There seems to be a trend for documentary channels like Discovery, National Geographic and History to focus on “sensationalist” shows these days.

I am referring to the seemingly endless parade of shows about war (human wars, animal wars…), weaponry, fighting/combat skills, people blowing things up (in the name of learnings of course), daredevil biologists doing rude things to unsuspecting animals (leave it be – just you remember what …

(At least when it comes to commercial goods and services. A lot of the really good stuff about is still free!)

It seems obvious doesn’t it?

Clients agonise over cents. They will choose a sweatshop manufacturer over one that employs people with Downs Syndrome. And yet at the same time, they will splash out obscene amounts to use some celebrity’s face in their product endorsements.

Maybe customers prefer the cloying …

Luxury is something much of the world seems to aspire to without question. It is sold as the pinnacle of personal success, excess, and self-worth.

Luxury seems to equate waste no matter how you look at it. And huge amounts of waste at that; in the form of disposable goods (I can afford to throw perfectly good things away), disposable people and lives, pointless activities (growing lawn in drought-ridden …

“Good taste is the most obvious resource of the insecure … Good taste is the anesthetic of the public.” Harley Parker

What is good taste anyway? Is it primarily personal? Or is it by necessity a form of groupthink – so that we can judge relatively the idea of “good”?

One example of mass good taste (group taste?) is the Asian obsession with brand name goods. The brand name …

This frightening mountain of bottled drinking water was snapped at my local supermarket on the weekend.

Surely this a sign of a truly spoilt and self-obsessed society?

Singapore provides perfectly safe, high quality, world-class drinking water straight from the tap. And yet we continue to “enjoy” this appalling “choice” of bottle drinking water.

And people BUY this stuff. In large quantities. They grunt and groan to …

Does this affect what you buy at the supermarket?

Source: wikipedia

“If you don’t need it, leave it!” said the train conductor in the movie The Taking of Pelham 123 as she led hostages off the train.

I don’t know about you, but for someone who doesn’t actually buy that much stuff (besides books), I still manage to accrete it over time. Worse still, I get attached to them. This makes it that much harder to stay mobile. That much …

This is a map of “all 13,000 ‘or so’ McDonald’s restaurants in the US. How simultaneously gross and delicious.”

From Gizmodo.com

“Kia-su” is Hokkien (the Chinese dialect commonly used in Singapore) that literally means “fear of losing”. According to the unkind, this “fear of losing” is allegedly a Singaporean trait – though I would postulate that it is more of a universal trait when it comes to how some practice business.

“Kia-su” has its basis in fear. The fear of scarcity. Which in turn drives greed:
Take it even if you …

Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Embarq (the big players in broadband services) are trying to persuade the North Carolina state government to ban community-owned broadband services.

“The argument is that the big companies can’t turn a profit and compete against a community-owned enterprise that essentially sells service for cost, but we’re not buying it – if anything, TWC and Embarq can invest the extra profits they’ve been earning in …