[转贴] 你读对了吗？

觊觎 jìyú 　　 龃龉 jǔyǔ 　　 囹圄 língyǔ 　　 魍魉 wǎngliǎng 　　 纨绔 wánkù 　 鳜鱼 guìyú 　 耄耋 màodié 　　 饕餮 tāotiè 　　 痤疮 cuóchuāng 　　 踟躇 chíchú 　　 倥偬 kǒnɡzǒnɡ 另：倥侗念kōngdòng。　 彳亍 chìchù 　　 谄媚 chǎnmèi 　　 女红 nǚgōng 古同“工” 　　 佝偻 gōulóu 　 龟裂 guīliè 微细的裂纹(如砂浆、混凝土、抹灰面上的)；颜料、釉或油漆薄膜,由于老化和瓦解而产生的短而浅的裂纹　　 龟裂 jūnliè 田地因天旱而裂开许多缝子；皲裂。人的皮肤因为寒冷干燥而布满裂纹或出现裂口 蓓蕾 bèilěi 遗憾的是在人名中经常被念作péi。　 蹀躞 diéxiè 　　 迤逦 yǐlǐ 　　 呷茶 xiāchá 呷作动词，义为小口饮。呷作象声词时念作gā。　　 狡黠 jiǎoxiá 　 猥亵 wěixiè 　　 猥狎 wěixiá （怀疑是否有这个词）　　委蛇 wēiyí 　　 蟾蜍 chánchú 迷惘 míwǎnɡ 　　 趔趄 lièqie 　　 窥觑 kuīqù 　　 肄业 yìyè 　 徜徉 chánɡyánɡ 也作倘佯。　 叱咤 chìzhà 　　 绸缪 chóumóu 　　 纶巾 guānjīn 　 咄嗟 duōjiē 罹难 línàn 　 龌龊 wòchuò 　 促狭 cùxiá 　　 皈依 guīyī 　　 旮旯 gālá 　　 戛然 jiárán 　　 参差 cēncī 　 鳏夫 guānfū 　　 髑髅 dúlóu 　 皴裂 cūnliè 　　 妊娠 rènshēn 　老鸨 lǎobǎo 　　 东莞 dōngguǎn 　　 孑孓 jiéjué 逡巡 qūnxún 　　 趑趄 zīqiè 　　 斡旋 wòxuán 　　 弹劾 tánhé 　　 旌旗 jīngqí 沟壑 gōuhè 　　 交媾 jiāogòu 菁华 jīnghuá 　　 毓婷 yùtíng 　　 拈花 niānhuā 　 旖旎 yǐnǐ 　　 褴褛 lánlǚ 　　 蒯草 kuǎicǎo 　　 执拗 zhíniù 　　 匍匐 púfú 　 阿訇 āhōng 　　　 暴殄 bàotiǎn 　　 拥趸 yōngdǔn 　　 氤氲 yīnyūn 　　 鹄的 gǔdì 　　 整饬 zhěngchì 北京话里常念轻声。　　 贲临 bìlín 常被人念成pēn 　　 踽踽 jǔjǔ 　　 弑君 shìjūn 　　 舐犊 shìdú 　　 澹台 tántái 复姓　　 单于 chányú 　 尉迟 yùchí 复姓。　　 噱头 juétou或xuétóu 一般取后一种。　 劓刑 yìxíng 　　 木讷 mùnè 　　 薄荷 bòhe 徘徊 páihuái 　　 耆宿 qísù 　　 确凿 quèzáo 现在只有一个音。　 枣核 zǎohé （念hú时通常后加儿化音。） 给予 jǐyǔ 　　 说客 shuìkè 　　 腌臜 āzā 　　 垚（三个土，读音yáo，意：山高，多用於人名。）　　 犇（三条牛，读音bēn，意：同“奔 ”，急走，跑，紧赶，逃跑等。） 聶聂（三只耳朵，读音niè） 　 磊（三块石头，读音lěi，本义:石头多　 猋（三条小狗，读音biāo ） 贔(三个宝贝，读音bì ) 　　 蟲(3个虫重叠，读音chong ) (虫的繁体) 姦三个女字重叠,读音jian） (奸的繁体) 嘦(上只下要，读音jiào ) 　　 囍(两个喜字，每个喜字31口，共六十二口，读音xǐ ) 　　 巭(上功下夫，读音bū) 　　 恏(上好下心，读音hào ) 　　 孬(上不下好,读音nao) 　　 奣(上天下明，读音wěng) 　　 嫑[/ft][ft=,4,](上不下要，读音biáo，意：不要 ) 　　 驫(三匹马，读音piāo ) 　　 嚞(三个吉，读音zhé) 　　 譶(三个言，读音tà ) 　　 舙(三条舌头，读音qì ) 　　 瞐(三只眼，读音mò ) 　　 馫(三只香，读音xīn) 　　 灥(三条泉水，读音xún ) 　　 靐(三个响雷，读音bìng) 　　 畾(三个条田，读音léi) 轰(三个车，读音hōng ) 　 皛(三个白，读音xiǎo) 　　 惢(三颗心，读音suǒ ) 尛(三个小，读音mó) 　 麤(三个鹿，读音cū ) 　 龘（三个龙，读音dá ，意古同“龖”，龙腾飞的样子。）　 票（三个票，读音piāo，意通“飘”。轻举的样子）　　 鑫（三个金，读音xīn，意旧时商店字号、人名用字,取其金多兴旺之意） 森（三个木，读音sēn，意稠密）

癌症病人死不了了

台大醫院胃腸科王正一醫師的忠告--空腹吃水果，餐後要喝熱飲。 癌症病人死不了了，不管你信還是不信，治療方法終於找到了。 台大醫院胃腸科王正一醫師的忠告.... 口述： 王正一 教授 台大醫學院榮譽教授 我的成功率為80%。癌症病人死不了了，不管你信還是不信，治療方法終於找到了。 對那些用常規療法治療癌症而死亡的患者，我深表遺憾。他們中沒幾個存活5年，大多數用常規療法的病人僅活兩三年而已。常規療法沒有任何作用，因為不用常規療法治，病人也活兩三年。癌症病人一旦用了化療或放療，他們的細胞就中毒了。就衰弱了。癌細胞就會因沒有強壯的抗體而得以迅速擴散。 吃新鮮水果。 一說吃水果，我們就想到買說過，切成塊，大快朵頤。其實，沒那麼簡單。要講究吃水果的方法和時間。 什麼是正確方法呢？千萬別再飯後吃水果，一定要空腹吃鮮果。這樣水果會起到身體殺毒作用，起到提供身體能量，消肥減瘦作用，以及參與生化活動的作用。鮮果是重要食物。 試想，你在吃兩片麵包後，又吃了一片水果。本來水果是要透過胃壁進入腸子的，但被食物擋住了。水果一接觸到它們，配著胃酸，整個食物就壞了。 飯前吃水果。 你會聽到有人抱怨：我一吃西瓜就愛打嗝兒，我一吃榴槤就脹肚，我吃香蕉愛拉稀，等等。 那是因為水果與胃中腐敗的食物混合後產生的氣體造成的。 但是你空腹吃水果，就不會出現上述情況。 白頭髮，禿頭謝頂，神經緊張，缺覺黑眼圈，在你空腹吃鮮果以後，以上症狀一概消失。 赫伯博士研究。因所有的水果到了身體都將變成鹼性，所以像桔子，檸檬這樣味道酸酸的水果，還是都屬於鹼性食物。 只要正確掌握吃水果的時間，你就掌握了問題的關鍵， 讓水果助你美容，長壽。健康，富有活力，幸福和苗條。 當你想喝果汁，就喝鮮果汁，別喝罐裝果汁。也不要將水果或果汁加熱，否則除了味道尚存，其他所有營養全部流失。 吃完整的水果比喝果汁好。 如果非要喝果汁，那就慢慢地一口一口地喝。讓果汁與唾液充分混合後再咽下。 你還可以連續三天只吃水果不吃它物，這樣你的身體得以清洗，容光煥發，令眾人驚喜。 奇異果（獼猴桃）： 小而精，富含鉀，鎂。維生素E，和纖維質。維C含量是桔子的兩倍。 蘋果： 雖含維C低，但它富含抗氧化劑並可提高維C的活性，從而有利於降低結腸癌，心臟病和中風的發病率。一天一個蘋果，醫生找不到我。 草莓： 人體衛士。含有最強抗氧化力的水果大王，保護機體免遭癌患。血栓和自由基。 桔子(每日吃2-4個)：可抗感冒。降膽固醇，預防或化解腎結石，降低結腸癌風險。 西瓜： 含水92%，是解渴最佳食品。所含大量的穀胱甘能強化免疫系統。還含有關鍵的番茄紅素，抗癌氧化劑，維C，以及鉀。 芭樂和木瓜： 是維C冠軍。芭樂還含有高纖維，能治便秘。木瓜富含糊羅蔔素，對眼睛有好處。 飯後喝涼水等於得癌症 相信嗎？ 所以餐後要喝熱飲。 涼水能將剛吸收的油質立刻變成固態，從而影響消化。 固態油脂在酸的作用下，變成小碎塊，比固體食物更易於被腸道吸收，並附著在腸子的內壁。 很快形成脂肪，導致癌的生成。 女同胞應該知道，並不是所有心臟病發作始于左臂疼痛。要警惕下顎的劇痛。甚至從未首先感覺到前胸疼痛。 通常伴隨的症狀還有噁心，大汗淋漓。60%心臟病人在熟睡時發作，再也沒醒過來。 下顎疼痛能疼醒。要細心，提高警惕。我們在這方面知識越多，存活的幾率越高

[forward] More Uses of Baby Powder

♥ BABY POWDER ISN'T JUST FOR BABY BUMS! ♥ Here are some FAB ideas to put Baby Powder to use for you and your family…(from fabulessly frugal) 1. Sprinkle some baby powder over sand-covered kids (and adults) to soak up excess moisture and make the sand incredibly easy to brush off. 2. Cool things down by sprinkling a bit of baby powder between your favorite sheets on warm summer nights. 3. Vigorously rub a handful or two of baby powder into your pet’s fur. Let it settle in for a couple of minutes, and follow up with a thorough brushing. Your dog will both look and smell great! 4. Use it as dry shampoo for your hair. Just sprinkle some powder on your palms or fingers and rub it into your scalp to absorb the oil. 5. Dust a small amount of powder onto your eyelashes before applying mascara to make them look fuller. 6. If you get a grease splatter on your clothing, try dabbing the stain with some baby powder on a powder puff. Make sure you rub it in well, and then brush off any excess powder. Repeat until the mark is gone. 7. Loosely place playing cards in a plastic bag along with a bit of baby powder. Seal the bag and give it a few good shakes. When you remove your cards, they should feel fresh and smooth to the touch. 8. For moldy or mildewed books, try this: First, let them thoroughly air-dry. Then, sprinkle some baby powder between the pages and stand the books upright for several hours. Afterward, gently brush out the remaining powder from each book. 9. Place 5-6 flower bulbs and about 3 tablespoons baby powder in a sealed plastic bag and give it a few gentle shakes. The medicated-powder coating helps both reduce the chance of rot and keep away moles, voles, grubs, and other bulb-munching pests. 10. Sprinkle a little powder along an ant trail or around your picnic blanket to get rid of ants. 11. Going for a summer run? Sprinkle powder wherever you may chafe before heading out. The powder will help reduce friction when running to keep your skin protected and smooth. 12. To ease waxing pain, dust the area with baby powder before applying the wax. The powder will absorb moisture and body oils so the wax can properly adhere to each hair, plus it will create a barrier to protect your skin. 13. To fight shoe odor, lightly dust the inside of your shoes with powder and let them sit overnight. 14. For squeaky floorboards, sprinkle some baby powder between the boards and sweep into the cracks. 15. Dust a tangled necklace chain with baby powder to make it easier to untangle. 16. Coat your hands with baby powder, or dust the inside of your gloves, to make it easier to put on rubber gloves. source: www.facebook.com/gianlucasmomma

Two Suns, really?

My Friend forwarded an email saying there will 2 Suns appear on the sky.... Apparently it is a hoax... See the link:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/star-aderoid-two-suns-hoax.shtml

Forward email: ATTENTION :KILLER HOUSE PLANT!

Not sure how true, but better be safe than sorry later!

Dear all,
Please read below. The message is true. I almost lost my daughter who put a piece of the leaf of this plant in her mouth and her tongue swelled to the point of suffocation. This is one plant but there are others with the same characteristics of coloring. Those are also poisonous and we should get rid of them. Please watch out for our children. As we all leave our children home in the hands of the helpers, we should give them a safe environment where they can play.
"This plant that we have in our homes and offices is extremely dangerous!
This plant is common in Kenya , Rwanda , Uganda in plant nurseries, many offices and homes. It is a deadly poison, mainly for the children. It can kill a kid in less than a minute and an adult in 15 minutes. It should be uprooted from gardens and taken out of offices. If touched, one should never touch ones eyes; it can cause partial or permanent blindness. Please alert your buddies.

Farts Facts!

Enjoy!

Click on the image to see in full size.

Fwd: If you get RM10.00 in your car door handle

Forward email:

Dear all,
Do pass this on to your list of people especially women who drive.

If you get RM10.00 in your car door handle, use tissue paper or cloth to remove it without opening it and if possible bag it. Drive away immediately.

Don't check the note until you are in the company of your friends or relatives. The note could either contain powdered drugs to knock you out or make you wonder if some guilty motorist compensating you for a knock or scratch on your car, while you are still wondering, the robber(s) will attack you as you check the car.

This had happened in Johor.

用心祝福身邊所有人事物-感恩

p/s: see also how I convert the powerpoint to Flash
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-powerpoint-to-flash-converter.html

E-mail is Making You Stupid

– Joe Robinson, a business coach and trainer, is the author of “Work to Live” and the audio CD “The Email Overload Survival Kit”. This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com –

The research is overwhelming. Constant e-mail interruptions make you less productive, less creative and – if you’re e-mailing when you’re doing something else – just plain dumb.

Within the heart of your company, saboteurs lurk. Disguised as instruments of productivity, they are subverting your staff’s most precious resource: attention. Incessant e-mail alerts, instant messages, buzzing BlackBerrys and cell phones are decimating workplace concentration. The average information worker – basically anyone at a desk – loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions, according to Basex, an IT research and consulting firm.

That time is money. Computer chip giant Intel, for one, has estimated that e-mail overload can cost large companies as much as $1 billion a year in lost employee productivity. The intrusions are constant: each day a typical office employee checks e-mail 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to RescueTime, a firm that develops time-management software. Such interruptions don’t just sidetrack workers from their jobs, they also undermine their attention spans, increase stress and annoyance and decrease job satisfaction and creativity.

The interruption epidemic is reaching a crisis point at some companies and shows no sign of slowing. E-mail volume is growing at a rate of 66 percent a year, according to the E-Policy Institute. More people are texting. More are using Facebook or Twitter for work.

“It’s worse than it’s ever been,” says Michelle Rupp, owner of NRG Seattle, an insurance brokerage with a staff of 12 who feel pounded by the avalanche of messaging. “It’s so hard to stay focused. Everything bings and bongs and tweets at you, and you don’t think.”

Yes, it is possible to blunt the interruption assault. But business leaders must go on the offensive in a realm most are oblivious to: interruption management.

The Myth of Multitasking

Human brains come equipped with two kinds of attention: involuntary and voluntary. Involuntary attention, designed to be on the watch for threats to survival, is triggered by outside stimuli–what grabs you. It’s automatically rattled by the workday cacophony of rings, pings and buzzes that are turning jobs into an electronic game of Whac-a-Mole. Voluntary attention is the ability to concentrate on a chosen task.

As workers’ attention spans are whipsawed by interruptions, something insidious happens in the brain: Interruptions erode an area called effortful control and with it the ability to regulate attention. In other words, the more you check your messages, the more you feel the need to check them–an urge familiar to BlackBerry or iPhone users.

“Technology is an addiction,” says Gayle Porter, a professor of management at Rutgers University who has studied e-compulsion. “If someone can’t turn their BlackBerry off, there’s a problem.”

The cult of multitasking would have us believe that compulsive message-checking is the behavior of an always-on, hyper-productive worker. But it’s not. It’s the sign of a distracted employee who misguidedly believes he can do multiple tasks at one time. Science disagrees. People may be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, but they can’t do two or more thinking tasks simultaneously.

Say a salesman is trying to read a new e-mail while on the phone with a client. Those are both language tasks that have to go through the same cognitive channel. Trying to do both forces his brain to switch back and forth between tasks, which results in a “switching cost,” forcing him to slow down. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that productivity dropped as much as 40 percent when subjects tried to do two or more things at once. The switching exacts other costs too – mistakes and burnout. One of the study’s authors, David Meyer, asserts bluntly that quality work and multitasking are incompatible.

Brian Bailey and Joseph Konstan of the University of Minnesota discovered that sleeve-tugging peripheral tasks triggered twice the number of errors and jacked up levels of annoyance to anywhere between 31 percent and 106 percent. Their interrupted test workers also took 3 percent to 27 percent more time to complete the reading, counting or math problems. In fact, the harder the interrupted task, the harder it was to get back on track. (A Microsoft study suggests it takes a worker 15 minutes to refocus after an interruption.)

The damaging effects spread well beyond the office cubicle. Kate LeVan, a communications consultant in Evanston, Ill., coaches executives whose brains are so scrambled by electronic interruptions that they stumble during key face-to-face interactions: board meetings, investor pitches, sales presentations. “They can’t have an extended conversation for more than a few minutes,” LeVan says. “That’s the impact of having all this data going back and forth. They have problems in conversation because they can’t focus.”

Here’s how the brain behaves when your attention slips away from a task: The hippocampus, which manages demanding cognitive tasks and creates long-term memories, kicks the job down to the striatum, which handles rote tasks. So the gum-chewing part of the brain is now replying to the boss’s e-mail. This is why you wind up addressing e-mails to people who weren’t supposed to get them. Or sending messages rife with typos.

The striatum is the brain’s autopilot. And no part of your business should be allowed to run on autopilot.

Paying Attention to Paying Attention

In her 2009 book Rapt, Winifred Gallagher argues that humans are the sum of what they pay attention to: What we focus on determines our experience, knowledge, amusement, fulfillment. Yet instead of cultivating this resource, she says, we’re squandering it on “whatever captures our awareness.” To truly learn something, and remember it, you have to pay full attention.

E-interruptions are making it so hard to do that that Google, Microsoft, IBM and Intel are members of the Information Overload Research Group, formed in 2008 to collaborate on research, develop best practices and host forums to share new approaches. It’s self-preservation as much as anything; computer engineers were among the first to show symptoms of e-interruption exposure.

Ten years ago, Harvard Business School’s Leslie Perlow famously chronicled the interruption of a high-tech software company. Its engineers were interrupted so often they had to work nights and weekends. After studying the workplace for nine months, the source of the dysfunction became clear: No one could get anything done because of the bombardment of messages. Perlow came up with an intervention: Quiet Time. For four hours in the morning, the 17 engineers worked alone. All messaging and phone contact was banned. In the afternoon, communication could resume. Given time to concentrate, the engineers got a project for a color printer completed without the graveyard shift.

Intel is using Quiet Time at two of its sites. Other companies, including U.S. Cellular and Deloitte & Touche, have mandated less e-mail use, encouraged more face-to-face contact and experimented with programs such as “no e-mail Friday.” The results often are surprising: employees build rapport with colleagues–and they save time. Co-workers can settle something in a two-minute phone conversation that might have required three e-mails per person. Each change reverberates throughout a company, especially since–as a University of California, Irvine, study found – 44 percent of interruptions an employee experiences are from within the company.

Nearly everyone needs such boundaries to get anything done in this 24/7 work world. Count Chad Willardson among the converted. He’s a senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management Group and operates a financial services practice with a partner for Merrill in Riverside, Calif. He used to check for new messages every five minutes, a potential 96 interruptions during an eight-hour day.

“The more I checked e-mail,” he says, “the more anxious I would feel over every request and question.” Now he checks e-mail manually, and only four times a day at prescribed hours – the schedule that Oklahoma State University researchers describe as optimum. He says he gets a lot more done, is more in control of his calendar and feels much less stressed.

In fact, stress-management seminars often reveal executives driven to wits’ end by their own inboxes. During one session at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin, many managers vented this frustration–until one raised his hand. “It’s not a problem for me,” he said. “I’ve gotten my e-mail checking down to twice a day.”

He explained that his staff knew he preferred to communicate by phone and they don’t send him e-mail unless it’s important that the information be in writing. And because he checked e-mail only twice daily, they had been weaned from the idea that they’d get an instant reply.

Chances are this wasn’t just good for the manager, but for all his employees, too. By modeling interruption-management, he was likely reducing the volume of interruptions throughout his division. Everyone understood that he viewed excessive messages as a drain on his performance – and by extension, theirs.

One thing was clear that day at Lockheed: When the manager volunteered his solution, it was as if he’d levitated. Other managers looked stunned. And envious.

Dead man was asked to pay up income tax 18 years later

(Two letters referred by this article are appended below)

There was a case recently in which IRAS requested payment and penalty for income tax owned by a dead man. What’s intriguing is that the man was already dead for 18 years. Fortunately, the family members had documentary proof stored in their storeroom that the tax was already paid just one year after the man died (think: the family actually stored this document for 17 years!). IRAS apologised for the mistake in Straits Times forum page. So what’s going on and how to learn from this?

When a person dies, the Personal Representative must pay off all debts before distributing the estate. The estate is the collective assets left behind by the dead person. If there was no Will, the Administrator is responsible that all debts are paid before distribution. To ensure the Administrator does its job, two sureties (guarantors) each having net assets equal or more than the estate are required for estate above $250,000 or if there are beneficiaries who are still minors. If there was any negligent on the part of the Administrator, the sureties are responsible for the financial lost. If there was a Will, the appointed Executor is responsible to use the estate and pay off all debts. No sureties are required. However, if all Executors are not able to act (due to being disabled, dead, missing or simply resign), the procedure will be exactly like as if there was no Will and hence it is called application for Letter of Administrations with Will Annexed. The procedure is the same as if there was no Will except the distribution will follow the Will.

The burden to ensure all debts are paid lies on the Trustee of the estate, which is either the Executor or the Administrator. It is very possible to have creditors come knocking at the door even after 18 years! Like for this recent case, it was the tax man that came knocking at the door after 18 years to ask for tax owned. If the Trustee is unable to proof that the debt was already paid, the Trustee becomes financially liable to pay off this debt. Of course, the Trustee can clawback from the beneficiaries but this is going to be extremely tedious especially if there is more than 1 beneficiary.

Most people do not realise what this means to their family. Most people have not written their Will. As a result, they assume someone in the family will be the Administrator. For married couple, it is always assumed that the surviving spouse will be the one (although this is not guaranteed). As a result, they will place an undue burden on their spouse to manage the estate such as paying off all debts. But as it can be seen by this IRAS example that this burden can last for nearly two decades! I am not sure whether is it wise to leave behind a yoke to be carried by your wife or husband for this long! Not to mention the necessity to store documents in the storeroom for two decades.

For those who have written their Wills, I have seen Wills being written to the detriment of their Executors. They would often appoint a financially and legally challenged Executor. Usually this will also be their own spouse and family members. Again, these Executors will need to carry the burden probably for the rest of their lives such as constantly worry whether all debts have been paid and the need to store documentary proof for 18 years in the storeroom. Very often, Wills written by young couples create implicit trust without them even been advised what this really means to the Executor. An implicit trust is created such as when a beneficiary is still a minor. In this case, the Executor becomes the Trustee of this asset until the beneficiary reaches legal age. The duly of the Trustee is significant because he or she has the fiduciary to ensure the assets are managed to the interest of beneficiaries otherwise the Trustee is financially liable for losses. There are solutions to this but it is not within the scope of this article.

Since the burden is so great on the Administrator and the Executor, estate planning is something which people cannot ignore. Ignoring the need of estate planning is equivalent of saying that you are happy with your wife or children to carry the yoke of being constantly worried for debts of the estate. I am not sure how it feels like to be invoiced by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore after 18 years. I think the compounding effect of the penalty imposed will probably give anyone an immediate heart attack!

As for this case, IRAS mentioned that a mistake probably occurred when the cashier order meant to settle the tax arrears of the estate was instead credited to the trustee’s own income tax account. I am not sure what’s going on here but it reminds me of one thing. It is extremely important for a trustee to keep a solid record of accounts to ensure that the assets of the estate do not mixed with the trustee’s own estate. Since it cannot be guaranteed that other third parties will not mix it up, the onus is on the trustee to perform a perfect record keeping.

In Singapore’s context, my empirical estimate is that 99% of the Singapore residents have not done estate planning. For those who have written their Wills, they wrote nonsensical Wills that are not worth the papers printed on. These Wills may be valid but practically nonsense Also, it is a common misconception that estate planning is all about writing a Will. Writing a Will is just one of the tools and yet 99% of who used this tool wrote nonsense. Actually, the best people who can do estate planning are financial planners because estate planning is one of the pillars in financial planning. Unfortunately, estate planning does not involve selling a product and hence there is no commission for doing a thorough estate planning. To the disgrace of the industry, it is a well known fact that estate planning has been abused and used as a tool to sell expensive and unsuitable insurance products.

If you want to do estate planning, make sure the estate planner isn’t going to sell you another useless product. What you need is an estate plan, not product.

You may also wish to read a related article: “Describe the process of a person who dies testate / intestate” http://bit.ly/9A7GRq







Tax letter arrives years after death
MY FAMILY received a letter from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) in November last year, regarding the estate of my grandfather who died in 1992. The letter was addressed to the trustees of his estate and requested payment of an outstanding tax and penalty for assessment year 1992.

The letter was brief and did not provide any details as to how the amount was reached. Only after calling the officer who wrote the letter, and because of our persistence, did we get another letter this month with a brief statement of account.

Fortunately, my parents had kept the records of payment in the storeroom and we found documentary proof of payment in 1993. But it is puzzling that it took the taxman nearly two decades to alert us.

Carol Ong (Ms)
Feb 13, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum

Sorry, Iras has explained tax error
I REFER to the letter by Ms Carol Ong, 'Tax letter arrives years after death' (Feb 13).

Ms Ong's family received a letter from us in November last year with regard to the income tax payable by the estate of Ms Ong's grandfather. The case was identified in a recent review of arrears of old cases. Prior to her letter, our staff had been in discussion with Ms Ong and her mother to clear up the matter.

We have since clarified with Ms Ong's family and confirmed that payment had already been made in 1993 by one of the trustees of the estate. However, the payment, in the form of a cashier's order, was credited to the income tax account of the trustee, instead of being used to settle the tax arrears of the estate.

We have explained to Ms Ong how the error may have arisen and would like to apologise to her and her family for the inconvenience.

Deanna Choo (Ms)
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Feb 23, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum


Original post:
http://www.cpf.gov.sg/imsavvy/blog_post.asp?postid=705870790-66-6957622765

寫給兒子的信

我兒:
寫這備忘錄給你，基於三個原則：


(一）人生福禍無常，誰也不知可以活多久，有些事情還是早一點說好
(二）我是你的父親，我不跟你說，沒有人會跟你說
(三）這備忘錄裏記載的，都是我經過慘痛失敗得回來的體驗，可以為你的成長省回不少冤枉路。

以下，便是你在人生中要好好記住的事：
1.對你不好的人，你不要太介意:在你一生中，沒有人有義務要對你好，除了我和你媽媽。至於那些對你好的人，你除了要珍惜、感恩外，也請多防備一點，因為，每個人做每件事，總有一個原因，他對你好，未必真的是因為喜歡你，請你必須搞清楚，而不必太快將對方看作真朋友

2.沒有人是不可代替，沒有東西是必須擁有:看透了這一點，將來你身邊的人不再要你，或許失去了世間上最愛的一切時，也應該明白，這並不是甚麼大不了的事

3.生命是短暫的，今日你還在浪費著生命，明日會發覺生命已遠離你了:因此，愈早珍惜生命，你享受生命的日子也愈多，與其盼望長壽，倒不如早點享受

4.世界上並沒有最愛這回事:愛情只是一種霎時的感覺，而這感覺絕對會隨時日、心境而改變。如果你的所謂最愛離開你，請耐心地等候一下，讓時日慢慢沖洗，讓心靈慢慢沉澱，你的苦就會慢慢淡化。不要過分憧憬愛情的美，不要過分誇大失戀的悲

5.雖然，很多有成就的人士都有受過很多教育，但並不等如不用功讀書，就一定可以成功:你學到的知識，就是你擁有的武器!人，可以白手興家，但不可以手無寸鐵，緊記！

6.我不會要求你供養我下半輩子，同樣地我也不會供養你的下半輩子，當你長大到可以獨立的時候，我的責任已經完結:以後，你要坐巴士還是Benz，吃魚翅還是粉絲，都要自己負責

7.你可以要求自己守信，但不能要求別人守信，你可以要求自己對人好，但不能期待人家對你好:你怎樣對人，並不代表人家就會怎樣對你，如果看不透這一點，你只會徒添不必要的煩惱

8.我買了十多二十年六合彩，還是一窮二白，連三獎也沒有中，這證明人要發達，還是要努力工作才可以，世界上並沒有免費午餐

9.親人只有一次的緣份，無論這輩子我和你會相處多久，也請好好珍惜共聚的時光，下輩子，無論愛與不愛，都不會再見

你的爸爸 梁繼璋

梁繼璋先生是香港一位名電臺節目主持人，也是一位兒童心理學導師。
這是梁繼璋寫給兒子的信；但看後，我覺得不只給兒子，其實可以適合所有人看!

珍珠奶茶

珍珠奶茶在給人們的味蕾帶來甜美刺激的同時，也給人的健康帶來隱患。奶精是珍珠奶茶之魂，十杯鮮奶的味道，也不如一勺奶精來得香濃。奶精的主要成分氫化植物油是一種反式脂肪酸。
專家指出：每天一杯500cc珍珠奶茶中反式脂肪酸含量已超出正常人體承受極限，飲用者易患心血管疾病。奶精使奶茶變得香濃，源自於奶精中一種名為‘植脂末’的化學物質。這種物質中含有砷(砒霜)、鉛、銅等有害物質，長期攝入，可增加患冠心病、腫瘤、哮喘等疾病的機率，幼兒更會變得智力低下。

吃「珍珠」等於吃塑膠！珍珠奶茶正因為這些黑色的小顆粒而得名，我們一般叫它為珍珠粉圓，公開的主材料是木薯澱粉。然而，單純的木薯澱粉並不能讓珍珠彈性十足，如今比較通用做法是在其中加入小麥蛋白。


即便如此，有的商家也覺得彈性還不夠，為了讓珍珠更有“嚼頭”，於是再添加人工合成的高分子材料。說白了，高分子材料就是塑膠，這也是行業內心照不宣的秘密。這樣的成分不可能被人體吸收，吃塑膠是什麼結果，大家可以想像。

Forwarded email (转贴): Batu Berangkai Falls Perak - dangerous place to visit

So you heard about the 3 students from UTAR who drown in Batu Berangkai Falls in Perak this week.. The Start Online : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/2/nation/5024687&sec=nation But other people who visited the Batu Berangkai Falls last year already know about this death trap. Goto a friend's blog below and read his own experience last year Mar'2008. http://js2smart.xanga.com/649671559/wonderful-grace/ He and his brother were trap in the fast and sudden raise in water level and were nearly drown as well. See picture below. Pls forward this email to your family and frens. Avoid this waterfall during rainy season. Picture #1 : Sunny, gentle stream... Picture #2 : Suddenly, within minutes, the water turn into rush and splash. Avoid this location for picnic or teambuilding. Please warn your friends before another tragedy strike them.

Forwarded email: WHAT TO DO WHEN INSECT GOES INTO EAR

Very useful tips for parents and grandparents, baby sitters, aunties and uncles:

FYI. especially those who have young children, sharing this knowledge.

A Family wrote about the incident of their child. Early this morning at about 4am, my eldest daughter was complaining and cry-saying that she felt pain in her ear.

I tried to calm her down and persuaded her to let me have a look at it but she refused and showed us her stubbornness and tormented her anger at us.

I can see why, as I saw pain in her little eyes. It was a scary incident for us as we're worried and got no clue of what is the cause of it and what to do. So I decided to call my sister-in-law whom is a doctor for advice.

She told me to pour baby oil into my daughter's ear. After a while of persuasion, I finally manage to calm her down and pour baby oil into her ear. She then manage to go back to her sleep.

Next morning, she woke up without complain and went to her usual Sunday Class. I thought everything was ok. But,when she came back from school, she complained to me that she found difficulty in hearing clearly.

I quickly took her to ENT Specialist. In my heart was asking questions on whether is it due to the oil that I poured last night and hence, it affected her drum? The thought of it scares me.

When it's our turn to see the doctor, I explained to the doctor on last night incident. The doctor then inserted a small wire, which is also known to be a tiny camera into my daughter's ear.

I was amazed when he showed me on the TV screen, the leg of an insect and told me that was the cause of the pain and hearing problem. He then inserted another kind of wire to suck the insect out. He told me that luckily I poured baby oil into my daughter's ear quick enough, otherwise the "alive insect" could go deeper and it can damage her ear.

He told us what we did was a right thing to do as baby oils or cooking oils will kill the insect. However, after doing so, we must quickly visit the nearest doctor, to take it out.

Do not wait any longer. I was relieved and thankful that nothing happens to my daughter, even though we took our time to see the doctor, after putting the baby oil in her ear.