One Gojek customer is upset after a driver absconded with their cupcakes but netizens are saying they got their just desserts for misusing the ride-hailing service.
Reddit user SirLouise13 recounted the cupcake saga on the r/singapore subreddit yesterday (Dec 11), accusing the driver of stealing 80 homemade cupcakes after he had originally agreed to deliver the baked goods to a birthday party on Dec 6.
According to SirLouise13, they had spent eight hours preparing the cupcakes for a friend’s birthday party.
On the day of the party, they weren’t able to personally deliver the cupcakes to the venue and were “out of options” so they booked a car on Gojek.
Despite the fact that Gojek only provides ride-hailing and ride-sharing services — not courier services — the driver accepted the job and agreed to deliver the cupcakes.
SirLouise13 then arranged for their friend to wait at the drop-off point, Amara Resort Sentosa. But the cupcakes never made it there.
Prepared with vinegared rice and topped with a select variety of ingredients, sushi’s exquisite taste is what gives the Japanese dish a permanent spot on almost everyone’s list of favourite foods, kids included.
But apart from being the popular dish that it is, sushi’s practical yet lavish qualities serve a double capacity – suited for a quick and easy fix for lunch or an indulgent dinner for a night out.
While most price tags for a good sushi meal tend to be pricey, affordable but quality sushi is not that hard to find.
Watch our video and then read more about our recommendations.
SINGAPORE – If children can learn only one language other than their native one, it should be coding because “coding is a global language”, said Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook.
Mr Cook, who was on his first trip to Singapore since taking over the helm at the tech giant in 2011, also met iOS developers and secondary school students apart from calling on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
This was no coincidence.
Growing the Apple developer ecosystem is a key agenda of Mr Cook’s two-day visit to Singapore, and he wanted to reach out to a potential army of coders while they are still in school.
During The Straits Times’ 20-minute interview with him on Wednesday (Dec 11), he talked about Apple opening a third store in Singapore and about helping students and adults come of age in the digital economy.
SINGAPORE: Scientists said Wednesday (Dec 12) they have come up with an environmentally-friendly method that uses artificial sunlight to transform plastic into power-generating chemicals, as countries worldwide battle to reduce waste.
Huge quantities of plastic have piled up on land and been dumped in the sea across the world, with Asian nations in particular facing criticism for failing to tackle the problem.
Researchers in Singapore say they have converted plastic into “formic acid”, which can be used in power plants to generate electricity, by using a catalyst which neither damages the environment nor costs a lot of money.
Plastic is mixed with chemicals into a solution which can be broken down by artificial sunlight, with scientists at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University hoping to replicate the process under real sunlight AFP/Catherine LAI
In lab experiments, researchers from Nanyang Technological University mixed plastic with chemicals to form a solution, which could then be broken down by artificial sunlight.
The plastic was broken down in six days, and scientists hope the process can be carried out in future under real sunlight.
“We are able to turn plastics, which are of course polluting the oceans, into useful chemicals,” said Soo Han Sen, who led the two-year research project and is from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
“We’re hoping to turn this into a fully renewable process that’s carbon neutral.”
The plastic is converted into formic acid which can be used in power plants to generate electricity AFP/Catherine LAI
Other methods of recycling plastic typically require it to be melted down using fossil fuels, which produce climate-damaging greenhouse gases.
But so far only tiny amounts of plastic have been converted into formic acid, and Soo conceded there are challenges to replicating the process on a bigger scale.
More manpower and funding were needed to develop it, and so far scientists had tested it only on pieces of pure plastic, and not waste.
When mainland China suspended the transport of all live pigs to Hong Kong following the city’s first confirmed case of African swine fever, frenzied shoppers swamped the city’s wet markets.
They knew that any subsequent shortage would be a big problem because, as one shopper at Mei Foo wet market put it, “any respectable Chinese household needs pork bone to make soup at least twice a week”.
Pork is a staple of the Hong Kong diet, from dumplings to Cantonese soups, and to meet demand the city usually imports about 4,000 live pigs from the mainland every day to complement the 500 or so from local farmers. But since imports from the mainland were first suspended in May, that number has dropped sharply. On December 9, it was just 1,324.
This scarcity has sent prices soaring to HK$159 (S$28) per kg (up from HK$75.7 per kg in January), sending many market stalls out of business. Meanwhile, the meat-loving population – the average Hongkonger consumes 664g of pork and beef a day, about four times that of the average Briton – is having to cut down on its favourite ingredient.
SINGAPORE: The overall unemployment rate in Singapore inched up slightly in the third quarter of this year, even as total employment growth more than tripled from the previous quarter.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly in September to 2.3 per cent from the previous quarter’s 2.2 per cent, according to data released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Thursday (Dec 12).
The jobless rate for residents also grew to 3.2 per cent from the previous quarter’s 3.1 per cent, with unemployment for Singaporeans inching up to 3.3 per cent from 3.2 per cent.
MOM noted however that total employment (excluding foreign domestic workers) increased by 21,700 in the third quarter of 2019, which is more than triple the previous quarter’s growth of 6,200. It also improved from a year ago, when it grew by 16,700.
The bulk of total employment growth came from the services sector, led by modern services, community, social & personal services, as well as administrative & support services.
The majority of increase in these services sectors went to locals, said MOM.
Top services sectors with highest employment growth. (Image: MOM)
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted number of job vacancies declined to 42,200 in September from 47,700 in June.
Job opportunities however remain available, said MOM, particularly for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in the services sectors.
Speaking on Monday ahead of the release, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that the growth in employment suggests that “there is still some resilience in the labour market”.
However, she added that the unemployment rate grew as well because while employers are still looking for people, particularly in the services sector, they are also more cautious in hiring. Jobseekers will take a longer time to secure a role, therefore contributing to a rise in unemployment, Mrs Teo said.
Top sectors with highest job vacancies. (Image: MOM)
Retrenchments grew slightly to 2,430 in the third quarter of this year, compared to the 2,320 in the previous quarter.
However, this was lower than the 2,860 from a year ago.
MOM said that the top reason cited for retrenchments in the third quarter of this year was business restructuring and reorganisation.
On what the labour outlook would be like going forward, Mrs Teo said she “would still be quite cautious” as the number of job vacancies showed that “confidence is still not quite so strong”.
While the number of vacancies have fluctuated each quarter, the quality of jobs is improving, she added.
Addressing the issue of jobs and skills mismatch, Mrs Teo said that it will not go away. In fact, Singapore must expect it “if we are transforming our economy at a fast enough rate”.
“Then the job skills mismatch must actually enlarge. And we must see that as an opportunity,” she said.
Mrs Teo added: “When businesses innovate, the job requirements will change. And because we have a good system in place to help people acquire the new skills that will make them effective in these new job roles, then the innovation story becomes one that is possible in Singapore.”
Australian based Zero Mobile seems to be the first casualty of the data wars among the many mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) telcos in Singapore. These MVNOs lease bandwidth and network capacity from M1, Singtel, and Starhub.
When Zero entered the market in 2017 it was the second to do so after Circles.Life. In comparison, with the launch of MVNOs from the three main telcos, there are more than 10 operating in Singapore now. Zero Mobile’s more popular plan was its unlimited data, calls and text messages with its more expensive plan.
The possibility of the MVNO shutting down was first raised in the Hardwarezone forums by Zero Mobile subscribers who reported receiving end of life notices for their mobile subscription plans in November.
No changes were however reflected on Zero Mobile’s home or social media pages.
Announced earlier this year at WWDC 2019, the Mac Pro is Apple’s love letter to professionals.
It’s crammed full of tech and the latest hardware and Apple even created a special display called the Pro Display XDR to go along with it.
Now, the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are finally available in Singapore, and as you might have expected, they don’t come cheap.
Prices of the Mac Pro start at S$8,699 while prices of the Pro Display XDR start at S$7,299.
However, there are options that you can spec these two devices with.
Now, if you opt for all the bells and whistles, which includes a crazy 28-core Xeon processor, a scarcely believable 1.5TB of memory, and the Afterburner card, the Mac Pro will cost an eye-watering S$73,939.
It took 12 years but the event formerly known as Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention shed that mouthful of a moniker and went for something far simpler and recognisable: Singapore Comic Con.
It makes sense too. Organisers ReedPOP also run the big league likes of New York Comic Con, Penny Arcade Expo and Star Wars Celebration overseas, so it’s only natural that the Singapore iteration of Comic Con gets a name rebrand to make it more accessible and familiar.
The rebranding may or may not have had a hand in its triumphant return to Marina Bay Sands last weekend, where long snaking queues reportedly started forming as early as 7:30am.
SINGAPORE – Woodlands residents will enjoy greater connectivity with the opening of the first three stations along the new Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) from Jan 31, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Wednesday (Dec 11).
All commuters will also have free travel between the Woodlands North, Woodlands and Woodlands South stations for three days, from Jan 31 to Feb 2.
Stations along the TEL have bigger yellow-coloured signage to help commuters find their way around. Exit directories listing all the major landmarks in the neighbourhood with their respective station exits can also be found in both the ticketed and non-ticketed areas of the station.
A locality map with the landmarks within walking radius in the vicinity – including Housing Board blocks, schools, hospitals and religious sites – also helps commuters to navigate their routes.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng, who was at a media preview of the new Woodlands South station on Wednesday, said: “We also want to encourage the elderly to use the trains. Therefore signage to bring them around and to navigate their way through the stations is very important.”
