Ribbit.FYI

28/08/2024

Can video games be good for you? Cozy games are.

Games like Unpacking, Tiny Glade and A Little to the Left can help you destress. Plus, anyone can pick up these easy to play games without any pre-existing knowledge of video games.

There are about 36.6 million steam users who own cozy games as of July 2024, 5 times the number of users in 2014. And with more and more studies showing the benefits of the genre, perhaps there is some solace we can hold onto in the genre’s climbing Steam Sales.

With no peak in sight, what is the special sauce that these have?

Studies have suggested that cozy gaming doesn’t just help you unwind, they even help drive a shift in perspective toward more positive philosophies.

It seems that maybe in a tough world, a little softness is something we all need.



Is Black Myth Wukong a cozy game?

21/08/2024

See how you could have your first date at the hawker centre? Very affordable. Very convenient. Very mindful. Very demure. 😏

While an overwhelming majority of Singaporeans give hawker dates a green light, a recent survey by has found that only 16% of us have 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 gone to the hawker centre for a first date. 😮

Hawker centre first dates might be uncomfortably unconventional, but hey!—it’d also make your date a whole lot more memorable. 💞

P.S. We certainly didn’t write this for the Edward Cullen x Jacob Black fangirls 🤭👀

14/08/2024

“This is gonna cost me an arm and a leg.”

Tbh we just made this to complain. BUT…it’s starting to feel like a wider problem, when everything is moving to a subscription-based service.

There’s often a justification for this in the form of rolling product updates, or allowing customers to pay-as-they-need—or even just the benefits of creating less physical product, and therefore less waste.

However, that’s often offset by costs that increase beyond the rate of inflation, buggy Version Ones of software, and power-guzzling data centers used to keep up with a growing content and user data library, and/or cloud content.

So…do we continue to subscribe(haha) to this line of thought, or is it time to start considering other alternatives?

DISCLAIMER: this comic was still created in Photoshop
DISCLAIMER: if you understand why we chose this audio, you are old and traumatised

08/08/2024

(Sorry in advance)

Who’s bad with money? Me, but also Games host countries, apparently. As the current games draw to a close, there remains a question of how the massive bills are going to be paid.

In a paper titled “The Oxford Olympics Study 2024: Are Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games Coming Down?” by Alexander Budzier and Bent Flyvbjerg, they detail the ways in which committees have tried and failed to bring down the astronomical costs of holding Games events. But mostly failed.
The data cited by the authors shows that no Games spending has come in under budget, and worse, more than half of the Games overrun their cost by TWICE the budget. Fun.

08/08/2024

Who’s bad with money? Me, but also Games host countries, apparently. As the current games draw to a close, there remains a question of how the massive bills are going to be paid.

In a paper titled “The Oxford Olympics Study 2024: Are Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games Coming Down?” by Alexander Budzier and Bent Flyvbjerg, they detail the ways in which committees have tried and failed to bring down the astronomical costs of holding Games events. But mostly failed.
The data cited by the authors shows that no Games spending has come in under budget, and worse, more than half of the Games overrun their cost by TWICE the budget. Fun.

01/08/2024

Safe because you don’t smoke? That's not entirely true. And because today is World Lung Cancer Day, it feels like the right time to learn how we should be taking better care of our bodies. Early detection saves lives, so share this with someone who needs it to see if they qualify for a free screening (link in bio for more info!)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) maintains a list of known cancer causing chemicals, materials and actions. And while smoking is a definite contributor to lung cancer, there are jobs like construction, delivery or even cooking which might put us at risk too because of the stuff we breathe in.

So while we respect the hustle and hard work that everyone puts in to put food on the table, there are ways to minimise the risks according to valuable advice from Dr Jim Teo of The Respiratory Practice.

In collaboration with 365 Cancer Prevention Society

30/07/2024

Brb, calculating my friendship hours to see if I have enough to redeem the Best Friend tier…

The results of this study (Hall, 2018) were pretty obvious—that spending more leisure or quality time together, and spending more hours overall meant that people were more likely to be friends. However, what surprised us the most was that the average time to become a Best Friend was around 737 hours—the equivalent of spending 8 hours every single day with that person, for 3 months straight.

To measure how long it took before someone would consider another individual a friend, and not just an acquaintance (someone you only know but would not consider a friend), the study focused on subjects who had recently moved or relocated, and asked them to think about someone new they had met after moving, along with how much time they spent with the person, how they spent time with that person, and finally, if they would consider this person a friend or an acquaintance.

This isn’t a sign for you to go sorting your friends into tiers (honestly, don’t)...but if you haven’t met a friend in awhile, let them know you’re thinking of them, and maybe schedule time to catch up! After all, in this economy, friends might be all that we have.

19/07/2024

“But people won’t know that I was here if I don’t post about it!” “I think forgetting that you were there is worse…”

Here’s a challenge for you: without looking at your phone’s photo album, try to recall what happened at the last event or concert you attended. If that’s pretty tough to do, you’re not alone 🥲

In this lab experiment, some subjects were tasked with taking multiple photos of a bunch of paintings, and others were told to just observe. And in the end, the people who took no photos at all ended up having a better recollection of the paintings’ details. Oops.

So the next time something happens and you’re trying to “capture the moment”...maybe try being IN the moment first—that way, you’ll miss out on much less. Besides, “you had to be there to see it” sounds much cooler.

11/07/2024

TIL that instead of 5 emotions, there might be a whole wheel of them. 😐

Psychologist Robert Plutchik was one of the first to devise an Emotion Wheel, from the understanding that core emotions can be experienced with different intensities - which actually meant that there were many more emotions than what we initially thought! Other scientists and professionals also recognised this, and that meant we got many different emotion wheels, including the one that we’ve referenced here today by Gloria Willcox.

At the core of it, Plutchik’s theory was composed of 10 key points, one of which was this: “Emotions served an adaptive role in helping organisms deal with key survival issues posed by the environment.” Emotions are meant to be felt, not supressed!

So the next time you feel something welling up, instead of trying to just pin it as something good, or something bad - try to find a name for it. And when you do that, you just might get to know yourself a little better in the process.

08/07/2024

Dreading that ride to work? Remember to bring your earphones. Let us know which music genre you use to fend off your demons below!

Turns out, apart from the sweat of your fellow passengers and being a sardine on the train, the commute might actually be a good space to just… be. 
But as much as things are what we make of them, sometimes we just need music to feel better. 

Just don’t be that person blasting music loud enough for the whole interchange to hear.

28/06/2024

In the blink of an eye, month has come and gone. LGBTees disappear from the stores and Q***r people disappear from the face of the earth. Or do we?

Do you think you can be a better ally? Well, it’s never too late to start. 

Also, a big thank you to our + friends who helped contribute to our discussion on what allies should know!

(Any homophobic or transphobic comments will not be tolerated, you will be blocked and reported. 🚨😾🌋)

20/06/2024

When it comes to play, there really is no “wrong” and “right” way of doing things!

Any form of play in our children’s early years can contribute to nurturing their young minds. Let’s work on unlearning some old mindsets, for the benefit of our children and ourselves. Free play is the way to go for all the cool kids (and parents).

In collaboration with the Early Childhood Development Agency Beanstalk ECDA

13/06/2024

As much as we love you hitting share on our posts, please read till the end first. Thank you

05/06/2024

Have you ever felt like you weren’t allowed to grieve your grief?

It felt “ridiculous” to feel so strongly for that particular loss you’re trying to process. Or frankly, you didn’t have time to feel at all because life moves on and work calls! Well, there’s a term for it – Enter: Disenfranchised Grief.

And you’re not alone in feeling this way. We collected responses from 40 individuals who are grappling, or grappled, with this to share their stories with us.

We found that a concerning number of us stay busy to keep the feelings at bay… and we shy away from showing our feelings at work even though we’re generally okay with others expressing theirs!

Once again, thank you to everyone who bared their hearts out to us and we’re sending y’all love and strength on your healing journey.❤️‍🩹

29/05/2024

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Instagram scrolling to bring you this reminder: put the phones down and go talk to people irl 📲

17/05/2024

If your cycle is very suddenly syncing with bestie, that isn’t a sign of your bond through lifetimes, but probably an irregular period ):

08/05/2024

Disclaimer: The writer has not actually changed their IC. It has been 9 months since they’ve received the SMS from ICA to do so. (oops)

02/05/2024

Being able to use the toilet when you need to shouldn’t be a luxury—but for certain occupations, it is.
Every bus driver, cabbie or private hire driver goes through the same challenges, and oftentimes, this results in similar kidney-related health problems.
Working in an industry driven by urgency is rarely good for one’s physical and mental health, especially if customers are expecting you to be at their beck and call. So yes, structural changes need to happen so that drivers are better supported in their daily lives. But it also starts with us.

30/04/2024

We hope you’re taking a break this Labour Day, and if you’re looking for an avenue to voice your support for better work, please join at Hong Lim Park tomorrow—more details on their page!

Percentages make big numbers in healthcare and social policy feel manageable, but they can also take away a lot of the scale, nuance and detail of these very human issues.

The bigger picture of multiple jobs goes beyond labour statistics—it affects our sleep, and consequently, our stress levels (Marucci-Wellman et al., 2016), which can snowball into our social relationships (Mi & Lei, 2023).

So remember: people are not numbers! Every 0.001% is a friend, family member, or loved one.

25/04/2024

If your Asian parent brings you a plate of oranges, just know that they really, really, love you.

26/03/2024

Experts have hypothesised that the urbanised Singaporean context of competition, higher workloads, and ideals of perfection could contribute to elevated risks of OCD.

So, with our unusually high numbers, how do we help people who have/suspect they have OCD reach for support?

We conducted a survey (33 participants, either diagnosed with or suspecting they have OCD) to find out what the are the barriers they face when it comes to receiving treatment.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder that revolves around obsessions and compulsions. The obsessions are excessive and unreasonable, and cause overwhelming anxiety and distress, which drives those afflicted to perform rituals and repeated mental acts and behaviours - aka compulsions.

A huge thank you to the participants of our survey, and Professor Oliver Suendermann of both NUS and Intellect for helping us on our research journey!

21/02/2024

Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza have been put on pause once more as the U.S. vetoed Algeria’s proposed resolution on Tuesday.

Since the formation of the UN Security Council in 1946, the Right To Veto is a privilege accorded to only its 5 permanent members—China, France, Russia, the UK, and the U.S, giving them the official power to reject decisions unilaterally.

In the new millennium, however, the Right To Veto has been placed under closer scrutiny, with more nations calling for permanent members to pledge against using the veto in cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Making up part of the permanent members with the power to veto, both France and the UK have not cast a veto since 1989, and have also been advocating for similar control.

In response to the U.S.’s lone rejection of the proposed ceasefire in Gaza, many nations—and even allies of Israel and the U.S.—have expressed condemnation and regret towards the veto.⁴

31/10/2023

🎃We found eye of newt at …🎃ˢᵖₒ₀ₒᵒₒₒᴼᵏʸʸʸ 🧙‍♀️(It’s mustard seed.)

19/09/2023

29/08/2023

TW: Death, murder, su***de.

If you stay in the East… good luck. It’s haunted af. 👻

To identify the top haunted spaces in Singapore, we dug through the online archives of Hungzai — Singapore’s longest-standing supernatural story website dedicated to collecting local ghost stories for the past 15 years and more.

While talks about ghosts may drive many away in terror, ghosts are also a way for us to gain historical insights about the places that they haunt.

In an interview with The Guardian, Associate Professor María del Pilar Blanco opined that “Ghosts are inseparable from memory, history and loss. They represent how individuals and groups internalise their history, and how we reluctantly hold on to unshakeable past events.”

Similarly, Charles Goh, Senior Researcher at Asian Paranormal Investigators (API), revealed that much of the work that API involves itself with is the drawing of connections between supernatural reports and the historical data of its corresponding location.

What we’ve uncovered in our investigation is indeed, that these haunted spaces are often linked to gruesome stories of murder and su***de — some of these rumours even birthed by the stigma surrounding these tragic deaths.

Ghosts contribute to our intangible cultural heritage and act as symbols of our past. At the same time, they continue to be very real to our modern society. According to a 2018 study by YouGov, as many as 2 out of 3 Singaporeans believe that ghosts exist!

This seventh Lunar month, you might probably want to avoid exploring some of these locations. But if curiosity gets the better of you… we’ve got our fingers crossed. 🤞

08/08/2023

Crystals aren’t just good vibes only – did you know that some of them can be toxic in certain situations?

19/07/2023

Maybe you should stop scrolling and actually clean your room just saying

18/07/2023

We have one of the best internet speeds in the world, but when it comes to devices, there are still people who are falling through the gaps. In the drive towards digital inclusion, these are some of the people that need help the most.

14/07/2023

Before you make any ageist comments about your grandma getting scammed, remember that every one of us are equally vulnerable to the threat posed by scams happening around us! 💸🤔💸

Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore is introducing the Online Criminal Harms Act to proactively disrupt scams and malicious cyber activities – head to go.gov.sg/ocha-1r to find out more!
In collaboration with Ministry of Home Affairs

04/07/2023

It’s a bird, it’s a plane…It’s Link! The hero of Hyrule and...a q***r icon? ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜