Saturday, January 15, 2022

Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues


1. How to reduce congestion on the roads leading to the popular schools?
2. How to reduce the demand for popular schools?

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Friday, January 14, 2022

Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues


1. Should parents be allowed to drive their child to the school?
2. What is the main cause of dirty public toilets?

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Thursday, January 13, 2022

Answering questions in Parliament

 I share Lowinsky's opinion about a better approach to answer questions in Parliament. It is quite troubling to see how the questions are being answered now.


To whom it may concern

From the Speaker of the House to the Leader of the House to the Minister in the House it is very clear that they not only do not wish to answer the question but instead they wish to befuddle it to death.

All that the Opposition Member of the House wishes to clarify is whether there are schools practicing vaccine discrimination policy among the students.

If it is not true then all that the Minister needs to do is to stand up and deny the validity of the allegation referred to in a telegram post put up by a concerned parent.

If the Minister does not know the answer all he needs to do is to request for time for the Ministry of Education to look into the allegation.

If the Speaker of the House is truly a fair and
unbiased Speaker and recognizing that the Opposition Member of the House derived the information for his question from a telegram post he should not keep pushing haranguing bullying disrespecting and ordering the Honorable Member of the House to take his seat and keep his lips sealed as if he is a child in school

To behave the way he did and for the Leader of the House to join in to chastise the Honorable Opposition Member of the House is to say the least absolutely un-parliamentary.

It is not as if the Opposition Member of the House is raising a trivial question. His question deals with Covid vaccination and given the proclivity of this government to use compulsory measures to get a perfect score and get children from 5 to 11 to be vaccinated as well the question raised by the PSP Opposition Member of Parliament is perfectly relevant and in order. It is the ill-mannered PAP Speaker of the House who is totally out of order.

Lowinsky
13th January 2022

http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=5191

Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues


1. Are the agencies such as CPIB and AGO acting independently of politics?
2. Do Singapore leaders speak the truth based on the facts?

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Discount in China stocks listed in Hong Kong

 Many stocks of big companies in China are listed in Hong Kong and in Shanghai. The HK price is often at an attractive discount (of 25% to 80%) compared to the Shanghai price. See this webpage for the difference.

I have often been asked - why is there a difference in the prices? Is it possible to buy the stock in HK and sell them in Shanghai? This is called arbitrage.

Compare the prevalence rate

 The minister reported that 2,600 omicron cases have been imported into Singapore, accounting for 60% of the 4,322 cases recorded in Singapore. Report.


This information is not helpful. It is potentially misleading.

Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues


1. Should working hours be reduced with a modest reduction in pay?
2. Should we continue the restrictions to slow the spread of omicron?
3. Should we close the borders?

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WOTC - Defense spending

 Wisdom of the Crowd: 80% of the respondents said that Singapore should reduce its defense spending and still maintain a credible defense capability. This will reduce the tax burden on the people.


Monday, January 10, 2022

Ask a simple question directly

 Someone asked me a question - why are you negative on PD?

This is the kind of nonsense that I get regularly. Why does this question really mean? I learned later that he was referring to privacy of data.
Why did he consider me to be against PD? I learned later that he was referring to my view that NRIC should be a public ID and not kept private.
Here is a smart person who does not want to ask a simple question - why are you against keeping NRIC private? Instead, he asked - why are you negative on PD?
By framing the question in that manner, he is actually being dishonest.
This is how American politicians behave. They twist a fact and present it with words that convey an entirely different meaning.
I hope that people do not follow this bad and dishonest practice.

China Mobile (0941.HK)

 The price of China Mobile (0941.HK) received a boost when it was floated in Shanghai on 5 Jan 2022. The price corrected somewhat and has since recovered to its recent high.

I invested in this stock in HK for the reason explained here:

How to get a monthly income from your property

 Someone asked me about "reverse mortgage". He has a fully paid property and wish to use it to provide an monthly income to meet his living expenses (and for his spouse) for the rest of their life.

I offer this suggestion.

Use a mobile app with fingerprint access


It is dangerous to use a OTP send by SMS as a second level authentication (2FA) for a bank transfer. The SMS can be intercepted by a sophisticated hacker.
It is safe to use a mobile app as a 2FA device. The app generates a 6 digit PIn which can be used for entry into the banking platform. As a further safeguard, the app requires user to provide his fingerprint.
A mobile app with fingerprint access is safer than a physical token.

Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues


1. When should Singapore increase GST to 9%?
2. Should non-regular workers be exempt from CPF and other staff benefits?
3. Do you agree that CareShield should be paid by individual premiums?
4. Should NRIC be kept private?
5. What is a better way to identify a person?

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WOTC - Biggest liar

 Wisdom of the Crowd: 51% of the respondents voted LHL as the biggest liar, followed by Joe Biden (40%).

WOTC - End of pandemic

 Wisdom of the Crowd: 53% of the respondents expect the covid pandemic to be over by 2022 or early 2023.

WOTC - Omicron variant

 Wisdom of the Crowd: 83% of the respondents said that the omicron variant will be mild and will lead to less hospitalization and deaths.


Ponzi scheme involving a crypto exchange

 My friend invested $1,000 in a crypto exchange. He receives $5 a day (perhaps in crypto currency) for 400 days. This gives him a 100% return (assuming that the value of the crypto currency remains stable).


He asked my view about this investment. He asked if it is safe for him wants to put more money into the crypto exchange.

Bank charged a high interest rate for a loan

 The business customer applied to renew a loan from the bank. He opted for repayment at floating interest rate.

The application was not finalized. Apparently, the bank was overwhelmed with too much business and the workflow was chaotic.

The customer realized the problem when he received a statement from the bank charging him the default interest rate of 6.5%, when the floating rate was only 1.6%. The difference was a few few thousand dollars each month.