Are You A Water Waster Or A Water Saver?

To find out whether you're a water-sipper or a water-slurper, take the following quiz. Then scroll below to rate your own water footprint.

Answer the following questions to see where you rank on the water-conservation meter:

How and why to make seedbombs

Fun and easy to make, seedbombs can be used to green up hard-to-access urban wasteland or in your garden at home

Seedbombs originated in seventies New York. The term was originally 'seed grenade' and comprised wildflower seeds, water and fertilizer all wrapped up in a condom. They were lobbed over fences onto empty lots, with the overarching aim of making neighbourhoods sprucer.

From these small beginnings grew the guerilla gardening movement itself, where vacant lots were turned into productive community gardens with vegetables and edible flowers on tap.

However, seedbombs are not just for guerilla-style gardening - they can also be used for planting at home. And thankfully, the art of making seed bombs has moved on since the seventies.



Josie Pearl Jeffery, who runs Seed Freedom, a Sussex-based company that specialises in seedbomb kits, holds workshops at gardening events and summer festival.

'Seedbombs have the protection provided by the outer coating of earth and clay and as such the seeds are less likely to be damaged by harsh weather conditions and eaten by insects, birds and rodents,' she says.

The seeds therefore have a better chance of germinating and growing into mature plants - which means fewer seeds are required because the rate of success is higher.

So that's the reasoning behind it, but what's the method?

How to make a seedbomb

Having attended one of Josie's workshops I can tell you how the seed bombs take shape:

1) Mould your clay and compost mixture with water until it is sticky.

2) Add your seed mixture, which can be salad or mixed wildflower seeds, for example, and then pat gently into a small ball around the size of one you'd use for ping-pong.

3) Once you have chosen an appropriate site you can push your ball into place - in a pot/a wall/window box etc.

4) Then ensure it is kept warm (try to avoid frosts) and moist with regular watering until the seeds start to germinate.



If you prefer to adopt the guerilla gardening approach and throw the seedbomb onto some derelict land what will happen?

Josie explains that there are two different outcomes which depend on the weather. The seed bomb will either keep its form and the seeds germinate and sprout from the ball and work their way out of it in time, or if it rains a lot the seedbomb dissolves and seeds will lie on the bare earth until they germinate either on the surface of the ground or get trampled.

Polystyrene and Plastic Packaging

In Malaysia, polystyrene are mainly used for food and electronic packaging. The main reason of its usage is the solid spongy material which is really light and a bad heat conductor and really cheap.

However currently people are encouraged to not use it because it is not biodegradable. But no one denies that this thing is one of the most creative invention in the world. I actually really like it too.

This applies to plastic bags too. Really user friendly, durable, waterproof, light.. what else? Again the same thing, has many functions but its not biodegradable.

But currently, there are plastic bags made from starch which can biodegrade easier when they end up in the land fill but people start to question the use of these edible materials for plastic bags. The question is, do you feel it's reasonable to use food to make plastics bags when we don't have enough food to feed the poor children in our own nation and the third world countries? Is it right?

So one way is used to reduced the production of polystyrene and plastic bags - reduce the usage.



Yes, it is possible if everyone can reduce the usage, replacing them with paper bags etc. But it is important to remember most of us are not financially stable. We don;t have trees that grows money for us. In our food courts, many food sellers they prefer polystyrene packaging because it is cheaper.

So maybe I thought, yes we should reduce the usage, however at the same time we should also think of ways how to make these things biodegradable. Rather than just completely cut the usage of these things. We shouldn't show hatred towards it, but think of ways to make it a better product because we all love plastic bags and polystyrene box. It so light, cheap and fluffy!

How to Make Compost

1.Choose a site that is handy to your garden and kitchen, yet out of plain sight.

2.You don't need a bin to make compost-a pile of leaves, grass clippings and other yard wastes will do-but a bin keeps the compost contained and looks neater. You can corral compost in a simple wire column made from a 4-foot wide by 8-foot long piece of stiff wire mesh.

How to Make Garbage Enzyme

Garbage Enzyme Pseudoscience

Taken from The Star Online

"I WISH to point out that a lot of the facts championed by the garbage enzyme movement is largely inaccurate and falls perilously into the category of pseudoscience. I feel compelled to correct some of the myths and misrepresentations.

Garbage enzyme is nothing more than vinegar produced from organic wastes. It is essentially homebrew vinegar except that starch-rich food like rice is replaced with kitchen waste. The key ingredient is the sugar that is metabolised by bacteria into alcohol which subsequently is reduced to acetic acid (vinegar).

Polar bear's epic nine day swim in search of sea ice

A polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687km (426 miles), a new study has revealed.

Scientists studying bears around the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska, claim this endurance feat could be a result of climate change.

Polar bears are known to swim between land and sea ice floes to hunt seals.

But the researchers say that increased sea ice melts push polar bears to swim greater distances, risking their own health and future generations.

Carbon cycle and carbon sinks.

Imagine in the earth, the carbon atom is being reused for thousand of years to make up grass, then eaten by a cow becoming the cow's fat, then humans eat the cow, so that carbon becomes our fat, then we die so the carbon returns to the soil which becomes the nutrient to the grass and then eaten by a cow again.

That was an illustrated example of the carbon cycle in my opinion.

Why do people care so much about carbon anyways?