Lava Flow

By Margaret Perry, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : Southeast Asia's first sex exhibition opens this month in Singapore.

Sexpo 2005 will be held at Singapore Expo from November 18-20 with full approval from the authorities.

Miniature sculptures were put in dowry boxes to teach young couples how to consummate their marriage, along with a more detailed description on what to do.

This early form of Chinese sex education dates from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

These are some of the cultural sex exhibits that will be shown at Sexpo.

Organisers say Singapore's reserved society is ready for such an exhibition and they expect 60,000 people to attend.

Kenny Goh, founder of Sexpo 2005 said: "I guess the only concern is that some people may not want to be seen associated with some sleazy event. But there's nothing sleazy about the Sexpo. It's a sexual health education event."

Doctors will give talks on sexual health problems and solutions.

They say women are now more willing to come forward and seek help.

"These days, they come forward and say 'I have made up my mind, and we, as husband and wife, want to do something to solve our problem.' We see a more liberated group of women and a more liberated society," said Dr Lee Keen Whye, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.

Sensual dancing, detailed sexual health talks and novelties will be available here in an area known as the bedroom. This is restricted to people aged 21 years and above.

The other part of the exhibition will be known as the living room and is open to the general public.

Topics will include things like infertility and treatments, and ways that parents can discuss sex education with their children.

- CNA /ls

— Tan Hui Leng

HE WAS was born with a congenital medical condition, but didn't know about it till three years ago, at the age of 38.

"I started experiencing shortness of breath and was constantly lethargic," said administrative assistant Amin Mubaruk, who used to play football regularly.

When he sought help for his condition, he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a rare heart-lung disorder that occurs when blood pressure from the pulmonary artery rises far beyond normal levels.

Mr Amin has gone from a prognosis that gave him up to three years to live, to coping with his condition so well that he is now setting up a support group for other patients with pulmonary hypertension.

The support group is the Southeast Asian chapter of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association based in the United States.

"I believe there are many more out there as it's often misdiagnosed as asthma," he said.

For more information on the association, you can email phasea-phasea@yahoo.com.sg or call 9159 9937.

WASHINGTON - That co-worker staring, eyes scrunched up, at his computer monitor may look like he's sweating through another hard day's work.

But he just might be one of the growing number of office jockeys who, according to new research, have their minds not on their jobs -- but on a blog.

Trade paper AdAge.com reported this week that US workers would waste the equivalent of 551,000 years during 2005 reading blogs, online web diaries and gossip sheets, which have exploded in numbers in recent years.

Around 35 million workers -- one in four of the labour force in the United States -- spend three-and-a-half hours, or nine percent of their working week on blogs, the survey found.

Blogs, which range in tone and quality from scandal sheets to semi-professional news sites to in-depth "geek" technology forums, are often seen as the ultimate expression of online freedom.

"Forget lunch breaks -- blog readers essentially take a daily 40 minute blog break," AdAge quipped, presenting its survey as a best-guess extrapolation based on blog related data.

The AdAge survey mirrors a poll conducted by America Online and Salary.com in July, which found that American workers were goofing off for two hours a day on the Internet, costing their employers 759 billion dollars a year.

But some blog and Internet experts argue that reading a blog in itself does not necessarily equate to wasted time -- and may replace time when workers could be idling away their boss's time doing something else.

"I think it is a little broad brush to turn around and say 'oh, they are reading blogs and it's a waste of time,'" said Steve Ferrer, head of sales and marketing firm The Propaganda House which specialises in the Internet, e-commerce and technology.

"If they weren't reading a blog they might be doing something else not necessarily productive either," said Ferrer, pointing out that some jobs require workers to use blogs and the Internet for research.

Lee Rainie, a researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project, said not all blogs were trashy journals -- many are now put out by reputable media firms, and used increasingly by corporations.

"It is not the case that a blog, is a blog, is a blog -- blogs run the spectrum from being ridiculous to the sublime," he said, but admitted: "the notion that some people might not be optimising their time is probably legitimate."

Pew earlier this year released research that suggested that eight million Americans have created blogs, while blog readership jumped 58 percent in 2004 and stood at 27 percent of Internet users.

The AdAge survey coincided with new reports that America's companies may be waking up to lost productivity as desk-bound workers surf the net.

Wired News reported this week that more and more corporations were installing security filters that block out phrases that include the word 'blog' in the URL.

Corporate America has also been alarmed at the prospect of workers actually writing blogs from their desks.

In the United States, flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was fired for posting photographs of herself in her uniform and a Google employee was dismissed after questioning his firm's finances in a blog.

Last year, Jessica Cutler, an intern for a US senator, transfixed official Washington with an anonymous steamy blog dubbed "Washingtonienne" devoted to her bed hopping after hours antics, before she too was fired.

- AFP /ls

By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia

If you've ever felt that work in the office can sometimes be a pain in the neck, you're not alone.

Seven out of 10 working adults suffer from some form of back, shoulder and neck pain, according to a survey done last year by the Singapore General Hospital.

Often, these aches and pains are a result of poor work habits or badly designed workstations.

To help overcome this, a new Code of Practice for Office Ergonomics was launched on Saturday.

The new standard covers the design and layout of workstations and equipment, such as height of tables, chairs and computers, as well as work postures and environmental factors such as lighting, noise and indoor air quality.

And in a society where so much time is spent in the office, alleviating such problems could have manifold benefits, like lowered absenteeism and higher productivity.

A study done in the United States showed that after implementing an ergonomics training programme for office workers, ergonomics-related illnesses dropped from eight injuries per 1,000 employees to three in 1000.

Total annual medical bills also fell dramatically by more than 70 percent.

Initiated by the Manpower Ministry, this new standard was developed and published by SPRING Singapore. - CNA/ir