Neighbor from Hell

My parents dealt with someone like this. She's basically a professional scam artist that tries to mess with people until she can "catch them" and sue them over something. She's bulled everyone around her. My dad's a big guy, and neighbor lady is a tiny woman. So, she tries to do stuff to incite him to go over and confront her so she can call the cops and put on the "I'm a helpless little woman that this massive guy is threatening" routine. Problem is, my dad doesn't play that game. He just ignores her. When you ignore someone wanting attention, they do more and more things to get attention. That's when you make sure you have a video camera all the time. She used to stand out and stare at him while he was mowing, looking like a rape victim that had just seen her former rapist. Then she would run to their car and bang on it while they were leaving the driveway. My dad would work on the house and she'd call up the city to come over and inspect him to see if he was doing things without a permit. Just all-around asshole stuff. The only way this all stopped (because my dad didn't really care about her or her antics) was that she's middle aged and my parents are now elderly. The cops had kept records over the years of every incident they'd been over there for, and it was always her calling to try to get my dad in trouble for something stupid. So, they knew she was nutso. But, my parents are elderly now. My dad has a full head of white hair and is starting to look stooped over. My mom is wheel-chair bound after a stroke. A cop finally said to the neighbor lady, "if I have to come over here one more time about you harassing this elderly man that's taking care of his wheel-chair bound wife, I'm going to haul you to jail, and we're going to have a state psychiatrist deem you mentally insane in order to put you away for good." Things stopped after that. Too bad it took like 20 years.

The director of the Neuroscience Clinic at the National University Hospital (NUH) has been fined $50,000 for breaching medical confidentiality.

Dr Soo Shuenn Chiang, a psychiatrist, gave confidential information about a patient's condition to the woman's brother when he phoned the clinic posing as her husband in 2015.

The man claimed that she was suicidal and needed to go for an assessment at the Institute of Mental Health.

Without verifying his identity, Dr Soo wrote a memo that included confidential medical information for the man to pick up from his clinic.

No action appears to have been taken against the caller who posed as a patient’s husband to deceive psychiatrist Soo Shuenn Chiang into writing a memo, even while the authorities are examining the case.

Dr Soo had treated the woman for adjustment disorder with depressed mood and alcohol misuse. She had a history of depression and was at risk of self-harm.

The man submitted the memo to a Family Court and obtained a personal protection order against the patient.

The patient then filed a complaint with the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), which convened a disciplinary tribunal to hear the case.

The charge against Dr Soo, who pleaded guilty, said his "conduct amounted to such serious negligence that it objectively portrays an abuse of the privileges which accompany registration as a medical practitioner".

It said that a reasonable and competent doctor would have obtained the name and identity card number of the man, and checked it against the patient's records. If her husband was not listed, he should have called and checked with the patient.

An unnamed expert witness at the hearing, an associate professor who is chairman of a hospital's medical board, said that given the circumstances, Dr Soo did the right thing in disclosing the woman's medical condition without her permission, since he was trying "to get expeditious help" for her.

However he should have verified the identity of the person before releasing the memo to him.

The SMC's counsel said: "The confidentiality of a patient's treatment and medical records is a fundamental tenet of medical practice and maintaining the privacy of patients at all times allows patients to seek medical help and discuss their conditions freely."

As the memo was about her mental health, it was "highly sensitive" and "potentially stigmatising" and the disclosure "is irreversible and cannot be undone". It caused the patient much distress.

The SMC asked that the doctor be fined no less than $20,000.

Dr Soo's lawyers, on the other hand, said the fine should not exceed $5,000 as it was "an honest oversight" as he was seeing 17 patients that day.

They said it was also not clear whether the personal protection order was issued because of the contents revealed in the memo.

The tribunal, however, decided on a penalty of $50,000, a censure and a written undertaking not to repeat the offence. Dr Soo was also ordered to pay the cost of the proceedings.

The tribunal said that a breach of patient confidentiality is a serious matter and of considerable importance. It justifies a sentence "which will serve as a general deterrence".

A heavy penalty also sends a signal to potential offenders "that punishment will be certain and unrelenting for this type of breaches and offenders".

Had Dr Soo tried to verify the caller's identity, either himself or through his staff, and was still deceived, it would have been a mitigating factor, the tribunal said.

On 3rd april 2015, Friday a fire broke out at the apartment in Geylang Lorong 6, killing the two Bangladeshi workers, Mr Mamun Abdullah, 22, and Mr Hosen Ali, 20. Three other men were injured.

More than 30 workers were living in the second-floor apartment before the fire.

The Singaporean landlords, who wanted to be known only as Mr and Mrs Bala, said arrangements have been made to clear the water by today. They are working on insurance claims and cooperating with the authorities on investigations, Mrs Bala said.

When world famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku claimed he has found evidence that God exists, his reasoning caused a stir in the scientific community.

When responding to a question about the meaning of life and God, Kaku surprised his interviewer when he revealed that most top physicists do believe in a God because of how the universe is designed. 

Ours is a universe of order, beauty, elegance and simplicity.

He explained the universe didn’t have to be this way — it could have been ugly and chaotic. In short, the order we see in the universe is evidence of a Creator.

“I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence,” the physicist said to Science World Report.

“Believe me, everything that we call chance today won’t make sense anymore. To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.”

WesternJournal report: Kaku, one of the creators and developers of the revolutionary String Theory, came to his conclusions with what he calls “primitive semi-radius tachyons,” which are theoretical particles that have the ability to “unstick” matter or the vacuum space between particles, leaving everything in the universe free from any influence from the surrounding universe.

The physicist explained that God is like a mathematician, which is similar to what Albert Einstein believed.

This idea isn’t new for Kaku.