Got this ST article frm Kelvin the Goh thru the SingSoc mailing list. Thought i'll post it here for the benefit of those (both in SG and UK) who read DuhEconomist.com but have not seen this article... Pls take care of ur eyes, or our readership may be affected... =p
Feb 22, 2006: Stop using Bausch & Lomb lens solution, MOH advises by Salma Khalik
CONTACT lens wearers should stop using Bausch & Lomb's ReNu lens solution, because of a 'very strong association' between the solution and a recent spate of fungal corneal infections, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
At an urgently called press conference, Senior Minister of State for Health, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, said 39 people were now known to have suffered fungal infections of the cornea since January last year, though it was only in the second half of the year that the number of infections shot up.
Of this group, 34 said they had used Bausch & Lomb's ReNu solution to clean their lenses, while four could not remember what solution they had used, and one had not used ReNu.
Investigations into the cause of the infections began in December, but it may be months before anything conclusive is known, he said.
As ReNu has only 40 per cent of the market, the great proportion of patients who used it suggests that it could be the cause of the spike in infections.
There are 400,000 contact lens wearers here and an average of about one fungal infection a month.
The ministry says that five cases were diagnosed in the first half of last year, followed by 24 in the second half of the year and 10 last month.
Three in four were teenagers or young adults aged 15 to 34 years old, with about equal numbers of men and women.
Three people had such severe infections that they needed emergency corneal transplants to save their eyesight.
Associate Professor Ang Chong Lye, director of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), said the problem could be caused by the solution not cleaning the lenses properly.
Mr Foo Eng Chuan, Bausch & Lomb's managing director for South-east Asia, said the company had introduced a new formulation called MoistureLoc in late 2004.
Both the new and old formulations are on sale here. It is not known which formulation the infected lens wearers used. The company has taken all its contact lens solutions off the market pending investigations.
Asked if the company would compensate those who had suffered infections, Mr Foo said the company would take 'appropriate steps' if ReNu were found to be the cause of the infections.
Dr Chan Wing Kwong, a senior consultant at SNEC, said fungal infections were difficult to diagnose and treat. They have similar symptoms to bacterial infections, but take longer to develop.
Unlike bacterial infections, which can be treated with a wide range of antibiotics, there is limited medication for fungal infections of the eye.
Symptoms include redness, pain and blurred vision. Occasionally, there can be a white patch on the cornea.
Dr Balaji urged all contact lens users who have such symptoms to see their doctors immediately.
The ministry advised people to practise proper contact lens care and not to use them beyond the period recommended by manufacturers.
Yesterday, Bausch & Lomb issued a statement to say it would 'stand shoulder to shoulder' with the Government to investigate the source of the outbreak, and would explore all options to ensure public safety.
It said consumers should call its hotline on 6586 0206 for any assistance or clarification.
i've not read Kelvin the Buddy's blog for the longest time cos it had been 'Last updated on 28 Oct 2005' for the longest time too... Just thot i'll check it today and look what i found:
OH MAN!!!!!!! Yandao sia!!! Poster boy for the new generation sia!!!! i is super duper envious lor... =p
Buddy: if you're reading this, i'm still hoping you get some kinda tagboard cos i still absolutely refuse to get a Xanga account to post comments..
i've come to the realisation that i'm quite a good cook, which is a conclusion i derived frm 2 major pieces of information:
1) Nobody has actually died after eating the food i cook.
2) People tell me that i'm a good cook while holding their stomach and cringing.
i find the second piece of info particularly compelling becos if people actually make the effort to compliment you in spite of the whatever pain they are experiencing due to work-stress or doing too many abdominal exercises or something else, it must mean that the food is really pretty good...
Anyway, i contemplated putting some of my recipes here on DuhEconomist.com but the problem is that most of my readers in SG will go 'Why don't u just buy it at the kopitiam?' and those in UK will be like 'But i only eat instant noodles and broccoli' So i thot, might as well start with something easy to cook and not available in most kopitiams...
DuhEconomist teaches you... DUH way to cook #1: Instant Noodles!
Nobody has ever asked me how to cook instant noodles, but i know that's just becos they are all shy abt it... Admittedly, Whipping up a quick bowl of instant noodles which looks nothing like the picture on the packet is easy enough, but cooking a delicious bowl of instant noodles which still looks nothing like the picture on the packet, now that's the tough bit... DuhEconomist.com teaches you the secret to cooking good instant noodles..
Firstly: ingredients ingredients ingredients... Cooking instant noodles is as much about what you put into it as fine cuisine is... Remember, the only people capable of getting a ridiculously good deal for their money when they pay peanuts all work at the NKF, and if you read this blog, chances are you're not one of them, so don't try! Spend a bit more money and get better noodles... They may even come along with more MSG and maybe even a small packet of nutritionless freeze-dried veg bits! That's value for money! Personally i recommend 'Maitro Khon: Super Noodles 120', which don't just taste good but also make you feel good when you laugh after reading some of the very pointless statements printed on the packet, ie. "HOW DELICIOUS!"
Secondly: do not believe everything the instructions tell you... Any good chef will tell you that cooking is a process which is always different, depending on the heating element, ventilation, amount of kids running around at the location and many other crucial factors... Ready in 3 minutes? Think again, Einstein has already proven that time is not constant but relative... 400ml of water? Hmm, bear in mind that diluted soup tastes bad and doesn't reduce the amount of salt you take in... In a nutshell, instant noodle cooking is a process which requires a lot of fine-tuning to perfect at your cooking location... Practise practise practise...
Thirdly and finally: taste the food while you are cooking... Just like good artists don't paint blindfolded and good musicians don't play wearing ear-plugs, brilliant chefs taste their food while it's being cooked... Bite that noodle to see if it's al dente, drink that soup to see if the level of MSG is just parfait... if you don't taste while cooking, you should not be surprised if you end up with a bowl of soggy noodles in dishwashing liquid...
Remember, a good bowl of instant noodles is as enjoyable as a 45.36% done Rump Steak with gravy and hence is just as difficult to cook. Do not ever underestimate the food you are trying to cook... but as Sun Zi said, "Know yourself, know your enemy, a hundred battles, a hundred victories" and as Sun Zi's 孙子 once said, "My grandfather makes a lot of sense" so now that you have learned DUH secrets of instant noodle cooking, you are already on your way to becoming a first-rate instant noodle chef.
Unless the MSG kills you first.
Really practical tip: Instead of following the cooking instructions, put the flavouring into the boiling water before you put in the noodles, the noodles will then be cooked in soup and have flavour instead of being bland.
3rd Season's Ending Theme for Bleach. It's so catchy you can't help but like it.
My Pace by SunSet Swish
Hitotsu kazoete sure ba ii Futatsu kazoete yasume ba ii Mittse kazoete kangaerya ii Mai pe-su de susumere ba ii
Count one and just do it, Count two and just get rest, Count three and just think about it, It will be good if i can go on with my pace.
Toki no nagare torinokosare Aseru kimochi wo wasureru nakare Mibou na chousen shosen muda to Iwarete akirameru koto nakare
Left all alone in the flow of time, Don't forget the feeling of being impatient, It is waste of time to challenge impossible, Don't give up just because you were told so.
O frenz Kurushii toki no koso koe wo dashite ikou O frenz Jibun ga mezashiteru hou e mukae
Oh friends, Speak up when it gets hard, Oh friends, Towards what you are aiming for.
Sobietatta ookina kabe ni Osoreru koto wa nai Kotaeno nai kono jinsei wo Mayoukoto naku Keep it my pace
You don't have to be afraid of big wall which is rise high, This life without a answer, without being lost, Keep it my pace.
Most naturally, i did not translate it myself but got the lyrics from the [Bleach-Society] fansub, which explains the 'Big wall which is rise high'...
i know the question on all of your minds is: What has happened to Yanjie? which is a very understandable question, given the lack of blogging for one entire week...
Did something happen to him after he left that entry on being DTHE?
Was he too busy preparing for Valentine's Day before the 14th and too busy recovering from it after that?
or could he be *gasp* too busy being a 'chao mugger'?!?!
i guess the answer is tt i suffered frm a severe bout of blogger's block, made worse by 'handphonepicturecannotuploadtolaptopsinosis'... Blogger's block is really quite diff frm writer's block, it's more like finding at a specific moment in the day, something which you can blog about, but forget about it by the time you sit in front of the computer... This is especially bad if you cant get pics frm ur mobile phone to ur comp in the same day cos it's even easier to lose ur train of thought... For example, there was this thing i wanted to blog abt yest, but i can't remember it at all now...
So anyway, here's the pointless pic of the last 2 weeks:
Note: this is not whyteboard writing but graffiti scribbled on the projection wall behind the board, making it the most pointless act of vandalism ever...
i took this photo at the bus-stop in front of the Subway(TM) near sch... i was tired after a long day and hence very thankful to God for letting the bus come quickly so i didnt hav to wait in the cold. for some reason i turned my head and saw the roof of one of the buildings, which had this very beautiful sculpture thingy there. i knew i had to take a photo...
i read in some magazine abt an interview they had wif this English actress who went over to US to develop her career... they asked her which part of London did she miss the most and she said "the sky... Buildings in the States are so tall you have no sense of the sky at all..." i must say i quite agree with that and it's not just the sky that is beautiful but also the 'skyline'... Most buildings in London, esp those in Central London near the LSE, are very old and short but many also have very beautiful designs on their roofs...
the problem, i guess, is that most of us are no longer built to look up vertically at what's above us... it's not just a problem wif Americans and SGreans used to living in and amongst cost-efficient tall buildings, but a more general problem wif pple everywhere..
we are used to looking in front of us: the laptop, the vending machine, those 3 tiles in front on our walkway so we don't step on something nasty, the assignment due tomorrow, the girlfren, the son, the groceries to buy later, the dishes that need to be washed...
we are used to looking ahead: the tv, the electric kettle, the next junction so we know which way to turn, the project due next week, the team-mate, the colleague, the time before the car needs servicing...
we are even used to looking upwards: the roadside advert, the billboard outside the cinema, the floor indicator in the lift, the supervisor, the idol, the next pay rise, the next vacation...
but somehow we don't look any higher than tt anymore...
a long time ago, people looked at the skies and the stars and marvelled at the Creator's sense of beauty...
a short time ago, a boy looked at the skies and the stars and decided to join the navy becos it offered him, on top of many things, a first class seat for looking at the night sky...
Here's the missing entry, i found it in the backup email Blogger sends to my duheconomist@yahoo.com acct...
'Back-blog : 3 Feb 06 - DuhEconomist on The Economist...'
One of the reasons why i'm so fascinated by and enjoy reading 'The Economist' so much, is becos of the God-like powers their writers and editors possess, or think they possess...
Reading about economists' predictions in any newspaper in the world, one will find that they are only right about half the time(or half-right all the time, wadeva increases ur utility)... Indeed, Economics is very much less a predict-what-will-happen science than it is a study-what-has-happened subject, hence the style of writing in most economic articles includes more of terms like 'predict', 'expect', 'forecast' and others which indicate the lack of 100% accuracy...
The Economist, however, is different... i'm always very amazed by how their writers make very definitively objective statements, something along the lines of "...So-and-so president has implemented such-and-such plan to solve this economic problem... It is a start but it will not work unless he does this-and-this because he has underestimated the impact of something else..."
Wow! They can tell you conclusively that the plan will not work even before it happens! That is like so cool lar! i dunno if those writers are economists but i know i'm in my third year at the LSE and they haven't taught me how to read the future yet... maybe i'm taking the wrong modules...
anyway, if i ever get to vote in an election where one of the candidates was a writer with The Economist, i say vote for the economist
i really tried to keep a sharp eye for pointless scenes and objects last week to take a photo for the weekly pointless picture...
Unfortunately, leading an ultra-meaningful and enriching lifestyle means that hardly anything pointless comes your way...
Thankfully a few minutes of pointless roaming in my sch has supplied inspiration for this week's pointless pic, which is once again sponsored by LSE, where life is not just difficult, cold and expensive, but there is also NO WAY OUT...
i'm actually qutie proud to say tt i am abit of an avid blog-reader and one of my fav ones is Mr Brown becos i find his blogs funny, interesting, homely and local (SGreanly) without being crude... i particularly enjoy reading those entries which are mirrors of his Friday column in the TODAY newspaper... was quite busy recently so i didnt read last week's column till just now...
it's damp funny lar! As usual, the article was making fun of somebody and this time it's the 'branded' schs in SG... Nothing terribly exciting for me to blog abt a blog entry except the last part where he stringed mottos frm various schs together... [actually i'm not sure but is "Tirelessly seeking to be the Best" SJI's?]
What delighted me the most was how he had to write a separte thing abt Chinese High cos we don't have an English motto...
i blogged here abt how our God is also the God of Maplestory...
Guess what, he did it again...
Bkgrd: Maplestory is now having this CNY event where some monsters drop angpows and players can collect them and give them to this 'Cai Shen' character to redeem in-game money... Of cos, angpows are pretty rare items...
Story: i was playing Maple yest for abit, training at this place with lots of 'fire-boars'... i killed one, and it dropped an angpow! After picking it up and checking my inventory to see tt i really received an angpow, i thought i really wanted to take a screenshot, which will require me to 'drop' the item from my inventory onto the ground... Usually, i can pick the item up again and for the few special items which will disappear once they are dropped, the game will display a warning to check if you really want to drop the item...
Rather unfortunately, i was too delighted at my fortune tt i selected 'Yes' when the warning window came up without actually reading the question. By the time i realised, it was too late... The angpow was lost and i was extremely pissed with myself for being such a dumbass... i continued to train at that map while whining childishly at God to give me another angpow...
And did God give me an angpow? No...
i continued whining aloud at God to give me an angpow for some time...
And did God give me an angpow? No...
so finally after a whole lot of whining i was pretty sian and i was going to stop playing... this fire-boar came along and i thought that will be the last one before i quit the game for the day... i gave one last whine along the lines of "God give me an angpow please..." and then i rested my head against my table becos i was really very sian liao and just after the fire-boar was killed and before it dropped anything i said...
"...in Jesus' name..."
and i got my angpow.
"In his name the nations will put their hope." - Matthew 12:21
The season of never-ending feasting... Steamboat dinner at the Great Russell Mansions, otherwise known as Justin's / Henry's / Meiling's / Fangting's / Weilin's / Hebe's place...
The usual chinese steamboat fare w seafood (potrayed by the actors fishballs, sotong balls, crabstix), veg and meat...
Simple food but great company... Thats wad makes a dinner great... =)
Remember, the only people capable of getting a ridiculously good deal for their money when they pay peanuts all work at the NKF, and if you read this blog, chances are you're not one of them, so don't try! Spend a bit more money and get better noodles... They may even come along with more MSG and maybe even a small packet of nutritionless freeze-dried veg bits! That's value for money! Personally i recommend 'Maitro Khon: Super Noodles 120', which don't just taste good but also make you feel good when you laugh after reading some of the very pointless statements printed on the packet, ie. "HOW DELICIOUS!"
