ID fraudsters target well-off aged 26-45:
High-earning professionals aged 26-45 who own their own home are most at risk of falling victim to identity fraud, according to a survey published today.
The credit information firm Experian identified company directors, well-off couples and families in their thirties and forties, and young people in rented accommodation as key groups at risk. People earning more than £50,000 are almost three times more likely than average to become a victim, while directors of companies employing more than 50 people are five and a half times more at risk.
I thought it would’ve been pretty freakin’ obvious that you’re more likely to be targeted by ID thieves if you have money / assets / credit to be abused. You’d have to be a pretty fucking stupid criminal to go after personal details of people who either have bad or no credit histories.
Pretty interesting, though, that certain residential areas seemed to be far more likely to fall prey — their disposable income isn’t getting spent on crosscut shredders or something.
We could see things as isolated incidents, but when they’re put together in this video, it’s pretty scary.
It’s clear that things aren’t quite as bad as they used to be, but everyone knows (and no one says) that what political freedoms there are have not been allowed for the meaningful participation of the people, but for the international image of Singapore as a society that is just free enough to be politically acceptable to deal with.
I do feel a bit ashamed of my armchair activism. I have to consider that I may return to Singapore to find a job, and my mother wants to continue peacefully living there. If we go back to Singapore, Neil will probably apply for permanent residency. If I tap into that well of political activism and actually get involved in anything with a media profile, those three things will go down the toilet.
How in the hell can (enough) people be motivated to the point of coming out in force to protest or demonstrate against laws or policies that they deem unjust? It’s been amply demonstrated that there is no hesitation on the part of the government (and its senior staff / politicians) to come down on individuals who they feel can be made examples of (see the AcidFlask case).
IMHO, that is the dilemma most politically-aware Singaporeans face. We have so much to lose if we speak up in dissent. The real irony is the majority of political activists who have been — and continue to be — arrested and / or sued for defamation are the very Singaporeans who would lay down their lives to defend the country (for they are the true patriots), while the passive majority who complain in private but daren’t speak up will flee the moment a better opportunity beckons.
- watched Have I Got News For You (always legendary) and Jonathon Ross
- went to Body Pump
- stuck a frozen pizza in the oven for lunch
- did some chores while Neil DIY’d (we now have shelves in the store room! Hand-made by Neil!)
- cooked dinner all by myself (chicken with shallots, garlic, and chillies — I was told it was good, which means I’ll never ever be able to repeat it)
- met my cousin and his family for lunch
- watched Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (verdict: fun, but the special effects at the end kind of made it less thrilling — maybe we were too far away from the screen to be dazzled, but then I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on the telly and I was overcome with excitement at the end when they melted)
- did the weekly shop at Asda
Singapore arrests man for racist blog:
The 24 year-old was arrested late on Tuesday for posting material on his blog “which may wound the racial feelings of another person”, police said in a statement.
“Racial feelings of another person” reads to me like he offended someone’s racist feelings. The standard of English is falling, everywhere I look.
(I like being playful with the English language, but a poor command of English in public communications is just, well, bad form.)
Dispatches: In God’s Name has just finished its airing on Channel 4, and holy holy fuck are these people completely mental. The filmmaker, David Modell, has written two editorials in the Independent and Telegraph.
A couple of interesting points:
- A magistrate needed to check with a lawyer to see if his resignation over his own religious beliefs gave him a legal leg to stand on in an employment tribunal (wow, I wouldn’t have wanted to appear before him given his apparent familiarity with the law).
- Anti-abortion activists said nothing about promoting sensible and practical sex education to minimise the need for abortion.
- Christian fundamentalists say we can’t tolerate Islam because it’s intolerant (and they say Americans are the ones with no sense of irony).
- Most unfortunately, the freak who needs to see the word ‘Jesus’ taped to the ceiling above his head to prevent bad thoughts when he wakes up in the morning is getting married, which means he might breed.
Why do people always feel the need to meddle in other people’s personal lives? *sigh*
Hundreds watch New Kids comeback:
Some fans had been waiting for 48 hours so they were able to get the best view of the group – brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and McIntyre – on stage.
Ya know, I would’ve thought that most of us fans (yes, this I must admit*) would have got over the tack that is NKOTB by now. I wonder about this new single — I’ll probably listen to it over the Internet and giggle. I somehow doubt they can match or surpass the songwriting greatness of Gary Barlow.
Ah — found it on YouTube. They do know they’re not teenagers any more, right? The quality of that track should only appeal to tweens who can’t know any better. It’s pathetic.
* I wonder if my sister’s pal Gwen will admit to it — she had a full-length, 1:1 scale portrait of Jordan Knight painted and managed to blag her way in to see them when they performed in Singapore in 1992. I just went to the concert with my mates.
- watched Jonathon Ross
- went to Body Pump (and was encouraged to also give Body Attack a go)
- hung out with my cousin and his family (wow, that baby can talk — her favourite thing to say is, “I don’t know?!”)
- had a few drinks with Kirstie (it was her birthday)
- did the six-kilometre walk around the loch in Strathclyde Park in aid of St. Andrew’s Hospice
- did the weekly shop in Asda (in Hamilton this time)
- watched old episodes of Cold Case
A question for you domestic gods and goddesses (who also work full-time jobs) out there:
How the fuck do you find the time?
I get up at 6am and am usually not home till well after 7pm. Then we need to make dinner, our packed lunches for the following day, wash the dishes, and I have a shower. I try to start heading to bed at 10pm on school nights. There is important television that needs to be watched (I’ve gotta get mindless gratification somehow). As a result, we end up eating out more than we planned. And I never get enough sleep.
I am completely aware of the OAMC method (Once A Month Cooking), but our freezer isn’t big enough to hold that amount of food (even if it’s Once A Week Cooking) — Neil and I get to use one shelf in our two-shelf freezer, as Neil’s sister loves her ready meals and ice lollies. Our shelf currently contains two pizzas (in case of emergency), paus, and a small pack of yong tau foo.
These may sound like absolutely imbecilic follow-up questions, but I feel the need to restate the fact that I have no natural talent nor interest in cooking. I only want to eat good food that isn’t likely to cause heart failure or high blood pressure in the immediate future and I get tired of eating the same food all the time.
How far can we go in prepping our dinners so all we need to do when we come home is bung them under the grill or throw them into the saucepan / wok?
By that I mean we shouldn’t even have to think about any further prep beyond maybe cooking rice or pasta. Plus we like chicken and beef. And fish. I like the lamb but the Neil doesn’t.
Can you store pre-chopped herbs (garlic, ginger, onion, mostly) and vegetables (green leafies) and will they last a week in the fridge?
I’m currently assuming all I need to do to protect chopped onions and garlic from going off too soon is to soak them in oil, but then since I know nothing about cooking I’m probably wrong. Would clingfilm work for the others?
I’m obsessed with these wee containers that promise not to leak smells from Ikea and I’d love a reason to buy them.
Are there any good alternatives to tomato-based pasta sauces, besides garlic and olive oil, that don’t go off too quickly?
As a general rule, I hate hot tomatoes, and cream seems to go off really quickly. To keep using olive oil and garlic will wear thin. Not that we’ve started yet, but I anticipate the boredom.
What really is the best way to freeze seafood?
The raw prawns in Asda are in a ‘protective ice glaze’, does that mean we just need to make sure our seafood is damp? WTF?
(The title of this post comes from my favourite line in a book — well, manuscript — I’m reading right now.)
Burma and Zimbabwe ‘s leaders are in the news for being totally paranoid, incompetent, and brutal.
My fantasy would be to have a bunch of countries put their military and aid resources together and smuggle the ordinary populations out and settle them where they will be treated more fairly, leaving the leaders to wake up one morning to realise that they have no population to oppress, they have no labour resources. No labour, no GDP. Being in power suddenly doesn’t seem like such a great idea.
Like hell that’s going to happen, but it’s nice to dream about logistical impossibilities.
(Wouldn’t work with Tibet, though — the CCP would be glad to be rid of the native Tibetans.)
Dr Who fan in knitted puppet row:
“This lady, with the best will in the world, wanted to share with friends, family and fans.
“But there were some unscrupulous people taking these patterns and using them on eBay to make profit for themselves. Unfortunately, we had to get to the source of the patterns – and that was her website.”
Um, how about prosecuting the offenders on eBay, then letting her know that her pattern was being abused and advising her to make her licence terms extremely clear?
On a related note, Web users back code for bloggers:
Three quarters of web users who have posted comment on blogs and news sites were oblivious to libel law, said the report, even though the person posting the comment, rather than the host site, would be liable for any offence.
I’m sure it won’t stop those anonymous commenters from trolling and posting death threats, though. Also, where would it apply? Is this libel law global? If it isn’t, what if the site is hosted in one country, with the blogger posting in another, and the commenter posting in yet another?
Of the 1001, I’ve read:
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Fury, Salman Rushdie
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
- Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis
- Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
- The Secret History, Donna Tartt
- American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
- A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
- Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, Douglas Adams
- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
- The Cider House Rules, John Irving
- Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis
- The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- The World According to Garp, John Irving
- Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
- Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
- Crash, J. G. Ballard
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut
- Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
- Animal Farm, George Orwell
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
- Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert
- Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
- Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
- Emma, Jane Austen
- Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Of the 1001, I’d like to read:
- Drop City, T.C. Boyle
- Under The Skin, Michel Faber
- Complicity, Iain Banks
- Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
- The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
- In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
- I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
- The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
- Hunger, Knut Hamsun
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
- Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Of the 1001, the books I read and couldn’t stand:
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
- Neuromancer, William Gibson
- Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Having read just 49 of the 1001, I suppose that’s pretty shite. There’s so much interesting stuff that’s been published and isn’t on the list, though.
Starting a Party, and Hoping to Crash Singapore’s Parliament Again:
Last month he was back after six years of political banishment, the grand old man of political opposition ready to joust again with Singapore’s immovable political establishment.
“We are just beginning!” he exclaimed at a small news conference announcing the formation of a new party, the Reform Party.
It was an unusual phrase to hear from an 82-year-old man who has been running for office — when the courts would allow him — since 1971.
But Mr. Jeyaretnam seems unable to stop pushing, a man at the mercy of his own force of personality, certain of his principles, uninhibited and seemingly immune to intimidation.
He paid his way out of bankruptcy a year ago, after having been convicted in 2001 of defaming members of the ruling party; ordered to pay damages; barred from the practice of law; and expelled for the second time from Parliament.
He says he has lost count of the number of times he has been sued for defamation for his political statements.
As I’ve said before, JB Jeyaratnam is a man totally worthy of respect. Where people sit and complain in coffee shops and bars about everything, he’s actually made it his life’s mission to do something about it. I don’t believe he is as much of a rabble rouser as Chee Soon Juan (who I think has a bit more of a martyr complex). I appreciate both their convictions and their efforts, even on the occasions when the publicity stunts turn out clownish and downright pointless.
I’m not sure why Chee Soon Juan went into opposition politics, and why he keeps doing what he’s doing. Opposition for opposition’s sake is stupid, but if someone has a real point to make, why not give them the time to state their case?
I think JBJ truly is disappointed in the system — he’s lived with it long enough. Whether or not the electorate agrees with his ideas or opinions, they are valid and should be heard. If the PAP argues with him like a mature adult instead of over-reacting every time he makes a claim, I think we would all find our politics more engaging and worthwhile.
If the PAP wants to find excellent young adults with a passion for public service (and so on), they have to make sure we think domestic politics are worthwhile. And they are only worthwhile if everyone gets a fair go and we get to debate things without being told what to think.
Blah, blah, blah.
- went to Body Pump
- re-designed this here site
- had Chinese takeaway for dinner
- computered some more
- watched Iron Man (what fun!!!)
- did the weekly shop in at Asda
- looked at wedding rings (holy crap platinum is expensive, another reason why we’re not bothered about an engagement ring)
- moved a few more things over to the house
- half-watched Hero
Sometimes I think I’m the non-cheese-moving type. Other times I think I’m all about moving the cheese.
Frivolously, this dairy product metaphor has appeared in my drive to re-design.
Do you guys prefer the standard weblog layout, with full-length posts appearing in the main content column of this site and other stuff in the sidebar, or would you be happy for a little experimentation (i.e. a non-PHP-coder hacking away at the WordPress Loop) on my part?
I have an idea, you see. It’s not exactly fully-formed, but it’s gestating away in the back of my mind (better than other things gestating, even though my friend Ken has reminded me that our biological clocks are ticking away). Many sheets of A4 printed on a single side (before I discovered duplex booklet printing on the photocopier) are being recycled with my scribbles.
You know, I think I might do both and keep everyone happy (except for those who won’t be).
Hehe. Tell me what you think, anyway, and post links of clever (not necessarily beautiful) WordPress designs to inspire me*.
* When I should be planning the bloody wedding — why is it the person who has always wanted to elope to Vegas has become responsible for this?
The comments on this article (Drink Nation: Scotland’s alcohol abuse costs £2.25bn a year) read like some people don’t venture out of doors any time after 7pm (or noon, if your village is particularly dire):
The drunken scot is just another tartan myth.
I am sick fed up of hearing that we have an alcohol “epidemic” in Scotland.
The number of people here who abuse alcohol is very large in number. You’ve got to be seriously deluded and never go out if you refuse to believe it.
(I suppose I’m incredibly lucky that I totally got over that whole binge drinking thing way before I moved here.)
- went to Body Pump (upped the weights — I’m aching)
- went shopping in Glasgow with Carene
- had chips and curry sauce for dinner (mmm)
- went to Brian and Carene’s, then the pub, then back to Brian and Carene’s (where I promptly fell asleep, to no one’s surprise)
- snacked on cup-a-soup and savoury bakey goodness
- crocheted (quack quack) while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark (whee!)