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This 53 yo guy graduated from NUS Engineering course. Early every morning, he goes to the rubbish dump to scavenge for stuff. In 1993, he had a high flying job with a big company but he was retrenched in 2007. This gave him a big psychological shock. Although his company gave him a recommendation letter, he feels his reputation is tarnished and cannot find a job easily. Since retrenchment, his outlook on life has also changed and attention has shifted from career to family. He has 4 daughters aged between 5 to 9 and an elderly mother at home.

CREATIVE Technology, the home-grown tech firm, has slashed 2,700 jobs, or almost half its total workforce, in the last fiscal year as falling demand for its products continues to hit its bottom line. Jobs cuts were made across the board, but the bulk was in manufacturing, due to the sale of its Malaysian plant in July 2007. The Straits Times estimates that up to 2,200 jobs have been eliminated as a result of that closure. This came to light in the company's annual report filed with the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday. In the report, Creative said it had about 3,100 full-time workers as at June 30 last year, or 47 per cent fewer than the 5,800 employed a year earlier. In the previous year, Creative had cut headcount by about 800 from 6,600. A Creative spokesman said: 'The bulk of the reduction in the worldwide workforce was due to the sale of Cubic Electronics, the manufacturing subsidiary of Creative in Malaysia, in July 2007.' Creative sold an 80.1 per cent stake in the Malaysian facility for US$6.9 million (S$10.1 million) to a group of third-party investors as part of a move to streamline and improve its operational efficiency. Other staff cuts were made, with about 250 coming from sales, marketing and customer support, about 180 from administrative and other areas and fewer than 50 from research and development (R&D). Besides Asia, headcount was also significantly reduced in the Americas region, from about 640 to 280. The spokesman said there had been no 'significant change' in headcount in Singapore, where Creative has its corporate headquarters and a large part of its R&D operations. 'We are still looking to hire more R&D engineers,' the spokesman said. The company employs about 1,100 staff in R&D across the US, Britain and China, in addition to Singapore. Creative had net losses of US$19.7 million for the year ended June 30, 2008. The company, which makes MP3 players and speakers, has been hit by slowing sales of its products due to the worsening economic situation and tough competition. Sales for the three months ended Sept30 were US$141.2 million, down from US$184.6 million for the same period a year before. Half of Creative's sales came from Europe, while the Americas and Asia made up the rest almost evenly. In the report, Creative said it faces 'intense competition from a large number of established companies and emerging companies'. Sales of electronic products have slumped as the economic slowdown forces consumers to cut back on spending, leading companies like Chartered Semiconductor and Philips Electronics to announce job cuts in recent months. Creative suffered a net loss of US$32.2 million in the first quarter ended Sept 30 to follow a net loss of US$31.7 million in the three months before that. 'We will continue to reduce operating expenses as we target to reduce our losses in the uncertain market environment ahead,' president and chief operating officer of Creative Labs Craig McHugh said in October. [email protected] [AD]

Soon gays will hold hands and kiss in public. Actually I don't mind them lah, just stay at home and poke backside lor. But a lot of them are very loud, attention seeking and scared the whole world dunno they kam lan jiao. If my son turn out like that, I vomit blood. ******** Yahoo News COMMENT: Britain marches towards gay marriage, but where will Singapore be? By Kirsten Han | SingaporeScene

Thy kingdumb come.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian world heritage city of Malacca will be smoke-free from June 15, a first for the country, the health minister said on Monday. The move was to bring in more tourists and help stamp out smoking in a country where the habit is widespread, Liow Tiong Lai told AFP, insisting it would also help preserve the city. "The idea is to create fresh air and a clean environment for tourists and Malaysians alike to enjoy the historic city," he said. "It will also aid in preserving the old monuments and buildings as the ban will reduce pollution in the area and promote a healthy lifestyle." The no-smoking area covers the entire 4.2 square kilometres (1.6 square miles) of the city and four other areas in the southern state of Malacca. "These areas will be free from cigarette smoke and make Malacca city the first smoking-free city in the country," said the minister. "Those caught will be hit with a fine of 300 ringgit (US$100) although the maximum penalty is 5,000 ringgit." Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam told the Star daily that the state was also serious about declaring more tourist destinations in the state smoke-free zones. With more than 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West, Malacca's multi-cultural heritage is seen its ornately designed government buildings, churches and forts. It is where the Malay sultanate originated in the 15th century, before being invaded by the Portuguese and Dutch in the early 16th century. In 2008, UNESCO included Malacca and Georgetown, on the resort island of Penang, in its world heritage list but there have been recent concerns that the southern port city could be de-listed because of redevelopment in its historic quarter. Malaysia is hoping the heritage listing will boost tourism, which is a key foreign exchange earner. I wonder how are they gonna enforce this....

An early afternoon downpour left the area in front of Heartland Mall in Kovan flooded with rainwater. STOMPer wallace tan commented: "There was a flood outside Heartland Mall's entrance. "This picture was taken outside Heartland Mall at about 12.15pm on Apr 20. "The water was about 15cm deep in places, but people were still going about their business there. "Thankfully the water wasn't deep enough to flood the shops there."

Will tat happen to you? If you are the boss ,would you let it happen?Looking at papers only? http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/...908-236225.html I myself wouldn't.

The latest management reshuffle at McLaren has made team boss Martin Whitmarsh an even more powerful figure within the Woking based company. Ron Dennis is still chairman of both the McLaren Group and the newly separate road car division McLaren Automotive. But the British outfit revealed on Tuesday that 51-year-old Whitmarsh, already team principal of the Mercedes-powered F1 squad, has been appointed to two new roles. With immediate effect, he is to be CEO of the McLaren Group and deputy chairman of McLaren Automotive, after Sir Richard Lapthorne resigned his non-executive chairmanship of both companies. Whitmarsh is also a board member of the McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive.

look at Jul BMW sales figure: http://www.lta.gov.sg/corp_info/doc/M03-Ca...20by%20make.pdf you will believe it's true

This old joke is courtesy of talkinc0ck.com. Never expect this to be a reality today. One of the main reasons why in recent years the Singapore Government has always ensured that their Miss Universe representative were of tertiary level education or higher was because of the following incident which occurred not too many years ago. It is the final round of the Miss Universe Pageant and the 3 finalists, Miss USA, Miss Malaysia and Miss Singapore are being asked 3 simple questions: MC: The first question is name me an electrical appliance starting with "L" Miss USA: Lamp Miss Malaysia: Light bulb Miss Singapore: LADIO Judge: No, no, Radio does not start with the letter "L" MC: I am going to give you 2 more chances; The next question is name me an animal starting with the letter "L" Miss USA: Lion Miss Malaysia: Leopard Miss Singapore: LABBIT Judge: No, no, no, Rabbit does not start with the letter "L" MC: I am going to give you one last chance, if you answer this question incorrectly, you are disqualified. Name me a fruit starting with the letter "L" Miss USA: Lemon Miss Malaysia: Lychee Miss Singapore, with full of confidence, smiles and says: LIEWLIAN ! This is not the end of the story, the Judge consulted the board of judges to determine if Miss Singapore should really disqualified; and they decided that since Miss Singapore was having as many problems with the letter "L", the decided to give her another chance. Judge: OK, the final question is name me a human anatomy starting with the letter "L" Miss USA: Lung (applause) Miss Malaysia: Liver (even more applause) Miss Singapore: L** J*** ! Judge: ?????????!!!!

By Juan Lagorio and Bill Rigby NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prudential Financial Inc is the latest major insurer to warn its quarterly profits would miss forecasts, as the shares of rivals were pummeled on concern they would need to raise capital. The second-largest U.S. life insurer said on Thursday that third-quarter profit would be cut sharply by losses on poorly performing annuity and investment products and a charge for a legal settlement. That followed recent profit warnings at U.S. life and property insurer Hartford Financial Services Group Inc and MetLife Inc, the largest life insurer in the United States. The latter sold new shares at a discount on Wednesday to bolster its capital, raising $2 billion, while Hartford earlier this week received a $2.5 billion capital injection from Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer. "Insurers made big investments in mortgage-related securities and are also big holders of stocks and bonds in financial firms that have been wiped out or badly damaged by the credit crisis, such as Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, said Alan Rambaldini, a life insurance analyst at investment research firm Morningstar. "On top of that, bigger life insurers like Prudential get fees on the size of stock investments behind annuity products they sell to customers, which will drop sharply as the broader market plummets," he said. 'TRADING ON FEAR' Among other life insurers, Lincoln National Corp, fell 35 percent to $18.31, Principal Financial Group Inc lost 27 percent to $15.79 a share and Unum Group fell 30 percent to $14.77. Life insurance, as measured by the sectoral S&P Life & Health Insurance index, was down 17 percent, making it the second-worst performing sector after automakers. Even beyond life, XL Capital Inc, a large Bermuda-based reinsurer, fell 54 percent to $4.01. "The group (insurers) are trading on fear right now," said Bret Howlett, Standard & Poor's life insurance analyst. "A lot of investors are worried about capital positions in this unfavorable operating environment. "People are worried about whether these companies are going to need to raise additional capital. In this environment, it's going to be difficult to raise that capital." American International Group Inc shares fell 25 percent to $2.39, one day after the company said it would get more liquidity from the government. AIG, once the world's largest insurer, got an $85 billion loan from the government three weeks ago when it was on the brink of collapse. Under the new plan, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will take up to $37.8 billion in investment-grade, fixed-income securities from AIG in exchange for cash. "The government has effectively provided them support for $110 billion. I think they have exhausted that avenue and so I think as they move forward their options have diminished," said Keith Wirtz, president and chief investment officer of Fifth Third Asset Management. UNDER PRESSURE Citing market volatility and extraordinary events affecting financial markets, Prudential has suspended all purchases of its own stock. It said it has liquidity to meet requirements at the parent company and at all operating subsidiaries and, unless it enters into any strategic deals, its need to access the capital markets before the end of the year would be modest. "We are comfortable with our risk profile and believe that we are in a strong position to manage through the current environment," said Prudential Chief Executive John Strangfeld, in a statement. Prudential did not say when it would report third-quarter earnings. Insurers have been under pressure to keep solid capital positions to maintain their ratings after their investments lost value as financial markets sank in recent weeks. Keeping high ratings is essential for insurers because lower ratings can mean higher costs and, in some cases, even a loss of business. (Editing by Toni Reinhold and Andre Grenon)

Russia may export new Su-35 fighters to India, Malaysia, Algeria FARNBOROUGH, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to export the new state-of-the-art Su-35 Flanker multirole air superiority/strike fighter to India, Malaysia and Algeria, Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Tuesday. "Algeria, Malaysia and India are our partners and if they express an interest, we will offer them the Su-35 fighter while fulfilling our current obligations," Alexander Mikheyev, head of the air force department at Rosoboronexport, said in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti at the Farnborough International Air Show in England. In 2007, Sukhoi, which is part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, exported about 50 Su-30MK2, Su-30MKM and Su-30MKI aircraft under contracts with a number of countries, including Algeria, India, and Malaysia. The company is planning to export at least 160 Su-35 fighters in the future, Sukhoi's deputy head Sergei Korotkov said at a news conference in Farnborough on Tuesday. "The [su-35] aircraft has attracted a lot of attention," Korotkov said. "As part of our business plan, we expect to sell about 160 planes." The Su-35 fighter, powered by two 117S engines with thrust vectoring, combines high maneuverability and the capability to effectively engage several air targets simultaneously using both guided and unguided missiles and weapon systems. The aircraft features the new Irbis-E radar with a phased antenna array, which allows the pilot to detect and track up to 30 air targets, while simultaneously engaging up to eight targets. It is equipped with a 30-mm cannon with 150 rounds and can carry up to eight tons of combat payload on 12 eternal mounts. Sukhoi earlier said it plans to start deliveries of the new aircraft, billed as "4++ generation using fifth-generation technology," to foreign clients in 2011 and produce Su-35s over a period of 10 years up to 2020. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080715/114032520.html

How in the percentage like of such scenario happening in S'pore? http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNew...0312-54024.html

another reminder to drive safely and go easy on a car you haven't drove before. One minute you could be having fun with a car, the next minute, no more fun with love ones anymore RIP

DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - - General Motors Corp. is planning on making biofuel with garbage at a cost of less than a dollar a gallon, the company's chief has said. ADVERTISEMENT The US automaker has entered into a partnership with Illinois-based Coskata Inc. which has developed a way to make ethanol from practically any renewable source, including old tires and plant waste. The process is a significant improvement over corn-base ethanol because it uses far less water and energy and does not divert food into fuel. "We are very excited about what this breakthrough will mean to the viability of biofuels and, more importantly, to our ability to reduce dependence on petroleum," said Rick Wagoner, GM's chief executive officer, on Sunday. GM, which was late in introducing gas-electric hybrids, is the industry leader in flex-fuel vehicles that can run on gasoline blended with up to 85 percent ethanol. It is currently producing more than a million flex-fuel vehicles a year globally and is committed to making half its production flex-fuel by 2012. It is also introducing 16 new hybrid vehicles over the next four years, including a plug-in hybrid which can run on electricity alone, and will soon have the world's largest fuel-cell test fleet when it delivers more than 100 Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles to customers in the United States, Europe and Japan. But while these may be the vehicles of the future, flex-fuel is the best "interim" solution as it will take 12 years to replace most of the vehicles currently on the road, Wagoner told reporters at the Detroit auto show. "There is no question in my mind that making ethanol more widely available is absolutely the most effective and environmentally sound solution," Wagoner said. "And it's one that can be acted on immediately." Coskata's first pilot plant will be up and running in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fuel will be used on GM test vehicles. "We will have our first commercial-scale plant making 50 to 100 million gallons of ethanol running in 2011," said Coskata chief Bill Roe. The prestigious Argonne National Laboratory analyzed Coskata's process and found it generates up to 7.7 times the amount of energy used and reduces CO2 emissions by up to 84 percent compared with a well-to-wheel analysis of gasoline. The process also uses less than a gallon of water to make a gallon of ethanol compared to three gallons or more for other processes. President George W. Bush's energy policy includes plans to increase the consumption of biofuels from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080115/tts-...gm-972e412.html

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/viewPost6851.aspx

Pictured above is a pickup version of the Volkswagen Touareg SUV that has had its rear section chopped off and replaced with an aluminium tray. The vehicle is based on an extended platform of the standard SUV and was built by Volkswagen as a concept back in 2000. Now, VW Individual has developed a Touareg based pickup truck as a special one-off to showcase a possible new path for VW. Volkswagen Individual is the company

After my 30k servicing the engine seems to be noisy? what the problem? shld i go back the the car agent and ask them?? Thanks.

Got a problem here. Hope pple can help. Recently I feel my car have to drag longer before upshifting at 1st low speed. Once at cruising speed seems ok. Driving a G9 auto. FC also becomes higher nw. Used to get at least 12km/ltr easily. Nw only 11, something 10 + nia And I just completed my major servicing at 60,000km. Sparks and air filter changed. Using Mobil 1 0w-40. Drink Shell 95. Is it a transmission problem? Or could it be something else? What is happending here, huh? Is it a big rob? I worry chg trans oil also bai sai. Cld auto gearbox inside become kor yak liao? I hv been sending to Borneo for all my servicing so far. autoTrans oil was supposed to be changed at 40k. Cld it be that they cut corners and never change the oil for me ? What shld i do ? Anyone else got tis problem or heard of tis before? Pse advise. Thanks Many Many.

Look at what I found! Galant grille becomes a kidney bimmer grille!!!