Humankind's Best Friend

Dogs are known to be humankind's best friends. You can talk to them for hours and they will listen with rapt attention and without a word of complaint. These pictures were taken from "People Who Look Like Their Pets" by Jimmy Ruska.

Are You Observant?

I found these in NIEHS Kids Page. How our eyes can deceive the way we perceive things! Try to figure out the following pictures.

Which figure in the picture is the tallest?

One face or two side views of a face?

Do you see one man or several people?

Two elderly faces or a larger scene?

A man playing a horn or a woman's face?

Let's try some word games. What do you see in the following words?

The following pictures are not animated. Focus on a a spot in a picture and everything will start moving.

Can you see a man's face hidden in the beans?

How many faces can you find?

How many horses can you spot?

Vietnamese Spring Roll

Last Sunday I was invited to a Vietnamese spring roll lunch. Before trying out the spring rolls, we were served chicken porridge, which was pretty good. But highly anticipated was the Vietnamese spring roll. We were each given a plate and left to our own devices after the hostess showed us how to use the Vietnamese spring roll skin to wrap the various ingredients spread out on the table. Each skin is to be dipped in a bowl of water to soften it before it can be used to wrap the various ingredients.

Unlike the Chinese spring roll skin, the Vietnamese version is almost transparent, allowing you to see the rich colours of the ingredients.

Many of course fumbled in making a spring roll as it is a common tendency to put too much of the ingredients onto the wrapper. Some created monstrosities; others had one end of the roll fall out and along with it the ingredients, much to the amusement of the others. Part of the pleasure of eating the spring roll lies in the act of wrapping the ingredients and the choice of ingredients you put in.

What makes it distinctively different is the sauce. When asked how the sauce was made the hostess laughingly said that she would tell me later. But I suspected that it was a combination of light soy sauce with a dash of fish sauce which the Vietnamese are so fond of using in their cooking, and of course a sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds.

The choice of ingredients for making spring rolls is limited only by your imagination. So, dear readers, feel free to experiment!

Chicken porridge with shredded ginger and chopped spring onions and parsley

Fried eggs cut into thin strips

Grounded peanuts

Deep fried crispy “yu tiao” or bread stick cut into tiny rings



Pork floss

Fried hard tofu cut into tiny squares

Sliced canned pork luncheon meat

Shredded carrot

Sliced turnip and cucumber

Bean sprouts and lettuce

The special soy sauce with sesame seeds

A brand of Vietnamese spring roll skins

Vietnamese spring roll skins

Dipping the skin in a bowl of water to soften it

The result

The delicious, crunchy Vietnamese roll

The Nine Emperor Gods

The procession in honour of the nine emperor gods or Jiu Wang Ye on Saturday night drew thousands of spectators who flocked the designated streets of Batu Pahat to witness it. Hundreds of devotees took part in the procession which included lion dances and a dragon dance. The procession meandered through the streets in Batu Pahat before ending at the bank of the river near the wet market to send the nine emperor gods off in a fishing boat. Also in the procession were devotees who had their cheeks skewered with long metal rods.

The nine emperor gods are very often known as the 9 north star gods since they are gods of the stars or planets.

Since the arrival of the Nine Emperor Gods is believed to be through the waterways, the procession ended at the river bank near the old wet market.

The nine north stars

Sending the emperor gods off.

Devotees in uniform white T-shirts awaiting the signal to move on

A paper steed fit for an emperor god

Devotees doing penance by having their cheeks skewered with long metal rods

The snake man

Disposable Chopstick Scare

This morning I received an email warning me of the perils of eating with disposable chopsticks, and it was only last night that I was eating food with a pair of disposable chopsticks at Big Orange. Some would be convinced of the truth and some would discount it as an urban legend. However, I would leave to it you to decide on the accuracy of the contents of the email:

Bamboo used in making disposable chopsticks

While reputable manufacturers would use good quality bamboo, others would use waste material from making boards and planks.

A production facility in central Vietnam




Bleaching chopsticks with sulfur dioxide & Hydrogen Peroxide

Both these chemicals are known to cause asthmatic attacks in asthmatics, rashes and abdominal upsets for those sensitive to these chemicals.

The drying process


Packing chopsticks for export to Taiwan and Japan



Wrapping chopsticks.

Note that throughout the whole process, the chopsticks are handled with bare hands.

An unsuspecting customer


Inside a chopstick


Millions of "monkeys" in it

Inside a chopstick magnified. Lodged in these holes are the chemicals used in bleaching the chopsticks to give them that white colour so loved by chopstick users.

Conclusions from an experiment conducted by a primary school student:

1. chopsticks soaked in water for one week stink

2. Green pea germinated in the water requires a longer growing period and stops growing after reaching 5-6 cm before it dies

3. Smoke from burning these chopsticks is found to be acidic.

What happened to these used chopsticks?

It is unusual that the writer would use an experiment conducted by a primary school student to substantiate his claims. However, a report from the Association for Asia Research did cast doubts on the safety of disposable chopsticks (read here for more details). On the other hand, Snopes.com dismissed it as an urban legend (read here for more details).

While there is concern over the use of harmful chemicals in chopstick manufacturing, a greater worry is the recycling of used chopsticks for reuse as reported in Reuters in August 2007 (Read here for more information).

The sensible solution dear readers, is to pack a pair of chopsticks whenever you go for your meals. Alternatively, check the manufacturer's name and address or contact information on the wrapping. As a last measure, bring the chopsticks close to your nose as sulfur dioxide has a strong, recognizable odour.

SHORT TAKE

Disposable Chopsticks

On an average, 23 to 25 billion disposable chopsticks are used every year in Japan (around 200 per person). Of this, 90 percent is imported and 10 percent is made domestically. If put end to end, the chopsticks will l stretch from Tokyo to the southern city of Fukuoka in Kyushu!

From http://dolphin.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sanshiro/, in Japanese.
- Eco Special Interest Group (EcoSIG), Japan.