Computers to heat homes - what about us?

Read this article today. IBM is looking at using heat from data centres to warm homes. There are a few data centres in Singapore. Fujitsu has 3 data centres in Singapore (Ayer Rajah, Tampines and Changi). The 3rd one opened in Feb 2009 and cost S$ 15 million and designed to be energy-efficient (according to Fujitsu). With Singapore already being so hot, I really can't think of how that extra heat can come in handy. If you are interested, you can download Amory Lovins (Cofounder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a leading institute in energy efficiency) seminar on energy efficiency in buildings and data centres in Singapore.

Some countries actually put their data centres underground. Besides energy saving (constant and lower temp & ground water can be used as a coolant), going underground offers additional security too. Examples, include Kansas City, US, Sweden, and Japan.

Hmmm... sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure about working underground. It looks claustrophobic!

Photo: http://www.hothardware.com/

Who owns Fairtrade?

Just listened to a few lectures from LSE, UK. Just finished listening to a discussion on "Who Owns Fairtrade?" They discuss who benefits, influences and controls Fairtrade. What I thought was interesting is how fairtrade is being used by large companies, such as the supermarket chains (in this case they gave the example of Sainsburies in the UK), to their own advantage. It's being used as one of their many brands rather than something that's being upheld for all products (hope I'm making sense). I wonder whether this amounts to greenwashing? I know BodyShop does have fairtrade products but not all of their ranges do have them.

Also, is there a standard for fairtrade? If a certain criteria is not met, do they drop the supplier? I suppose something along the lines of ISO14001, where you would discontinue a supplier's services with your organisation if they didn't meet environmental standards.

Does anyone have info on the fairtrade model that they would like to share? I wonder whether it can take over the ugly trade model that's dominating our world today....

Jail for plastic bag users

Have you heard? Three years jail or an equivalent of US$1,500 fine for anyone in Uganda using plastic bags! This will be effective in early 2010. This is a tough measure. I thought we have tough measures in Singapore but this one in Uganda is very extreme. Maybe they tried out voluntary schemes and they were not effective in changing behaviour.

Where do all the old TVs go?

As of 12 Jun, the US switched to digital TV. This means getting a digital TV rather than an analogue one. This also means that lots of people (there are 3 million households in the US) will be dumping their old ones and buying new ones! I wonder what has happened to all those old TVs. BUT, did you know that YOU DON'T need to buy a new digital TV and throw out your old one. You can actually buy an analogue to digital converter. But just in case you do decide to buy a new TV, remember to recycle your old one.

Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty

Music & nature

Everyone, well almost everyone I meet in Singapore, assumes that because I stayed in HK for a long time, I MUST love Cantopop. In fact, it's near the top of my list of peeves! Really, who wants to listen to sickly saccharine lyrics and melodies. If you turn on the radio over here, that's all you'll ever hear.

What about songs that are inspired by nature?

Here are a few of my favourites:

a) Pastorale by Beethoven - somehow, I think of the Lake District in England when I listen to this one
b) Salt water by Julian Lennon (Coboypb introed this to me)
c) Lark Ascending by V. Williams
d) Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky Korsakov (hope I spelt that right!)
e) Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens - popular with the kids!
f) Yellow River piano concerto - okay, there's a communist element to it being that it was performed during the Cultural Revolution in China, but it's good and has a difficult solo part.

Being vegy at home

Mum & dad don't eat a lot of meat nowadays. They eat it maybe twice a week and that's just fish, no red meat.

They're lunch consists of red rice which mum cooks with a few cubes of sweet potato or yams. Then they have steamed vegetables, sardines, and a handful of nuts (usually roasted almonds or walnuts). The sweet potato actually gives sweetness to the rice and my son loves it too. They then wash it down with Trilex Herbal Tea.

Here are a few other vegy places you can get your ideas from:

http://ethicalfoodchoices.blogspot.com/

http://www.vegfamily.com/

Took a pic of the green tea yoghurt my mum made using her yoghurt maker. She just added green tea powder to the yoghurt. Very yummy.

Toxic clothes

As a mum, I'm very wary about what I buy for my son. When most of what's the market says "Made in China", I get very worried, especially after the milk scandal. What worries me the most is that some people are not worried about it, not even after reading in the news (such as this article) that Chinese safety officials in Guangdong province, China's main producer of garments, found that "Just 31 of 60 tested children's garments, made by 43 companies, could pass safety standards, the province's quality and technology supervision administration said last month. Problems included false information about raw materials and excessive formaldehyde content. The chemical can cause skin or respiratory infection. "

I can tell you first hand that the response was "it's not going into their tummies", "it's just a rash that will develop" ! What's worse is that HK being just at the border of this province, lots of HKers go their to bring loads of this stuff back because it's cheap! Sigh, when will we learn that we pay a price for sticking to cheap.... I'm playing it safe now.... I now wash any new garment for my son and hubby that says Made in China at least twice before wearing. If it runs in a cold wash, I chuck it. Best also to stick to whites :-)

Flowery shirt

Another recon that I started on Sunday and was hoping to finish but ..... sigh .... wish I had more time.

Anyway, it was a sleeveless shirt and I cut the collar off as shown above. I was thinking about what to do and I saw what Katie did for her girls' dresses. It inspired me to do something similar but then I thought if I had a bit too many flowers I'd be overpowered by them :-) You know what I mean!

So, I took some old lace and scraps to make a nice flower for the collar. I used Katie's tutorial. It's so easy to do! All you need are scissors, needle and thread. You don't have to be accurate when cutting the material out for the flowers.

I've decided that my flowers will form part of a brooch as I have another one that I made a few days ago which I think I can wear with this top.

So, after I've finished with the brooch, I will be lining the collar with lace to give it a vintage feel.

Washing your hair with soda & vinegar

I'm still using the apple cider vinegar to rinse my hair - feels good!

I stumbled across farmlet.co.nz and Becky has been washing her hair with soda bicarbonate as well as using the apple cider vinegar rinse. I think I shall try this as I haven't found a shampoo that works for me.

Here's what she says:

"Just put a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in a dish, and mix with enough water to form a soft paste. Once your hair is wet through, apply the baking soda paste to your scalp (only the scalp, not the rest of the hair). Take some time to massage the baking soda into your scalp with your fingertips. Leave for a few minutes, massage a little more, then rinse thoroughly.
After washing out the baking soda, I rinse my hair with a solution of water and apple cider vinegar (about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 3/4 cup of water). I don’t apply this solution to the scalp, only to the hair shaft — especially the ends. You can rinse out the vinegar if you want, but I like to leave most of it to condition the hair. Of course, I smell like a pickle for a while, but the odour disappears once the hair dries."

update! I'm now at my mum's place. No suitable shampoo for my hiar and I don't want to buy another bottle of shampoo overe here. Now using baking soda. I have a bob haircut and I'm dossolving 1 tsp into 3/4 cup of water. Then I just pour it over my hair and massage. After brushing my teeth, I rinse it out with cold water. I don't have the veingar handy so I just used a can of beer (very cheap in HK; the cheapest is S$0.5!!). I love teh results :-)

BPA?

Hmmmm.. I thought BPA-free bottles are those without the symbol "7" on the plastic. I went to Kiddy Palace yesterday and there was a collection of bottles with "BPA free" on them but they also had the symbol "7" on it. Can someone enlighten me? Am I missing something?

Mousey mousey

My friends and I went to Ikea for lunch (we ate at their cafe) and one of the gals bought a pair of mice. They reminded me of this mousey tutorial from sewingstars.com

Lots of toy DIYs (using fabric) at weewonderful too! This piggy is cute:

What about making stuff toys and giving them away ? Check out Toy Society!

Quality of Life

How do you view the quality of your life where you are living? - so far okay for me! although I can't go hiking anymore (used to in HK) and Imiss the outlying islands, I don't have to slave away at work and there's less noise pollution, and better air quality :-)
Do you have a vision of what it should be like? I would like to see more natural areas where I live as it;s all landscaping, which isn't natural.
What do you think are the things that change it? the power of economics and politicians, no it's politics first then economics, I think.

Some of you may have heard or read about quality of life rankings being done by HR firms like Mercer. Do you believe what the rankings tell you? Some countries love being ranked (preferably first) as it's a boost to their image. Well, I would be happy too, if I were first :-)

Others, as reported in the latest EU report on quality of life in Europe's cities and towns think that it has to be taken "with a grain of salt". Everyone has a different view. I'm sure an expat who lives in a condo near Orchard Road (and never ventures out of that area or has visited an HDB public housing estate) would have a different perspective than an old lady living a 1 room HDB flat & shops at the local wet market. My HK friend moved to Singapore a few years back but she left after a year. I thought she would stay, considering the flats are bigger, there's more open space, and the air is definitely better. But for her, she missed the nightlife, the natural landscape (re. hiking)...... Oh no, I feel like going home now...

Is there an end point for sustainability?

Is there a target? For humans to live sustainably, the Earth's resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished.

Will we ever reach there, if there is such a target? And if we do reach that point, how will we know? Is anyone even there yet? To tell you the truth, I don't think we will ever reach that point. Unless our island is isolated from the rest of the world, then yes. With globalisation, I don't think it's possible for a country to achieve this. My friend says that the term sustainable development is conveniently coined so that we have an excuse to continue our trade and economic growth....

What are your views?

Oxfam DIY

Think our Singapore thrift shops should learn a few things from the ones overseas. I mentioned earlier that those in the UK and HK are more fancy to attract people.

What about using the internet too? Check Oxfam UK's website. It includes a 2nd hand store, ethical collection, and my favourite, a DIY section telling you how to make your own :-)

Shopping vouchers for recycling?

This doesn't make sense to me. Why are the Brits encouraging people to recycle by giving them shopping vouchers ? Isn't that encouraging more consumerism? Apparently, Veolia Environmental Services (yes, it's also one of the companies that collects household waste in Singapore) has implemented a scheme to collect certain types of recyclables in micro-chip fitted bins. The more you recycle, the more rewards you will get.

Photo: Getty

4 Jun Tiananmen

Thursday will be the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in China. Many were killed when the Red Army sent in tanks and crushed and shot peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. I remember this event clearly. We were in HK and it was broadcast non-stop on the media. I remember the newscaster who broke down on tele, and I remember my mum and dad taking us to the demonstrations.

Amnesty International has reported that the Chinese authorities have intensified the crackdown on human rights activists across the country in the lead-up to the anniversary on Thursday.

This brings me to the plight of the prominent Chinese environmental activist, Tan Zuoren. He was arrested by the Chinese in Mar 09 for "inciting subversion of state power". His crime? Planning to publish a list of children who died in the Sichuan earthquake (Sichuan, China) last year and a report on the role corruption played in the schools that collapsed.

Green Generation Concern 05/06/09