More trivia -- for the weekend.

CC sent this, with the header "Facts that are interesting to know"...

In the 1400s, a new law in England allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.   Hence we have "the rule of thumb".
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Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented.
It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden".. .
and thus, the word GOLF entered the English language. 
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The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone. 
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Coca-Cola was originally green.
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It is impossible to lick your elbow. 
------------The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: 
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs - Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar 
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111,111,111 x
111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321 
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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 
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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'? 
A. One thousand 
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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?
A. All were invented by women [yes, I had blogged about the woman who invented the windshield wiper].
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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey 
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 In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on.
Hence the phrase..."Goodnight , sleep tight". 
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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar-based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts....
So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down". It's where we get the phrase: "Mind your P's and Q's". 
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Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice. 
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Going nuts... coconuts, actually.

First, let's set the mood. Music please, maestro...

Harry Belafonte's classic 1957 song, "Coconut woman":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF5LGyTEpIk

Coconut woman is calling out
And everyday you can hear her shout
Coconut woman is calling out
And everyday you can hear her shout
Get your coconut water, four for five
Man it's good for your daughter, four for five
Coco got a lotta iron, four for five
Make you strong like a lion, four for five

A lady tell me the other day
No one can take her sweet man away
I ask her what was the mystery
She say coconut water and rice curry
You can cook it in a pot, four for five
You can serve it very hot, four for five
Coco got a lotta iron, four for five
Make you strong like a lion, four for five

Coconut woman says you'll agree
coconut make very nice candy
The thing that's best if you're feelin' glum
Is coconut water with a little rum
It could make you very tipsy, four for five
Make you feel like a gypsy, four for five
Coco got a lotta iron, four for five
Make you strong like a lion, four for five

Coconut!

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So, what made me start raving about coconuts? We were at the supermarket (the one where I bought a Giant electric kettle jug), and we came home with two supposedly "fragrant young coconuts" (just like what's in the video below).

Trouble was, how do we slice off the top? We had never done it! We eventually did, not too well (don't ask how). Later, we Googled, and for our next (no longer virgin) effort, we should have a more satisfying experience, thanks to the video below:

How to open a coconut quickly without making a mess: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfo5BYR9yE0

And there's a video by someone named Natalie claiming to tell you "the truth about coconut". But note that while fresh coconut water is nutritionally good, the white fibrous flesh is mostly fat! And I didn't know that there is "extra virgin coconut cooking oil", claimed to be preferable over extra virgin olive oil because the former remains stable at high (cooking) heat.

Here's the video, with my usual caveat emptor reminder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=FTRMhv31FFQ

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Coconut trivia

* There is this Hokkien-based Singlish expression, "lau yah" -- literally "old coconut" -- to mean something useless or lousy, such as something purchased that did not live up to its promise ie, a lemon! (For emphasis, we can say "lau yah pok!")

So, of the two "young coconuts" we bought, the flesh of one of them was hard and impossible to scoop out. Lau yah! It was just as well, since it's mostly fat.

* Did you know that the coconut is a seed, not a fruit or a nut? Here are five claimed facts about the coconut:

http://myfivebest.com/five-interesting-facts-about-coconuts/

A snake in a plane, a dog in a tizzy, and a human-feline reunion after 16 years!

Life, they say, may be stranger than fiction. Life can also imitate art.

There was this implausible movie, "Snakes on a plane" starring Samuel L. Jackson. Critics panned the 2006 movie for its bizarre plot. Well, now, a snake did get on a plane (along with a frog it was trying to catch, it seems). Here's the story:

'Snakes on a Plane’ happens in real life as pilot tells air traffic control ‘I’ve got snakes on a plane’

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/2012/04/snakes-plane-happens-real-life-pilot-tells-air-traffic-control-i-ve-got-snakes-plane

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Then, there are the testimonials to the adage, "A dog is a man's best friend". Here's a remarkable one, with video clips, of a dog welcoming his master, a soldier, home from war, for the second time:

Welcome home, soldier!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122211/Welcome-home-soldier-Dog-goes-crazy-sees-master-return-months-away-AGAIN.html

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Finally, here's a touching true story of a cat finally reunited with its owner...

German woman reunited with cat after 16 years

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/storyviewer.aspx?cp-documentid=6076694

Toilet (s)training, Singapore-style...

There is a Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS), and it has the commendable aim of promoting a "happy toilet" experience. I like its logo:

So, are the toilets in its premises known as RAS-rooms? It has a website:

http://www.toilet.org.sg/

I found it flushed with interesting headers such as "Happy Toilet Programme" (we aim to please, so please aim?), "Preschool/School Programmes" (that's good, toilet training has to be a matter of continuing education), "Spot our star-rated toilets now!" (um, let's keep them spotless, really), a host of toilet-themed YouTube videos such as what qualifies to be a "five-star toilet", and the LOO awards:

 That's right... LOO is Let's Observe Ourselves. (I suppose "observe" here is an exhortation to all loo-users not to be aimless.)

I should declare that, although my tone here is light-hearted, I agree with the RAS that "pee-er pressure" should be kept up so that people will treat public toilets like those in their own homes, unless they live in a pigsty. So, to answer the teaser in the New Paper poster below, yes, we should be very concerned about the state of our public loos:

I also learned, from the New Paper story, that there is such a thing as a "modesty board" (I do see these at the urinals which have them, but never knew they have such a quaint label):

Frankly, I have no preference. What I "observe" is my own, and mine only! But, I have to be a true investigative journalist, so here -- for your eyes only -- is an "immodest" row of urinals:

And over here, modesty is restored:

Eagle-eyed now -- loo and behold! -- I spotted these two signs at one mall here:

Um, we can't just walk in? Are we supposed to hold hands and troop in?

I'll "finish up" (flushing sound) with these pics I found online:

Now that you have reached the "end", please off the bathroom light, hor.

Something serious, something weird, something to sing along to...

The serious stuff -- Next change: Great power rivalry

After my blog entry yesteday on the Myanmar by-elections, I had intended to say a bit more about how great power rivalry will play out in East Asia in the coming decades. But American academic Mark Valencia has done that nicely in his commentary piece "US pivot making waves in the region" (ST, 3 April, page A18). Here are extracts:

The US "pivot" towards Asia in foreign and defence policy has rattled the region. China perceives the US move as an attempt to constrain its "rise".

...[The Chief of US Naval Operations has] said that China's rising capability could limit US access to the South China Sea and that Washington will continue its efforts to ensure "freedom of navigation" there.

While Vietnam and the Philippines welcome the policy shift, other ASEAN nations are less sanguine. Indeed, some are outright worried that US-China rivalry will dominate regional political affairs and increas instability. Even Singapore, an American "strategic partner", cautioned the US against using extreme anti-China rhetoric in domestic political debate in this election year.

[This rivalry] has already begun to undermine ASEAN's attempts to maintain control of regional security management. Regarding the vexed South China Sea disputes, the US has essentially sided with the ASEAN claimants (its ally the Philippines, and Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam).

...The US has quickly begun to implement the pivot. It entered talks with the Philippines to expand its military presence there... It is also discussing with Thailand the deployment of American warships in the country. This is in addition to deploying new littoral combat ships to Singapore... and "rotating" up to 2,500 American troops to Darwin [Australia]...

[Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser] criticised the US military deployment to Darwin as "pointless", without reason, and unnecessarily dividing Australian public opinion.

...If China had any doubt about where Australia [and Singapore?] stood in the US "scheme of things", it doesn't now.

...Ratcheting up the pressure, the US has told ASEAN that it must come up with a common and clear position on a code [of coduct on the South China Sea] vis-a-vis China... [Such pressure] could split ASEAN on this issue.

[Meanwhile, apparently] at China's bidding, Cambodia, as current chair of ASEAN, removed the South China Sea from the agenda for this week's ASEAN summit -- much to the frustration of the Philippines and Vietnam...

...[As] China's military might grows and the US steps up its involvement in the region [assuming that there is no US policy reversal post-November presidential election], the window of opportunity for peaceful settlement of the South China Sea dispute is closing. [On this point, I have to disagree with Valencia. There never has been, or will ever be, such a window. Both big powers will now use the South China Sea to further "test" each other.]

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The weird stuff: Death by wriggling octopus? (AFP story)

After an investigation lasting many months, a South Korean has been arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend who was initially believed to have accidentally suffocated while eating a live octopus.

The suspect identified only as Kim was formally arrested for murder last Friday and is expected to be charged.

The suspect, now 31, checked into a motel in the coastal city of Incheon with his girlfriend in April 2010 after buying two live octopuses from a local restaurant.

The man later called the hotel's reception to say his girlfriend had collapsed and stopped breathing after eating one of the octopuses. She died in hospital 16 days later due to brain damage.

Her family initially believed the 24-year-old woman surnamed Yoon suffocated after a tentacle was found stuck in her throat. Her body was later cremated.

But Yoon's father later discovered that his daughter had signed up for a life insurance policy a week before her death, with Kim as the beneficiary.

The story came to light after a TV station last year aired an interview with the father, who in September 2010 had asked prosecutors to investigate Kim.

Incheon police reopened the case and questioned Kim, who had collected 200 million won (US$189,400) in insurance money but denied any involvement in Yoon's death.

Police said earlier they suspected Kim might have stuffed the octopus into Yoon's throat or choked her with some other object such as a pillow.

Nakji, a small octopus native to Korean and Chinese waters, is a Korean delicacy with people swallowing still-wriggling portions.

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Here's what a dish of Nakji looks like...

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I should not end this blog entry on such a macabre note. Actually, there is an octopus song that I like: The Beatle's "Octopus's Garden". Here are two video clips, the first with lyrics to sing along to; and the other dreamscape-style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDYJkXktIg4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ufsWoAW4M4

The Lady and the tramplers

One brave Lady, one brave people

The world's eyes are on Myammar, where a by-election for just 45 seats out of a total of 664 seats in the rubber-stamp Parliament ended on Sunday.

The ruling regime of "retired" generals (what I call the tramplers) still hold a solid grip but have shrewdly read the tea leaves -- that they have to calibrate just enough easing of the controls to gain manoeuvring room in the coming great power rivalry over Southeast Asia, of which Myanmar is strategically located.

They also know the time has come to not put all their economic and foreign investment-seeking eggs in one basket: China. The West is suddenly welcome. 

Thus has the democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi been allowed to contest the by-election. She knows she is being used by the regime. By the same token, she hopes to seize the opportunity -- by winning a seat and having her National League for Democarcy (NLD) party be represented in Parliament -- to "ride the tiger" without fallimg off, and to stay true to her mission.

It will not be easy, as this quote from the Nobel Peace laureate on the eve of the election suggests:

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I went to see the movie about Ms Suu Kyi, The Lady, last week. It admittedly tends to project a black-and-white portrayal of a story that is highly complex, but it mostly did its job of tracing Ms Suu Kyi's (and her family's) transformation from an ordinary life to an extraordinary one.

I am also moved by Philip Delves Broughton's review article, "Democracy's Quiet Champion" of Peter Popham's biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, "The Lady and the Peacock", in the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577307790680289660.html

The article's opening paragraphs give an idea of the risks she and her small band of loyal supporters have had to face till now...

On the night of May 30, 2003, Aung San Suu Kyi was driving in a convoy of cars through northern Myanmar -- the country she had grown up knowing as Burma -- when two monks hailed her from the side of the road. She ordered her driver to stop. But as she spoke to the monks, several trucks full of armed men screamed up and surrounded her convoy. It was an ambush.

The government had decided to have her killed rather than tolerate her opposition any longer. Thugs began pouring out of the bushes, brandishing clubs and iron rods. Aung San Suu Kyi would have been among the more than 70 killed that night had it not been for her driver, who turned his car into a battering ram. He drove straight at the attackers, forcing them to scatter, then wove through several roadblocks. By the time he was stopped by the police, they were far from the rabid mob.

A truly angelic voice...

For some people, today -- which happens to be a Sunday this year -- is April Fool's Day.

For Christians, today is Palm Sunday (the sixth Sunday in Lent and the first Sunday before Easter). Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week, the week of events leading to Jesus' death by crucifixion (Good Friday) and his resurrection (Easter Day).

Reverend Dr Kang Ho Soon sent this YouTube video of a powerful rendition of The Lord's Prayer, sung by angelic-voiced Jackie Evancho:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSj31u3urvs&feature=related*

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And here's Somewhere, featuring a harmonious blending of Evancho's and Barbra Streisand's voices:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PdiRVERxLI&feature=relmfu