Things In 2017, Part 2

July 

• Lee Hsien Loong has public disagreement with siblings over Lee Kwan Yew's Oxley Road house 

August 

• SMRT delays on 17 Aug evening and 18 Aug morning 
• US protests by nazis? racist somethings? counter protests? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally and removal of Civil War statues 
• Total solar eclipse over a large region of the US 
• Hurricane Harvey, biggest hurricane in the US in 12 years, mainly in Texas
• North Korea launches missiles over Japan on 29 August and 15 September

US Ship Collisions 

• 17 June 2017, Japan, USS Fitzgerald 
• 20 August 2017, Singapore, USS John S. McCain 

September

• Hurricane Irma hits Caribbean and US
• Bombing on London tube
• Earthquake in Mexico 
• Earthquakes in NZ, Japan, Vanuatu, and Indonesia http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4905276/Series-frightening-earthquakes-linked.html
• Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico  
• Violent clashes in Myanmar 

October

• Gunman kills 60 and injures 500 in Las Vegas
• Flooding in SMRT tunnel between Bishan and Braddell. Lapses in maintenance found.
• Hollywood stars accused of sexual abuse. Particularly Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey 

November

• SMRT trains collide at Joo Koon

December

• Saeed Noori drives car into pedestrians in Flinders Street, Melbourne, Australia http://time.com/5075208/melbourne-car-attack-flinders-street-terrorism-australia/
• Mugabe is replaced as president of Zimbabwe. From everything I've heard of him, I can't believe this went peacefully.

 

• Freelance taxi companies/apps like Uber take off around the world
• Bike sharing companies (that let you pick up their bikes from the street and leave them anywhere afterwards) explode in popularity in Singapore and Australia despite not having proven their business model. Leading to bikes stolen, vandalised, abandoned, put up in trees, and thrown in rivers.

end

Things In 2017, Part 1

Wow, another year. This year I'm going to split this into several posts. It's a mess trying to keep a single post for a whole year.

January
A spate of drivers driving against traffic on Singapore roads, beginning with a man driving a Mercedes in the wrong direction on the AYE, at 120 km/h, leading to 1 death on 20 Dec 2016.
SAF's Terrexes returned from Hong Kong

February
Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un's exiled half brother, was murdered? assassinated? at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia on 14 February 2017. Situation between Malaysia and North Korea deteriorates to the point that they both expel each other's ambassadors from their countries, and prevent each other's citizens from leaving.

March
South Korean president Park Geun-hye removed from office
Brazil found to be exporting rotten meat in scandal
Some countries ban electronic devices with big batteries on flights, due to terrorists possibly hiding bombs in them
Man drives car into people then attacks people with knives in London

April
Bombing on St Petersburg Metro
US launches missiles at Syria
Singapore - City Harvest leaders who were found guilty have their sentences reduced on appeal 
Churches in Egypt bombed 
United Airlines forcibly evicts a seated, normal paying passenger from UA3411 for its crew because flight was overbooked. Outrage ensues (I was going to put his picture but I won't out of respect)
Tensions rise between North Korea and the US, after some missile launches and military drills
11-year-old Johor boy, Mohamad Thaqif Amin, beaten in school, gets infection, has legs amputated, dies

May
Singaporean Mr Jimi Cheong, on holiday with his family in Tokyo, has cardiac arrest while in Tokyo, needs $120,000 for medical fees and $120,000 for medical evacuation, which is raised by his family through crowdfunding. Unfortunately he died soon after arrival in Singapore.
"Ransomware" attacks, mostly in hospitals in England. This is actually pretty smart and profitable - they encrypt your computer, holding your data hostage, and charge you to decrypt it.
Bombing at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, killing 23
Indian Actor Shrey Bhargava complains about Ah Boys To Men 4 audition after being asked to portray an Indian caricature. There is support on both sides - freedom of caricature, caricature isn't real, vs. racism, humour at the expense of others etc.
Clash between militants and security forces in Marawi, southern Philippines

June
Lone gunman attacks Resorts World Manila casino
Huge fire in Grenfell Tower apartment, London, killing at least 80. Said to be due to cladding on the outside to approve appearance, just applied last year.
Lots of delays on Singapore's train system during peak hours, because they're testing the signalling system, which has to be done during rush hour.

Vehicular Attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-ramming_attack

• March, London
• April, Sweden - 4 dead
• May, Times Square - lone military veteran drives car into crowd at Times Square, killing 1.
• June, London. Vehicle and knife attacks. This is the 3rd attack in the UK this year.
• August, Barcelona 

Things In 2016

FBI asks Apple to.. unlock an iPhone? Unsecure iOS? It's very confusing. I'm writing a post about it.

March
Terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium airport and metro
Terrorist bomb kills at least 70 in Lahore, Pakistan
Egyptair flight 181 hijacked. Passenger takes picture with hijacker. Hijacker had fake explosives and an issue with his ex-wife.

4-year-old girl beheaded in Taiwan, in broad daylight, in front of her mother
SMRT has fatal accident

April
Documents from Panamian law firm Mossack Fonesca leaked, exposing hidden assets of government leaders worldwide
PM Lee Hsien Loong and sister Dr Lee Wei Ling disagree on Lee Kwan Yew's commemorations
Death of Prince

May
4-year-old boy gets into enclosure of Harambe the gorilla in Cincinnati Zoo, officials shoot and kill the critically endangered ape. Of course people are split into approval and disapproval.
Japanese parents leave 7-year-old son in bear-infested forest as punishment, he gets lost for 6 nights. This is a bad month for parenting.

June
Death of Muhammad Ali
Alice Fong loses temper and rails at deaf and mute cleaner at JEM food court, then threatens to sue the internet
2-year-old boy snatched and killed by alligator in a lagoon near Disney World, Florida. What is happening to kids these days?
Shooting in gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 50 dead.
UK votes to leave the EU
SIA flight SQ368 to Milan turns back after 2 hours due to oil leak, lands at Changi Airport, then an engine catches fire.

28 June 2016 - Terrorist attack at Istanbul airport, Turkey. SIA flight SQ392 turns back 5 hours into its flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Atat%C3%BCrk_Airport_attack
15 July 2016 - Attempted coup in Turkey. SQ392 turns back AGAIN. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Turkish_coup_d'%C3%A9tat_attempt

It's a bad time for lifts and escalators. I thought it was just China, but it's spreading to Singapore too. Compilation:

• October 2015 - elderly woman's hand severed by lift in Singapore
• March 2016 - lift at AMK shoots up 17 floors, trapping maid for >1 hour
• May - man reverses wheelchair scooter out of lift, not noticing lift had stopped 15 cm above the floor, falls and hits head, dies
• June - boy's toes caught in escalator at Toa Payoh interchange
• June - 3-year-old boy's genitals caught in escalator in Malaysia
• June - woman suffers spine fracture in 5th lift accident in 8 months in Singapore

It's also a bad time for parenting. Compilation:

• March 2016 - 4-year-old girl beheaded in broad daylight in Taiwan
• May - (U.S.) 4-year-old boy gets into gorilla enclosure, critically endangered gorilla shot dead
• May - (Japan) 7-year-old boy abandoned by parents in forest containing bears
• June - (U.S.) 2-year-old boy killed by alligator in Florida
• June - (U.S.) Texas man leaves 6-month old (why isn't there a hyphen for month old but there is for year-old?) in hot car for 4 hours, then tries to save her - by placing her in the fridge
• June - Singapore 2 y.o. abused to death
• October 2015 Singapore - 3 month old Reyhana Qailah Mohamad Shiddiq had a broken skull, father admits to dropping her, and she dies in her father's care
• August 2016 - (Japan) father stabs 12-year-old son to death for not studying
• September - "Man found guilty of abusing his girlfriend's one-year-old baby, who suffered a broken skull"
• September - "Malaysian toddler drowns in ditch after grandfather forgets about him"
• September - "Baby allegedly left in car for 5 hours dies in Malaysia"

Famous people deaths:

• Muhammad Ali
• David Bowie
• Alan Rickman
• Gene Wilder
• Prince 
• Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej
• Carrie Fisher

July
Controversy over SMRT sending trains back to China to repair cracks under warranty. Issues are why Hong Kong news reported this before local news and why the trains appeared to be secretly sent back.

Rise of scam calls in Singapore. What they do is a robot calls random numbers and plays a recorded Chinese message. It asks you to press a button to speak to someone, saving them man hours. These scams usually claim you have an illegal package of passports or credit cards, playing on people's fear of the law. THEY ASK YOU NOT TO TELL ANYONE! THIS IS A HUGE SIGN! It's gotten so bad that several banks and remittance companies have recognised the behaviour and actually preventing people from sending money to these scams.
NUS suspends orientation activities after complaints of raunchy games. Haha

Terror attacks:
Terrorist drives truck into crowd in Nice
Shooting in Munich shopping centre
Axe attack on a train in Wuerzburg, Germany
Machete attack in Germany
Bomb attack in Ansbach, Germany

August
Rio Olympics, Singapore wins first gold medal ever
Spread of Zika in Singapore
In May, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat had a stroke. In August, PM Lee collapses during live National Day Rally.
Pokemon Go craze in Singapore

September
19 August - Samsung Note 7 released. 31 August - reports of batteries exploding. 12 September - first recall. 4 October - recalled phones begin to explode. 11 October - Samsung kills the Note 7.

October
Protests in South Korea against president Park Geun-hye, said to be influenced by and sharing national secrets with a cult. December - she is impeached

November
Trump elected next US president
Interference of unknown origin disrupts signals between MRT trains on the Circle Line, from September to November. It gets so bad they actually shut down mobile phone services in some tunnels on 2 September, then again on 3 and 4 November. In November they finally determined the source to be a rogue train number 46.
9 Singapore Armed Forces Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles are seized in Hong Kong on 23 Nov 16, on the way back to Singapore from training in Taiwan. As of 6 Dec there was still no official reason given.

end

Things In 2015

January
Islamic gunmen attack office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12. They escape and take a hostage in a printing complex. Separately, another gunman kills a policewoman and takes hostages in a supermarket. Eventually, all gunmen are killed.
Mr Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, insults Singaporeans, claims his Facebook account was hacked, fired. So basically Anton Casey again.

Dead rat and rat droppings found in 5 food outlets in Marina Square

Korean boy band B1A4 accused of hugging 2 girls during their concert in Malaysia, then the girls are threatened with arrest after finding out they did it willingly
Husband and wife dead, maid injured after domestic row

February
UMNO minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob asks Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses. It goes down about how you'd expect.
3 people arrested for disorderly behaviour during Thaipusam
TransAsia Airways flight GE235 crashes into a river shortly after takeoff on 4 February

Debate erupts over the colour of this dress. Not big news, but it's a good time to think about colour perception. From someone who bought a spectroscope.

March
Family attacked in their home in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Father and son tie up the attacker, who dies. Initially said father and son might be charged with murder, then reduced.
Lots of MRT breakdowns
Death of Lee Kwan Yew. A week of national mourning for Singapore. Queue to pay final respects reaches 10 hours despite being open 24 hours.
Germanwings flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps, killing all 150 on board. Copilot is suspected of deliberately locking the pilot out of the cockpit and crashing the plane.
Jeremy Clarkson fired from Top Gear for punching a producer (their word: "fracas")

April
South Carolina police officer Michael Slager shoots 50-year-old unarmed Walter Scott 8 times in the back and kills him as he runs away. Officer charged with murder.
Movie (company?) Dallas Buyers Club forces Singaporean ISPs to release information about people who downloaded the movie.
South Korean police use force against people who want to remember the ferry disaster last year.

 Riots in Baltimore

June
Same-sex marriage legalised throughout the U.S.
Coloured powder, similar to that used for the "Color Run", catches fire when used in a water park in Taiwan. Almost 500 people injured, with 5 deaths.

July
Huge disruption in Singapore MRT's North-South and East-West lines. Said to be biggest ever, lasting 3.5 hours and affecting 250,000

August
Huge explosion in Tianjin's port
Terrorist attack near Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand
5 men subdue a gunman on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, preventing a massacare
Virginia TV reporters killed on live TV by ex-colleague

Not sure of the dates of the following but they happened around this time:
Walter Palmer, dentist, paid/was tricked into hunting Cecil The Lion, widely condemned online, forced to close clinic and go into hiding. His history makes this look more like a deliberate act that he knew about.
1MDB scandal in Malaysia
China devalues Yuan
Series of serious (1 fatal) escalator accidents in China
BreadTalk caught labeling Yeo's soya milk as "freshly prepared". They say the bottles were for freshly prepared juice, but it's very suspicious that they conveniently used them to marketing advantage. This comes after they tried to sell a "Lee bu kai ni" bun after Lee Kwan Yew's death.

September
Elections in Singapore
Haze returns
Ello Bello (see January) sentenced to 4 months jail
American Muslim teen Ahmed Mohamed gets arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. Alright this story is a mess and everyone has a different story. Looks like he opened a commercially made alarm clock, put the insides in a case and brought that to school. He showed it to at least 2 teachers, one of which panicked when the alarm went off and called the police. Teen gets arrested, of course the public is outraged, companies give him gifts, he gets invited to the White House. This is a huge issue due to the racial and religious undertones. Someone made a good point that they did it to humiliate him, not that they really thought he had a bomb, because they didn't evacuate or call a bomb squad.

October
City Harvest Church trial: all 6 accused, including founder Kong Hee, found guilty of all charges

November
Terrorist attacks in Paris kill 130

end

Things In 2014

January

Woman kidnapped in Singapore, released unharmed, kidnappers caught
Thailand declares 60-day emergency after 2 months of protests
Malaysian woman drives Malaysian car through Singapore checkpoint and into Ministry of Foreign Affairs' compound, slipping through 2 security checks simply by tailgating
Train delays on 11, 16 and 20 January, the one on the 20th being a serious delay of more than one hour during the morning peak period
British expat Anton Casey calls people taking public transport "poor people", reviled online, apologises, driven overseas, loses his job
2 men fight on MRT train, arrested
80 million credit card details from 3 companies in South Korea leaked, including salary and CC numbers
Bird flu spreads in China and other countries

February

Drought; driest month in Singapore in 145 years
Massive protests in Ukraine, Venezuela and Turkey
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 vanishes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur airport for Beijing. No signs of trouble or distress. No wreckage found after more than one week.

March

Protests in Ukraine drive out president, Russia sends forces in, polls held, claim more than 90% support joining Russia

April

Elections in India and Indonesia
Heartbleed online account password vulnerability revealed
South Korean ferry carrying 470 capsizes, more than 200 missing, at least 9 dead
More than 200 schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria by Boko Haram

May

Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra ousted. Military declares martial law.
Thai military martial law becomes coup
4 killed, 21 injured in knife attack on Taiwan subway train
eBay hacked, 100+million accounts compromised
Attack in Xinjiang, at least 31 killed

July

World Cup
National Library Board, Singapore, pulls 2 children's books from its libraries that "don't promote family values". In other words, the books do not depict the 1-male 1-female cisgender parent families. In simplest words, the books are about stories where homosexuality is ok.
NLB reverses and moves the books to adult section instead
MH370 still a mystery. Nothing new found, only dead ends.
17 July - Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot down over Ukraine by a surface-to-air missile. 293 lives on board lost.
23 July - TransAsia Airways GE222 crashes on landing in Taiwan during a storm, killing 48.
23 July - Air Algerie flight 5017 crashes during flight, killing all 118 on board.
MH136 stops takeoff to avoid crashing into an incoming flight
Gas explosions in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, killing 30

August

Michael Brown is shot dead by a police officer, leading to riots in Ferguson, Missouri, U.S.
Ebola outbreak
Terrorist (?) Islamic group ISIS becomes more powerful, said to be beheading Christians and U.S. journalist John Foley
People dump ice water on their head for ALS (comment - is ALS really the best thing to focus on?)
Death of Robin Williams, possibly suicide due to depression
ACS(I) charters 5 MRT trains to take 3000 students to rugby finals. People surprised that MRT trains can be chartered. LTA comments on SMRT chartering trains, but takes no further action.
Revealing pictures of many celebrities leaked, cloud photo sharing blamed and denied.
Joan Rivers dies.

September

Hong Kong university students boycott classes for greater democracy

October

Hong Kong protests grow
Ebola spreads to the U.S. and Spain
Grenade explosion in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hwa Chong Institution student Agatha Tan pens letter concerning compulsory sex education / relationship workshop run by Focus On The Family, a Christian charity. She is backed up by many people. Program to stop by end of this year.
Oscar Pistorius found guilty of culpable homicide, sentenced to 5 years in prison.

November

Philae lands on comet after more than 10 years, approximately between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Sim Lim Square's shady handphone selling tactics exposed, started by the shop Mobile Air owned by Jover Chew. Legality of paying large sums in coins to cause trouble raised.
Renewed protests and looting in Ferguson and other regions as police officer Darren Wilson is cleared of charges.
Police officer in Cleveland fatally shoots a 12 year old armed with a pellet gun.
Heather Cho, senior vice-president at Korean Air, also eldest daughter of chairman Cho Yang Ho, is served macadamias in a bag, on a flight from JFK to Incheon. Unhappy, she forces the flight to return to the terminal from the runway to eject the attendant. Reviled online. Father apologises.

December

Gunman holds more than a dozen people hostage in a Lindt cafe in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia. 2 people are killed, as well as the gunman.
end

Things in 2013

Hmm, the images and constant updating made it difficult to update the last post. If you try and insert an image in the middle of the post, it appears at the top anyway, and there are problems with line breaks. How can I make this easier? Edit it in another editor first?

---

NUS law professor, Tey Tsun Hang, on trial for "sex for grades" with Darinne Ko

Ng Boon Gay acquited

PAP unveils white paper aiming for 6.9 million people in 2030, which is not received very well

Horse and other meats found in beef in Europe

North Korea successfully tests a ~7 kiloton nuclear device

Oscar Pistorius, a runner with double below-knee amputations who competed in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, is charged with murder for shooting his girlfriend dead

Pope retires, first time in 600 years

Cruise ship, Carnival Triumph, suffers engine room fire, losing power and propulsion. It has to be towed by another ship, while passengers stuck on board experience declining living conditions. Another ship by the same company, Carnival Dream, also suffers generator failure a month later, in March. Passengers have similar troubles, but all this time this ship was in dock. This is the same company that owned the Costa Concordia, a cruise ship that famously sank in 2012!

Russia gets "hit" by a meteor, injuring 1000+ people, just hours before a large asteroid, DA14, is due to pass Earth.

H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China

North Korea makes threats about launching missiles (as of writing)

Margaret Thatcher passes away

Bombing during Boston Marathon. 3 days later, bombers shoot dead a MIT campus police officer on campus, leading to a huge chase and parts of Boston being under lockdown ("shelter in place").

Huge explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas

Bangladesh factory collapses, killing more than 1,000. It is said to be Bangladesh's worst industrial accident.

Earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hits Sichuan

Malaysian General Election, with allegations of phantom voters, deliberate electrical blackouts and mystery voting boxes being delivered to voting centres.

Man is found to have kidnapped and held 3 women for more than 10 years in Cleveland, Ohio

A huge tornado, up to 2 miles wide, hits Oklahoma

Edward Snowden reveals American National Security Agency (NSA)'s surveillance program, PRISM, which is considered a major security breach

Unprecedented haze in Singapore, with 3 consecutive days of record-breaking PSI: 290 (19 Jun), 371 (20 Jun), 401 (21 Jun). Respirator masks and air purifiers sold out.

Asiana Airlines plane crashes on landing at San Francisco International Airport.

George Zimmerman found not guilty of shooting dead Trayvon Martin.

New Zealand dairy company Fonterra's milk recalled gobally following botulism scare, but later tests found a different, less dangerous type of bacteria instead.

Uprising in Egypt. President Morsi, elected a year ago in 2012, is ousted.

Uprising in Syria. Government accused of using chemical weapons.

Shooting in USA at D.C. Navy Yard. Death toll: 12

Shooting in USA in a Chicago park. No deaths.

Wrecked cruise ship Coasta Concordia is pulled upright.

Terrorists storm shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 65.

Indoor ceiling in Jem mall collapses, causing the mall to close for a few weeks.

Construction crane topples at the National Art Gallery construction site, killing 2 workers.

US government shutdown, as political parties cannot agree on a budget.

US woman is shot dead after hitting a Secret Service agent and barrier with her car at the White House and Capitol.

Fire at SingTel exchange takes down Internet access and cable TV for various locations.

Typhoon Haiyan hits Philippines and other countries, killing thousands in Philippines alone and causing widespread damage in cities such as Tacloban. Haiyan was one of the strongest typhoons ever observed.

Tornadoes hit U.S. Midwest

Row between Australia and Indonesia; Australia accused of tapping Indonesian president's phone.

5 Dec - Nelson Mandela dies

8 Dec - Riot involving 400 people in Little India, Singapore after a bus knocks down and kills a pedestrian.

Things in 2012

I liked the posts on 2010 and 2011, so I'm continuing with one in 2012, with some changes:

• posting it now instead of at the end of the year. Sometime in 2011 the post got corrupted and I had to rebuild it from memory.
• augmenting the post with pictures

Events

 SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa resigns


DBS ATMs are hit by unauthorised withdrawals


Wikipedia, Google and several websites are "blacked out" in protest against SOPA. Wikipedia uses Javascript to cover their website with this image for 24 hours.


Hougang MP Yaw Shin Leong resigns suddenly and without giving a reason.

 


NUS student group Campus Crusade for Christ's posters draw outrage

Aung San Suu Kyi runs in Myanmar's by-elections and wins a seat in Parliament

North Korea plans to test a rocket, making surrounding nations nervous.
North Korean rocket test ends in failure.




Possibly related to the prostitution ring article above.

Chinese citizen driving Ferrari beats red light and crashes into taxi, killing himself, the taxi driver and the taxi passenger.

Hougang holds by-election as a result of MP resigning above


Several incidents of cannibalism, the most famous being a homeless man from Miami eating the face of another homeless man before being shot dead by police. Drugs suspected. Concerns of zombie apocalypse raised.

5 members of City Harvest Church, including founding pastor Kong Hee, are arrested on the suspicion of using $23 million from the church building fund to support the music career of Ho Yeow Sun, Kong Hee's wife.

Scaffolding collapses during construction of Downtown Line, killing 2 workers.

Gunman opens fire during midnight screening of Batman The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado, injuring 70+ people.

Transit of Venus

Mars rover Curiosity lands successfully using a complicated, new sky crane system.

Lance Armstrong does not fight drug doping charges and loses his titles (including Tour de France, I think?)

London Olympics.

Protests in China over China and Japan both staking claims to islands.

Protests in Muslim countries over American anti-Islam film, US ambassador to Libya killed.

Ng Boon Gay trial, with very contradictory testimonies by Cecilia Sue.

US election, Obama wins a second term.

Strike by SMRT bus drivers from China.

Australian radio show prank calls hospital where Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William's wife) was staying for morning sickness, which may have contributed to the apparent suicide of a nurse.

Gunman opens fire in an elementary school in Connecticut, killing 20 children and 6 adults.

Around the same time, there was a similar attack in China; a man armed with a knife attacks a primary school, but there are no deaths.

Woman is gang raped in New Delhi and sent overseas for treatment, but dies of her injuries.

Things in 2011

World Events

• Heavy rains cause flooding in Queensland
• Unrest in numerous countries in the Middle East (Arab Spring)
• (1) Earthquake causes (2) tsunami in Japan, damaging Fukushima nuclear power plant. This led to major problems shutting the plant down and dealing with (3) radiation contamination afterwards.
• Elections in Singapore
• Osama Bin Laden is found and executed
• E. coli outbreak in Germany
• Railway station in Singapore moves, tracks open to public for a while. People take pictures of the tracks for one last time.
• Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 90th anniversary
• High-speed train derails in China
• Final space shuttle launch
• Norwegian man goes on a rampage killing people
• US credit rating downgraded
• Riots in London
• HP stops making hardware for webOS, considers stopping selling consumer products, shares drop 25%. TouchPad tablet on fire sale at USD$99.
• Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple
• Presidential election in Singapore, second election this year
• Borders bookstore in the US, Australia and Singapore close down
• Yahoo and HP fire their CEOs Carol Bartz and Leo Apotheker
• Fire at Shell's oil refinery on Pulau Bukom burns for 34 hours and forces the refinery to shut down
• Night Safari in Singapore's new chief, Isabella Loh, cancels their Halloween event 2 weeks before the day, after months of work by Singapore Polytechnic students 
• Steve Jobs dies 
• Gaddafi, Libyan leader, is ousted and killed
• "Occupy" protests, we are the 99%
• Kouk Leong Jin, Singaporean medical student who had just been married for 2 weeks, disappears after going to Athens for a conference.
• Major floods in Bangkok
• Yue Yue, 2 year old female Chinese toddler, is knocked down and run over twice in Foshan, then ignored by 18 passers-by. Prompts reflections on morals in China.
• Turmoil in the Euro zone, Greece and Italy
• 99% protests 
• Major breakdown in Singapore's MRT system, resulting in people being stuck in trains for up to 40 minutes. A train window is broken for ventilation
• Kim Jong Il dies

Personal Events

• Went to Funfields
• Used Scoopon
• Proposed - learnt to use polymer clay, went for photoshoot, went to Eureka Skydeck 88, hired a videographer, ate at Koko at Crown
• Took care of Dota, a bichon frise. Found out that bicon frises are a nice breed of dog to have.
• Went for Guide Dogs Victoria open day
• Had a garage sale
• Went on a road trip to Canberra, Sydney and Surfer's Paradise and moved back to Singapore
• Got married
• Took pre-wedding photos
• Went to Shenzhen and Hong Kong
• Started PhD

Skills Learned

• iMovie
• GarageBand
• Wedding: registration, dinner venue, photographer (pre and actual day), make up artist, invitations

Things I did in 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

At the end of every year, I think, "wow, that went by fast. I don't feel any different, just older." This makes me feel the year was wasted. To alleviate that feeling, I'm making a list of things I've accomplished in 2010, so I can look back and see what I've done.

• Started using eBay
• Brief experience with 3D anaglyph images after buying the glasses on eBay. This was also how I started using BuyInCoins.
• Got a Kindle
• Bought from Amazon
• Went for polymer summer school at Melbourne University
• Went on holiday to Lakes' Entrance
• Went for Lady Gaga's Monster Ball 
• Experimented with IR photography
• Learnt a bit of guitar
• Started using Picasa Web Albums
• Learnt to use a DSLR
• Used vPost Asia
• Bought a Lung Flute
• World Cup
• Went on holiday to Gold Coast
• Got an iPhone
• Wii died so I sold it 
• Joined Facebook
• Went to the Tesselaar Tulip Festival
• World of Warcraft Cataclysm came out
• Graduated
• Went to Muse's The Resistance tour
• Went for Boxing Day sales
• Bought a GPS