McDonald’s E. coli crisis reveals why vegetable contamination is harder problem than tainted beef

Click HERE

the biggest difference is that beef is cooked, while fresh produce, by definition, is not cooked

Large-scale industrial produce is washed, sanitised and tested to a similar degree that beef is, but tests cannot catch sufficiently low levels of contamination, experts say.

Similar rigorous testing is applied to produce, and fast-food chains and other buyers often require it. But tests do not detect everything. The cleaner the product, the harder it is to detect

Qns:

1. ‘Eating has never been more dangerous.’ Do you agree? (NYJC Prelim 2024)

2. Discuss the view that eating has never been riskier in today’s world. (SAJC Prelim 2024)

Move by California governor to block AI safety laws could affect the world

Click HERE

Can innovation and safety truly coexist, or do we have to sacrifice one to advance the other?

The notion that regulation automatically stifles innovation is misleading. Effective laws can create a framework that not only protects people, but also allows AI to grow sustainably. For example, regulations can help ensure that AI systems are developed responsibly, with considerations for privacy, fairness and transparency. This can build public trust, which is essential for the widespread adoption of AI technologies.

But California’s killing of the AI Bill also raises a wider question on the increasing power and influence of tech companies, given they raised objections that subsequently led to its veto.

Qn: ‘The public interest should be prioritised in scientific research.’ Discuss. (DHS Prelim 2024)

Robots that paint and plaster walls to be rolled out at half of BTO construction sites from 2025

Click HERE

improve productivity and safety at construction sites

they cost $120,000 each

even as firms transform the way they design and build through robotics and automation, technology cannot replace the human touch that goes into planning, designing and constructing homes.

Qn: To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)

Asean power grid could create new jobs, bring investments to energy sector: Study

Click HERE

Having countries trade electricity freely through a regional grid would allow them to meet rising electricity demand while being assured of energy security. Such a grid would hedge against the intermittencies of renewables, by distributing energy more efficiently.

Around 99 per cent of the region’s population would benefit from air pollution being reduced by around half, leading to 15,000 fewer pollution-induced deaths annually,

Having greater regional interconnectivity can also create a significant number of jobs – from at least 2,000 to 9,000 jobs annually for the region, ... in the renewables manufacturing sector, which includes cables and other related equipment.

Qns: 

1. To what extent is international cooperation effective in addressing global concerns? (SAJC Prelim 2024)

2. How far does a country's geographical location influence its success in the modern world? (TMJC Prelim 2024)

India introduces new guidelines to curb greenwashing

Click HERE

“Greenwashing” refers to tactics companies use to make false eco-friendly claims or exaggerate the environmental benefits of their products and services to increase sales while downplaying or concealing their harmful attributes.

consumers’ understanding of what qualifies as “green” or “eco-friendly” can differ from that of manufacturers, creating a gap where vague claims by advertisers can exaggerate the environmental benefits of a product or service. 

retail chains Kohl’s and Walmart for marketing rayon fabric as bamboo

uncovered 20,000 tonnes of “fake organic cotton” in India, with substantial evidence of “systematic fraud and abuse” of the government’s certification system for organic cotton.

Qn: 'Technology has given us a false sense of hope in solving problems. To what extent is this true? (RI Prelim 2024)

Singapore gives conditional nod to import solar power from Australia via 4,300km of subsea cables

Click HERE

Qns: 

1. To what extent is international cooperation effective in addressing global concerns? (SAJC Prelim 2024)

2. How far does a country's geographical location influence its success in the modern world? (TMJC Prelim 2024)

Bad news: We lost control of our social media feeds. Good news: Courts are noticing

Click HERE

the platforms’ algorithms prioritised outrageous, provocative content from anyone with internet access over more neutral, fact-based reporting. 

the wild popularity of TikTok’s “For You” algorithm, which selects bite-size videos to be fed to the passive viewer, social networks are increasingly having us watch whatever content their algorithms have chosen, often pushing to the sidelines the posts of accounts we had actually chosen to follow.

TikTok ...its algorithm, which disseminated dangerous videos promoting a “blackout challenge” showing people trying to strangle themselves until they passed out. TikTok delivered a video of the challenge to a 10-year-old girl named Nylah Anderson, who tried to emulate it and killed herself.

the company’s “personalisation algorithms” were designed to be addictive for children, as are other harmful features such as infinite scroll and frequent alerts.

the tech companies’ longstanding argument that the problem with social media is what we are doing to ourselves – not what they are doing to us.

Qn: Should the state bear the greatest responsibility for the ethical development of technology? (JPJC Prelim 2024)

TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks

Click HERE

TikTok is changing how young people talk....Members of Gen Z say “yapping” instead of “talking” and trim “delusional” to “delulu”. New words have also become popular. Take “skibidi”, a term popularised by a meme of an animated head singing in a toilet; it means “cool”, “bad” or “very”, depending on the context.

the platform is changing not just what youngsters are saying, but how they are saying it. A “TikTok accent”, which includes “uptalk”, an intonation that rises at the end of sentences, may be spreading.

Linguistic code has emerged, dubbed “algospeak”, to dodge content-moderation algorithms. It includes euphemisms (sex workers are called “accountants”), and misspellings (“seggs” instead of sex).

Qns: 

1. ‘The quality of written language is being destroyed by social media.’ What is your view? (Cam. 2017)

2. 'Social media plays a great role in shaping youth culture.' What are your views? (Broadrick Sec Prelim 2024)

Existential alarm: New government report outlines challenges faced by Japan bookshops

Click HERE

Qns: 

1. Does the book still have a future? (Cam. 2003)

2. The book has no place in modern society. Discuss. (Cam. 2010)

Chinese tourists take the road less travelled in S’pore, thanks to Little Red Book

Click HERE

About 60 per cent of customers of newcomer Yu Cookies, which opened its pop-up store at Jewel in June 2024, learnt about the local brand through Xiaohongshu.

Qn: To what extent has social media influenced financial decisions among people today? (RI Prelim 2024)

Are school-issued iPads and Chromebooks becoming a distraction in S’pore classrooms?

Click HERE

Qn: Do electronic devices, such as tablets or smart phones, help or hinder students in their studies? (Cam. 'O' lvl 2015)

On the Nuclear Trail: The dawn of a global renaissance in nuclear energy

Click HERE

there are at least three reasons countries are keen to start or ramp up nuclear power production. He said: “First, (it’s) zero-carbon energy. Second, domestic energy security, and third, stable low prices.

Around 95 per cent of Singapore’s power supply comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel

The scarcity of land for solar panels and cloud cover limits the amount of energy the island state can squeeze from sunshine.

Nuclear energy requires the least amount of land per unit of electricity

The Gosgen nuclear power plant in Switzerland needs to run for just 60 seconds to meet a person’s electricity needs for a year....One thimble-sized uranium pellet produces as much energy as one tonne of coal, 564 litres of oil or 480 cubic m of natural gas, according to the US Office of Nuclear Energy.

Unlike burning fossil fuels for electricity, nuclear plants do not emit any greenhouse gases and use fewer natural resources to produce large amounts of energy.

In the US, it is 0.0001 mSv of additional radiation a year for someone living near a nuclear plant, says the country’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That is equivalent to the radiation received from eating one banana.

It is impossible for a reactor to explode like a nuclear weapon

Qns: 

1. ‘Fossil fuels should no longer have a part in the production of energy.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2023)

2. Is modern technology a benefit or a threat to the environment? (YIJC Prelim 2024)

17-year-old self-radicalised Singaporean arrested weeks before planned attack in Tampines

Click HERE

The teen had also planned to travel to Syria to fight, said ISD. He had got in touch with an online foreign contact for travel advice and researched flight routes.

ISD said the youth came across the teachings of foreign radical preachers in August 2023 while searching for religious knowledge online.

he downloaded materials from an extremist magazine that contained tips on planning an attack or conducting a roadside ambush. ISD said the youth actively shared radical materials promoting armed jihad with followers of his social media accounts, and wanted to influence them into hating non-Muslims and killing them.

Since 2015, 14 self-radicalised Singaporeans aged 20 and below have been dealt with under ISA, including this 17-year-old.

Qns: 

1. To what extent has the digital age influenced the aspirations of young people today? (JPJC Prelim 2024)

2. In today’s troubled world, should governments impose more restrictions over the media? (SAJC Prelim 2024)

Four iconic Penang murals restored by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic after 12 years

Click HERE

painted the murals to depict Penang’s idyllic lifestyle 

him as Malaysia’s answer to Banksy – while his artworks have become landmarks that draw fans and tourists from all over the world.

Qn: ‘The arts are nothing more than a luxury.’ How far is this true of your society? (Cam. 2021)

Can artificial intelligence rescue customer service?

Click HERE

make the process as cumbersome as possible by forcing you to press a bewildering combination of numbers or chat with a bot that regurgitates generic responses, a strategy that in the industry is called “deflection”.

Unlike their rote-learning predecessors, generative-AI bots do not regurgitate canned answers to narrow questions. Instead, they create their own responses, informed by the firms’ training materials and previous customer service interactions.

Advocates for the technology say that customers will no longer have to wait endlessly for a person to pick up the phone, and point out that bots will be fluent in many languages and have easier-to-understand accents than foreign call-centre agents. 

generative-AI bots have a tendency to project utter confidence in their responses, even when they are wrong, which could wreak havoc.

Human agents could be freed up to spend more time on creative and rewarding tasks, like using feedback to make products better – and less time listening to irate customers.

Qn: To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)

South Korea footballer Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail for sex video

Click HERE

Qn: Evaluate the claim that sports personalities make good role models for young people. (Cam. 2023)

Forum: Need to be more rigorous when examining future proposals after failed Allianz-Income deal

Click HERE

Qn: Profits should be the sole concern of businesses. Do you agree? (EJC Prelim 2024)

Death penalty exhibition rejected over ‘false and one-sided’ info, possible contempt of court: IMDA

Click HERE

the exhibition was refused classification as it “contains materials that cast aspersions on the integrity of, and undermine public trust and confidence in public institutions involved in the administration of justice”.

The Arts Entertainment Classification Code aims to reflect prevailing social norms and protect the young from unsuitable content, while enabling adults to make informed viewing choices. It also gives due consideration to the event’s artistic and educational merits

Qn:  ‘In a free society, there should be no restrictions on freedom of speech.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2020)

Progress report: Inside Singapore’s fight to lift wages at the bottom

Click HERE

Note that Singapore does not adopt a blanket/universal minimum wage but uses the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) instead, which sets a minimum wage for targeted sectors (those who low wages), with provisions for the workers in these sectors to rise to enjoy higher wages which are pegged to their skill levels. This incentivizes the workers to upgrade their skills and make the model sustainable for employers, with the understanding that the increased skills of workers will lead to higher productivity and more profit for the employers, who can then pay the higher wages for these more skilled workers.

The PWM is first and foremost a wage floor...It mandates a minimum wage for workers in certain sectors and occupations. It also establishes career pathways where salaries rise as workers meet stipulated training requirements. The aim is to uplift wages for Singaporeans and permanent residents whose incomes are in the bottom 20 per cent

It was quite odd that very highly trained personnel… were coming out of ITE (Institute of Technical Education) or polytechnic, and they were paid about $1,000-plus. “No one's going to join your sector in the long term if you continue like this; What's the point of being highly trained and skilled and the salaries are very low?”

criticised the PWM for having “so many additional conditions that the incentives for upskilling turn into loopholes employers use to retain workers on the lowest rung of wages

For its part, the Government is co-funding wage increases at each PWM rung from 2022 to 2026 under the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme to help soften the impact on companies.

There were concerns that a minimum wage could be seen as a maximum wage and form a cap on what employers would pay. Or no wage, because no employer would employ someone if their productivity wasn’t commensurate with income

Qn: How realistic is it for countries to implement a national minimum wage for all their workers? (Cam. 2023)

Navigating health technology: the challenges and the rewards

Click HERE

Note opening BANG using a similar eg of double-edged sword...

defective genes can now be edited to treat diseases. But the same technology could theoretically be used to design babies before they are born, or select employees and grant university and medical school places based on genetic qualities.

Genomics has made precision medicine possible, which promises to treat serious diseases like cancer, but is very expensive. Left on its own, it is very likely that only the rich will be able to afford precision medicine, leading to serious inequity in healthcare.

use generative AI to reduce toil. One immediate opportunity is to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as routine documentation and reviewing of medical records. ...The information will still have to be reviewed by a healthcare professional, before becoming official medical records. It will therefore not replace the human, but enhance our efficiency

explore the use of AI for imaging, to improve quality of care. A word of caution here: imaging AI is very powerful and can pick up even the most minute anomalies, but not all anomalies seen in a scan are clinically significant. We should use AI imaging technology responsibly, to detect and follow up only on clinically significant signs, and manage them in good time before they become serious, without causing unnecessary worry and alarm.

With AI, it is now possible to have disease prediction models that are far more sophisticated and multivariate, including parameters such as health status, lifestyles and social, economic circumstances. The addition of genetic information can make such models even more powerful.

Qns: 

1. To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)

2. ‘Medical advancements have not created a better world for mankind.’ Do you agree? (NYJC Promo 2022)

Forum: Animals don’t exist to entertain humans and have no place in zoos

Click HERE

Being on display all day long with no privacy or autonomy is acutely stressful for them and may impair their health.

Moo Deng is under siege by onlookers. Visitors can throw things at her, and she seems to be constantly harassed by a “caretaker”, who appears to be focused on getting content for the zoo’s social media posts. The distressed baby hippo bit a handler, but her plea to be left alone was ignored.

We must collectively drive home the message that they don’t exist to entertain humans.

For issues on zoos, esp if u doing the 2019 AQ on zoos --- whether zoos are really a sanctuary for animals....

So, are you pregnant yet? China’s stepped-up push for more babies

Click HERE

To some, it is outright invasive. On social media, women have complained about being approached by neighbourhood officials, including some who they said called to ask the date of their last menstrual cycle.

The country’s total fertility rate, a measure of the number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, is among the world’s lowest. The rate is estimated at around 1.0, compared with 1.62 in the US last year.

Qns:

1. The government should never interfere with people’s private lives.’ To what extent is this true of your society? (CJC Prelim 2024)

2. To what extent should the state interfere with the private lives of its citizens? (RI Prelim 2024)

Spotlight on patriotic education in China after stabbing of Japanese schoolboy

Click HERE

learning from history is “not for perpetuating hatred but for avoiding the tragedy of war from repeating itself”.

When Mr Abe was assassinated in Japan in July 2022, eateries in China ran promotions to “celebrate” his death.

burnish the CPC’s credentials in resisting the Japanese invasion...Chinese historical narratives on Japan have changed over time, based on the political objectives of the CPC. For instance, in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, official propaganda started to focus more on Japanese wartime atrocities and heroic Chinese resistance fighters as part of efforts to boost the CPC’s legitimacy.

Chinese accounts have been one-sided and offer only a partial truth by neglecting other aspects of history that could provide balance...These include the generous economic aid provided by Japan to China that helped the Chinese economy to take off after the war, and the changes in Japanese society since then.

Chinese history education and the narratives in the mass media as a big contributing factor to the situation today (of an antagonistic view towards Japan)...patriotic education in school often focuses on foreign invaders, and patriotic language is often mixed with insults and ridicule, including terms such as “Japanese devils”...possible negative effects of patriotic education, believes that whether intentional or not, educators have sown the seeds of hatred in the hearts of students, to varying degrees.

Even if Japan has committed heinous crimes against China, every later generation of ordinary Japanese people should not be asked to pay for them anew. “When will the cycle of revenge end? The bitter taste experienced by the older generation is passed on to the next. This makes no sense

Qns:

1. How far is it possible for one country to forgive another for its past actions? (Cam. 2015)

2. ‘The past is not dead; it is not even past.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2017)

3. Can we eliminate violence with education? (CJC Prelim 2018)

US may have passed peak obesity

Click HERE

Example of weight-loss drug: Ozempic and Wegovy

But almost by magic, these new drugs remove the requirement for superhuman willpower, making us feel fuller, reducing our appetite and alleviating cravings.

There has been a tendency in some quarters to view taking drugs to lose weight as cheating, not virtuous, not the way it’s meant to be done. But here’s the thing: It works.

Qn: 'Medical advancements have not created a better world for mankind.' Do you agree? (NYJC Promos 2022)

Want to master tech? Learn Shakespeare, says futurist Lindsey McInerney

Click HERE

being well-versed in literature helps in honing critical thinking skills, allowing greater empathy in design where the end user’s needs come first.

AI is like steroids for human creativity. In the near future, with rapid changes in technology, humans will use the performance-enhancing power of AI to create better, work faster and stay ahead of the pack

One of AI’s strong suits is that one can use it as an intellectual sparring partner. For instance, before creating storyboards for presentations or a video on social media, it is now possible to engage in a lively debate with large language models such as ChatGPT on a mobile device or a laptop to ask questions about how a concept can be rolled out successfully.

In 2023, economist Richard Baldwin said that AI won’t take your job, but somebody using AI will,...We need to flip the script and look at AI as our very own co-pilot, co-creator and collaborator on creative projects. It’s able to help us bring out ideas from inside our minds and put them on the page faster than at any other point in time in human history.

Qns:

1. To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)

2. ‘Artificial intelligence encourages creativity rather than hinders it.’  How far would you agree? (NHHS 'O' lvl Prelim 2024)

The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution bids goodbye to coal. Can Asia follow suit?

Click HERE

Qn:  ‘Fossil fuels should no longer have a part in the production of energy.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2023)

Our Home: Hong Kong launches national day song on TV in latest patriotic education drive

Click HERE

Qn: Examine the role of music in establishing a national identity in your society. (Cam. 2017)