You know the acrid haze (smog, really) is back when...

...SGAG comes up with stuff like this:

10 kinds of Singaporeans during the hazy season!! Which ones have you met??!?!

http://sgag.sg/posts/10-kinds-of-singaporeans-during-the-hazy-season-which-ones-have-you-met

The Indonesian Vice-President made himself very unpopular with Singaporeans for his 2013 remark. He recently reiterated words to the same effect and said Indonesia felt no need to apologise. SGAG again:

For peats' sake!
Anyway, other stress-relieving smog-induced memes have surfaced, such as these:

To wrap up, back in 2013, CNBC compiled this piece:

Choking on Humor – Singapore Sees Funny Side of Haze

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100833470

Thanks, choke! choke! for the meme-mories!

What do you get if you cross an elephant with a...?

The inspiration came after my niece LP returned from an excitement-filled wild life holiday in Africa. So I asked: What do you get when you cross a gazelle with a lion? (Answer at the end)

It seems that, online, there is a genre of such silly jokes. Quite a few involve the elephant. I know this one well...

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a cellphone.
Answer: An Elephone.

Why do I know this joke well? Because it is not a joke. My cellphone's brand is Elephone!
(Model: G7)

It has an interesting tagline: Keep expecting and be surprised!

Someone decided to make the brand more graphic:

Here are some other "crossed with an elephant" images:

  Answer: A swimming trunk.

Then there are these others...

My favourite Chemistry Cat's contribution to the genre:

This one's for Liane:

Finally, there is always the spoil-sport Ethics Committee!

My answer to the poser, What do you get when you cross a gazelle with a lion?
"Lots and lots of their offspring... gazillions!"

GE2015: 70/30 foresight and hindsight.

I think I will make this my final instalment on GE2015. This survey research group, below, was spot-on, one month ahead of the Sept 11 hustings!...

This Is The Research Team That Predicted The Outcome Of The General Elections

https://vulcanpost.com/378251/quad-sg-general-elections-research/

Professor Tommy Koh, in an ST commentary today (Sept 17) gave 10 very convincing reasons why the PAP outsmarted, outflanked and outgunned the Opposition, especially the Workers' Party. Lightning hammered and encircled the Hammer!...

Ten reflections on GE2015

http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/ten-reflections-on-ge-2015

Finally, younger voters will increasingly take centre stage in determining Singapore's future political direction. Here's the assessment of one young writer, currently living abroad as a PhD student:

Singapore slide

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/09/12/singapore-slide/

GE2015: Pundits At Play (PAP)/The "Be careful about what you wish for" poser.

Some very astute commentaries on GE2015 are coming out. These were on my radar:

Disaster for Opposition in 2016?

https://politicalwritings.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/disaster-for-opposition-in-2016/

Thoughts of a Cynical Investor

https://atans1.wordpress.com/

Oh, I like the cartoon that was used in the above blogsite:

The context for the cartoon was this remark by GCT and a rejoinder from LTK:

_________________________________________

GE2015 did provide many surprises but I do not think any of them resulted in a "Be careful, you may get what you wish for" moment (not this time, anyway). Nevertheless, I was curious about what images I would find online. Here are my curated samples:

Finally, with the so-called "fear factor" in mind...

GE2015: the more things change, the more they remain the same?

In the run-up to Singapore's general election 2015, held on Sept 11, and in which all 89 wards were contested, many pundits saw hope for an opposition breakthrough -- that is, an increased presence in the PAP-dominated Parliament. On the other hand, as polling day neared, the "fear factor" of a freak election result in which the PAP found itself booted out of power gained traction, with no PAP candidate dismissing that possibility -- even though there was no real chance of that happening (neither did the mainstream media rebut this notion).

In the end, as far as seats won were concerned, the result on paper was close to status quo: the PAP retained all its 2011 seats plus the two new wards while the Workers' Party narrowly kept its Aljuneid GRC, as well as its Hougang single-member constituency (SMC). The WP lost its Punggol East SMC to the PAP, again narrowly. No other opposition party won any seat. Arising from this, one observation is that the already glacial movement towards a two-party political system has been stymied, although not necessarily irreversibly.

Just as significantly, there was a national electoral swing -- just under 10 per cent -- in favour of the PAP. There are many reasons for this and I hope to see a convincing analysis of this seemingly unexpected occurrence eventuate. The complicated character of the Singaporean voter will need to be truly understood (a daunting task but one suspects the PAP government -- leveraging on the full complement of resources at its disposal and its very clever tweaking at each election of the electoral boundaries -- already has the most-informed notions!).

Until then, Cherian George's blog commentary on this development being one for the PAP to seize to reform itself is an intriguing one. Here it is:

http://www.airconditionednation.com/2015/09/12/beyond-ge-2015/

Funnies for the weekend.

Everything must go, except the mattress!

So it has come to this!...

...which explains this!

This one is at least punny...

This is apparently a telephone booth in Russia...

Interesting footprint direction markings, at a specialist clinic at National University Hospital...

I suppose only a Singaporean will find this Aussie car plate amusing...

Bill Gates' Book of Numbers...

Just to be fair, here's a dig at Microsoft's rival...

Finally, that stereotype again, about Chinese people eating anything that moves!