Another interesting book

Just finished reading a very good book about demographics.  The author, Fred Pearce, made it such a real good read, that I finished it in less than week.  In fact,  I can never read non-fiction from cover to cover;  I'm a fiction gal.  Heee...

Blur me, finally learnt a thing or two, well, lots of things, about demographics.  I was dismayed that the English didn't bother to do much to help the Irish (mostly farmers) during the great famine.  Apparently, there was enough food to go around, but the rich continued to export their food to England, plus, many of the colonialist lawmakers didn't feel obliged to help the poor farmers as they thought that by doing so that particular segment of the population would expand.  Of course, there were some eugenics (ie racism to put it bluntly) in all this thinking.  Eugenics has been around for a long time.  I think it probably peaked during the 2nd quarter of last century, I may be wrong.  But when you read the book, you can't help but wonder whether any policy to do with demographics has a hint of eugenics thinking.

Climate Confidence Monitor HSBC 2010

HSBC published its fourth Climate Confidence Monitor yesterday.  Here are some interesting facts:
• A higher level of climate change concern in emerging markets such as China and Vietnam. compared with UK and USA  In fact, Hong Kong and Vietnam put climate change as their no. 1 concern compared with  issues such as economic stability and social breakdown.  I thought for a place as materialistic as Hong Kong, their residents would be more concerned with getting their economy into fifth gear, rather than climate change. Singapore, surprisingly ranked the stability of the economy as first while climate change was fourth.  I suppose, HKers are more aware of their environment considering they have poor air quality and have been experiencing extreme weather, while in Singapore, we may be taking the environment for granted.
• People in emerging markets have higher confidence that climate change can be stopped, and they can do something about it on an individual level.  UK and France are not optimistic at all.   I wonder whether it's a lack of confidence in everything especially with the change in government in the UK, and the recent demonstrations in France against raising the retirement age - ok, not related, but if your govt's not doing well, people usually end up pessimistic.
• Responding to climate change will lead to economic growth and more jobs.

Glad it's not so hazy anymore!

More bread!

Store bought bread ingredients:  flour, egg, water, ascorbic acid, sugar, salt, yeast, flour improver, additives, preservatives

Home made bread: flour, yeast, sugar, water, salt (sesame seeds & fennel seeds)

Risen dough

Dough that's been kneaded

Rolling out the flat bread with sesame seeds and coriander seeds

Close up

"Baking" the bread in a pan

I made these flat breads (I think they're naan, but not really sure as the recipe said "flat breads") using a pan and they turned out pretty well.  Only 1,5 hours needed to make them. They were soft and chewy. They even puffed up in the pan! Verdict - yummy, and a satisfied hubby & son :-)

Social Media : When it gets too gory.

I wasn't really sure whether I should put up the video on my blog, or just put up the link (eventually deciding on the latter).  As a follow-up to my post on the use of social media to spread good causes like the environment, I recently read about a controversial film done for 10:10 Climate Change, that was subsequently banned.  I went onto Youtube to check it out and it's not for the faint hearted (or kids, parents note!), especially when you are not prepared for what happens.  Maybe they were trying to be funny or stir up the debate, but this is one that is offensive and definitely off the mark. A lesson our NGOs and government agencies should take note of.

The Upside of Irrationality: The unexpected benefits of defying logic @ work & @ home

Sigh....why can't people like Professor Dan Ariely come to Singapore to talk about behaviour.  It would be exciting if he did -- hint, hint, Professor, if you happen to stumble on this blog, AND read this entry, purleeze can you consider coming to Singapore ? :-)

Well, if you are in London (lucky you) then you can attend his lecture for free (yes, it's free, but you need to get a ticket!!) at the London School of Economics on 27 Oct 2010, 6.30-8pm. 

Ariely's other great book is Predictably Irrational. I haven't read his latest book, but perhaps it will help to explain the things that I'm doing at my workplace.....

Tetrapak

Look what I discovered last week..... although I'm not sure whether they are for sale. But bringing your own water bottle would be the best option.

DIY Christmas Tree Part 3

It's going to be Christmas very soon, 2 months and 7 days to be exact.  Can't believe that it's almost the end of the year. It was as thought it just flew right by me!  Anyway, I have big plans for my old DIY Christmas tree which has been sitting in my wardrobe since last year.

Anne gave a great idea to make it into an advent calendar. So, I am gathering all my scrap ...... stay tuuunnnneed!

Update on 24 Oct - making some decorations for my tree. Hope to put them on one by one onto the tree like an advent calendar....

Social media

I was very disturbed, no, disturbed is not the right word to use. Rather, very angry that a bright American student was driven to his death by two other students who thought it was fun to play peeping tom, AND reveal everything to everyone on the internet.  It is up to the individual to decide what they want to share to the public, especially on the internet.  Why can’t youngsters use social media to better themselves, or even channel their energy through social media and do good at the same time ? 


Many organisations use social media to get their message across to the public. It sure beats conventional marketing, and is probably a lot cheaper than advertising. 

Let me see, we have Burt's Bees, who did a "You ask, they answer" session on The Guardian. I think (stress, think!) they were concerned that some of their loyal customers would leave them after they agreed to be bought by Clorox (bleach company).  Basically, the public post questions on internet, and a Burt's Bees rep (well, it was the GM of Burt's Bees Europe, so they were pretty serious about the whole thing) would respond within the day!  

Then there is BP who put up a link on the website so you could watch the capping (or rather how long they were taking to stop the leaking!) of the burst oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico.  I suppose they were trying to be transparent about the whole thing, but it seems like the White House may not have been transparent about the whole episode themselves!


Also, there also individuals who blog for a cause e.g. Brown Dress (this lady wore 1 dress from 2005 - 2006 to confront consumerism; I believe she was the first one to do this and it spawned a load of others!)


Locally, we have our ardent users of Facebook and Twitter.  This includes our very own National Environment Agency with the EnvYuppies on Facebook and Twitter account. You can imagine the potential outreach -175 million people use Facebook everyday worldwide.  According to Nick Burcher, there were  2,226,580 active users on 1 Jul 2010 in Singapore compared with 1,384,760 active users on 1 Jul 2009!!!  That's 160% growth!   But of course, we don't have to rely on big organisations to use social media to get our message across, there's always you and me. Used correctly, we can bring about positive change no matter how big or small :-)