Global Warming - How will it impact you?

Here is an insightful article at The Independent explaining the likelihood of climate change to be an increase of 6C by the end of the century or even earlier. This is at the maximum band of projected scenarios (PDF link) for global warming.

Check out Mark Lynas' website, especially this article on the impact of a 6C rise. Excerpt from the article:

4C-5C

Another tipping point sees massive amounts of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – released by melting Siberian permafrost, further boosting global warming. Much human habitation in southern Europe, north Africa, the Middle East and other sub-tropical areas is rendered unviable due to excessive heat and drought. The focus of civilisation moves towards the poles, where temperatures remain cool enough for crops, and rainfall – albeit with severe floods – persists. All sea ice is gone from both poles; mountain glaciers are gone from the Andes, Alps and Rockies.

5C-6C

Global average temperatures are now hotter than for 50m years. The Arctic region sees temperatures rise much higher than average – up to 20C – meaning the entire Arctic is now ice-free all year round. Most of the topics, sub-tropics and even lower mid-latitudes are too hot to be inhabitable. Sea level rise is now sufficiently rapid that coastal cities across the world are largely abandoned.

6C and above

Danger of “runaway warming”, perhaps spurred by release of oceanic methane hydrates. Could the surface of the Earth become like Venus, entirely uninhabitable? Most sea life is dead. Human refuges now confined entirely to highland areas and the polar regions. Human population is drastically reduced. Perhaps 90% of species become extinct, rivalling the worst mass extinctions in the Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history.

What Can You Do To Stop Global Warming?

At this point of time, it is too late to stop global warming. Even if assuming that all human industrial activities grind to a standstill, it will still take decades, if not centuries for the existing greenhouse gases to be absorbed from the atmosphere, and Earth's climate to fallback to pre-1950 levels.

However, we can ensure gloabal warming is slowed down and eventually halted, thus avoiding a catastrophe. Here is what I do (or attempt to do), and I am sure you can think of more:

• Stick with a fuel-efficient car
• Plan my trips to save on wasted journeys - not only helping the environment, but my wallet too
• Take public transport whenever I can
• Avoiding leaving lights and the computer on - especially for laptop, I choose to hibernate and turn off the power point
• Reduce consumption of goods - again helps my wallet too
• Choose products and services with the least harmful impact to the environment. For example, less plastic packaging, take a bus or drive rather than fly
• Bring my own bags to the supermarket
• Re-use plastic packaging
• Avoid packaged and soft drinks
• Avoid using air-conditioner as much as possible
• Plant a tree
• Cycle/walk instead of driving
• Eat less meat
  

Articles on Saving Money and Investment

Dumbest Things You Do With Your Money - how not to get emotionally attached to your investment, where do draw a line with expenses and other good tips.

New Retirement Risk: You Get Dumber After 53 - it pays to do your retirement planning when you are younger

Find Cheaper Airfare: 4 Tricks - how to save by using secondary airports, choose less popular dates, and direct airline booking

Boost Your Retirement Income - Interesting alternative investment called Master Limited Partnership - better returns but more tax hassle. Applicable to America only.

Warren Buffett's Best Quotes - Interesting quotes, also good reminders on long-term investment rather than speculating.

6 Reasons Debit Cards Are Dangerous - Losses come straight from your bank account, frauds will impact you directly, overdrafts. I will not even consider debit cards after reading this.

Why I'd Send My Kid to Yale - Why the top educational institutes is still much better than the rest. Sounds "Duh!", read on to find out more...

噢買尬 - Oh My God

噢買尬,噢買尬 现在在起床。身体太累，不够睡。幸好今天有子可电话会议，不一定须要须要在办公室。天气很好，下着毛毛雨。往后才去办公室的健身房，学和气道。

Oh my god! Woke up at 3 pm today. Body was dead tired and sleep deprived after a long week. Luckily there are only a few teleconferences and I do not necessarily need to go to office.

Very good weather today. Its raining slightly and temperature is just nice. After the calls I will be going to the office gym to learn Aikido.

冥想 - Meditate

这是我第一次用中文。 以向来都是用英文。可能写的都可能写的都乱七八糟，但如果还不开始，永远都不会进步。恐怕将来只是外表是华人；想法，语文，文化全都是西方。

今天虽然工作很忙，还好能照一点回家。到了就马上提下背包，和伶儿去ＳＡＢＳ。每星期三晚，八点半到十点有冥想班。老师是来者缅甸的Ｓａｙａｄａｗ。心里觉得很幸运。靠近家有佛寺。

座了一小时多的时间，好像在看电影。过去的事，心里想要得到的东西，全都漂过去。觉得静坐没设么效果。但怎样都好过浪费时间看电视机或是其他浪费时间的活动。至少训练心多平静一点。

This is my first time writing in Chinese language. I have never attempted it before, and probably it will be non-sensical. But if I do not attempt it, then I will never learn. Probably ended up being "Chinese" in the physical sense, but my thoughts, language and culture are all Westernised.

Even though today is a very busy day at work, I manage to leave early. Just as soon as I reach home, I immediately rush to SABS with ML. Every Wednesday from 8.30 pm to 10.00 pm, there is a meditation class taught by a Burmese Sayadaw. I feel very fortunate there is such a place so near to home.

After sitting for an hour or so, I feel like I have been watching a movie. All the past events, the planned activities get replayed by the mind. Feels as though there is no positive impact. Nevertheless, it is much better than indulging in senseless activities such as watching the television. At least there is inner peace for that hour, and calming down the heart.

Book Review

Just read an interesting book synopsis, though I will disagree on it. I think there will be a continuing boom in the next 30 or so years because:

• China growth + economic boom is once in a millennium
  
• India growth + economic boom is once in a millennium
• Existing challenges such as poverty, food shortage, climate change will mean a drastic change in human behaviour and possibly culture, which can only be resolved via one way: science and technology. In human history major advances in science and technology is followed by economic growth and increase in quality of life
• Rapid development of some countries, especially China and India, will demand a lot of natural resources.
  
• Surge of middle-income families world-wide lead to demand of consumer products and spurring industrial growth

Also, one of the underlying theory for the next depression in the book is because of the 'cycle' of economic downturn. I do not believe in any exact and repetitive timing for economic cycles. 3 events of commodity peak in 1920, 1951 and 1980 does not mean the next will happen in 2010 - if it rains last Friday, Sunday and Tuesday, does not mean it will rain on the following Thursday. Just like the complicated climate system on earth, the economic cycle is subjected to many causes and inter-dependence like consumer confidence, wars, co-operation between blocs of nations, etc.

That said, I do believe human civilication is nearing the peak of its cycle. The pendulum is almost at the end of the side on science and technology development, economic prosperity and concerted effort to increase the quality of life. As a result, there is serious damage to Earth's ecosystem, unprecedented divide of the rich and poor, having satisfied basic human motivation (food, shelter, security, etc) and intense, isolated activities there is loss of contentment in life causing spiritual chasm to appear.

Here is the link to the synopsis again - http://www.hsdent.com/tgca_pr.pdf

Micro-insurance

The world is abuzz about micr0-finance, especially micro-loan ever since the publicized success of the Grameen Foundation. If you are a Malaysian, do you know about the Malaysian government's micro-finance effort called Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM)? Unfortunately it is heavily biased as per the NEP policy: loans are open to only bumiputra.

An interesting off-shoot is micro-insurance. What is really interesting is the fact that it is not taking off rapidly in third-world countries.

Think about it: why would insurance fail in the third world country? Though the article from Time magazine says a lot about trusting another company and refusing to accept risk, I think it goes beyond that.

The culture in third-world country, specifically in areas of extreme poverty such as Sub-Saharan Africa, certain locations in South America and South Asia tend to have a very different culture from developed nations. There are a lot more direct inter-dependency, strong social bonds and trust among "real" people compared with the pronounced individualism and laissez-faire environment of the West. In such a culture, why would one depend on a faceless corporation when one can share the gains and losses directly with one's peer? Let's say if there is a house that is razed by fire, the community will spring into action to provide support to the affected families. From a risk management perspective, there is "built-in" risk mitigation in the social fabric.

Secondly, these countries has such a long history of an agrarian and/or livestock culture, and entrenched beliefs of "fate" or unmutable elements especially the weather. One is expecting them to embrace a whole different philosophy to accept the concept of insurance and avoiding catatrophe from natural risk factors.

As a result of the recent world economic recession, there is widespread believes that certain financial mechanism has distorted the risk/reward picture, instead of being the "oil" that transfers risks to the party best able to accept it. From an Asian perspective, I have always found the "insurance" concept to be antithetical to the local believes of social harmony above individual pursuits. As a result, insurance, especially life and medical insurance draws family members apart further when there is even less inter-dependence.

Almost there....

Its been ages since I have updated this blog. So here's some update.

Been busy with work, a bit out of balance and getting back on track. Major changes in the next year or so. The one thing I really enjoyed this weekend is all the house cleaning. Scrubbed the kitchen floor as well as the bathroom, only left the wet kitchen wall as well as the floor.

Finally cook my first meal in the Kota Kemuning house :) I intended to cook a week ago, bought all kinds of food item, but forgot to install the gas tank, which got ML laughing for a looooong time. Back to the meal, just a simple dinner with 3 vegetable dishes, had too much porridged, so opened a can of "Ma Ling" brand pork, just to finish up everything. There goes all the hard work in gym / cleaning up the house ^_*

Busy week ahead, hope to have some updates later in the week...

House of Lighting

My home desperately need good lighting. We've been hunting for lights last weekend, but could really find suitable lights which at the same time has value for money.

My ex-boss suggested House oF Lightings (yes, that is the exact spelling) at Puchong, since I have some time after lunch, went there to take a look. I was surrpised by the very low price and large selection available.

Here are some wooden and traditionally themed lights that appeals to my taste:

These are suitable for the staircase, but strong, energy-saving bulb is a must:

Look at the dirt cheap price tag! There are some simple chandeliers which cost well below RM 100

How about these for the main hall?

Water Consumption

Water is by all means the most important natural resources that we regularly use. Even though Malaysia is a country rich with natural sources of water, our careless usage, over-development and pollution is reducing these sources by a lot. So much so that some states such as Penang and Selangor need to import water from other states.

I subscribe to the National Wildlife Foundation newsletter, and recently they have an interesting Water Calculator. Check it out at http://www.nwf.org/water/waterCalculatorAction.cfm

While this is US-centric, do take a look at the efforts being done in the U.S. to conserve water.

Here is an interesting article about the role of water in the ecosystem and how it is interwined with wildlife.

There are a number of tips at http://www.nwf.org/water/waterconservation.cfm which is applicable everywhere, especially here in Malaysia:

Bathroom

• Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. In other words, don't use it for a garbage. Dispose of tissues, insects and other similar waste in the trash rather than the toilet.
• Test for a leaking toilet by adding food coloring to the tank (not the bowl). Without flushing, note if any color appears in the bowl after 30 minutes.
• Install a low-flow toilet. If you have a standard toilet, put a toilet dam in the tank. Do not use a brick which will disintegrate and clog your pipes.
• Use a low-flow showerhead.
• Don't let the water run when washing, brushing and shaving. Turn it on and off as needed.Get a small sand timer that lasts about 3 minutes and bring it in the shower. Most people can have a shower in six minutes.
• Repair dripping faucets or toilets, which use enormous amounts of water.

Kitchen

• Avoid washing dishes under a stream of water. Turn off the water in between dishes. Use only a full dishwasher and clothes washer.
• Save the water from steaming or boiling vegetables for houseplants, vegetable broth for soup or stir fry liquid.
• Wash food in a bowl or pot of water rather than in running water. This works especially well for herbs because you can swish them around and the dirt will come off their many surfaces. Let the herbs sit a minute and the dirt will sink to the bottom while the herbs float at the top.
• Do not use water to thaw meat. Use the microwave instead.

Outdoors

• Water your plantings with a soaker hose or a drip irrigation system. Less water evaporates this way than with a sprinkler, and you target your watering
• Use "wasted" water for your plants. A rain barrel or cistern that captures rainfall from your roof is a great garden reservoir. In some areas, gray water - water from bathing or washing clothes - can legally be diverted to garden use. Use water from your fish tank when you clean it in the garden because it contains great nutrients. Empty dehumidifiers in the garden.
• If you have a swimming pool, keep it covered when not in use.
• Sweep sidewalks with a broom, not a stream of water.
• Plant native plants that don't require extra watering.
• When washing your car, use a bucket and sponge rather than letting the hose run.
• Reduce the size of your lawn which is a water guzzler.
• Test to see if your garden needs watering by putting a screwdriver into the soil. If it goes in easily, you don't need to water.
• Weed your garden because weeds take the water away from your other plants.
• Check your water meter while no water is being used in your house. If it moves, you have a leak.

Hectic Times

I have not been posting to this blog as much as I would like. Its been a very hectic period. Just back from the Europe trip and I am up to my neck in both work and personal life.

Especially this 2 weeks when no one is at home, and I am baby-sitting the house. I cannot believe just how much of housework need to be done for a double-story house. Here's an overview of what happened in the last 24 hours:

• Left office at about 3.30 AM
• Went for my supper at Dengkil mamak
• Drove home, arrived at almost 5:00 AM
• Slept at around 5:45 AM
• Woke up at 10:45 AM, was raining, rushed to take in clothes
  
• Do laundry
• Brought brunch (wan tan noodles)
• Chinese medicine shop: bought packet of barley, packet of chrysanthemum flowers
• Sweep and mop house (only downstairs)
• Boil barley
• Clean up kitchen
• Wash table fan in room
• Soak and wash bathing towel
  
• Keep dried clothes
• Hang up newly washed clothes
• Check lights and set timer on

After that, went to nearby pasar malam to get some fruits. Then drove to PJ library to return books - 3 months late, cost me almost RM 30! That is because I left for Europe last minute on a weekday, did not manage to return books.

Work is another story altogether. Oh well, only 3 months+ worth of backlog, with recurrent total service outage.

Den Haag, Part I

Here's just a quick update on my life in Den Haag. I started out late, going out at almost 2 pm. Took a tram to Scheveningen. It is really beautiful, especially with the windy and cloudy weather. It was a very nice walk. Unfortunately, I am using a friend's computer, and it is getting late here in Holland, so I do not have the opportunity to describe more, and include photos. So do keep posted ;)

From far, I saw a gigantic windmill, and I was just so tempted to go up close. So I walked almost half a mile, yet the windmill was still inaccesible :( Apparently I had to take a long detour to get to it, and I gave up, since I have made an appointment to borrow a bike from Thomas.

Since I took a long detour, I was not in the same tram line that I got into. Unfortuantely, this tram does not go to Centraal Station! I met a kind couple who advise me on 2 options:

(a) Take this tram, and change to another line to get to Centraal Station
(b) Walk to the tram line that I came from

I opted for (b) because I needed to be in that tram line to get to Thomas' place. After walking some distance, I spotted a tram stop. There was a lady who was again very kind to explain to me that I am still on the same tram line, and it will take 1-2 kilometres to get to the tram line I was aiming for. Now how I walked that far away, I have no idea. Anyway, again the kindness of the Dutch people shone, and she offered to inform me where to get off and change the line.

While on the tram, I spotted Javastraat, which is the street perpendicular to the street that Thomas is living in. So happily I got off... and phoned Thomas to ask for precise directions. To my dismay, I got to know that Javastraat is a very looooong street!

I have to stop here now, so do keep posted for the second part of the adventure...

Den Haag

I will try to keep this post as short as possible, since it is now 2 pm on a Sunday, and I have not really toured Holland at all since coming here.

I arrived here late on Tuesday night, around midnight. Barely had enough rest and had to wake up early the next day to go for training, at my office's global headquarters - woo hoo!!

After 2 days of training, it is back to work at Leidschendam. I was already not feeling well on Friday. After having dinner with a couple of Malaysian friends, I still had to get some work done in the hotel. By the time I hit the sack, I was dead tired. Had to wake up early the next day, because I have to go to office for a change/migration. More like migraine-tion, because what is suppossed to be a few hours turned out to be a full day work. Ended up leaving office at 5.30. By that time I was feeling really haggard and totally knackered.

However, I had an appointment with my friend from Malaysia, who's already here for two and a half years. Very good to catch up with him again, especially someone who has given so much of valuable advice and done me so much good in my life's direction. By the time we had a coffee, it was already 10pm.

I was so tired and ill that I did not sleep properly. My joints are giving me pain, and I am in that situation where I wanted to sleep but cannot sleep. Probably fell asleep at 1am. But I kept waking up before sunrise, and remember once when I looked at the clock, it was 5:32 am and there was a bit of light. However, today's weather is bad. Raining since 3 am, and has been raining non-stop. Cloudy weather. Usually my favourite, but because of the flu, I would rather it being sunny and warm.

Anyway, off I go, and more updates later...

An Act of Kindness

I was driving back to Klang on Monday morning, and wanted to go to the Pandamaran morning market to buy my favourite breakfast dish: chee chong fan.

Since it is on the way, I topped up my fuel tank at the Shell station, just after the Persiaran Raja Muda Musa (Port Klang road) / Taman Chi Liung / Taman Gembira interchange. After that, I drove out to Persiaran Raja Muda Musa and suddenly heard a loud honk from a motorbike. At first I thought it is another obstinate motorcyclist, and his look did not help too: a bit shabby and not too friendly. Anyway, he pointed to the rear of my car, and I realized that the fuel cover was open.

That was a kind act right?

It did not stop there, he even took the risk and rode close to my car, and then gently closed the cover for me!

I never expect such kind gesture in these days where people in general are selfish and think how to get ahead of others. Mr motorcyclist, thank you very much, and hope you can continue to be so helpful and gracious.

Bad service from uMobile

I am currently giving uMobile wireless broadband a try, and I was quite disappointed with the overall service and package. uMobile is not officially launched yet, and they are giving some special promotions.

You can read the FAQ for the mobile wireless (HSDPA) service here. The gist of it:

• RM 78 per month
• "Unlimited" internet access, but capped at 5 Gbps
• Contract for 24 months
• ZT MF622 modem included
• Only data service, no voice/video

Coverage
The coverage in the Klang Valley is not too bad. I only tested it out in areas where I frequently haunt:

Seri Kembangan - no connectivity at McDonalds Seri Kembangan
Sri Serdang (UPM) - decent connectivity
Cyberjaya - none at all after the Putrjaya LDP toll
Klang - Connecction is OK at Teluk Gadung & Pandamaran
Subang Jaya - Connection is OK
Shah Alam - Connection is OK
Kota Kemuning - Connection is OK


I have not really explored the other areas, but I believe the coverage map should be pretty accurate.


Reliability
Reliability is of utmost importance, because I plan to use this service for work purposes. I do not mind if the speed is slow, as long as I can be reliable connected to my office's Virtual Private Network.

Unfortunately, reliability for uMobile falls short. For web browsing, etc it works fine, but if you need to be constantly connected with some minimum upstream/downstream bandwidth, uMobile's service simply cannot sustain it. I got disconnected from office a number of times within 2 hours. Note that this is not limited to only 1 location, but applies to all locations.

However, if what you need is just simple web access, or if your corporate web application does not require constant connection, then it is bearable.

Platform
Platform support is very important, specifically Linux support. This is because I work with Linux all the time, and even my laptop has Linux on it. I only use Windows when I really need to, because it does not give me the level of productivity that Linux allows.

Unfortunately, the ZTE MF622 modem does not come with Linux support. There is only an installer for Windows and MacOS. To make matters worse, the device uses "dual function" USB; it is first mounted as a storage device, and later turn into a wireless connectivity device.

While there are a few proposed solutions ufsoft, lowyat.net and my question here they do not work for me.

So its a no-go if you are using anything other than Windows and MacOS. What a shame.



Speed
Speed is a big disappointment. I have only achieved maximum download speed of 6 Kbps. The uMobile application shows the speed in kbps (kilobit) instead of KBps (kilobyte). Even then, I do not think it is accurate. Perhaps there is too much of "burst" activity.

That said, I sometimes need to download documents, my important files and occasionally install Skype and other connectivity software, and the slow download speed simply makes life impossible for me.


Service

This is the worst among all! If they do not buck up, I do not see how they can gain much market share from Maxis, DiGi and Celcom.

I signed up for the package at PC Fair last Sunday evening and was told that the line will be activated within 24 hours. Fine, I thought why don't I give it a test the next morning, and drove to Damansara Heights. No connectivity. Made a phone call to the service center, and was told that my subscriber information is not in the database yet. Now that is a real surprise.

Maybe I should try on Tuesday morning, when it is definitely more than 24 hours. It was still not working by Tuesday morning :( So I gave them a call and the conversation went this way:

Hanxue: Can I know why I cannot get connected to the Internet yet?

Customer Service Agent (CSA) : Hang on, let me check. I am sorry sir, your line is not activated yet.

Hanxue: What?? But I paid for the service on Sunday, and was told it will be activated by Monday.

CSA: I am sorry sir, but I am afraid you have to wait.

Hanxue: Fine. When can I get it activated? Can you please give me a call when it is activated?

CSA: You just have to keep trying, sir. I am sorry sir, our policy says we will not call to get activated.

Hanxue: But how in the world can I know it is activated? I cannot go around driving in the Klang Valley and hope it is working already.

CSA: All right, I will ask someone to call you.


Nobody called me. I did not bother to wait, and only gave it a try on early Thursday morning (Wednesday midnight) and it was working by then.



There is another drama when I wanted to return the set. I had to go all the way to their Service Center at Berjaya Times Square. Not a place to go on a Saturday evening especially if you are rushing to go to a concert.

Anyway, I brought the whole package to them. There is a long form that I had to fill in, even when they already have my details! Also, I was made to wait for a long time.

Finally, the agent was filling in another paper form (tell me about it, a company offering wireless broadband access uses so many paper forms) and told me to hand in my Identity Card. So happened I left my wallet in the car. She refused to process it further, even though I suggested to terminate the account, and hold on to my RM 50 until I produce my Identity Card at a later date.

The supervisor came and spoke to us, and said there is no way to proceed. I traveled all the way from Klang to Kuala Lumpur, and they have an option to keep my deposit but at least get back their hardware. Yet they refuse.


If you are looking for a wireless broadband service in Malaysia, forget uMobile. They will disappoint you.


Reminds me of the other products / services by Berjaya Group, such as the Berjaya Hotel in Times Square. Looks beautiful on the outside, but once you look at the details and experience the service, you will regret going for it.

Food is so expensive!

I went out and got 2 pieces of putu mayam for breakfast. Guess how much it costed me? RM 1.20! That means 60 cents per piece.

I suspect there is a cartel for putu mayam in Klang. In other places, including KL, put mayam cost for much less, i.e. between 40 cents to 50 cents. Anyone has additional information?


On a side note, I had a small family dinner yesterday night - rushed home from office and was a good break from work. I was dog-tired though, did not manage to stay awake for a webinar (web seminar) at 2 am. I need to recall the name of the restaurant again; it is behind the old Ocean in Klang. Superb dzhi hun kern ;) A bit pricey since it is a "standard" Chinese restaurant: 2 noodle dishes, a vegetable and fried oyster set me back by RM 60.00, for 5 persons. Mind you, all 5 of us are not big eaters... well, maybe except one.

After dinner, I took my mom to have supper at a Pandamaran stall, famous for its leng chi kang. I myself got some ground nut soup; don't want anything cold to exacerbate my cough.

Since I do not have any photos of the food, let me make up with a few views from my room, and kitchen later. I cannot upload the images from home :(