please be careful when u guys are in the fish house. seems that the diversity of visitors are increasing in our area. this cobra was caught by someone (HE is too shy to be named). he (...*cough...pirate...cough*...ahem...) doesn't want all the fame and glory. afraid that u guys might ask him to capture all the snakes around the fish house...
anyways, we called in on of our friends (something like spca) to bring this little guy away.
just be cautious, especially if u intend on walking near the grass/drain looking for lost car keys etc.
Just for laughs... :P
It has long been known...
I didn't look up the original reference.
A definite trend is evident...
These data are practically meaningless.
Of great theoretical and practical importance...
Interesting to me.
Read more here.
look what the strong winds did today...i'm glad i wasn't anywhere outside.
i took this picture on the way home this evening. the huge tree outside the bumiputra commerce bank was uprooted and landed on 3 cars. ouch! i do hope that no one was injured!
please be careful where u park next time my dear friends...
sorry for the bad quality photo...i was on a motor bike and yes, my camera phone is lousy...
A heads-up particularly for those with fishy business at the fish house:
PENANG: Water supply in 22 areas involving some 85,000 people will be disrupted for 12 hours from 7am on July 16.
Penang Water Supply Corporation Berhad (PBAPP) development manager Jaseni Maidinsa said the supply interruption was to facilitate important water works projects, like connecting new mains to existing ones in Jalan Thomas Bukit Dumbar and Bukit Dumbar Reservoir No 3.
"We are also doing electrical and mechanical maintenance work at the Bukit Dumbar Pumping Station as well as diverting a 900mm main beside Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM) office in Batu Uban," he added.
It is also to facilitate works to connect twin submarine pipelines to Pulau Jerejak to an existing main at the Bayan Baru Expressway and new raw water mains to an existing main at Sungai Dua Water Treatment Plant in Seberang Prai.
He said announcements would be made through the media and radio.
"We have also printed pamphlets for distribution in markets, night markets and hawker centres," he said.
Jaseni said the last water interruption that affected the whole state was in 2003.
He added that those who needed water distribution for funerals could call PBAPP's 24-hour hotline (04-5096509) a day in advance.
The places to be affected are Batu Maung, Batu Uban, Bayan Baru, Bayan Lepas, Bukit Dumbar, Bukit Gambier, Bukit Gelugor, Bukit Jambul, Cangkat Minden, Gelugor, Gertak Sanggul, Island Glades, Island Park, Pantai Jerejak (including Pulau Jerejak), Permatang Damar Laut, Relau, Sungai Ara, Sungai Dua, Sungai Nibong, Taman Brown, Teluk Kumbar and USM.
Supply to other areas and the whole Seberang Prai will not be affected.
Let's hope the 12 hours water disruption will really not be more than that!
The ocean is getting more and more acidic, and that's bad news for coral reefs. That's the word from University of Miami Rosenstiel School's Dr. Christopher Langdon (no relations to The Da Vinci Code's Robert Langdon :P) who spoke on "Possible Consequences of Increasing Atmospheric CO2 on Coral Reef Ecosystems," on Feb. 20 in Honolulu at the American Geophysical Union's 2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting.
Read more here.
"While we focus a great deal of attention on rising ocean temperatures and the bleaching incidents they cause in corals, we tend to overlook the other consequence of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on our corals: decreases in ocean pH," Langdon said. "Carbon dioxide in the ocean is creating a growingly acidic environment for corals, and this acidity could ultimately cause our reefs to waste away."
Read more here.
I've always said that the Government's venture into biodiesel (palm diesel) is the wrong way to go. Here's an article from The Washington Post:
Biofuels such as ethanol made from corn, sugar cane, switchgrass and other crops are being touted as a "green" solution for a large part of America's transportation problem. Auto manufacturers, Midwest corn farmers and politicians are excited about ethanol. Initially, we, too, were excited about biofuels: no net carbon dioxide emissions, reduction of oil imports. Who wouldn't be enthusiastic?
But as we've looked at biofuels more closely, we've concluded that they're not a practical long-term solution to our need for transport fuels. Even if all of the 300 million acres (500,000 square miles) of currently harvested U.S. cropland produced ethanol, it wouldn't supply all of the gasoline and diesel fuel we now burn for transport, and it would supply only about half of the needs for the year 2025. And the effects on land and agriculture would be devastating.
It's difficult to understand how advocates of biofuels can believe they are a real solution to kicking our oil addiction. Agriculture Department studies of ethanol production from corn -- the present U.S. process for ethanol fuel -- find that an acre of corn yields about 139 bushels. At an average of about 2.5 gallons per bushel, the acre then will yield about 350 gallons of ethanol. But the fuel value of ethanol is only about two-thirds that of gasoline -- 1.5 gallons of ethanol in the tank equals 1 gallon of gasoline in terms of energy output.Moreover, it takes a lot of input energy to produce ethanol: for fertilizer, harvesting, transport, corn processing, etc. After subtracting this input, the net positive energy available is less than half of the figure cited above. Some researchers even claim that the net energy of ethanol is actually negative when all inputs are included -- it takes more energy to make ethanol than one gets out of it.
But allowing a net positive energy output of 30,000 British thermal units (Btu) per gallon, it would still take four gallons of ethanol from corn to equal one gallon of gasoline. The United States has 73 million acres of corn cropland. At 350 gallons per acre, the entire U.S. corn crop would make 25.5 billion gallons, equivalent to about 6.3 billion gallons of gasoline. The United States consumes 170 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually. Thus the entire U.S. corn crop would supply only 3.7 percent of our auto and truck transport demands. Using the entire 300 million acres of U.S. cropland for corn-based ethanol production would meet about 15 percent of the demand.
It is argued that rather than using corn to make ethanol, we can use agricultural wastes. But the amounts are still a drop in the bucket. Using the crop residues (called corn stover) from corn production could provide about 10 billion gallons per year of ethanol, according to a recent study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The net energy available would be greater than with ethanol from corn -- about 60,000 Btu per gallon, equivalent to a half-gallon of gasoline. Still, all of the U.S. corn wastes would produce only the equivalent of 5 billion gallons of gasoline. Another factor to be considered: Not plowing wastes back into the land hurts soil fertility.
Similar limitations and problems apply to growing any crop for biofuels, whether switchgrass, hybrid willow, hybrid poplar or whatever. Optimistically, assuming that switchgrass or some other crop could produce 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre, over twice as much as we can get from corn plus stover, and that its net energy was 60,000 Btu per gallon, ethanol from 300 million acres of switchgrass still could not supply our present gasoline and diesel consumption, which is projected to double by 2025. The ethanol would meet less than half of our needs by that date.
Perhaps more important: The agricultural effects of such a large-scale program would be devastating.
Recently, there has been lots of excitement and media coverage about how Brazil produces ethanol for its automobile fuel and talk that America should follow its lead. But Brazil consumes only 10 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually, compared with America's 170 billion. There are almost 4 million miles of paved roads in America -- Brazil has 60,000. And Brazil is the leading producer of sugar cane -- more than 300 million tons annually -- so it has lots of agricultural waste to make ethanol.
Finally, considering projected population growth in the United States and the world, the humanitarian policy would be to maintain cropland for growing food -- not fuel. Every day more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes -- one child every five seconds. The situation will only get worse. It would be morally wrong to divert cropland needed for human food supply to powering automobiles. It would also deplete soil fertility and the long-term capability to maintain food production. We would destroy the farmland that our grandchildren and their grandchildren will need to live.
Old news but amazing nonetheless.
Read more about it here.
An aquaculturist from Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental has developed a technology that extends a fish's survival without water while in transit for several hours by virtually putting it into a deep sleep or in "suspended animation."
Bonifacio Comandante, Jr., invented the technology by undergoing a conditioning process in which the fishes, or any marine species, are held overnight in filtered, circulated seawater at about 30-degrees Centigrade without feeding them.
The fishes are transferred afterward to another tank filled with brackish water initially kept at four-degrees Centigrade, then gradually allowed to reach 18 to 20 degrees Centigrade.
An anti-stress conditioning and acclimatizing then follows by adding a mixture of a liquid solution called Buhi Blend, developed by Comandante, to the conditioning tank, immersing the fishes into it for four minutes after which the "stunned" fishes are arranged in cooled (18 to 20 degrees C) Styropor boxes lined with plastic bags.
The bags are later filled with medical oxygen and sealed for transport. The fishes are expected to regain consciousness and return to life after about nine hours.
Read more about it here.
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