Damned hilarious, sent to me by a good friend…
(You can find more of this group by just searching for the keywords ‘SGX part’ on Youtube.)
Author: Grievous
[Military] Uninvited Guest: ‘Song’ Class Submarine
The following article was taken from DailyMail… Still trying to verify if this is not another site like The Onion…
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Uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced |
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When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world’s only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders. That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory. American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk – a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board. |
 Chinese Song Class submarines, like the one that sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk |
 Battle stations: The Kitty Hawk carries 4,500 personnel |
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier. According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy. The Americans had no idea China’s fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat. One Nato figure said the effect was ‘as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik’ – a reference to the Soviet Union’s first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age. |
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The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon. The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines. And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it. According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines. It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was ‘shadowing’ the U.S. fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as coincidence. Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its ‘backyard’. The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s submarine fleet includes at least two nuclear-missile launching vessels. Its 13 Song Class submarines are extremely quiet and difficult to detect when running on electric motors. Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane’s Fighting Ships, and a former Royal Navy anti-submarine specialist, said the U.S. had paid relatively little attention to this form of warfare since the end of the Cold War. He said: “It was certainly a wake-up call for the Americans. “It would tie in with what we see the Chinese trying to do, which appears to be to deter the Americans from interfering or operating in their backyard, particularly in relation to Taiwan.” In January China carried a successful missile test, shooting down a satellite in orbit for the first time. |
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Of advertisements and blogs (II)
Over a large cup of iced peach tea at the Mos Burger in West Mall today, Malique asked, “So who are the customers? The advertisers, or the bloggers?”
Endoh believed that both are customers since a service is provided to both. I agree, because on one side providing a service to those looking for an avenue to advertise, and on the other a service to those who are willing to provide the space to advertise. On top of that, it is also my opinion that bloggers are more of a partner than a customer. In my opinion, any public row with your partner is detrimental to your business, whatever business it maybe.
The way the renewed assault is handled by Nuffnang flies in the face of convention. There is still no public statement from Nuffnang (that I know of) in response to all the negative publicity, considering that even Odex made the pathetic attempt of a one page statement on their corporate site in the face of the relentless assault by the general public and anime-lovers. The defeaning silence only infuriate the bloggers further, and make them even more vicious and vociferous in their criticisms.
What is even more puzzling was that subsequently the co-owner of Nuffnang went to several blogs to comment on them. Why address certain bloggers individually? Why not address all the concerns on the corporate website? After all, even Xiaxue Xiasuay respond to criticisms on her own blog, and not settle down into a battle of saliva in the comment section of another person’s blog! It is simply not effective at all, not to mention that even when I may have written about Nuffnang and read some of the blog posts, I do not diligently follow the comment section of those blogs as many a time the attempt to hold a proper discussion is futile. (That’s not mentioning, in the only time I met him, Perry Tong of the Workers’ Party mentioned something to the effect that it is a waste of time reading certain forums because none of these so-called ‘discussions’ carry without it degenerating into a ‘gathering of family members’, where one’s parents, siblings, ancestors of several generations are mentioned along with their privates after a short exchange.)
Even more interesting was when a lady friend of the co-owner vigorously defended Nuffnang on Techcrunch. Not only did it not help, it drew further criticisms and generated the exact opposite effect. In fact, to some it looks like an attempt to win sympathy with the statement that one stands up for their friends no matter what. I wonder, does one also pick up the fight of one’s friends without first considering if that may help them at all? Will charging headlong into the oncoming tide stop or turn it? It would certainly have been more effective that they sit down and plan a strategy to win the hearts and minds of the bloggers than just fighting them with nothing but blind loyalty and naked courage.
On top of that, the supporters of Nuffnang is not helping very much either when they constantly talk about how competitor Advertlets is capitalising on Nuffnang’s woes. Perhaps, some might even choose to believe that Advertlets might be the culprit behind the onslaught of negative publicity. But what is the point in that when even chess players would capitalise on an opponent’s mistakes to advance in the game? What more can we expect from business? Is it being dishonest or unscrupulous at all? Would it not be better to write positive stuff about Nuffnang to increase awareness or perhaps there is really nothing good to write about it?
It is my considered opinion that Nuffnang should not just be wary of Advertlets and this futile attempt to engage only certain bloggers must end. There are other businessmen who would fill the vacuum left by Nuffnang in a jiffy and if Nuffnang is not already now aware that vultures – i.e. new competitors – are already getting ready to be all over the dead body of Nuffnang when it happens, then perhaps someone should start stacking pillows high and consider a career as an employee and not an entrepreneur… or maybe just work for one’s own father and wait for his inheritance…
被奸人 Aaron 所害… (Sabotage by the ‘kan’ Aaron)
* sigh * Kenna tagged once again and since I am getting writer’s block I might as well do this before my mind starts wandering again with some crazy ideas. To cut the long story short…
My most common mistake is mis-spelling the word separate as seperate.
Instructions:
To play this game, all you must do is explain what your most common writing mistake is. Then, you simply tag five individuals for the meme. Those five people will, in return, tag five more people. Ultimately, readers should see a tapestry of common grammar and spelling mistakes. Therefore, anyone that is feeling ashamed of their errors will feel a bit more confident and secure.
Copy the person and persons names who sent it to you and add your own at the bottom of the list. It really helps build community.
- Shine with Grace: Mixing the word “from” with “form” all the time
- Trinity‘s most common mistake : I sometimes feel confused to use past tense or present tense when I share my stories.
- LadyJava: typing too fast that sometimes I miss words in between
- Genie King: I type too fast too…always end up with “tot he”…when it should be
“to the” - Bobo: makes too many mistakes all the time. She tend to miss out the word “not”.
- Endoh: Can’t differentiate British or American spelling at times.
- Claudia: Although a teach I is, I could everytime made mistook when I wrote and spoke. (Got it?)
- Aaron: I used to always mix up than and then. It even sounds alike to me!
- Daphne: I always use ‘objectively’ and ’subjectively’ wrongly.
- FoxTwo: Tend to overuse the word “anyway”
- Xizor2000: Mis-spell the word separate as seperate.
And i tag… whoever reads this…!! Wahahahaha!!!
Of advertisements and blogs…
Like the storm Katrina, the storm around Nuffnang has once again gathered strength. I don’t use Nuffnang (or its rival Advertlets) and I have not considered using them since I came to know about them from numerous ping.sg gatherings and reading the posts from many bloggers – primarily endoh – on them. After all, traffic to my blog is pretty low everyday so I don’t expect much income either. In fact, if not on Cris’ recommendation, I wouldn’t even have Google Ads on my blog.
So why did I put ads on my blog at all, when my friends, the nice people at Biz-Era, gave me completely free hosting (coupled with 24×7 support) out of goodwill?
Well, it’s because I hope to generate some income from the blog to cover my domain registration charges. And every US$100 is about S$150 which goes in to cover several years of that. In other words it doesn’t matter if it takes me several years to generate that amount of income at all. I ain’t looking to make loads with my blog as if my life depends on it anyway.
But why just Google Ads? The reasons are simple:
- Plug and play
Yep! Not plug and pray. Just sign up Google Ads, and stick the code into your blog and it starts serving ads right away completely hassle free, even though you might not exactly like the content of some of the ads it served. You also do not have to wonder why it isn’t serving ads and start praying that it serves ads soon. Neither do you need to question about the transparency in how blogs get selected to serve ads either. You might complain it doesn’t pay as well but no amount of extra money is worth the extra hassle, agony, heartbreaks and the implied insult that the content of your blog sucks. - No change in Blogging behaviour
My intention of having a blog is to write down my experiences (i.e. about places I visit, things I see), my opinion and views (on politics, or things that happen in my day-to-day life). In other words, I will write about anything that comes to mind, and I ain’t going to bother to change my blogging behaviour so that an advertiser finds my content nice enough to serve ads on it. I am not going to bend over backwards to try and get more traffic either. Like it or not, it is my considered opinion that to change my writing style is about the cyber-equivalent of mainland China prostitutes soliciting at the lorongs of Geylang. [靓仔！要去吗？] - Hassle Free Payment
Google may sometimes write you to protest certain suspicious clicks and demand an explanation (or else they’ll knock you off). That’s because of the controversy surrounding click-fraud which has constantly haunted the company. However, Google pays you once you made US$100 in earnings, no questions asked. On a specific day once every month, they will check if you should get equivalent of US$100 in local currency. If you do, a cheque mailed is mailed to your specified address and it should arrive in a few days. The payment system is rigid but there is no $1 surcharge nor lame excuses about costs etc. (Either way, to charge bloggers hosting your ads is the equivalent of an employer charging the employees for putting their wages into the bank.)
In other words, some may consider Google stingy for the amount it pays for the ads served, and it might take a really long time to get paid. But hey, what the hell do you expect for giving the minimum amount of effort without any impact to the way you blog? I do find it exceedingly amusing and hilarious that some bloggers change their blogging style to get ads. But then, as long as I don’t end up reading the their mental masturbation, everyone is free to prostitute their blogs as source of constant income for all I cared.