Wanna One’s Kang Daniel and Twice’s Dahyun were recently voted by Korean netizens as the idol singers most capable of captivating male and female “nerds.”
In a vote conducted at Exciting DC – jointly run by website DC Inside and data analysis firm My Celebs – Kang garnered 9,083 votes, or 90.7 per cent of the total votes. Kim Jong-hyun of Nu’est and G-Dragon of Big Bang followed at No. 2 and No. 3.
On the female side, Dahyun took 22.9 per cent support – or 720 votes – and was followed by Yura of Girls’ Day and Taeyeon of Girls’ Generation.
“Nerding,” when used on Korean web, refers to an act of enjoying specific pop culture content – which can range from K-pop, video games, animations or comic books – to the point of near-obsession.
The government spent at least P501 million (S$13.4 million) for 19 trips to 17 countries made by President Duterte since he took office last year, but the country gained at least $38.6 billion, or almost P2 trillion, in investment pledges, loans and private corporate deals, according to administration and official records.
The costs do not yet include amounts spent for his second trip to Cambodia and his brief stop in Hong Kong in May.
The Inquirer has yet to obtain details of the expenses incurred for these trips through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Data so far obtained through an FOI request from the Malacañang Records Office showed that Mr. Duterte’s aborted trip to Russia in May cost P65.087 million.
The President cut short his Moscow visit, his latest foreign trip, because of the attack of pro-Islamic State extremists in Marawi City.
He spent only a little over a day in Moscow, just enough time for him to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Transportation accounted for the biggest expense item of the President’s foreign travels, according to the records.
The chartered flight for his visit to Russia cost P40.673 million. The hotel bill, which amounted to P11.141 million, was the next biggest expense.
His trip to China, also in May, cost the government P48.801 million, with the chartered flight accounting for the bulk of expenses at P25.595 million. Hotel accommodations cost P8.61 million.
It was his second trip to China, which he first visited in October 2016.
Data from Malacañang showed the President’s trips in 2016 to Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Peru, New Zealand, Cambodia and Singapore cost P277.387 million.
His other trips this year – to Myanmar, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar – cost P109.774 million.
A fake ICA website with the address www.singaporeonline-epass.com has been flagged for phishing visitors’ visa reference numbers and passport numbers.
ICA advises the public to exercise caution by checking on the URL and web address to avoid falling prey to such fake websites. The official ICA website URL is www.ica.gov.sg and should be used for all informational and transactional needs concerning ICA matters.
The fake webpage looks identical to ICA’s official website and can easily be mistaken for the real deal. Here’s how to spot the fake website:
ICA said their official website remains unaffected and no data has been compromised. A police report has been made and ICA said that they are working on taking down the fake website.
A last check at 12.30pm shows that the fake website is still online.
A senior police officer has been implicated for allegedly enabling the flight of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said yesterday.
Srivara said the police had information that the officer was a “mastermind” in the case. Yingluck’s flight, he said, could not have been carried out without a mastermind. Police are waiting for the results of DNA tests, expected tomorrow, before extending their investigations, he said.
If the DNA traces found in the Toyota Camry belong to Yingluck, her driver – Pol Colonel Chairit Anurit of the Metropolitan Police – would also be charged with dereliction of duty under Article 157, Srivara said.
Chairit has already been charged with possessing fake licence plates found in the vehicle and has been the subject of a disciplinary probe. On August 23, Yingluck fled in the vehicle to Sa Kaew province, where she reportedly crossed the border.
She was subsequently found to have reached Dubai, which she later left to travel to the United Kingdom. She did not attend the scheduled August 25 reading of the Supreme Court verdict in the case against her relating to her government’s rice-pledging scheme.
The verdict, which was finally read on September 27, found her guilty on some charges and she was jailed in absentia for five years without suspension.
Srivara said he has filed a complaint with the Immigration Bureau against Yingluck for violation of the immigration law. Under the law, an arrest warrant would be issued next.
He also said he has expedited a complaint filed to Interpol, asking for a “red notice” – effectively an international arrest warrant – to be issued against Yingluck. The Royal Thai Police’s Foreign Affairs Division has informed him that a “blue notice” must be issued first.
This would ask Interpol members to help locate, identify or obtain information about Yingluck and her whereabouts. Srivara said Yingluck was already a convict, and he believed that her case was not political, but about corruption, so she should be subject to a red notice.
Srivara said Thai police had contacted their counterparts in the UK and were waiting to hear back. The United Arab Emirates had notified Thai authorities that Yingluck had left Dubai for the UK on September 11, he said.
A cryptocurrency firm co-founded by US rapper Ghostface Killah hopes to raise $30 million (S$40.8 million) in a digital coin sale.
Cream Capital said Wednesday it would raise the funds through an initial coin offering (ICO) – a method of crowdfunding that has been met with much scrutiny from regulators recently.
It claims it was co-founded by the rapper, who is a prominent member of hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
Ghostface Killah is the latest in a long line of celebrities – from Paris Hilton to Jamie Foxx – who have put their names behind ICOs and crypto ventures.
“I think the interest of celebrities is a bit of a double-edged sword,” Brett Westbrook, chief executive at Cream Capital, told CNBC via email.
Westbrook said that celebrities should be cautious of the influence they have when promoting cryptocurrencies, and should understand the blockchains (distributed ledger technologies) that underpin them.
“I personally think that anything that puts cryptocurrencies in front of the eyes of everyday people is a great thing for the markets overall. On the other hand, I believe it’s important that celebrities know the importance of their endorsements and understand the underlying principles of blockchain technology,” he said.
“The last thing we need is a household name promoting what turns out to be a scam ICO.”
C.R.E.A.M. – OR ‘CRYPTO RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME’
The name of the firm was inspired in part by Wu-Tang Clan’s hit “C.R.E.A.M.” – which stands for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.”
“Although in this sense it stands for Crypto Rules Everything Around Me of which we have been granted a trademark by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office),” Westbrook said.
Cream Capital will be selling off “Cream Dividend” tokens in November; these can be exchanged for Ether, the value tokens of the Ethereum blockchain.
The company said that ICO participants would be protected by a digital coin standard to prevent investors from losing their money.
The virtual coins will also be integrated into debit cards that can be used in any store or other vendor that accepts card payments.
Cream Capital said it has operational cryptocurrency ATMs active in North Carolina and intends to capture “more than half of the global cryptocurrency ATM market” by 2020.
CNBC tried to reach Ghostface Killah for comment but he was not immediately available.
SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Wednesday (Oct 4) launched a slew of hardware devices, led by its second-generation Pixel smartphone as well as accessories to pair with it like its first wireless earphones in Pixel Buds.
It is worth noting that the tech giant is finally bringing its smartphone to Singapore, partnering Singtel in an exclusive deal to sell the Pixel 2 XL device from Nov 15.
Consumers in Singapore are spoilt for choices in terms of having their pick of the latest and best high-end smartphones in the market, with the Samsung S8 and Apple’s iPhone 8 devices already available and the iPhone X on its way come Nov 3.
So what stands the Pixel 2 XL apart from these rival offerings? In a word: Integration.
The search giant has invested heavily in machine learning and artificial intelligence, and it has now integrated these elements deeply with its latest handset, according to senior vice president of Hardware Rick Osterloh who was speaking during a separate press briefing on Wednesday.
Here are some of the more note-worthy innovations:
PICTURE PERFECT POSSIBILITIES
Let’s start with the Pixel 2’s camera.
According to ratings by independent camera experts DxOMark, Google’s second-generation smartphone has come out tops ahead of the competition with an “unprecedented score” of 98, noted the company’s vice president and general manager for phones Mario Queiroz during the launch event.
According to DxOMark’s post on Wednesday, Pixel 2 topped the scores in most of the traditional and video categories, pushing it ahead of the iPhone 8 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 8. This is despite the Pixel 2 coming in lower in the new Zoom and Bokeh categories, it added.
This performance, Mr Queiroz said, is because the camera is powered by Google’s “computational photography and machine learning capabilities”.
The software behind the camera mean that it is possible for users to take portraits using both the front and back cameras – without needing a second camera to achieve the effect, he said. The dual-camera configuration is used by the likes of Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi in their offerings.
LENS INTO THE WORLD
Another software innovation Google was keen on touting was its Google Lens feature, which will debut via its Photos app first before being rolled out to Google Assistant, and available on Pixel first.
Essentially, Google Lens gives users the ability to learn more about the world about them as they would be able to look up landmarks, books, music albums, movies and artwork by clicking on the icon in Photos.
On Google Assistant, they can find out more about the subject by asking further questions. For instance, during a demo after the product launch, a Google representative showed how it was possible to find out the band members, after the name of the band was identified from an image of an album cover.
“Lens builds on Google’s advancements in computer vision and machine learning, combined with our Knowledge Graph which underpins Google Search,” Mr Queiroz said in a Google blog post announcing the phone.
NO IFS, JUST BUDS
Alongside the unveil of the Pixel 2 smartphones, Google also made its first foray into the wireless earphones space with the launch of its Pixel Buds. And it’s not just a hardware play.
The Pixel Buds was designed to bring Google Assistant to the fore, allowing users to play music, make a phone call or get directions without having to pull out their phones. It can also go “eyes free” by reading out incoming notifications or messages, when necessary, said Mr Adam Champy, product manager for Google Pixel Buds, during a separate media briefing on the same day.
Google Pixel Buds at the launch event. (Photo: Kevin Kwang)
It is also designed to be contextual and adapt to the user’s activity or environment – reiterating one of the four core attributes CEO Sundar Pichai laid out during the launch to be “thoughtfully contextual”.
This means when a user activates Google Maps with Pixel Buds, for example, the digital assistant will know that he or she is walking as there is a “low likelihood” for someone to wear the earphones and use the app while driving, Mr Champy explained.
Interestingly, the new generation of Pixel smartphones have done away with the earphone jack. So there’s that, too.
The Just Black model of wireless earphones will come to Singapore later in November, although the exact date and price is not known. In the US, the retail price is US$159 and it will come in three colours: Just Black, Clearly White and Kinda Blue.
SIM-PLY DONE
Let me caveat this right from the start: Pixel 2’s eSIM capability is only limited to Project Fi subscribers in the US. And it likely won’t come to Singapore any time soon.
That said, eSIM, or embedded SIM, functionality is a feature that needs to catch on. Imagine the day when you don’t have to pay for the use of a SIM card to get mobile service, and having to find a sharp-tip object to fish out the SIM card adapter on one’s phone to get started.
Product manager for Project Fi, Joy Xi wrote in a separate blog post on Wednesday, describing such a scenario: “If you’re already a Project Fi subscriber, simply power up your Pixel 2 to begin setup. When you’re prompted to insert a SIM card, just tap the button for SIM-free setup, and we’ll take care of the heavy lifting.”
SINGAPORE: Selected children and parents at the My First Skool centre at Jurong West, which officially opened on Wednesday (Oct 4), will be part of a new study on bilingual proficiency and social cognitive development in pre-schoolers.
The study by the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CBRC) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the pre-school is funded by NTUC First Campus and expected to take place over four to five years, CBRC said.
NTUC First Campus said the research findings will be used to strengthen the school’s bilingual curriculum, and provide teachers and parents with the necessary information to help pre-schoolers gain bilingual competency.
Any improvements to the curriculum at the Jurong West pre-school will be rolled out across the other centres, it added.
According to CBRC, researchers will study the language and cognitive abilities of the children for two years before shaping further research plans.
CBRC centre director Virginia Yip, who will be heading the research along with co-director Stephen Matthew, told Channel NewsAsia that Singapore fits the research agenda as it is a “vibrant, multilingual society”.
“Bilingualism and multilingualism are woven into the fabric of society here,” she said.
Professor Yip explained that the team would also look at how the quality and quantity of input will shape the bilingual development of children in the early years, which she said are the golden years of language acquisition.
This is the first time CBRC has conducted a wide-scale study on pre-schoolers. Previous studies focused on smaller groups of older children in the UK, Hong Kong and the US.
DEVELOPING A NICHE
The new study is in line with vision of My First Skool at Jurong West, which NTUC First Campus said is to become a centre of excellence for bilingualism and cultural intelligence.
According to NTUC First Campus, the centre is the largest pre-school in Western Singapore and can accommodate more than 300 children from two months to six years old. Since it opened in February this year, it has taken in 180 children, it added.
The classrooms feature interactive learning corners such as a Malay puppet theatre, a Chinese convenience stall and an Indian supermarket to help students learn more about these cultures.
There is even an “Aunty appreciation board” where students can leave notes of gratitude for the kitchen staff, a simple gesture which teaches respect.
My First Skool at Jurong West has enrolled 180 children since it opened in February. (Photo: Deborah Wong)
The “Auntie’s appreciation board”. (Photo: Deborah Wong)
The students are also exposed to other languages. For example, the children and teachers try to use different languages – Malay, Tamil, English or Mandarin – to greet each other every morning, NTUC First Campus mother tongue language officer Connie Lum said.
This helps them pick up simple phrases which will be helpful in the future, she added.
While only Mandarin is being offered at the centre for now, Dr Lum said there are pilot programmes in Malay and Tamil being carried out in 22 and two My First Skool centres respectively. The centres were chosen due to their high population of Malay and Indian students, NTUC First Campus said.
The Malay language programme started two years ago while the Tamil language one began early last year. My First Skool previously only offered these languages as enrichment classes, it added.
My First School deputy general manager Thian Ai Ling said the pre-school operator hopes to eventually offer Malay lessons at 50 per cent of their centres, and Tamil lessons at 20 per cent by 2022. However, she conceded that manpower and resource constraints make it challenging.
Dr Lum said these developments are part of the government’s move to promote bilingual acquisition at an early age.
“Whether you are Malay, Chinese or Indian, the pedagogy is the same,” Dr Lum said, adding that the school ensures that the same teaching aids are provided for those programmes.
She said she had also received positive feedback from parents, as some of them feel that they aren’t proficient enough to teach their children mother tongue languages at home.
“We’ve had very good feedback from the parents. Now they are able to start a dialogue with their grandparents,” Dr Lum said.
Mr Chan Chun Sing, the secretary-general of National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said that a variety of teaching methods is needed as young children have different learning styles from older ones.
“We believe from our own pedagogical studies, that the earlier you start the children on the languages, the easier it is to pick it up. Also the foundation will be stronger and it will last them through their lifetime,” he added.
