PingPad

Experiencing the Great Firewall of China

2009-05-21T10:10:00.003+08:00

China Channel Firefox Add-on

The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet user outside China to surf the web as if they were in China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (supported by western companies). It's open source, free and easy.
Link: http://www.chinachannel.hk/

Chinese leader condemns Tiananmen massacre from beyond the grave - Extract of his book "Prisoner of the State"

2009-05-15T11:37:00.002+08:00

Date: 14 May 2009
Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Here are extracts from Prisoner of the State: The secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang which were released ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre:

Zhao Ziyang on the consequences of his opposition to the Tiananmen Square crackdown:

"By insisting on my view of the student demonstrations and refusing to accept the decision to crack down with force, I knew what the consequences would be and what treatment I would receive. Mentally, I was fully prepared, I knew that if I persistently upheld my view, I would ultimately be compelled to step down. If I wanted to keep my position, or give up my post in some face-saving way, I would have to give up my viewpoint and conform. If I persisted, then I had to be prepared to step down."

Zhao Ziyang on explaining his opposition to Deng Xiaoping:

"I had no other choice but to express my views to Deng personally, in a face-to-face meeting. Since I had asked for a personal meeting with Deng, only to have Deng call for a full Standing Committee meeting at his home, I realised that things had already taken a bad turn.

"I expressed my views roughly as follows: 'The situation with the student demonstrations has worsened, and has grown extremely grave. Students, teachers, journalists, scholars and even some government staff have taken to the streets in protest. Today there were approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people. Quite a large number of workers and peasants are also sympathetic. Quite a large number of workers and peasants are also sympathetic. Besides the hot issues of corruption and government transparency, the main impetus for all these different social groups is that they want an explanation for how the Party and the government can be so coldhearted in the face of hunger-striking students, doing nothing to try to save them... If the hunger strike continues and some people die, it will be like gasoline poured over a flame. If we take a confrontational stance with the masses, a dangerous situation could ensue in which we lose complete control.'

"While I was expressing my view, Deng appeared very impatient and displeased.

"In the end, Deng Xiaoping made the final decision. He said: 'Since there is no way to back down without the situation spiralling completely out of control, the decision is to move troops into Beijing and impose martial law'."

Zhao Ziyang on the Tiananmen massacre:

"On the night of June 3, while sitting in the courtyard with my family, I heard intense gunfire. A tragedy to shock the world had not been averted, and was happening after all."

Zhao Ziyang on being purged:

"Cultural Revolution-style tactics that had been condemned and abandoned long ago were taken up to be used against me. These tactics included inundating the newspapers with critical articles making me out to be an enemy, and casual disregard of my personal freedoms.

"After June 4, they entirely disregarded these rules [drawn up at the 12th Party Congress to prevent the Cultural Revolution from ever occurring again] in their treatment of me, instead openly violating them and reassuming the ultra-left tactics of the Cultural Revolution. This was something I had not anticipated."

Zhao Ziyang on the West:

"It is the Western parliamentary democratic system that has demonstrated the most vitality. This system is currently the best one available. It is able to manifest the spirit of democracy and meet the demands of a modern society.

"If a country wishes to modernise, not only should it implement a market economy, it must also adopt a parliamentary democracy as its political system. Otherwise, this nation will not be able to have a market economy that is healthy and modern, nor can it become a modern society with a rule of law."

Zhao Ziyang on political reform:

"If we don't move toward this goal, it will be impossible to resolve the abnormal conditions in China's market economy: issues such as an unhealthy market, profiting from power, rampant social corruption and a widening gap between rich and poor. Nor will the rule of law ever materialise.

"If the final destination is a parliamentary democracy, the ruling Party must achieve two breakthroughs. One is to allow other political parties and a free press to exist. This can happen gradually, but it must be pursued. The second breakthrough is having democracy within the Party: that is, the Party needs to adopt democratic procedures and use democratic means to reform itself ... Different opinions must be allowed to exist, and different factions should be made legitimate."

More News: Chinese leader condemns Tiananmen massacre from beyond the grave

June 4,1989 - the 20th anniversary

2009-04-08T10:06:00.004+08:00

A video to share. Something we will never forget..........

Tiananmen Mother: http://www.tiananmenmother.org/
Tiananmen Mother (HK): http://tmc-hk.org

Bushisms over the years

2009-01-14T15:01:00.001+08:00

Bushisms over the years

By The Associated Press – Jan 3, 2009

President George W. Bush will leave behind a legacy of Bushisms, the label stamped on the commander in chief's original speaking style. Some of the president's more notable malaprops and mangled statements:
___
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." — September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.
"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" — January 2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina.
"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too." — Sept. 26, 2001, in Langley, Va. Bush was referring to the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.
"There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail." — Oct. 4, 2001, in Washington. Bush was remarking on a back-to-work plan after the terrorist attacks.
"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." — April 10, 2002, at the White House, as Bush urged Senate passage of a broad ban on cloning.
"I want to thank the dozens of welfare-to-work stories, the actual examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves." — April 18, 2002, at the White House.
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." — Sept. 17, 2002, in Nashville, Tenn.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." — Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a defense spending bill.
"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." — Sept. 6, 2004, at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Mo.
"Our most abundant energy source is coal. We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge." — April 20, 2005, in Washington.
"We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job." — Sept. 20, 2005, in Gulfport, Miss.
"I can't wait to join you in the joy of welcoming neighbors back into neighborhoods, and small businesses up and running, and cutting those ribbons that somebody is creating new jobs." — Sept. 5, 2005, when Bush met with residents of Poplarville, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
"It was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship. After all, 60 years we were at war 60 years ago we were at war." — June 29, 2006, at the White House, where Bush met with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die." — Dec. 7, 2006, in a joint appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"These are big achievements for this country, and the people of Bulgaria ought to be proud of the achievements that they have achieved." — June 11, 2007, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit." — September 2007, in Sydney, Australia, where Bush was attending an APEC summit.
"Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech." April 16, 2008, at a ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the White House.
"The fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at the machine-making place." — May 27, 2008, in Mesa, Ariz.
"And they have no disregard for human life." — July 15, 2008, at the White House. Bush was referring to enemy fighters in Afghanistan.
"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office." — June 26, 2008, during a Rose Garden news briefing.
"Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 people." — July 4, 2008 in Virginia.
"The people in Louisiana must know that all across our country there's a lot of prayer — prayer for those whose lives have been turned upside down. And I'm one of them. It's good to come down here." — Sept. 3, 2008, at an emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, La., after Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast.
"This thaw — took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw." Oct. 20, 2008, in Alexandria, La., as he discussed the economy and frozen credit markets.
Source: Bushism Over the years

Shanxi, China: People

2009-01-06T14:44:00.001+08:00

Plastic lady

Cute Twins

@ Xian Train station

Drum Dancer

Crack pants...

Rice noodle salesman @ Yulin, North Shanxi

Old Muslim Guy @ Yulin

Shanxi, China: Life & Activity

2009-01-05T13:37:00.000+08:00

Shanxi, China: Animals

2009-01-04T13:37:00.000+08:00

Shanxi, China: Landscape

2009-01-04T13:31:00.000+08:00

Hong Kong Snaps - Old Factory Buildings

2008-12-09T21:03:00.012+08:00

10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

2008-10-22T15:54:00.007+08:00

1. Junk food makers spend billions advertising unhealthy foods to kids.

2. The studies that food producers support tend to minimize health concerns associated with their products.

3. Junk food makers donate large sums of money to professional nutrition associations.

4. More processing means more profits, but typically makes the food less healthy.

5. Less-processed foods are generally more satiating than their highly processed counterparts.

6. Many supposedly healthy replacement foods are hardly healthier than the foods they replace.

7. A health claim on the label doesn't necessarily make a food healthy.

8. Food industry pressure has made nutritional guidelines confusing.

9. The food industry funds front groups that fight anti-obesity public health initiatives.

10. The food industry works aggressively to discredit its critics.

Source: 10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

China Snap Shot- How ducks are being transported....

2008-10-22T11:45:00.001+08:00

The Big Talk

2008-10-14T10:40:00.002+08:00

Just read a very interesting article. It is an article written by a mother about how difficult she feel to tell about climate change to her children, whcih is no more easier than giving a sex talk to them. To certain extend, it is a bit going to an extreme but i feel it is hailarious to use such way to address the urgency of global warming.

Each Other — Where We Are
The Big Talk

How to tell a six year old where all the birds and bees have gone

by Sandra Steingraber

Published in the September/October 2008 issue of Orion magazine

I WAS GOOGLING MYSELF recently (in an attempt, if you must know, to locate an essay that I had published somewhere), and I managed to misspell my own name. So I was directed to the one source that had mangled my name in the same way. And that is how I was confronted, in an obscure blog, with the question, “Why isn’t Sandra Steingraber [with dyslexic spelling] talking about climate change?”

It was unsettling. As the days went by, I began an imaginary argument.

Look, I first wrote about receding glaciers in 1988. I was assigning Al Gore to college students in 1992. Not long ago, I made climate instability the centerpiece of a commencement address I gave at a rural college in coal-is-king Pennsylvania. And if you think all the trustees were pleased with that theme, I invite you to give it a try. So the question is not “Why is S.S. not talking about climate change?” The question is “Why is S.S. not talking about it AT HOME?”

Okay. Why don’t you talk about it at home?

Because I have young children and because I believe that frightening problems need to be solved by adults who should just shut up and get to work.

So, how long are you going to keep hiding the truth from your kids?

That’s as far as I got before three other notable things happened. First, Elijah asked to be a polar bear for Halloween. As I pinned the chenille fabric, it occurred to me that his costume might well outlast the species. I decided not to tell him that.

A month later, Elijah asked his sister for a weather report. Faith walked out onto the porch, spread out her arms in the manner of Saint Francis, and came back in. “It’s global warmingish,” she said and went back to her cereal. No comment from me.

And then I overheard a conversation on the playground. One child said, “I know why it’s hot. Do you?”

Another said, “It’s because the Earth is sick.” They all nodded. I said nothing.

IT’S TIME TO SIT DOWN with my kids and have the Global Warming Talk. I carried off the Sex Talk—and its many sequels—with grace and good biology. Surely, I can rise to this new occasion.

On the surface, procreation and climate change seem opposite narratives. Sex knits molecules of air, food, and water into living organisms. Climate change unravels all that. The ending of the sex story is the birth of a family. The climate change story ends with what biologist E. O. Wilson calls the Eremozoic Era—the Era of Loneliness.

But then I realized that the two stories share a common epistemological challenge. Both are counterintuitive. In the former case, you have to accept that your ordinary existence began with an extraordinary, unthinkable act (namely, your parents having intercourse). In the latter case, you have to accept that the collective acts of ordinary objects—cars, planes, dishwashers, iPods—are ushering in things extraordinary and unthinkable (dissolving coral reefs, daffodils in January). So, I reasoned, perhaps the same pedagogical lessons apply: during the Big Talk, keep it simple, leave the door open for further conversation, offer reading material as follow-up.

Of which there is no shortage. In fact, a veritable cottage industry of children’s books on climate change has sprung up almost overnight. These range from the primer, Why Are the Ice Caps Melting? (Let’s Read and Find Out!), in which lessons on the ravaging of ecosystems also offer plenty of opportunities to practice silent e, to the ultra-sophisticated How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming, by foremost environmental author Lynne Cherry, in which middle school readers are cast as coprincipal investigators. This new literary subgenre is impressive. Reading its various offerings, I found myself admiring the respectful tones and clear explanations. These books describe global warming as a reality that no longer lingers in the realm of debate. And yet, they are not, for the most part, scary. Indeed, the first sentence in the inside flap of How We Know What We Know is “This is not a scary book.”

And here is where the pediatric versions of the climate change story depart from their adult counterparts. The recent crop of books on global warming intended for grown-ups focuses on the surreal disconnect between the evidence for rapidly approaching, irreversible planetary tipping points (overwhelming) and the political response to that evidence (mostly zilch). The children’s books profile heroic individuals fighting to save the planet—in ways that kids can get involved in. To read the children’s literature is to see the world’s people working ardently and in concert with each other to solve a big problem . . . and enjoying a grand adventure while they’re at it.

Is this the fiction we all should be laboring under? I don’t know. I do know that a fatalistic mindset, which afflicts many adults but almost no children, is a big part of what’s preventing us from derailing the global warming train that has now left the station. On this, I wholly agree with sociologist Eileen Crist, who argues that fatalism, masquerading as realism, is a form of capitulation that strengthens the very trends that generate it. I do know that we grown-ups need visions of effective challenges and radical actions that can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies.

I also know that I needed something to say to my six year old when we walked home from the library in April—no leaves to offer shade, the bank’s LED sign reading eighty-four degrees—and he turned his ingenuous face to mine to ask, “Mama, is it supposed to be so hot?”

So I am working on my talk. For inspiration, I have arranged on my desk three documents. One is an essay that Rachel Carson published in Popular Science in 1951—eight years before my birth. It’s entitled “Why Our Winters Are Getting Warmer,” and it includes a drawing of Manhattan deluged by seawater. Another is Carson’s essay “Help Your Child to Wonder,” published five years later. The third is a book by poet Audre Lorde that includes the sentence: Your silence will not protect you.

My talk features a story about a boat in which we all live—people, butterflies, polar bears. A storm starts to rock the boat. The waves are chemical pollution, habitat destruction, industrial fishing, and warfare. Now along comes a really big wave. Global warming. The already-rocking boat is in danger of flipping over.
Then what happens? I don’t know. For the first time in my life, I have writer’s block. Somebody help me out here.

Source: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/3229

The Dutch Humor

2008-10-02T22:12:00.003+08:00

This is a "mobile advertisement" at the baggage claim area of the Amsterdam Airport. The Dutch custom uses a creative way to remind people to declare some restricted items that they are going to take in the Netherlands.

Fire Dragon Dance @ HK (Moon Festival 08)

2008-09-20T10:35:00.003+08:00

About the Tai Hung@HK Fire Dragon Dance
(source: http://www.taihangfiredragon.com)

The Tai Hang Fire Dragon has its origin in 1880 . At that time , Tai Hang was only a small Hakka village and the villagers , most of them farmers and fishermen , Led a simple and peaceful life . The tale started when the villagers once killed a serpent in a stormy night , but in the next morning , the dead body of the serpent had disappeared . A few days later , a plague spread out in Tai Hang and many people died of infection . Meanwhile , a village elder saw Buddha one night in his dream and was told to perform a Fire Dragon Dance and to burn fire crackers in the Mid-Autumn Festival. The sulphur in the fire crackers drove away the disease and the villagers were saved. Since then , every year the Tai Hang residents would perform the Fire Dragon Dance for three nights in the Mid-Autumn Festival in memory of the incident. The Fire Dragon is altogether 220 feet long with its body divided into 32 segments , all of which are stuffed with straw and stuck full of incense sticks. So it is known as the “ Fire-Dragon ” .

China Snap: Beijing (Sep 08)

2008-09-19T21:55:00.005+08:00

HK Snap Shot

2008-07-29T21:18:00.003+08:00

Tapped Out

2008-06-18T10:02:00.005+08:00

Found a new book on the market. It talks about how the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that have made bottled water a $60-billion-a-year phenomenon even as it threatens local control of a natural resource and litters the landscape with plastic waste:

Product Description from Amazon.com

An incisive, intrepid, and habit-changing narrative investigation into the commercialization of our most basic human need: drinking water. Having already surpassed milk and beer, and second now only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become so ubiquitous that we’re hardly conscious that Poland Spring and Evian were once real springs, bubbling in remote corners of Maine and France. Only now, with the water industry trading in the billions of dollars, have we begun to question what it is we’re drinking and why.

In this intelligent, eye-opening work of narrative journalism, Elizabeth Royte does for water what Eric Schlosser did for fast food: she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that bring it from nature to our supermarkets. Along the way, she investigates the questions we must inevitably answer. Who owns our water? What happens when a bottled-water company stakes a claim on your town’s source? Should we have to pay for water? Is the stuff coming from the tap completely safe? And if so, how many chemicals are dumped in to make it potable? What’s the environmental footprint of making, transporting, and disposing of all those plastic bottles?

A riveting chronicle of one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century as well as a powerful environmental wake-up call, Bottlemania is essential reading for anyone who shells out two dollars to quench their daily thirst.

The topic sounds really interesting to me and will see if i have a chance to get one soon.

IHT Book Review: "Bottlemania"

"Bottlemania" Official Website

First Chapter- "Bottlemania"

China Snap Shots- Guangdong

2008-05-19T12:41:00.002+08:00

Lamma Snap Shot - Tin Hau Festival 2008

2008-05-19T11:51:00.001+08:00

火，火把，「把火」，「把幾火」

2008-05-01T10:57:00.002+08:00

A commentry from a HK newpaper HKEJ (in chinese), it said my view for the Olympic Torch HK relay. I'm really really pissed off by the event at the moment

Hong Kong Economic Journal
P07 | 時事評論 | 香島論叢 | By 練乙錚
----------------------------------------------

火，火把，「把火」，「把幾火」

　　「同一個世界、同一個夢想」這樣一個飽含着民胞物與、開放與包容的口號，昨天隨着奧運火炬抵港而具體落實到此地，竟變異為一齣以「親疏有別」、「非友即敵」為主題的政治回佣鬧劇，實在令人嘖嘖稱奇！古希臘城邦在進行你死我活的戰爭之際，人們尚有雅量每幾年找一些日子停下來，放下武器，在運動場上和平、公平地競技，今天香港的一批權貴，卻沒有這個心胸與小圈子以外的人士分享一點點喜悅，兩相比較，精神境界高下立見。導演這齣鬧劇的袞袞諸公，並不意識到這種關起門來愛國的荒謬，大多數香港人卻又一次清楚領教所謂「具有廣泛代表性」這句政治口頭禪的真正意思。不過，山高皇帝遠，北京亦很難通過自己的管道，知道此事在香港搞得如何齷齪。

　　火的文化意義很複雜，有民生方面的，有道德方面的，更有政治方面的，無論中外，都是如此。《易經》裏頭與火有關的卦有好幾個，其中以「離」卦最為直接：離為火。其象辭為「明兩作，離。大人以繼明照於四方」。這是十分政治性的說話，簡單解釋一下。「離」的卦畫由兩個相同的符號上下重疊組成，是八卦之一，代表五行中的火；火有光明之意，「明兩作」即光明又光明；「大人」即統治者，手中握有權力的人；「大人以繼明照於四方」，即治理國家的人，要以連續不斷的光明道德照臨天下。火的政治道德涵義，深植中國文化之中，掩蓋不了；你舉起一把火，要中國人不作政治聯想、政治解讀，沒有可能。事實說明，火炬傳遞到了香港，由誰來舉着跑，是一個徹頭徹尾的政治決定，十分符合中國的文化傳統，問題是那些「大人」們的政治搞作，是否「以繼明照於四方」罷了。

　　還有兩個與火直接有關的卦，一個是「晉」卦，卦畫是，上面的是火，下面的是五行中的土；火在土上，即光明出現在大地上；這是一個吉卦。與「晉」卦剛好相反的，是「明夷」卦，卦畫是，即土在火上；光明進入地下，這是一個凶卦，嚴重起來，可以亡國滅種；「夷」是受傷的意思，「明夷」是光明受了傷，世界一片黑暗。明朝末年大思想家黃宗羲的《明夷待訪錄》一書，便是以此卦命名的大痛之作。傳遞這好好一把奧運火炬，你不是光明正大，而是在進入大陸之前搞黑箱運作、地下作業，真是不吉祥之舉。此卦勸人在極不吉利的情況下怎麼辦呢？「君子以蒞眾用晦而明」，即統治者此時面對群眾應自隱其總慧，集思廣益，要有容人之見的雅量。話說到點子上了！

　　在西方文化中，火也象徵文明，與野蠻相反的文明。文學諾獎得主威廉．弋以定的小說《蒼蠅王》（Lord of The Flies），裏頭就有象徵文明的那麼一把長明的火。當那群流落荒島上的孩子們殘殺成性的時候，火就幾乎熄滅；當他們中間一些記起自己是文明人、還希望回到文明世界之時，火又熊熊重燃；最終，森林失火，整個小島變成一個大火炬，引起一艘經過的軍艦注意，孩子們於是得救，回到文明。在這部小說裏，還看得出作者有意識地用火象徵人類社會中的光明、文明一面；在一些民間傳說或神話中，火的象徵意義來得更自然。希臘神話中的普羅米修斯盜取天火、造福人類的經典故事，其實在很多其他民族當中，都有類似的版本。美國印第安人神話裏，常有一隻與人為善的野兔，在阿爾干昆族（Algonquin）的傳說中，這隻兔子從壟斷了火的神那裏盜取火種，造福全人類。不過，內容最豐富、寓意最深刻的盜火神話，大概還是希臘那個。這個希臘神話，最少有兩個版本，較古老的一個源於史詩作家希士奧突（Hysiod，元前八至七世紀人）；在此版本中，普羅米修斯只不過是因為一次惡作劇，把本來是眾神之王宙斯應得的美食給了人類，激怒了宙斯，把火收起，讓人類不得熟食；但普羅米修斯硬要和他作對，偷得火種還給人類，結果招來宙斯重罰。這個版本的人文意義不強。我們現時熟知的版本，是二百年之後的希臘悲劇作家埃斯庫盧斯（Aeschylus）筆下傑作。在這個版本裏，普羅米修斯的形象，起碼有三重崇高意義：一、敢於對不義的權威作道義的挑戰；二、無懼壓迫與自由之間的永恒鬥爭；三、勇於打破利益的壟斷，以造福廣大人群。其後二千多年裏，人類政治歷史從專制到民主開放，其意義正好反映在埃斯庫盧斯的作品之中，這大概是作者意想不到的。

　　火與政治的文化關係深刻而且久遠，非奧委會一句說話可以剔除乾淨；把「運動不涉政治」這句話推到極端，反而變成虛偽，今天發生在香港的事便是明證。這個火把，牽涉一點政治，本來無傷大雅，問題是什麼樣的政治。搞得太過難看，火把就難免令人「把火」或「把幾火」了。

Beijing snap shots - Apr 2008

2008-04-29T21:03:00.005+08:00

Olympic Venue - Bird Nest & the cop

The Confucius Temple

Old house with new energy

China Snap Shot

2008-04-12T18:45:00.002+08:00

Lonesome George

2008-02-13T00:18:00.000+08:00

Just watched a very interesting documentary about the loneliest animal on the planet - Lonesome George. Lonesome George is the name given to the last remaining Pinta Island Giant Tortoise in existence; when he dies, his race will be completely extinct.

Due to his extremely rarity, Lonesome become a conservation icon, celibate pensioner and officially the rarest living creature on Earth of his native Galapagos Islands. Behind the conservation icon, he is also showing the crudeness and irresponsible of human activities that done to our own mother nature. Many wildlife is still in the hardship of preserving their unique life with threats from illegal fishing, the demands of a booming population and an ever-expanding tourism or so-called eco-tourism industry.

The documentary I watched called “Lonesome George and the battle for Galapagos” from BBC, and just showd in the Peral. It is very well filmed. It not only talks about the personal story of Lonesome but also brings out the social and environmental implications behind the tortoise.

The documentary made me a bit sad as it shows clearly how selfish and greedy of human being who extracts and squeezes the last sort of environmental resources for money (which is only papers attached with a vague value). For instance, the documentary mentioned that fishermen in Galapagos over fish the sea cucumbers and tortoises for their customers from far east ( I bet the majority of “far east customers: are Chinese….); national parks has to give out some land as residential or hotel areas for the influx immigrants due to the booming eco- tourism industry; fishermen got angry and attacked the conservation officials when the government imposed policy to prevent over-fishing…..it really sucks!!

Now what I can only grumble here... but i do hope that i can be more sensitive to reduce my personal footprint on our nature.

Story of Lonesome George

New missions for Super Mario, Master Chief & Kratos

2007-12-13T21:22:00.000+08:00

For more information: Clash of the Consoles

Sexploitation

2007-12-07T23:20:00.000+08:00

Here is a production of my friends.

The video shows that too much commercial are sexually objected a person for boosting sales, which is a phenomenon of "sex-exploitation" all around us. We should think about to "respect ourselves, resist conformity. Boycott the sexploitation economy".

Securitization of Environment

2007-11-27T21:52:00.000+08:00

Recently I read few pieces of news about the correlation between war and climate change. This reminded me a report I read few years ago. It was a Pentagon study on the potential catastrophic consequences of national security related to climate change.

Rather than predicting how climate change will happen, the Pentagon report dramatized the impact of climate change could have on society if the nations are unprepared for it. It said that the destabilization of the geo-political environment may lead to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints such as disrupted access to energy supplies, food and fresh water shortages. They also predicted that military confrontation may be triggered by a desperate need for natural resources rather than by conflicts over ideology, religion, or national honor. The increasing number of environmental refugees will become an un-neglectable issue too.

I was stunned at the first time when I read the report. Not because of its scary prediction, but how come this report can be released by the Pentagon when their head boss the Bush Government was expressing an opposing view and rejected to ratify of the Kyoto Protocol at that time.

Anyway, the US politic is always non-understandable. What I am happy to see is the discussion of both climate change and the concept of environmental security already moved into the mainstream. Not only has public awareness of climate change seemingly reached a tipping point, but the likely security repercussions of the unsettling changes to our planet’s climate are now increasingly acknowledged and analyzed. I am also happy to see that there is a sign that Australia will leave US itself alone and ratify the Kyoto Protocol soon. It is surely a very positive move that the international community is working together in combating the climate challenge.

Yet, there is still more to be discussed and to be worked on to protect our mother earth.

Wiser use of computer for our environment

2007-10-21T11:29:00.000+08:00

Source: Operation Greenhouse Effect

Read an interesting news about how to be more environmentally friendly by activating the power management functions on our computer. It is said that it can save up to US$75 per year in your energy bill. Here you are:

1. Turning your computer off completely when you know you will not be using it for more than several hours, such as overnight.

2. Setting the power management functions on your computer to put both your monitor and computer (CPU, hard drive, etc.) into “sleep” mode after a certain amount of time of non-use. Set your monitor to go into standby mode first, followed by your computer.

Use the following guidelines to make sure your computer is properly sleeping:

1. Certain applications will run in the background and prevent your computer from going into sleep mode. Be sure to close these down completely.

2. If you use a virtual private network (VPN), disconnect it when you’re not actively using it.

3. Some applications which continually scan can prevent your computer from going into standby mode, such as Wi-Fi antennas & infrared ports. Anti-virus software can be set to scan more periodically yet still be safe.

4. Some Web sites will not allow your computer to enter into sleep mode because of active advertisements and banners. Close down all Web pages when you are not viewing them to allow your power management function to work properly.

5. If you have set a screensaver (like that fish tank) for your monitor, you may not realize that it is actually wasting energy by preventing your computer from going to sleep.

6. Unplug the peripherals when they are not charging or synchronizing as they also prevent the computer from going into standby or “sleep” mode.

More things you can do to help save energy in your computing use include:

1. Increase your memory (RAM) to reduce disk usage, which can be a power draw.

2. If you have a desktop computer, upgrade to an LCD flat panel monitor instead of a CRT monitor, which can account for half the energy use of a desktop computer.

3. Power supplies for your peripherals (such as your mobile phone or iPod) still draw power even if the peripheral is not plugged in. Switch them all off when you leave the room or go to sleep.

4. Shut off that printer. Printers also have a sleep mode that still consumes a significant amount of power.

5. Replace wireless mice and keyboards with wired mice. Wired mice and wired keyboards use relatively little energy and they avoid unnecessary wasting of batteries.

More information about offsetting your own carbon footprint :

Carbonfund.org

Carbon Footprint

Funny Signpost in China

2007-07-24T23:13:00.001+08:00

Got some interesting pictures from my friend in mainland. These signposts are going to be fixed before the Beijing Olympic....

A brilliant commercial video

2007-07-10T09:49:00.000+08:00

Lovely Kittens

2007-07-03T23:39:00.000+08:00

The Shifting China

2007-07-02T18:10:00.000+08:00

It is already ten years after Hong Kong’s handover back to China. These few weeks I found there are heaps of articles reviewing how the “one country two systems” performs in the last decade. I also started to read more Mainland publishing after coming back from Oz. The more I expose to these mainland publishing, the newer picture that I perceive about China. They also gave me some inspiration and retraction about what Hong Kong did and what Hong Kong has to do. Of course it is such a big issue to have any answer or conclusion at all.

Like most of Hong Kongers and Westerners, I rather relied on the messages about China provided by a sound-bite driven media that seesaws between playing on our fears of China’s Communism, state repression and human rights abuses or so. However, things are changing dramatically and people from outside is damn difficult to get a better understanding about what is happening inside the dragon land. People just wind up with mainly superficial portraits of that part of China that’s most visible to the eye and to the camera.

Having more exposure to the mainland media gives me a different understanding about what is happening. For no doubt the media censorship still exist, but seeing something that release under such strict censorship has sorts of implication. I just read an article in a mainstream Chinese magazine which is about the Democratic Party in Hong Kong. The article is very positive to comment on the Party and saying that the Central government should do something to engage the Democrats more. Currently, most democrats do not have the passport to go to the Mainland China. I am so amazed when I read this article. The point of view in the article is nothing new, but having such article in the mainland media does imply a lot and this is the point that makes me so surprised. Things are really changing and I couldn’t see such change reflect in any of the Hong Kong or foreign mass media.

I remembered I read an article and it said that “we maybe have a better shot figuring out the future of India– or even Mars – than China…… something as generic as a Big Mac can mean very different things depending on the context."

I have a very strong feeling we do need someone/something that can bring us illumination about China without blinding us with sensationalist stereotype or pre-set values. Though understanding Chinais going to remain irritatingly difficult.

Photo Source: sina.com.cn

Link: <南風窗>：一國如何兩制

Kitten 2 - Name to be confirmed....

2007-06-24T09:35:00.000+08:00

Now

Before

Kitten 1 - Name to be confirmed....

2007-06-24T09:27:00.000+08:00

Now

Before

The guys who I am living with...

2007-06-23T20:47:00.000+08:00

Job nightmare

2007-06-16T00:50:00.000+08:00

Job refers to the regular activity performed in exchange for payment. According to Aristotle, all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Aristotle also said that “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work” and it is one of the attitude I apply to my working life all the time. I always have a belief that if I can choose a job I love, I will never have to work a day in my life. However, thing always doesn’t happen as we expected.

I am doing something I really don’t like at all. I never expected to be involved into the shitty tasks I am working on. Such shitty are not the duties my employer told me when they gave me the job offer. What I am working is completely different from the work I was told when I signed the 1-year employment contract, while such shitty duties were assigned to me just right before I passed probation. I have a very strong feeling that people around me are taking advantage of the limited employment time which does not give me any bargaining power with the boss(s). Short term contract employees are always the first tier to be exploited in a company.

I will not blame too much if I knew what I expected to do when I accepted the job offer, as it is my choice and I am always responsible to what I have chosen, no matter the outcome is good or not. But the case now is not what I chose, and I feel so powerless during the whole process. Of course, I can choose to resign but the resignation would have so much negative impact to my career in long term. I rejected few offers from other organisations of the industry I am working on when I accepted this offer from current organisation. And there is so few organisations and job vacancy within the industry in Hong Kong. So, it is so hard for me to work in the industry again if I resigned before my contract end normally. So, to certain extend, I am forced to stay as I am so devoted to work on the industry that I am working. My devotion is possibly one of the major sources of my powerlessness in this situation.

My everyday life is just a nightmare for me. This moment seems one of the worst moment in my life too as I have to force myself to do something I dislike without enough incentives. This is something really not in my blood…

(Well, i also feel that the "complain culture" among most Hong Kongers also finds in my blood... +_+)

The way i celebrate my birthday......

2007-06-01T00:39:00.000+08:00

.....it was what i did on my b-day in 2007.

http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/press/release/1129930

Beijing Snapshot: People

2007-05-21T21:08:00.000+08:00

1. Preparation for 2008 Olympics ?

2. Tourists in the city

3. Food market

4. Outdoor Hair Salon
5. Herb stall

Beijing Snapshot: The city

2007-05-20T20:44:00.000+08:00

1. Old & New

2. Advertisement every where

3. Traffic Control

4. Less bikes than before

5. Local wet market

6. Coke Cola: 2008 Olympic edition

7. Olympic Souvenir on sale

Beijing Snapshot: Tianman Square

2007-05-20T20:42:00.000+08:00

It is almost ten years since my last visit to the capital city. The city itself does change enormously, but the landmark Tianman Square seems more or less the same.

Tin Hau Festival @ Lamma Island

2007-05-09T20:26:00.000+08:00

《Go Green》: Music & Well-Being

2007-05-02T22:27:00.000+08:00

Source: Greenpeace Works

One of the greatest song ever, spreading the environmental message through music!!

Songwriter and music producer Dave Stewart works together with activist group Greenpeace to come up with ways that can promote environmental causes in a rockie way.

Lyrics

What happened to the unborn babies
when their life is left up to maybes
When toxic chemicals are released in the air
and the land and the sea
All the dangerous climate changes
it’s human greed that made this
If it’s not a flood, it’s a drought, tsunamis about
you and I can change it
What happens when the water’s no longer fresh here
we created a dirty mess
Now let’s join hands and hearts
Greenpeace has made the right start
Let’s move now

Go green, Greenpeace
Go green, Greenpeace

Nuclear bombs unlocked
humans beings have run amuck
Thousands dead while laying in bed
I’m asking now can we stop
Life is so precious, every bird that sings
follow the natural course of things
As human beings, within our means
what can we bring
Take charge now, get yourself up
This is home where can you go
Take charge now, get yourself up
This is home where can you go

Go green, Greenpeace
Go green, Greenpeace

Go green, Greenpeace
Go green, Greenpeace

How long can we keep holding on
How long can we keep holding on
How long can we keep holding on
How long can we keep holding on

Go green, Greenpeace
Go green, Greenpeace

Go green, Greenpeace
Go green, Greenpeace

Listen to the music: Greenpeace Works
《Go Green》@ Beijing Midi Festival: Greenpeace China

Today's Snap Shot

2007-04-08T21:31:00.000+08:00

Guizhou, China: People

2007-02-22T03:13:00.000+08:00

Guizhou, China: Landscape

2007-02-21T00:13:00.000+08:00

PR War? Current Food Safety Scandals in Hong Kong

2007-01-29T23:47:00.000+08:00

Food Safety is a very hot issue in the city at the moment.

Last Tuesday (2007/01/22), environmental pressure group Greenpeace claimed banned chemicals have been found in samples of mainland strawberries and tangerines being sold in Hong Kong local markets. They campaigned for urgent food safety legislation as well as clear standards for residual pesticides on fruit and veggie. Greenpeace than converged on the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) and dumped buckets of fresh fruit at its front door in order to blast the authorities for being incompetent in halting imports of tainted food products into the territory.

This action was held between 10:30am-11:30am. Around 40 medias attended the actions and the news become the headline news for the mid-day TV and radio news broadcasts. An official response was released by the CFS saying that “the department would not comment on the results of tests carried out by other organizations” and emphasized their test is based on International standard.

Around 3:00pm the same day, CFS suddenly called up all medias that they were going to have a PC at 6:00pm to announce “something”. Information Officer from the CFS did/could not explain details about the PC and just mentioned that they would release something about “fish”. The PC turned out was the CFS said it had received complaints from 14 people who fell ill after consuming oil fish said to have been wrongly labeled as codfish, which the products were bought from the supermarket giant ParknShop. Than, this food scare erupted across the whole city and ParknShop becomes the main target for public impeachment.

If people view these two issue cynically, it can be concluded the CFS uses one food scandal to override another food scandal, than shifting all/part of the public’s target from CFS to ParknShop. Using a scandal to prevail another scandal is an old, simple and direct media/PR strategy, but it does work at most time.

Maybe it is too skeptical and the comment is a bit in hindsight, but the current food scandals is a good demonstration about how the HK authorities to tackle humiliations.

News Links:

Greenpeace in toxic fruit fight

Label mistake revealed in oilfish saga

Hong Kong:Day and Night

2007-01-11T00:47:00.000+08:00

Today's Snapshot

2007-01-05T20:17:00.000+08:00

Sunset at Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong

Fancy a Green Christmas

2006-12-21T23:06:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: Environmental Denfense

A time of goodwill and celebration often accompanies by extra environmental impacts, such as seasonal increases in eating, drinking and spending which results in million tonnes of extra waste with our christmas funs. (PingPad Dec 2005: Hidden Costs of Christmas). Lots environmentalists proposed that a Green Christmas can be even more satisfying than a white one when it means giving and receiving gifts that can help keep the planet healthy long.

There are heaps of way we can make this holiday season helps the world to be a greener place. Says, our gift can be some donations to environemntal NGOs or adopting an animal/ a tree, by donating in the name of our gift recipient who will receive a certificate showing what he or she helped save. Such greenbacks not only bring joy to friends, relatives, but also to our mother nature. Adopting an animal or a tree is a usual practices in western countries (such as Australia you can adopt a shark or the U.S.). But this type of donation is till not common in most Asia countries including Hong Kong.

Other things we can do is to decorate with energy-saving Christmas lights to replace old lights. We can also send an e-card instead of a paper christmas card. If giving holiday cards is necessary, giving a card which is made from recycled paper, and using reusable or recyclable wrapping paper. Choosing gifts that help reduce environmental impacts, durable and not over-packaged (e.g. plants, reusable napkins or reusable shopping bags, educational items). Choose toys that can wind up or use rechargeable batteries.

If everyone can use the Christmas to reconsider about our everyday habits and actions to be more environmentally friendly. I am confident that we can make a huge difference in our future!

More Info: How to have a Green Christmas (Time.com)

Guide to Green Holiday Gift Giving (Environmental News Network)

Decorate with Energy-Saving Christmas Lights (Environmental Denfense)

Cutting down on Christmas waste (WasteOnline.org)

Taz

2006-12-18T00:25:00.000+08:00

Another thing i learnt in Tasmania is I recognised "Taz" in the Looney Tunes is originated from Tasmanian Devil. Or I should say "Taz" itself is a Tasmania Devil.

Tasmanian Devil is the world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, which has a thick-set, squat build, with a relatively large, broad head and short, thick tail. Its spine-chilling screeches and reputed bad-temper led the early European settlers to call it The Devil.

However, "Taz" is under seriously threat of distinction as a devastating disease is sweeping through their population, killing more than 90% of adults in high density areas and 40-50% in medium-low density areas. What make their life even worse is they are also threaten by the fox predation as the population of fox in Tasmania increases in the last couples years. This leads to a state-wide Fox watching (or killing) campaign call "Fox Free Tasmania". A 24 hour Fox Hotline also set up to encourage people to report immediately about all sightings or suspected evidence of foxes.

More Information: Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus harrisii

Tasmanian Devilry

2006-12-17T23:57:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: Ozhiker.com -Evan Hunter's Photo Gallery

Although Tasmania is famous for its natural environment and it is home to some of the world's tallest and oldest trees, its old growth forests are being logged at an unsustainable rate and a lot of them are being destroyed and replaced by mono-plantations. Some australia's threathen species (such as giant gum trees and Wedge-tailed Eagle) are also being threatened by these unsustainable logging practices and deforestation.
During my time in Tasmania, I passed through few old growth forests. It is really hard to see from outside about the logging and land clearance areas as the timber industrys are using some tricky "strategies" to avoid public attentions of their partices. A local Tasmanian told me that loggers will only remove the trees in the middle of the forests and they will leave about 5m-10m tree-fronts,which faces to the roads or highways. So, when tourists drive through they can still see a lot of trees and believe that deforestaions problem is sort of overstatement by environmentalists.

However, when i looked down from the plane, I could see there were a lots "big holes" in the middle of the forests, which are resulted from substantial land clearance and logging practices. It is believed that eighty percent of Tasmania's old-growth forests have already fallen victim to logging or development. Only 13% of all the island's Wet Eucalypt Forests are left.

Campaigning to raise public awareness of preventing the logging in Tasmania's old growth forest is always one of the major issue among the environmental NGOs in Australia. Recently, overseas paper companies such as Mitsubishi Paper Mills decided not to accept old-growth woodchips from Tasmania. This was a positive step forward for Tasmania’s environment and encouraging outcomes for the campaigners. However, since the timber industry is a major part of the stagnant Tasmanian economy, generating sales worth more that $1 billion and employing thousands, both the state and federal governments have stepped into the breach in order to protect the state economy. Some logging company even tried to sue protestors into silence.

The battle between NGOs, government and the timber industry is still a long way to go.

More Information: Environmental Destruction in Tasmania

Tasmania Forest Campaigns- The Wilderness Society

TASMANIA FACTS
* Tasmania lies about 155 miles off the south coast of mainland Australia. It is about the same size as Ireland, and its population - 472,000 - is around the same as that of Liverpool.
* Only five per cent of Australia - the driest inhabited continent on Earth - is forested. Much of this is in Tasmania, Australia's southernmost state. Native forest covers around half of the island.
* Endemic, rare and endangered wildlife includes the Tasmanian devil, Forester Kangaroo, Fairy Penguin, Quoll and eleven bird species found nowhere else on Earth. The legendary Tasmanian Tiger, officially declared extinct in 1936, may still survive in remote parts of the ancient forests.
* Tourism in Tasmania - much of it centred on the state's wilderness - provided an
estimated 22,000 jobs in 2004; at least twice as many as the logging industry.

TASMANIAN FORESTRY FACTS
* An average of 20,000 hectares of native forest are clearfelled and burned in Tasmania every year.
* 80,000 hectares of native forest have been converted to non-native plantations in the last seven years.
* Tasmania exports more woodchips than every other state in Australia combined; it is the only state that clears and woodchips native rainforest.
* An estimated 90% of wood taken from native forests on public land become woodchips, for export mainly to Japan. No more than 4% become sawn timber.
* In 2003, 14,600 hectares of native forest was clearfelled and burned. Only 6180 hectares - just over 40% - were replanted with native trees. The rest became fast-growing plantations or were converted to 'non-forest use'.
* The rate of logging in Tasmania has quadrupled over the last decade. Logging companies' profits, too, have steadily increased. Logging jobs, meanwhile, have declined. Five thousand jobs have been lost in the last 25 years, as the industry has mechanised and 'downsized.'
- Source: Paulkingsnorth.net

Tasmania - The Land Apart

2006-12-12T21:04:00.000+08:00

Caption: Wineglass Bay at the East Coast. It is one of the world most photographic scene.

"If I was obligated to emigrate I certainly
should prefer this place..."

- Charles Darwin, On visiting Hobart Town aboard The Beagle in 1836

I think I share a similar view with Charles Darwin after my trip to Tasmania before i left Australia in early December. Compare with other Australian states (except Western Australia as i haven't been there yet}, Tasmania is my no. 1 state in Australia. I've already fallen in love with the green forest, clear sky, blue ocean, white beaches and the clean air. I believe I will visit Tass again in the future.

Unfortunately, just heard from the news that there is a serious bushfire in the Northern Tasmania. The fire has already burnt 11,500 hectares and the fire front was 70km wide. It is still not yet sure when the fire can be under controlled. I believed the fire must be a huge one as this news also appeared in Hong Kong's TV. I really hope that the fire will be put out asap with minimal impact to the lovely environment .

Photo Highlight:

More photos: Oz-Tasmania Album

Solar Powered Mobile Phone

2006-11-19T21:13:00.000+08:00

Another cool toy (not PS3) is arriving Japan!
Just read from the news that solar powered portable phones begin to test by the Tokyosiders. But it sounds to me that the solar cell phone is still a untested prototype. Also,there is no indication if this gadget will go on sale . We may still need to wait for a long time for viable, self-contained power in our mobile phones.

News Link: Solar powered super phone!

Sydney Snap Shots

2006-11-19T15:45:00.000+08:00

I have less than a week's time in Sydney. I'm sure the thing I'll miss most is the blue sky here!!

Photo Album: Oz-Sydney

Aussie Diving Adventure

2006-11-18T16:24:00.000+08:00

I joint a 5Day dive trip when i travelled in Cairns. That was the first time i lived in a boat for that long. I did 14 dives in the 5 days, including 2 night dives. The trip was fanstastic and it was so great to experience the underwater world.
(Photos are taken by my dive friends)

More photo: Oz-Diving Adventure

Queensland Photo Album

2006-11-18T16:10:00.000+08:00

Just upload the photos i took in my trip in Queensland.

Photo Album:Oz-Queensland

A Mysterious Email

2006-11-09T06:06:00.000+08:00

I received a mysterious email from a guy/girl called “John Smith”. I know somebody called “John” and also some of my friends’ last name is “Smith”. But I don’t remember I know someone called “John Smith”. I think she/he should know me as he knows my name although he missspelt my name "Sophia" as " Sophiya". More importantly, “John Smith” should be a person know me quite well as I really really love the email he wrote to me. Here is the email:

On 11/5/06, john smith wrote:

Hi there,

A joke for a special lady.

The inmate on death row was scheduled to be put to death by firing squad the follow morning. Throughout the day, the prison guards were being very nice to him. But when they asked him if he wanted something specific for his last meal, he said he didn't want anything special. When they asked if there was something special he wanted to do, he said nothing. It went on like this all day.

Finally, when he was put before the firing squad, the guard asked if he wanted a cigarette and a blindfold.

"No," the inmate said, "just get it over with."

"Well, is there anything that I can do for you before you go?" said the guard. "You didn't even want a special last meal!"

The inmate thought. "Actually," he said, "Music is my life. One thing I would really like would be to sing my favourite song, one whole time through, with no interruptions."

The guard nodded and told him to go ahead.

The inmate started, "One billion bottles of beer on the wall..."

A friend.

He is probably be someone in Australia as it is an email from yahoo.com.au. Well, I hope I can find him out and have a drink(s) with him before I leave Oz in early Dec. ^_^

Photo Highlight

2006-10-04T21:41:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Queensland. Here are some photo highlight from my trip:

1.Great Barrier Reef

2. Hot Chicks!

3. Tropical Rainforest

4. Daintree Tree Frog

5. Fig Tree and Little Girl

6. Insect Eating Plant and Little Kids

"Maggie"

2006-09-23T16:24:00.000+08:00

Everyone here in Magnetic Island call the Island "Maggie". I don't know why so far and i hope i'll figure it out before i leave tomorrow.
Unfortunately, i did not find any sun or beach or reef for today's trip because of the heavy rain. In my Lonely Planet, it said that September is the driest month in the Island and the average rainfall for this month is only 11 mm. So, i think we are so unlucky(or lucky?) that we met the rain during our time here.
By the way, we still have quite a lot of fun by doing some bushing walking in the rain. Some experience i haven't have too much and walking in the rain made me felt quite good. We still could spot some wildlife, such as Koala and rock wallabies, during our walk.
Tomorrow we'll leave this lovely island and head back to Cairns for the Great Barrie Reef and tropical rainforest.

Mei's Blog: Backpacking

Message from Queensland

2006-09-22T21:10:00.000+08:00

I'm having a trip (with my friend Mei) in Queensland for about two weeks. The major things for this tour would be the sun, beaches, underwater world in the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest in Northern Queensland.
Today is the second day of my tour. I am in Magnetic Island at the moment. We took 6 hours bus from Carins down south to Townsville, and then 20 minutes to the Island. So far we haven't see much things yet as we spent too many time on transpotation and other stuffs. But i think things must be better tomorrow as we will have enought time to explore the beauty of the Island and spend some time in the ocean.

CO2 is good?

2006-09-20T16:02:00.000+08:00

Another interesting video which is filmed to lobby against naming carbon dioxide as pollutant. Noted that the video clip is produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in the US which is partly funded by Exxon.

View: Global Warming and "Energy"

Two Movie Clips about Global Warming

2006-09-15T18:15:00.000+08:00

Two movie clips to share:

(1) Futurama: Global Warming

This one is from my favorite animation Futurama. It uses a funny way to explain global warming. Al Gore also replays this clip in his movie An Inconvenience Truth.

(2) A message from Al Gore

It is an conversation between Al Gore and Blender about Gore's movie. Blender is the main character of Futurama.

False Sense of Eco-Satisfaction

2006-09-12T09:29:00.000+08:00

Source: John Fewings Cartoon

There are heaps of “environmentally friendly” or “eco-friendly” products/services in the market. However, using these kinds of products/services doesn’t mean that we are doing something good to our environment. One most common example is the use of biodegradable plastic bags.

Recently, I had an interesting discussion with a man in a liquor store about plastic bag alternative. The liquor man is quite conscious about environmental issues and he is already using different alternative to reduce his business’s plastic bag consumption. He chooses to use bio-degradable plastic bags as alternative as he thought other alternative such as paper or cardboard need to chop a lot of trees and it is not good to our environment, while bio-degradable is made from starch and other degradable material which won’t harm our environmental like normal plastic bags. He wants the Australian government to substitute billions of shopping bags with biodegradable bags to solve the environmental problems created by plastic bags.

To certain extent, he is correct. But there are still lots of issues related to biodegradable bags. First of all, many of them are not 100% degradable. Than, what kind of chemicals they release when they break down in water, sun and in landfill is still uncertain, and the leftover pieces could be just as harmful as normal plastic bags. There is also an issue of the short term harmful effect to wildlife: until biodegradable products actually break down they still pose the same danger as non-biodegradable plastic bags. What more important is using biodegradable shopping bags may promote littering as people think the bags will break down in the environment no matter how they are disposed of.

Having such false sense of eco-satisfaction is very dangerous as people are not able to recognize what is being wrong and fail to figure out further improvement. The other similar example is the use of green energy. Shifting to renewable energy is good to our environment but if our energy consumption behaviors do not change, our environment won’t be benefited too much by the shift. The root cause of most of environmental problems is all about our consumptive life style.

“Doing good to environment” and “doing less harm to our environment” are fundamentally different. People should not mix these two things together or our environmental progress will remain no change or even stepping backward. Indeed, we should do both things together. We also need to be more conscious about how “green” of those "environmentally friendly" products/services are as well as being more critical about how “green” of our consumption pattern of using these kinds of products/services.

Today's Cartoon

2006-09-11T21:56:00.000+08:00

Source: John Fewings Cartoon

Mice Hate Cheese

2006-09-09T19:37:00.000+08:00

Caption: “No cheese please!” (Source: Sky News)

The popular legend is that mice like cheese, but this legend is false. According to a new scientific study, mice don't like cheese after all as they would reject something as strong in smell and rich in taste as cheese. They would rather have food with high sugar content such as chocolate or fruit.

I was quite surprised when I saw this news. Since I was a child, I have a strong belief, like millions of children, that the best way to catch a mouse is to entice it into a trap with a tasty chunk of cheese. I never doubt that. Now clearly the supposition of mice liking cheese is just a popular premise.

Well, I have no idea when and who started this myth. But for those who started this lie should have some sort of punishment as they'd created such a big lie!

News: Mice hate cheese, new study reveals

Cryonics: Freezing for the future?

2006-09-01T16:33:00.000+08:00

“Cryonics (often mistakenly called "cryogenics") is the practice of cryo-preserving humans or animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. The process is not currently reversible, and by law can only be performed on humans after legal death in anticipation that the early stages of clinical death may be reversible in the future”
– Wikipedia Definition

Recently, I heard a story from the TV about an American lady decided to “cryonics” herself before she finished her last breath. Put it into simple, Cryonics is the term for freezing humans to prolong life. People who chose to have Cryonic has a common belief that future medicine will enable molecular-level repair and regeneration their body, disease and aging are also assumed to be reversible after decades or a century. The program also said that people can have different options when doing a cryonics process: for entire body frozen is AUD$160,000, or just have the head preserved at the cut rate of AUD$80,000. The rationales of those who choose the head-only option are hoping that when they are brought back to life, science will give them new bodies as people don't want to bring someone 99.5 years old back in a 99.5-year-old body. The “company” Alcor who provides cryonics services claimed itself is a non-profit organization (located in Scottsdale and Arizona).

Similar to most of the experts and scientists, I am very skeptical about the reversibility of the processes. Although science already have shown that a frozen rabbit kidney can be defrosted and successfully reimplanted it in the living animal, restoring a frozen kidney to an animal in a lab is still a very long way from bringing back to life a human being. No-one has been able to capture the vast complexity of thoughts, memory and personality that makes us what we are. So, for me it is also ethically unacceptable.

Science fiction now is becoming science fact on a daily basis. It is just like what happens in the animation Futurama. Well I would like to live as long as I can, but definitely I don’t want to “prolong” my life for decades or centuries by this kind of freezing process.

Links:
News story: Back from the dead
If you want to bet on the future medicine: Cryonics Institute

Seasons are Changing

2006-08-26T18:06:00.000+08:00

Source: Political Cartoon by David Horsey

Just heard from the news today: the latest data gathered from Europe has provided "conclusive proof" that the seasons are changing, with spring arriving earlier each year, according to scientists. Based on a study of almost 600 plant and animal species, scientists are “extremely confident” that they show a very clear picture towards an early spring right across the board, i.e. it is arriving earlier than it did 30 years ago, on average a week earlier. Scientists are sure that global warming is the cause.

The study shows that "spring events" - such as plants flowering - are starting about 10 days earlier in the UK than 30 years ago. Spain is one of the countries who experienced the greatest increases in temperatures and saw the earliest spring seasons. The change in the timing of this key season has potentially huge implications. Some species may well benefit, but the danger is that there will be disruption to the food chain. Birds, for example, can adjust to warmer temperatures by flying to more northern areas in any given year, but the vegetation upon which they rely may take decades or longer to adjust. The long-term consequences of these changes are uncertain. Scientists also warn that this process of change isn't over.

Well, an earlier spring or a longer summer may sound like a great idea, but it will transform the landscape and the patterns of the wildlife living in it , and , what worries us is that plants and animals may not be able to adapt as well as we do.

News Link: Spring is leaping forward each year - experts

Decorations lead to death

2006-08-18T15:23:00.000+08:00

Image Source: ibermutuamur.es

Air pollution is a prominent problem in China and it has been drawing a lot of public/government attention for years, especially after Beijing won the bid for 2008 Olympic. However, another category of air pollution, the indoor air pollution, has always been omitted and now it is time to pay more attention due to the increasing cancer incident and medical expense related to this type of environmental problem. Recently, the China's first case of a child killed by toxic fumes given off by indoor decoration materials has come before the court and a compensation of 170,000 Yuan (AUD$27,900 ) was awarded to the plaintiff. The incident is about a four-year-old girl was diagnosed with acute leukemia and died in August 2005 after staying in her newly decorated apartment for 10 months.

In most developing countries, when they talk about indoor air pollution, it is always about the kitchen smoke generated from burning stalks, wood and low-quality coal. However, with rapid urbanization and development, indoor air pollution from buliding materials becomes a new member of the pollution catergory. China, for instance, the incidents of leukemia among children in the country’s metropolises is worsening within the past decades and there is a rising trend of the children of migrant workers catching blood diseases. In Beijing and Shanghai, the incidence of leukemia in children is 4.6 per 100,000, while the highest is about 7 in 100,000 in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. It is believed tha more than half of the blood cancer patients are victims of indoor air pollution from home and school refurbishment and decoration.

Indeed, air pollutants emit from architectural materials and building interiors has long been an issue in many developed countries. Over the past decade, increasingly stringent VOCs (voltaic organic compounds, the major indoor air pollutant) regulations have led to the development of water-based solvent and other alternatives for solvent-based paint. However, in most developing countries including China, they are still stick to solvent-based paint and other low quality building materials, that lots of such material are already abandoned or banned by developed countries.

I believed the reason behind is not only because of the lower environmental awareness/knowledge in developing countries but also the existence of wealth gaps. For most cleaner and better technology, it is very hard for the industry and the market in developing world to absorb without foreign aids. But in current global economic and politic systems, newer and cleaner technologies are always developed by private corporations and such technologies will only be transferred through the market instead of free transfer as humanity aids. It sounds to be again that injustice is one of the inherent characteristic of our society.

News link : Decorations lead to death

Beer Lovers' Rationalization

2006-08-12T14:16:00.000+08:00

“Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest.”
– The Buffalo Theory

It is from one of my friends’ email I received recently. He tried to show me a very valid reason for drinking beer by using Darwin’s Natural Selection Theory. In the email, the Buffalo Theory explains:

"When the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first.This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular culling of the weakest members.

In much the same way the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells.Excessive intake of alcohol, as we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers!.”

If only this were true, we'd all be genius!

Ginger,Close-Up!

2006-07-16T14:49:00.000+08:00

Some close-up pictures of my lovely kitty Ginger.

More Photos: Ginger, Close-up!

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-06-30T20:34:00.000+08:00

Caption: An Inconvenient Truth is the first climate documentary to get mainstream distribution. Former US vice President Al Gore is featured and is the narrator in the about the truths of global warming. Photo Source:Paramount Classics

"Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom - think again. This documentary offers a passionate and inspirational look at former Vice President Al Gore's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress."

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is a climate documentary made by the former US vice president Al Gore. I’ve been waiting for this movie for long time and it showed in the Sydney Film Festival few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I missed it… too bad! I have to wait until September when it is shown in the cinemas.

Some criticisms said that the motivation of Gore make the film is to gain publicity as he is a possible presidential candidate in 2008. However, the film also make a change in the cinematic landscape in which documentaries from all sides of the political spectrum are finding audiences and affecting the political conversation. No matter what is the motivation of the documentary, it still gives a powerful lecturer on climate as it borrow a Hollywood marketing playbook to propagandize impacts of climate change as well as raining people’s environmental consciousness.

Global warming has been a passion of Gore's since he was a student a Harvard University. After losing the presidential election and leaving office five years ago, Gore pulled together a nonpartisan slide show on the effects of global warming and took it on the road, making hundreds of appearances since then at universities and colleges, and for lawmakers, environmentalists and anyone else who will listen.

View Movie Trailers Here
Official Website: An Inconvenient Truth

Too much money, Too less sport (2)

2006-06-27T22:25:00.000+08:00

Days before the big kick-off, there also have been complaints from the German organisers that the marketing of this tournament has reached unacceptable levels.The amount of money paid by the World Cup sponsors rise sharply in past few years: US brewing giant Anheuser-Busch paid 40 million dollars (31 million euros) to be one of the 2006 World Cup’s 15 official sponsors, sparking outrage in Germany where all but one local beer will be banned from the stadiums in favor of Budweiser. Polls in Germany also showed that the public is growing sick of World Cup-related advertising and product tie-ins. Just wonder whether there have limits of money-making.

The side effect of money that ruins the sports not only can be found in the World Cup as it is also the core cause of the Italian match-fixing scandal. The Football Federation's prosecutor charged Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, as well as 26 individuals for sporting fraud and violating fairness and probity. Juventus almost certainly face relegation as a result of the scandal, while AC Milan may receive lighter punishment.

I am quite depressed by the news as once I was a very big fan of the Italian Serie A., especially during the age of Roberto Biaggio and the time when Del Piero started his career in Juventus. What is happening now is too bad...anyway, hopefully the scandal can give some sorts of lesson to the sports world.

More information: FIFA deny World Cup spoiled by money-making

Too much money, Too less sport

2006-06-26T22:48:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: freshegg.com

Sport is the world’s most common language. The World Cup,as one of the biggest sports events, it is supposed to be a platform of building bridges across boundaries and ethnic. However, due to its enormous profit making potential, every one just tries to to make big bucks from the global frenzy and distorts the real spirit of sports, I think.

In some cities and countries, the broadcasting right is snatched by paid TV and high prices are set which avoid some lower income groups and poor people to enjoy all the 64 matches. Although the first and the last few matches are broadcasted for free everywhere, watching the process of how the teams going to the final is definitely the heart of World Cup, but such right is being deprived from some poorer people. Sports is no longer being a bridge across different people, but a potential tool to deepen the problem of social injustic as some poorer social groups are being excluded in this universal event when money is involved. What is underlying the “sports spirit” nowaday is more likely refer to the partnership between football, the economy and television which need to find a way to benefit all sides. Sports now is a bit over commericalised and capitalised. So sad to reckon this reality.

The Dirty Secret of China's Economy

2006-06-24T22:21:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: The Globalist

According the latest statistics from the China's top environmental agency the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the mainland's pollution scourge costs almost 10% loss in gross domestic product of the country, which is roughly about $200 billion a year. That's why an article used the title "The Dirty Secret of China's Economy" to criticize the country's economic development.

China is a remarkable growth story. But it is also fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to world-class smog, acid rain, polluted rivers and lakes, and deforestation. Environmental problems play a role in the death of some 300,000 Chinese people each year, according to World Bank estimates.”

- Brian Bremner, "Business Online"

It is quite true that with the China’s “Dragonomics”, it is unrealistic to expect China to be very clean or environmentally sound. Indeed, the Chinese government shows quite a lot of initiatives about how to make China greener and more sustainable. For example, the newly released 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), which is the guideline for development directions, propagates more energy-saving, higher value-added industries as well as expanding the services sector as a call for turning away from rough, polluting, and energy-wasting industries that had been made as early as the mid. The 11th Five-Year Plan further stipulates that the industrial sector must cut energy use by 20 percent.

The Chinese Government also suggested heaps of schemes to deal with different environmental problem, such as Green GDP etc. But many skeptics wonder whether all these are just done for greening the Beijing Olympics 2008 and the country will lose interest after the Game. Although I am also quit suspicious about the environmental program for the Beijing Olympics is some sorts of greenwashing, I am still optimistic that the Chinese Government does learn some lesson from the Western mordernisation. So, it is too early to say whether they will lose interest and will do badly in environmental protection after the Olympics. Let’s see.

More information:
The Dirty Secret of China's Economy
Green GDP — The Real Chinese Revolution?

Football, Solar City – Gelsenkirchen

2006-06-23T17:48:00.000+08:00

Caption: Gelsenkirchen- a model to move dirty energy source to sustainable and clean solar energy (Photo Source: FC Schalke 04 and the City of Gelsenkirchen Official Website)

Immediately after the World Cup opening match in Munich on 9 June 2006, the second match of the tournament is kicked off at the FIFA World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen, a city once know “the city of a thousand fires” for its dependency on coal-mining, now has shifted its energy focus dramatically to become a national solar energy technology centre.

The city was once dominated by the coal industry, however, the coal crisis in the late 1950s brought about a structural change away from coal and steel. Today, Gelsenkirchen is more renowned for cleaner solar energy and has developed into a national business and research centre for solar technology. More than 21,000 of jobs in the renewable energy sector are also created throughout the transformation. Moreover, the end of coal to exploitation has also made way for a rich cultural landscape with mineshafts being replaced by theatres and cabarets.

Green power and solar energy debates have been lasted for years in Australia. However, moving to solar energy means a decentralization of electricity service and a reform of economy structure, which involves heaps of vested interests and large corporations. The myth between government-business relationship is definitely the biggest barrier for the clean energy transformation, from my point of views. That’s why the solar energy development in Australia is always stayed within the academic domain, while centralized nuclear energy plants development dominated the policy agendas in Oz.

(The next match in Gelsenkirchenis the quarter final between England/Ecuador and Portugal/Holland on 1 July. I do looking forward a good game in this Solar City!)

More about the city:
Science Park, Solar City, "Stairway to Heaven"
The history of the city of Gelsenkirchen

Hydrogen Bus to Ferry Football Fans in Germany

2006-06-21T12:55:00.000+08:00

Caption: Two hydrogen are being tested by football fans in Berlin. Environment-friendly hydrogen-fuelled buses will be a common sight in European streets in the future. (Photo Source: MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group )

Football fans in Germany traveling from the stadiums are riding hydrogen buses during the World Cup. Two 12 m single-deckers hydrogen buses are being tested in the Berlin bus network to transfer World Cup visitors coming or going from the Olympic Stadium or the Tegel Airport.

This project is a part of a sustainability development program HyFLEET to contribute to the establishment of a safe hydrogen infrastructure for the European future. The buses will be tanked at a service station that the station is itself part of the experiment: a steam reformer will generate, on site, gaseous or liquid hydrogen meeting the majority of the fuel needed to feed the buses. Fuel cells from a Sweden-based company will be used to power and heat the tank station. Fuel hybrid vehicles are used in other "Lion's cities”, such as Hannover and Hamburg, to shuttle visitors between World Cup games in order to achieve better urban-driving efficiency and lower emissions.

However, when adopting new hybrid vehicles, questions about in what way the energy source is clean and renewable, what energy use to produce the hydrogen fuel cell and what are the negative environmental impacts associated should also bear in mind.

More Information:
First hydrogen buses for Berlin: today's step into the future of mobility
Hydrogen Buses for Football Fans at the FIFA World Cup in Berlin

How China involves in the Germany World Cup

2006-06-20T17:09:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: Yahoo! FIFA World Cup

Although China is unable to qualify for the Germany World Cup, everyone one in Germany is still able to feel China’s “involvement”- it is because most of the flying German National flags are made in China!!

Some flags manufactures announced that the number of different national flags used in the Germany World Cup is far more than the number in 2002. In the past few months, one flag manufacturer already used more the 300 thousands square meter of clothes to make national flags and half of them are used for the German one’s. The company now produces 30 thousands flags every month instead of 150 before the World Cup. The cheap price of the flags(1 euro to 2 euro) is also another reasons for the drastic sales boost. It is believed that such cheap price is solely because they are “Made in China”!

Relater Article: How China involves in the Germany World Cup 2006 (Chinese Article)

Green Goal

2006-06-12T23:49:00.000+08:00

It has been a while I haven’t update my Blog. Last week was the final week of semester and I was so busy with all presentations and assignments in last few weeks. My work doesn’t final yet as I still have one 4000 essay to go. This week seems much busier…not because of study but the World Cup!! Vive de fútbol!

As Australia also participate in this year (after missing the competition for 32 years), the Aussies are just suddenly being so crazy about this sport. Everything here, news, commercial or non-commercial stuff etc, are link with the competition to draw people’s attention. Similar situation in Hong Kong as the World Cup fever is just sweeping across the city and driving almost everyone crazy. So do I.

Some environmental protection project is also taking in place with this soccer fever as it can probably yield twice the result with half the effort when everyone’s attention is on the topic. A Green Goal™ was piloted in The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ which is assigned a central role to protecting the global climate. For the first time ever at a FIFA World Cup, the event’s effect on the climate will be minimized by conventional methods of energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources and support for environment-friendly transportation. Unavoidable greenhouse gases, emitted throughout Germany, will be balanced by investment in climate projects, ensuring the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ ends up "climate neutral". Tight, measurable targets also set to minimize the environmental impacts from this sports event. For example, they set rules to restrict plastics, food and drink packaging and promotional items in the stadiums and introduce high-tech energy management systems to reduce 20 per cent in electricity consumption on both and match and non-match days.

It is a very positive and effective strategy to incorporate environmental considerations into the World Cup and I can see including environmental impacts and considerations are increasingly being factored into important sporting events. What an uplifting news for the environment! Although it is very possible they are not doing as good as they can, but at least they moved the first step!

Link: 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany: Green Goal

New "Trend" in Hybird Car

2006-05-19T09:22:00.000+08:00

Source: Rustle the Leaf

With high gas prices straining our household budgets, hybrid car has been advocated (both by government, car manufactures and some scientists) as the “best” alternative of conventional petroleum-based vehicles for a long long time. Such advocacy is much more strengthened with these two years due to the striking oil price.

Originally, the rationale behind hybrid car development was to reduce gasoline consumption and reduce air emissions. Fuel efficiency, together with alternative energy source, should be the main concerns. However, new hybrids car model are very focus on power and speed, ther newer the hybrid car model, the faster and more powerful it is. It implies that more fuel/electricity are required pre journey with those newly innovations. It seems to me that there is a risk the hybrid car development is going out of the track.

The current hybrid car development trend is a good demonstration about the “effectiveness” of using technology to fix environmental problems. Technology is one of the solutions but never can be the only solution to deal with environmental crisis. In the hybrid car case, attitudes towards how and why people using car is the more underlying cause that we have to deal with. It is pointless to use an environmentally sounded technology or products in an unenvironmentally friendly way. Similar situation in the nuclear power or other renewable energy development. Shifting energy sources or finding alternative are not able to solve energy crisis if people keep using energy in consumptive and insensible way.

Sadly, the main stream environmental practice is still focus on techno-fixed solution. Although there are heaps of people and studies suggestion and urging about the essential of changing attitudes, behavior and culture, those discussion are still fighting only on paper.

Latest News on Hybrid Car: Scientists Back Plug-In Hybrids

A “Damn” from Space

2006-05-16T17:38:00.000+08:00

Caption: Damning the Earth? The Keyhole Nebula NGC 3372 (Source: NASA Image Gallery)

The photo was taken in 2000 by NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team. This Nebula is about 8000 light years away.
When I saw the image first time, I found that this glowing cloud of gas, dust and stars is just like giving us their “middle finger”. Well, it is just a normal astrophysical phenomenon in the outer space. But for a raving person like me, I will say it is a damn to the Earth because those who are living on the globe is not only damaging their own planet but also dumping rubbish to the space. The world currently sends approximately 200 tons of payloads, the equivalent of two 747 freighter flights, into space annually and there is an increasing trend for such “illegal dumpling”. In US, some scientists suggested that to dump the nuclear waste into the space is the best option for nuclear waste disposal!! So, it is very reasonable why the outer space gives us their “middle finger”!!

About the Keyhole Nebula

Ecological Footprint

2006-05-13T22:29:00.000+08:00

Caption:What we did and doing is making permanent mark on our planet. (Image Source: http://dieoff.org/Foot.gif)

Ecological Footprints is an environmental accounting tool to estimate the resources consumption, emissions and waster assimilation requirements of a defined human population or economy in terms of corresponding productive land use. A population’s ecological footprint is the total area of productive land or sea required to produce all the crops, meat, seafood, wood and fibre it consumes, to sustain its energy consumption with the biologically productive capacity of the land and sea available to population.

According to the WWF research in 2002, the Earth has about 11.4 billion hectares of productive land and sea space and it is about 1.9 hectares per person. Nevertheless, we consumed 2.3 hectares per person which was 20% above the Earth’s biological capacity. Moreover, due to the wealth gaps between nations, not every one can consume their own productive space. In 1999, the average for North American was about 9.6 hectares per capita, while it was 5.0 hectares per person in Europe and 1.9 for Asian and African. (China is 2.0 hectares per person in 2001)WWF predicted that the humanity’s footprint is likely to grow to about 220% of the earth’s capacity by the year 2050. It means that we need 2 more Earth to sustain our activities at that time!

Yet, there are some limitations to use ecological footprints to estimate the environmental degradation. One major deficiency of this tool is only CO2 emissions are included in land consumption calculation. Other emissions are assumed to be within the carrying capacity of receiving environment but the validity of such assumption is really doubtful.

By the way, I still think that ecological footprints is pretty useful in terms of education as it can help those who do not have science, engineering and environmental background to understand the broad picture of the land required to support their activities on a per capita basis, and of the enormous inequities between nations of the world in access to resources and pressures placed on the planet.

To calculate your own Ecological footprint: Earth Day Footprint
More about Ecological Footprint: Global Footprint Network

Quote of the Day

2006-05-12T20:48:00.000+08:00

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.

Larry Hardiman

(I tried to get more information about who is Larry Hardiman but i just failed to found more about him. What a pity!)

Light and Shadow

2006-05-10T08:22:00.000+08:00

This is a photo I took in a cemetery when I went for a walk before. I was so impressed when I saw this view: shadows of different kind crosses form other graves projected on to a grave that with Mary’s statue during the sunset time. It just gave me a strong sense of peacefulness and holiness even though I am not a religious person. (I went to church for a whole year last year but eventually I reckon that those kind of spiritual stuffs do not fit in with my shoes.)

Greenwash

2006-05-08T21:04:00.000+08:00

Image Source: Portland indymedia , Green Left

Last week was an extraordinary busy week for me because I had to attend a short course of Environmental Auditing (EA).

Environmental Auditing, by academic definition, is a systematic, independent and documented assessment process to evaluate the environmental performance of an organisation, a facility, a process, a service or a product against a set of pre-agreed criteria. . Performing an EA is suppose to improve environmental performance, identify risks, improve staff and public relations, ensure compliance and contribute to a defence of due diligence. However, the current EA practice seems to me that is being a tool to greenwash a company or a product. (Greenwash, by my word, is an action of giving people a false sense of eco-satisfaction and giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices.)

The main reason for an organisation to conduct EA nowadays is to accredit with the ISO 14000 series standard to benchmark their Environmental Management Systems or “environmentally friendly” practices or products. Yet, there has some major flaw of the ISO requirement as it does not assess the real environmental performance and outcome of a company but to assess whether the company has “continual improvement” in their environmental related aspects. So, it is very possible for a company or a product accredited with ISO certification but the company is doing something harming the environment seriously. I heard a story about an environmental audit of a printing company in Australia. They did the audit in order to accredit with the ISO standards. They got the ISO certificate just by improving their printing material treatment and paper usage from “sub-standard” to “below standard. However, once the got the ISO certificate, their customers may just think that their printing activities are in “environmentally friendly” manner!! I dare to say that heaps of multinational corporations or oil companies are doing such “greenwashing” stuff. McDonald’s is a good example and their environmental management system is accredited with ISO 14001.

By the way, EA and ISO are still useful tools to get the company at least to start some improvement and awareness on their environmental performance.

More about Ginger

2006-05-06T17:58:00.000+08:00

Ginger

2006-04-19T17:04:00.000+08:00

It'd been a while I haven't updated my Blog. The main reasons are i'm a bit lazy and a bit busy with the new member in my apartment- Ginger, a four-months old kitten! After her arrival, we have much more funs+work with this little cat and i do really enjoy a lot althought sometimes i doubt that i am the kitten's servant instead of master!!

The Dying Out of April Fool's Day

2006-03-31T22:09:00.000+08:00

(Source: Star Wars' Funny)

Just wonder if anyone celebrates April Fool's Day anymore. It seems to me that the official day of practical joking appears to be as flat as a deflated cushion. In the past, people would make hoaxes during the day to bring in some funs and sense of humor in the unexcited everyday life.For example,

The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
(Source: The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time)

Well, there still has some April Fool's jokes in recent years, but most of them are circulated within Internet instead of mainstream media. One joke made by Nature.com last year that an lunar image taken by the Floating Optical Orbital Lens (F.O.O.L) revealed that the moon surface was being heavily eroded by the bacteria that Apollo lunar mission left behind!
I’d really like to have more these kinds of jokes around us. People nowadays become more serious, feeling insecure or even scare because of different sorts of instability and threats (terrorism, natural disasters, environmental degradation, more competitive and demanding workplace etc.). Depression, psychiatric or psychological problems due to pressure become more and more common, and even becomes a social problem in some big cities. So, the celebratipn of April Fool's Day may refresh our world with a bit more humours.

Interesting Links:
The Origin of April Fool's Day
The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time

What is your political position?

2006-03-27T18:54:00.000+08:00

My friend introduced a very interesting web site in his blog. It is about a test called "Political Compass" which helps us to know about our own political stand. Here is my political compass:
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.15

Web site: The Political Compass

Post-Normal Science

2006-03-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

Caption: Post-Normal Science can be located in relation to the more traditional complementary strategies, by means of a diagram . (by J. Ravetz)

These few days I am doing some reading and research on the concept of “Post-normal science” to help me diagnose the process of environmental policy making. It might be a bit sophisticated or boring for those who are not interested in the environmental stuff, but I still found it is an interesting concept to share as it can trigger us to rethink about the role and the nature of science.

Post-Normal Science is a concept to describe the methodology of scientific “facts” inquiry in contemporary conditions, especially in the environmental science and policy arena. The so-called objective “truth” or hard “scientific facts” from science research itself is no longer adequate to deal with the uncertainty, decision stakes and complexity of environmental problems. Most of environmental policy are value-driven that soft subjective human value are “hard” in various ways, for which the scientific inputs are irremediably “soft” instead. It is a new form of scientific “facts” construction and interpretation with the involvement and participation of different stakeholder & local knowledge to construct new “facts” as a basis for policy making. To put it simplier, post-normal science is:

Scientific facts+ extended facts (such as local knowledge) + human value = new perception of "scientific facts" as policy basis

After reading enormous amount of related readings, there are only two words in my mind about what happens with science in the environmental arena, i.e. “politicizing science”.
By the way, science researches are always goal-driven and value-laden. What we need to do, as a general citizen or reader or whatever, is to be more sensible with those scientific reports or articles, and think about what are the drives behind such scientific publishing, maybe we can find more interesting stories after.

Further Information: The Post-normal Time

Uranium Fever

2006-03-22T20:48:00.000+08:00

Caption: Nuclear Energy is much dirter than we throught.

Australia is the world’s number two exporter of uranium after Canada despite Australia has almost half the world's known uranium supply. One reason for their “limited” uranium export is that the Howard government promised years ago (for electoral purpose) that no more new uranium mines would be allow due to environmental concern. However, the country now is under huge pressure, basically economic force, to open new uranium mines after the landmark nuclear power deal between India and the Untied States, plus the formalisation of uranium export negotiations with China since the end of last year.
Apart from the question that wheather the nuclear technology or uranium will be ended up as dreadful weapons in China or/and India, there is other question about whether the “civil nuclear energy reform” is a correct direction for long term sustainable development in developing countries.
Public opinion is gradually swinging towards accepting nuclear energy to help combat climate change but in reality, nuclear power is much dirtier, more dangerous and expensive than it apparently looks like. Although the advance in technology ensures no Chernobyl-scale disaster could happen again in theory, nuclear waste remains a major problem. Even there may be technical solutions to dealing with the nuclear waste, such toxic waste management is an ongoing, non-stop process with present technology, which means that cost and energy of dealing the waste are required for very long term. Hence, the benefits of nuclear energy to combat climate change are not clear and it seems to me that nuclear power is definitely not the answer for climate change. In addition, it consumed a lot of energy and resources to build a nuclear plant but the life-span of the plant is always too short to pay-back what it consumed. In fact, nuclear energy is a non-renewable energy and uranium is finite resource.
Sadly, the fact is uranium prices have more than tripled in the past five years to record highs, in step with higher oil prices, nuclear energy seems regard as the most common alternative (but not the most welcome) source to fossil fuels. Just wonder whether the illusion and delusion on nuclear will be clarified.

Clean Water

2006-03-12T21:32:00.000+08:00

Photo Source: Geotimes.org

Clean water is essential to human health, and the constant availability of clean water from tap is virtually taken for granted in where we are staying, I mean the developed urban paradise we are living. In the developing world it is the reverse. According to WHO and UNICEF, we have more than 1 billion people — about one sixth of the world's population — do not have access to safe drinking water – and it also suggest that this number could quadruple by 2025. Most of them are in rural Africa and Asia, and millions of children and leaving millions more on the brink of survival.
However, around the world our supplies of freshwater are increasingly threatened by pollution, overuse and climate change. Problems with access are most severe in the developing world but even wealthy and relatively water-rich nations, like the U.S., need to take action to ensure that their water supplies can meet looming threats.
Prescription For Survival is a science documentary that I watched tonight. It is the trigger that makes me to think about the clean water issue now. The program is a six-part documentary series and one of the topics is the clean water. It told a case of one small village in Uganda. In that remote village, the only source of fresh water for the villagers is an open pound, where is also a water source for their cattle and other animals. The only water system there is plastic water containers, children and adult. No doubt that the water is not clean and unsafe to drink. As far as I saw from TV, the water they drink is dirtier than the water I used after cleaning the floor yesterday. It makes me feel very uncomfortable when I saw them to drink! WHO and UNICEF are trying to improve the situation but they find a lot of difficulties because of lack of funding and the severe drought. Meanwhile, Australia is still using fresh, clean water for toilet flushing.
Well, I have no idea about how to fix or to improve the problem, as well as how to deal with the injustice between developed and developing country. What I think I can do is to do something from individual for first step, i.e. to use water more wisely, cautiously and carefully. It makes me feel a bit better to enjoy the fresh water while knowing somebody is suffering from not having this basic essential.

P.S. Some example water saving strategies that you don't even need to have a big change in your living habit:
- Washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet
- Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other similar waste in the trash rather than the toilet.
- Wash vegetable and fruit in containers or sink instead of running the tap.

Useful Link
Family Water Audit Check out to see how well you use water.
Water Saving tips A comprehensive and interactive website to investigate water saving opportunities in each area of our home.
Challenges to Clean Water Worldwide

How fast should I run in the rain?

2006-03-11T22:39:00.000+08:00

This is an age old question that whether we need to run or walk under the rain if we don’t have an umbrella with us. By common sense, we have to run as fast as we can to stay as dry as possible. Even there has a possibility that we are colliding with extra rains drops if we run instead of walk. We still believe that run is better than walk to keep ourselves drier.
However, some mathematicians found that there is a surprising twist to this understanding. They used mathematics formula and calculation to find out the answer and have such conclusion”

If you are a person of typical build and the rain is
coming from behind you at the speed of a gentle walking pace, you will be hit by less rain if you amble along than if you run full pelt.
- “Why Do Buses Come in Threes? The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life” by Rob Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham

Well, I haven’t thought about such question seriously before. It is so easy for us to ignore and neglect something which is so common in our everyday life. But I found that I’ll have much more funs if I pay a bit more attention to something so normal to me. One of the best examples is the hidden mathematics of our daily life. For example, what is the best way to cut a cake, why the honeycombs build as hexagons, why bad things always happen in threes, etc. All of such questions are related to mathematics. So even of the people who has math phobia are actually dealing with math everyday.
I highly recommend you guys to read the book Why Do Buses Come in Threes? by Rob Eastaway, Jeremy Wyndham. It is an easy-reading and fascinatic book that gives the amusing, interesting, and practical aspects of math around us, helps you to look your daily life with one more interesting perspective.

The Bushisms

2006-03-06T19:45:00.000+08:00

I received an email from my friend and it is some quotes of the U.S president G.W. Bush. It is really hard for me to believe that he said such thing. Could anyone be able to make such a duffer as the US President is made out to be? The first thing came up my mind is "did Bush really say all these things?"
Well, I'm not going to justify but just to share it for funs. For sure, there should be something wrong with Bush that makes people keep making jokes on him.

Here you are:

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." - George W. Bush

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." - George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'." - George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." - George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow." - George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world." - George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firmcommitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."- George W. Bush

"Public speaking is very easy." - George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur." - George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority." - George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children." - George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." - George W. Bush

Quiz

2006-03-04T06:55:00.000+08:00

I’ve done a quiz recently. It is a quiz on how well we know about what’s happening in the world. Sadly I just got half correct and I found that I have quite a lot of misconceptions about the global trend. You know, when I checked the answers, I just thought that some of them couldn’t be true, but it is! I found I got a wrong picture about the world, probably due to media misinformation or stereotyping, as well as my obsession with certain “facts”.
Go to test yourself how much you know about the things that are happening around us. It is a very good test to correct our obsession of some “facts” that we commonly know. Take a paper out and mark down your choice. I’ve put the answer in the “comment” session following this post.

1. Complete this statement: "Bicycle production has decreased over the last decade in every world region except in..."
A. Europe
B. Africa
C. Asia

2. What energy source was consumed most in 2000, after fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas?
A. Hydropower and traditional biomass
B. Nuclear
C. Solar

3. Which country—the United States, Saudi Arabia, or the former Soviet Union—produced the most oil in 1950? In 2003?
A. United States; Soviet Union
B. Soviet Union; Saudi Arabia
C. United States; Saudi Arabia

4. In 2002, United States residents emitted how much more carbon dioxide than residents of India?
A. 2 times as much
B. 17 times as much
C. 23 times as much

5. Which country leads the world in photovoltaic (solar cell) production?
A. United states
B. Japan
C. Sweden

6. Which country was home to the most Internet users in 2001?
A. Japan
B. United States
C. China

7. Which European country has on average 1.6 mobile phone subscriptions for every person?
A. Czech Republic
B. United Kingdom
C. Luxembourg

8. In 2002, the world spent $_____ on military expenditures while the UN spent $_____ on peacekeeping.
A. $735 billion; $83.7 billion
B. $943 billion; $375 billion
C. $943 billion; $2.82 billion

9. True or False? China is projected to be the most populous country in the world in 2050.
A. False
B. True

10. In 2002, did the world consume more beer, coffee, or bottled water?
A. Coffee
B. Bottled Water
C. Beer

Photo and information Source: Worldwatch Institute

Plasticoholic

2006-03-02T19:34:00.000+08:00

Caption: Every year more than 100,000 whales, sea bird and sea turtle are killed by plastic bags. (Photo Source: Planet Ark )

Every minute, we consume over one million plastic bag. An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Billions end up as litter as only one out of five is recycled on average.

Refer back to the situation of my home town Hong Kong, it was estimated that 27 million plastic bags were disposed of each day in Hong Kong in 2001. But recent figures show that we are using 33 million plastic bags per day now. Approximately 1700 plastic bags are used per person per year, which is four to five times the consumption level per person of Australia. I believe such dramatic increase in plastic bags consumption is mainly blame to the distribution of plastic bags with newspaper purchase, which is more or less a marketing strategy started by chain convenience stores few years ago. Small news agency and kiosks have no choice but to follow in order to maintain their competitiveness. A vicious cycle formed and it further encourages our plastic bags using habit which is disaster for our environment. Too bad.

With the emerging threat of “white pollution” (that polythene jamming and blowing on the streets) and the saturation of landfill lands within 6-10 year, our government starts to act more proactively. They started the consultation of posing an environmental tax on plastic bags (and tyres as well) in a bid to help cut demand for plastic bags.

Well, I think it is a good starting although it is a bit late to response the plastic bags problem. There has some successful case of the implementation plastic bag consumption tax. Like in Ireland, their plastic consumption reduced 90% after the implementation of PlasTax. However, one important component for their success is the Irish government spent all the money they raised from the tax on environmental conservation related area. That’s one thing I’m a bit worry about Hong Kong government. I’m pretty doubt that their main initiative and objective is raising revenue, environmental focus is only an appendix. Hopefully I’m just over-worried.

Plastic Bags - Just say "No!"

My Aussie Trip

2006-02-18T21:03:00.000+08:00

I made a "Fish-hook" tour in Oz from mid-January to early February. Here are some photos i took during the trip.
The Red Centre
Great Ocean Road
South Austrlaia

The End Of The World As We Know It

2006-02-17T21:01:00.000+08:00

Caption: Meltwater flowing of the Greenland ice sheet, 2002. (Source: NASA Observaory)

The End Of The World As We Know, is a documentary exploring climate change I saw tonight. It did gain some noise when I broadcast in UK last year as the program emphasizes again and again that the real threat we are facing is definitely not global terrorism but global warming, which the majority are not really agree with. The presenter interviews different experts, not just environmentalists but scientists and financiers and even the Shell’s director, about their scary of climate change.
Just 30 minutes before the program, I head another bad news about the case of Greenland's glaciers. The NASA satellite just found that the Greenland’s glaciers are losing ice quicker than any scientific prediction or modeling, and the results could mean ocean levels will rise even faster than previously thought. And the glaciers may melt even more quickly in the years to come. The founding does not analysis the acceleration of the Greenland ice sheet melting and moving but most scientists agree that human activity and burning fossil fuels, is playing an important role in global warming.I received an email from a U.S. friend and he told me the majority of people in his country have no idea of how their activities use energy, or are even aware of it any level, which entitles the U.S. becomes the world biggest greenhouse gases chimney. Meanwhile the U.S. government offer different “solutions” to show their concern on the issue but it seems that the situation does not change a bit. This not only happens in the U.S. but everywhere in the world.
It is very clear that we are seeing our warning sign but we just neglect this great peril. Our modern lifestyle and “fundamental needs” are bankrupting our nature resource; threaten our future planet. It is sad that for most people the attraction of modern life resist them for a change.
Climate change is creating the hugest obstacle to humanity and human are powerless to stop GHGs forcing the climate change if we are not doing more proactively right now.

Related News: Glaciers Losing Ice Quicker
Greenland's glaciers are slip-sliding away

Sleeping - Way out for big decisions

2006-02-17T19:04:00.001+08:00

Thinking hard about a complex decision will bamboozle our mind. Most people are only able to consider a subset of information or part of the multiple factors in conscious mind, which they may weight inappropriately and resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. Sleeping on a big decision, in contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with, the scientists suggested.
How many big decisions I have ever made and how I made them? Those are the questions come up to my mind. Honestly, I can’t remember any big decision I made recently so far. Um….buying a car? Not really. I did spend some time to search but once I found the car I made the decision very soon. How about quitting my job to seek for further study opportunity? I couldn’t remember I had weighing up the pros and cons to come.
I thought I am a person who always makes snap decisions or judgments, with feeling or the sixth sense. Maybe it is a bit risky but I always remain lucky, happy and satisfy with the results produced, no matter it is wanted/expected or not. How lucky I am! Of course I am not always depend on luck, efforts sometime are required to make things nicer.

Related News: 'Sleeping on it' best for complex decisions -

Apple Core

2006-02-10T12:20:00.000+08:00

How big is the core left after eating an apple? This question never came up to my mind until I heard a story from my 82-years-old aunt. It is a story about my father when he was escaped from China to Hong Kong in his teenage.
Unlike my stable, cheerful, peaceful and a bit materialised childhood, my father had a very tough time when he was young. He was born when China suffered from the Japanese invasion, and then passed his childhood in the years of Cultural Civilisation. He was not from a rich family but unfortunately, his family’s assets were enough to list themselves in the “Black Five Category”. So, my father and uncles were the targets to scoff, to torture or to attack. He was not given food most of the time as well.
In order to escape from torturing or starving till dead, he chose to leave his village. Different from most people who need to hire a big truck to put all their stuffs when they are moving, my father had nothing to bring with him as he had nothing, even he did not have clothes for changing. What he could bring for his journey was the most basic thing for survival: food. It was not difficult to find food at that time but it was very difficult for a person who categorised as the “Black Five” to find something to eat. At the end, my father was barely able to find dozens of apple for his trip to Hong Kong. Time was even tougher on his way as the only transport he was able to afford was walking, which is a physically demanding exercise when you need to walk for long time in the sun and on the mountains. The longer time he walked, the hungrier he was and less food he had. To maximise the food he could intake, he ate the whole apple included the core, where we believe that is not very eatable nowadays, to make himself felt a bit fuller…..
It is the story about apple core I heard. It is not an interesting nor inductive story but it absolutely makes me think a lot. It also reminded me how big was the apple core I had last time and how I used it. Last time I had an apple was about two weeks ago, during my tour in Kangaroo Island in South Australia. I had an apple as dessert after having an Aussie BBQ. To be honest,apple is not a fruit can raise my appetite most of the time. So, I just had a few bites and left a big core. Indeed, I had another reason to leave a big core. I discovered there had certain possums appeared around a campsite. Some of them were even entered our camp to search food. However, I missed the chance to take a photo at the first time. Therefore, I threw my big apple core outside the campsite to attract some possums to come again so that I could make a photo of them. That’s what an apple core meant to me.
The feeling of guilty come over me......

Message from Adelaide

2006-01-26T05:47:00.000+08:00

After being in Australia for a year, i've got the chance to see the finest part of the country funally. I made a 6-day trip from Alice Springs to Adelaide to see the outback of the central area. The trip was finished yesterday and it seems to me that 6 days are not enough to explore 10% of the advanturous of central Oz. Challenging climbs, rock pool swimming, spotting kangroos and other wildlife, sleeping under the star...every moment is so impressive and time flew much faster than usual. I am sure the spectaclar views of the red centre will remain in my memory ofr a long time.
Trip is not end yet. I am going to explore the southern part of Australia in about 10 days. Kangroo Island and Great Ocean Road are the highlight of the coming trip. Will be back to Sydney around 5/2.

P.S I'd like to stay always from mobile phone or Internet during the tour. But i got some free coupons which gave me incentive/temptation to involve in the Net again.

Lucky Girl

2006-01-17T06:10:00.000+08:00

Caption: My 98 Toyota Corolla AE102. I know it is a bit disagreeing with an environmentally friendly lifestyle to shift from public transport to private car, but it saves me lots of time and money. The public transport here is unreliable and it is more expensive than driving. Obviously the Aussie Government needs to pay some attention on this issue.

I always feel that I am a lucky and blessed person. Not fortunate with jet pot but things around me just go smoothly and nicely all the time. Although lots of them happened unexpectedly and unwanted, outcomes are not bad at all. Sometimes even some "dangerous" incidents for many people become adventurous experience for me. Nice! I treasure and appreciate this kind of fortune very much.
Such feeling strengthened a lot after I started my driving life. I brought a used Corolla last week in order to increase my mobility in Oz as well as saving my time+money. When I picked my car last Friday, it was the first time I have to drive a car independently. I won’t say my driving skill is bad but absolutely it is not good at all. Due to the nervousness and stressfulness I had for my debut driving, I almost crossed an intersection when the red light was on and changed lane improperly for couple times. Fortunately, I passed through all of them. The most horrible thing was about my parking. I can’t find any word that can describe how dreadful it is... Forget about to park successfully for once or twice, I don’t think I can park my car in the proper position for less than 3 or 4 times trials. Situation became ten times worse when I noticed that I was blocking the traffic during parallel street parking: always forget to give a signle light before stoping my car for parking and I even got tangled with the R/D (modes of automatic transmission) and left/right during reversing my car. I couldn’t remember how many times I had scratched the tyres as i also parked too close to kerbs. Not hard to imagine how horrible my parking was/is. I was so relief that I came home "entirely" at the end, both the Corolla and me.
But it is not the reason why I said I feel luckier after getting the car. The reason is how jammy I was when I had my driving test!! To be honest, I cannot recall exactly what happened during the test. The only thing I remembered is the examiner was a bit mindfulness during the test as I had to reminded him that I’d done the parking already when he asked me to do it at the second time. By the way, I am confident that I drive pretty well in a straight and big road, of course without any parking required.
One last thing to mention: the day I started of my independent driving life was a Black Friday, hopefully it doesn’t portend anything.

P.S. I read an interesting quote recently and I love it very much. It might become my motto one day, I suppose:
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." –by Henry Youngsman

PingPad

Experiencing the Great Firewall of China

China Channel Firefox Add-on

Chinese leader condemns Tiananmen massacre from beyond the grave - Extract of his book "Prisoner of the State"

June 4,1989 - the 20th anniversary

Bushisms over the years

Bushisms over the years

Shanxi, China: People

Shanxi, China: Life & Activity

Shanxi, China: Animals

Shanxi, China: Landscape

Hong Kong Snaps - Old Factory Buildings

10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

China Snap Shot- How ducks are being transported....

The Big Talk

Each Other — Where We Are

The Big Talk

How to tell a six year old where all the birds and bees have gone

by Sandra Steingraber

Published in the September/October 2008 issue of Orion magazine

The Dutch Humor

Fire Dragon Dance @ HK (Moon Festival 08)

China Snap: Beijing (Sep 08)

HK Snap Shot

Tapped Out

China Snap Shots- Guangdong

Lamma Snap Shot - Tin Hau Festival 2008

火，火把，「把火」，「把幾火」

Beijing snap shots - Apr 2008

China Snap Shot

Lonesome George

New missions for Super Mario, Master Chief & Kratos

Sexploitation

Securitization of Environment

Wiser use of computer for our environment

Funny Signpost in China

A brilliant commercial video

Lovely Kittens

The Shifting China

Kitten 2 - Name to be confirmed....

Kitten 1 - Name to be confirmed....

The guys who I am living with...

Job nightmare

The way i celebrate my birthday......

Beijing Snapshot: People

Beijing Snapshot: The city

Beijing Snapshot: Tianman Square

Tin Hau Festival @ Lamma Island

《Go Green》: Music & Well-Being

Today's Snap Shot

Guizhou, China: People

Guizhou, China: Landscape

PR War? Current Food Safety Scandals in Hong Kong

Hong Kong:Day and Night

Today's Snapshot

Fancy a Green Christmas

Taz

Tasmanian Devilry

Tasmania - The Land Apart

Solar Powered Mobile Phone

Sydney Snap Shots

Aussie Diving Adventure

Queensland Photo Album

A Mysterious Email

Photo Highlight

"Maggie"

Message from Queensland

CO2 is good?

Two Movie Clips about Global Warming

False Sense of Eco-Satisfaction

Today's Cartoon

Mice Hate Cheese

Cryonics: Freezing for the future?

Seasons are Changing

Decorations lead to death

Beer Lovers' Rationalization

Ginger,Close-Up!

An Inconvenient Truth

Too much money, Too less sport (2)

Too much money, Too less sport