A rather eclectic collection of stories caught my fancy today…

BELOIT COLLEGE’S MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2011 – some extracts here. Go on, compare your views…

They never “rolled down” a car window.

Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.

They have grown up with bottled water.

Women have always been police chiefs in major cities.

Being “lame” has to do with being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled.

When all else fails, the Prozac defense has always been a possibility.

They were introduced to Jack Nicholson as “The Joker.” (in Batman the movie, for those of my readers who may not be into TV or cinema)

Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.

Note from the creators:

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in the year that the entering first-year students were born. Our effort is to identify a worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2007. We take a risk in some cases of making generalizations, particularly given that our students at Beloit College for instance come from every state and scores of nations. The “Class of 2011” refers to students entering college this year. They are generally 18 which suggests they were born in 1989. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students as they commence higher education and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

One in six people in Singapore suffer from some form of mental illness, with the rate expected to rise, a news report said Monday. Problems ranging from anxiety and depression to severe manifestations such as psychosis and dementia prompted a top-level committee headed by the Health Ministry to map out a five-year blueprint to curb the city-states trends of deteriorating mental health. “We need to size up the potential problem and prepare for building up” manpower and education capabilities, The Straits Times quoted Minister Khaw Boon Wan as saying.

Singapore’s first casino could cost 40% more than budgeted – The Today newspaper quoted the chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands as saying the original US$3.6 billion cost of the development could swell by as much as US$1.44 billion. Las Vegas Sands president and CEO William Weidner spoke to Singapore reporters at the opening of the company’s US$2.4 billion Venetian Macao, the world’s largest casino-resort. “We’re struggling, quite frankly, to stay within our budget” on the Singapore project, the Today quoted Weidner as saying. The project was already one of the world’s largest investments for a single integrated gaming resort. Weidner cited escalating building costs, sparked by an Indonesian ban on sand exports, as well as refinements to the design.