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It is amazing to me that the police brought things under control without firing a single shot, lethal or non-lethal. That's remarkable restraint.
Thank you, HOME team and the Gurkhas, for standing in the line of fire to keep us all safe.
And to the ten police officers and four SCDF officers who were injured dealing with the Little India Riot: Get well soon!
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[photo via @ChannelNewsAsia]
Come now, the Little India Riot is a scary incident but let's stay calm and keep the politics and xenophobia out of this.
I hope nobody is seriously hurt, especially our police officers and ambulance guys responding to this.
[screencap from chewkkf's YouTube video]
Updates:
According to TODAY: "Police say about 400 people were involved and they damaged 5 police vehicles and 1 ambulance. Several private vehicles were also damaged and 10 officers were injured.
Police activated resources from Special Operations Command and Gurkha Contingent to the scene and the situation is under control."
According to @ChannelNewsAsia: "Our reporter confirms 2 foreign workers dead." (Update: One foreign worker dead, who was knocked down by the bus.)
TODAY: "In total, there were 18 casualties including 10 police officers, four Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel, as well as the coach driver - whom the police said is Singaporean - and his assistant. Six remained at Tan Tock Seng hospital overnight but their conditions were “not serious”, the authorities said."
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This Amazon listing for a 85-inch LED TV costing US$39,997.99 (down from US$44,999.99!), had hilarious comments:
"At first I hesitated to make the purchase, but then I saw the two AA batteries were free with the remote, and I was all in! Having this really fills in that empty space we called a bathroom!"
"I am coming back from the future to write this review, and to let everyone know you can buy this TV for $699 in 2015. It still looks great though."
"I was going to send my two kids to college but I knew I had to do what was best for my family so I got this beast instead. I'm fairly positive my wife will end up coming back, I'm sure she'll realize how unreasonable she was being. Marriage for 20 years or a tv thats 85 inches? Last time I checked, 85 is bigger than 20."
"When I found out that Samsung accepted human kidneys as a form of payment I was overjoyed. The price was one and a half kidneys so I told em to keep the change and just take both of them. I'm just out of surgery and the set looks great in the ICU...well from the bed I can see half of it in the nurse's station. Funny...I didn't think you could survive without any kidn"
"When comparing TVs here, I saw Amazon also sells an 84" Toshiba model for just $13K. But I got this one instead, and haven't regretted the purchase, because as a rather insecure male, it's well worth the extra $27K to have that extra inch."
"I was planning to go to college but then I thought to myself, "What would be a better investment?" Let's just say the Samsung UN85S9 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV looks a lot better on the wall than any college diploma could."
My favorite one was this by "James Thach":
"My wife and I bought this after selling our daughter Amanda into white slavery. We actually got a refurbished. It's missing the remote, but oh well-- for $10K off, I can afford a universal, right? The picture is amazing. I've never seen the world with such clarity.
Amanda, if you're reading this, hang in there, honey! We'll see you in a year.
*****
I just wanted to add an addendum to my review. Since posting it, we have received a flood of responses. People have said some pretty hurtful things--even questioning our values. Let me assure you, this was not an easy decision to make, and we made it as a family. Obviously, it's very personal. But in light of all the second-guessing, I wanted to explain our thinking.
First and foremost, screen size. I really think you can't go too big. 85" may seem huge, but you get used to it fast. Second, resolution. Is 4K overkill? Please, that's what they said about 1080P! More dots = better. Period. And as far as this being a $40,000 "dumb" TV, people need to re-read my initial post: WE BOUGHT IT REFURBISHED. It was only $30,000.
Some of you may think I'm avoiding the "elephant in the room"-the real reason why this was such a heart-wrenching choice. So let's just get it out there. Yes, the 120 Hz refresh rate is a disappointment, especially on a 4K. But life is full of compromises. And frankly, we hardly notice. All in all, no regrets.
P.S., as for our daughter, NO ONE has the right to question our parenting. Totally out of bounds. Amanda was going into 7th grade, so it was going to be a transitional year anyway. Now she gets to see the world. How many kids her age get to go to Bahrain? I sure as heck didn't, but you don't hear me screaming "child abuse." Bottom line: MYOB! Seriously.
*****
Has it been a year already? Wow! I guess that's what 8 hours a day of immersive TV will do for you! Many of you have expressed your eagerness for an update. Well, here goes.
Generally, the Samsung has held up beautifully. We have noticed a little bit of lag, mostly in multi-player gaming--but not enough to cost us any firefights. There have been some issues up-imaging low rez content, but that's to be expected when you early-adopt--we're still "waiting on the world to change," as John Mayer would say (gosh he's talented.) On the plus side, we feel like we are now officially part of the cast of GOT. The other night Peg almost had to open a window to let Daenerys' dragons fly out!
And you'll all be happy to know our darling Amanda is back with us, safe and sound. She has changed a little. She's less talkative than before (though she had some choice words for me when I asked her to clean her room). And she's started wearing eye make-up, which has Peg a bit concerned. But welcome to thirteen, I guess. We're just glad to have her home. And she loves the TV. That's the main thing. In fact, she spends so much time in front of it lately, you'd swear she owns it.
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A Christmas song for you. Singapore style, from the mrbrown show gang.
Download or listen to the song via the Soundcloud player above or the mrbrown server below:
Play "the mrbrown show: Ownself Have a Happy Like Bird Christmas"
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I made this with the Endless Possibilities… Malaysia campaign website! The website lets you choose photo and add your text to the question, "What’s your wish for Malaysia?".
It looks like the website is also very advanced! Can upload own photos too. And it looks like Teh Internets has taken over.
Go and make your own Malaysia ad! So much fun!
It's probably a spoof site but darn it, it's still a hoot: http://www.endlesspossibilitiesmy.com/
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One of my first music devices was a Sharp double-cassette player. As a teen, my boombox was my life, giving me hours of pleasure from radio and tapes (and recording from radio and tape-to-tape).
Later on, it was CD. These days, most of my music is non-physical, existing either as mp3, AAC or FLAC, and more recently, as streaming services. As the need to have physical media diminished, the need for large pieces of gear and speakers diminished too. What I wanted was a speaker system that was wireless and easy to set up, so that I could stream stuff from my iPhone, iPad and iTunes Radio.
I toyed with a few wireless speakers, like bluetooth ones, but they had range issues and sometimes needed dongles. So when I had the chance to try the SONOS system at an IT show, I was impressed and SONOS offered me a full system to try at my own home.
The SONOS system uses its own proprietary wifi network. Each speaker is both able to send and receive wifi signals, meaning the coverage is very thorough. I only needed to ensure that just one of the speakers is connected to my home network via the Ethernet port of my router or a nearby switch. If that was not convenient, I could use the SONOS Bridge to connect to my router, then the rest of the speakers could be placed freely in the home.
I played with all the speakers, the smallest Play:1, the medium-sized Play:3, big brother Play:5, the Sub and the Playbar. The Playbar and Sub and two Play:3 speakers made up the home theatre in my living room. The Play:5 was in my master bedroom, the Play:1 was the roving speaker. I added speaker after speaker painlessly with just the app, and labeled the rooms they were in.
Once set up, I proceeded to try playing music from my iPhone. I found the sound quality excellent and lag-free. With their app, I could play one kind of music in the living room, while playing another album in the master bedroom, while streaming some Pandora in the study. All from one device in my hand. I felt like the Master of My Music Universe.
My iPad showed no signs of choking on doing so much, and the music all played in their respective rooms with ease.
Then one day, when the kids and wife were all out, I grouped all the speakers together and played my favorite album in ALL the rooms, in the whole house. That worked wonderfully too.
If you are a Spotify or Pandora user, you will love the integration of these services in the app.
Just to prove how easy it was to use the system, I taught my wife how to play her music with the app within minutes.
The other thing I appreciated was how easy it was to move SONOS stuff around. Sometimes, I would move the Play:3 speakers to the master bedroom if I wanted more speakers there. I could pair two Play:3s or Play:1s to make a stereo pair.
The Play:1, in particular, was awesome in size and sound. For something this small, the entry level SONOS speaker packs a punch and is easy to set up on a bookshelf, or kitchen, or even near the toilet (it has humidity-resistance!).
You can feel the heft of the Play:1 with its double-speaker array inside and the self-powered amp within. This didn't feel like some cheapo speaker you get out there. It looks classy and plays great. At $399, it is a great starter SONOS speaker.
Next week, I will share with you guys the experience of using the SONOS as a home theatre system. Stay tuned.
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Sponsored message:
If you visit Tat Chuan Acoustic's SONOS webstore (https://store.tcacoustic.com.sg/sonos-list.aspx), you can get 5% off all SONOS stuff at the store with my Promo Code: mrbrown5.
Comes with free delivery.
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