The Media Development Authority did a survey on Singaporean Internet use a couple months ago, and the startling results: about two-thirds of Singaporeans between the ages of 15 and 49 use the Internet in their ``daily lives''. I would've expected it to be closer to double that, but maybe I just naturally move in Internet-connected circles. The surprising result was their conclusion that only about one in two Singaporeans is a ``discerning user,'' that is, someone ``able to sieve out information on the net.'' The news summaries don't explain what exactly is meant by sieving out information. If it means just being able to go out and find some desired information, I don't see how a person can avoid sieving information online. It's given me this image of hapless users being tossed from one web site to another, helpless and lost in the fast-moving currents of YouTube videos, snide reviews of weak episodes of Enterprise, and tedious arguments. The survey also determined that only one in three Singaporeans is actively a ``content creator,'' which feels more reasonable.
Sometime in the next couple of days I need to get to Vivo City -- there's a ship docked at the port for just a little while longer, the MV Doulos. It was built in 1914, and has a 348-person volunteer crew. What makes this noteworthy is it's a floating bookstore, which over the past 28 years has sailed to over a hundred countries. I don't particularly need any books right now, if nothing else for the problems of storing them since all but two of my chairs have stacks at least three feet high on them, but how often can I expect to find a floating bookstore? There are supposed to be about six thousand titles, and they're put on display just on the deck like that. There is the occasional problem of heavy wind and rain getting past the overhangs and past the roped-off areas.
Trivia: One bale of cotton can provide enough cottonseed oil for cooking six thousand bags of potato chips. Source: Big Cotton, Stephen Yafa.
Currently Reading: The Arrow of Time, Peter Coveney, Roger Highfield.