A vehicle I want to buy for my family

Hey, I want to sell my Kelisa for this "conference vehicle"!!!!



Will write more about why I prefer the vehicle in the video above over my dear little Kelisa. If you can't wait, surf over to Trimming Your Fuel Consumption: A Few Tips To Increase Your MPG

Environmentally Friendly GPS (Global Positioning System) for finding your way around

Environmentally friendly way of finding your way around

I have always been amazed why people like delivery men, taxi drivers or even ordinary folks don't carry a map in their motor vehicle, especially when searching for a place. I frequently choose to walk rather than take the care, and often have been stopped by all kinds of people asking for directions to certain places. Sometimes I can help, sometimes I just have to say sorry. I wish I have the guts to suggest to them to always carry a map of the place they intend to go to. It save time, precious and increasing expensive fossil fuel which they have to wastefully burn, emit more green house gasses (click BACK button to get back to this page) and make global warming, environmental problem of the century (click BACK button to get back to this page) worst. One should check out the map and plan one's journey even before departing to search for an unfamiliar place.

GPS, environmentally friendly way to finding your way around

Street Directory, which is a book I have containing maps of places in and around the place I live in, is a very useful aid to me. Just a few days ago, while traveling in a care with my nephew, our chattering turned from maps to GPS (Global Positioning System). You see, I like to put maps in my blogs, an example of which you can find in Map to Yat Yeh Hing Restaurant. That map was drawn to help participants in an event to easily find the meeting place without needlessly wasting time and petrol searching for the place.

That map was drawn with AutoCad. Now if I have a raster image of a map, I can import that into a file in AutoCAD, create a new layer, trace over the map, delete the raster image, take a screenshot, paste that into the Irfanview photo editor and if I need to highlight something, save the map into my computer, open it with Paint that comes with Window and highlight with ellipse or line drawings of arrows, and resave the map. I asked if I could export the maps from a GPS device into my computer, and my nephew think that is possible.

If that is true, I am going to look at GPS ratings to see if there is such a GPS can do what I want done. Looks like there is a very wide range of choices from fixed GPS devices to handheld GPS devices. There are lots more and it is going to be a real tough job to zero in onto one that may be the one I am looking for.

However, above, I am talking from the point of view of making maps to upload to the web which by itself is helping people find places in an environmentally friendly way. But owning your own rather than depending on a map you find on the Internet or a book containing maps is an even better way of helping you find your way around, and best of all, they have become affordable. From the above site, I see one can even get a GPS device for as cheap as less than $10!!!!

But on checking, looks like things are not as it seems, for the GPS devices in that page filtered by price less than $10 has no price tags, and the first device on further checking, had a price tag of $349 to $370 at the time of publishing!!! However, I believe that website is not static. By the time you check them, thing might be different. I think I will contact them and request for clarification.

Cycle to work: Denmark shows the way

In Denmark, there are many people uses the bike and not for leisure, but to to to work, go to the movies, visit friends and relatives, etc. In Copenhagen, he bikes are the dominant form of transport. There are dedicated bike lanes, and paved bumps separate the bike lanes from the cars, and there are no pedestrians in the bike lanes. At each crosswalk there are red and green traffic lights just for the bikes.

And the bikes have lights. The vast majority still uses the old dynamo that grinds against your tire to generate electricity for the back red light and front headlamp. That is much environmentally friendly than using battery operated lights.

They also have a free loaner bikes program. Copenhagen has installed 1,500 city bikes that they loan to the public and by poping A 20 kronor ($3.60) coin into a lock, you get to use the bike plus get the money back when you park the bike in the city bike zone for the next user.

The "Mayor" of Putrajaya, the new administrative capital for Malaysia carved out from large chunck of palm oil plantations (a white elephant in my opinion and one which makes things who need official things done very inconvenient because of long travel needed) asked the civil servants (majority of the population of Putrajaya are civil servants) to cyle to work, but I doubt anyone responded. For one, I doubt the "Mayor" himself cycle to work. There are no dedicated bicycle lanes and the weather is hot and very sunny, unlike the cool climate in Denmark.

In Copenhagen, exiting a cab always elicits the same remark from the driver: "Watch out for the bicycles!"

That's because in this city the bikes are the dominant form of transport,

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Environmentally friendly Internet

I am broke (cash), but I have assets. In any case, will writing is not that complicated a thing. I need to make a will. I decided to draft it myself. It is done. Only thing is, for added safety net, I was hoping for someone competent to vet it. I have a niece who is a practicing lawyer. I asked his father where she stays and was disappointed to learn that she stay 15km away from my home. But still, it will involve using a car, burning up depleting fossil fuel, contributing to the atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming. In any case, I am retired and just don't like to leave the house.

Then a bulb lighted up in my little brain. Why not do it through the environmentally friendly Internet. I don't need to travel. I don't need to print a hard copy and used up paper. I just need to send the draft as an email attachment.

I did a search in me email Inbox and found her email address. I asked if she is willing to vet it. It will probably only takes a couple of minutes. She answered OK if it is a simple will. If it is anything complicated, she will ask me to get a professional to do it. Fair to me. I sent the email with the draft as an attachment and now waiting for her response.

Thank you environmentally friendly Internet.

BTW the link "global warming" leads to an interesting site BlurtIt where you can ask any question and get an answer. I am not only interested in answering questions, but also hope to use the site to increase environmental awareness which to us and our future generation is crucial. I want to find out if I answer a question related to the environment and put a link to a site relevant to the answer, I want to know if the link in the answer is clickable. Go to Can I put a clickable link in an answer in BlurtIt?. There is a link in the answer and it IS clickable, which in my opinion makes the site much more useful because sometimes a question need more than a couple of sentences to properly answer a question. If I am not wrong, the maximum number of word you can put in the answer is 100. Further, I don't think you can put images, especially screenshots in the answer which often helps greatly in making the answer much clearer. By answering questions and putting clickable links to environmental sites, one can help increase environmental awarenes

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Environmentally friendly travelling

It is now very nice that one is able to travel to any part of the world in a short time by air. However, one should take into consideration the amount of carbon dioxide (a green house gas) one would contribute to the atmosphere. Here is a site that calculate for you your carbon dioxide contribution by just inputing one's origin and destination. Go to Climate Care. All you have to do is to pick your origin and destination from a drop-down menu, fill in the box for the number of passengers, tick the radio button for one-way or return and click "Calculate my emissions". On the same site, you can also calculate carbon dioxide emission from the house by inputing the amount of electricity, gas and heating oil you use. Another section allow you to calculate the carbon dioxide emission from the car by inputing the miles/kilometre travelled per year, the type of fuel (petrol, diesel or L.P.G.) amd the vehicle fuel economy. There are also sections on offsetting your carbon emission. Interesting site you should visit.

You can also educate yourself about environmentally responsible travelling by subscribing for their newsletter (digital version) at International Ecotourism Society.

You can search for environmentally friendly hotels at Have a Green Summer or join the discussions for environmentally responsible travelling at the Google group Green Travel.

Dr. Zulkarnain says, "cycle to work."

Civil servants, including officers staying in the administrative capital, will be encouraged to cycle to work.

The move is to promote a healthy lifestyle and reduce vehicle smoke emission, parking problems and traffic congestion, said Federal Territories Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Zulkarnain Awang.

“It will also be cost-effective to cycle, especially with the increase in petrol prices, We are confident there will be good response. But before we can get civil servants to cycle, we have to ensure there are adequate facilities, such as the bicycle lanes. Cycling to work will not be made compulsory but civil servants and their families would be strongly encouraged to do so,I’m sure cycling will do most of us good. It will keep us healthy and a healthy person is a more effective worker.” Dr Zulkarnain said at the ministry’s Family Day celebration yesterday.

He added that for most civil servants staying in Putrajaya, cycling to work would not be a problem as the distance to their offices was just about 2km or less. Dr Zulkarnain said his ministry would get Putrajaya Corporation to look into providing more bicycle lanes and bicycle parking areas. He added that his ministry’s sports and recreational club had bought five bicycles and would loan it to members who wanted to cycle to work. More bicycles would be purchased if response was good.

The Star.