Game & Watch - Nintendo

 

Game & Watch Super Mario Bros

When I was in Primary School (circa 1978 to 1980), the Game & Watch was a popular digital game. There were Octopus, Parachute, Helmet, Ball games. Subsequently, there was Donkey Kong. Friends had all these digital games as they were from relatively rich background. I did not own these but had the opportunity to borrow and play, thanks to them.

It was not until in December 2020 that I bought a Game & Watch from the USA. This digital game is to celebrate 35th anniversary of the Super Mario game. Other than 2 sets of Super Mario games, it has the game of Ball. It reminds me of my childhood and a time when there is no wifi and no internet. This machine does not connect to the Internet which I think is unique and relates to a time when there is no reliance on internet and no software virus. 👍

The game has a similar colour and feel of the original set (eg size). The screen is however coloured LCD. Battery is internal battery with a USB cable, instead of LR44. 

Loving this retro game!

Astrophysics / Blackholes / Light - Gravity Hypothesis

Recently due to the pandemic, I was watching Youtube videos on Astrophysics.

Blackholes are massive stars that have collapsed towards its end of life. When they collapsed into smaller and smaller size, the gravity of the stars still remain as enormous. There comes a point when the gravity is so greatly concentrated into a small area that light fails to escape, forming blackholes.

However, we know that light can be "bent" or refracted. When light passed through a medium, such as water or glass, the light is refracted. At certain angle when light passes from a denser to a lighter density medium, the light actually bends inward. This phenomenon is called, Total Internal Reflection. Light is not refracted out of the medium

We also know that light can be "bent" when it passed through an object with huge gravitational pull, such as the Sun. Light from distance stars has been observed to be bent by the gravity of the Sun.

Without any evidence or mathematical derivation, I would like to hypothesize that because of the great gravity in a blackhole, the light from the star is being "refracted" internally or inwards, such that no light can be seen from a blackhole. It is not the current belief that light cannot escape from the gravity. But light is being reflected due to gravity, similar to the observation in Total Internal Reflection.

This is just my hypothesis. Blackholes being very far away, I will have challenges in proving such a theory. Perhaps it will take more than a hundred years to determine if it is true. Of course, the hypothesis could be wrong and there are other reasons why light cannot 'escape' in a blackhole. 

Hypothesized in August 2020. 

Historical Moments - Coronavirus COVID 19

18 March 2020 - Morning 8am, Causeway Bridge between Singapore and Malaysia
First time in history since World War 2; there was so little traffic on Wednesday, a working day in Singapore. Any conventional working day would have seen long line of cars waiting to clear custom. This is because Malaysia has due to growing health concern on Coronavirus restricted all Malaysian from travelling abroad, including by land to Singapore. This is a historical moment.

On the same night, the DOW Index has dropped below 20,000 points from a high of more than 29,000 just a few weeks ago.

It just reminded me of a game I had played when I was boy. The mouse was eaten by the cat and the dog, the tiger and eventually by the lion. The lion was killed by the stampede of the elephant. But the elephant could be destroyed by the mouse. Similarly, humans are almost invincible but vulnerable to an invisible virus so small that we can't see.

A gentle reminder to regularly wash hand with soap and reduce the times that your hand and fingers touching the face. Basic hygiene that could save us from infection.

Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker

Watched the film recently. This is the 10th (including Rouge One) films I've watched in s cinema since the first film in 1976. Some comments:-

1) Jedi can revive the dead. First time seen in Star Wars Series. If this can be done, the many Jedi purged during Order 66 would have been revived.

2) Zorii Bliss looks like a female Power Ranger.

3) Kyle Ren black Tie Fighter is very cool.

4) Incredible to see Han Solo, Leia, Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2D2, Chewbacca and Lando again. All these characters are from the first trilogy. The major characters not present are Darth Vader and Obi Wan.

5) Awesome to see the X-wing fighter of Luke Skywalker.

6) A powerful Sith Lord like Palpatine, made the same mistake twice. First in Star Wars Return of the Jedi, where he used the trick of getting Luke Skywalker close to him and showed to Luke the failure of the rebellion attack plan, but was subsequently 'killed' by Darth Vader. Second in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker where he tricked Rey close to him and used the same method of showing Rey the failure of Resistance fleet against the many Star Destroyers, but again was vapourised by Rey's Lightsaber. How could a master Sith Lord make the same mistake?

7) The storyline of how they make the death of Leia coincide with the death of Carrie Fisher in real life is nice and appropriate. Fantastic to see her shed tears in this last movie of hers.

8) Darth Vader was so much better in creating fear to audience than the old Palpatine.

9) Amazed by how things and bodies can be teleported a distance apart. Fight between Rey and Kyle Ren located at 2 different places mean that one person can teleport to another location to carry out assassination.

Malaysia Property

In recent weeks, I was trying to gather information on Malaysian properties since the Government of Malaysia has announced that foreigners minimum purchase price of apartments and condominium was reduced to RM600,000.

With the Internet and various property related websites available, it is easy to make a comparison between property in Singapore and Malaysia.

In Malaysia, a landed freehold terrace house just across the Strait in Johor Bahru is available for a price of RM800,000 (USD198,000) or lower if further away from downtown. For landed property, foreigner can only purchase for value more than RM1 Million (USD248,000) and above.

In Singapore, a similar landed freehold terrace house will cost between S$1.8 Million (USD 1.33 Million) to $2.2 Million(USD 1.63 Million) depending on location.

Comparing the prices, the difference in price between a landed freehold property in Singapore and Malaysia is eight times higher. For that eight times higher in price, you will get:-

1) Better security. Less chance of house burglary. Less chance of robbery.
2) A more stable currency that is less likely to depreciate.
3) A economy with better job opportunity and less corruption.
4) A better internet speed connection.
5) A better health care system and specialist.
6) Reduce geopolitical risk involving the country. While Malaysia is generally stable, the future is uncertain and there is risk that the current political parties will be in discord and may fail to win the majority.

However to a retiring Singapore, some of the points mentioned above do not matter because:-

1) House can be guarded with security services.
2) Major asset can still be in S$ or USD or in equities.
3) Job opportunity doesn't matter if a person is retired. Cost of living does.
4) Internet speed doesn't matter if not for gaming. Higher price for faster internet access is available.
5) Retiree has to come back to Singapore for medical treatment.
6) Geopolitical risk is not easy to quantify. It can be avoided if not investing at all but avoidance comes with opportunity costs.

Properties in both Singapore and Malaysia will be subjected to ancillary costs such as lawyer fees, transfer fees, property tax, utilities bills etc.

The other point to make is that at a median household income of about S$9000 in 2017. It would take a household about 18.5 years just to afford a landed freehold terrace house in Singapore, without other expenses. Of course, the government does not guarantee that every Singaporean can afford a landed house due to land scarcity. Affordability comes only with public housing. However, using the same argument, one may ask why would the same Government allow foreigners to be permanent resident or citizen, hence pushing the price of property indirectly? It is still demand and supply in economics of pricing. Making house ownership beyond the reach of ordinary true blue Singaporean.

On the other hand, the reason why the Malaysia Government allows for a reduced price for property purchase by foreigners is to address the high number of unsold units. The rule only applies for 1 year unless there is further extension. This mean that after 1 year, the price limitation for foreigners will be reverted back to RM1 Million. The owner who bought units at RM600,000 can only sell it back to locals if value cannot rise beyond RM1 Million. This would limit the demand and ultimately affect the price. The only logical reason why any purchasers would want to make use of this reduced price policy would then be long term ownership.

Looking at Johor Bahru, the bulk of units available for sale that meets the criteria of more than RM600,000 would probably be those apartments in R&F Princess Cove, Country Garden in Danga Bay area and Forest City. These are buildings constructed on reclaimed land. There is added risk of ground settlement in long term.

For retirees wishing to retire in a place with lower cost of living but without the hassle of paying huge savings in purchasing asset, the possible alternative would be leasing.  Considering that some apartments can be leased for as low as RM1500 and for proper landed unit to be rent for RM2000 monthly. The expenditure over 10 years would only be RM240,000 (USD60000) for landed property. This avoided the geopolitical risk as well as the risk involving in investing in Malaysia currency. The only downside after 10 years is that there is no asset to own, or sell.