It's About Time to Save Our Environment (Repost from Spaces.com)

8/7/2008 1:11:38 AM

Learn from the Nature

Mother nature has taught our inventors and scientists a lot. But still the mysteries and profoundity of the wisdom hidden in mother nature is beyond the understanding and comprehension of the ordinary. We have cracked the code of some of nature's mysteries such as sonar, aerodynamics, infra-red, sub-sonic. magnetism, electro-magnetism, quantum physics, relativity, radiation, fusion, DNA,. etc. However, while some have been applied to improve our everyday life and civilization, most were deployed as military weaponry.

Enough is Enough

Science when applied in the right direction, is beneficial to the well-being of humankind. Some examples are the discovery of electricity, electro-magnetism and its application to our daily life; etc. However with such pace of progress in science and the wide-range of application to military usage, It's not hard to imagine the so-called advancement in our science is gradually driven our days of progress toward the days of Armageddon. Since when people replaced their appliance at home because it is out-model, the obsolescent period of many appliances are sometimes as short as two years. Where on earth can we find places to buried these huge inventory of out-dated junk? And what about the stockpile of nuclear weapons in those bellicose countries, what if those weapons were fallen into the hands of a mad leader? Who can guarantee leaders like Hitler will never be elected and come to power again considered the IQ of the majority voters? Does anyone of you ever questioned or evaluated something your leader said before they told you rhetoric fallacies? We're living in an extremely dangerous world. The way we disrupted the balance of nature will at the end bring forth calamities and disasters to the earth we are living as well as more frequent occurrence of El Niño, La Niña, tornadoes, tsunamis and super hurricanes. Who said those phenomena have nothing to do with global warming. Are we not receiving enough signs from the nature yet? By excessively burning the fossil fuel, the green house effect amplified. As a result, ice at both poles is melting, sea level rises, and weather turned freakish, storms strike places that they wouldn't be in the past, Drought occurs to places where it used to have abundant rain fall. Sooner or later, famine and pests as described in biblical old testament days will happen again. Does the recent surge in food prices around the world trigger the alarm of how we should start to care for the land. When there are countries spending lots of their resources on hi-tech development, turning arable land into urban subdivisions, are their leaders aware of any future crisis of the need to import food from other countries. You don't need to be a doctorate to understand the precariousness of a country to rely a high percentage of its food sources from other countries. Investing in those countries are simply short-sighted. Whilst their hi-tech development cannot be sustainable, their demand for food will be everlasting until their population reduced. But how can their population be reduced when their birth rate is multiplying in geometric progression?

Love the Earth and the Animals , may you live in harmony with everything the Earth provides.

Every living organism are created with a purpose. They worked silently together so that our planet earth is suitable for all living things to live in harmony. so that we have fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, the soil is fertile enough for plants to grow, the soil can be hold to one place rather than washed away, that one species will not over grown, that we have food carries the nutrients from nature, that our planet is balanced and controlled, so that all creatures living on the same planet can be benefited. However, there are people and nations which have no consideration for the animals and the environment. There are people who believe buildings or bridges are more important than the animals. Where human beings has the absolute right to invade animal territories with man-made infrastructure. Nature has proven again and again, wipe out the entire species of one animal and another problem will occur. We can't see the problem today does not mean there will never be. Sometimes it takes decades for a problem to become catastrophic. Since when our buildings and infrastuctures are no longer in harmony with nature? Should "in harmony with the nature" be the first lesson they taught in architecture? When was the so-called "Feng Shui" has more to do with stone lion or "Pak Kua" than about direction and geography.

It's time to save our earth.

The air we breath in many cities have reached an intolerable pollution level. And it's about time for us to find a new source of energy. The forms of energy that are natural, clean and free from pollutants. There have been studies on energy such as solar, wind, hydraulic, nuclear, thermal and hydrogen, etc. Of all the above mentioned forms of energy, solar, wind and hydraulic are natural and come in forms that are ready to use. Hydraulic has been widely use in producing electricity and has been proven to be effective. However, both thermal and hydraulic are location specific, neither are they portable. Hydraulic has been widely used in producing electricity and it's out of the question. Whereas solar and wind are ready-to-use energies at their final forms. However, we all know that both are unstable because we simply don't have sunny or windy days all year round. Nuclear energy is neither clean nor safe for widespread commercial use. Leaving our final hope to harness hydrogen as energy. By nature hydrogen is clean and produce no pollutant at all when it is burned. It is very efficient as fuel. However, our technology today faces 2 major challenges to utilize hydrogen to even power a car. First is in the cost of production, second is in the safety of storage and in the transport of the energy. As of the writing of this blog today, we already have cars powered entirely by hydrogen. The traditional way of producing hydrogen is to use electrolysis... be continued.

Air Conditioning at Empty Lift Lobbies in Some Buildings or Malls in Hong Kong are Cooler than Necessary.

Ever wonder why our weather gets hotter year after year? We all know that there are so many factors contribute to the hot weather. Let’s cite one everyday example, just stop over at any empty lift lobby in those air conditioned buildings or malls in Hong Kong for a minute and you will get a clue.

Most residents seldom stay in the lift lobby for more than 2 minutes, yet most air-conditioned lobbies in Hong Kong are maintaining at a temperature much lower than are necessary. We are talking about 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continually for decades. Try to multiply the figure and anyone would know that’s a lot of waste not only in terms of Hong Kong dollar, but also in kilowatt in terms of power consumption, and not to mention in terms of excess CO2 emission. The heat generated by the air conditioning unit also adds up to the already high outdoor temperature.

Being constantly suffered from the non-stop exhaust air from the air conditioned from those empty lift lobbies, the residents in lower floors had no choice except to switch on their air conditioner as well in respond to the heat generated by the lift lobby air conditioning. This in turn creates a vicious cycle for every body to switch on their air conditioning units just because air conditioning in the empty lift lobbies is cooler than necessary. Could anyone from those building management comes out and explain why it is necessary for the air conditioning in the empty lift lobby to maintain at low temperature after midnight till dawn.

While the government has been promoting turning off car engines while idling on the street, I wonder why there is no regulation controlling the excessive air conditioning in empty lift lobbies. In fact other responsible companies have already been risen their office temperature to 25C Celsius, shouldn’t empty lift lobbies be kept that cool all the time.

While everyone is concerning for our environment, I don’t see how the excessive low temperature in the empty lift lobby fits into any of the theme of promoting a greener Hong Kong.

I am quite surprised to see no one in Hong kong has ever noticed this problem before and no one has ever complained about this problem until today.

Butterflies in Hong Kong

Hong kong gives anyone who has never been there before an impression as a metropolitan with high rise office skyscrapers, shopping malls, restaurants, cafeterias and bars everywhere. But not so many tourists realized there are more than that. The parks and countryside actually covered more than 40% of the territory. There is a wide variety of wild animals, plants and insects in the countryside.

When I was hiking one day, I stumbled into a high peak where I could find at least seven species of butterflies all in one place high up in the mountain where very few people have ever been to.

It's such a joy to venture into a remote and uninhabited peak and saw there were only birds and insects flying around you. The encountered turned out to be a photo album with a collection of butterflies. Though their life are short, these little creatures not only live life to the fullest, they also help the proliferation of plants into a distance. Without insects like the butterflies, many plants would become extinct by now and we won't be able to see beautiful flowers everywhere. Ever wonder why they are so many species and colors of flowers and butterflies? I always think of flowers and butterflies are among the masterpieces of fine arts of nature. They are nature's way to please our eyes. So enjoy the pictures of nature’s fine art!

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Globalization is another virtual ‘Tower of Babel’.

Globalization is another virtual ‘Tower of Babel’.

It aims to let the whole world share the same ideas and notions. However, it neglects the huge differences between people in terms of cultures, religions and beliefs. The result is a more schism and chaotic world you see today.

Globalization is like throwing a huge stone on one’s own foot.

Export and trade increases between nations. However the exports of technology and innovative products from the advanced nations will be copied by the developing countries. Sooner or later, Industrial countries will no longer have any technology advantage. This is what is happening now. Look at what is happening to the economy of the west, the unemployment rate in the US and the economy crisis in the EU countries.

Globalization is destined to fail. –

It spreads disaster such as the Lehman Brothers’ losses all over the world. The consequence is, the whole world no longer follow or look up on to US as leader.

Thus she’s losing the status of world leader to emerging nations.

Globalization causes high unemployment in the industrialize countries whereas high unemployment is one of catalyst to insecurity and unrest within a country. Look at what is happening to countries of PIGS.

Globalization is shortsighted. The visions of CEOs of those MNCs aims to reduce production cost so that people can continue to buy products at a cheap price. However, CEOs discounted the factors that when their countrymen can no longer afford a job, fancy features from the slightly improved products will no longer be the reason people consider when buying a product. Necessity is the key in times of recession. But how many of these new products you see at stores are really indispensable? How many companies are as innovative as APPLE?

Globalization helps the emerging country and bring forth the ideology of the west to people of the emerging countries.

It’s quite the opposite. When conflicts turned bitter, all their efforts will be in vain. Propaganda and patriotism overrides anything else.

Globalization in directly worsen the contamination of environment in other countriest.

When the high populated third world countries quickly industrialized, the by-product is environment pollution. Remember shortly after the Lehman incident when factories were closed down and fewer people traveled by air. Our skies are clearer and less polluted those days.

Globalization will create more conflicts

The intention of Globalization is to bring people all over the world under one roof. However, people due to their religious belief, culture and ethnicity, the closer they are, the more conflicts they will have.

Globalization will accelerate the competition among nations, the race will get as far as technology can be all the way to the outer space.

When advanced nations have lost their edge of competitive advantage because globalization brings the distance between nations closer, they have to take competition to another arena. However all the advancements in science and technology will eventually turn out to be part of the military weaponry. When the best fighter jets and ballistic missiles can no longer guarantee a nation her superior power over others, the race will accelerate to outer space.

Globalization will lead to world war III

When one nation developed a new technology or weapon, another nation will have it sooner or later because information is no longer secret. The more advanced and more mass destructive weapon nations have, the closer the human race to WWIII.

The Société Générale Incident

Deja Vu

Deja vu was what I felt when I heard about the news of the Société Générale Incident. Since when the news of Barings had shocked the world and how the rest of the world was amazed at how ridiculous the controls of the financial systems were, it happened again in 2008. The awesome truth is that this is not yet the end but only the tip of the iceberg.

Many financial institutions have not yet learned from both incidents.

larger financial institutions because of more adequate capital are likely to have more fund allocation for better control procedures. This is why you see over the past decade smaller financial companies were being acquired or merged into the larger financial institutions. One of the benefits is shared resources. The merging is a good news for the financial world and the consumers but bad news for reducing the unemployment rate especially for cities or countries relying their GDP heavily to the financial sector. On the flip side, smaller companies because of their tight overheads for control, they are more likely to have poorer controls.

And it is appalling to know that there are companies due to various reasons, just turn a blind eye all the way from the management, the auditors, up to the monetary authority. They stall and finger cross hoping that nothing would happened until the day they retired. The situation gets worsen in times of high unemployment. If everyone gets lucky, it's business as usual. Otherwise it's another Barings or Société Générale incident at the newspaper front page.

The reasons behind.

1. Low Risk Awareness.

2. Profit making overrides anything else. There are businesses that competitions among rival companies are fierce. This arise to dilemma for management on which is more important. Whether is it business or control? And when overhead is a big issue, The authority within the institution skewed toward profit making.

2. Staffs are not qualified - When the economy is bad, cutting cost is the only option for the senior management. As a result experience staff were replaced with inexperience and incompetent staff. It takes sometime for these new comers to learn from their job before they realize what is the risk behind. And then there are inept staffs who are excel in politics to keep their jobs but really don't care about anything else let alone potential risk. Some products are too complicated for the average auditing or controling staff to comprehend. The controlling or auditing staff then rely entirely on other staff such as IT or frontline to behave themselves. The result is just like having no control at all.

3. Outdated or poor and inadequate control procedures.

4. Turning blind eyes attitude.

Hong kong Real Estate News Update - Cramped flats 蜗居 with a Luxury Apartment 豪宅 Price Tag

Walk around Hong Kong island and it's not hard to see flats in 300+ sq. ft. gross floor areas (GFA) selling at 2.8 million Hong kong dollar. Wait a minute. The net usable area (NUA) is often much smaller than, usually at an average of around 75% of, the gross floor area (GFA). Take the one from this link for example. 341 sq.ft x say 75% that would be around 256 sq. ft for the net usable area (NUA) or internal floor area (IFA). You have to appreciate the works of the property developers on how ingenious they are to turn this kind of 256 sq. ft. net usable area (NUA) into a one bed room apartment with living/dining area plus room for kitchen and toilet. Adding to the difficulties, some even got 12 sq. ft windowsill (窗臺) which is part of the net usable area (NUA). How did they do it amazes me. How do the banks evaluate property prices really puzzles me. And how would anyone buy it surprises me.

It's so small that imagine the following scenario:
- The owner invites her friends to play Mahjong at her small flat. One of them has to sit inside the toilet.
- And when her boy friend uses the toilet. He has to step one foot on the bath tub to urinate pretty much the same way as you see those male dogs in the park.

The rest of the luxury lifestyle living in that flat is up to your imagination.

Well, I just don't add up. May I ask you how long would you be able to make 2.8 million Hong kong dollar considering your current monthly income? Would any economist come out and explain to us why the bubble in our economy is still acceptable when the worst worldwide depression since 1929 was just happened less than 2 years ago. Please be reminded that the HK$ 2.8 million is only the price today, we have just heard from the property tycoon that inflation is yet to come. And please don't forget, you have not included the 20-30 years interest amount for the mortgage. Something I am sure, the interest rate won't stay that low forever. Well unbelievable isn't it, this is Hong kong, Asia's world city.