But not just any blast – it was a cell phone battery blast. I was surfing the CNet website and stumbled upon this article. The poor dude was working in an iron ore plant when the battery in his Motorola phone - which he put in his chest pocket – exploded, probably due to the heat (he was working as a welder). The explosion broke his ribs and some fragments from the ribs went into his heart. He was then rushed to a hospital, where he passed away.
You gotta feel for the guy man, ‘cos it’s really such a silly way lose your life.
Filed under: News
I read some news about the jet crash in a military camp in Taiwan, the same installation as the one Singaporean soldiers travel to regularly to participate in training exercises. So the F-5 was trying to pull up from a low altitude attack run during a training exercise, but they couldn’t, so the pilots manouvered the jet away from a residential area and crashed it into a store in the camp, killing both Taiwanese pilots and 2 Singaporean supply personnel - from the Singapore Armed Forces - who were stationed there.
According to Yahoo! news, “the crash comes as Taiwan’s military prepares to hold the island’s annual Han Kuang live fire drills aimed at repelling an attack from China next week.”
Whoa, slow down dude; China is attacking next week???
I’ve served in the Singapore military like most dudes in Singapore, so hearing about this really struck me close to home, because they are “one of us”. And the 2 pilots are really something as well, because some reports say they were steering the jet away from a residential area. Maybe that’s why they died – they were trying to avoid that area and didn’t have time to eject.
Or maybe the jet was so old the ejection seats didn’t work anymore.
Either way, it’s a unfortunate occurence. Very saddening indeed.
It’s been confirmed; Formula 1 is coming to Singapore next year. It’s going to be held around September or October, near the end of the Grand Prix calendar, and if all goes well, it’s gonna be a night race. Kudos to Mr Ong Beng Seng for bringing F1 to Singapore despite the lack of a permanent race track.
Now all that stands between me and watching a Grand Prix up close and personal, is a few hundred bucks.
Or rather, the lack of it.
(Picture: Formula1.com)
So I saw this video on CNet Editor, Veronica Belmont’s blog, as well as her thoughts about it. I tried to post a comment, but I think it went into her spam folder. Anyway, it might seem inappropriate that Jack Thompson uses this tragedy to highlight his point that violent video games are the root cause of violent behaviour, such as the Virginia Tech massacre, but hasn’t that been the norm in the aviation industry with tombstone technology?
Then again, air crashes and massacres are 2 entirely different things.
I don’t know a lot about Jack Thompson, but I think Veronica and many others have misinterpreted his point of view, in this video at least. From what I can tell, he’s not saying that violent video games like Counterstrike and the Grand Theft Auto franchise will make otherwise normal people more inclined towards displaying violent behaviour. His point is that individuals who are already inclined towards such behaviour could be desensitized by playing these violent video games, to the point where they don’t feel any remorse or guilt after killing human beings in real life.
I think that’s a valid point of view, but I don’t agree with it.
I see violent video games as a sort of pressure relief valve, a non-destructive way of venting a person’s anger. So it could actually help to reduce violent physical behaviour in individuals by providing an alternative outlet for a person to release his anger.
Besides, violent people are attracted to violent video games just as wannabe pilots are attracted to flight simulators. Playing violent video games is an effect of a person’s inclination towards violent behaviour, not a cause. So there really is no basis for the accusation that such games are the root cause for violent behaviour.
It is fun to note that after the interview, the news anchor concludes by saying “Alright. Jack Thompson – an attorney who specializes TERRIBLY in these crimes…”
