GBUF - 16 Nov 25

 #sriGINthoughts #GoodBadUglyFunny #GBUF #16Nov25

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🖊️ So, the man who made us laugh at the eternally dysfunctional corporate setup, Scott Adams is suffering from the Big C. That is not news. But the fact that he nudged DJT to get help for his treatment and kinda jump the queue is. Somewhere Dilbert’s Pointy-haired boss is LHAO!  My favourite Dilbert character is Asok from IIT who could solve anything in less than a minute or some such ridiculous thing – while being paid peanuts. Corporate slavery, illustrated! Get well soon, Scott! #LongLiveDilbert

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💳 Last week I got a glossy Singapore government booklet on how cyber criminals lighten your bank accounts. Gone are the old pithy warnings — “Pickpockets/Touts Beware” or “Low Crime Doesn’t Mean No Crime.” Now it’s ACT (Add, Check, Tell), ScamShield, pass-sentences instead of passwords and whatnot. Meanwhile, the Louvre’s video surveillance system password before that work-life-balance heist? “Louvre”. #NoPointsForGuessing

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🐄 Bihar, a land of ancient learning (Nalanda), enlightenment (Bodh Gaya), and fiery caste-based politics, with a population of ~125 million (almost the same as Mexico or Russia — and no, I’m not talking about law and order 😊), had its elections recently. The NDA (with the all-conquering BJP as a key member) swept the polls, mainly thanks to the 2M factor: money deposited into Mahila (women) accounts. Wag laments that it was only ₹4,500 before last year’s Maharashtra elections, while this year it’s ₹10,000. Did they teach about inflation in Nalanda? #GayaKaamSe

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🏊 Talking about BJP and its strong-arm tactics, two young turks of BJP, K Annamalai and Tejasvi Surya completed the Ironman 70.3 in Goa. The half-ironman triathlon covers 1.9 km swim, 90 km cycling, 21 km run totaling 70.3 miles (~112.9 km). Whether it is a gimmick or to lose fat, what they have really done is something rare for a politician – emphasising being healthy is key and literally running, swimming and cycling the talk. Where they finished in the rank list is immaterial. Completion and the impact that is created matters. #IronMenTalk

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🥛 If politicians milk anything small for their benefit, there’s one organisation that has quietly milked the collective to the great benefit of the poor, promoting rural development in India: AMUL. For netizens, Amul is best known for its cheeky, topical advertisements. But for the 3.6 million farmers, it has been a real boon, driving sustenance and growth. Spurring India’s White Revolution, Amul helped make India the world’s largest producer of milk and dairy products. Why this week? Amul has been crowned the No. 1 cooperative in the world. #UtterlyButterly

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🏛️ Then the problem of 38 Oxley Road (Singapore’s founding father LKY’s residence for 70+ years until his death in 2015) resurfaced. On several occasions, including in his last will (clouds hang over changes to that clause though), the great man said the house should be demolished after he was gone. “Don’t make it a relic for people to tramp through.” Protracted social media fracas between the Lee siblings followed. Last week, given its “historic significance and national importance”, the National Heritage Board has assessed it to be preserved as a “National Monument”. #Leegacy

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🐍 Halloween this year brought a real horror spectacle. Heidi Klum, the German model and self-proclaimed Queen of Halloween, outdid last year’s ET costume by transforming into the mythological monster Medusa. A long serpentine tail, a scaled, hand-painted body, and slithering snakes for hair (thankfully battery operated) completed Klum’s fangy ensemble. Truly impressive and cold-blooded, one must say. What will it be next year, Heidi? How about Ravana? Ten heads and all! Monster enough! #HorrorHeidi

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📻 No #GBUF is complete without a DJT piece. BBC, the grand old dame of news, is in turmoil after two top leaders quit following use of differently-spliced Trump videos to make him sound as if he were inciting civil unrest. A journo wag wonders: This is common, no? Perhaps there’s still a vestige of honour at The Beeb, hence the resignations. Trump has threatened to sue for up to $5 billion! Funny thing is, the Brits will end up paying that anyway, given how Auntie is funded. #EditedPanorama

Views are personal. Any hurt unintentional. Until the next snake oil sale...

GBUF - 02 Nov 25

 #sriGINthoughts #GBUF #GoodBadUglyFunny #02Nov25

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🤴 By the time you read this, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (formerly known as Prince 😉) might already have packed his bags and moved out of Buckingham Palace. His brother, King Charles III, apparently read the riot act after Andrew’s growing Epstein-linked scandal became embarrassingly public and untenable. After all, blood is thicker than water. So, the King hit ‘Control-H’ on Buckingham in favour of Sandringham and cut the prodigal bro loose. #BroCodeUnleashed 👑💼

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☁️ Clouds are getting awfully fluffy these days. First it was AWS, and last week it was Azure. Both had their DNS — Domain Name System, essentially the internet’s phonebook — shredded during their outages. It’s been an early Halloween for tech bros these past few weeks. Just goes to show how dependent we are on Big Tech and its plumbing. As one wag asked: Can’t they just print proper yellow pages? Who’s going to break it to him? #DidNotSync 💻🎃

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💸 Move aside Pol Pot and Angkor Wat — Cambodia is now playing in a bigger league: crypto scams. Last week, two (possibly related) schemes out of the ASEAN nation surfaced, with ill-gotten gains running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. And with Singaporeans and Singapore-incorporated entities caught in the blast radius, the island nation is already tightening the screws — from account closures and asset freezes to stepped-up cross-border investigations and even considering the mother of all punishments: caning. #NoSpareRod 🏴‍☠️⚖️

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🤸‍♀️ Yes, SG can be stressful on many fronts — especially education; yet students still fight gallantly. Case in point: Amanda Yap. The 15-year-old became the first Singaporean to qualify for a World Gymnastics Final on the Balance Beam. Time to rejoice, rest, and prepare, you say? Nope. Amanda flew back from Jakarta to sit her O-Level Math exam, flew back to compete (finishing 6th), and then flew back again to sit her remaining papers. Perhaps she should have competed in Artistic Juggling instead? #BeamAndBooks 📚🤹‍♀️

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🤖 The AI race is heating up like crazy, with Nvidia’s market cap crossing US $5 trillion (for comparison, it is the combined market cap of all listed Indian companies OR Jensen Huang can buy two of his favourite Tejus leather jackets – USD 9K each - for each American!). If American days are filled with some chip company striking deals with whoever can spell ‘slop,’ the nights are dominated by Chinese firms pumping out AI papers by the dozen. Everyone wants to build a ‘thinking’ computer. Only Thalaivar Rajini could pull it off — in Endiran. #WhenAGI 📈🤯

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🧠 He took on Google/SAP/WhatsApp with Zoho Suite with varied success. Commendable. But, last week he revealed he’s also an anti-vaxxer. First it was ‘vaccines are linked to autism’ (personal backstory; understand urge to find reasons). Then the HPV vaccination rant - dog-whistling and smoke-and-mirrors. Now uncles and aunties are hyperventilating in WhatsApp: ‘Shocking if true’. Sridhar Vembu must realize that with great power comes great responsibility. In a country which desperately needs better public (read: common man) healthcare, his words risk real harm. #YesToVaccines 💉😷

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🏏 And little ‘David’ Jemima Rodrigues, played the innings of a lifetime against the huge ‘Goliath’ Australia, smashing the doors to the Women’s Cricket World Cup final. Oh, did I get too biblical? Maybe I’m influenced by her post-match thanks to Jesus and her quoting Exodus 14:14 😉 #StandStillJem 🙏🏆

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Views are personal. Any hurt unintentional.
Till the next outage…