Friday, June 2, 2017 – 12:27
Others
Second fundraising campaign for Strangers' Reunion chef with Stage 4 cancer
One and a half years ago at just 26 years old, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer with tumours in his lungs, brain, spine and bones.
Sebastian Tan, the head chef of Singapore cafe Strangers’ Reunion, has since gone through painful rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other medical treatments.
This was possible thanks to the financial help given by the fundraising campaign, “Save a Stranger”, that his employers started for him when his cancer was first detected.
Earlier last month (May 5), Strangers’ Reunion’s Facebook page released another call for help.
Left with $9k from the previously raised sum of $92k, more funds would be required to support further treatments for the Malaysian chef, who has no personal insurance of his own.
While the treatments were able to keep Tan’s cancer under control for a period of time, where he’d managed to go back to work and “play abit of his favourite basketball”, it hasn’t been so for the last few weeks.
The Facebook post revealed that his cancer had started to act up and caused a buildup of fluid in his lungs, which led to the pooling of fluid around his heart – a critical condition which required emergency high-risk surgery.
Cancer-stricken chef at Strangers’ Reunion gets overwhelming support
To continue helping the chef with his battle with cancer, the cafe has since started a second fundraising campaign for their employee at GIVE Asia, along with placing donation boxes outside their three cafes.
More information about the campaign can be found on its website.
ongymm@sph.com.sg
Friday, June 2, 2017 – 16:13
More about
Others
Why 'Wonder Woman' won't fix everything that's wrong with the DC movie universe
The Wonder Woman movie releases Friday – and the reviews are almost uniformly positive.
With a 94 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it is currently tied with The Dark Knight and Iron Man for best superhero movie ever.
And yet as a DC comic book lover, I find myself sceptical about whether this movie can turn the Warner Bros. franchise of DC movies around.
Why? Because I’ve been burned many times before. And I’m tired of it.
I read a substantial amount of the books DC publishes, and I have love for almost every piece of work I’ve seen.
Scott Snyder, Jody Houser, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joshua Williamson, Gerard Way, Greg Rucka, Marley Zarcone and literally countless other artists and writers astonish me on a weekly basis.
Warner Bros. Animation gave me Batman: The Animated Series in the formative years of my life, and I will be forever grateful. And I can’t be convinced that The Dark Knight is anything but the best film ever made.
But then Warner Bros. almost destroyed that legacy with the monster turds that were Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. (Man of Steel was pretty rough, too. Don’t think I forgot about that one.)
The treatment of some of my favourite characters in these films was concerning.
The rumours and buzz surrounding some of the upcoming projects is really concerning.
Why can’t the Flash film find a director?
Is Batfleck even going to get his own movie?
Clearly, there have been systemic issues with the studio’s approach to the entire DC Universe.
Let’s break them down.
The villains are all wrong
There’s clearly a lot of ground to cover, but the best place to start is with the villains.
Read the full article here.
Sunday, June 4, 2017 – 14:30
More about
Others
G-Dragon to return with 'Bulls—'
G-Dragon has confirmed the lead track for the upcoming album — “Bulls—.”
YG Entertainment, the K-pop sensation’s agency, revealed the poster for his new album and announced that the title of the track will be “Bulls—.”
“The song ‘Bulls—‘ will be a hip-hop track which is every bit as powerful as the title suggests,” YG officials said.
The album, titled after G-Dragon’s real name Kwon Ji-yong, will be the first studio album since “Coup d’Etat” in 2013.
It will be released next Thursday.
Friday, June 2, 2017 – 11:55
More about
Others
One-stop national cancer facility to open by 2022
SINGAPORE: The National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) will have a new building four times bigger than its current eight-storey centre built in 1999, which will act as a one-stop cancer care hub to help cope with the rising number of patients.
The new building will open by 2022 at the Singapore General Hospital as part of the hospital’s redevelopment, according to NCCS’ press release on Friday (Jun 2).
Artist’s impression of a research lab in the new NCCS building. (Image: NCCS)
NCCS said the building is designed to be more patient-centric, and services will be organised by disease group. Clinical, research and education facilities for each cancer group will be built close together, so that patients and caregivers can easier access services.
For example, the breast imaging room will be located close to the breast cancer clinic, NCCS said.
It added that the design will also help improve staff efficiency, and increase collaboration, knowledge sharing and access to medical and scientific experts, which will ultimately improve patients’ outcome.
Within the new facility, there will be a patients’ resources centre aimed at helping patients and their caregivers make more informed decisions on cancer care and treatment.
A mental and physical wellness clinic will also be housed within the new NCCS building to offer physiotherapy and counselling services, as well as a clinical facility to support the manufacturing of cell and tissue therapy products.
The S$100 million Proton Therapy Centre, which was announced last August, will also be housed in the basement of the new building. It will have a fixed beam room and treatment gantries that can rotate 360 degrees so that protons are accurately delivered to the tumour site. Proton treatment is said to reduce radiation exposure as compared to conventional radiotherapy.
The Proton Therapy room. (Photo: Nagoya Proton Therapy Centre, Hitachi)
The new cancer facility comes as cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in Singapore, according to Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
During Mr Gan’s speech at the building’s groundbreaking ceremony, he said cancer accounts for about 30 per cent of deaths among Singapore residents in 2015. Between 2011 and 2015, about 35 residents were diagnosed with cancer and 15 died from cancer every day, he added.
Groundbreaking ceremony for the new National Cancer Centre Singapore building. (Photo: Rachel Phua)
However, cancer treatment has improved in Singapore, Mr Gan said, and more people are surviving cancer today. The age-standardised cancer rate had fallen by close to 16 per cent, from 116 per 100,000 resident population in 2006 to 98 in 2015, he added.
“The groundbreaking of the new NCCS today marks yet another important milestone for cancer care in Singapore and the region,” the minister said. “NCCS will continue to explore new technologies and treatment modalities to further improve cancer care.”
Japan may soon allow married women to use maiden names in passports
As part of efforts to promote women’s active participation in society, the government is considering allowing them to put their maiden names alongside their married names in passports from around fiscal 2019, according to government sources.
The plan will be included in the government’s Intensive Policy to Accelerate the Empowerment of Women 2017, which will be decided in early June.
The Foreign Ministry, which is in charge of passport-related issues, plans to begin making the necessary revisions to laws and regulations after studying cases overseas, among other things.
Under the current system, only a limited number of people are allowed to use their maiden names along with their married ones, such as those who use their maiden names for work or other activities overseas.
They are required to submit a document to show their achievements under their maiden names.
There are some exceptions to this requirement, such as when a person hopes to renew a passport that already has both names.
But as the system involves cumbersome procedures and is not widely known, less than 1 per cent of people who had their passports issued in 2016 chose to list their married and maiden names, including people who are married to non-Japanese nationals.
In response to the new policy, the ministry is going to consider changing the principle of writing down “names that are on the family registry” on passports, which is stated in enforcement regulations of the Passport Law, into a system in which anyone can have both their maiden and married names written on their passports without submitting a certificate.
The ministry will also consider changing the form of writing both names on passports. Currently, a maiden name is put in parentheses and placed to the right of the married name on the passport.
As this form using parentheses is rare by international standards, it has been pointed out that people with such passports tend to wait longer at immigration control.
As it is sometimes allowed overseas to list a maiden name as a middle name on a passport, the ministry will study such an option as well.
The government’s intensive policy to accelerate the empowerment of women was first compiled in 2015, and this year will be the third year of the policy.
It will be officially approved in early June at a meeting of the Headquarters for Creating a Society in which All Women Shine, headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The policy is expected to also include the establishment of legal arrangements for allowing people to have both maiden and married names written on their My Number identification cards in fiscal 2018 or later, and measures to promote the use of maiden names for things such as bank accounts.
In the field of child care, the new policy is expected to clearly state the government will continue efforts to support the commercialization of liquid formula, which is currently not allowed to be sold in the nation.
Regarding the working environment, it will say the government will study measures to make sure corporate information such as the percentage of women in managerial positions and the percentage of male employees taking child-care leave is disclosed.
***Major points from Intensive Policy to Accelerate the Empowerment of Women 2017***
■ Allowing people, in principle, to have both their maiden and married names on their passports from around fiscal 2019. Promoting use of maiden names on My Number cards and for bank accounts
■ Promoting commercialization of liquid baby formula
■ Reinforcing disclosure of corporate information related to women’s empowerment
■ Providing medical and scientific support for women athletes heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and ParalympicsSpeech
Friday, June 2, 2017 – 11:26
More about
Others
20 more locations to get noise barriers along MRT tracks
SINGAPORE — Noise barriers will be installed along elevated MRT railway tracks at 20 locations across Singapore, including Tampines, Jurong East and Ang Mo Kio, as part of on-going efforts to reduce noise levels near residential areas.
On Friday (June 2), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it is calling a tender for an additional 10km of railway noise barriers to be installed at 20 new locations along the North-South and East-West Lines.
The tender is expected to be awarded by the third quarter of this year. On-site works are expected to begin from middle of next year, and the project is expected to be completed by 2020.
Once completed, the barriers are expected to reduce railway noise levels by five to 10 decibels. The LTA says residents living near the MRT tracks residents “can look forward to an improved living environment”.
The authority has already completed installing about 8.5km of railway noise barriers at 16 locations across the island under the first phase of its railway noise barriers programme, with another 3km of barriers, at nine locations, expected to be completed by 2018.
Priority had been given to stretches along elevated railway tracks where noise levels exceed the National Environment Agency’s recommended guideline of 67 decibels averaged over an hour.
Installing the railway noise barriers is a complex process, said the LTA, which involves extensive retrofitting of existing railway structures. Therefore, works are carried out after passenger service hours to minimise inconvenience to commuters.
The authority has also been working with train manufacturers and operators to mitigate railway noise in other ways, such as fitting trains with noise-dampening wheels, using ballast and concrete sleepers on the tracks to enable better absorption of noise, and servicing the train wheels and tracks more frequently.
Shuttle bus service between Changi Airport, Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal launched
SINGAPORE — A shuttle bus service between Changi Airport and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal was launched on Thursday (June 1). The journey cost S$2 for a one-way trip.
The service is a joint initiative between Changi Airport Group (CAG) and the Singapore Cruise Centre (SCC). There will be eight return services on weekdays and 10 on weekends.
The shuttle bus service will start at 6.50am from Changi Airport Terminal 2 and 8.30am from the ferry terminal. Each one-way trip is expected to take between 15 and 30 minutes.
“We are pleased to be able to launch this shuttle bus service so that ferry passengers can enjoy a fuss-free and seamless travel experience between Batam, Bintan and Changi Airport,” said SCC’s chief executive officer Christina Siaw. “This is part of SCC’s commitment to work with our partners to deliver outstanding service to those who use our cruise and ferry port facilities.”
Mr Lim Ching Kiat, managing director of Air Hub Development at CAG, added: “We are happy to partner SCC in launching this new shuttle bus service, which provides greater convenience for our fly-ferry passengers travelling to and from these destinations via Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal — which is in close proximity to Changi Airport. This initiative is also part of CAG’s efforts to meet the growing demand for multi-modal transportation for our passengers.”
