Lim Zhen Jiang's Blog (16)

It was 10am in the morning, at New York City. The year is 2020.



I am standing at the lobby of a research institute. It is the day of the release of the newest form of money. It is a curious little device and it is said that it would definitely be ubiquitous from the very moment it is release.



Named the BioMoney Chip, this newest form of money is a nano-sized device that can be embedded into the human body itself. It would be operated by voice command, where one would only have… Continue

I know a Korean kid, whom I am teaching tuition. The agreement is that I would teach him maths and english while he would teach me Korean. It wasn't easy learning a language right from the start and I know only the most basics, but we all start somewhere right?

Found a very interesting article on how virtual money has evolved in asian countries and I think that virtual currency will be viable for the future of money. Will follow up with more in depth research when I have more time to do that.



From: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58800D20090909

It's simple, they say, the money might be virtual but the…

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Came across something very interesting. The UNICEF tap project.

It's a project initiated by UNICEF to tackle the problem of clean water availablity. Based on a simple concept that participating restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 for a glass of tap water that they usually get without charges. This funds would be used to bring clean and acessible water to millions in the world and support sanitation projects.

I find this project very meaningful…

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What I would like to do for World Water Day 2020 is to organise a worldwide ceasure of using water for 1 day and everyone would have to rely on whatever that they can save. Vendors are banned from selling water and everyone on that day would be equal and have to search around for clean water.

This would force people to undergo the same type of clean water deprivation that people in poorer countries would suffer. It is a little extreme but it would be effective in putting…

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This idea is similar to the PlayPump merry-go-round. However, it uses a see-saw rather than a merry-go-round.

How it works is this: Install a see-saw with the bottom of each seats being linked to an underground water pump. As the see-saw goes up and down, there will be a force acting on the seats itself. This up and down rythmic motion creates the compressions and expansions of the pump just like the way you would pump a bicycle tire. Thus, you will be able to pump water from…

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I have read quite a few of the blog posts around the EVOKE site. There are certainly a lot of passionate people around and I have to say that some has really gotten to me in terms of their ideas and passion. I read these people almost daily now.



I have also came across a few posts where maybe the author may be a little unsure about whether we can really make a difference to this world or not. To be plainly honest, I am not sure. But what I believe is that EVOKE's purpose is not to… Continue

It's Christmas 2020. There are children everywhere in the streets, wearing Christmas outfits and holding presents. Laughter and fun is all around.



In the streets, you can see lights shows everywhere. In front of the mall, behind the church, below a car park....everywhere that one can see, there are clusters of light to celebrate this day. Christmas.



Christmas 10 years ago in 2010 is not much different. The same lights shows, the same laughter, the same happiness in children… Continue

Quoted from itssome.com.sg

Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over. His against-all-odds

achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to

quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the

$80-a-year (£50) fees. When he returned to his parents' small plot of

farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala,…

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Following up from my previous post on the food security of Singapore, I have done some research on the high tech farming methods that we have adopted in response to the lack of land for agricultural purposes.



To trace back the roots of high tech farming and how it begun, the following site is very useful. It highlights the development and historical situation of different eras. Not only that, the site tells you how the government has planned and executed the various initiatives and… Continue

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Inspired by Alex Stovell's post on the strengths of hydroponic, I begin to think that this technology may be useful in the Singapore context, although whether people will accept and use it or not is another issue. Theoretically, the concept holds ground, especially in a heavily urbanised area like Singapore.



From Wikipedia, Hydroponics (from the Greek words hydro water and ponos labor) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial… Continue

In Singapore, almost all the food that we consume are imported from some other countries. Singapore has a land area of around 700 km square and most of our land are used up for buildings and roads. Since land is so precious here, there are no supply of land to grow crops and plants to keep ourselves fed. Land, being a very limited commodity, is priced accordingly, that is very expensive. To make a living on farming is extraordinarily hard, since just the rent would slaughter you and farming…

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Just learned how to analyze financial statements to find out about how companies are doing and whether their stock is undervalued or not. Learned from: http://www.investopedia.com/university/financialstatements/

I have picked Gawad Kalinga, as my hero online. From Wikipedia: Gawad Kalinga (GK), officially the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, is a Philippine-based poverty reduction and nation-building movement launched by Couples for Christ (CFC), a Catholic lay community, to care for worse-off Filipinos and survivors of natural disasters.



I chose Gawad Kalinga mainly because I had the privilege of working with them on a project and they are sort of business partners. Their… Continue

Of all the skills needed as a social innovator, the one that intrigued me the most is this: "Learn everything there is to know about the specific context". This is very important because in a lot of ways, what we do may not be what the people whom we want to help wants in the first place.



This is very true when you read about how richer and developed nations are always bragging subtly about giving money to poorer countries when they may not need all that in the first place. What they… Continue