ReNe: rice run

I usually don't pay close attention to the price of rice, but it's hard to avoid picking up snippets in the news: there is a rice shortage (in Asia) and therefore prices of rice are going up. I idly mentioned it in passing to an Indian colleague today and he nodded. "Yeah, price of basmati rice has gone up about 50%."

Damn. And we had just run out of rice.

Thus, slightly apprehensive, we went out after dinner to buy rice at our favorite Korean supermarket. Turned out, the price of rice is still the same -- the brand of Japanese rice we usually buy costs about $3.40/kg. Then again, the 'Japanese' rice we buy is actually from the US, not Asia.

So, is the price of rice going up? And, is there really a world shortage? Mike is of the opinion that it's all speculation and rampant capitalism, while I thought it's a combination of a rice shortage and consumer panic.

---

Since the 31st of March 2008, India, the world's second largest rice producer, has already imposed a ban on non-basmati rice exports to ensure the country had enough rice to feed its own population, which number over a billion. The price for exports of basmati rice has also been raised to USD1200 per ton, up from USD650 per ton at the beginning of March. Other countries that have banned the export of rice this year include Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, India and China. Given that these countries are among the biggest producers of rice in the world -- Thailand and Vietnam alone account for half of the world's exports -- does this mean there is a severe rice shortage?

This may not be the case. Thailand, the world's largest rice producer, not only has sufficient rice but has recently begun to release its stockpile of rice, temporarily pushing down the prices of rice.

(As an aside: after that particular piece of news this week, the price of Thai rice fell by 1000 baht to 25,000 baht (USD791) a ton. In contrast, farmers get paid about 7000 baht a ton, and their fixed cost is 5000 baht a ton. Their work is certainly more back-breaking than the middle-man. Sounds terribly unfair, isn't it?)

However, it was not as if prices of rice, and associated tensions, have suddenly erupted in the past couple of months. Wholesale prices of rice in Canada have more than doubled during the past year. India's government has initially imposed a ban on non-basmati rice exports last October but lifted it following protests from exporters. India reintroduced the ban again this year as inflation hit a 14-month high.

All these rising prices -- Asian rice prices have almost trebled this year -- have hit the countries who can least afford it the hardest; countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. More affluent countries like South Korean, Singapore and Japan are better able to afford the increase in prices, though they still feel the pinch.

Why have the prices of rice increased so dramatically? In short:
1/ Export curbs by countries such as India, Egypt, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia.
2/ Stockpiling by countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines and Costa Rica, to meet domestic shortfalls, which were due to various reasons such as crop losses. Singapore, being kiasu, said that it would "allow rice importers to bring in more stock to meet increased demand amid consumer fears of a rice supply crunch and higher prices".
3/ Falling world inventories, which have dropped by nearly 50% since 2000/01.
4/ Speculative buying; financial speculators looking for the next big commodity play have increased prices by about 80% this year. Hoarding by consumers has also fed the rise by spurring importers to seek supplies sooner.
5/ Less crops, less land and fewer farmers. Land normally set aside for crops are being taken over by industrialization and urban development; in China for instance, the land used for growing rice fell from 37 million hectares in 1976 to 31 million hectares in 1996. Current farmers are getting older and younger people don't want to be farmers; for example, the number of rice farmers in Korea fell by two-thirds between 1965 and 1995.
6/ Growing demand; global consumption of rice has risen by 2.7% over the past five years.
(BBC has a nice pictorial summary of rising food prices, including rice, here.)

Knowing all these, should we buy more rice, i.e. hoard? After all, there are only three scenarios: (1) hoard, because the price IS going up, regardless of a real or perceived shortage; (2) ignore and behave as usual, absorb the price increase because it won't bankrupt us; or (3) eat less rice. The last option might not work because prices of staples everywhere is increasing; the increase in wheat prices over the past year is higher than the increase in rice prices. Bread prices in Canada have risen about 50% over the past month -- it might actually be cheaper to buy and eat more rice!

MiKE: Spoke too soon.

Looks like I spoke too soon. Soon after she saw my post, she insisted on snapping one too. So, this is how I look now.

MiKE: She looks like this now.

For some of you who have probably been wondering, this is how she looks, post hair cut. Part of the privileges of being the guy behind the camera is that I don't get to be in front of it. :)

ReNe: spring flowers

Though I like plants, I'm not a botanist. I like to look and enjoy but not to name. Still, I've just noticed something really interesting about spring.

With the warming temperatures, the green is coming back. No surprise there. What is a surprise is that, for some species of trees and bushes, it is the flowers that come up first, before the leaves. Maybe this is very common knowledge for people who've grown up in at the temperate latitudes, but since I came from a tropical country, I've always seen plants with leaves on them -- a leafless plant is a dead plant -- and I've always thought that the leaves come first (the plant has to make food after all) and the flowers are seasonal. In the tropics, after a hot stretch, a heavy downpour would then render the air heavy and lush with a floral perfume; I think it's either the raintree or angsana. That was my experience of the flower blooming season.

Therefore, flowers blooming in spring was, to me, has no physical sense. (Spring, to me, was also an intellectual concept till now.) That's the first point. The second point was, I certainly was not expecting the flowers before the leaves. The past week, I've noticed bushes and trees that were literally covered in flowers, which bloom in a matter of days. A few days later, the leaves started to appear. But not all species do this, only some.

The photo really should have been taken a couple of days earlier, but even here, it's obvious that the flowers are in full bloom while the leaves are only starting to unfurl.

A couple of other things I noticed about spring include the wildly fluctuating temperatures and the sunshine. Last week I wrote about how we seem to have skipped past the single digit temperatures and hurtled right into summer-like temperatures; looks like I spoke too soon. This week, the temperatures dropped back into the single digits. Coupled with the winds -- have I mentioned how windy Toronto is? -- it's freezing. And talking about the sunshine; the transition from winter to spring seem to involve a sunlight switch. Suddenly, it was as if the sunlight was switched on. Very strange.

ReNe: apartment search

For the past few months, we knew that we would be moving out of our current room once the lease is up, and we were quite eagerly anticipating it. There's (always) something just not quite perfect with the current room and so, the promise of a better apartment beckons.

The reality, however, is not so rosy.

Our lease runs out end May and we've been looking at a few places. I guess, irritatingly, we cannot find all that we wanted. Again that cliché holds true: cheap, good (furnishings) and convenient (location) -- choose any two.

What follows is a rambling monologue of our search attempts.

1/ We first tried a house near downtown Toronto. It was central and priced reasonably, but it was creakingly old. Nah.

2/ Next, we checked out a couple of properties along Spadina Road, a few blocks north of where we're staying. The rentals there are a bit cheaper, and the area looks quiet. However, we looked at two buildings (70 and 66 Spadina) and they were cheap, just not in the monetary sense. The buildings were quite run-down, though we thought we could live with that. However, what decided it for us was the online reviews, which unanimously said those places sucked.

3/ Then we tried the building immediately to our south (666 Spadina). It was perfect, it had everything we wanted and a bit more... except for the price. That was also a bit more than what we felt comfortable paying.

4/ Last week, a seemingly golden opportunity came up. One of our biggest grouses with our north-facing unit is that it faces a tall office block; we felt like we were in a fish-tank. That particular building is made up of four office floors, which are right in our face, and a narrower residential block. Then our property manager told us that a south-facing unit on the 5th floor in our building was available. It was slightly more expensive but still reasonable, overlooks the low building south of this apartment and it had been fully renovated. In fact, it looked really good. It was perfect and very convenient for us, and we told the manager that we would like it, only without the furnishings (which cost $400 more each month!)... then the building owner changed her mind, saying that she wanted to keep that unit furnished. It was a perfectly reasonable business decision on her part, but we were quite pissed nonetheless.

5/ The next day, our property manager told us of another unit in our current building that should be available come July, a north-facing 7th floor unit. We went up, took a look and were not so impressed this time round. That unit still faced the tall building, though now it only faces the residential block, which is further away. Somewhat acceptable. However, while the toilet is renovated (ours isn't), the kitchen sucks (ours is renovated). Overall, not a big improvement over our current unit. We filed it away as a last resort.

By this time, we were getting a little stressed and frustrated. Trouble is, our current location (a part of town called the Annex) is hugely popular and quite expensive. It's fairly close to downtown, Chinatown and Koreatown. Bloor Street is akin to Holland Village in Singapore, only longer and with more shops; it's extremely bustling and I love shopping there.

The end of month looms and our search intensity went up a notch. We thought we shouldn't discount places that are a little further away; for example, east of Yonge, there are some cheap places that are about equidistant to downtown. We walked down last weekend, and while the place is all right, fairly quiet, there aren't as many amenities (grocers, etc.). We tried to muster enthusiasm but the thought of traveling halfway across town to use the gym (our gym is just one block down from our current apartment) or having to move our stuff just depressed us. Online reviews were generally bad, and most people tell us that those areas are rather unsavory.

We were seriously considering just moving to that 7th floor unit.

Today, I called another property I saw on Craigslist -- a house; location looks good and rent is cheap, so we'd go down tomorrow to view. Mike called the office-cum-residential block that faces us (720 Spadina), and amazingly, they had a unit available. We just went to take a look and Mike loved it. Me, the only problem I have with it is the carpeting because I would much rather have a hardwood floor. We're also apprehensive about the negative online reviews, which include a roach problem. Well, we'll take a look at that house tomorrow and then decide between the two. The end of the month is coming up and we will have to inform the property manager soon of our intention to move.

By this time tomorrow, we should have decided either way.

And then we only have to move.

MiKE: ultra cute cat

We like cats. Speaking for myself, I like their sensual, independent nature; their ability to convince you to do things for them, and the way they reward you by letting us stroke them, again, for their pleasure. Walking home on Saturday, we came across one cat on the pavement leading up to a house, again on Sussex avenue. Usually, cats can be very wary of strangers, and would normally keep its distance, especially the ones that are not tame. This cat however, was very friendly and as soon as it noticed me coming close to take a photo of it, it sauntered forward, and in the way the cats always do, walked off to one side, pretending to walk out of the way which was blocked by me, but in the process rubbing the side closer to me against my pant legs. It obviously wanted some stroking. After some time, it settled down in front of me, sort of noticed the camera, and started to pose for it, almost like it knew what it was doing. And in characteristic prima-donna style, it got bored, turned over on its back, yawned, got up to another pose, then got bored and walked away. I dunno. Perhaps he was expecting some flash lights?

I love cats.

ReNe: haircuts

Today was relaxed and quiet. Woke up late, had a late breakfast and then a late lunch, went for a haircut and then a cycle (yeah, I bought a bike a while back, more about that in another post).

How boring is that?

The haircut was vaguely significant I guess. It's our first haircut in Toronto, both mine and Mike's. We had a 'last haircut' late July last year, just before we left Singapore, thinking we want to try growing our hair long. Since long hair on males is terribly frowned upon in Singapore. Since then, his hair grew a disappointing 3-5 inches, and he didn't look all that good with long hair.


In contrast, mine grew and grew. I had a trim in St Louis last November, when I couldn't take it anymore, and it was all right for a while. My hair eventually reached just below my shoulder blades. Then about last week, I got irritated with it again, because my hair is not just long, it's thick and a little dry. There would be hair everywhere -- "I am on your floor, messing it up; I am in your drain, clogging it up" and hair would get caught when I turn over at night. Have I said it started to feel really thick and heavy?

We were starting to look like hippies.

You know that odd phenomenon where, all of a sudden, you feel this intense urge to lop everything off? Hair that is. And you make plans to go to the salon the next day, first thing after finishing breakfast. But when next day arrives, you start to drag your feet a little. You think, wow, it's a major decision... it's a lot of hair. You measure it, with a free IKEA paper tape measure, and it's about ten inches from the shoulder. That's ...a lot of hair. You lift up the mass in your hands, admire the glossy tail in the mirror...

But eventually, we cut it, in a salon in K-town (we figured that a Korean salon would know better how to handle Asian hair, and would also be cheaper). Mike's hairdresser was a silent guy, cute in a full-lipped and heavy-banged way. Mine was like a Japanese photo-sticker machine, the kind that goes "NEOPRINT!" Loud, pink and genki.

The salon was on the second floor, and as we made our way up the stairs, she leaned out of the door jam, saw us and beamed.

"HELLO!"

The oh's reverberated through the stairwell.

I created quite a sizable mess on the floor. Overall, the haircuts were ok. Not terribly stylish but then they were also very cheap ($40 for the two of us). Sorry, no pictures of our new haircuts today.

ReNe: transport strike

We didn't notice it at first because there were cleaning works going on in the garage downstairs (right under our window on a Saturday morning!), but the streetcars were not running.

It turned out that the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) went on strike last night, Saturday 12am. A bit of background here: The union has been in a legal strike position since April 1 but had promised 48 hours' notice of a service withdrawal. Last Monday, the TTC were supposed to go on strike but a last minute deal was reached between the union and the provincial government, and services ran as normal on Monday. Therefore, this was a rather dramatic surprise. There was no advance notice; the talks broke down around 10pm last night when the last vote was cast and the only warning was a public service announcement at 11:30pm before the strike started at midnight. Commuters were literally left high and dry, as normal services usually ran till 2am. News of the strike were all over the local newspapers, of course.

We were not too affected as we don't usually take public transport. We thought it'd be quiet because of the lack of clanking and rattling, but the very noisy cleaning works downstairs continued for the better part of the day.

To be frank, we were a little excited and bemused because strikes don't happen in Singapore. A lot of things don't happen in Singapore -- natural disasters, seasons, strikes -- so one tends to build up an overly high expectation. The actual event is generally a lot less dramatic. Of course the fact that we were not affected helps keeps this experience exciting and not irritating. Will a deal be reached by Monday morning? Do we want to see the strike extended into next week? To be really, really honest?

*sniggers*

Well, tongue-in-cheek of course. There are a lot of people badly affected by the strike and those are the people who can least afford it.

Nothing like a little bit of drama to go with your morning news.

ReNe: attention span of a fly

I've noticed that the older I get, the shorter my attention span becomes. Shouldn't it be the reverse?

When I was a child, I could spend all day reading a book, cover to cover. When that book was done, I'd move on to another book. I'd build a Lego house and I won't stop until I had completed the house. Life was simple and I did not have many things to do. I had great focus, laser-like focus.

Now, I'd read half an article, think about something else, check a website on that something else, and that will link me up to three other articles. I have the attention span of a mayfly; there for 42 seconds and then it's dead. I blame it on tabbed browsing. I also blame it on being an adult.

As an adult, I now have a lot more things to do, many more responsibilities, one of which is myself. When I was a kid, someone would ensure that I get fed; now I have to work to earn money for my food, then I have to buy my food, prepare my food, clean up... and the cycle repeats, often even before I have time to clear the dishes. At any one time, I'll have multiple demands for my attention: fun stuff on my computer, a new anime episode I just downloaded, an article I have to write, three other articles to finish reading, a blog to update, emails to friends I should write, a hugely disorganized photo folder to organize, an e-book to finish, a paperback to finish as well, dishes to do, toenails to clip, bills to file away... Oh look, it's 3am in the morning, I've to sleep as well.

But it's not all that bad. As an adult, I have a lot more freedom and autonomy now. I can do anything that catches my fancy and (often) be able to buy the equipment that facilitates that fancy. This means I've more fancys now, each all grabbing for my increasingly limited attention. So I guess, in a roundabout way, it's not so bad that I now have the focus of a gnat.

ReNe: it's tough to be a green cyborg

Although the internet seems as airy as a butterfly when it comes to environmental footprints, there's actually a lot of hidden cost behind computers.

First, there is the environment cost in the manufacture of a PC, which apparently requires ten times the weight of the product in chemical and fossil fuels, and uses heavy toxic metals such as lead, arsenic, antimony, cadmium, chromium, and so on.

Next, if we look at the running costs (electricity costs) alone, it's can be quite staggering.

According to surveys conducted by the market research firm IDC, between 2000 and 2005, the power consumption of network computers doubled worldwide.
--snip--
Depending on the initial data, one Google search consumes enough electricity to run an 11-watt, energy-saving lightbulb for 15 minutes to an hour. [news article]

However, on the flip side, there are also a lot of environmental savings that could be had with computers. For example, online newspapers, magazines, articles, movies, music -- moving these from physical objects to digital data is environmentally friendly. I haven't subscribed to newspapers in almost ten years, and now that I read more news than before and from all over, if I had to buy each paper I read, I'd be very much poorer. I haven't bought a CD in years, and in the past year, I've only bought one book; many books can now be found online. No more bulky photo albums and envelopes of negatives that would degrade in years. Although I don't watch TV, I'm sure you can watch TV with your computer, thus saving one more appliance. At work, one can theoretically save a lot of paper by keeping all the bookkeeping digital, using powerpoint instead of transparencies, using emails instead of paper notices, etc.

I would like to be more environmentally friendly but I'm not going to turn all pastoral. Like I've said before, I'm a cyborg and I need my computer and internet. Ah, hard choices. I'd continue to use my computer but I'd pay more attention to reducing electricity wastage.

Some ways to reduce the power draw of the PCs if you have leave them on all the time (though not all apply to laptops):

• Configure the hard drives to sleep on inactivity.
• Do the same for the monitor. In fact, don't use an active screensaver, aka CPU-eaters. Have it blank out.
  
• In fact, switch your monitor to a LCD. A LCD typically draws less than half the power of a CRT.
• Configure your system preferences to run on energy-saving modes.
  
• Disconnect peripherals that are not in use, e.g. portable hard drives, CD-ROMS.
• Shut down when not in use. This is very hard for me; my computer's up-time tend to be measured in weeks, though it does go to sleep.
  
• Don't use a high-end video card. Unless you really must. After the CPU, the video card is by far the biggest power consumer in a typical PC.
• Upgrade to a more efficient power supply. (I didn't know this until I was googling around for tips.) Apparently, a certain percentage of the input power to your PC is lost as waste during the conversion from wall power to something the PC can use. At typical power loads (~90w), the average power supply efficiency is a disappointing 65%. So check your power supply efficiency.
  

ReNe: does anyone ever think that the term 'gas' is simply odd?

The price of oil just keeps going up.

By the way, does anyone ever think that the term 'gas' is simply odd? If gasoline is gas, then what's natural gas? Here's an example where the use of 'gas' becomes awkward: Gas liquids, while valuable hydrocarbons, are not a viable substitute for oil and cannot be economically used as a feedstock for gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. The term 'gas liquids' obviously refers to the oil fractions that's distilled from crude oil during the refinement process, but to someone who's not familiar with the American names, 'gas liquid' just sounds like a contradiction.

The other irritating thing to hearing about all these complaints about oil is that, if you say 'petrol here in North America, most people will stare blankly. I was educated in British English, but I also know the common American English terms; I just wish the North Americans can do the same. I, and probably most other people not from North America, can use metric and imperial, spell in both British and American, understand if you say 'dah-tah' or 'day-tah'.... why can't the North Americans?

Anyway, back to oil prices going up. (And I agree with those who say that world oil production has peaked, so oil prices would only get higher from now on.) So what does it probably mean, for the average consumer? The top three things that pop immediately to my mind are:

(1) The costs of many things around the globe are going up, most notably food prices, and I do think a large part of the rising costs are due to the increasing price of oil, even if there are other factors involved. I think it's likely the 'world will become larger', in the sense that, while it may be cheap and feasible for one to buy 200-mile lettuce or other products that have traveled halfway across the world, this may not remain the case for long and we might see a shift towards to the buying of more local products. Not that I think we will return to a more provincial time, especially since we've opened the 'internet' box, but that on some levels, we can't enjoy all the conveniences globalization once promised because cheap transport of goods and services will not be so cheap anymore.

(2) Driving will probably get very much more expensive. If I was still riding my motorbike, it would cost me CAD19.84 to fill it up now (at CAD1.24 a litre, gas is really much cheaper in North America; it was about SGD1.90 last July, anyone can tell me what's the average price now?) and an estimated CAD36 in four years. This means, very probably, no more big bikes for us. No Ducatis, no petrol-guzzling huge bikes, no revving down a highway at 10,000 rpm. No fun.

(3) Telecommuting and working from home would probably be the way to go. I've been saying that for years but that's because I'm lazy. Now, I can throw in the practical and environmental angle as well: "It's not that I don't want to get dressed in a penguin suit and commute to work, but we should all be more environmentally friendly."

ReNe: what if there was no internet?

Reading about stuff like peak oil and global warming and other possibly apocalyptic events... not terribly scary. So what's really terrifying?

The other day, a colleague idly asked, "What would you do if there was no internet?"

"Die," I said, only half-jokingly.

Seriously. When I think about how central the computer and the internet is to my life, it's mind-boggling. I'm logged on at least 7 hours a day at work, and at least another 4 hours at home. That probably qualifies as 'addicted' by some thresholds. For example, a study defines internet addicts as those who spend over 11 hours A WEEK on the internet.

What stone-age are they living in?? Eleven hours a week? I can easily spend 11 hours a day, many days in a row, on the internet. And I'm paid to do so for at least seven of those hours. Looking closely, the study was published in the... May 1998 issue of Professional Psychology. No wonder, I thought, and rolled my eyes.

We're all cyborgs. When we take into account the aspects of our lives that are dependent, not only on the internet but on artificial support systems in general, we are all cyborgs. Sci-fi writers such as Arthur C. Clarke often envisioned a space travel-centric future, fifty years ago, but I think the future will be much, much closer to that imagined by Ghost in the Shell.

And since we are all cyborgs, it is possible we would probably drop dead, or at least wander around aimlessly and drool like zombies, if there was no internet.

Southpark did a brilliant episode on this issue, and simultaneously slipping in the issue of peak oil, titled 'Overlogging'.

ReNe: earth day

Today is Earth Day.

Apparently, it's been around for a long time (38 years), but before I moved to Toronto, I didn't know that. Somehow I'm not surprised; Singapore may pride itself as the 'Garden City' but it isn't terribly environmentally aware. Myself, I'm learning, and I would like to make a difference. Of course, it is very heartening to be more environmentally conscious when I'm living in a place that encourages habits such as recycling. For people who wonder why they should bother with all this environmental action/sacrifice when it feels like throwing starfish back into the sea, Michael Pollan wrote a very good article.

What follows are some random, possibly incoherent thoughts from some of the stuff I read today.

A bit of practical advice: given that organic food is usually more expensive, and coupled with the recent increases in food prices, it's helpful to strategize food expenses. A study of 43 fruits and vegetables found that some of the produce that contains the highest amounts of pesticides (either they retain a lot naturally or they require more during growing) include peaches, apples, bell peppers and celery, while the bottom of the list include produce such as onions, avocado and mango.

On another note, I'm much more pleased with my efforts to mix my own soap. The switch from castile soap to another brand (Au Naturel) was good; the soap now feels much better. A good ratio is equal amounts of soap and glycerin; it's not too drying or heavy. Plus, it smells much better now. The trick is to include a citrus top-note as well, even though the idea of adding a fresh citrusy scent to heavier oils such as lavender or ylang ylang or sandalwood seems very strange. I am now moving onto shampoo recipes; one organic toiletry project at a time, hurrah.

While it is good to see more companies 'greening', sometimes I'm dubious. Sometimes, it just seems as if green is the new hip, but while people think they're doing something for the Earth by buying organic stuff, it all just the same song and dance because people are still as consumeristic as ever and nothing fundamental has really changed.

And a more sobering, fact from today's Star article: even though Canada ractified the Kyoto Protocol, its greenhouse gas emissions has actually increased 25% from 1990 to 2005. Moreoever, Canadians still rank as some of the highest producers of greenhouse gases; while Canada has about 0.5% of the world's population, it contributes about 2% of total global emissions. Each Canadian produces about 23 tonnes of emissions in 2005, comparable to the average of 24.4 tonnes in the US and 27.7 in Australia. These figures are all almost double other industrialized countries such as Germany, the UK, France and Japan. If Canada wishes to achieve the planned 20% reduction in emissions from 2006 levels by 2020, they've quite a way to go.

Lastly, calculating carbon footprint. Using this site and doing a very, very rough calculations, we apparently have a decent footprint right now because we have no vehicle and we walk or cycle almost everywhere (about 3.3 tonnes; average Canadian 20 tonnes, average industrialized nation person 11 tonnes, global average 4 tonnes). But if I reset it to our habits in Singapore, and once I factor in our motorbikes (and the fact that we had quite a lot of mileage on them), it jumps to 5.4 tonnes.

ReNe: horton hears a who

Maybe it's been a long, long time since I've read a Dr Seuss book, but somehow this movie didn't seem to give me the impression that it was based on a Dr Seuss book.

To me, a Dr Seuss story is characterized by a lyrical and pithy storytelling style. The words are usually sparse, but accompanied by the beautiful illustrations, the characters lanky and stark, the universe of Dr Seuss is one that is very fantastical and unique. In the movie, I was bitterly disappointed until Whoville was introduced, but still, in my opinion, the entire movie just fell a little flat. Sure, the animation was gorgeous (what animation these days isn't?), but well, the story's fairly insipid. And the real Dr Seuss, to me, is not about full-color and Disneyesque animation; it's reds and blues and blacks and whites and little else, and stretched, scraggly characters.

Maybe if the movie had focused more on Whoville than the jungle of Nool... maybe if they didn't bother with that 'let's all forgive and forget' scene at the end... maybe if the animation actually followed the outlandish illustration style of the Dr Seuss books...

Images taken from Dr Seuss Illustration Art.

ReNe: existenzminimum and capsule living

Since my last post about the issue of storage and living space, it got me thinking more about the issue of minimal living space and minimalism and pod living. Or, more specifically, the Bauhaus idea of the existenzminimum -- the basic minimum living space required by humans, or subsistence dwellings.

Existenzminimum was first conceptualized in Germany, partly to address Germany's postwar housing shortage, and partly as one of the results of an architectural movement called the New Objectivity (German Neue Sachlichkeit) that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. New Objectivity was a movement, which encompassed art and music as well, that arose in Germany as a reaction to (mostly as a rejection of) Romanticism and expressionism, thus resulting in a more straightforward and functional approach to building construction.

In the 1960s, the Japanese expanded upon that concept of minimal living space, and as often is the case when the Japanese adopt an idea, they didn't merely run with it, they taxied down the runway and took off with it. The result was the ingenious and controversial 'capsule living', or 'cockpit living'. When we think capsules now, it is usually the image of a capsule hotel that we first think of, but actually, the concept of capsule living was first proposed in the 60s and capsule hotels came later.

(I was utterly fascinated by capsule hotels when I first came across the concept; I saw it in a television show when I was much younger in fact, and I thought it was brilliant and fun. On my first trip to Japan, I just had to stay in one. It was a lot harder than I thought to find a capsule hotel, mostly because most are catered for the males, and because they were surprisingly expensive. I suppose I should write about that someday.)

It wasn't only the Japanese and Germans who were fascinated with the idea of a compact and pared-down living environment, for example, there are the WeeHouse (from the US, the land of suburbia, I found that pretty funny) and the Paris cube (France, obviously), to name just two. Wallpaper has a nice article. However, if I'm not mistaken, the Japanese capsules are the smallest (the Paris cube measures 3.6m x 3.6m), and unlike many other places, a large number of Tokyoites do live in, if not exactly a capsule, a miniscule space.

Just how small is small? The Nagakin Capsule Tower (中銀カプセルタワー, Nakagin Kapuseru Tawā), the world's first capsule architecture meant for actual use, was designed by Kisho Kurokawa and built in 1972 in the upmarket Ginza district of Tokyo. Composed of individual capsules of dimensions 2.3m x 3.8m x 2.1m, each prefabricated module contains, among other amenities, one circular window, a built-in bed and a bathroom unit. Most of its residents, however, did not really enjoy pod living and wanted out. Today, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is in a rather bad condition; the capsules are mostly rented out as mini-offices instead, and there have been calls to tear it down. Still, it was an interesting experiment. Photos.


Given those dimensions (2.3m x 3.8m x 2.1m), our current bachelor doesn't seem as small. I think, very approximately, it is 4.5m x 6m? I think most of the grouses by the residents of that Nagakin Capsule Tower, however, is not so much that the apartments are too tiny but that the units are poorly maintained. The prefab units were actually designed to be unclipped and replaced for regular maintenance, but that never happened. Personally, that is also my complaint with our current room. The actual space is ok, but the layout and furnishings could be better.

In the first place, why live in a small space, capsule living aside? A compelling reason is for environmental reasons. Suburbia is incredibly resource-wasteful. Not only that, I think there's something off with society's constant want to keep 'upgrading' to a bigger house; in some cases, for example with additions to the family, that would be necessary, but sometimes, a large opulent house is merely another expression of wealth and success. I think small can be beautiful, and that with a bit of design and planning, small living spaces can be very comfortable.


The trouble is, the reality of most small living units is that it is the poor who stays in them, and hence, it is not only the 'space' that is lacking but the amenities as well. Run-down buildings, cheap furnishings, poorly designed and generally undesirable. Well-appointed dwellings tend to be much more spacious, which leads to the thinking that 'good' living has to be 'spacious', but surely this need not be the case? The WeeHouse and similar projects showed that it is possible to living in a small but gorgeous space. (I only wish it wasn't so expensive and exclusive.) This blog article has nice photos of smart looking living capsules as well. Certainly, I hope to see more examples of existenzminimum.

ReNe: about packing

It seems as if, to compensate for the longer-than-usual winter, we're skittering over spring, almost rushing headlong into summer. Temperatures yesterday were in the teens, hitting a high of 24C, and I was walking around in a short-sleeved T-shirt; about a month ago, the temperature was still 0C. Right now, the temperature is 15C.

Anyway, it was time to wash and pack the winter jackets and cold weather gear. I think we might need more storage boxes; winter clothing is really bulky. We have three long, skinny boxes that fit under the bed and I could keep all our summer stuff, light jackets, even a spare pillow in those boxes. Now, our winter jackets take up one box each. Worried about the down fill compressing, we packed the jackets lightly lengthwise in the box, sleeves folded over like vampires in a coffin.

Speaking of storage, we're currently looking for a new place. Not because of storage really, but with our tight budget, we're constantly on the lookout for 'cheap', 'good' and 'conveniently located' rentals. I know one usually chooses two out of three but I still maintain some hope.

And now that our lease will be up soon, we're listing out all the attributes that we want. First we had to decide if we want to stay in a bachelor or move 'up' to a one-bedroom. Mike would like more space but I think it's all a matter of better packing and better organization. Surprisingly enough, I really like living in a bachelor. It's cheap, cozy and very easy to keep clean. The money saved by not renting a one-bedroom can probably be put to better use. Storage, of course, is quite a challenge but I find that fun, in a way. And while our current living space is cramped by North American standards, it's not so bad compared to some Singaporean flats and even spacious relative to many places in Asia; for example, Kyoichi Tsuzuki's iconic Tokyo: A Certain Style, with its pictures of cramped living spaces in Tokyo, show what it really means to have a cramped room in which somebody lives in. I look at examples like those and feel inspired -- there's obviously still much room for creative organization. However, it's not that I want to have so much stuff in my life, quite the contrary actually, but that space can be much better utilized and that one does not need to sprawl out in order to store your life.

Next on the list is a good kitchen layout, because our current kitchen design is quite brainless, and hardwood floors. Definitely not carpeting. A relatively high and quiet room. The streetcars run in front of our place and we can easily hear every clank and rattle. Heck, we stay beside The Beer Store and a pub; we can easily hear every drunk song and confrontation as well. About a fortnight back, some drunk (probably) set fire to the recycling bin in front of the pub, at two ay-freaking-em in the morning.

So, back to my previous point, if we're going to be moving to another bachelor, we definitely would have to think more about optimizing storage. As in the case with laundry, I like packing and organization. Mike's terribly amused.

One reason we can live in such a small space, I find, is our computers. Back in Singapore, when we moved into our first place many moons ago, we had a lot of stuff; a hi-fi in the living room (with big speakers and all) and another more compact sound system in the bedroom, towers of CDs, books, photo albums, desktops... Now, everything is all digital and very, very compact. It was actually a relief selling and giving away just about everything. All of that, our entertainment and memory paraphernalia, are now stored in our (very light) laptops and portable hard disks. Sometimes I stare at my laptop and feel oddly amused that this is what a very large part of my life has been reduced to.

ReNe: the clothesline ban

Ontario will soon overrule the current regulation that outlaw clotheslines because they're considered unsightly.

Personally, I've always thought the ban ridiculous. When I first moved to St Louis, I didn't know that most places in North America, apparently, have such regulations. My apartment had a balcony and St Louis was hot and dry. Wet laundry hung out, especially at the height of summer, dried in less than two hours. Even the heavy cottons. Stepping out onto the balcony was like stepping out into a furnace; summer temperatures in St Louis were sometimes over 40C (100F)!

'Perfect for laundry', I thought. 'Strange. I wonder why nobody else is drying their clothes out and saving money?'

Much, much later, I found out that you're not supposed to do it. And it's not like, oh, you shouldn't pick your nose in public because it's unsightly but nobody will catch and fine you if you do. There's actually a law in place forbidding clotheslines for purely aesthetic reasons. I guess I was lucky nobody reported me? And I meant that sarcastically.

I wonder if the clothesline ban applies to drying racks as well?

Dryers account for 5 to 6 per cent of Ontario's household electricity demand. An average machine consumes about 900 kilowatt-hours of energy each year and results in the discharge of up to 840 kilograms of air pollution and greenhouse gases. Each dryer adds about $90 a year to a household's electricity bill. [from the same article]

Mike and I approximate 2 laundry loads a week, that's $3 saved by not using the coin dryer. This works out to $144 a year. And that's just the monetary cost. Clothes also last longer when air-dried. Most importantly, it's more environmentally friendly, and you can't put a price tag to that. (Well, I know people do try, but quantifying unquantifiables seems silly to me.)

I wonder what North Americans think of the laundry bamboo poles that are ubiquitous over many parts of Asia? While searching for such an image, I came across the following in an article, and it's about Singapore. Nice!


Yes, that photo above (on the left) looks just like our first flat. It's not too ugly, is it? Charming, in a ugly-but-full-of -character way. I used to hang out bamboo poles like that; really worked out my deltoids. I'm proud to say I can carry a pole with a wet quilt cover on it, from only one end, and stick it out of the window into the little bamboo pole holder. Sometimes it's pretty windy but I've never dropped a pole, which is good, because dropping a pole of wet laundry from the 14th floor is Not Done.

But there were problems too. Inconsiderate people hanging out dripping clothing... dripping mops, even buckets... killer litter... often, flats were so tiny people 'extended' their storage space outside and hung everything from cleaning equipment to plants. I even had curry on my clothes before. A neighbor opposite my place set up an awning (like those shop awnings) to protect their laundry, an obviously home-made structure hanging out of their window on the fourteenth floor. People below yelling obscenities at the people living above. Still, like most events past, selective amnesia sets in and you tend to look back at such memories with considerably more fondness than they warranted. Ah, nostalgia.

Note: April 19 is apparently National Hanging Out Day in North America. Because hanging clothes out to dry is so amazing.

ReNe: shall the names 'harry' and 'potter' be copyrighted?

In the news recently, JK Rowling is suing a fan for creating a lexicon of her work. I haven't really been following but just reading a couple of the news articles on it, overall, I think it's an extremely unpleasant business and that JKR seems to be rather petty. Perhaps my thinking's a bit simplistic, but the way I see it, fan works of her series are only going to be good publicity for her. Moreover, this guy, Steve Vander Ark, is creating a lexicon that is based on her series; it would be pointless to read his book if you haven't read the original series. It's not like he's writing a story based on characters from the HP universe, or a spoof of the HP universe (like the Barry Trotter series). Even Barry Trotter, I feel, only serves to increase awareness of JKR's own work.

She claims she's not doing it for money but to maintain control over her series. I do support the idea of intellectual property rights, but sometimes, this is taken too far. Michael Crichton wrote a very good piece on this issue:

Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.

ACTUALLY, I can't make that last statement. A corporation has patented that fact, and demands a royalty for its use. Anyone who makes the fact public and encourages doctors to test for the condition and treat it can be sued for royalty fees. Any doctor who reads a patient's test results and even thinks of vitamin deficiency infringes the patent. A federal circuit court held that mere thinking violates the patent.

--snip--

I wanted to end this essay by telling a story about how current rulings hurt us, but the patent for "ending an essay with an anecdote" is owned. So I thought to end with a quotation from a famous person, but that strategy is patented, too. I then decided to end abruptly, but "abrupt ending for dramatic effect" is also patented. Finally, I decided to pay the "end with summary" patent fee, since it was the least expensive.

There's hardly any original stuff in literature, seriously. How far back do you want to go to claim that something is yours? JKR herself stands on the shoulders of past literary giants and makes use of fantasy stereotypes such as witches and wizards on brooms, wands, cauldrons, latin spells... some were her own ideas, such as Quidditch, but a lot of her 'work', if you want to scrutinize it closely, would then bear a lot of similarity to past work. Oho! Orphan boy hero (Harry Potter), venerable mentor (Dumbledore)... I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here, and I've read a lot of fantasy stories... these are all well-known, sometimes well-loved, sometimes not so, fantasy clichés. Harry Potter was an orphan, suddenly 'discovered', has Strong Powers, and told, "You Have to Save Us All!" Wait! Or is that Luke Skywalker? The Rival (pronounced with a Japanese accent) is almost a fixture in shonen anime (Draco Malfoy). The traitor (Wormtail) reminds me of Judas from probably the oldest story of them all (the Bible). Shall we argue on those technicalities? I think JKR's genius lies in putting all that together, and throwing in a bit of her own ideas here and there, and not in creating an ENTIRELY novel universe. All right, quidditch belongs to JKR, and avada kevarda (but not hocus pocus), and house elves (but not elves, for that's Tolkein's). What next? Shall the names 'Harry' or 'Potter' be copyrighted too? Well, you can't help it if your surname's Potter but you shall be sued if you name your kids Harry!

Rather petty and stifling, isn't it?

And honestly? I've read books 1 to 3 of JKR's series and I liked her basic ideas and some of her characters. But I disliked her style of writing and the one-dimensionality of characters as the story progressed, so I stopped reading her work. But I continued to read fan fiction because I do like her basic premise, and I am utterly amazed at the standards of some fan stories, which are written for NO monetary profit, and it is through these fan works that I maintain an interest in JKR's series, even though I wouldn't read JKR's own work.

ReNe: to toss out that nalgene

Saw an article today:

Health Canada is calling bisphenol A a dangerous substance, making it the first regulatory body in the world to reach such a determination and taking the initial step toward measures to control exposures to it.

--snip--

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals in modern industry. It is the basic building block for polycarbonate, the see-through, shatter-proof plastic that resembles glass, and is also used to make the epoxy resins lining the insides of most tin cans, along with some dental sealants, sports helmets, and compact discs.

Experts are worried about BPA in food and beverage containers. Products such as CDs aren't considered a problem.

Huh. So I guess the Nalgene bottle we're currently using is not good. Checking (AKA googling), yes, the polycarbonate Nalgene bottles do contain BPA.

Interestingly, there were conflicting reports on just what factors influence the rate of BPA leaching. A 1999 study found that new bottles, washed gently before using, leached 3.5 parts per billion (ppb) of BPA into water, while extremely worn and scratched bottles leached levels of BPA as high as 28 ppb (J Health Sci, 45(6): 318-323, 1999). In a more recent 2008 study, researchers tested new and old, scratched bottles, and found that age of the containers didn't influence how much BPA they leached in an hour, but adding hot water to them did, by up to a 55-fold increase. (Tox Lett, 176(2): 149-156, 2008). Most probably, it's both, i.e., both heat and old bottles increase leaching. It makes sense: heat should increase the migration of BPA molecules and an old, scratched bottle would have an increased surface for BPA to leach from.

ReNe: new toy

Got a pedometer when I went to the AC today. Free. $12 deposit when I return it, not sure if there's a due date but $12 for a pedometer is not expensive. Like how a supermarket trolley costs $1.

Anyway, this is a very simple device, works on detecting the motion by your hips. It clips onto your waist and has 2 modes: steps, and time. Nice. Can't wait to try it out tomorrow. It's an approximately 5km return trip to work, and according to this, that's only about 6250 steps. Another rough rule-of-thumb calculation is 500 steps in 5 mins, so the hour I spend walking each day is about 6000 steps. That's not a lot at all because according to the same website,

5,000 - 7,499 steps/day is "average" for most people but is not enough to provide all the health benefits of walking.

and

10,000 or more steps/day is a good target and puts you in the “active” category.

That's my aim. Yeah. The "active" category.

(According to some stats on that same website, the top 3 steppers this week logged 50913, 16283 and 15049 steps a day on average. Now the 2nd and 3rd placed numbers are believable, but I'm a little incredulous over the top ranked guy's numbers. At 50913 steps, that's over 40km a day, or over 8 hours walking! But then again, you can also count steps while running, so maybe he ran a lot.)

ReNe: asahikawa street [june 2006]

It's lovely to go through photos of old trips. Going on a trip is a whirlwind experience, so much to see and experience and remember in the span of days or weeks; that's why we take photos and buy souvenirs. Later, when life is quiet again, I like to open a random folder of vacation photos, zoom in on a one-day time-slice and look at the photos to try to remember where they were taken and what they were about.

There would be the rare, definitive shot. The one that captured that place, the one you'd print and frame (when you were still using film), the one you'd save and use as wallpaper (when you finally switch over to digital).

Then there were the middling shots, the ones that were interesting as well but didn't quite make it into the 'selected' folder and remained in the original folder. Those were the hidden gems you forgot about.


The photo above was one of those hidden gems. It was taken in Asahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido, Japan (June 2006). It's just one of those quick shots taken as we were walking around the city; we chanced upon this side-street, looked up and did a double-take. WTF? That's some really funky ...street lighting wiring? (The bendy thick poles on the right-hand side.)

MiKE: walking around on a weekend

So, we took a short break from work this weekend, me having finished one assignment, and survived one quite hectic week, and she having her own busy week too, preparing a presentation of sorts before her boss left the city for a trip.

I've been taking more pictures these few days, feels as if I am learning to do more with that humble (some would disagree) Canon G7. I would like to get a DSLR one day - but for now, I guess I have to shoot to this little camera's limits. It accompanies me now whenever we go out; something I suppose would be a bit hard to do on a DSLR, but that's something to worry about another time.

In the process of looking around at bike shops, we walked around to Chinatown, at the junction of Spadina and Dundas. It was rainy, and I felt quite cheated by the weather - when we had decided to go out, the rained had stopped. But by the time we got dressed and out the door, it had started raining again. We walked on nonetheless, to see the mass of people in Chinatown doing what they had to do. We had lunch at our favourite Chinese restaurant; that's not interesting. Anyway; some photos:

Ever noticed how, when it's raining, and cold, and everyone's miserable and wanting to overtake you so that they can get the heck out of the weather, that it is often the kids who are still enjoying themselves? Well, I can't be sure; when I took this picture the subject wasn't the kids, but the contrast does stand out, doesn't it? Perhaps the simple answer is that they're wearing bright cheery clothes and the rest of them dull dreary colours. Me? I was wearing a Kenny McCormick style orange parka, hood off, of course; it was not that cold.

We eventually found ourselves on Bloor Street. Bloor Street is an interesting East West Street that seems to demarcate the northern boundary of the University, and stretches for quite a distance. A branch of the subway line runs beneath it, so I guess, this is quite a major road. I've not been east on Bloor past Yonge, but around Yonge and Bay till about Avenue, Bloor is a very upmarket retail district. OISE sits on Bloor itself, and then further west, it becomes a very active, village like atmosphere with restaurants, grocers, and other amenities seemingly suited for the university population; and then morphing again to what they call the "Korean Business District", or what we would call, Koreatown, where we get most of our groceries. If you don't have a map handy, and/or have not been here before, never mind...

The Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM, is one place we would like to visit one day, but where we put off because it is so close by, and we can't justify spending the almost $20 (i think) admission per person. Still, it makes good photographing, because of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a new extension of the ROM which was officially opened last year. At first, I had thought that it was named after the architect, but Michael Lee-Chin is probably the fella who donated money; he is one of the richest Canadians, of, interestingly, bi-racial Chinese Jamaican descent. Apparently, he donated $30M out of the $270M expansion costs. Just looks controversial, doesn't it:
Personally, the picture could have been taken on a better day; there's almost no contrast between the top of the crystal and the grey skies. Ah well, c'est la vie.

As I was saying, Bloor is home to many boutique shops. Here's CK underwear; whose mannequin layout made me do a double take:

Over here, the window displays seem to be done up with much attention to detail. A few stores down, at Ermengildo Zegna (told you it was classy) put up a display with their mannequins donning bright safety vests, hard hats, and surrounded by construction accessories, despite their being dressed with Zegna's finest. Confused? The storefront had scaffolding put up by the construction company to fix something on the building façade. The display was somewhat obscured by the scaffolding, but the display designers did their best anyway, and dressed their mannequins up as if they were workmen. I should have taken a picture of that display; too bad when we were past it yesterday, it had been changed already. So; I suppose the CK staff had to do something creative too. Putting one of their mannequins lying down must have seemed to them to add some interest in the display. But then, to me, it seemed like the mannequin had lost its head, and was therefore lying on its back:


And, we walked past a photo store, and got me this Gorillapod. Thanks Desmond for pointing it out to me... The mirror is really dirty, I know. So far, we have not had the chance to use it much. Yeah, ok, I don't really feel like being photographed - I've put on some weight, and I look like I have the pimple equivalent of Cindy Crawford's mole. Maybe one of these nights when it has warmed up enough that we can spend hours outdoors without feeling too cold, I'll take a few pics.


Sunday, we went to Christie Pits park, and also to PAT for some grocery shopping. Along the way, Serene got distracted by snacks, so she went to get it. Me, I took the opportunity to take a few shots along Bloor on such a sunny day. Here's one looking east:
If you look carefully, you will see the TD Waterhouse building, at about 2km away, then the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, some church which I forgot the name of, but is a really big one, and Honest Ed's. The interesting thing about this picture is the effect of zoom perspective distortion. I shot this at the camera's long end of the zoom, at 210mm equivalent, and all the buildings appear as if they were next to each other...

She came out of the store, and started munching away:

and showed me the cross section of the confectionery (pastry?):
Finger licking good, it seems:


We went to Christie Pits Park, where barely 2 months ago, was covered in snow, and was the local sledding and toboggan paradise. At this time, it was marginally warmer (still chilly at about 4C), all the snow had gone, and the grass has grown out:



And the last pic for this post: I've noticed that on days like these, jets leave very distinctive trails. At sunset, it just makes a beautiful picture:

ReNe: looking around for a bike

Since the mercury's rising and warm weather will soon be upon Toronto, we've been thinking of buying me a bike. (Mike already has one.)

It's a little odd, this buying of a bicycle. I'm just looking for a cheap commuting bike, one I can chain to public bike racks and bang around without worry. I'm not looking to cycling across any countries, just across Toronto, and this time my budget's very tight, so that limits a lot of bikes. Plus, we know all about bikes. Easy, right?

Not really. Trouble is, we used to ride good bikes. Really high-end. And this is like going back to economy after having your private jet. And instead of simply *looking* at a bike and going by a gut feeling ('do I like the colors on this?'), we'd get bogged down with all sorts of options and factors to consider. (Have we ever blogged about the research that showed that having more options is not always better? Mike probably did, I think...) The frame, the weight of the bike, the welds, the type of tyres, the wheelset, the gearing, the seat, the shape of the handlebar, the rise of the handlebar, the color of the tape on the handlebar...

...that's me old bike. Sweet.

Anyway, long story short, we've been to three bike shops and no bike yet.

ReNe: more about avoiding plastics

A more general note about plastics.

I see three main issues:
(1) Do plasticizers leach out of plastics? Yes, I think there are strong evidence for this. Google around. What I've read so far makes sense.

(2) Are these plasticizers harmful? This is harder to answer. The amounts that do leach out are tiny, and probably not too harmful in the short term, though the jury's still out on possible harmful effects from long-term dosage. There is also the extent of harm to consider; toxicology studies examine the obvious and extreme effects of a toxic compound, for example, if a compound causes death or cancer, and the lethal dosage. But just because something doesn't kill you doesn't mean it can't make you chronically sick.

(3) Can plastics be avoided? The practical question. I think it's hard to completely avoid plastics, though some do, and I'd think it makes sense, and is much easier, to prioritize the plastics to avoid. Plus, plastics are really useful in many capacities.

Recently, I've been trying to minimize usage of plastics, especially as food containers. The rate of plasticizer leach is greatest when the plastic is heated, which makes sense, so while I'm still carrying my cold lunch to work in a plastic container, I've stopped microwaving my lunch in that same container but instead transfer it to a ceramic bowl.

I've also read that plasticizers leach best into high fat foods, which also makes sense. For example, pthalates are alkyl esters and are highly soluble in hydrophobic solvents. Finally, not all plastics are the same. Some either contain more toxic plasticizers or maybe higher concentrations (and hence a higher leach rate), and studies have looked into this (as soon as I can find the original research that showed this, I'd link it). Some plastics to avoid include #3 (PVC, or poly vinyl chloride), #6 (PS, or polystyrene), #7 ("other," often polycarbonate), where the numbers refer to the plastic recycling numbers in the tri-arrow triangle.

Along the lines of not all plastics are the same, specific plastic water bottles like Nalgene are better than those 'singe-use' plastic bottles. At work, I've thrown away the 'single-use' plastic bottle I re-used over and over again to hold water and now I use a glass juice bottle (free, after a seminar that provides refreshments). The latest fad now, after the reusable plastic Nalgene bottle (a little bling), is the aluminium Sigg bottle (even more bling-bling), but it's all pretty consumeristic I feel. Besides, I'm not sure aluminum is perfectly safe as well.

I still use a lot of plastic containers in the kitchen, such as yoghurt or ice-cream tubs to store dry foodstuffs. I would gradually make the transition to replace these plastic containers, but small steps first.

From an environmental viewpoint, it's good to also minimize use of plastics. Plastics that are not very recyclable include #3, #4 (LDPE, or low density polyethylene), #5 (PP, or polypropylene), #6 and #7. Given that there are only seven categories and that five of those seven are considered 'not easily recyclable', we should say that it is not easy to recycle plastic and stop patting ourselves on the back when we see that little plastic recycling triangle and 'properly' toss the plastic garbage into the recycling bin.

ReNe: pthalates and bisphenol A

Hey Jess,

Gotta watch out for plastic baby bottles (and plastic teething rings, later).

Just remembered something I read a couple of months back, when pthalates (a type of plasticizer) in baby bottles, and their potential harmful effects, were creating a ruckus in the local (Toronto) newspapers. Then I thought I should blog it so others can panic too (heh) and also for my own reference archive. One such news article. A better article.

A bit of background on plasticizers:
Plastics are made up of two components: (1) the polymer, which forms the bulk, and (2) the additives, which are used to give plastic useful properties. Mainly, it is the additives that allow the great variety of plastics, and one of the more important classes (65%) of plastic additives are plasticizers, which give plastics flexibility and durability.

The problem with plasticizers is that they are not tightly bound to the polymers. They are not bonded, covalently or ionically, and instead sit between the polymer chains, lubricating and allowing the chains to slide over each other, like meat sauce on spaghetti. And because they are not bound, they can leach out of the plastic. Sometimes this is obvious, for example, the new plastics smell. Studies have shown that plasticizers can and do migrate to the surface of plastics, and then evaporate or leach out into the surrounding environment.

The most common type of plasticizers are chemicals called phthalates. Phthalate plasticizers will eventually migrate out of plastics entirely, and as a result the plastics become brittle. Because of the widespread use of phthalates, they have become one of the most abundant industrial pollutants in the environment; many phthalates are classified as toxic chemicals by the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory. More...

Pthalates have been associated with liver abnormalities including tumours, as well as fertility problems, especially male reproductive development. Some phthalates (there are many types) may act as endocrine disruptors, which mimics the naturally occurring hormone estrogen. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses that control development of the brain, the reproductive system, and other functions. More...

The other compound that's of concern in baby bottles is bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is also considered an endocrine-disruptor. More... A new study released by Environmental Defence (Canada) found that 90% of plastic baby bottles sold in Canada leach BPA into infant formula, milk or other liquids being drunk by babies.

Yes, I know. As if you didn't have enough baby stuff to worry about.

ReNe: is it weird to like to do laundry?

Argh. I had planned to do laundry tonight -- mostly because all 3 of my sports bras are in the basket and I won't be able to go to the AC (Athletic Centre) until I do laundry -- but I totally forgot until now, when it's past midnight.

Mike finds it funny that I like to do laundry. Not just like, I genuinely enjoy it very much. I get upset if my plans to do laundry do not pan out. In St Louis, when I was bored and lonely, I did a lot of laundry. And even though I'm now staying in small rented apartments (i.e. no bamboo poles and no place to stick them), I generally avoid using the dryer and take the trouble to hang the wet clothes to dry indoors. Saves energy and money too.

So far, nobody I know likes to do laundry. On the other hand, whenever I say I dislike cooking, a lot of people are surprised. Because a lot of people like cooking, apparently. It occurred to me: if household chores were like jobs, it's all good for me. I like doing something few people like; I dislike doing something most people like --> my services should be in high demand and I can always find someone to do for me what I don't like doing.

ReNe: san zhi and darvaza gas crater

A couple of really cool things I read about recently.


San Zhi, an abandoned vacation housing complex outside of Taipei, Taiwan. Time of abandonment varies with google searches, anything from 1960s -1980s. Even so, it is very apocalypse-cool. I can very well imagine them as abandoned futuristic buildings after some nuclear war in a future, as some plot in an anime. One post with pictures: part 1 - part 2
Another good pix article.


The Darvaza Gas Crater:

In 1971 a search for gas went wrong when a whole drilling rig fell into an underground cavern. Natural gas started coming up from the hole. It was set alight so it wouldn't kill everything around. For 35 years now the flames keep burning providing an spectacular scene for tourists. At night the burning gas makes the crater seen from miles away. The crater is located in Turkmenistan in the heart of the Karakum desert. The crater is called Darvaza or The Burning Gates.

MiKE: Spring is here

yes, no exclamation mark and all that. It's late, and I'm not pleased. Heh. Well, not that bad, and not as if I can do anything about it. It started about a week ago, but it really got warm today, with a maximum temperature of a warm 19ºC (imagine that - 19ºC is warm).

Some photographic evidence:

Well, ok, not so much this one - there could still be a pile of snow on the ground, but we were walking around last weekend, and the skies were really clear, bright, and blue, and the no, there was no snow on the ground. Just wanted to include this because I thought it was a nice picture.

Or how about this one:
Somewhat better eh? See, no snow on the ground, bikes are out on the roads again, and the skies are not grey anymore. Quite appropriate to see the BMW R80GS (??? - as in, I'm certain it's a BMW, R series engine, and pretty sure it's the GS variant. But R80? not so sure) outside the antique shop. Interestingly enough, thanks to my exposure to tinkering around on the RS125, I can identify many of the parts on the engine, and given enough tools, manuals and time, I suspect I probably could do a minor overhaul of that thing... :)


This is one of those classical 'signs of spring'; that of a shoot arising from the soil. Yes, this is hardly a fresh shoot, it's probably at least a week old, but I've been chained to my computer crunching assignments and procrastinating and reading about cameras instead and panicking and writing assignments and and... you get the picture. This picture was taken today, after I submitted another assignment, and had time to go out for a walk:

ReNe: soap saga

Recently, I've been trying my hand at mixing my own skincare toiletries, as in, acquiring some base ingredients and putting them together.

It started last year, when I first noticed that some brands of organic toiletries sold in North America (soap, shampoo) are not expensive. I've never bought organic toiletries in Singapore because since organic stuff is all so expensive and I'm not rich, I'd spend money on the organic stuff that I actually ingest.

Then I read about sodium lauryl sulphate, a very common surfactant found in commercial toiletries. It's widely used because it's cheap and also because it's a good degreaser and foaming agent. Unfortunately, the degreasing properties also means that SLS is very drying on the skin. A look at the material safety data sheet shows that it is an irritant and a possible carcinogen.

MANUFACTURERS MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET ON SODIUM LAURYL SULPHATE

Health Hazard Acute And Chronic:

ACUTE: CAUSES MILD IRRITATION ON CONTACT WITH SKIN, EYES OR MUCOUS MEMBRANES. SKIN CONTACT COULD CAUSE IRRITATION OR ALLERGIC REACTION. MODERATELY TOXIC BY INGESTION.

CHRONIC: TESTS ON LAB ANIMALS INDICATE MATERIAL MAY CAUSE MUTAGENIC EFFECTS

So, I thought, how to avoid it? Well, I could just buy the organic stuff, though not all avoid the use of SLS. Often, they use some derivative such as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), which are not very much better. Or I could mix my own. The latter appealed to the chemist in me. (Yes, I've not stepped into a chemistry lab for almost a decade, but once in a while, I still like to muck around with liquids.)

The first soap I got was castile soap, which is just a really simple soap made from olive oil and sodium hydroxide. It's an all-purpose cleaner, grease-cutter, and disinfectant; in fact, such soaps were the original cleaners, before detergents were invented (though to be precise, animal fat-based soaps came before vegetable-based soaps). Apparently it can be used straight out of the bottle as a cleanser (since it came as a thin liquid), but I found it too drying on my skin, probably because my skin's naturally dry. So I started reading up a bit more.

Backtracking a bit towards the basics:
Although we generally refer to skin cleaning products when we say soap, and house cleaning products when we say detergents, strictly speaking, soap is a salt of a fatty acid, and is made through a saponification reaction between a fat and a strong base, or alkali. The fat can be animal fat or a vegetable oil (which would give castile soap its name), and the alkai is usually sodium hydroxide (also known as lye), potassium hydroxide (potash) or sodium cabonate (soda ash). In saponification, the alkali hydrolyzes the fat and converts the fatty acids to glycerol (also known as glycerin) and soap, which is the fatty acid salt.

However, many of the cleansing products we use today are technically not soaps but detergents, which are defined loosely as a compound, or a mixture of compounds, intended to assist cleaning. In other words, it's encompasses the wide range of cleaning agents that are not soaps. Soap cleans by acting as an emulsifier, i.e. it allows oil and water to mix so that oily grime can be removed during rinsing. Detergents are primarily surfactants, which lower the surface tension of water so that it (water) is less likely to stick to itself and more likely to interact with oil and grease.

So what are the problems associated with current commercial skincare cleaners today? For one, some are not technically even 'soaps', but detergents, which are harsher. A look at the ingredient list of most shower gels/creams shows that a major ingredient is SLS, or its cousins, and this is the detergent because this is the degreaser at work in the cleaner. Even for 'real' bar soaps, most commercial bar soap manufacturers take out the glycerin that is (always) produced during the saponification process, and replace it with a lesser-quality chemical moisturizer. Why? Because glycerin is a humectant, i.e. it is the moisturizer component of the soap, and apparently it is valuable. Companies remove glycerin because they can sell the glycerin for use in other products. A look at moisturizers often show glycerin listed as one of the major ingredient; in a tube I'm holding, glycerin comes right after water!

Sounds ridiculous right? To remove the moisturizing component of the soap, replace with a lesser quality moisturizer, and then because the soap now becomes too drying, sell you a separate moisturizer, which incidentally contains the glycerin from that soap. Even without going into other controversial problems with many commercial soaps such as artificial fragrance, dyes, triclosan (anti-bacterial agent), already there is a strong case for making or at least mixing your own soaps.

(Apparently, a lot of people do MAKE their own soap. You can buy lye, as sodium hydroxide is known to soap-makers, and add it to your own choice of vegetable oil, but the process apparently requires some precautions. Like proper ventilation. Duh. Heating sodium hydroxide over your kitchen stove does come with its hazards. But if I know where to buy sodium hydroxide, I may try it... I did it once before in secondary school.)

Having read all that, the next logical step, for my dry skin that is, would be to add some moisturizing component to the castile soap, such as glycerin and/or oils. Luckily, I happened to also discover an organic shop nearby called Grass Roots that sells in bulk many common cleaning agents, including glycerin. Nice. I bought some (it's not expensive) and added it to the castile soap. (The castile soap already has glycerin, by the way, retained from the saponifiation process; I just wanted more.) It worked; the soap is now more moisturizing. I also added a bit of glycerin to our non-organic (detergent) hand-soap, thinking more moisture is always good. Because when I was playing around with all these, it was winter and my skin was feeling *really* dry.

I experimented with various ratios of soap and glycerin. A good ratio for optimal foaming seems to be about 30-40% glycerin, the rest castile soap, but this mixture is still a little too drying for me. 50% glycerin and 50% soap works nicely and I can live with the lowered foaming qualities. Then I tried adding some sesame oil (because I read a bit about super-fatting soaps) but that really killed the bubbles. I'm also experimenting with another organic soap I bought from Grass Roots. However, because after I mix up a small batch, I'd have to test (and use that lot up) over the next few days, so the trials are moving along slowly.

So, is it cheap(er)? Compared to buying the high-end skincare (organic or non-organic), yeah. Buying all these stuff in bulk is comparable to buying the cheap skincare stuff. However, as the liquid castile soap and glycerin are very, very liquid, I go through them relatively quickly. Overall, I think it's still quite cheap. As I mentioned, I'm trying another brand of organic liquid soap -- it's more viscous (easier to use) and much cheaper.

The other big problem I have as well is with the scents; till now, I've not been able to settle on a pleasing scent. I guess I could leave the soap 'scentless', but while the fragrance-free organic soaps do not smell disagreeable, pure glycerin smells a little weird. More about scent mixing in a later post.