50 things to do to change the world to a better place!

50 ways to make the world a nicer place; [3 STAR Edition]
RYAN PARRY and WILFRED FROST. The Daily Mirror. London (UK): Oct 1, 2004. pg. 6

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People:
Harvey, Eugenie
Author(s):
RYAN PARRY and WILFRED FROST
Section:
Features
Publication title:
The Daily Mirror. London (UK): Oct 1, 2004. pg. 6
Source type:
Newspaper
ProQuest document ID:
703541241
Text Word Count
1314
Document URL:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=703541241&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=17206&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Abstract (Document Summary)
6 REFUSE plastic bags wherever possible. Every person in the UK uses up to 134 plastic bags every year, a total of eight billion bags that sit idle in huge land-fill sites.
16 TURN off appliances at the mains. If everyone in the UK turned off their TV overnight it would save enough energy to floodlight 250,000 Premiership football matches.
17 RECYCLE your mobile phone. There are 15 million mobiles replaced in the UK every year which equates to 1,500 tonnes of landfill.

Full Text (1314 words)
(Copyright 2004 MGN LTD)
DO you smile every day, have a bath with your partner or drink from mugs rather than plastic cups?
If so, you are making the world a better place. A new book claims there are at least 50 ways to make the planet a better place - for less than a fiver. And the writer spreading the word on how to improve our lives is Eugenie Harvey.
Eugenie wrote the book after becoming frustrated and unfulfilled in her job as a financial PR.
Here's how you can make a difference:

1 WRITE to someone who inspired you. Praising someone for doing something great will act to encourage them to do it more. Eugenie's provides a postcard to do just that.

2 GIVE your number to five people in your street -- being friendly to your neighbours creates a better atmosphere. Helpfully the book provides five "I'm your neighbour" slips.
3 CHEW less gum. We spend about pounds 150 million a year cleaning chewing gum off
the streets in the UK. A point illustrated in the book with two pages stuck together by gum.
4 PLANT a Christmas tree - they suck in carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen. A shocking 33 foot
ball pitches of trees are cut down every minute worldwide. The book includes a packet of five Scots Pine seeds that will grow you a Christmas tree for 2012.
5 LEARN to be friendly in a foreign language - our schools are home to over 300 languages. Eugenie's book helpfully provides a table listing greetings in several different languages.
6 REFUSE plastic bags wherever possible. Every person in the UK uses up to 134 plastic bags every year, a total of eight billion bags that sit idle in huge land-fill sites.
7 READ a story to a child - remember how your imagination was captivated as a kid. It's your turn to pass on that feeling.
8 FIT at least one energy-saving light bulb. If every British household fitted just three bulbs, enough energy would be saved to supply the entire country's urban lighting.
9 LEARN basic first aid - it can take just four minutes for someone with a blocked airway to die, but eight minutes for an ambulance crew to arrive. You could save a life.
10 SMILE and smile back. It takes half as many muscles to smile as to frown and it makes you and others feel twice as good.
11GO by public transport. A double-decker bus carries the same number of people as 40 cars. And it's going there anyway.
12HAVE a bath with someone you love. An average bath uses 65 litres of water, that's 65 litres saved.
13 IF it says 30mph, DO 30 mph - driving at 35 mph you are TWICE as likely to kill someone you hit as at 30 mph.
14 TURN your thermostat down by one degree. You'll cut an average of pounds 25 a year off your heating bills and do wonders for the environment.
15 GET fitter, feel better. Obesity is a huge problem, try walking more, take the stairs, not the lift.
16 TURN off appliances at the mains. If everyone in the UK turned off their TV overnight it would save enough energy to floodlight 250,000 Premiership football matches.
17 RECYCLE your mobile phone. There are 15 million mobiles replaced in the UK every year which equates to 1,500 tonnes of landfill.
18 SPEND time with someone older - people from a different generation know stuff you don't.
19REGISTER online as an organ donor. Nearly 400 people died Last year while waiting for a transplant. Register now at www.uktransplant.org.uk
20 GIVE your change to charity. If everyone in the UK donated 1p a week millions a year would go to good causes.
21WATCH less TV - only turn on the set when you KNOW what it is that you want to watch.
22 LEARN at least one good joke. Laughing tones your stomach, lowers your blood pressure and makes you healthier.
23 TURN off unnecessary lights. An office lit up all night wastes enough energy to make 1,000 cups of tea.
24 FIND out how your money is invested - your pension could be funding the arms industry.
25 USE your will to good effect. If you don't make one, the government can unduly tax anything your loved ones will get.
26 HAVE more meals together. Research suggests children who have meals
with their parents are less likely to suffer from anxiety or stress.
27 USE a mug not a plastic cup. Every year more than six billion plastic, polystyrene and paper cups are used, few of these are recycled.
28 GIVE blood. Nearly 2.5 million pints of blood are
used in England alone every year and only six per cent of the UK population who are eligible to give blood currently do so.
29 PAY more when you buy at a charity shop.
30 SEIZE the moment. Be inspirational to those around you by setting a good example and encouraging others.
31RECYCLE your computer. When you upgrade, contact www.computer- aid.org and www.tfs.org.uk who will find a home for your old machine in a Third World country.
32 BAKE something for a friend. A gift that has involved your time will mean so much more to them.
33 TURN off the tap while brushing your teeth. Leaving the tap on wastes thousands of litres of water every year.
34 DO something you think you can't do. You don't know if you will be bad at something until you have tried it.
35 RECYCLE your books. Share them or give them away. A used book is just as good as a new one and you'll save some paper.
36 BUY fairly traded products - Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.
37TAKE time to listen - do not try to solve someone's problems, just let them share their troubles with you.
38 LET at least one car in on every journey. Reduce road rage by allowing others to go in front of you.
39 DON'T overfill your kettle. Using only the water you need saves water and electricity.
40 JOIN something. Get together in a group or club with others. A list of clubs can be found in the book.
41 SHOP locally. They need your custom to survive.
42 HUG someone. Loved ones want to be touched and held, so extend this love to more people.
43 RECYCLE your specs - 200 million people around the world need glasses every year, but most can't afford them.
44 GROW something with a child - it will bring the child and you a sense of achievement and take their attention away from the TV and the PlayStation.
45 REPORT dumped rubbish to your council - it is obliged to clear up unwanted rubbish. Visit www.tagish.co.uk to get your local council's number.
46 USE both sides of every piece of paper. Over 350 million trees are cut down every year for the paper used in UK offices alone.
47 PASS this copy of the Daily Mirror on to others - this will allow everyone to do the things we suggest.
48 SEND the author an action - what would you like a million people to do, let her know so she can share your thoughts with others.
49 LEARN more, do more. Spread the ideas you think are worthwhile, both by carrying them out and telling others about them.
50 DO something for nothing. Helping people or organi sations near you in your spare time will give great satisfaction.
CHANGE the World For A Fiver is on sale in bookstores, surprisingly, at pounds 5.

where should I go and what should I do?

I am confused by life now, I am not clear where to go and what to do?
It seems people around me all have their lives, their jobs, their joy and their goals for life. I don't.

I am lost, like a child in a desert, totally lost. But a child in a desert knows where he needs to go, and what he needs to get. He needs to get out of there, he needs some food, some water and some directions. I don't.

If I need to do business, I don't know where to set my hands from; If I need to work, I don't know what sort of job suits me, how can I do it well. Without a goal, where am I aiming myself to...

It seems I am lazy and slow now, lost from the active, joyful and clever me back to years ago.

Time flies. Wrinkles start drawing on my face, clever you, will you be able to tell me where the time flies to? Clever you, will you be able to guide me a bit?

British English (4), what to say to praise someone?

In life or in work, we also need to praise someone or often get some positive feedback from colleagues, leader, or just simply others... what would they say and what would you say when you see something is positive and interesting?

Good, well done, great, brilliant, excellent, superb, smashing, marvellous, fantastic, you are a star, this is amazing, wow, not bad at all,

and...?

British English(3), How to ask time?

Daily life is colorful that you even have many ways of asking the TIME.

Normally, as foreigners, we would say, do you know the time, please? Or, what time is it, please?

But, formally and very frequently, I think English people would say, Do you have the time, please? Or do you have the right time, please? Similarly, have you got the time?

"You don't have the right time, do you? " is another way of asking, which may confuse learners a bit, but sometimes, lanuage can't be explained. When you are in the same situation for a bit longer time, you will have the same feeling towards it and would express yourself in the same way.

In China, sometimes, people would ask, Do you have a Watch, please?(what time is it?) Have you got your watch with you? (Normally to your friends.)

British English (2), How to call a young man?

In English, there are many titles for young man, like, young boy, man, mate, bloke, chap, lad, folk.

When the first time, I was called young lad, I didn't really know what it meant but only by guessing it was a title for me.
Another day, three young men came to live in our hotel. They were ever so nice and asked to taste my cooking, even didn't mind that was left over. One of the young man, who properbably was at the same age as I am, called me " Son" with lots of passions.

In Chinese, when you want to abuse somebody(mainly for joking amoung young males), you call other(s) SON(s), which is kind of Dirty Words. But, I do understand them, who are very nice people and make me one of their pals.

Be couraged

I was refused by a "small job" application recently which I thought was ridiculous since I had the very similar experiences to the post applied and I am capable for all of their requirements, but I even wasn't short listed for an interview.

But, as Lowery said, don't be discouraged, the more No's you get, the closer to a yes you become!

History

Chinese People are hard working and intelligent, and peaceful.

History of China is worth to have a read, recalling thousands of years human's paces and fight for life.

History of World website is a very educative one to discover about...

If we don't treat the history correctly, we may soon make the same mistakes. Be critical, be faithful, be fair to history.

Postgraduate Ball

Brookes University, business school, organized a postgraduate ball in Randolph Hotel, the most luxury one in Oxford, last night.

Lots of my friends and classmate turned up in the hot weather, which even made the air-con useless plus the over 200 people there.

I have been struggling at the begining of my study here in the UK, but now, I appreciated it so much for the help that I got from these serious, sincere, experienced and motivated lectures. I had some chat with many lectures as well as acquaintances.

A couple of friends followd us home to continue the cheerful atmosphere even it was late. We opened a bottle of Champagne and had some nice sea food in our lovely garden. The weather cools down, making the day such a beautiful one.

When I called my parents today, they told me it was my birthday according to Lunar Calendar.

In England, when the temp is over 30 degree, we think it is simply too hot, though it was a piece of cake for me before, but people change when they are in different circumstances, fortunatly or unfortunatly.

When we are rich

A friend showed me a small article, and I will just try to tranlate some to you here,...

When we are poor, we feed pigs; when we are rich, we feed dogs.
When we are poor, we eat at home; when we are rich, we eat at resturant.
When we are poor, we play small glass ball, kneeling down on the floor at the corner of a street; when we are rich, we play golf standing on the medow.

When we are poor, we ride bicycle on the street; when we are rich, we ride bicycle in the sitting room.
when we are poor, we have lots of friends; when we are rich, we have many bodyguards.
when we are poor, we check price sticker before buying clothes; when we are rich, we check the quality sticker before buying the clothes.
When we are poor, we drive a small car for showing off; when we are rich, we drive mercedes for supermarket.

When we are poor, we pretend to be rich; when we are rich, we pretend to be not...

Weather forcast

This morning, I poured away a cup of unwanted water to the floor outside the door to the garden.

And, then I saw two ants trying hard to swim out of it. The one behind said to the other, "Oh, dear, the weather forcast said this morning that today's weather was going to be perfect alright, but, you see, such a heavy shower, like raining cats and dogs! What a horrible day!"

The one in front said, " Strange enough, I didn't feel nor sense anything unusual, ai, nowadays, I don't understand the weather nor the weather forcast anymore..., come on, let's get out of here."

I sunddenly realized that I have disturbed someone else's life without awareness.

You see how much damage we have done to the planet that we have been rely on from 4 million people about 10,000 years ago to 6 billion today?

Do something about it and SAVE OUR EARTH.

Dyslexia

A friend of mine's grandchild is dyslexic. He poorly could read anything, cos he thought that all the words escape from his eyes when he puts the book in front of himself.

Fortunatly, he could read pictures without any problems and his dyslexia problem is improving as well. The boy sometimes has difficuty in putting the right shoe on the right foot.
Most of the dyslexic people have difficulties in reading d and b, or the words like now and won.

From some of my reading, I realised that the number of people who have this desease isn't small at all. So, how can they improve or completely cure their disablity?

We all know that any sort of disease is terrible, they are simply too hard to bear.
Most of the cases, people don't realize the importance of their health until they are ill. So, my friends, eat well, drink well, exercise well, and be happy, to keep yourself healthy, that is the most important issue facing to you and me and all of us.

For more information on dyslexia, you may like to click here.

Please recycle plastics

On average, it takes 400 years for plastics to degrade completely.

And, it is estimated that about 100 million tons of plastics are produced yearly.
So, what?
So, it means that we need to have a space with a capacity of storing 400 * 100 million tons (= 40 billion tons = 40 000 000 000 000 KG) plastics before they totally start to degrade and then to have our life unaffected by using plastics daily and yearly... Or, maybe one day, when you get up, you will find yourself fully surrounded by used plastics... No where to escape, no where to enjoy your life, not able to breath norally... would you like it? Probably not, so, please recycle.

On average, each european throws away 36KG plastics each year,
4% of the oil consumption in the Europe is for making plastics,
42% of the plastics are consumed in packaging, but very little was recycled,

I didn't make up these figures, pls click, here to read more information...

How important is money to your life?

Everybody knows money is important. It is always hard to make but easy to spend, that is why it is precious.
Some people keep worrying too much on a little money that won't change their lives at all, what is the benefit from it?

People always say: money can't buy everything; but without money, you can buy nothing.

So, money is important to us, but how much?
Research shows that there is a little relationship between our money and our happiness, but only a little, maybe 1%. It is also, most of the cases, temperary but not permanent nor prominent.

Click the following to find out more!
Money can't really bring you happiness!

There is something that money can't buy, for anything else, there is Master Card.

British English (1) Thank you, how to answer it?

One day, an American family who live in our hotel asked me, do you say " Cheers"?

I said yes, mainly to mean "thanks" in brief or "goodbye", or maybe sometimes means "let's drink to celebrate..."

Oh, then they are amazed and said cheers to my help in directions and left.

When people say thank you to you, what would you reply?

No problem? Thank you? Thanks? You are welcome? My pleasure? Any time? That is alright? Not at all? That is fine? That is ok? Don't mention it? Not worth mentioning? ... Even, sometimes, I say OK or simply smile back to take it.

what else would you say when people are saying thanks or thank you to you?

Anybody can help with my dissertation?

Is the topic too wide? How to narrow it down a bit, if so??
Topic: Evaluation of the Commercilization of recycled plastics in the UK

Methods? what methods should I take to write this thesis?

Resources: Where can I get more information helping me sorting out this crisis?

Academic: How Can I relate reading marterials to academic background?

Would you recommend any books on this subject, or journal articles to read about, please?

Many thanks... from me...

Gill's Birthday

Yesterday was my firend, Gill's birthday, the 25th one.

His girlfriend prepared for a long time and would like to give him a surprise. She told him that she wouldn't be able to be around on the perticular day cos she needed to help me and my wife something very important by going to London. She also told all the friends not attending to any of Gill's invitation for any type, pretending knowing nothing about his birthday.

We later on, arranged Gill to work on his birthday and gave others more time to prepare for the party. Oliver showed him around and took him to a movie, naming got two free tickets from someone who just argued with his girlfriend.

Gill called me, a couple of days ago, saying, Can I go to London with you on the coming Sunday? I said, sorry, not really, and it was your girlfriend who could only be a help, but nobody else. He then added, what if she really really wants me to go with her? (OOOOH, I said to myself, that was she let me to lie to you, mate. ) Can you please not...? That was my answer. He did me the favor.

It was a surprise to him after returning from movie with a man. Loads of friends were there waiting for him with loads of delicous cooking mainly done by his hard working girlfrind.

Gill, what more do you want to claim, from her?

We all had an exciting evening with so many kind and open friends.

Happy birthday to you, the humerous and nice young man.

Bicester Village, a site worth of visiting

My friend from Wales came to see me and stayed in Oxford with us for a couple of days.

We went to Bicester Village again for some shopping and as a tourism site to entertain my guest.

Years ago, another friend told me that he had been in Blenheim Palace for many many times, maybe 7, if I didn't remmber wrong, for showing his friends, relatives around as a fomous tourism site. I was surprised! But, now, I have been to these places many times myself, showing visitors around.

Where Can I show them to visit? Colleges of Oxford university, Blenheim Palace and Stratford-upon-Avon and town center of Oxford, where else?

Lottery, I like this sentence

My own chances of winning the lottery are not good because I've never purchased a ticket.

The following is a very good article telling you how much the chance is to win a 6 figuer lotto, to turn lots of your big dream into reality.

http://www.belogical.com/odds_and_ends.htm

Yeah, I do agree, if you never bet, you will never lose.

We probably need to trun our dreams into reality by fighting with our own two hands, step by step. And, at the same time, we can experience the sweetness of sweat.

There are about 80M lottery tickets sold every week in the Uk. Half of the money returns to the buyers, quite some of them goes to charity and goverment tax, cost and agencies... The lottery company is regulated by over 2000 licenses.

Anyhow, wish you good luck if you do buy tickets.

Monster in Law

When we were in Brighton days ago, I mentioned that we went to see a film. It was Monster in law, quite a funny one, mainly for girls, I think.

For viewer's comment, pls click: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369735/#comment


For the official website, please click the following:

http://www.monsterinlaw.com/

new motto

If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.


(for exams, for interviews, for tests, for life...)