Solar cookers

I found this via Green Kampong. It's a smart sun solar cooker by DesignQuadro designers, Anil Dincer and Murat Ozveri, and looks very fancy, don't you think? The reason why it's smart is because it can be hooked up to the internet and you can determine the nutritional value of your meal. It's an idea, but to be honest, I do think that it is OTT, and going by the pic I'm sure this is an OEI (outrageously expensive item :-p ) . Well, I guess they're only going for the rich, so that pretty much leaves the rest of us behind!

Hey designers, why not design your products to target the developing world too? By having a solar oven/cooker, the families wouldn't have to depend on wood for fuel, and cope with poor indoor air quality. Look at the Solar Cooker Conference (yes! I didn't know either!) and the Solar Food Processing Conference held this year in India and you will see that many researchers are looking into pushing for this in the developing countries.

The more you starve them....

You don't have to be green to be green

I like the song lyrics "Politicians feed us crap, celebrities are the same! It's all about how green they are and who deserves the blame"

What to do with your detergent containers

Some lad in my office had a brilliant idea on how to reuse these detergent bottles. He cut them up and they became document holders. I think you can go further and cut them in half and turn the document holders into book ends.

Here's my attempt:My container marked out with a marker.

Halloween

OK, it's way past Halloween, but don't these DIYs look cute?

Football pitch

Most, well, I think practically ALL men (well, maybe excluding those in Northern America) love, or even worship football (that's soccer to those in N. America). I'm dreading the World Cup because it will be on the other side of the globe, and most likely my hubby will be sleeping at odd hours.

CNN did an article on how green football is. In Singapore, almost all of the pitches are artificial pitches. According to the article, they can can save 20,000 liters of water a day. That's definitely a lot of water.

Grass pitch
My hubs says that it has to be smooth and flat and the grass can't be patchy. If it isn't the ball will bounce in all directions and will be unpredictable. But hey, isn't that what football is all about? Oh, he adds the players will injure themselves easily too. They are a pampered lot aren't they ? :-) A grass pitch can only be used for football for about 3 matches and then it's time to grow them greens again.

Artificial pitch

I think they changed the artifical pitch at St. Wilfred's just last month after more than 6 yrs of use. There's no need to maintain and water, or encourage the greens to grow perfectly. Perfect for the men in shorts (or so my hubby says!). However, they do come off the pitch with a lot of those pellets!

I do think in Singapore we can do with some solar panels at our football stadiums like those in Stade de Suisse in Switzerland. It has 10,000 panels on its roof!

Water shortage

My hubby works in China and needs to make frequent trips to neighbouring Macau (1 hour boat ride from Hong Kong). Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia, and it has embraced development at breakneck speed. Casinos and hotels have sprouted haphazardly over the once sleepy enclave. According to my hubby, he only drinks bottled water (not very good for the environment) in Macau and Zhuhai in China because tap water has a salty tase. Apparently, development and over extraction of drinking water from the water table has led to salt water intrusion into the water table. And now it appears there may be water rationing in Macau and neighbouring Zhuhai.

Pic - from The Standard

No time

No time to think about blogging.... swamped at work and at home.....

Homemade bread

A few weekends back my son and I made almond bear claws. We got the idea from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. We didn't have brioche dough or the frangipane that the recipe had requested for but the result was hmmmm. We loved the sugary coating on top and biting into the almonds.

The magician

Here's my son as the magician for the Halloween party at school today. He looks so much older now! Used my old black skirt (see below)

Farms at Kranji

Popped over there with a friend a couple of weeks back. We went to a goat farm and a dragon fruit farm. The fruit farm was the best. We were rather worried about the goats' living conditions.

More details on how to get there: www.kranjicountryside.com/

Waste issues from a century ago

Yep, that's right, all the way from when most of us were not even born yet. The articles were featured in The Mercury (Hobart), Australia, and shows that the 3Rs were put into use then. I did notice that the word "recycle" wasn't used. Maybe it wasn't in their vocabulary back then :-)

You may be interested in another related post on noise complaints in the 1930s!

This is courtesy of http://www.resourcesnotwaste.org/


REFUSE DISPOSAL IN BERLIN
The Mercury (Hobart) - Wednesday 20 November 1907

"Also, as regards the dry refuse, new methods have been adopted, in this case by the Charlottenburg district [of the German capital, Berlin), which forms an independent municipality.

This new system is based upon dividi! ng the refuse into three classes, which has to be carried out by the in- habitants. The refuse is placed in three different receptacles, the first containing ashes, etc., the second kitchen offal, and the third all the rest, such as paper, rags metal, glass, wood, etc.


The receptacles in the yard are emptied three times a week, and carried away in carts,. which are so constructed that they do not cause any unpleasantness through dust, etc.
Refuse No. 1 is used for "filling-up purposes. The other two classes are sent by train to a"factory outside the town, where No. 3 refuse, by elevators, is carried up to the top of the factory; there powerful ventilators remove the dust whilst a number of women sort it as it passes along the tables, which shake the stuff forward; paper, rags, glass, metals, etc., are sorted out, the rest going direct to the boiler-house in order to be used for fuel. The paper etc, goes to various factories, and represents a considerab! le value; the price for a wagon-load of 10 tons of paper is £10; of old, tin boxes, £20; of rags from £60 to £120 per cart-load.

The food residue is turned into pigs' food at the factory, where it is first boiled for several hours, and after- wards mixed with bran, corn, etc. When ready it is pumped direct to the pig-sheds, which can accommodate 12,000 pigs, and which are very practically managed. The pig-feeding arrangement, however, seems to give some trouble, so an alteration may be necessary in the connection.

The arrangement is being worked by a private company, which receives an annual contribution from the corporation of one shilling and four pence per individual."

　
THE EXTRAVAGANT DUSTBIN - WHAT IS DONE AT BIRMINGHAM.
The Mercury (Hobart) - Tuesday 17 July 1917
Birmingham is methodically fighting a campaign against waste. A Refuse Disposal Department of the City Corporation has been set up, and has issued posters headed "Economy in Waste" appealing to the citizens to help the scheme; one panel of the poster sets forth:

WHAT THE CORPORATION ARE DOING.
By-products produced from house refuse reduce the city expenditure. Tin cans, etc., are stripped of their coating of tin, then pressed into billets to be melted and used again. The tin also recovered is very valuable. Waste paper is sorted, bundled, and sent to paper-makers to be remade into clean new paper, saving hundreds of tons of paper to the country in a year.
Manure for your gardens is made from the refuse of the meat and fish markets. Grease from waste meat is used for candle-making; also for lubricating purposes. Pig food and poultry, food is made from waste meat and butcher's refuse. Clinker, i.e. the remains of the refuse after cremation in the destructors, is used for making roads, garden paths, concrete, ! mortar, sewage, filter beds, etc. Concrete paving flags are also made from clinker.



The other half of the poster shows WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN DO.
Reduce the quantity of refuse to be removed by not putting the following into the dustbin :
Garden Refuse -Bury it in your garden, or, better still, burn it; the ashes are a valuable manure. In either case your garden will benefit.
Potato and fruit parings, and other vegetable waste, if clean, can be used for soups; are also valuable food for pigs and poultry, either your own or your neighbours. If not thus used, should be burnt on the kitchen fire,



Waste paper should be tied with string, and placed on the top of the dust-bin; or, if you have a large quantity, a post-card will bring a bag to your house and ensure collection. May also be taken to our depots (for prices see handbills). Cinders should be riddled from ashes, and used again on the fire. Slops, liquid refuse, and tea leaves must never be put in the dust-bin.
Housewives are reminded that by following the rules indicated they can help themselves, their city, and their country. It is added that the domestic refuse collected in the City of Birmingham exceeds 700 tons a day.



If every household reduced the refuse thrown into their dust-bin by one pound a day (only 7 pounds. a week), the reduction throughout the city would exceed 30,000 tons a year. This would make possible a saving of over £13,000 a year.


I found another version of this article (see below) which appeared much earlier in May 1907 in the British Medical Journal.

They make a comparison between the French and British housewives. According to this, the French housewife will make a "nourishing and agreeable vegetable soup from what her British sister throws away"! Well, obviously the French knew a thing or two about not wasting food!

Operation Noah's ARK Campaign

Here are Christians who are committed to the cause of stopping Climate Change. There are those who believe that the climate change is God's will and no one can do anything about it, while others think that we shld stop being self-centred and save God's creation.

I remember my earlier posting (a year ago!) that the Bible does teach us to respect nature and the animals. Somehow, we tend to have an anthropocentric view of things, but aren't Christians supposed to live life like Jesus - non-self centred and non-exploitive?

Reverse Vending Machine

Reverse vending machines have been imported into Singapore to boost recycling efforts. You put your recycleable waste and you get rewards in return. I'm not sure what sort of rewards, but I suppose the easiest would be cash. I remember drinking hot Vitasoy Soya milk in a glass bottle from 7-11 and depositing it at the 7-11 for 50HKcents, but now you would have to hunt for these vending machines. They sure would need to have a large network of them, but I suppose they would complement the existing recycling bins, only these won't be ransacked by the little old ladies. They are rather pricey though, ranging from between S$30,000 and S$60,000, but they've been around Europe for more than 3 decades so it must be worthwhile.

After thought - I was just thinking that the elderly who rummage thru the bins for recycleables are recycling too and they get cash in return. So, by having these machines, are we taking away their livelihood?

Electric Vehicles

Hong Kong has launched its first electric vehicle. Well, first HK-made one, anyway. MyCar is a collaboration between EuAuto Technology, a company funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The car costs HK$90,000 (roughly SG$17,000). It costs HK$10 (~US$1.5; ~ SG$2) to fully charge and run 100km. Compare this with about HK$2.20 for a normal petrol seven-seater to run for about one kilometre .

In Singapore, the government is plugging SG$ 20 mil into an electric vehicle trial with EVs from Renault-Nissan (see pic from Renault-Nissan). Hopefully, EVs will take off commercially both here and in Hong Kong. I'm not sure how much an EV will cost in Singapore. I hope they will have lower COEs/road tax than normal cars., and maybe lower Electronic Road Pricing? Wishful thinking I guess :-p

Top photo: The Hong Kong Standard

A Day at Home

Was supposed to go to a friend's wedding tonight but was sick last night and need to rest at home. I spent the day getting my son's magician cape ready for Friday's trick or treating with the school. I used my old black skirt and my hubby's tie from our wedding. :-p

My son was very happy with the outcome and wanted to make everything disappear and reappear while he was violently waving his wand (twig he got from the park). I was getting very irritated and told him that I would make him disappear if he didn't stop shouting "disappear and reappear". That's when I realised he thought all this disappearing and reappearing was true cos he ended up crying and screaming "no, mummy, no!". Well, I need to talk to him about that.

Wanted to take a pic but the battery died down on the "after" take. Have to wait until tomorrow to post it! Good night.....