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Today's the start of the Great Singapore Sale, eight weeks of -- well, the name kind of explains the thing, doesn't it? Participating malls and stores and such have extended from Orchard Road -- the big downtown district -- and Marina Bay to include Toa Payoh (suburbs) and are coming to Bugis Village (porsupah knows the place, and stayed nearby a few years ago) and Holland Village, an eccentric sort of shopping district not far from me. They're hoping to improve sales too by tying it more directly with the Singapore Arts Festival and the Singapore Food Expo.

The news also reported Phase Two of the Circle Line MRT (Boulevard -- a provisional name; the station's near the National Stadium -- to Upper Paya Lebar Road, all on the other side of the island from me) is in that happy state where they think they'll be ahead of schedule. Phase One (Dhoby Ghaut, in color, through Boulevard) is a bit behind because of the Nicoll Highway collapse last year. They issued the final report on that -- four people were recommended for criminal prosecution; six people and two companies were recommended for warnings, and another three for ``counselling.'' The primary faults were identified as inadequate soil analysis on the reclaimed land being tunneled out; engineers overestimating how strong the strut-water support was; and the failure to include some extra support structures, which let water soak into the ground and lead to the dig's collapse. There's the normal batch of secondary causes and missed warning signs and such.

Something neat for Circle Line Phase Two is they've decided to build an underground depot for the subway trains at Kim Chuan. I forget how many qualifying words they're putting before declaring this a First in the World, but it is a mighty cool idea.

Trivia: Production costs for Disney short cartoons in 1931 came to about US$13,500 per cartoon. Source: Of Mice and Magic, Leonard Maltin.

Currently Reading: Flesh in the Age of Reason, Roy Porter.