Practice (15th of February)

On the 15th of February, a public holiday for the entire nation, members of the Toyota Eco Rangers club went to school to attend an Eco Music Band practice for our upcoming performance at MPC on the 8th of March instead of sleeping in at home. The practice began at 8.30 am with us practicing our old drum solos, and was followed by us perfecting the beats to our Katy Perry-Fireworks parody. We then invented a new drum solo, entitled 'Jungle'. After perfecting the beats to 'Jungle', we then rehearsed our entire performance according to the sequence we have determined, and timed it as well. We all agreed that the timing of our performance was fine, but a little more fine-tuning had to be made to our songs, especially for people who were absent from the practice as a lot of changes were made to our performance during the practice. The practice ended at 12pm.

Will My Plastic Bag Still Be Here in 2507?

How scientists figure out how long it takes your trash to decompose.

By Juliet LapidosPosted Wednesday, June 27, 2007, at 6:20 PM ET

How long will those bags last?Starting July 1, most large grocery stores in the state of California will be legally required to recycle plastic shopping bags. In Europe, even stricter anti-plastic measures are gaining traction. Retailers in Modbury, England, for example, recently committed to an outright plastic-bag ban. News reports have cited a statistic that the ubiquitous receptacles take 500 years to break down in landfills. How do we know?Actually, we don't. Plastic bags have only been around for about 50 years, so there's no firsthand evidence of their decomposition rate. To make long-term estimates of this sort, scientists often use respirometry tests. The experimenters place a solid waste sample—like a newspaper, banana peel, or plastic bag—in a vessel containing microbe-rich compost, then aerate the mixture. Over the course of several days, microorganisms assimilate the sample bit by bit and produce carbon dioxide; the resultant CO₂ level serves as an indicator of degradation.

So, where does the 500-year statistic come from? Although standard polyethylene bags don't biodegrade, they do photodegrade. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, polyethylene's polymer chains become brittle and start to crack. This suggests that plastic bags will eventually fragment into microscopic granules. As of yet, however, scientists aren't sure how many centuries it takes for the sun to work its magic. That's why certain news sources cite a 500-year estimate while others prefer a more conservative 1,000-year lifespan. According to some plastics experts, all these figures are just another way of saying "a really, really long time."

Sometimes, even banana peels don't decompose once they reach the landfill. For sanitary reasons, modern landfills are lined on the bottom with clay and plastic to keep waste from escaping into the soil and are covered daily with a layer of earth to reduce odor. The landfill, then, acts like a trash tomb—the garbage within receives little air, water, or sunlight. This means that even readily degradable waste objects, including paper and food scraps, are more likely to mummify than decompose.

MIRACLE workshop (14th of Februrary)

On the 14th of February, an extremely significant date for couples around the world, interns of UPM's MIRACLE project who came from various parts of the world did something much more noble than making their significant others happy-they enlightened young minds belonging to members of our school's Toyota Eco Rangers club on the significance of saving the environment. Five young interns came to our school to give an interesting, informative and to a certain extent, humourous presentation which covered many aspects of saving the environment such as the current state of our environment, the implications of not saving our environment, and finally, the numerous ways we can save the environment which can be summed up into a simple acronym-the 5R's. The interns came from four different countries, which included Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and finally, Germany.

The 5R's representing Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, and Recycle is a very effective method of doing our part to save our environment. Rethink is the first of the five R's because we should all rethink before we opt for using or doing anything that could impact our environment negatively. Plastic bags which take generations to break down are a good example. If we do not need it, why should we use it? Reduce, which comes after Rethink, means that if we really do need to do or use anything detrimental to the environment, we should reduce doing so, to the best of our capabilities. Reuse simply means that instead of throwing away things that can be reused such as plastic bags and plastic bottles, we should maximize their usage by reusing them. Repair means that anything broken that can be repaired, such as broken furniture or simple electrical appliances should be repaired and reused to prevent the wastage of natural resources and the generating of completely unnecessary waste. The final step of the 5R's is Recycle. If all of the steps above fail, we should recycle what we can, because ultimately, recycling is the best way to save the environment.

After introducing the 5R's to us, the trainees then proceeded to show us the entire series of short clips created by Animal Planet entitled 'The Animals Save the Planet' which was humourous, creative and wildly original. Members who attended the workshop erupted into peals of laughter upon watching the clips, and it was apparent that the clips were a good, interesting way of educating the masses on the various ways they could save the environment.

After showing the short clips to us, the trainees then proceeded to divide attendants of the workshop into five groups who were pitted against each other in the game we played. Each group was given a list of things, such as 'paper' and 'broken furniture' and asked to classify each item on the list according to the 5R's. The Purple team emerged victors of the game, and were presented with a bag of sweets as a reward.

Following the interesting game, each of the trainees then proceeded to introduce each of their respective countries to us by showing us Powerpoint presentations bearing interesting information about their country to us. Each country was different and unique, in its own way.

The MIRACLE workshop came to an end after each trainee has introduced their respective countries. After our school presented the trainees with a token of our appreciation, attendants of the workshop took a group photo with the trainees, before everyone parted ways. It was en interesting, enlightening experience for all members of the Toyota Eco Rangers club and if I were to be given the opportunity of attending a MIRACLE workshop once again in the near future, I would definitely agree to do so.

Practice (7th of February)

The meeting started off with members practicing the parody of 'Fireworks' by Katy Perry. Siti Sarah and Niraanjana, the heads of Sri Aman's Eco Music Band, attempted to create beats for every member's instrument. We the continued practicing and attempting to find the right beats for our instruments, following which we practiced every song properly, complete with singing. That was followed by us practicing our old drum solos, which went smoothly as most of us remembered our respective beats. We then learnt up our new song, created by Niraanjana which was entitled 'The Worm Song'. The practice ended at 4.30 pm, with every single one of us hoping that all our hard work would pay off in the form of a spectacular performance during the opening ceremony of Anugerah Hijau.

Bye-bye, Eishatur :/

Farewells and goodbyes are never easy. Not a single soul on the planet wants to part ways with the things or people they have come to love, but likewise, not a single soul on the planet will be spared the experience of doing so.

This post is to honour a beloved member of ours, a member who has dedicated much of her time spent at our school to contribute towards our club in the best way she can. With her witty quips and humorous remarks, Eishatur Rodhiah, a loyal member of our club since 2008, has brightened up many otherwise typical and mundane meetings.

Hence, our club would like to thank Eishatur Rodhiah for her unwavering commitment and dedication towards the club and her assigned tasks, and would like to wish her luck at her new school. We'll miss you, Eishatur :)

Eco Music Band Practice (24th of January)

In line with our upcoming performance for the opening ceremony of Anugerah Hijau 2011, we had our first Eco Music band practice of the year. The practice began at 2.30pm with members attempting to sing our parody of 'Fireworks' once again, and just like the last time such an endeavour was attempted, most of our members found pitch of the song too high, which was why we spent a good portion of our practice time to adjust the pitch of the song. When attempts to make the song relatively easier for our members to sing failed, we decided to forget about the song and try to sing our 'Just a Dream' parody instead. The song was relatively easier to sing, though a few adjustments had to be made to the lyrics to synchronize them with the melody of the song.

Members then sat according to the seating order we shall use on the actual day of our performance, we didn't manage to play our instruments at all, though we managed to get the hang of singing the songs. The meeting ended after Farhanah discussed the dates of our next practices with Eishatur, Niraanjana and Siti Sarah.

Man's Best Friend... Abused?

Toy poodle abusers still not found

LIVE THE MOMENT
By DAWN JEREMIAH

IT amazes me how law enforcement authorities deal with criminal offenses sometimes. Really, what does it take for them to start moving and get something done? How difficult is it to investigate or even catch the culprits whose names, addresses and even car number plates have been tipped off to them?

Most of you would have already read or heard about this, but for those not in the know, I am talking about the havoc surrounding the toy poodle abuse video that has gone viral from Facebook, to YouTube and around the world.

The video was first uploaded on Facebook on Jan 21 by an individual who has requested to remain unnamed. The video was downloaded and went viral soon after. I first read about it in Singapore Straits Times’STOMP website on Jan 24; thumbs up to them for being quick on their feet, highlighting such an appalling case of animal cruelty.

Although animal abuse is something that I absolutely cannot tolerate, I just had to watch it. And watched it, I did. I will spare you the heartbreaking details but let’s just say there was a lot of slapping, punching, pushing, shoving, slamming, throwing and kicking.

All this just to “train” the poor puppy to stand on its hind legs. The toy poodle was called by the name “Sushi” in the video and measures only about one and a half feet tall.

Cruel: The YouTube footage showing a man abusing the poodle by trying to get it to stand on its hind feet.

Which makes me question the mentality of the dog owners. Who, in their right mind, would insist that a dog uses two legs instead of four? Don’t they know that dogs can’t do that, even more so, for a long period of time? Who are they to defy nature?

To avoid cases like this from happening again, how do we ensure that dog owners take proper care of their pets? There is no real way of assuring that, as even children get physically and emotionally abused by their own parents.

Remember back in October 2010, a photo of two teenage boys hanging a dog on a string surfaced? That photo caused an uproar after a popular local actress posted the photo on her Twitter account. Sure, that gesture got everyone talking about it. But alas, that was an outdated photo from many years ago and the two boys were found out to be Mexican, not even Malaysian.

But this time, it is definitely apparent that the abusers of the toy poodle are Malaysian, from their localised Mandarin and Cantonese accents that could be heard throughout the duration of the 15-minute video.

To date, over a thousand concerned Malaysians have signed an online petition to catch the culprits. They also launched an elaborate investigation on Facebook, scanning walls, friends lists, photos and putting two and two together, of who the abusers may be. All that was done within a day and there were many leads to the names and identities of the abusive couple.

The alleged dog owner even had many photos in her Facebook profile showing the toy poodle named “Sushi” standing up.

There was also another unnamed dog who appeared in several photos, standing up. Who knows the amount of abuse that went behind each photo. There were also photos of her in an outfit, which was identical to an outfit seen in the video, strewn on the floor.

The Facebook investigators also identified the alleged abuser in some of her photos, pointing out the similarities in hair style, hair colour and the fact that both the abuser in the video and the man in the photo wore identical gold rings on their right index fingers.

Authentic or not, this is as far as laymen can go. What else is there to do, take matters into our own hands?

It pains me to ponder on whether the authorities are being selective in their cases. Are we that shorthanded in manpower? Animal abuse using brute force happens all the time, and this was just one of the cases that just happened to be caught on video.

Perhaps the video wasn’t moving enough for them? Perhaps they didn’t even bother to watch the video?

I think it is great that the SPCA Selangor, Malaysian Animal Rights Society, Malacca Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Veterinary Services Department are taking some form of action to track down the abusers.

As much as we want the guilty parties to face the law, it would be helpful if the call for the maximum fine of RM50,000 for animal abusers gets approved, instead of the miserable RM200 from 1953. Just watch the video and look into Sushi’s big brown eyes begging you to help him.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=central&file=/2011/1/29/central/7895968