Eshin Direct

Buyer Be Wary of Terms and Conditions

Certain individuals keen on pointing out the evils of Facebook have pointed me in the direction of their Terms and Conditions of usage. My friend in the UK apparently got banned for advocating out against the service and only after much grovelling, got back into the service (evidently, there was a value to the service). Bloggers and citizens of the netisphere really ought to be aware of the terms and conditions of the services they use, and understand their rights.

And while Facebook’s terms look detrimental to your rights, it is not alone in this regard. Let’s have a look at what all the fuss is about.

Here is a segment of Facebook’s terms and conditions:

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Singapore Taxis - Singapore’s First Defence

In a little known fact, it is believed that the Japanese successfully invaded Singapore during World War 2 by borrowing bikes and stolen taxis in Malaya to cross the causeway over into Singapore. I was joking with a colleague that if someone invaded Singapore today, oh what a different story it would be if they had to factor in Singapore taxis as part of the battle strategy.

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British Olympics

Yeah, I hate to upset the folks back at home in the UK, but the UK needs a lot of work if it hopes to look remotely like an Olympic event. It shouldn’t be too hard since Britain is already a “developed” nation in the West. But watching the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing, which featured a British “preview” of sorts, one watches it with a little concern for 2012.

I won’t go into the horrendous London 2012 Olympic logo that looks like something my 7-year old niece put it together in a sudden fit of hip hop coolness. But one wonders why the best British icons that the UK can put together are a transforming London bus, a lollipop lady, and a host of hi-tech grey umbrellas. Oh and some dancers doing something.

Leona Lewis performed something noisy with Jimmy Page, whose opening riff offered some hope amongst the dreariness that was the opening, yet failed to deliver anything remotely inspirational. In fact, it was all rather cringe worthy and one wonders if Leona Lewis will even be invited to the 2012 Olympics at all given the fickleness of pop. Leona who?

Yeah, David Beckham was…

(oh gawd, the Singapore Government couldn’t resist sticking in a “we the people of Singapore” TVC in between the Olympic proceedings - just in case you weren’t patriotic enough)

… what was I saying. Beckham was… insipid? tepid? Isn’t he playing for the US now?

Yeah, I think that the UK has to pull something out of the hat that is a little better than what we saw. What happened to the heritage of the UK? It isn’t frigging red buses, or lollipop ladies. The music, the culture, the spirit? Cool Britannia it ain’t. It was embarrassing. Nuff said.

Olympics Rigged

I am going to wade in on the big Olympic debate that I’m sure has a million bloggers working furiously to add their inflated two cents worth. I myself have a highly devalued currency in this regard since my only interest is probably the women’s diving and gymnastics. However, life being life, last night I sat watching the men’s gymnastics, namely floor exercise and pommel horse event, and the bronze mixed badminton finals between Indonesia and China.

Does anyone have any doubt that all sports, with perhaps the exception of professional wrestling, is rigged?

Now, I’m not saying the Chinese aren’t good but having watched both the floor event and pommel horse event from a layman’s perspective it seemed that the Chinese performances were a little lackluster compared to others (say, for example the Japanese competitors like Uchimura Kohei and Tomita Hiroyuki). I will admit that I have no idea about the technicalities of the game but isn’t sport supposed to be a spectator’s event as much as it is about the physical prowess, the excellence of skill and the individual talent of the athlete?

What good is a sport that no-one can be truly amazed by the feats performed because they are distracted by something more spectacular as opposed to something that is technically accurate. The perfection needs to be seen but more importantly needs to be understood by those watching it. Do we have a right to expect this from the Olympics? Yes, it is a chance for many athletes to prove to the world they are the best and for that they very much need the eyes of the world upon them. The millions in value that we provide through various marketing and sponsorship channels, means that the Olympic committee needs to make sure that the average layman still needs to be impressed by a performance even if he doesn’t understand it.

For the China performances that I saw, they won on something that I personally couldn’t see. For the Women’s Synchronized Diving, I could easily see how Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia aced that one. It was a performance way ahead of the pack. One wonders though with the judging of the Pommel Horse and the Floor Exercise gymnastics whether the judges were more concerned about a riot on their hands if say a Japanese competitor won in front of a home Beijing crowd (one recalls that it is China and one recalls that anti-Japanese riots back in 2005).

I’m sure the Indonesia mixed badminton team of Marissa Vita and Limpele Flandy could probably attest to the advantage their competitors, He Hanbin and Yu Yang, had with being in front of a home crowd for the Bronze medal contest. It was a close match but how much did that slight edge come from a crowd predominantly Chinese?

The Girls of FHM Asia

FHM has published The Girls of FHM Asia. Can’t say I’m particularly impressed with some of the candidates and, as usual, it’s a very Western-centric representation of the “hottest” gals in Asia. Well, it was published by FHM UK.

As quoted from FHM themselves:

“Singapore’s men decreed there were at least 100 women fitter than Steph (Song).”

Sort of sums it up.

Here are the candidates:

Kelly Hu
Margaret Lee
Asia Agcaoili
Sunisa Jongsawat
Alannys
Maureene Larrazabal
Josephine Tan
Jackie
Ase Wang
Bianca King
Mika Tan
Shatina Chen
Aliya Park
Rachel Lee
Diana Zubiri
Odette Jacqmin
Maui Taylor
Tiara Lestari
Fiona Chong
Aubrey Miles
Patcharapa Chaichua
Maureen Inductivo
Steph Song
Cassandra Ponti
Caroline Cheong
Phoemela Baranda
Bai Ling

No, I can’t be bothered to post pics up. Google it if you want.