In the MacRitchie Reservoir - Tong Tran Son

Scientists have uncovered an evolutionary paradox where men damage their ability to have children during efforts to make themselves look more attractive.

Taking steroids to get a buff physique or anti-baldness pills to keep a full head of hair can damage fertility.

It has been named the Mossman-Pacey paradox after the scientists who first described it.

They say it causes a lot of heartache in couples struggling to conceive.

"I noticed some men coming in to have their fertility tested and these guys were huge," says Dr James Mossman, now at Brown University in the United States.

He was studying for his doctorate in Sheffield when he made the connection with steroid abuse.

He told the BBC: "They are trying to look really big, to look like the pinnacles of evolution.

"But they are making themselves very unfit in an evolutionary sense, because without exception they had no sperm in their ejaculation at all."

Anabolic steroids mimic the effect of the male hormone testosterone in the body and are used as performance-enhancing drugs to increase muscle growth.

They are regularly used by bodybuilders.

Prof Allan Pacey, from the University of Sheffield, added: "Isn't it ironic that men go to the gym to look wonderful, for the most part to attract women, and inadvertently decrease their fertility."

Anabolic steroids fool the brain's pituitary gland into thinking the testes are going into overdrive.

So the glands react by shutting down the production of two hormones - called FSH and LH - which are the key hormones that drive the production of sperm.

'Homeless' in Singapore

SINGAPORE - For the first time, researchers in Singapore gathered people aged 55 and above to talk about what they considered to be their basic standard of living, and calculated that a single man or woman aged 65 and above would need at least $1,379 a month to sustain it

A couple aged 65 and above would need $2,351.

In defining a basic standard of living, participants went beyond housing, food and clothing, to include opportunities to education, employment, work-life balance and healthcare. It should also enable a sense of belonging, respect, security and independence and include freedom to participate in social activities, and engage in one's cultural and religious practices.

The list, said researchers, reflected the norms and values held by Singaporeans today.

Lao girls

On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor and explorer found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: trash.

Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, said he made the unsettling discovery as he descended nearly 10,928 metres to a point in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench that is the deepest place on Earth. His dive went 16 metres lower than the previous deepest descent in the trench in 1960.

Vescovo found undiscovered species as he visited places no human had gone before. On one occasion he spent four hours on the floor of the trench, viewing sea life ranging from shrimp-like anthropods with long legs and antennae to translucent "sea pigs" similar to a sea cucumber.

He also saw angular metal or plastic objects, one with writing on it.

"It was very disappointing to see obvious human contamination of the deepest point in the ocean," Vescovo said in an interview.

Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions in the world's oceans with an estimated 100 million tonnes dumped there to date, according to the United Nations. Scientists have found large amounts of micro plastic in the guts of deep-dwelling ocean mammals like whales.

Vescovo hoped his discovery of trash in the Mariana Trench would raise awareness about dumping in the oceans and pressure governments to better enforce existing regulations, or put new ones in place.

"It's not a big garbage collection pool, even though it's treated as such," Vescovo said of the worlds' oceans

a moment of spur

A 52-year-old man was killed after the e-scooter he was riding was hit by a bus on Thursday (Nov 30) morning.

The accident happened at the junction of Bedok Reservoir Road and Kaki Bukit Avenue 1 at about 10.30am, the police said. The rider was unconscious when he was taken to Changi General Hospital, where he subsequently succumbed to his injuries, the police added. 

it is understanded that the man on the e-scooter was crossing the junction when he was hit by the SBS Transit bus. 

The rider is understood to have dashed across and the bus, which had the right of way, could not stop in time. 

tengah 2018.09.30

a lifetime of agonies

A rider was using electric scooter along a footpath in Bedok Reservoir road when it hit a pedestrian who suffered brain injuries after she was flung to the ground.

After the accident, Ms Goh Lay Yong, 45, had to stop working as an accountant. She now needs help with basic functions such as standing, walking and showering.

He was sentenced to a jail term of eight months and seven weeks while Ms Goh spent the rest of her life as a patient. he is a free after 6 months and could walk, stand showering normally, but she could not.

Kethlyn Gayatiri Koh's post

The recent saga of Monica Baey has taught me one thing: That the internet is a scary place to be in.Within hours of Monica posting her instastory, my Facebook feed erupted with people reposting her story, adding comments about justice not being served/ condemning NUS for sweeping the matter aside and merely asking Nicholas to write an apology letter to Monica/ raging that NUS, Singapore and the world are unsafe places for girls and women because perpetrators like Nicholas get to escape with only a slap on his wrist. Petitions were quickly passed around to give Monica a voice, and to call for stiffer punishments for Nicholas (such as expulsion) and those who commit sexual offences on campus. Many internet vigilantes began digging up similar incidents that occurred in NUS, and many also began naming and shaming Nicholas, his girlfriend and their family.

This is why I think the internet is scary.

1. No one bothered to check the facts of the case. People were satisfied with the information that they received off of Monica’s instastory, and began going on a social media rampage. What if her story was fake? How different are you from the aunties who forward whatsapp messages in the groupchats?

2. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that her story is fake, but what if it really was? Would anyone have been able to tame the wildfire? Before NUS could have responded, internet vigilantes had already began digging out information about Nicholas and his loved ones, and blasting them all over the internet. How much damage would that have caused them?

3. Now that NUS has addressed the issue, many people still thought that the decision was unfair. The internet went crazy, enough to get NUS to set up a committee.
a. However, many failed to understand that the 12 months conditional warning was issued by the police and the AGC, and not NUS. It was also not issued by the judiciary.
i. Instead of banging the bottoms of your pans, has anyone asked why was there only the 12 months conditional letter given? Why was there a petition for the school to do something about this issue, but no petition for the police or AGC to address it?

b. NUS suspended Nicholas for one semester. He was also banned from entering Eusoff Hall, and he had to undergo mandatory counselling. A lot of people thought that this was not enough. The question then is, how much is enough? Do we use the Penal Code as an anchor and gauge from there? How do we quantify sexual offences in order for punishments to be enough? Why do people enjoy playing God, in deciding what is enough?

c. The number of cases that the internet vigilantes dug up show that this is not the first time that such an offence took place in NUS. Why has there been a repeat of such offences time and again? What exactly is NUS doing to ensure that such incidents stop once and for all?

I applaud Monica for raising these issues so that people become more aware of the situation. I applaud the people who stood alongside her and gave Monica the voice she needed. I am glad that mental health and the need to cope are acknowledged. However, I am also disappointed in my community in the way in which we have responded to this unfortunate incident. We are basically aunties on the “orh hor” bandwagon who name and shame.

Think for a minute of the other victims who thought that this saga and the events that followed, would give them a voice. Will they truly get a voice? No. Instead, the perpetrator’s name, details, and pictures will be plastered all over the internet. They would have to confront the perpetrator and the incident all over again. Most importantly, their privacy would be taken away from them as well. Are we actually giving them a voice, or scaring them into keeping silent?

I encourage you to also think about the person who committed the sexual offence. Is deterrence enough? We smack him on the knuckles with a feather duster, then we put his name all over the internet, then we make him lose his job. When is it enough? Do we stop when he commits suicide?

Ask yourself why did Nicholas commit such an act? Ask yourself what have we been doing in schools, at home, and in our community, that have encouraged such behaviour/ could stop such behaviour from manifesting? Ask yourself, how is Nicholas coping? How do we help him to move on from this? As a community, we stand in solidarity with the victim of such offences, but we need to know that destroying the lives of an offender does not make the situation any better. It makes it worst for the person, his family and loved ones. Is it fair for them to also have their faces and information planted all over the internet? How will they ever move on from this? Shouldn’t we as a community help them through?

What about the other offenders? Have we scared them off? What about those who actually need help? Will they be too scared to come forward?

This is why I think that the internet is scary. We choose the people that we want to fight for. Where were your voices and petitions when other people were victims? We name, shame, and destroy. In a country where its people are the only resource, it is disheartening to see us so quick to tear each other down. How will we ever progress as a community if we can’t help each other to be better people?