500 billion to a trillion plastic bags are consumed around the planet annually according to the National Geographic. With last year’s reminder on global warming a large variety of companies gave out reusable cloth bags. I don’t know about every one else but the ones I’ve been bombarded with this year were generally quite ugly. But I suppose since they were from oil & gas companies, one cannot expect much! all function zero form, company colour + logo = voila! Only PTT’s ecobag looked good as they seem to have their own team to design their calenders and gifts. Another problem I find is the shape of these bags, they’re pretty much all the same shape! horizontal rectangles with small handles. I personally find they seem a tad awkward to be utilised in public, to the reusable bag designers, women aren’t the only ones who purchase groceries!

After joining the Design 21 Social Design Network I found out about the ‘furoshiki’. A traditional Japanese cloth which comes in various sizes, traditionally used for wrapping and transportation of goods. Video below and more info at http://www.furoshiki.com/:

I suppose it can even be used as a scarf or bandana, cover yourself when it rains! A multipurpose reusable cloth.

If something looks odd, refresh page! and if that doesn’t work then the page must be really borked!

The Tudors season 2 has started. Brilliant show, excellent cast, wonderful set, watch it! Not had this much entertainment since watching HBO’s Rome. They also have people with the correct accents! *cough* Richard Gere in some Camelot movie.

Official site at http://www.sho.com/tudors

Had no idea there was such a day! Maybe it was just a US thing. March 16-22 was the UN’s World Water Week, March 22 World Water Day. This event seems to have mainly occurred in New York with the Tap Project, a donation campaign set up to provide safe drinking water to people around the globe.

Below, Lucy Liu shows us the quality and accessibility of water in the Côte d’Ivoire.

The Tap Project’s official site available here.

Now as for Bangkok’s water quality, our Metropolitan Waterworks Authority does state somewhere in their website that their tap water is safe to drink. But I do wonder how clean are the pipes!? Admittedly I occasionally have had a gulp at home after gargling because it tastes so minty! and have not contracted stomach problems from it yet, too much chili however… Anywho, the point of all this! Awareness.

As for the current bleeding temperature we are experiencing in Bangkok lately… one could get knocked over by a burst of hot air just from opening a door. A fresh clean shirt will stick like paper mâché!

Now I’ve often been called quite oblivious to what goes on along the streets of Bangkok, unless something really catches the eye, urban insensitivity? The greenest looking street I believe would be Wireless Road unless they lopped the trees over there. Orchard Rd. in Singapore, lined with flowing acacias, but underground cabling. We are limited on sidewalk tree planting space due to those ugly tangles of wiring that webs through this city. Wireless Road is certainly not wireless! It refers to the former name of the radio or wittayu in Thai.

I once heard in a lunch conversation that there is even urban tree theft in this city! Imagine these thieves with their balaclavas and shovels rolling around in their truck digging up a huge tree, how does that go unnoticed! When my godmother was developing a housing project I recall she complained that a decent sized tree was around 10,000 baht each and that was over a decade ago. Now do these tree thieves not realise that this is a country where there is a high possibility that the stolen tree be the home of an angry tree spirit! But they probably avoid stealing certain trees such as the Bodhi and Banyan, especially ones with garlands, sashes and ribbons tied around their trunks.

Again I lose track, the point of all this! I was reading Newsweek March 10 and came across ‘World Challenge 08′ “an annual global competition that honours inventive local solutions to our planet’s most difficult problems from poverty to environmental degradation… in association with Shell and BBC World. Which awards a $20,000 grant to the winner and $10,000 each to two runners-up to help support their projects”. Further details at theworldchallenge.co.uk All of which somehow led me to look up on fastest growing trees.

The Empress Tree or Paulownia Tomentosa an ornamental deciduous which has a growth rate of 3-4.5 metres per year and grows up to 15m. It’s timber can also be used for parquetry, light furniture and musical instruments. On further snooping this tree was already introduced during the 80s in a forestation project under the patronage of His Majesty and assistance from the ROC Government, full article here.

Since there are many plots of undeveloped private land, these fast growing trees should be planted in the unused space! Not only will this tree planting be environmentally friendly, your formerly barren wasteland will look more attractive to buyers. If one is unable to sell, the trees can always be chopped down when they are mature and sold for timber! Oops… well at least they did do some environmental improvement whilst they were standing or they can be sold live so that they can ‘greenify’ some other place.

A ridiculous idea on how to prevent people from stealing them, sashes, garlands and the works tied around each tree! However this may be counterproductive as it may also scare off potential customers. The non bargain bin solution would be to hire someone to live on the plot and tend the plantation.

Image from what I think to be from a photoblog of a paulownia grower in Thailand at webshots.com

With the ongoing global witch-hunt on smoking and smokers, Sweden & Norway appear to be the most adaptive. Instead of smoking tobacco there is snus a nicotine alternative which reduces the risks of tobacco use by about 99%, according to tobaccoharmreduction.org. More information about the product can be found at both of those links which I will not bother reiterating and no it is not like chewing tobacco.

The problem is obtaining snus in Thailand, where it is only available in very few tobacconists and pubs around the CBD. Thaivisa.com has some information on where to buy, several posters have stated that it is also available at a Swedish church on Sukhumvit.

Most amusing article I’ve read since the lizard event at The Nation website:

Thai Oscars

I used to be a fan of ‘Bangkok Post’ due to it’s lack of typographical errors and conservative news, but now I no longer bother to read it as I started to find it very dull when compared to ‘The Nation’ which has been much more witty and entertaining.

As for the lizard event which occurred in early February this year, was beautifully covered by ‘The Nation’ in a photographic slide show here. The monitor lizard in Thailand was formerly known as tua hia unsure of the exact translation of hia but I guess it would be ‘vile’. At some point in time their name was changed to tua ngen tua tong (silver and golden thing) but to this day variants of the original name are still used as a very offensive insult. I do not know the story behind why they are also considered bad luck but having 2 of these ill-omened creatures copulating behind parliament house caused quite a fuss last month.

Only found out there was another Indiana Jones film in production last year, it’s been nearly 2 decades since Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. I feel old just mentioning how long it’s been! Starring Harrison Ford of course, the brilliant Cate Blanchett and some other actors I am unfamiliar with. Well here’s the trailer, so enjoy!

From Yahoo! Movies:

For the extreme fans, a countdown for release date! No idea if it will be released here on May 22, but close enough.

Although I may be a mobile chimney, I do still try to maintain a reasonably healthy diet and some basic home exercise. Not saying that by doing just pushups will get you into prime shape & fitness but it’s a start! In the wonderful world of Youtube where one can find a video on almost anything. Browsing through the search results, quite a lot of them were of incredibly large people doing exercises and showing off their ‘superhuman’ physique with little information. Until I found some exercise videos by a Ford model and personal trainer named Chris Comfort. If you haven’t heard of Ford Modeling Agency they are somewhere in the top 10 of modeling agencies in the US.

Now who wouldn’t want to look like this guy to impress the ladies but of course facial structure do play a huge part! Anyway moving along, since I’m very new to this ‘fitness thing’ I only found out the existence of pushup handles from this video.

The video itself pretty much explains most so I will not bother reiterating much. I also don’t feel like a beached shrimp anymore after trying to follow most of his advice, doing the 3rd pushup in the video is beyond me! If someone does want to seriously get into shape it would depend on a person’s body type, metabolism, diet and different types of exercise routines for different people. I haven’t gotten a hold of those pushup handles yet, but since Amazon seems to have everything lately and ships almost anywhere, voila!

For people in the US the ‘Perfect Pushup’ can be purchased from their original retailer at http://military.bodyrev.com/ More info about the handles can be found on their site.

Why are some food & drink containers so ridiculously hard to open!? The Meiji milk bottle for example has a plastic cap so thick, one would think it is used for storing toxic waste! Not only is the cap thick, the grooves made for a ‘proper grip’ nearly rip the palm. Are these bottles catered for wrestling champs?

Nestle seems to have the easiest opening bottle that is decently secure for transportation, there is one brand that I cannot recall, might have been Formost containing a plastic seal that is attached to a ring. The ring often has a tendency to rip off so I end up having to find a knife to stab and cut the seal open!