6. Cooperate with the authorities. In New York State if you are involved in a vehicle accident causing injury to person or property, you are required to stop and give your name, address, and show your driver's license and insurance identification card to the person who is injured or whose property is damaged, or to a police officer. If such information isn't available at the scene of the accident, it must be given to the nearest police station or judicial officer as soon as possible. Be sure to cooperate with the police officer investigating the case. But,stick to the facts. For instance, if you were driving 30 miles an hour, say so. Do not say, "I wasn't speeding."
7. Tell the police the truth. Do what the police tell you to do. Note the officer's name and precinct number, command, or barracks. Ask how you can get a copy of the police accident report.
8. But don't admit fault. Do not volunteer any information about who was to blame for the accident. You may think you are in the wrong and then learn that the other driver is as much or more to blame than you are. You should first talk to your insurance agent, your lawyer, or both. Anything you say to the police or the other driver can be used against you later. Do not agree to pay for damages or sign any paper except a traffic ticket until you check with your insurance company or lawyer.
9. Document what happened. Make a note of the details of the accident, including date and time, road conditions, weather conditions and speed of all other cars involved. It also is a good idea to draw a diagram of the accident showing the position and direction of the cars justprior to and after the accident: make a written description of each car, including year, make, model and color and the exact location of the collision and how it happened.
10. Take photographs. Use your camera to document the damage to all the vehicles. (Use a cell phone's camera if you have nothing else.)Make sure you photographs show how the accident happened. Take your own photographs even if the police take photographs or you believe that your mechanic or insurance company will take them.
Photograph: (a) any broken parts, inside or outside the vehicle such as dashboard, windshield, seat, broken glass or lenses, bumper that fell off, etc.; (b) vehicle license plates; (c) skid marks; (d) street signs; and, (e) injuries to persons involved in the accident. Take the photos from different angles and positions. Take more photographs than you think you'll need. ALWAYS HAVE SOMEONE WATCH FOR TRAFFIC.

The TOP 30 highest paid politicians in the world are all from Singapore:1. Elected President SR Nathan - S$3.9 million.2. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - S$3.8 million.3. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew - S$3.5 million.4. Senior Minister Goh Chok Thong - S$3.5 million.5. Senior Minister Prof Jayakumar - S$3.2 million.6. DPM & Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng - S$2.9 million.7. DPM & Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean - $2.9 million8. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo - S$2.8 million.9. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan - S$2.7 million.10. PMO Miniser Lim Boon Heng - S$2.7 million.11. Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang - S$2.7 million.12. PMO Minister Lim Swee Say - S$2.6 million.13. Environment Minister & Muslim Affairs Minister Dr Yaccob Ibrahim - S$2.6 million.14. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan - S$2.6 million.15. Finance Minister S Tharman - S$2.6 million.16. Education Minister & 2nd Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen - S$2.6 million.17. Community Development Youth and Sports Minister - Dr Vivian Balakrishnan - S$2.5 million.18. Transport Minister & 2nd Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim Siang Kiat - S$2.5 million.19. Law Minister & 2nd Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam - S$2.4 million.20. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong - S$2.2 million.21. PMO Minister Lim Hwee Hwa - S$2.2 million.22. Acting ICA Minister - Lui Tuck Yew - S$2.0 million.

Very INTERESTING & INTRIGUING...Follow the trail and you will be in for a BIG SURPRISE?????A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, and even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound; a sound like no other that he has ever heard. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, We can't tell you because you're not a monk.The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. > > The monks again accept him, feed him, and even fix his car..> > That night, he hears the same strange mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier.> The next morning, he asks what the sound was, but the monks reply,We can't tell you because you're not a monk.> The man says, all right, all right. I'm dying to know.If the only way I can find out what that sound was is to become a monk, how do I become a monk?> The monks reply, you must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of sand pebbles. When you find these numbers, you will become a monk.> The man sets about his task. Some forty-five years later, he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. He says, I have travelled the earth and devoted my life to the task demanded and have found what you had asked for. There are 371,145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth.> > The monks reply, congratulations, you are correct, and you are now considered a monk .We shall now show you the way to the sound.> > The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, the sound is behind that door.> > The man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He asks, May I have the key ?> The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.> > Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone... The man requests the key to the stone door.> > The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. He demands another key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is another door, this one made of sapphire. And so it went on until the man had gone through doors of emerald,...> >...silver, topaz, and amethyst.> Finally, the monks say, This is the key to the last door .The man is relieved to be at the end. He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and behind that door he is astonished to find the source of that strange sound. It is truly an amazing and unbelievable sight > > > > > > > > But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.DON'T SWEAR AT ME; I'M STILL HUNTING FOR THE IDIOT WHO STARTED THIS !

How To Retire - must read. Golfers included 4 Pre-Conditions for Retirement I retired in year 2000 at age 52. I am now 61, thus I can claim that I got more experience at retirement than most! I thought I should share my experience with mariners because I have seen too many friends and neighbours who became so bored that they have become a nuisance to their spouse and children and to others! A few of them have solved the problem by going back to work. They were able to do so because they have a skill/expertise that is still in demand. The rest (and many are my neighbours) live aimlessly or are waiting to die - a very sad situation, indeed. You can retire only when you fulfil these 4 pre-conditions: 1.Your children are financially independent (e.g. they got jobs) 2.You have zero liability (all your borrowings are paid up) 3.You have enough savings to support your lifestyle for the rest of your life, AND most importantly, 4.You know what you would be doing during your retirement. DO NOT retire till you meet ALL 4 Pre-Conditions. And of course you should not retire if you enjoy working and are getting paid for it! The problem cases I know of are those who failed to meet Pre-Condition #4. When asked, "What would you be doing during your retirement?" Some replied, "I will travel/cruise and see the World". They did that, some for 3 months and then ran out of ideas. The golfers replied, "I can golf every day." Most could not because they are no longer fit to play well enough to enjoy the game. Those who could, need to overcome another hurdle - they need to the find the "kakis" to play with them. It's the same with mahjong, bridge, badminton, trekking and karaoke - you need "kakis"! Most could not find others who share their favourite game and playing/singing alone is no fun. AND when they do find them, a few of them found that they are NOT welcomed like my obnoxious neighbour whom everyone avoids.. Thus if you are into group sports or games, you must form your groups BEFORE you retire. You need to identify your "kakis", play with them and discover whether they "click" with you. The less sporty "can read all the books bought over the years". I know of one guy who fell asleep after a few pages and ended up napping most of the time! He discovered that he did not like to read after all. We do change and we may not enjoy the hobbies we had.. Routine Activities To Fill Your Week For most people, your routine work activities are planned for you or dictated by others and circumstances. When you retire, you wake up to a new routine - one that you yourself have to establish as nobody else would do it for you! The routine to establish should keep your body, mind and spirit "sharpened". A good routine would comprise: a) One weekly physical sport - you need to keep fit to enjoy your retirement. If you are the non-sporty type, you should fire your maid and clean your home without mechanical aids. Dancing and baby-sitting are good alternatives. b) One weekly mind stimulating activity - e.g. writing, studying for a degree, acquiring a new skill, solving problems or puzzles, learn or teach something. You need to stimulate your mind to stay alive because the day you stop using your brain is the day you start to die. c) One weekly social activity - choose one involving lots of friends/neighbours. Get yourself accepted as a member to at least 3 interests groups. Unless you prefer to be alone, you do need friends more than ever as you get older and less fit to pursue your sport. d) One weekly community service activity - you need to give to appreciate what you have taken in this life. It's good to leave some kind of legacy. With 4 weekly activities, you got 4 days out of 7 covered. The remaining 3 days should be devoted to family related activities. In this way, you maintain a balance between amusing yourself and your family members. Any spare time should remain "spare" so that you can capitalise on opportunities that come your way like responding to an unexpected request to do a job or to take advantage of cheap fares to see places or to visit an exhibition. Mind stimulating activities Most judges live to a ripe old age. They use their brains a lot to decide on cases. I am sure MM Lee's brain works overtime. He's 80+ and still going strong. In "Today" you would have read of 2 inspiring oldies. One is a granny who learned to play the guitar at age 60 to entertain his grandchildren.
She's 70+ today and those grandchildren have grown to play with her. Another is an Indian radiologist who on retirement, qualified as an acupuncturist. He's age 77 and still offers his services (by appointment only) including free ones to those who have no income. I guaranteeyou that they are happy people who discovered a "2nd wind" to take them to the sunset with a smile on their faces. Mind stimulating activities are hard to identify. They require your will to do something useful with the rest of your life, a mindset change and the discipline to carry it through. Your Bucket List Despite your busy routine, you will at times be bored. Then it's time to turn to your Bucket List. Your bucket list contains a list of things to do before you kick the bucket. They are not routine and are usually one off activities. You need them to have something to look forward to. These include anniversaries, trips (and pilgrimages), visits to friends and relations abroad, re-doing your home, tending conferences (related to your hobbies), acquiring a new set of expertise. 4 such activities that are spaced our quarterly would be ideal. Retirement Is A Serious Business If you can afford to retire and want to, do prepare to live to your fullest. You need to be fit to enjoy it - therefore get into shape now. You do not want to get up on a Monday and wonder what to do each week, therefore identify your set of weekly routine activities now and try them out to confirm that they are the activities that you will be looking forward to doing each week, week after week. You bucket list of "rewards" or "projects" or"challenges" is needed to help you break away from the routine thereby make live worth living. Start listing what you fancy and refine it as you chug along in your retirement. You will have so much fun, you would wish you were retired since your turned 21!

The Star Online, 12 Sep 2009, Seah Chiang Nee Need to wise up quickly to the ways of the world “WE SAT through a talk yesterday on land investment in Birmingham and was shocked when my friend immediately ploughed in S$25,000 (RM60,000) to buy a 1,076 sq ft parcel,” an Internet surfer recently wrote. “It had no planning permit and might take seven years to get one,” he added. Yet she took the plunge. Why? “She was enticed by the gifts – a S$600 (RM1,440) camera, S$100 (RM240) in shopping and S$50 (RM120) in dining vouchers and two bottles of wine,” the writer explained. He was commenting on the government’s search for people with special qualities for posting in China. “They’ll be hard to find since 90% of Singaporeans – and 100% of civil servants – don’t have them; they are very naive, easy to be eaten alive unknowingly,” he concluded. I had long wondered before this case what ingredients were needed to pull off a successful scam. When I was a news editor in Hong Kong, I put this question to a retired head of a cheating syndicate called Tin Sin Kuk, which had existed among the Chinese for ages. The ring consisted of five or six men and women, who would select a victim – always a rich person – to take part in “swindling” another person, who was actually a gang member. Needless to say, the rich person himself was the target. Sitting in my Causeway Bay flat, the old man said: “For the cheating to succeed, the victim must have greed in his heart, the greater the better,” he said. “If he’s honest and not greedy, we cannot swindle him.” A little naivete helps, of course. High education is no safeguard, he added. Are Singaporeans too simple-minded – or greedy – to be able to survive unscathed in this era of sophisticated scams and financial sharks? Protected by a system of laws and a stable environment, they become vulnerable when exposed to sophisticated swindlers and Madoff-type con men. The old magic stone tricks have made way for modern online frauds, credit card cheats and money schemes in which black and white are not always distinguishable. “The average Singaporean is honest and law-abiding, and tends to think the world spins like that,” said a retired manager. “If a well-dressed Westerner spins an investment plan, he’ll likely lap it up.” As children, Singaporeans are over-protected by parents; and as adults, by strict laws. “I know of 12-year-old students who are not allowed to take a bus by themselves.” When he was commenting on reports of Singaporean businessmen being cheated in China at the time of its opening up, university researcher Wang Shouqing had said: “The Singapore company is good in a very mature environment, but not good in emerging markets.” His implication was that Singaporeans were too sheltered to be able to deal with the less scrupulous world outside. Many tend to take people’s words too much at face value. Erik Wang, Singapore’s Consul-General in Shanghai, was quoted as saying that there was a simple lesson for Singaporeans investing in China: “Know how to cheat others more than they cheat you.” Sharing the sentiments was controversial Taiwanese legislator Li Ao, who commented on TV several years ago that Singaporeans were stupid because they came from “poor genes”. He ranked them lower in natural intelligence (despite their high education) than the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong. “Taiwanese are scoundrels, but lovable, Hong Kong people are craftier, (Chinese mainlanders are unfathomable) and Singaporeans are stupider,” he said, adding that it was partially due to genetics. One Singaporean reacted: “Some Singa-poreans can be very simplistic, because we have grown up in an engineered environment. “The average Singaporean is good at academic studies and works hard, but falls short on individual initiative and street-wise qualities, relying too much on the government for help.” As affluent Singapore opens its doors wider to foreigners, it will likely attract the wrong type of people to come and work their schemes here. In recent years, cheating has been on the rise. Many originate from half a world away – through the Internet. This column has also reported on numerous cases of retirees being cheated of their savings by pretty, sweet-talking Chinese women. A recent headline said that on average at least one Singaporean falls prey to lottery scam fraudsters every day, and this remains a concern to the police. Con men sell dreams and fakes ranging from college degrees to job contracts. They organise online “auctions” and make off with people’s money. The most prevalent are lottery scams, which is a worldwide scourge. In a seven-month period there were 210 Singapore victims, cheated of S$2mil (RM4.8mil). The amount is, of course, a far cry from the US$50bil (RM175bil) that Bernard Madoff cheated Americans of, including some of the most savvy investors. Such is the sophistication of this criminal art.

If you have a family member who is very sick and it will cost $100,000 to treat the patient with a 1% chance of recovery, would you spend this money?Many people will say "yes". A human life is priceless and cannot be measured in money terms.Think again. Is the human life worth $10 million? Remember, the cost has increased 100 times due to the low chance of survival. Will the person that is saved, really enjoy life in the future? Does it matter that the patient is already elderly? Does it matter that the life that is saved will continue to suffer, due to some continuing disability?Should the $100,000 be used to look after the future well-ebing of other members of the family? Should a family suffer from a lifetime of debt, in their vain effort to save the life?It is difficult for the family to take this type of decision. They should not rely on the advice of the doctor who is treating the patient, as the doctor will have a serious conflict of interest. A large part of the money is paid for the doctor's fees.There is a need for independent, impartial medical advice. The family should be told about the likely cost, the chance of survival, and the other options (including the right to die in dignity and with love from the family). They should be counselled that they are not neglecting their duty by taking a difficult decision to safeguard the financial welfare of the living.

How happy a man is, is not how much he has but how little he needs

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvvhY6DtfZs&eurl=http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/search?q%3D1938&feajture=player_embedded

19 Apr 2005 ... Government corruption declines but private sector fraud shoots up. ... Last year, a top army officer, Lt Col Ong Beng Leong, was found guilty ... He pleaded guilty to cheating four banks out of S$117mil