Yahoo! Singapore Answers blog

We’ve been thinking. How can we make Answers more interesting and relevant to our Singapore users? I know that some of you are shy and are, perhaps, not keen to ask pointed questions. But you probably have strong views and are willing to share your knowledge and experience with the rest of the users on current events and what’s near and dear to our hearts.

(Photo by dadou~)

So the Yahoo! Singapore Editors have decided to get together and we’re gonna ask you the questions! What we want is to hear your say on the hot topics in Singapore. Share with us your knowledge, experiences and views on current events and happenings, as the questions will be linked to the current news topic. For instance, our maiden question was “Do you think that the constant increase in ERP rates has alleviated road congestion?” which was linked to the news article: Will ERP mean ‘every road pay’?. And 432 of you replied within one day! Woot!

Well of course Answers is not a forum, so it should not be treated as an outlet for you to rant and rave. But we’re very keen to collect all the knowledge and experiences that make up a Singaporean. All questions posted will be open for 3 days, after which you, as a community, will vote for the best answer.

So answer, vote, and let Singapore hear you!

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To be frank, I’m not a football fan. But even so, I’m familiar with the chants of “Olé, olé!”. And early this morning there was reason to shout Olé! if you’re a supporter of Spain. How many of you stayed up early this morning to catch the UEFA Euro 2008 finals of Spain versus Germany?

(Photo by CLF)

It has been more than 4 decades since Spain won the championship, and a special celebration was in place when Fernando Torres scored in the 33rd minute which led to its 1-0 victory over Germany at the Ernst Happel Stadium early this morning.

You can always count on Germany appearing in the championship finals, and historically they have won 3 Euros and 3 World Cups, but yet they couldn’t keep up in this round. Spain, on the other hand, has never made into a World Cup final and was in 2 other Euro finals (one of which they won in 1964).

Germany’s Joachim Loew was quoted saying “Spain played very well during the whole tournament. and they were technically excellent. They fully deserve victory.” Luka M asked “Did Spain deserve to win Euro 2008?“, what do you think? And who do you think was the best player during the Euro 2008 final?

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Zit, pimple, acne… they are just different names for the same thing. That big, red, nasty looking round thing on the tip of your nose if you’re really unlucky (and no, my name is NOT Rudolph!)! I used to think that zits affect teenagers and that once we’ve become “adults” we should be saying sayonara and good riddance to them. But I’ve realised my folly all too soon.

(Photo by maxestes)

Yes, many pimples cometh onto my face. Why? Just as kraemondo asked, if we’re eating healthily, don’t use make up, wash our faces regularly, why do we still get acne?

More importantly, how do we get rid of these unsightly spots!? Well, ya, we can go visit a doctor and pay through our noses. Or we can buy some pimple gel or creams which never really seem to work for me. Have you heard of an old wives’ tale to dab a bit of toothpaste onto your pimple? I’ve definitely tried that too. Haha! But if you’ve read today’s Mind Your Body article on “The truth about home remedies”, the reporter tells us to avoid doing that as the toothpaste may worsen the acne and even burn or cause irritation! How freaky is that? And no, I will not take a photo of my acne scars to show you the after-effects. Ha!

(Photo by John Linwood)

Tell me, what do YOU do to combat pimples? And how do YOU get rid of the scars left by them (I admit I have itchy fingers and I sometimes, erm, poke at it)? Do you think they are caused by stress or the food we eat are too oily or “heaty”? Share your tips with us.

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The hype about iPhone has been steadily building ever since it first appeared at Macworld 2007. But even though it had the requisite cool factor with the touch screen (and it’s an Apple product!), there were also problems such as the price, inability to use it locally with our SIM cards unless you unlocked it illegally, it wasn’t a 3G phone, and we can’t buy it in Singapore. Why? Why? Why?

(Photo by ntr23)

But a week or so ago, Steve Jobs announced the arrival of iPhone 3G, the second-generation iPhone. It is lighter, cheaper and has 3.5G technology which gives it faster internet access! Don’t be too happy too soon though. Singapore is not in the first list of countries to receive the new phone on 11th July (again, why?) If we’re lucky, we may only get it at the end of the year!

Actually, is the iPhone really worth all the hype that it’s generating? Or are we Singaporeans just too eager to get our hands on the newest technological toy to play with? I must admit that my eyes will gleam at seeing a new techie toy (yes, I’ll always be one of those squeezing through the crowds at the annual IT shows etc. ), and everytime I meet my cousin-in-law, he’ll always have a new phone to show us. So what do you think? Are we slaves to technology?

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There are tons of different charitable Runs out there, but what makes this so special, is that when you run, the whole world runs with you!

If you’ve not heard about it yet, Nike is holding the first “World’s Largest One-day Running Event”, Nike+ Human Race 10K, on Sunday, 31 August 2008.

(All Photos: Nike+ 10k Run Press event by Suzz.com, on Flickr)

This run will be held on the same day in 24 cities across the globe, and Singapore is the only country selected in Southeast Asia. Go Singapore! Taipei will kick off the race and Los Angeles will be the final touchdown. But in Singapore, get ready to run at 4:30pm at the Esplanade Bridge!

Yahoo! Answers will also welcome onboard Joanne Peh (MediaCorp Artiste and triathlon enthusiast) and Victoria Cambell (Singapore’s top female triathlete), both Nike+ Human Race participants, to be our celebrity users. So watch out for their questions!

It’s not all going to be about running of course (thank goodness!). There’s gonna be a music concert too! Woot! You can expect to see (and hear) American rock band Boys Like Girls, local rock-indie group Great Spy Experiment, EIC band and DJs such as Ko Flow and hp-hop artist MC Vandal.

You can register at the www.nikeplus.com.sg website, and don’t forget, a percentage of the registration fees will go towards three global charities: The World Wild Fund for Nature, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, The United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) and the local Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s…

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Hey folks,

A quick news flash this morning!

How many of you have seen the news about Yahoo! mail offering 2 more new domains? Well, it’s just been launched so besides having your email address ending with a “@yahoo.com”, you can now create one with “@ymail.com” and “@rocketmail.com”.

You know how irritating it is when the Yahoo! ID you want for your email has already been taken and you’re forced to add numbers at the end? Well, now that there’s 2 more choices, you can finally get the name that you want So what are you waiting for? I’m gonna register for one now!

Update: ReiShin12345 -> reishin[at]ymail.com! Woot!

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Latest Update, 19 June, 9.30am:

Maintenance will be performed today instead at 2pm! It’s just one hour. Promise.

~~~~~

Update, 18 June, 10.30am:

Hiya, looks like the scheduled maintenance would not be performed… as scheduled! Will let you all know again if there are any further changes Thanks a lot!

~~~~~

Hi folks,

Our engineers will be performing regular maintenance on Yahoo! Answers on Wednesday, 18 June, at 2pm.

We expect the work to last about 1 hour and Yahoo! Answers will be totally inaccessible during this time, except for the blog of course.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused! We’ll keep you posted if there are any changes to the schedule.

If you are looking for something else to do during this time, why not check out some of our sites such as:

• Flickr (now with video)
• Groups - Connect with people who share the same passion
• Avatars - Play around with your avatars and give him/her a new outfit

…. or maybe you can check out what is showing in the cinemas near you!

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Sometimes, we are so caught up in our friends, activities and our lives that we actually take our own health for granted. And it usually takes a major event to rudely wake us up.

Take for example the tragedy that unfurled the past few days. Two young men, a national service recruit and a servicemen, passed away while in training. This is not the first time that has happened in Singapore. But what exactly was the problem? Nobody really knows.

Personally, I think our diet’s quality has become worse, which affects our health. I’m lucky enough to be able to go home to home-cooked food lovingly prepared by my mom (thanks mom!). But there are days as well that I work late and will have to grab something nearby. Have you ever seen the amount of oil used to cook the dishes in the food courts?? The plate looks even oilier than my face at the end of the day! (Facial oil blotters anyone?) And on weekends, if I’m home and feeling lazy, I’ll just rip open a packet of Maggie Mee Assam Laksa and throw the whole thing plus some vegetables into the pot (Woohoo! Vegetables! That’s healthy, right?). If I’m out with friends, well, let me tell you a little secret. I just LOVE to indulge on fast food once in a while. Alright, a lot of “while”s MOS Burger is my current number one favourite, but at times my mouth will itch for a crispy, fried KFC. And potato chips, and chocolates, and curry puffs, and roti prata, and… You get the picture

(Photo by yours truly now do you believe me when I say I like to junk?? LOL!)

So hands up those who think my heart will whizz and pant from all those junk? Do leave your name and contact so that I can hunt you down. Grr!

But frankly, how can we then try to eat ‘healthily’? (People who know me will know that exercise doesn’t work, I’m too lazy. LOL! So changing my diet will work better ) A user asked, “What are some HEALTHY fast food places?“, are there even such things as healthy fast food? I am definitely interested to know! Another user asked a brilliant question, “How can I eat healthy when I don’t purchase the food in my household?“. If only I have the discipline not to walk to the chocolate and chips department. Sob. But the most helpful question has to go to † Anna †’s “Favourite healthy recipe?“, now that you know how to whip up a delicious but healthy meal, go ahead and surprise your dad with your culinary skills this Sunday!

Happy Father’s Day *Burp!*

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I love the internet, I really do. But when I become greedy and wanna read all the blogs (Mr Brown! Kenny Sia!), news and various articles on the internet, I get bogged down by the big headache called “Information Overload”. Don’t you sometimes feel that there are just too much information out there and you don’t have enough time to read them all (even though you really wanna)? I think just the time taken to click on all the links to the webpages can take up the whole morning (Shh! Don’t tell my boss!).

But I thank the creator of RSS (”What does RSS mean?“) for small mercies! If you look closely, we’ve added RSS feed links on the sidebar and at the end of each post. So just click on “Subscribe” and after you’re taken to a separate page, click on “Subscribe now”. It’s pretty easy.

If you’re a My Yahoo! user, just do the following:

For My Yahoo! users:

1) Click on the “Subscribe” button
2) Copy the URL
3) Go to My Yahoo!
4) In the top middle of the page, click on the Tab called “Personalise this page” and then on “Add an RSS link”
5) Paste the URL
6) Done! A box will appear, and you’ll now be automatically informed as soon as any new article is published.

Ta-dah! If you have any problems, just leave me a note and I’ll get back to you

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Yup, the metal thingy that covers the “entrance” to the sewer! Though who wants to go in there (besides those who absolutely need to for work) beats me. *Shrug* It’s just a metal cover that I tread upon day after day, thus why the fuss?

Well we may not pay much attention to it, but do you know that some countries spice up their manholes with special designs? Bet ya didn’t know that! When I was backpacking in Hokkaido with my friend in 2002, we saw the cutest manhole with 3 smiley squids on them (Photo thanks to Mr Wabu). Don’t they look absolutely happy? And while backpacking in the island of Rhodes, Greece, my friend and I spotted manholes with delicate steel etchings of the famous deer. These manholes are an art on its own!

Speaking of art and manholes, there’s an ongoing contest by the Singapore Arts Festival hosted on Flickr Groups called ArtsFest Photo Shootout. Believe it or not, even the manholes in over 15 locations in Singapore are involved in the Arts Fest! So try and spot the Arts Fest sticker-covered manholes and snap away with your cameras or trusty phones. The most creative photos (and their ‘owners’) get to win prizes such as Arts Festival tickets, Kenneth Cole watches and even a 3D/2N stay at Bangkok! Wow!

You have up to Sunday, 15th June 2008 to compete for the tickets and watches, and up to Monday, 30th June 2008 for the trip (all submitted entries are eligible for the trip). So what are you waiting for?

(Psst, if you are out of ideas, maybe you can get a group of friends and get them to wriggle their fingers around the manhole sticker. *Giggle*)

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