SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old lorry driver was injured on Monday (Feb 5) after his vehicle overturned along Tuas South Avenue 4, in the direction of Tuas South Avenue 1.

The police said they were alerted to the accident at around 12.55pm and that investigations were ongoing.

Photos of the overturned lorry were circulated on Facebook group SG Road Vigilante. The images show a lorry lying on its side on a road divider.

The lorry’s windscreen was also completely shattered and various items from the vehicle were scattered on the ground.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to the incident at around 1pm and took the driver to the National University Hospital who were on standby to receive him.

SINGAPORE: The i Light Marina Bay festival returns for its sixth edition in March and for the first time, its display of light art installations will be extending beyond the Marina Bay area to the Esplanade Park in the Civic District.

The festival, which is being organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), will take place from Mar 9 to Apr 1.

On display are 22 sustainable artworks from 14 countries, including Singapore. Among these is Transistable Plastic by Spanish art collective Luzinterruptus, which will be installed under the Esplanade Bridge. It will comprise 20,000 recycled PET bottles, which will be combined to form rows of rotating panels through which the public can walk through.

Other international works include Whareatua, a series of glowing giant mushrooms by New Zealand artist Jamie Boynton, and Octopoda, an interactive octopus-like work by Australia’s amigo and amigo featuring eight tentacle drums.

MailboX by Australia’s Christopher Simpson and Isabella Bain will be a work that can be activated via tweets sent by passersby, while South Korea’s Yuree Hong and Siyoung Kim is presenting Dancing Grass, which comprises 200 “blades of grass”.

Among the homegrown works are architect BP Loh’s Milk Bottle Cows, a selection of six pairs of cows made from plastic milk bottles, and six works by students from Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang Technological University, Raffles College of Higher Education, School Of The Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts.

These include Kloud, a selection of light installations inspired by the shifting visual images of clouds, which can be triggered through touch or via an app; Urban Rice Fields, which recreates paddy fields with bamboo rods, through which people can walk through.

“i Light Marina Bay has grown to become one of Singapore’s signature events, gathering people from all walks of life and bringing greater vibrancy to the precinct,” said Jason Chen, fest director and URA director (place management).

This year, the festival will also have four festival hubs, including a brand new ILLUMI Bar, a pop-up lifestyle space with furniture made from reusable plastic tanks. Other hubs include the return of the popular, family-friendly Art-Zoo Inflatable Park and the urban lifestyle park GastroBeats, as well as the ongoing Prudential Marina Bay Carnival.

Among the other non-art programmes of the festival is the ILLUMI Fest Run, a “party run” that involves participants running through different zones while being splashed with “glow water”. This will be held on Mar 31.

In line with the festival’s themes of sustainability, organisers said it will continue to encourage corporate organisations around the area to undertake energy-saving issues. The festival itself also host a series of talks and workshops, and will switch off its art installations during the Earth Hour island-wide hour-long initiative on Mar 24.

For more information, visit the festival website here.

SINGAPORE: An aircraft from the Black Eagles, the Republic of Korea Air Force’s aerobatic team, skidded, crashed and caught fire while taking off at Changi Airport on Tuesday afternoon (Feb 6).

The KAI T-50B Golden Eagle plane was on its way to put on a flying display at the Singapore Airshow when the incident happened, and the pilot suffered minor injuries.

Widely known as one of the best flying display teams in the world, here are five things about the Black Eagles. 

STORY BEHIND ITS LOOK

The Black Eagles are instantly recognisable by the black, yellow and white paint on the planes. 

The colours and painting design, which are meant to enhance the aerobatic display, were chosen after a contest through the Korea Defense Daily, according to Airshow portal Airshowinfo.

NO STRANGERS TO OVERSEAS DISPLAYS

Composed of eight elite pilots, the Black Eagles are seasoned performers. According to the South Korean air force, the team takes part in more then 50 airshow events annually.

This is the third time they are participating in the Singapore Airshow since they were first invited in 2014. The team also won awards in the Waddington International Airshow and Royal International Air Tattoo in the United Kingdom in 2012. 

Just last year, the team was also part of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition. They also put up a stunning show in Kuala Lumpur in March 2017, forming a yin-yang – a nod to the South Korean flag – at one point. 

The team is currently led by Colonel Kim Yong-hwa. 

T-50 PLANE

The Black Eagles was first established in 1967, but it was not until 2008 that it started using the T-50 planes. 

The aircraft is a supersonic advanced trainer and light combat aircraft developed by the Korean Aerospace Industries with US firm Lockheed Martin. 

It has excellent stability and manoeuvrability and is able to hit a top speed of 430 knots, or 800 kilometres per hour, making it highly suitable for airshows. 

NOT EVERYONE CAN MAKE THE SQUAD

Pilots who want to be a part of the Black Eagles must clock at least 800 flight hours to be eligible, but even then, they are not guaranteed a spot in the squad. 

Only the top one-third of pilots who have passed qualifying examinations will be considered, while team leaders are drawn from the top 10 per cent of the cohort – which means they boast some of the highest scores in basic physical and flight training. 

The then-team leader, Major Lee Kyu-won, told Channel NewsAsia in an interview in 2016 that “there isn’t an application process to join the Black Eagles”. Only those who do well will be “head-hunted” and invited to the squad.

All nine pilots (including one spare) have to unanimously agree to be part of the team. 

CLOSING ACT FOR THIS YEAR’S AIRSHOW

The Black Eagles are supposed to be the final act of Singapore Airshow 2018, displaying various moves including its signature Change Turns and Scissor Passes during four flight shows through Sunday. 

According to an AFP report, the aerial display on Tuesday was cancelled following the crash. It is not immediately clear if their performance on Sunday will be cancelled. 

The Black Eagles are also operating a booth at the venue and had hoped to publicise the PyeongChang Winter Olympics that opens later this week. 

In a statement to Yonhap News Agency, the team leader said: “Through fabulous performances, we will contribute to efforts to enhance the global stature of the Republic of Korea and prove the superiority of the domestically made aircraft.” 

They are slated to return to South Korea on Feb 19. 

SINGAPORE: A new study released on Tuesday (Feb 6) showed that 54 per cent of Singapore children aged between eight and 12 are exposed to at least one cyber-risk, which includes cyberbullying, video game addiction, offline meetings and online sexual behaviour.

The Singapore findings of the 2018 DQ Impact Report issued by DQ Institute, an international think tank created to improve digital education, found that the 54 per cent figure is just below the global average of 56 per cent.

For those exposed to these risks, however, close to half (43 per cent) have been victimised through cyberbullying in the past year, while 16 per cent have been involved in online sexual behaviours such as having searched for and/or visited websites with sexual content, and/or having had sexual conversations online with strangers, it added.

About one in 10, or 12 per cent, of the respondents said they have chatted with and met online strangers in real life – two percentage points above the global average – while 11 per cent meet the criteria for video game addiction, the study found. 

The 2018 DQ Impact Report conducted an online survey for 38,000 eight- to 12-year-olds in 29 countries during the second half of 2017. More than 3,600 children in Singapore were polled, founder of DQ Institute Dr Park Yuhyun told Channel NewsAsia. 

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MOBILE PHONES AND SOCIAL MEDIA COMBO ADDS TO RISKS

Delving deeper into the Singapore-specific findings, DQ Institute found that the eight- to 12-year-olds spend an average of 35 hours a week in front of digital screens for entertainment alone and this is three hours more than the global average. This number increases when screen time for homework assignments are factored in, it added.

In terms of activities, the majority of these children, specifically 78 per cent, are using the Internet for watching online videos, while 61 per cent indicated they go online to play video games. Rounding off the top three activities is listening to music, at 54 per cent, the study found.

It also found that despite some social media platforms introducing a minimum age of 13 for users, 85 per cent of children here polled said they have used these platforms, and 39 per cent indicated they are highly active on them. 

Activities include making and posting videos and photos, creating online profiles, chatting more with other users and buying and selling physical and virtual items.

Messaging platform WhatsApp and video streaming site YouTube are top on the children’s list of social media platforms, with Instagram a distant third, it found. 

Combine social media usage with mobile phones and the effect is higher online risks for these groups of children, the study said.

The cyber risks faced by children who own a mobile phone but are not active on social media is at 52 per cent, while those who do not own a mobile phone are at 45 per cent. By comparison, children who own a mobile phone and are highly active on social media see their online risks jumping to 70 per cent, the study revealed. 

“These numbers demonstrate that children everywhere are at risk, but the risk is higher when children combine a personal mobile device with active social media use,” it said. 

On Tuesday, which is also Safer Internet Day, DQ Institute and local telco Singtel announced it is collaborating to introduce the DQEveryChild programme, which is aimed to nurture digital intelligence among children by engaging primary schools here. 

This is done by helping children use digital technology and media in “safe, responsible and effective ways” as they spend more time online, they added in the press release. 

Singtel is funding the DQEveryChild programme, which is expected to be introduced to all primary schools here this year, it said.