en-us Copyright 2005 Straits Times Interactive. 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT 60 http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/others/rss/sti_rss_logo.gif 120 31 THE issue of social mobility is something of a fixation here, as it should be as mobility declines with development generally and can create social tensions. One facet of this is the role of self-help groups in helping families move up the social ladder, as noted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

]]> 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT AUTUMN leaves impress and sakura dazzles but pickles are a hard sell. Old temples have their fans and geisha charm seems ageless but pickles - who writes poems about pickles?

]]> 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT SOME Internet users are implanted with a special microchip that wirelessly connects the ugliest recesses of their minds directly to their keyboards, routing around common sense and conscience.

]]> 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT A NEW study just published in the journal Nature reports on a 58-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man, both with longstanding paralysis, who are now able to move a robotic arm using pure thought.

]]> 25 May 2012 22:00 GMT IT IS a cliche that the Pacific Ocean is displacing the Atlantic, China will replace America at the top of the world's hierarchy of power, and the East will surpass the West. We do not believe any of that for a minute. The multipolar world we are entering will have no single winner, and the three-pillared West of the European Union, North America and Latin America remains a triangular zone of peace and the foundation of global stability.

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