such a thing as a "cold constitution"? Scientists are really interested in this idea that if you infect people with the virus, everybody will get infected, but only 75% of people will actually come down with the cold. If we could do a big genetic study, we might learn exactly why that is. But right now, it looks like there's a kind of irony here: the people who don't experience symptoms probably aren't making the inflammatory agents that other people are making. In a way, their immune response is weaker than people who come down with the symptoms.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about colds?
Probably that susceptibility to colds requires a kind of weakened immune system. Dietary supplements and cold preventive remedies say, "boost your immune system so that you can ward off cold," and it's interesting, because if you want to diminish your cold symptoms, boosting elements of your immune system may be the last thing you want to do.

Your book's appendix of purported remedies is disheartening. Everything appears useless. Were you surprised at how few things have been proven to work?
Yes. And I was disabused of the notion that the zinc lozenges that my family has always used actually had some effect. We really are a pretty gullible species, and in a lot of these cases, if any of these remedies work, it may be due to the force of our own beliefs, the placebo effect.


Will there ever be a cure for the common cold?
They're still working hard on drugs, and doing gene studies looking at what factors make people susceptible. I'm an optimist. At some point we may have something that actually nips a cold in the bud. It would be a great thing if somebody in the household gets a cold, everybody else takes a nasal spray and nobody else gets sick. I feel like we're not too far off from something like that. There are some promising drugs in the pipeline. But it's been a really tough nut to crack.


Talk to me about chicken soup.
Ah, chicken soup. A researcher at the University of Nebraska looked at chicken soup and its effect on inflammatory cells in a petri dish. He found that chicken soup actually does have some anti-inflammatory effect, and anything that has an anti-inflammatory effect might, in theory, reduce symptoms. However, this has never been proven in people, so it's still speculative. But chicken soup has been touted as a cold remedy for more than a thousand years. I feel like just the hot broth, the fact that it's comfort food, may actually make it kind of healing. The idea that somebody would make you chicken soup—

That goes along with what you mention about the power of empathy?
Empathy can actually cut short a cold by a full day. Imagine, that's better than any drug on the market, and there aren't any side effects.



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Chinese man drives across 'beer road'

A Chinese man has made a stunning Guinness world record of driving across two rows of bottled beers for over 196 feet in Wenzhou. Li Guiwen, an army driver from Beijing, steered along 1,798 bottles for 196 feet in a time of eight minutes and 28 seconds in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. He had previously attempted the same record in 2009, but due to rain, the right tire of his vehicle slipped off the bottle track.”

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BP Oil Spill Pictures

Over one month after the initial explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes. According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, more than 65 miles of Louisiana's shoreline has now been oiled. BP said it will be at least Wednesday before they will try using heavy mud and cement to plug the leak, a maneuver called a "top kill" that represents their best hope of stopping the oil after several failed attempts. Based on low estimates, at least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf so far - though some scientists have said they believe the spill already surpasses the 11 million-gallon 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska as the worst in U.S. history. (39 photos total)

Rest of the pics here.

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Jupiter loses one of its stripes

Jupiter has lost one of its iconic red stripes and scientists are baffled as to why.

The largest planet in our solar system is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere, with one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.

However, the most recent images taken by amateur astronomers have revealed the lower stripe known as the Southern Equatorial Belt has disappeared leaving the southern half of the planet looking unusually bare.

The band was present in at the end of last year before Jupiter ducked behind the Sun on its orbit. However, when it emerged three months later the belt had disappeared.

More here.

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Saved By The Ears

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Funny Shades

It all started on May 18th when a gorilla named Bokito escaped from the Rotterdam Zoo. It was during his daring escape that the animal attacked a female visitor, because he didn’t much care for the way her shifty eyes looked at him. Humans in charge decided that the woman’s direct eye contact led to the attack, since gorillas aren’t down with that.

Full story here.

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Troy, The owl who is afraid of HEIGHTS

For a Tawny Owl with a yardwide wingspan, the sky should be the limit.
But Troy prefers his bird's eye view to be no higher than 5ft 10in. The one-year-old has an inconvenient phobia: he's terrified of heights.
After an unfortunate start in life when he fell from his nest, Troy was raised in captivity by handler Gareth Tonen, who just happens to be 5ft 10in tall.


Read the full story here.

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Orca the dolphin killer

This is the shocking moment a killer whale leapt from the sea to kill an exhausted dolphin.

The six-ton hunter had chased the female dolphin through the waves before swimming up under her and slamming into her, flipping her 30 feet into the air and breaking her back.
The dolphin died almost instantly and the killer whale, or orca, and the rest of its pod then closed in to devour her and her helpless youngster, turning the sea red.


Read more here.

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Game cheater survives headshot

An argument between Counter-Strike players at a Chinese net café over suspected use of a ‘wallhack’ cheat led to a 17-year-old boy being stabbed through the head with a foot-long knife – and living to tell the tale.

He's probably using God Hack as well.

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Running Barefoot Is Good

The bare human foot is better for running than one cushioned by sneakers. What about those $125 high-tech running shoes with 648 custom combinations? Toss 'em, according to Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

'Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts,' he says, 'but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. It might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes.'

Read more here.

Malaysian fighter jet engine stolen from airbase

Malaysia will take action against air force personnel involved in the theft of a 14.5-million-dollar fighter jet engine sold to a South American company, according to reports Sunday.

Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the company hired an agent to take the 50-million-ringgit engine out of the country from a military airbase, the Star newspaper and national news agency Bernama reported.

"The ministry will take legal action at the international level to charge the company involved," he was quoted as saying by Bernama, without specifying the type of action or identifying the company.

"Stern action will also be taken against the Royal Malaysian Air Force staff involved for betraying the country," the minister added.

Air force officers found the jet engine was missing late last year during a routine maintenance service, but the matter became public only after the English-language New Straits Times published a report on Saturday.

The newspaper also said police had arrested four individuals, including the buyer, the seller and air force personnel who assisted in stealing the engine, used as powerplant for a single-seat fighter and reconnaissance aircraft.

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Death

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Another Massive Accident

Read more about it here.

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