Poor Andrea del Sarto. A successful Italian painter who was overshadowed by his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. We admire the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael while Andrea del Sarto is almost forgotten. Yet that is what makes him more like most of us. We may not be remembered outside our own [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, May 8, 2013 By
Singapore varsities tops in IT, media and English studies
Singapore may not be Silicon Valley, New York, London or Oxford. But Singapore is one of the best places in the world for computer science, communication and media, and English language and literature studies. And for politics and international relations studies as well.
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 7, 2013 By
Singapore’s 2012 trade at a glance
Malaysia was Singapore’s biggest trading partner in 2012 followed by the European Union, China, Indonesia and the United States – in that order. Singapore’s total merchandise trade in 2012 amounted to S$985 billion (about $800 billion). These figures are from the Singapore Department of Statistics March 2013 newsletter. They may have appeared elsewhere, but here [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 7, 2013 By
Singapore infographics with free online tool
Monday, May 6, 2013 By
Nextly: News as a slideshow
This is Nextly, a newsreader which presents the news as a slideshow. You can click on Next or press the arrows on your keyboard to go from one story to another.
Continue reading...Sunday, May 5, 2013 By
Adlestrop, Edward Thomas and Sweet Tooth
I had to look up this poem after reading about it in Ian McEwan’s novel, Sweet Tooth. Adlestrop, a poem by Edward Thomas, comes up in a moment of intimacy between the heroine, Serena Frome, and her lover, Tom Haley, a writer.
Continue reading...Saturday, May 4, 2013 By
Sweet Tooth: A love story
Ian McEwan, author of Atonement and Amsterdam, which won the Booker prize in 1998, knows how to begin a story. Sweet Tooth has your attention from the get-go:
Continue reading...Friday, May 3, 2013 By
Is Singapore getting uncompetitive?
The Straits Times editorial today says wages can go up only if the economy grows. Is Singapore getting uncompetitive because of labour costs? That’s what the Economist seems to be saying this week.
Continue reading...Thursday, May 2, 2013 By
Lionel Asbo: What the dickens, Martin Amis!
Martin Amis is a brilliant writer and he really lets it rip in his novel, Lionel Asbo. The colourful characters could be descended straight from Charles Dickens. Amis writes about the modern English chav with the same gusto as Dickens wrote about Victorian low life.
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