Ligers

Ligers are crosses between lions and tigers and they are twice as big as their parents. The reason might be due to the following.

Imprinted genes may be a factor contributing to liger size.[7] These are genes that may or may not be expressed depending on the parent they are inherited from, and that occasionally play a role in issues of hybrid growth. For example, in some mice species crosses, genes that are expressed only when maternally-inherited cause the young to grow larger than is typical for either parent species. This growth is not seen in the paternal species, as such genes are normally "counteracted" by genes inherited from the female of the appropriate species.[8]

The tiger produces a hormone that sets the fetal liger on a pattern of growth that does not end throughout its life. The hormonal hypothesis is that the cause of the male liger's growth is its sterility — essentially, the male liger remains in the pre-pubertal growth phase. This is not upheld by behavioural evidence - despite being sterile, many male ligers become sexually mature and mate with females. Male ligers also have the same levels of testosterone ng/dl on average as an adult male lion. In addition, female ligers also attain great size, weighing approximately 700 lb (320 kg) and reaching 10 feet (3.05 m) long on average, and are often fertile.

So it can be seen that what we learnt in molecular genetics is not entirely useless.

Soccer Heart Beat

It was an epic journey, spanning a total of 11 matches and 9 hours, filled with emotions of elation and disappointment and in the end, we pushed ourselves as far as our abilities could take us and finished in third place. Finishing third out of 34 teams is some achievement and to me, at least, it feels just as good as being champions. We worked our socks off and fought for each other and I am really proud of every single player that contributed to our success. Our passion and teamwork are the qualities that we possess and once again, it has brought us further than we ever thought. It was a pity that there were no medals awarded for this competition but the important thing is that we remember what we had achieved as a team. This memory will always stay in our hearts, along with Science Open and all the matches that we fought our hearts out.

Group stage

KACC 1 Fir-eign talent 0

This was our first match and our easiest opponents. Shahid opened the scoring early on and we really should have scored more given our dominance. Maybe the wet ground played a part in hindering our movement.

KACC 1 Catalans 0

This was a match I thought will be difficult, against an Indian team. We don't really have good records against Indian teams. In the end, it was quite comfortable. Ziyong scored the winner in this match.

KACC 0 Kismis United 0

Playing against the Vietnamese was tough. They were very physical and we struggled to break them down.

KACC 0 Frenchies 2

We played against a team of Frenchmen and this has got to be the most irritating match in this competition. We hit the woodwork three times in quick succession and they scored against the run of play. The French guys were also whining about every single thing throughout the match. It's no wonder nobody likes the French. I also ended up with a bloodied nose towards the end of the match.

KACC 1 Scorchers 1

This was a match that we had to win to get second place and avoid the playoffs but we could only draw. They took the lead and we equalised at the death with Sergi scoring. The goal was of no consequence but it gave us confidence for the playoffs.

Playoffs

This was for the third placed teams of every group. 4 teams out of 6 will make it to the knockout stages. The 6 teams were divided into 2 groups of 3 with the top 2 progressing.

KACC 1 Everyday Sunday 0

A victory will also certainly bring us through and we did what we had to, even though it was a tight affair.

KACC drew 1-1

Just avoiding defeat will bring us through. We scored early on and fortunately they only equalised late in the match, otherwise it would have been very uncomfortable.

Knockout stages

Last 16

KACC 2 Panzar FC 0

We were playing against a PRC team and there was no way we were going to lose against a PRC team. We duly dispatched them by 2 goals.

Quarters

KACC 1 Roshan 0

This was a nervy match as a win will guarantee us a top four finish. We generally dominated proceedings but there were some dangerous moments. They hit the woodwork once and nearly had an open goal to shoot at towards the end. Some desperate defending was needed.

Semis

KACC 0 Rajapahit 3

We were outplayed by the eventual winners and lost by a big margin. We tried to fight back when we were a goal down and ended up conceding 2 more. I felt that no matter what the result was, we could give ourselves a pat on the back for coming this far.

Third/fourth playoff

KACC won 2-1

We were playing for pride as well as monetary rewards here. The prize for finishing third is 200 dollars worth of Nike vouchers while the prize for fourth are thumbdrives. I already have 2 thumbdrives and the consensus among the team was " No way are we going to get the thumbdrives". They scored early on with a fluke goal and after that we just peppered their goal with shots. It was only a matter of time before we scored and Shahid and Shi Cai scored to secure us the third placing.

I have forgotten some details about the competition and so, if anyone remembers what I have left out then inform me and I will make the adjustments.

It wasn't pretty at times but we got our results. It was a triumph of sheer bloody-mindedness and we will take this spirit with us to every competition we take part in. For KACC!!

Importance

To know whether someone is important to you, you should take that person out of your life and imagine life without that person. Tangibly, intangibly, I know my life hasn't been the same these few days. Life is really unpredictable, cherish those around you. Cliches are just hard truths that are repeated over and over again.

First World country?

I recently saw 2 articles in the papers that left me feeling sad that these things should happen in Singapore. The first one concerns the touting by cabbies in Singapore, especially towards foreigners. They do not charge by the meter and instead charge exorbitant rates when foreigners board their cabs. I would like to think that this practice only exists in more backward countries where the law is not so strictly enforced. Honesty and efficiency are the hallmarks of our country and I hope this problem will be eradicated as we have a reputation to uphold.

The second one is on motorcycle gangs becoming more aggressive in Singapore. there are even cases where women carrying handbags are robbed by criminals riding on motorcycles. One would think that such a problem will never exist in Singapore given our tough laws. Unfortunately, there are such cases and it reminds me of Johor, the Wild Wild West up north of our borders.

Singapore must not be allowed to degenerate into a backward country where corruption and crime are common practices. I will migrate to Malaysia if that happens. After all, what will be the difference between them and us if these practices continue?

End of season

The Sunday football league that I took part has finally come to a conclusion. We played 7, lost the first 5 but managed to win back the last 2. So in the end, we got ourselves off the foot of the table. It's been a pretty tough journey as we began our season with defeat after defeat. I was even beginning to doubt our ability to conjure up a victory. The turning point came 2 weeks ago, when we got our first win in a narrow 3-2 win. The scoreline does not reflect the nature of the game as we dominated the whole game. But such is the cruel nature of football that the opponents scored from the 2 real chances that they had, denied us a goal with a blatant handball that went unnoticed and survived wave after wave of our attacks. At one point in time, I was beginning to wonder whether it was another one of those games. There must have been a football god up there, for we managed to score and thus secure victory with just about the last kick of the game. We got our confidence back and the last match was a good victory for us, with a 7-4 scoreline in our favour. It was one of my best matches as I assisted 3 goals and scored 1 myself. The joy of playing football came back and I began to rediscover my touches as well as my passion. There are still many areas to work on, especially on the physical aspect, but the most important thing is that it's fun playing football again.

PAProduct

At a recent question and answer session with Minister Mentor Lee, seven out of the eight people who asked the MM questions were foreigners. MM Lee even had to prompt for Singaporeans to ask questions. He must have been disappointed at our lack of participation but I think the library of Singaporeans facing him are a result of the policies that he and his team have pursued in the past decades. Thinking about the question and answer session and also through attending lectures on government and politics of Singapore, I have realised that I am a product of the PAP factory.

Rational

Non-emotional

Pragmatic

Obedient

Reserved

Conservative

Non-vocal

Luckily my fashion sense hasn't been moulded by the PAP yet, or else I would be wearing white shirts and pants every day.

Ponzi scheme

This is a hypothetical example of a Ponzi scheme. I've heard of a few examples of it already.

An advertisement is placed promising extraordinary returns on an investment – for example 20% for a 30 day contract. The precise mechanism for this incredible return can be attributed to anything that sounds good but is not specific: "global currency arbitrage", "hedge futures trading", "High Yield Investment Programs" or something similar.
With no proven track record for the investors, only a few investors are tempted, usually for smaller sums. Sure enough, 30 days later, the investor receives the original capital plus the 20% return. At this point, the investor will have more incentive to put in additional money, and, as word begins to spread, other investors grab the "opportunity" to participate. More and more people invest, and see their investments return the promised large returns.
The reality of the scheme is that the "return" to the initial investors is being paid out of the new, incoming investment money, not out of profits. There is no "global currency arbitrage", "hedge futures trading", or "high yield investment program" actually taking place. Instead, when investor D puts in money, that money becomes available to pay out "profits" to investors A, B, and C. When investors X, Y, and Z put in money, that money is available to pay "profits" to investors A through W.
One reason that the scheme initially works so well is that early investors – those who actually got paid the large returns – quite commonly reinvest (keep) their money in the scheme (it does, after all, pay out much better than any alternative investment). Thus those running the scheme do not actually have to pay out very much (net) – they simply have to send statements to investors that show how much the investors have earned by keeping the money in what looks like a great place to get a high return.
The catch is that at some point one of three things will happen:

the promotors will vanish, taking all the investment money (less payouts) with them;

the scheme will collapse of its own weight, as investment slows and the promoters start having problems paying out the promised returns (and when they start having problems, the word spreads, and more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run);

the scheme is exposed, because when legal authorities begin examining accounting records of the so-called enterprise, they find that much of the "assets" that should exist, do not.

Horoscope

Occasionally, I will look at the horoscope at the back of Life to look at what it says. This is the horoscope for Leo today, 2nd Oct.

You need to keep pushing, even though it feels as if all is lost. The good news is that you can certainly salvage a fair amount from the situation and things are just about to get a lot better on their own.

It is quite applicable to me today. I think this shows that I'm really a Leo even though some people doubt that I'm a Leo. It's just that I'm a good-tempered lion.