Bloody things:D

http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/24/bloody-brilliant-10-blood-themed-design-ideas/

Very very cool indeed.

Mug Hard!

THE Raffles school brand is well-known in Singapore, and yesterday’s release of the A-level results showed why.

Not only did its junior college graduands outperform their peers, they also put up the best showing in the school’s 28-year history.

Last year, there were 143 students with seven distinctions. This year, astoundingly, the figure was 250 – one in five students.

In the General Paper, long viewed as a difficult-to-ace subject because it requires a discursive essay, 57 per cent of its students scored distinctions. Last year, 47 per cent did.

In Project Work, for which students have to submit a project file which includes an oral presentation, 85 per cent went home with a distinction, double that of the previous year.

The sterling results for the two subjects were instrumental in pushing up the school’s overall scores, said principal Lim Lai Cheng.

‘We knew we were going to be quite comfortable with how they would do based on their preliminary exams but this surpassed our expectations,’ she said.

The cherry on top was its three ‘perfect’ scorers, who each took the maximum 13 credits allowed and received distinctions in their eight or nine subjects.

All were relieved that they aced General Paper. Wang Yong Jin, 19, an only child who speaks Mandarin at home, said he spent most of his time reading essays and vocabulary lists compiled by the school. His parents own a school bus company.

Likewise, Milashini Nambiar, 19, felt that her essays ‘couldn’t cut it’ when she started her General Paper classes two years ago. She started to read more widely, including newspapers, periodicals and news magazines.

Read the full story in today’s edition of The Straits Times.

Statistics for Econs

Singapore’s expected GDP growth in 2009 is forecasted to be between -2.0 – 1.0% as of 2 Jan 2009.

For residents of Singapore, income tax rates are as follows:

For YA 2007 onwards

Chargeable Income	Rate (%)	Gross Tax Payable ($)
First $20,000 Next $10,000	0 3.50	0 350
First $30,000 Next $10,000	- 5.50	350 550
First $40,000 Next $40,000	- 8.50	900 3 400
First $80,000 Next $80,000	- 14	4 300 11 200
First $160,000 Next $160,000	- 17	15 500 27 200
First $320,000 Above $320,000	- 20	42 700

For YA 2008, a personal income tax rebate of 20%, up to a maximum of $2,000 is granted.
For YA 2009, a personal income tax rebate of 20%, up to a maximum of $2,000 is granted.

For (not newly started) companies, the corporate tax rates are as follows:

Tax Rates for Companies for Year of Assessment 2008 and for those who do not qualify for the New Start up exemption rates

Amount of chargeable income	Effective tax rate
First $10,000	4.5%
Next $290,000	8.5%
In excess of $300,000	17%

And with regards to employment:

For the whole of 2008, total employment increased by 227,200, driven by strong gains earlier in the year. This is slightly lower than the increase of 234,900 in 2007.

For the whole year of 2008, the unemployment rate averaged 2.3% (overall) and 3.2% (resident), up from 2.1% and 3.0% respectively in 2007. This is the first time that the annual average unemployment rate has increased since 2003, when it peaked at 4.0% (overall) and 5.2% (resident). On average, 62,900 residents were unemployed in 2008, compared with 56,700 in 2007.

And Price Levels:

Compared with January 2008, the CPI in January 2009 rose by 2.9 per cent due mainly to higher costs of housing, food and “recreation& others”.

Wonderful year ahead.