The Budding Planet » Green

Helping villagers collect water using fog

jasmin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:43:24 +0000

Omg! When I saw this video, I immediately thought that it was a fabulous idea.

Previously, I had a helper from an improvised Indonesian state. Nancy used to walk for half a day to collect water from a river to bring home as drinking water. She’s gone back now, but if she saw this, I bet she would be very impressed with this very basic but highly useful tool.

Read about other environmentally friendly techniques

Pearl Corn

Dutch oven outdoors

Pearl Corn

jasmin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:00:24 +0000

This is called pearl corn because of the white kernels..

Pearl Corn is different from the normal corn because it is so sweet, have bigger kernels and can be eaten fresh. It is more expensive than regular corn but it is worth the money.

Corn can be eaten raw, and it tastes best when it’s just ripen and freshly picked. The husks by the way makes excellent organic plate scrubber at the sink. My mother-in-law gathers the husks, fold it and ties it together with a thin rubber band (there’s thin and there’s the thick rubber bands). She then scrubs the plates with a bit of water and dishwashing liquid. Such an environmentally friendly tool.

Dutch oven outdoors

jasmin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:24:04 +0000

I don’t really cook much meat nor do I go camping at all (Don’t even ask me to do it. I hate leeches, mozzies and ants) so I won’t be doing much cooking like the way this guy does. But see the video. I just love the way he stacked the 3 dutch ovens on top of the other to conserve and preserve heat. What a way to make a great meal outdoors.

Electric eel powers Christmas tree

jasmin — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 08:43:45 +0000

How cool is this that an electric eel is powering a Christmas tree up?

How more eco friendly.

What else can the creative Japanese come up with?

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Japanese “vending machine” green house

jasmin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:54:31 +0000

What has the Japanese come up with this time? Portable garden vending machines people. It’s an interesting solution for urbanites who have problem growing vegetables in the city.

These machines can actually grow produce without any sunlight, up to 60 heads of lettuce at one go. This is mainly due to 12 40W fluorescent lights housed in a machine. The intended audience for the machine are restaurants, not apartment dwellers, but still, it is an amazing idea.

One of the great things about growing your own vegetables? No pesticides. That means you can eat these babies raw, just cut them from the stem. In fact, you might not even need to wash them at all. How cool is that idea?

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Thoughts on raw food and ways to grow vegetables

Chinese student crosses river on paper kayak

jasmin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:27:40 +0000

A Chinese student rowed across the Hanjiang river in China and safely reached the opposite side of the river on a paper kayak.

Wang Luyao, a third-year student of Wuhan Commercial Service College, spent seven minutes rowing across the river at the Yangheshan stretch.

He had spent 15 days to make the kayak using recycled papers and self-made flour glue.

Wang said the 1.9m x 80cm x 30cm kayak, which weighed 40kg, only cost him 200 yuan (RM92).

At 10.26am on Sunday, Wang got into the water in his paper kayak wearing a life jacket and holding an oar in his hand.

Two rescue boats followed behind him.

Wang managed to balance his kayak while fighting the rapid currents and a whirlpool to reach the other side of the river, one km downstream from where he started.

Wang said the idea of crossing the river on a paper kayak popped into his head after several rounds of discussion with water sports trainer Song Yuanqing.

“I hoped to use this chance to promote the low-carbon lifestyle and to encourage environment-friendly activities.”

Wang said he started making the boat in July, after two months of studying the theory of making kayaks.

He then went around the school to collect the components.

“I tested the boat on the school pond first,” he added.

Wang said his hopes to cross the mighty Yangtze River by the end of this year.

He added that he would modify the kayak for the crossing on the third longest river in the world.

“If I succeed, my next mission will be to cross the Taiwan Straits (which is 180km-wide between China and Taiwan) with Song.”

Source: Chutian Metro Daily, China

Published Sept 14 2010

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