Last Sunday, Baby Ethan over ate and burped up his milk all over me just as we were about to get out of the roof level car park at the One Utama Shopping Center and into the shopping center. It was a really big burp, and I smelled like puke heaven. I had puke on my hair, on my trendy little strapless tee shirt, and on my cool looking over sized gold colored handbag! Groan. And yes, baby had puke all over him as well. Holy cow! How the heck was I going to wash all these off? It wasn’t like I had extra clothing in my car …. though thank goodness, baby had some extra clothing in his bag.

Luckily, one of the cleaning staff came to my rescue and directed me to a pipe at the corner of the car park. He told me it was a rainwater pipe, with the tap high up somewhere at my shoulder level. We stripped Ethan off his clothes and showered him, washing off the puke, right there in public, butt naked, letting the water run down into the drain below. I washed the puke off my body as well, though, fully clothed. Certainly stopped traffic if I were to strip something off. In hind sight, I should have taken a photo of the pipe. I thought it was interesting. I had read about this shopping center using rain water for washing purposes, to flush the toilets, watering plants and also supplied to the cooling tower of the air-conditioning system. Frankly, this is the first time I had used rainwater like this, apart from at my house.

Not only does One Utama harvest rainwater, they have a beautiful rooftop garden that helps cool the building as well. This garden is unique, not only because they actually have plants on the roof, but they have planted some really unique plants, not often seen in urban cities. Here is a video of the garden.

We all know that walking and texting is a tough combination — but a Staten Island teen learned the hard way when she fell into an uncovered sewer manhole while trying to send a message.

Now, the family of Alexa Longueira, 15, intends to sue.

The girl suffered a fright and some scrapes on her arms back after she dropped into the hole on Victory Boulevard.

“It was four or five feet, it was very painful. I kind of crawled out and the DEP guys came running and helped me,” Longueria told the Staten Island Advance.. “They were just, like, ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

For its part, the Department of Environmental Protection said its workers had turned away briefly to grab some cones when the incident occurred.

“We regret that this happened and wish the young woman a speedy recovery,” DEP spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla said in a statement. She added that crews were flushing a high-pressure sewer line at the time.

The girl was checked out at Staten Island University Hospital and released.

Sewer line workers are supposed to cut off pedestrian access to work sites or at least mark them with warning signs.

The family said they will file a lawsuit — for what, though, is not immediately clear. Her mother, Kim Longueira, said it doesn’t matter that her daughter was walking and texting, and also, the ‘gross’ factor that can’t be ignored.

“Oh my God, it was putrid,” she said. “One of her sneakers is still down there”

====================

Jasmin says

This is terrible; not the part about the girl falling down into the sewer, but that she and her family will not take responsibility for their own actions.

What do you think about this? To sue or not to sue?

Prof Gerard Bodeker; Asian rainforests are equally rich if not richer than the Amazon.

Eyebrows would inevitably shoot up each time Prof Gerard Bodeker reveals his age. Not only does he look great for a 59-year-old, he’s as sharp as a tack.

His secret? Not relying on modern meds. Instead, he meditates and knocks back a glass of power juice (made from his own recipe of carrots, kunyit (Tumeric) and some ginger or pegaga (Kotu Kola), if available) every morning. He admitted that this “alternative” regime has shocked many, especially doctors.

“I went for my annual check-up recently and my blood pressure was normal and I had 0% percent plaque, which was highly unusual for someone my age,” he said.

“My doctor asked me about the type of supplements that I’ve been taking and she was astounded when I told her that I wasn’t taking any.”

Prof Bodeker is a man of unwavering passion. His near-religious faith in alternative medicine has spurred him to write several papers for the United Nations and World Health Organization.

Unsurprisingly, Biotropics singled him out as the person to consult with on their pet project: the first book on ramuan. His initial reaction was that of incredulity.

“I didn’t think I could do it. I thought, ‘Is there enough information to write a whole book on it?’ And as I pored through the journals and documents, I realised that there was, in fact, a whole treasury of information out there,” said Prof Bodeker.

Prof Datuk Dr Hood Salleh holding up Health and Beauty From the Rainforest: Malaysian Traditions of Ramuan

The resulting book is a few hundred pages long, and brims with fascinating, age-old wisdom. Smiling serenely on the cover is a beautiful orang asli woman who, I’m told, is much older than she looks.

Professor Gerard pointed at the picture: “See the tray she’s holding? She said her grandmother made her eat all the herbs on it since she was five.”

The book was allegedly so complex that it took years to write and a whole team of people to write it.

“We had to go back to the villages, visit the homes and speak to the different families,” said Prof Bodeker.

“Traditional medicine in Malaysia differs significantly because the people weren’t just using it to heal illnesses. You won’t be able to find a similar place in Asia or the world where they place such great emphasis on their physical appearance, such as their skin or hair.”

(This brings to mind a certain Peranakan friend of mine, who taught me that you could use powdered rice or blue shelled duck eggs on your face, or condition your hair with pandan leaves).

I had scoffed it off then, but before I could do it this time (it does sound like some fancy marketing hoopla), the good professor fired off some hard facts to back his theories up.

“A study done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that ulam (a variety of raw leaves served with rice) was good at reducing Alzheimer’s. Pegaga, meanwhile, helps decelerate the ageing process and enhances the memory and yuk chuk (Solomon’s Seal) can be used as a remedy for respiratory and lung disorders,” he said.

Taken from The Star July 10, 2009. Written by Louisa Lim. Pictures Darran Tan & Azhar Mahrof

Health and Beauty From the Rainforest: Malaysian Traditions of Ramuan is available at selected Malaysian bookstores for RM89. The sale of each book will go towards rainforest conservation efforts. Buy the book here. (Note: Budding Planet does not get any profits from the sale of this book. Alternatively, you can get the book from Amazon.com)   Soon, there will be a American five city book tour, and it’ll be appearing on Good Morning America. You can contact Biotropics for details here.

small aluminium bath tub

Buy a cheap portable bath tub and stand in the tub when you shower. That water, called Grey Water, can be used to flush the toilet, to wash the shower area after you are done scrubbing and cleaning it, and to use to wash your hair with … just kidding on the last bit!

You’ll be surprised at how much water you use to bathe in.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle!

First Moon Celebration

Last week, my husband’s publisher, Adrian celebrated his daughter’s first month’s birthday. In Chinese, it’s called the Full Moon celebration. He gave us a box of goodies,  which is a butter cake, 2 mini fruit and cheese tarts (it’s at the back on the left side), 2 hard boiled eggs (the shell has been dyed red), 2 ang ku (which is a soft pastry filled with sweet crushed peanuts inside) and a small plastic toy. Isn’t it cute?

We celebrated both our kids Full Moon as well, though in such different ways. We passed around Full Moon packages to friends and family for our first kid when he celebrated his first 30 days on earth. The second kid had a grander celebration. We had a big party at the nearby KFC restaurant, complete with Super Chook chicken mascot, cake, playground for the kids to play in, and lots of food for everyone. Hubby wrote a very interesting article about our first Full Moon experience.

Here’s an excerpt from his blog

And here’s the irony:

I paid for those packages at the full price quoted by them.

And I’ve incurred some costs and expenses in traveling to find 100 families to give the packages to.

This means that I was PAYING the restaurant what they were asking for, to distribute SAMPLES of their food for them at MY OWN cost, to 100 of MY own contacts!

And EACH and EVERY ONE of my contacts were potential customers of that restaurant!

Anyways, if you want to read further, just click on the picture and the article will appear.

Full Moon package designs have very much improved since Yang-Yang was born. Early this year, my mum received a similar package from a total stranger, who lives nearby. You can now even put the baby’s picture on the box. And the selection of stuff you want to put in the box are much, much wider as well. Just click on Baby Amber’s Full Moon picture to read about how we got this package, and what is a Full Moon celebration.

Every night at 11 p.m. the village of DÖrentrup in central Germany is thrown into total darkness. For the past few years, the village’s cash-strapped local council has been switching off all the streetlights in the village each evening until 6 a.m. the following morning. In most places, a nightly blackout would provoke outrage as residents find themselves fumbling and stumbling their way home through the dark. But in DÖrentrup, they have seen the light, with a new scheme that allows residents to turn on streetlights on demand – anytime, anywhere – using just their cell phones.

When DÖrentrup’s council started switching off the streetlights, Dieter Grote’s wife would worry about their children coming home late at night in the pitch black. “My wife has all the good ideas,” Grote, who runs an advertising agency, tells TIME. “I discussed the problem with her and we thought it must be possible to have the lights available on demand.” Dieter got in touch with the local utility company Lemgo and together they came up with a solution: How about turning on the village lights with a simple telephone call? Lemgo developed a special modem and software to make it possible, and Dial4Light was born.

In the first project of its kind in Europe, the residents of DÖrentrup can now switch on the lights on a specific street whenever they like. All they have to do is register for the scheme online and provide a phone number. Then each time anyone needs to see in the dark, they call the Dial4Light number, enter the six-digit code that corresponds to the stretch of road they want lit, and within seconds the lights are on. They’ll stay on for around 15 minutes, enough time for someone to walk from one end of the average DÖrentrup road to the other. “The scheme is easy for everyone to use,” says Grote. “Elderly people can use a cash machine, so they can make a call to switch on the streetlights.”

After a pilot project last year proved to be a big hit with the public, DÖrentrup’s council has decided to roll out the scheme for the whole village, home to 9,000 people. Utility company Lemgo says the scheme will cut down DÖrentrup’s carbon-dioxide emissions by around 12 tons each year compared with leaving the streetlights on all night. “We found out that on each stretch of road, people only switch on the lights up to three times each night,” explains Frank BrÄuer, project leader at Lemgo. “That’s why this system works in villages or the outskirts of a town where residents don’t need the lights burning all night.” But Dial4Light won’t work for everyone, he admits: “It wouldn’t be suitable for a big city like New York or London, where there’s a lot going on at night.”

The mayor of DÖrentrup, Friedrich Ehlert, sees the new project as win-win. After he was forced to turn off the village lights to help save money, he faced complaints from angry residents worried about their safety when making their way home in the dark in the dead of night. He still defends his decision to flip the switch – “If I watch TV at home, and then go into another room, I switch the lights off in the lounge; people shouldn’t expect the streetlights to be on when they’re not outside” – but says that any money saved will go toward building schools or sports facilities for the village. And although the council picks up the electricity bill every time anyone uses Dial4Light (locals only pay for the call), the scheme is still cheaper than running the streetlights through the night. “We’re cutting electricity bills and we’re doing something to help the environment,” says Ehlert. “Everyone can do their bit.”

Lemgo says there are plans to launch the scheme in five other countries and it has received requests for its new technology from all over the world, including Sweden, Britain, the U.S. and Dubai. With the recession biting into town-council coffers everywhere and growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, letting residents light up the night only when they need to seems like a bright idea.

By Tristana Moore / Berlin
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090701/wl_time/08599190718200