Author: Grievous

Brakes, Packed MRT Trains and Terrorism

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“Terrorists don’t need to blow up trains or the stations. All they have to do is toy with the braking systems.” – A Stooge Times reader, who made the comment after noting how pack every train is.

Can that happen? Why not, because a disgruntled employee could sabotage a train to make it happen!

You definitely do not like to think that our vaunted ‘World Class Transport’ is a disaster waiting to happen. Our lea-duhs will always assure us that they are safe, pointing out that they have special forces patrolling our stations. Talking about that, wasn’t there once when they were talking about ‘Train Marshals’? Whatever happened to that?

Above which, our profit-minded public transport operators will say that the trains are just packed to 85% capacity * during peak hours, not to mention that they have in station security doing random checks to keep the trains safe.

Like hell any of that is going to help us!

One can only imagine what happens if just a MRT train is made to brake without warning. The standing passengers start flying off their feet into one another and also the sitting passengers. But that isn’t the worst case scenario. I can’t imagine the situation when a train full of 1200 people derail in the tunnels, or if one of them derails, flies off a viaduct and hit the traffic below.

If the terrorists can have 2 trains doing just that on each of our MRT lines – i.e. N-E, E-W, and N-S lines – during peak hours, that will put 6 trains, up to 7200 people’s lives in jeopardy. Ultra mayhem!!

Worst yet, imagine it happening when a train supposed to pull slowly into a station instead comes roaring into the station at full speed and then the brakes kicks in causing the train to derail and carriages to fly onto a platform packed full of people during peak hour!

Can you imagine the guys who want something like this to happen don’t even need bombs to create the maximum destruction they desired? Frankly, I am not sure if the Civil Defense guys in the Home Team are even prepared for the eventually of doing in-tunnel rescue, should that happen.

Scary, isn’t it? Let’s hope that’s will remain pure fantasy and imagination, a bad nightmare, or just a good script for another Hollywoord Movie. And of course, we can also hope we aren’t on one of those trains if it ever happens.


* Figure is taken from a public reply by an SMRT spokesperson after several complaints by commuters that our trains are too packed. The spokesperson refute the allegation that our trains are overpacked, stating that only 1200 people are loaded while the trains’ maximum capacity is 1400. [1200/1400 = 85.71%]

Israeli Assassination Methods

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I definitely had more than one discussion about the methods the Israelis used against the terrorists with several people, and we seldom agree. Often, I disagree completely with the criticisms being levelled at the Israeli’s ‘excessive use of force’.

Some will argue that to kill even those guilty without the due process of law isn’t right. Some will say fighting fire with fire will never put it out. But knowing that there is no way to bring these people to justice? Can anyone sincerely say that when the Israelis know exactly where these people are, and who are responsible for planning the terror attacks, these people aren’t guilty at all? Did Israel just pick these people by random and kill them for fun?

I have always believed that such force is a necessary evil and the decisions to use it were never made lightly. In my opinion, such decisions would weigh heavily on the conscience of those who made them. And that is the reason why I never would never equate a terrorist operation blowing up Israeli civilians as a counter reaction to such Israeli actions.

Anyway, I have never seen an instance in which the likes of Hamas, Al Qaeda and all their wannabes, failed to justify and glorify all their crimes against humanity as a jihad – a holy war – (and considered it right to mass murder people) without even having a shred of remorse for the people they have murdered. I also do not need to point out that these people are killed simply for the ‘crime’ of being a Jew, an infidel, or even a co-religionist of another religious doctrine; or simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The following is an article from the Washington Post which I have copied onto a Word document. You might want to read it to see how Israeli leaders debate with each other over civilian casaulties and agonised over their decision to strike.

Israeli leaders struggle with targeted killings

Chain Mail: The Internet Kind #1

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This is the second time I have received this on emails.

A lady has changed her habit on the handphone after her handbag was stolen.

Her handbag which contained her mobile, credit card,purse..etc….was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, telling him what had happened, hubby says “I’ve just received your SMS asking about our Pin number and I’ve replied a little while ago.”

When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The pickpocket had actually used the stolen handphone to sms ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from the bank account.

Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, sweetheart, Dad, Mum etc…… and very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked thru SMS, CONFIRM by calling back.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR LOVED ONES AND FRIENDS

Have a Joyful Day

What do I make of this? I have read articles in which it advised people to leave at least one number on your handset making it obvious who your next of kin is, so that in an emergency – such as when you are in coma after an accident – that the police can contact your next of kin with ease.

What really needs to be done is be careful with your personal belongings, since no one can stop you from revealing your PIN number to anyone else. Above which, even if you have make it a point to call to ask for the PIN number, it doesn’t ensure that the other party wouldn’t absent-mindedly respond to an SMS from ‘you’ and sent it on its merry way without verifying, just like this email was sent without its truthfulness being verified.

Have a joyful day indeed because I will never send on chain mails like these, no matter how touching or allegedly important they are.

I hate chain mails. And the buck stops HERE.

WZ-10: The Puzzling…

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Either the Chinese military is learning something from Maskirovka, the fictitious Intelligence service of the similarly fictitious House Liao / Capellan Confederation in the Battletech universe, or the WZ-10 has several prototypes or several different versions.

Here are more pics of gunships, all allegedly, the WZ-10 [武直－10].

Note, I am NOT calling them outright fakes. I suspect there is a WZ-10 in the making. But I have gone through several sites in Google and Baidu using the keyword ‘WZ-10’ to search and I am getting so many photos of gunships looking different from one another that I must question which of these pictures are real.

Below: The one on the left looks very convincing. The one on the right, well, looks like an artist impression using the copy function of Adobe Photoshop. Just look at the blade positions. Too unison. And look at the tail rotor… erm.. what tail rotor?

WZ-10: The Real Thing? Or Just Another Hoax?

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Some pics of the WZ-10 have been circulated on the Internet, even on the Sinodefence site. But the pics are either too small or too distorted to make out if it’s real or just another Adobe Photoshop hoax.

I have downloaded the pics and am posting them here. Take a look at them.

And this is what I found on a forum. I didn’t really read what was posted there but it suggests that the pics are fakes. Adding to the number of artist impressions and fakes in circulation on the net, I am not surprised if these are fakes anyway. But I’ll leave it for you to judge.

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