To all those claiming Malaysia “doing more”. It’s the same. At least we don’t make a jackhole of noise pretending to do something.

We can try to boycott. Sure. More importantly is that we write in to our fucking MPs to demand that they make noise in parliament. Get Vivian to do some workX

Right now, the official policy is that schools will CONSIDER close when the 24-hour rolling PSI hits 300 (Hazardous).

To put that into perspective, a PSI of 300 requires a 24-hour average PM2.5 concentration of 250 µg/m³. Sudden spike of PM2.5 concentration of 300 in the morning will not show PSI 300. The WHO safety guideline for daily exposure is 15 µg/m³.

By the time the government still considering to close schools, our children will have already been breathing in toxins, highly concentrated PM2.5 for days.

Currently, school were asked to turn on portable air purifiers inside classroom. All primary and secondary classrooms rely on natural ventilation (NO air conditioning). If you keep windows open, air purifiers do not work properly, according to NEA own guideline. If you keep windows closed, 35 students are packed inside classroom fighting for oxygen.

In Malaysia, schools are legally mandated to close nationwide the moment the 24-hour API hits 200, which corresponds to a PM2.5 level of roughly 150 µg/m³. Singapore waits until the air is nearly twice as toxic (average of roughly 250 µg/m³) to take the same action.

Children breathe faster than adults, their organs are still developing and hence they face higher chances of permanent damage to respiratory, cardiovascular system and brain development issues from prolonged PM2.5 exposure.

Not to mention some students who commute to school daily by walking or public transport and teachers forced to be working in unsafe environment.

Why can’t we do better to protect the children? Air purifiers inside a natural ventilated classroom is more of placebo effect than safety protocol.

Two Singapore-listed palm oil companies, Bumitama Agri and First Resources, have been linked to plantation areas in Indonesia where fires and smoke were detected, according to an investigation by environmental group Greenpeace.

Another privately held company, First Borneo Plantations, which has ownership links to Singapore-incorporated companies, was also named in the Oct 5 report.

*There is still a risk of damage to the sensor.

Few days back I saw someone posted, didn't quite believe it was possible. Yesterday a photography friend posted what he shot using an iPhone. So today I saw the opportunity and tried. Really can see sun spot (basically it's the "colder or cooler" part of the sun hence they appeared black) . Used to be astronomy club in my poly days We had to setup telescope with sun filters back then. Guess I can "Thank" Indonesia for the "inbuilt" filter.

Singapore General Hospital Pte. Ltd. (SGH) has cut the time needed to report suspected brain bleeding on CT scans to less than 30 minutes from as long as an hour using artificial intelligence (AI), letting doctors make treatment decisions sooner.

“Radiologists can now complete reporting in under 30 minutes, compared with 30 minutes to an hour without AI,” Sarat Kumar Sanamandra, a senior consultant in the Department of Neuroradiology at SGH and the National Neuroscience Institute, said in an emailed reply to questions.

Sneezing and coughing through the day. Hopefully the air quality will be better tomorrow.

For now it’s impossible to sleep without air con. Woke up with such a bad sore throat after I kept the windows half open last night.

Left home at around 11am. Closed all windows and turned off my Dyson air purifier. On the way back home and decided to check the air condition in my house.

Madness. Never seen the pollution range in the dark purple band.

Edit: It appears some people can’t read. My Dyson was OFF for about 10hours.

Have been thinking about this for a while…We are constantly told that our birth rate is too low and that immigration is necessary to sustain the economy and population.

I can understand the economic argument. But at what point do we start asking what happens to our national identity?

Sometimes a country is more than its GDP and economic competitiveness. It is also about its people, shared experiences, culture and sense of belonging?

Actually we all grow up being taught to love Singapore. We serve NS, contribute to society, pay taxes and do our part. But patriotism should be a 2 way relationship. Disclaimer: I have nothing against foreigners who come here to work or build a life.

My concern is with the direction of our population policy and what Singapore might look like in another 20 years.
If Singaporeans increasingly feel like they have no control over what their country is becoming, can the government really expect the same level of national pride from future generations?

Imo maybe the greatest risk is not Singaporeans openly opposing immigration policies. It is Singaporeans gradually reaching a point where they simply stop caring as much about the country (sadly)