Heaviest rainfall in Beijing, 37 people died.

Original from BBC news - CHINA: 

At least 77 people were killed by heavy rain in Beijing at the weekend, Xinhua news agency says. Authorities in the Chinese capital said 66 of the 77 bodies found so far had been identified. Most had drowned. The official death toll had stood at 37 since Sunday but many angry Beijing residents said it was underestimated.

The rainfall was the heaviest in Beijing in 60 years, bringing chaos to transport systems and power supplies. Major roads were flooded and more than 500 flights cancelled, with thousands of people stranded at the city's main airport. More than 65,000 people had to be evacuated.

The authorities have been criticised for being slow to acknowledge the human cost of the floods.

As I recall, this could be the 3rd year of continuous summer floods in China. Large areas are effected, greater damages are caused especially in urban areas. This could be a major disaster for urban residents, the high density areas are not properly designed with stormwater management devices, I have never seen engineering structured facilities used for stormwater attenuation or treatment in high density areas. 

As I am doing my master's thesis on stormwater management, this kind of extreme rainfall events are not only causing the flooding situations, but also create a major source of diffuse pollution for the city. Natural watercourse, groundwater will all be effected. Especially in such crowded and heavy loaded streets, all the oil and carbohydrate pollutants from vehicles or on the high way, will be transported quickly by piped drainage systems. As the system loads exceeds the design capacity, all the diffuse pollution will be transferred again back to the surface, or end up in the groundwater and natural watersheds nearby. 

You know what, this is not a problem of climate change, this is not a problem of intense rainfall events. It is a consequence that would come sooner or later in the progress of urbanization. Without the natural pattern of the flow, this kind of situation will continue. As to my concern, Chinese government should put more attention to it long time ago.  

Here's a list of victims

 Among all the 61 victims, 50 people are drowned, trapped in the car, or by flooding. 5 people are killed by electric shock, 1 person is died of lightning stroke. 3 people are killed by the collapsing building,  2 people are killed by falling objects, and another 2 died of severe traumatic shock. The last one was killed by mud-rock flow.

Other parts of China, people are all suffering from this summer rainpour.

People on the streets are catching fish in the flooding water. Someone in Tianjing, use the swan boat which originally served as an amusement device in the park, as a transportation tool. Also, there's a guy even drives his own jet ski in the streets. This must be cool, I bet. In the residential area, someone need to use a swim ring for grocery. Donut on the water!

 

Ridiculous Products -- Products that can never do the job!

Have you ever been attracted by the late night commercials saling some kind of magic products? These ridiculous things seems really nice when emerged into a fancy mysterious advertise.
A few weeks ago, the Internet Icon show just had a 'Informercial Challenge', that every contestant needs to shoot a promo video for a certain product. It is really fun, you guys can check it out here. Internet Icon - Informercial Challenge. 


Lately, at the Urban Outfitters web shop, I found something really funny. It's an Instant Irish Accent Mouth Spray. Here's the product detail: Be the ultimate charmer with this Irish mouth spray, just one spritz activates invisible language receptors in the mouth!
OMG! LOL! 

It seems ridiculous to me, but anyway, it's quite funny as a gift to friends. T.T..... There will always be lots of other funny staff out there, let's check them out.

Orginally from Huffingpost Comedy:

13 Products That Can't Possibly Work:

Beauty Smile Trainer

Beauty Smile Traine: I think the japs have got a huge amount of staff like this. Cookies that will help you get a F-cup...etc. T.T

Phone Fingers Pro

Phone Fingers Pro: This thing are actually sold on market, I've seen products like this. What's funny about this type is the design, Ok, I have to admit it really seems like something else..........:(

Bowlingual Dog 

Bowlingual Dog: This is a "dog translator."  Similar idea as my Irish Accent Spray.

Handz Off Anti-Masturbatory Gum

Handz Off Anti-Masturbatory Gum: It's fast acting functional gum which can stop you from masturbating every six hours, cool staff, isn't it? Actually I would like to see the mirror version of this product, the 'Masturbatory Gum'.  Wow.

HD Sunglasses

HD Sunglasses: Converse every view you see into a HD version. Cool, if it's 3D, I will consider buying one.

Hoverbike

Hoverbike: Like the flying cars and hover boards of "Back To The Future".

Wake Up On Time Pills

Wake Up On Time Pills: A product that promises to make you "become a 'Morning Person' overnight".

Update on the red-bellied piranha!!!

Hey guys! Remember my last post about the piranha? I found that the red-bellied piranha on the wiki page, and recently, I went to the London Zoo near Camden Town and witnessed the real red-bellied piranha. Seriously, they do have those dumb-looking, with those cute little fat fish faces. I took some photos of them, and they turns out to be exactly the same as picture on the wiki page. Check it out here.

Red-bellied Piranha in London Zoo

Red-bellied Piranha in London Zoo

I have to say, the London Zoo seems to be quite small at first sight, but you will get really tired after visiting every section, and of course, it's full of baby strollers if you go there on Weekends. And as for zoo, it always has those kind of magical power, which turns everyone to curious toddlers who has no idea how wonderful this animal world is. And also it remind me of how hard it is to be a parent, cuz' I can't imagine that those people who carry a suitcase and read their kindles on the tube when they are on their way to the office can go back to some kind of innocent teenagers, and act weirdly when they have their children around.

Ok, so much for the piranha and babysitting staff. Here's some tips for your visit to the London Zoo.

The London Zoo is the world's oldest zoo, it opened in 1828 for scientific study, and opened for public visiting in 1847. It's located at the northern edge of Regent's Park, so on your way to the zoo, you may spot lots of cyclists and runners, since Regent's Park is a perfect place to work out. 

If you are going there by tube, the nearest tube station would be Camden Town, which is along the Northern line (The black line). If you can, please do avoid weekends and public holidays, cause Camden Town has always been a crowded icon with all the markets thing and park viewing. If you can only do the weekends visiting, set out early. I went there on a Saturday and the tube station exits has already become crowded at 10:50, my friend who got off the Northern Line on 10:30 said there were fewer people then, so make sure you arrive the station before 10:30, since you still need 15-20 minutes to walk to the entrance of the zoo.

Camden Town Tube Station Exit/Entrance

I don't know how to describe the route from tube station to the zoo entrance. It's...quite complex for me. So my suggestion is, if you got iphone, with the map app... Or you can get on a 274 bus outside the tube station. It will surely take you there without any trouble. Or you can just grab a cup of coffee or cool drink and ask the waiter. But don't worry, 80% of the people get off from that station are heading to the zoo, so just make couple of friend and discuss with them.And for those families that has more than one child, or those traveling with the baby strollers, I think driving there by your car is quite a better choice, especially in summer, and the zoo does offer a large space for parking.

Actually I think there are quite a few entrances around to the zoo, we caught one when we are wandering around, this entrance is really a tiny one, there's table and a nice lady who's checking your confirmation letter after the online-booking, so this entrance is specially for internet tickets. 

You can get your tickets booked ahead on the London Zoo website. This season they offer a late entrance from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., which I think will end just by this Friday. It's just an special event for adult who wants to have some relax time after work. There will be a silent disco when people put on there own headphones and dance but at the same time try to keep the voice down and make not much noise to disturb the animals.

After entering the zoo, I recommend you go for what you would like to see most, for example, lions, penguins... Because if you waste every minute on the pavilions, it will cost you too much time. Or another good idea is to following the shows. At the entrance, there will be a board displaying all the shows on today, all of them are located in different sections around the zoo, and maybe 30 to 1 hour interval between every two shows. So following that list, you will probably finish the best part of the zoo on time.

As for me, the best parts would be: big cats, gorrila kindom,the komodo dragons, and the rainforest life. 

 

People really enjoys coming out with their paws up!!

BAD WEATHER TODAY!....

But still, I have to come to the library doing some typing stuff.

Just read about a piece of news regarding of the 'Panda Awareness Week', on 4th~6th of July, in London. It is organized by a NGO in CHINA, called GoChengdu. 'Chengdu' is the capital city of Sichuan, which is the home province (one and only) of pandas in China. This mission here in London is all about promoting the conservation of pandas and the city image of Chengdu.


Photos originally from Red Scarf

BLACK & WHITE RULES TRAFALGAR SQUARE

PANDAS ON A BUS

PANDAS IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT

PANDAS LOVE STREET ART

OOPS.... PANDAS GOTTA LOSE SOME WEIGHT

CD FOR THE HOMETOWN: ChengDu

PANDAS HAVE TROUBLE TOO. GOTTA THINK ABOUT MY LIFE!

Aren't these paws lovely? Well done guys. You're amazing to keep that costume clean after so much drama.




On the M4 today, the first Olympic crowd just arrived in London, and the city of London faces chaos everywhere.
On 14:17,  even more chaos! Greenpeace activists sit in and close 53 petrol stations on this specific day. One of the activist who dressed as a polar bear just got him/herself arrested at a Shell garage.
Wow! I have to say, this costume looks really real.

Piranha 3DD - Reality Show Live in China!

Originally from Dailymail Online:

Have you ever seen the movie Piranha 3DD, recently Mr. Kaibo got biten by three piranhas while he was washing his dog in a local river in the south-west Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region of China.
The wound seems serious, it's hard to believe that such a small fish in size can truly cause such a large wound. Mr. Kaibo managed to grab one of the three piranhas that attacked him, but it died shortly after.

Now, Mr. Kaibo tries to bite back, offering a 100 pounds bounty to anyone who catches a piranha. Authorities have trawled the river with meat-baited net, but despite hauling 10kgs of fish they have yet to catch the piranhas.

The piranhas are normally found in South America, those appears in China are thought to have been dumped in the river by a tropical fish keeper.

Piranhas are normally about 14 to 26cm long, have a single row of sharp teeth in both jaws, the teeth are tightly packed and interlocking and are used for rapid puncture and shearing. Their teeth are often used to make tools and weapons by the indigenous population. Also piranhas are also popular as food. Another interesting fact is that if an individual piranha is caught on a hook or line, it may be attacked by other free piranhas.

Those red-eyed creatures seems really scary with those teeth and appetite for meat. But those myths about piranhas such as how they can dilacerate a human body or cattle in seconds refer specifically to one type - the red-bellied piranha (image below).  To me, they just have the more lovely looking!!

 But now many research studies have already dismissed these myths, researchers found that piranhas may occasionally attack humans, particularly when water levels are low. 

Forcasts warn of a July washout, scientists blame the dismal weather on melting ice in the Arctic

Originally from Dailymail Online: 

Flood warnings still in place across UK, as forecasters warned that the torrential downpours and thunder would continue for the rest of the month.

I've always thought that Netherland will be the first to suff the flooding water of melting Arctic sea ice.... Seriously, are we really blaming on those ice cubes? See the picture below, explaining the situation.

I always think highly of the rainfall here in London, cuz' it always seems to be happening during the night.... The rain seems to have some refreshing function, it clears up the sky, the colour of sky those days is the most beautiful scene I've ever seen in a high-density international capital city.