6/21/2013

Hazy and dazed


Work up this morning, took a peep at the window. Just as bad if not worst. Turn on the TV for confirmation. PSI 95! Real or not? I like to believe that it was 95, but my eyes were telling me that it could not be. An hour later, walking down the same path towards MBFC from Raffles Place, took a look at the MBS three pillars of strength. They were barely visible unlike yesterday morning. My eyes confirmed that the air quality was worst than yesterday and the PSI yesterday morning was near to 200.

Something was not right, must be my eyes, watery and starting to hurt. The machine reading the PSI could not be wrong. But I still chose to believe my eyes and the pain and discomfort in them.

When I stepped into the office there was an uproar. What 97? Bullshit. It was worst than yesterday. And this was what everyone commented. No one believed that the PSI had suddenly dropped below 100.

What is the point of having a national reading that no one wants to believe in? And how could anyone believe in something when they could see, feel and smell the air and know that the situation is getting worst or not better?

Recalibrate the machine or go for an eye check?

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

wonder what MoE is planning for the school reopening in a week's time. They have been very silent on the matter.

School going children will be exposed to the haze in their classrooms.

Virgo 49 said...

After kena scolding by the Indonesian abangs, PSI reading got to be calibrated as low as possible so as not to anger the abangs further and also not to alarm the sinkies.

Hopefully, the letter written by the American girl to Obama got some results

sgmoderate said...

Redbean,

These days many things in sg are about haze, mozies and yes "falling knives" too .....

Hope the STI index would not be inversely proportional to the PSI index in the days ahead ......

Take good care RB and everyone .....

Anonymous said...

since i cannot rely on s'pore bedek psi readings. i now refer to malaysia dept of environment website for the psi readings. johor larkin lama for north s'pore and johor pasir gudang for east s'pore. psi readings 219 and 333 respectively. i notice s'pore readings in the morning low, because s'pore govt want people to go to work. then after 11 am they tell the truth a bit since everybody go to work, school already.

this is the m'sian psi reading website:

http://www.doe.gov.my/apims/

Anonymous said...

The 3 hour PSI reading is an average of more detailed data. How come NEA don't want to reveal what these data points are. Everyone knows that the rolling average measure they use will mask the accurate reading of PSI at each time point.

The minister insist NEA is transparent and kept comparing with other countries about them using 24-hour reading blah, blah.

Does the doctor not know that you need to take more frequent readings of a sick patient's temperature more often (ie sick air quality of Singapore) than a healthy patient (who won't even need to take temperature readings at all).

Who is transparent?

Anonymous said...

Hypothetical PSI example to show that average does not produce accurate information:

At each of the first 23 hours, if PSI is only 5 and suddenly at 24th hour PSI is 1000 (super hazardous and toxic), the 24-hour PSI reading will be (5*23 +1000)/24 = 46.5 (good).

The above example clearly shows why NEA must be more transparent with their reported readings in extreme situations like what we are having now.

Anonymous said...

PSI 95 ?

Must be an honest mistake. The gov must be referring to PSY 95 instead. Let us dance gangnam style in the open because we never felt the air so fresh with PSY 95 ... amid the PSI is more like 400 now.

redbean,
what do you think ?

sgmoderate said...

Ha ha,

@ anon 8.29am:

psi 219 and 333 is not the "right" readings to read lah, u still not aware latest internet regulation meh?

pls remember to read the "right" readings ok: 95 only. "Very safe to go morning jog and exercise"

wait ..... now i also confuse liao ..... siao!

Is it a "deer" or a "horse"?

Remember the Qin dynasty 2nd emperor story?

Someone was telling him ( the 2nd Qin Emperor ) that the "deer" is actually a "horse" .......

The rest is history ......

Anonymous said...

Why do you keep writing "worst"? Should it not be "worse"? We do have the worst possible responses from the world's best paid Ministers. "You need only pay $10 if you see a doctor". How about funeral expenses if you died?(Just joking) Even the Batam authorities are handing out free masks. not just telling the populace that there are 9.5million masks in stock.As your commentator wondered, what about the school children and their teachers going back to school next week? This has to be the most incompetent response by any government in the world.

oldhorse42 said...

Yah the TV said the PSI reading was 95 but what I saw outside my window in western part of Singapore was a very hazy sky. The trees and buildings are shrouded in haze. Definitely above 200 and perhaps closer to 300.
Well the G is doing its pian ah pek stunt again?

Anonymous said...

Seriously PSI at 95 this morning is a joke lah, based not only on my own body machine calibration, but also many others too.

OK joke, joke lah. So what? The Indonesian minister is even telling us, including of course our million $ ministars lah, to stop being childish, OK?

What do you think? Or rather how do you feel?


Anonymous said...

Can someone ask Yacoob if PSI 95 is the RIGHT reading ? Afterall, Yacoob told us to read the RIGHT thing.

Anonymous said...

Wah lau eh, all the billion dollar modern weapons and defence spending cannot even defend us from a haze attack. Or improve the PSI reading one value less,(assuming machine don't read 95 this morning). Or even mozzie attacks.

Anonymous said...

PSI 95 ?

The PSI machine must be suffering and having hallucination from the effect of the serious haze ! Can someone pour water to wake the machine up ?

Anonymous said...

Machine no error lah. Readings are correct. Just that you are reading "the right things".

Anonymous said...

In 'hazardous' situation with no quick solution,
should not Government be issuing free masks to its citizens now?

Didn't they notice air purifiers in high demand?

Anonymous said...

The measuring machine got choked lah.
It is probably not properly maintained as the maintenance staff did not want to be exposed to the smog oso.

Anonymous said...

For those who are frustrated by the haze, you can reduce your frustration by listening to this aptly-named song that guarantee to soothe your angst.

Platters' smoke gets in your eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tK6aQS_H0


definitely better than the millions dollar deaf zorro frog singing "upturn the downturn" , or "downhaze the uphaze"

Anonymous said...

Our kena sai reading is 95?

virgo49 said...

Bro, instead of spending billions on defence arms and the wired gardens, the govt should have installed giant retractable rotating fans and blow away the haze this time of the year.

The giants must be high tech to radar the wind directions and calibrated with enough strength to either blow them into the oceans or just nice to reach the Indonesian shores.

Let them gave their free keterk smokes with our compliments.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi sgmoderate, it would be good if the STI shoots up like the PSI. But don't fall like from 200 to 95.

As for taking the average, maybe this is a new medical practice, taking a patient's temperature over 3 hours and telling the patient the average temperature. Averaging nicely.

Anonymous said...

Hey rebean
Could you please forward the article below to the arse hole who runs TummySick Holdings.

Hopefully we can sell out our Chinese bank shares before we lose another couple of billion dollars.

"Which Chinese Banks Have The Biggest Default Risk?"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/which-chinese-banks-have-biggest-default-risk

The said...

Correct lah redbean - no conspiracy to mislead you. That 95 reading at 6am was the 3-hour average of the previous 3 hours. When I looked out at 8am, the reading of 158 also does not tally with what I see which is more like 200+. The 3-hourly average PSI is a lagging indicator. It is now 367 - hazardous to your health and life. You better stop breathing. ;)

Anonymous said...

This morning at 7.30 am the haze was as bad as yesterday at 1 pm. Yet the psi reading was given as 111. Is this real? I think there is some massaging of the figures somewhere.

Anonymous said...

The psi meters are probably haywire from haze readings that are once in a lifetime high. Not one in 50 years hor!

The said...

It is 400 now!

By the power and authority in me vested, I declare this a public holiday for all Singaporeans. For the sake of your health - go home and stay!

kirua said...

Hmm... using whatever maths I have left, this should be the hourly data?

The figures really jump crazily, and it also explains how the 3 hour lags, and whats outside may be worse than the number.

3hr 1hr?
12 AM 210 170
1 AM 173 135
2 AM 143 124
3 AM 119 98
4 AM 104 90
5 AM 96 100
6 AM 94 92
7 AM 111 138
8 AM 158 244
9 AM 256 386
10 AM 367 471
11 AM 400 343
12 PM 401 389

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Thanks kirua and welcome to the blog. Even the numbers are getting hazy.

Anonymous said...

They will blame the weather for the wrong readings. They will blame everything and everyone else for anything that went wrong. It is never their faults, their mistakes, their decisions that have made this place sucks big time.

Anonymous said...

Wow, can’t believe, today still had RT session in Khatib Camp. The PTI told us weather so good. 73 psi reading only. WTF.
PSI @ 73 at 1700hrs. Did he know they change it to PM10 instead of the standard PM2.5. Most likly not. PM2.5 rating was still at 168 when I last check(JB API was around 180, which sad to say I trust more than our own PAP NEA now). All I can say is he definitely thinks its 73 and its OK to exercise. International reading of API is at 170+.
Why am I so pissed? Some people say its just numbers. Wake up. Those numbers can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Probably the NEA people just sit in their offices with the air conditioner on and an air purifier to help themselves breath.
We did 2 sets of Static exercises during our RT session since our PTI deemed it safe to exercise. In my opinion thats pretty stranuous already. Now my lungs hurt a bit.
So you tell me if what our beloved PAP is doing/allowing is wrong or not? By giving misleading information, other organizations that does physical/stranuous activities continue their work.
Does the government need to wait until hundreds of people drop dead or something before they come clean?