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those who missed the days club st to Keong saik - Oct 21, from 4-10:30pm relive your experience CDs battle w Drag queens too! Sink your fangs at all-time consistent standards Lime restaurant : Halloween themed food !!! https://www.facebook.com/events/124459564867867 http://sg.asia-city.com/events/news/7-reasons-why-you-should-spend-your-oct-21-keong-saik-road sadly the cultural tour is fully sold out! FOC: https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/stories-of-keong-saik-red-lights-and-street-life-tickets-37906317817#tickets Post very interesting events happening in sg (not just gay events) here , so that we may have one thread w everything listed , not all over the place (one thread just for Night festival, another thread for.....)

Anyone watch the channel 8 Zoe show? Not about her but I saw the trailer having a young guy in Swimming trunks, love to see his bulge but I have not seen Any image, anyone have? Also I find Calvert better than edmund’s Son. Any topless pics of him? Benjamin Yuen was in a white Speedos, anyone has that pic too? Kindly share please :-)

Was wondering whether anyone has purchased tix to watch the legendary Britney? Before the tix were released, I was worried that they would be sold out in a matter of minutes but surprisingly, a lot of tickets are still available. And the majority of tickets left are priced 400 bucks and up, which I feel is exorbitant AF. I mean, I love Britney, but not enough to fork out that crazy amount. I wonder whether the ticket prices would be lowered or will the concert cancelled if a quota has not been met. Hopeful for the former though.

I have just written a wiki article on Spartacus, Singapore's first gay sauna: http://the-singapore-lgbt-encyclopaedia.wikia.com/wiki/Spartacus_(Singapore_gay_sauna) Spartacus was Singapore's first gay sauna. It was set up in 1997 by pioneering, openly gay entrepreneur and impresario Max Lim. Before the 1990s, local homosexual men had to journey all the way to Bangkok, Thailand to experience the pleasures that gay bathhouses offered. The situation became more convenient in the early 1990s when an establishment called Ryu, meaning "dragon" in Japanese, opened in Taman Pelangi near the Pelangi Complex in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Hot on the heels of Ryu's overwhelming success in attracting huge crowds of both Singaporeans and Malaysians, another gay sauna called New Blue Boys opened at 104 A-B, Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru about a year later. Needless to say, there was intense rivalry and enmity between the two businesses, both fighting for a lucrative market from both sides of the border. Some Singaporean gay men would charter taxis in groups to traverse the causeway and experience what was sorely lacking at home. Savvy entrepreneurs like Max Lim realised the strong demand for such a facility locally. In 1997, probably via securing a bank loan for the initial investment outlay, he opened Singapore’s first gay sauna and named it Spartacus, after the famous Roman gladiator who was depicted to have a relationship with homosexual undertones in the eponymous Hollywood blockbuster movie starring Kirk Douglas. It was located, amusingly but unintentionally, at 69 South Bridge Road! The address was probably chosen partly because of its proximity to the well known nocturnal cruising areas of Hong Lim Park, the back alleys of Boat Quay and Raffles Place. Indeed, after exiting the sauna at night, patrons could conveniently hop over to one of the nearby open-air cruising hotspots for additional recreation. The sauna could be recognised immediately from its external façade because of its colossal signage, garish colour scheme and especially the painted sketches of nude gladiators and the mythological Greek figures of Laocoön and his sons on its external wall facing South Bridge Road, near its junction with North Canal Road. One amusing feature was the infamous sign on the front door of the building which read, "Entry by the rear"! This policy was presumably instituted by the proprietor to prevent the ingress of unsuspecting pedestrians who may accidentally wander into the premises and be shocked by what they see. However, when the disco was operational at night, patrons could enter and exit by the front. Entrance was by membership only, with a card issued upon payment of an annual subscription. In addition, an entrance fee was also required to be paid for each visit even after becoming a member. Spartacus aimed to be a scaled-down version of the mega-bathhouse complex, Babylon, in Bangkok and comprised three storeys of hedonism with a daily gay disco on the ground floor fringed by an overhead observation deck, showers, a gym and sauna in the levels above it. It had an open space on the rooftop, furnished with several long benches for lying down and lush, large potted plants. Members could sunbathe there and tan in the nude if they wished. There were no structures to completely obscure sunbathers from the outside, but the nearest tall building from which office workers could catch a glimpse of the men was hundreds of metres away so there were no complaints from the public. There was also a rooftop bar which operated only at night because it was too hot during the daytime. It was strict about sex at first to avoid complaints and harassment by the police who would make periodic visits. Prominent signs were displayed which read “No obscene acts allowed”. But the rule was gradually relaxed and the signs removed after everyone realised that the police did not intrude and intentionally seek to nab patrons who indulged in carnal pleasure with one another. Lim experimented with the innovative concept of giving members the option of buying shares in the business. Spartacus also pioneered services like offering upmarket buffet meals in the lounge on the second floor. Unfortunately, demand for the meals, as well as the disco, was poor and these particular sections had to be closed down after less than a year due to their unprofitability and waste of space and manpower. The spa facilities, however, were a resounding success. Sauna goers were more interested in partaking of the sybaritic activities than in eating the relatively pricey food, even though it was catered and prepared by an experienced cook. To expand its clientele, Lim resorted to holding lesbian nights on the ground-floor disco on Thursdays. This juxtaposition of lesbian and gay men in common spaces occasionally took on comical overtones - people on the second storey were visible to patrons on the dance floor as there was no concrete ceiling to completely separate the first from the second level, only a peripheral, narrow encircling corridor. So, some lesbians dancing on the ground floor were shocked to see men clad only in towels walking around on level 2, a sight they had never encountered before. Another novelty were the drag shows featuring lip-synching song items and comedy on the ground floor and in the lounge on level 2, held every Friday and Saturday night. Several patrons who would go on to become drag performers themselves in later years made it a point to catch these shows hosted by Max Lim himself. These performances would spur him to organise more such events at Stroke sauna, the successor to Spartacus, in which Lim would sometimes appear in drag himself and, later still, to set up the more official Chinatown Cabaret which advertised its elaborate drag revues online and which was sited on the ground floor of Raw sauna, Lim's third gay spa project. One particularly intrepid endeavour were the free striptease shows held on the second floor lounge in which Lim hired cute boys to dance and peel off their clothes in a sexy manner while weaving in and out of the seated audience, occasional brushing their bodies lightly against the friendlier-looking members. These were probably the first instances of male striptease acts in Singapore, although the boys only stripped to their underwear to avoid running afoul of the law. A regular visitor to Spartacus was a Jewish-American, late middle-aged expatriate named Sam, who, several years later, opened his own gay sauna called Club One-Seven located nearby at Upper Circular Road. Despite its initial popularity, Spartacus' patronage gradually declined. The entire business closed down in late July 1999 due to high rental costs, amongst other factors. Almost a year later, Lim amassed sufficient resources to open his second gay sauna called Stroke along Ann Siang Road.

http://scribblinggeek.com/index.php/2017/01/18/lifelong-game-of-numbers/ Do you agree? The writer is a bit pessimistic. But I think it's mostly the case. Esp with things like IPPT, school cut off points and so on.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/othman-wok-a-man-whose-courage-and-convictions-made-a-difference/3105692.html?cid=fbcna My condolences to family of Mr. Othman Wok. His leadership and unwavering belief made a multi-racial and multi-racial Singapore possible. Thank you, Sir, for your contributions.

Singaporeans are so wealthy....Many are unware they are so rich.... Singapore overtakes Hong Kong as 2nd-most pricey Asian city A new BMW 7 Series sedan costs about US$430,000 (S$589,000) here, due to import duties and regulatory taxes. The same car is about US$300,000 in Shanghai, ranked as the most expensive city. These findings are part of Julius Baer's lifestyle index, which looks at 20 goods and services across 11 cities in Asia.ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG Julius Baer's report shows cost of luxury living in 11 Asian cities Living the high life in Singapore will need pretty deep pockets, according to the latest wealth report by private Swiss bank Julius Baer. "Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong as the second most expensive city in Asia as the latter remains out of favour with Chinese tourists," said the report which was released yesterday. Hong Kong was in third position. Shanghai remains the most expensive city - the same as last year - despite its relatively cheaper BMW price. Especially pricey there are hospital stays, watches, botox, cigars and high-end skin cream. The findings are part of Julius Baer's lifestyle index, which reveals the costs of luxury living by looking at 20 goods and services across 11 cities in Asia. Data was collected from June last year to June this year. On the other hand, when it comes to high-end homes, Singapore has become markedly more affordable, with prices slumping 26.4 per cent compared with last year, in local currency terms. In Mumbai, prices fell 21.9 per cent, and in Tokyo, prices dropped 11.9 per cent. Julius Baer compared homes in prime locations of about 4,000 sq ft in area. The private bank said Singapore property prices remained soft, as previously imposed stamp duties and property loan restrictions deterred non-resident investors and dampened speculative activity. "However, we are starting to see signs of a bottoming of activity, particularly in the prime districts where sales volumes have increased sharply in the first half of 2016 due to the various incentives and discounts offered by developers." Julius Baer believes that over the medium term, Singapore's reputation for quality health care services, and as a liveable and business city, will continue to attract foreign homebuyers. It also noted that the gradual easing of prices in the property markets is a prudent measure that has "likely forestalled a more aggressive economic adjustment". Golf club memberships here could be considered "cheap" relative to the region, with prices dipping 4.2 per cent, after buyers stopped trading in memberships, on the back of government announcements that it was taking back the land from three clubs and that two others would not have their leases renewed. The bank also added a high-end skin cream to the lifestyle index this year. It added that Asia makes up 36 per cent of the global beauty market, and is expected to grow 4.5 per cent every year until 2019, far faster than the global market. With the certificate of entitlement (COE) system in Singapore, it is no surprise that a brand new BMW 7 Series sedan here costs the most among the 11 cities surveyed. A new BMW 7 Series sedan costs about US$430,000 (S$589,000) here, owing to import duties and regulatory taxes. In Shanghai, "a distant second", the same car is about US$300,000. It also expects the assets of high net worth individuals - people with net investable wealth of US$1 million or more, excluding property used as their main residence - across the region, to grow to US$14.5 trillion by 2020. Julius Baer Group chief executive Boris Collardi said: "This year's lifestyle index demonstrates that there remains enormous demand for luxury goods and services in Asia, but it equally signals that asset price fluctuations can be a potential drag on spending."

What has Singapore become nowadays...always hitting world news : US asks Singapore to extradite former execs in navy bribery scandal A spokeswoman for Singapore's Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) told AFP the office has "received extradition requests from the US government" for the former executives of Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA). Posted 19 Sep 2016 20:07 Updated 19 Sep 2016 20:10 File photo of the Singapore financial and port district. (Photo: Edric Sng) SINGAPORE: The United States has sought the extradition of two former executives of a Singapore-based defence contractor at the centre of a bribery scandal that has rocked the US Navy, government lawyers said Monday (Sep 19). A spokeswoman for Singapore's Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) told AFP the office has "received extradition requests from the US government" for the former executives of Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA). "AGC has acted on these requests and the matter is now fixed for committal hearing before the State Courts on Sep 21, 2016," she said. A US Department of Justice statement issued on Sep 15 said Neil Peterson and Linda Raja, both Singaporeans, were charged in San Diego in California in relation to the scandal which has tarnished top US naval officers. Both were arrested in Singapore. GDMA owner Leonard Glenn Francis is awaiting sentencing in the US after he admitted in January last year that his company, which provided port services, plied naval officers with cash, prostitutes, Cuban cigars and Kobe beef to ensure US Navy ships stopped at ports where GDMA operated. Peterson, 38, was the Singapore-based firm's vice president for global operations and Raja, 43, was the general manager for Singapore, Australia and the Pacific islands, the US Justice department statement said. Both are accused of conspiring with Francis to defraud the US Navy by submitting more than US$5.0 million in false claims and invoices and working to "perpetuate and cover up their fraud", it said. A total of 16 individuals have been charged in connection with the investigation into GDMA, including Peterson and Raja as well as 11 current or former US Navy officials, the statement added. In June Rear Admiral Robert Gilbeau - the highest-ranking US Navy officer charged in the probe - pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with GDMA. Gilbeau admitted before a federal judge in San Diego that he had lied when he told investigators that he had never received gifts from Francis. Another one of those convicted, US Navy Captain Daniel Dusek, was sentenced in March to 46 months in prison for giving classified information to GDMA in exchange for prostitutes and lavish gifts. Alex Wisidagama, another GDMA executive who had pleaded guilty in the case, was sentenced in March to five years and three months in prison and ordered to pay US$34.8 million in restitution.

April is 18th straight month negative Inflation = means everything is cheaper now in Singapore than 18 months ago and falling prices in Singapore. Means employer will pay more salaries, since everything is cheaper now. Below the surface of falling prices in Singapore Marissa Lee marilee@sph.com.sg Permalink:http://str.sg/4w4CCopy The risk to sustainable growth is not deflation but a debt spiral April marked Singapore's 18th straight month of negative inflation, and economists reckon that this streak would have entered its 19th month once the May data is released on Thursday. Never before has Singapore's consumer price index (CPI) been in contraction for so long. The last time prices fell for so long was back in late 1975, when the CPI went into 16 straight months of contraction in the wake of a world recession. On the surface, this current prolonged bout of falling prices seems alarming. Previous episodes coincided with recessions in 1998, 2001 and 2008, when weak demand dragged prices lower. Often, a prolonged fall in prices is also a sign of deflation - a problem with dire consequences that are hard to reverse. In what is called a "deflationary spiral", consumers, anticipating that things can only get cheaper, save rather than spend. Firms' profits fall, wages stagnate, and so does growth. Japan, which has had deflation for 15 years, is still struggling to stoke spending. Having exhausted better options, the Bank of Japan decided in January to set a -0.1 per cent interest rate on some deposits that banks keep at the central bank, to spur bank lending. Meanwhile, the annual interest rate on a regular savings account is just 0.001 per cent. Is Singapore at risk of a similar plight? SAME SYMPTOM, DIFFERENT CAUSES To be sure, falling inflation can be good or bad, depending on the underlying demand and supply factors. ST ILLUSTRATION: MANNY FRANCISCO Back in 1975, Singapore was pretty glad to see prices cooling. Inflation then had hit a peak of 22.4 per cent in 1974, after the Arab oil embargo sent world oil prices quadrupling. So negative inflation meant that imported food and oil prices were stabilising, and that local efforts to stamp out profiteering had worked. Today, negative inflation could be a good sign if it means that prices are falling because firms are using better technology to cut their production costs, or that healthy competition is driving down prices of some of the 6,600 goods and services in the CPI basket. But given the breadth of Singapore's import markets, these effects are difficult to discern. What we do know is that after the commodities price crash in 2014, Singapore imported oil at dramatically lower prices. On the domestic front, government intervention, rather than sluggish demand, has been the main drag on inflation. Cheaper certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums for vehicles, falling home rents and imputed rents (a proxy for accommodation costs) have been holding the headline CPI number down. Government administrative measures and lower imported inflation do not worry economists as much as a broad fall in prices that results from sluggish demand. NOT DEFLATION What is clear is that Singapore is not facing deflation. The complication lies with how the CPI basket is constructed. While direct oil-related items such as petrol and electricity comprise around 5 per cent of the CPI basket, accommodation and private road transport costs together account for more than a third of the index. To give that weight some perspective, the MAS core inflation measure, which excludes accommodation and private road transport costs, has been climbing even as the CPI has fallen. Although the official forecast is for inflation to remain negative throughout the year, the fall in prices has not been broad-based. Food prices, for example, have risen. ese reasons, Singapore is "not facing deflation", Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) managing director Ravi Menon explained in great detail at a media briefing last July. Deflation, as defined by former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, is "a general decline in prices, with emphasis on the word general". Sector-specific price declines, noted Mr Bernanke, are "generally not a problem for the economy as a whole and do not constitute deflation". Likewise, the MAS prefers the term "negative inflation" to describe the Singapore price environment. The distinction is an important one. Negative inflation acknowledges that prices are falling but not because of a wider economic malaise afflicting the economy, such as deflation. In fact, if it wished to, the Government could easily lift its policy levers to raise inflation again. Just take the surprise move by the MAS to ease rules on car financing on May 26, shortly after Singapore crossed 18 months of negative inflation. That weekend, car dealers saw a spike in showroom traffic. At the bidding exercise two weeks later, the COE premium for cars of up to 1,600cc jumped 14.2 per cent to a six-month high of $53,694. That's definitely making an impact on June's CPI reading. And Singapore has more room to manoeuvre with the property cooling measures that were implemented from 2009 to 2013, after inflation hit 4.6 per cent in 2012. More importantly, the authorities have a firm handle over both the property and car markets through their control of land supply and vehicle quotas, as well as through property and car financing. So, while home rents and private road transport costs are dragging headline CPI down, what's happening in those two markets is better described as the MAS moderating demand across time. BALANCING OTHER OBJECTIVES The CPI is the broadest measure of inflation, designed to include a wide variety of consumer items - 6,600 to be exact - which is why it is the most useful gauge of price pressures in an economy. But the headline CPI number is not always the best measure of consumer demand. Most countries construct various measures of inflation to better understand the forces behind price pressures, and in Singapore, the MAS core inflation rate gives a better picture of the underlying trend in prices caused by demand-induced cost pressures. Singapore has been stuck in negative inflation for the longest stretch on record, but that's partly an administrative decision and partly the effect of the commodities cycle, which will swing. More importantly, according to a research paper published last year by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a central bank think-tank, falling prices of goods and services are not by themselves worrying. Instead, it is asset price deflation - property and equity price collapses in particular - that have historically given consumers a bigger squeeze and stymied growth. The BIS research also asked if more debt in an economy has increased the costs of deflation. The answer was yes: Since property price crashes tend to follow when a price boom is fired by easy credit, said the report, "financial cycles deserve close attention". In this regard, Singapore's tougher lending limits and negative property inflation are not all that undesirable. Sustainable growth requires that prices are stable so that firms face less uncertainty over returns on long-term investments. That's why the MAS has a mandate to maintain low and stable inflation. But as the world faces the prospect of interest rate normalisation after rounds of monetary easing, the greater risk to sustainable growth is not a deflationary spiral, but a debt spiral, and it is good that the MAS has not chased inflation at the cost of higher debt.

How productive will we be from 2017 ? Singapore public servants' computers to have no Internet access from May next year The move is aimed at plugging potential leaks from work e-mail and shared documents amid heightened security threats. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG Published 4 hours ago Facebook2,310 Twitter WhatsApp Email More ShareTweetLinkedin PinGoogle+RedditPrintPurchase Article Permalink:http://str.sg/43RcCopy Irene Tham Tech Editor itham@sph.com.sg All computers used officially by public servants in Singapore will be cut off from the Internet from May next year, in an unprecedented move to tighten security. A memo is going out to all government agencies, ministries and statutory boards here about the Internet blockade a year from now, The Straits Times has learnt. There are some 100,000 computers in use by the public service and all of them will be affected. <a target="_blank" href="#"><img src="https://s0.2mdn.net/4010624/uob_favourites_st300x250_backupgif_v3a.gif" width="300" height="250" border="0" /></a><img width="0px" height="0px" style="visibility:hidden" border="0" src="" /> "The Singapore Government regularly reviews our IT measures to make our network more secure," a spokesman for the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) said when contacted. The move is aimed at plugging potential leaks from work e-mail and shared documents amid heightened security threats. Trials started with some employees within the IDA - the lead agency for this exercise - as early as April. Web surfing can be done only on the employees' personal tablets or mobile phones as these devices do not have access to government e-mail systems. Dedicated Internet terminals have been issued to those who need them for work. The Straits Times understands that public servants will be allowed to forward work e-mails to their private accounts, if they need to. It is rare even for banks, telcos and casinos - which are known to have the strictest computer-use policies - to cut off Internet access on all work terminals. Banks give only some personnel - such as analysts, sales staff and corporate communications employees - Internet access, but file-sharing, Web-hosted e-mail and pornography websites are blocked. The fear is that staff may download malware accidentally from dodgy websites, or share sensitive documents online. Mr Aloysius Cheang, Asia-Pacific executive vice-president of global computing security association Cloud Security Alliance, said the Government's move marks a return to the past - the 1990s - when Internet access was available only on dedicated terminals. "In the past, it was hard for malware to extract sensitive information from within government networks," he said. "Now, it is hard to control any leak on social media or file-sharing sites." It will take time to convince users about the new system as the Internet is ingrained in most work processes. One teacher noted that he uses it extensively to develop worksheets and test papers.