China is Doing Its Part to Mitigate the Climate Crisis

China is often painted as the villain in the climate crisis. 

Victor Ortega writing in CLIMATETRADE on May 17, 2021 had pointed out that China generates around 30% of all global emissions – with more than 10,065 million tons of fossil carbon dioxide released. 

The New York Times on October 28, too, screamed that China’s emissions account for the largest share in the world right now. And that China burns more coal than every other country combined in order to power its factories and produce the massive amounts of steel and cement used in its construction projects. 

But to be fair to China, it is already doing something about it.

 

In fact, China is gearing up to phase out coal consumption and achieving its goal of carbon neutrality. 

And on Thursday, it submitted an emissions reduction plan that promised to peak carbon pollution before 2030, confirmed its goal to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 and slash its emissions intensity – the amount of emissions per unit of economic output – by more than 65 percent. 

Yet, Western powers continue to pressure China, questioning its sincerity and criticizing its target on climate change – which is irrational and unreasonable. 

CO2 emissions in developed countries have been going on for more than 150 years while developing countries (China included) should only be held responsible for the past 30 years or so. 

India on Wednesday had already dismissed calls to set forth a net-zero carbon emissions target, arguing such goals were not the solution to the climate crisis. Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav was cited by media as saying that historical blame for the climate crisis lay with developed nations. 

Therefore, the US and Europe have no moral basis to ask developing countries to slow down development in order to cut emissions.

The US in particular is a snake in the grass. You just can't trust them. 

In case you needed reminding, it was the Bush administration's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol signed by the Clinton administration, and the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement signed by the Obama administration that should make us skeptical of the US. 

Even if Joe Biden makes pledges, we cannot count on the promises made by his administration will be honored by the next administration. To be honest, I don't think I believe Biden either.

Whatever the case may be, commitments by governments are not enough. What the world needs now is not more rhetoric but decisive action. 

Tin Dredge ("Mesin Korek Timah")

Still, on the ‘Timah’ issue that is the talk of the town. At least, on my side of the town.

'Timah' is Malay for 'tin' and it has got nothing to do with a woman named Fatimah. 

And if you didn't manage to grasp the innuendo, never mind!

Yesterday, both Liverpool and Celtic hit their fans with lemons! 

In the Premier League, Brighton & Hove Albion came from two goals down to secure a deserved point and deny Liverpool victory at Anfield. 

Captain Jordan Henderson fired the Reds ahead in the fourth minute and then Sadio Mane headed Liverpool into a 2-0 lead twenty minutes later from a cross by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. 

The Seagulls fought back courageously – and they pulled one back on the brink of half-time before they scored an equaliser on 65 minutes to earn a 2-2 draw. 

A very poor game for Liverpool – in fact, it feels like a defeat! 

Celtic too had a disappointing game as Livingston frustrated the former to end this Scottish Premiership match with a 0-0 scoreline. 

The former had 85 percent possession but failed to do enough with it, and Livi even managed to reduce them to just two shots on target. Of course, it didn’t help that Giorgos Giakoumakis saw a late penalty saved. 

And so, Celtic stay in second, now one point behind league leaders Rangers but having played a game more. 

Saturday football sucks! It seems it never rains but it pours.

WSD 2021 WCD: 60 Registrations and Counting

We did it! We’ve secured 60 registrations todate for WSD 2021 World Children’s Day! A pat on the back for everybody!

Let’s go for 75. After all, we still have seventeen more days to go before registration closes.

#unexpectedvoices #worldspeechday #sabahbolehbah

When No One's Looking

Have you ever thought what beloved characters are up to when they're not on our screens or in our books saving the day or having adventures? 

Regular artist on Bored Panda, Ed Harrington creates artwork that let us have a peek into their daily lives!

 

Harrington describes his style as "illustrative realism and his humor as "dry referential satire".

LEGO’s Instructions for a Better World

Ahead of the crucial COP26 climate talks that start in Glasgow, Scotland this Sunday, LEGO are getting involved to urge world leaders to take note of children’s concerns on the climate crisis. 

In case you're wondering, they are not promoting any physical model – rather, they have mocked up a LEGO instruction booklet that offers “building instructions for a better world”. Essentially, it distils children’s views into a to-do list that will be handed out to delegates at COP26:

This special-edition handbook offers just 10 steps representing the “10 requests” to policymakers and which become LEGO instructions for a better world:

• Reduce pollution and waste 
• Increase the focus on protecting nature 
• Change laws and regulations around sustainability 
• Stop ignoring the problem: do more 
• Educate people of all ages 
• Introduce programs to reduce emissions
• Cooperate internationally to share knowledge and solutions
• Leaders, change your own behaviour and set examples
• Invest more in protecting the environment
• Help people and future generations

The above are based on studies conducted with more than 6,000 children aged 8 to 18 from around the world. 

And nearly half of the children told researchers they think about the environment once a week, while one in 10 thinks about it every day. Global heating is their No. 1 concern. 

A LEGO video clip on "Build The Change" intro:

 

Tim Brooks, the vice-president of environmental responsibility at LEGO, said the initiative sought to “give children a voice” at the climate talks. “Children are demanding that they and future generations are front of mind when it comes to creating policy”, he said. 

With companies under pressure to reduce their impact on the planet, LEGO have committed to reducing their absolute carbon emissions by 37% by 2032 (compared with their 2019 baseline). The toymaker has more than 150 people working on sustainability projects and is investing $400 million over three years. 

LEGO, which produce billions of plastic bricks a year, had unveiled their first 4x2 bricks made from recycled plastic in June of this year. The prototypes, made from PET plastic from discarded bottles, are the result of three years of experiments, with the next phase of testing expected to take at least a year. 

Brooks said he received about 1,000 letters a year from children that offered up both praise and criticism. Their feedback had spurred LEGO’s action on single-use plastic, which will be removed from their sets by 2025, as well as the work on recycled bricks. 

The company is showing leadership on the environment, he said, but acknowledged “there is always more to do”.

The Rebranding of Facebook Inc.

Facebook Inc are re-christening themselves Meta, decoupling their corporate identity from the eponymous social network mired in toxic content, and highlighting a shift to an emerging computing platform focused on virtual reality. 

“The metaverse is the next frontier”, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a presentation at Facebook’s Connect conference, held virtually on Thursday. “From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first”. 

The name change is the most definitive signal so far of the company’s intention to stake their future on a new computing platform – the metaverse, an idea born in the imaginations of sci-fi novelists. In Meta’s vision, people will congregate and communicate by entering virtual environments, whether they’re talking with colleagues in a boardroom or hanging out with friends in far-flung corners of the world. 

The erstwhile Facebook is hoping to parlay its social-media user base, comprising more than 3 billion people globally, into an audience that will embrace immersive digital experiences through devices powered by augmented and virtual reality software, a business already being aggressively pursued by Meta and their rivals. 

It is said that Meta may have other reasons to make changes to their corporate identity. Leaning harder into the metaverse lets the company appear to be diversifying the business at a time when they’re facing new pressures in the social media market. 

Younger rivals such as ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok are gaining traction among the under-25 age cohort, and Zuckerberg (right) said on Monday he is retooling Meta to focus on attracting young adults again. 

Building out the metaverse will also allow Meta to reduce their dependency on mobile operating-system and browser makers such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple Inc. to deliver services to consumers. The company seems increasingly aware that they don’t own the foundations of the digital real estate most users occupy. And that is likely to be the direction they’ll take Meta next. 

Meta aren’t the first tech giant to rebrand. Internet search leader Google changed their corporate name to Alphabet in October 2015, seeking to provide a stronger, more accountable corporate structure to oversee their disparate businesses, co-founder Larry Page said at the time. Alphabet became the holding company for Google, self-driving car developer Waymo, life-sciences subsidiary Verily and others, including a variety of experimental endeavors. 

Anyway, this corporate rebranding initiative is nothing new. Even non-tech brands have made their own attempts to create new corporate identities. In 2017, leather-goods maker Coach Inc, which also own the Stuart Weitzman and Kate Spade product lines, changed their name to Tapestry Inc. The following year, Michael Kors Holdings Ltd rechristened themselves Capri Holdings Ltd after agreeing to buy the Versace brand.

The Barca Villain is No More

Ronald Koeman has lost his job as head coach of Barcelona after 14 months in charge at the Nou Camp. 

Barca have picked up just 15 points from 10 games in La Liga and have already lost twice in the group stage of this season's Champions League. 

They are ninth in the table, six points adrift of the joint leaders after Rayo Vallecano won 1-0 against them on Wednesday. The loss was Barca's third in their last four games and it followed defeat in Sunday's Clasico to Real Madrid. 

Koeman was the guy who told Luis Suarez in the summer of 2020 that he had no future at the club. 

FYI, across six years at Camp Nou, Suarez had delivered 198 goals, four La Liga titles and a Champions League crown. You don’t say goodbye to a legend in a 40-second phone call, period! 

Yesterday, Celtic's first-half performance against Hibernian was exceptional as it netted them three goals to earn them another three points.

Two goals came within the first 14 minutes – and both were gifts as Anthony Ralston and Cameron Carter-Vickers were left all alone to apply a header to a free-kick, then a volley to a corner. 

The third Celtic goal was absolutely fabulous as Tom Rogic left a trail of defenders in his wake before Jota rolled the ball across goal for Kyogo Furuhashi to tap in, in the thirtieth minute.

Hibs pulled one back seven minutes later but that was all they could manage. The final score stood at 3-1 and the one-sided first half had been their undoing. 

Ange Postecoglou's team are now two points behind leaders Rangers after the first round of top-flight fixtures in the Scottish Premiership. 

And in the EFL Cup, second-half goals from Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi secured Liverpool's place in the quarter-finals at the expense of a resolute Preston North End side. 

Of course, this was an entirely different Liverpool side to the one which thrashed Manchester United 5-0 on Sunday – and despite dominating possession for long periods, the Reds didn’t play well at all. 

I guess what’s important, we won 2-0.

Red Howler Monkey Goes Metal

Do you know that howler monkeys produce among the loudest, deepest sounds of any land animal? 

They are aptly named for their cacophonous cries. When a number of howlers let loose their lungs in concert, often at dawn or dusk, the din can be heard up to three miles away. 

Male monkeys have large throats and specialized, shell-like vocal chambers that help to turn up the volume on their distinctive call. The noise sends a clear message to other monkeys: This territory is already occupied by a troop. 

I have also read that males use their roars to attract the ladies for mating and intimidate other males. 

The red howler species is the most common. Check out this video of a red howler monkey (Scientific name: Alouatta seniculus) from the La Senda Verde Animal Refuge located in Puente Yolosa in La Paz, Bolivia:

 

Given his excellent vocal stamina, there is no doubt, the howler monkey can make a good rock star!

Guitarist André Antunes took the liberty to add a very appropriate heavy metal soundtrack to the powerful roar of an earnest red howler monkey. According to Antunes and others, this primate has some serious vocals:

 

Wowee!

Air Guitar Strings for the Air Guitarist

For those who dream of rock superstardom, but perhaps lack the necessary musical talent, air guitar can provide hours of blissful escapism. 

And those who truly hone their air guitar skills can even opt to compete in the Air Guitar World Championships, held in Oulu, Finland, since 1996. 

Believe it or not, air guitaring is a passion, an activity that is no longer associated with the metal enthusiast anymore. It’s got a massive fan base and a world festival that kicks ass. Every year, thousands of fans congregate to watch these high-energy folks shred air guitars on stage – lip-syncing, exaggerated hand movement, head-banging and all. 

Meet Matt "Airistotle" Burns who strutted his way to success at the annual AGWC for two years in succession, 2016 and 2017:

 

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

But you should know that you can’t play air guitar without the proper air guitar strings! 

No problem! Chris and Cassy Nicholson, the mother and daughter team behind Craftily Inspired, have thought up this perfect gift for the ardent air guitar player. 

The unique design will work on any type of air guitar, or even any other instrument that requires strings. As the product description says: “Improve your performance with the newly designed set of Air Guitar Strings. Get the crisp airy sound you have been looking for with a new set of strings. Easy to install. Long lasting. Guaranteed to improve your skill level”. How very creative, LOL!

Happy Air Guitaring! 

BTW, this and other gag gifts are available for purchase through the Craftily Inspired Etsy shop.

In Celebration of Halloween

Halloween is coming soon. October 31. And everyone's excited to be spooked. 

DesignCrowd decided to get involved and were inspired to bring some scary yet creative challenges for their designers. They combined the familiarly famous and classic paintings with Halloween pop culture and characters. 

Check out my seven picks!

‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’?

McKinsey & Company came out with an insightful piece “‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours” (McKinsey Quarterly, September 08, 2021) that makes for interesting reading. 

If I understand the McKinsey research correctly, the pandemic is dismantling the way people look at their jobs. This has given rise to what McKinsey call the ‘Great Attrition’. 

And so, they deep-dive into the nature and characteristics of the so-called ‘Great Attrition’ and what’s driving it. 

The bottom line is that it is happening, it’s widespread and likely to persist – if not accelerate – and many companies don’t understand what’s really going on, despite their best efforts. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. If companies make a concerted effort to better understand why employees are leaving and take meaningful action to retain them, the ‘Great Attrition’ could become the ‘Great Attraction’. By seizing this unique moment, companies could gain an edge in the race to attract, develop, and retain the talent they need to create a thriving post-pandemic organization. 

Executives who think that employee attrition is easing – or is limited to particular industries – are misguided. Forty percent of the employees in our survey said they are at least somewhat likely to quit in the next three to six months. Eighteen percent of the respondents said their intentions range from likely to almost certain. These findings held across all five countries (i.e. Australia, Canada, Singapore, UK and the United States) that they surveyed were broadly consistent across industries. 

Businesses in the leisure and hospitality industry are the most at risk for losing employees, but many healthcare and white-collar workers say they also plan to quit. Even among educators – the employees least likely to say they may quit – almost one-third reported that they are at least somewhat likely to do so. 

Furthermore, these trends may persist. Fifty-three percent of the employers said that they are experiencing greater voluntary turnover than they had in previous years, and 64 percent expect the problem to continue – or worsen – over the next six months. 

Among the employees in their survey, 36 percent who had quit in the past six months did so without having a new job in hand. This is yet another way the ‘Great Attrition’ differs fundamentally from previous downturn-and-recovery cycles – and another sign that employers may be out of touch with just how hard the past 18 months have been for their staffers. 

It is claimed that US employees were the most likely to say they had left their old jobs without a new one (40 percent). At the industry level, 42 percent of healthcare and social-assistance workers who quit did so without having a new job – a reminder of the pandemic’s toll on frontline workers. One-quarter of white-collar employees who quit said they had done so without having a job lined up, a finding that held across income levels. 

This trend not only is poised to continue but could get much worse. Among employees who said they are at least somewhat likely to leave their jobs in the next three to six months, almost two-thirds added that they would do so without lining up new jobs. 

CEOs may be tempted to take solace in the fact that 60 percent of the employees in our survey said they were not at all likely to quit in the next three to six months. 

But employers shouldn’t consider this 60 percent “safe” from the prospect of attrition either. Options are increasing, and with more and more employers offering remote-work choices for hard-to-source talent, these employees could change their intentions. 

To stem the tide, senior executives must understand why employees are leaving. Many are struggling to do so. For example, when employers were asked why their people had quit, they cited compensation, work–life balance, and poor physical and emotional health. These issues did matter to employees – just not as much as employers thought they did. 

By contrast, the top three factors employees cited as reasons for quitting were that they didn’t feel valued by their organizations (54 percent) or their managers (52 percent) or because they didn’t feel a sense of belonging at work (51 percent). 

There is a real disconnect between employers and employees. The latter were far more likely to prioritize relational factors, whereas the former were more likely to focus on transactional ones. 

McKinsey suggest employers ask themselves the following questions: 

• Do we shelter toxic leaders? 
• Do we have the right people in the right places (especially managers)? 
• How strong was our culture before the pandemic? 
• Is our work environment transactional? 
• Are our benefits aligned with employee priorities? 
• Employees want career paths and development opportunities. Can we provide it? 
• How are we building a sense of community? 

McKinsey’s solution is simple really – start with a focus on the relational aspects of work that people have missed the most. 

I have always said, relationships matter. This study proves me right yet again. 

Red Devils Left Red-faced

Yesterday, Liverpool humiliated arch-rivals Manchester United and their under-pressure manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as they handed out a 5-0 thrashing in front of a stunned Old Trafford. 

An incredible game of football, for one side at least. The Reds dominated in every single department and even made scoring look easy. But the most alarming thing for the Red Devils is that their opponents weren’t even at their best. Indeed, if you were a Man U fan, it became painfully embarrassing to watch – as Jurgen Klopp's side took them apart on their own turf. 

Goal #1: After only five minutes, Liverpool sliced them open when Mohamed Salah fed a wide-open Naby Keita for a simple finish. 

Goal #2: Eight minutes later, it was Keita feeding Trent Alexander-Arnold who served up a perfect cross for Diogo Jota to slide in at the back post unmarked. 

Goal #3: This came in the thirty-eighth minute when again, Keita’s low cross saw Salah side-footing it past the goalie from six yards. 

Goal #4: Jota fed Salah in open space on the right and with nary a fuss, the latter scored (45+5). 

Goal #5: A superb through-ball by Jordan Henderson, bending a beautiful ball into the path of his speedy team-mate – and of course, Salah finished with aplomb in the fiftieth minute. 

If you don't know, the Egyptian (left) is the first opposition player to ever score a Premier League hat-trick at Old Trafford. His tally for the season is now 15 goals in 12 appearances, with five assists to boot. Incredible! 

In fact, by the time the final whistle sounded, huge sections of the stadium were deserted and who can blame the Man U fans?!?! 

Manchester United were fortunate it wasn’t much worse – but that was in its own way an indictment. Liverpool had mercifully decided to ease off and spare them further agony. For sure, Solskjaer’s Halloween nightmare had come early. 

A resounding victory for Liverpool and they remain just one point behind Thomas Tuchel's Blues. The Reds now rank second with 21 points in the Premier League table, while Manchester United are placed 7th with 14 points. 

Note: Sunday’s game was Manchester United’s heaviest ever defeat at home to Liverpool, whilst it was the first time they were whipped by 5+ goals at home without scoring themselves since February 1955 when they lost 5-0 against Man City.

On the Covid front – if you’re interested to know – things appear to be regressing. 

One in 55 people in England had Covid last week, according to the latest ONS figures, the highest rate since the end of January. Anyhow, the UK government have repeatedly ruled out reimposing stricter measures "immediately".

Life goes on. 

Muppet-ifying Disney's Haunted Mansion

If you’re familiar with Disneyland, then you’ll know about the Haunted Mansion, a ride attraction located at Disneyland Park (Disneyland Resort), Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World Resort), Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park (Paris) and Hong Kong Disneyland – although each premise differs in design. Riders go through a haunted mansion resided in by "999 happy haunts". 

And if you love the Muppets as well as the Haunted Mansion, you’re in for a treat! 

You’ll gonna dig the details in Disney's Halloween special “Muppets Haunted Mansion”. Muppets are cleverly incorporated into the attraction's art which then serves as the backdrop to the entire show. 

Check out this much-too-short Disney Insider video where production designer Darcy Prevost shares a little on how she incorporated Muppets, "easter egg" style, into this "love letter to the Haunted Mansion":

 

And here’s the trailer for “Disney's Muppets Haunted Mansion”, available to stream now on Disney+:

 

It stars Will Arnett, Taraji P Henson, Yvette Nicole Brown, John Stamos, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, and more.

Blue is Out of Stock

On October 10, I had blogged about food and fuel shortages in the UK.

Now the US seems to be running out of everything. Supply-chain bottlenecks caused record shortages of everyday products from household goods and electronics to cars, food, and raw materials. 

For shoppers, empty shelves can be jarring, spurring panic-buying sprees. It's often the first sign people see that something may be wrong with the global supply chain. But, shortages are typically indicators of issues that have plagued the industry for months. 

I suppose you can say it all started because of Covid. 

In 2020, coronavirus shutdowns all over the world wreaked havoc on the global supply chain. Since, lingering virus-mitigation measures continue to limit efforts to return the supply chain to pre-pandemic levels. 

Also, industry players limited worker levels due to fears of the further spread of Covid-19 within their workplaces. In China, port terminals temporarily shuttered as a result of the country's Covid zero-tolerance policy, spawning backlogs at some of the world's largest ports. 

The world economy is out of sync because parts of it were forced to go offline when the pandemic started and getting all the industry players back in line at the same time is extremely challenging. And as countries open up again, demand for products is soaring. 

"All parts of the supply chain, most of which are built on 'lean' principles (no slack, little redundancy, from truck drivers to inventory in warehouses), were not prepared for this increase", Tony Pelli (right), Practice Director of Security & Resilience at BSI said by way of explanation. "While consumer demand can increase in a matter of months, it takes more time to increase port capacity, build warehouses, hire employees, etc, to meet that demand".

And the color blue has become a victim too. For some odd reason, it made the news!  

Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel NV are running out of ingredients to make some shades of blue – the latest fallout from the global supply-chain disruptions that are spreading across manufacturers. 

“There is one basic color tint that is extremely difficult to get”, Chief Executive Officer Thierry Vanlancker said on Wednesday after publishing third-quarter earnings. “It’s creating complete chaos”! 

It didn’t appear out of the blue (no pun intended) but paint makers, which typically rely on hundreds of additives and chemicals, have warned for months of higher costs and logistical issues. 

And while demand is coming back to 2019 levels as some countries appear to be getting past the worst of the pandemic, the installed capacity for making raw materials hasn’t changed, Vanlancker said. 

I daresay this issue of supply and demand imbalance is happening in many countries – and it’s going to last for quite a while. Already, it is claimed that supply chain breaks will continue well into 2023. We will just have to live with it. 

Blue, blue, my world is blue!