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GEORGE TOWN: Come Jan 1, plastic bags will be practically banned state-wide.
The move – an extension of the current “No Plastic Bag Day” in shopping centres and hypermarkets on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays – means that no plastic bags can be used every day by almost all business sectors.
The ruling will cover all hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, nasi kandar outlets, convenience stores including petrol kiosks and chain stores.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the move would reduce the state’s carbon footprint.
“Mini markets and sole proprietorship businesses will have to adhere to the ruling on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to ensure the renewal of their licences.
“Previously, they only had to adhere to the ruling on Mondays,” he said when tabling the 2011 Budget at the state legislative assembly yesterday.
Lim’s two paragraph announcement on the wide-ranging plastic ban was buried inside his 27-page budget speech, apparently catching many by surprise.
To promote the “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling, the state will distribute 500,000 brochures to create public awareness besides erecting educational billboards.
On July 1, last year, Penang became the first state to implement a “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling in shopping complexes and hypermarkets every Monday, before it was extended to Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well from Jan 2.
From July 1, 2009 to Oct 28, a total of 32.5 million plastic bags were saved under this campaign.
Shoppers who did not bring their own reusable bags were charged 20 sen for each plastic bag when making purchases.
The money collected from the sale of plastic bags went to the “Partners Against Poverty” Special Fund to help the state’s hardcore poor.
Good Practice to save our world - I support.......
Weather
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
1st Avenue Shopping Mall Soft Opening Coming Soon
Located in the heart of Georgetown along Jalan Magazine, 1st Avenue Shopping Mall meas
ures 655,000sqf in gross floor area and spreads over 7 retail levels.
It’s a stylish city mall that offers fashion, leisure, entertainment and a slew of dining outlets for the style conscious urbanites living and working in Penang. 1st Avenue is the ideal venue for young executives looking for a comfortable lunch venue or wanting to organize social get-togethers, being easily accessible from all parts of the city.
The main highlights in the mall include a youth-centered concept at the lower ground level named "Underground" and a lifestyle and entertainment enclave on Level 8 called "Cloud8".
Underground is the first mall-in-mall concept in Penang targeted at the young and young-at-heart. Decorated to theme and bustling with energy and life, Underground comprises fashion &
accessory outlets, quick-bite eateries and other retail shops catering to youth and pop culture.
The leisure and entertainment focus of the mall, Cloud8 features a double volume glass curtain wall that allows a panoramic view over the city of Georgetown. This level houses a Cineplex, family karaoke and a myriad of dining choices as well as an iconic pavilion restaurant.
ures 655,000sqf in gross floor area and spreads over 7 retail levels.It’s a stylish city mall that offers fashion, leisure, entertainment and a slew of dining outlets for the style conscious urbanites living and working in Penang. 1st Avenue is the ideal venue for young executives looking for a comfortable lunch venue or wanting to organize social get-togethers, being easily accessible from all parts of the city.
The main highlights in the mall include a youth-centered concept at the lower ground level named "Underground" and a lifestyle and entertainment enclave on Level 8 called "Cloud8".
Underground is the first mall-in-mall concept in Penang targeted at the young and young-at-heart. Decorated to theme and bustling with energy and life, Underground comprises fashion &
accessory outlets, quick-bite eateries and other retail shops catering to youth and pop culture.The leisure and entertainment focus of the mall, Cloud8 features a double volume glass curtain wall that allows a panoramic view over the city of Georgetown. This level houses a Cineplex, family karaoke and a myriad of dining choices as well as an iconic pavilion restaurant.
How Hybrids Work
No Rattle; All Hum
Get behind the driver’s seat of a hybrid car, and start it up. The first thing you notice is how much quieter it is than a conventional car. If you are in a Toyota or Ford hybrid (and some GM hybrids), the internal combustion engine (ICE) gets cranked up, only to shut down again once it gets warmed up. This can happen quickly, or in colder weather, might take several minutes. At this point, the electric motor is now online, while the ICE remains dormant until needed.
The Toyota or Ford hybrid will stay in this all-electric mode until about 15 mph—or if you accelerate very slowly, all the way up to about 30 mph. At low speeds, the careful driver is effectively operating an electric car, with no gas being burned, and no exhaust spewed from the tailpipe. Pretty cool. The more spirited driver will cause the ICE to kick in at lower speeds.
Unlike the Toyota and Ford hybrids, the engines in Honda’s hybrids warm up but don't shut down completely until the first deceleration to a stop. This “auto stop” mode—conventional vehicles are wasting gas and spewing emissions during idle, while the hybrid is silent and gas-free—goes away when you lift your foot off the brake pedal, shift into gear, or depress the gas pedal.
Depending on how hard you step on the gas pedal, the car’s computer will determine how much power to draw from the ICE, and how much power to pull from the car’s electric motor. The dashboard shows you exactly when the electric “assist” is working. Each time the Honda hybrid driver moves forward and them comes to stop—unless the car is warming up or the air conditioning is cranked—the ICE shuts off completely. Once again, the car becomes eerily silent (unless you are cranking the tunes).
Get behind the driver’s seat of a hybrid car, and start it up. The first thing you notice is how much quieter it is than a conventional car. If you are in a Toyota or Ford hybrid (and some GM hybrids), the internal combustion engine (ICE) gets cranked up, only to shut down again once it gets warmed up. This can happen quickly, or in colder weather, might take several minutes. At this point, the electric motor is now online, while the ICE remains dormant until needed.The Toyota or Ford hybrid will stay in this all-electric mode until about 15 mph—or if you accelerate very slowly, all the way up to about 30 mph. At low speeds, the careful driver is effectively operating an electric car, with no gas being burned, and no exhaust spewed from the tailpipe. Pretty cool. The more spirited driver will cause the ICE to kick in at lower speeds.
Unlike the Toyota and Ford hybrids, the engines in Honda’s hybrids warm up but don't shut down completely until the first deceleration to a stop. This “auto stop” mode—conventional vehicles are wasting gas and spewing emissions during idle, while the hybrid is silent and gas-free—goes away when you lift your foot off the brake pedal, shift into gear, or depress the gas pedal.
Depending on how hard you step on the gas pedal, the car’s computer will determine how much power to draw from the ICE, and how much power to pull from the car’s electric motor. The dashboard shows you exactly when the electric “assist” is working. Each time the Honda hybrid driver moves forward and them comes to stop—unless the car is warming up or the air conditioning is cranked—the ICE shuts off completely. Once again, the car becomes eerily silent (unless you are cranking the tunes).
Digital Driveline 
For your entire ride, the computer will be calculating when to let the gasoline engine do all the work and how much of a boost it needs from the electric motor. Because of the intermittent (but powerful) assist from the electric motor, the gasoline engine can achieve basically the same performance as a conventional car even when it has a smaller, more efficient size. Why put a high-horsepower, high-consumption engine into a car, when most drivers never drag race?
Meanwhile, back in the Toyota and Ford hybrids, when you step on the gas pedal, you are really controlling a pedal positioning device that tells the computer how fast you want to go, and the computer is once again making a lot of decisions about when to use the gas engine, when to go electric, or when to use a combination. The computer is, in fact, sending its signals to a gearbox, known as the power split device, which connects the gas engine and electric motors through a series of gears.
For your entire ride, the computer will be calculating when to let the gasoline engine do all the work and how much of a boost it needs from the electric motor. Because of the intermittent (but powerful) assist from the electric motor, the gasoline engine can achieve basically the same performance as a conventional car even when it has a smaller, more efficient size. Why put a high-horsepower, high-consumption engine into a car, when most drivers never drag race?
Meanwhile, back in the Toyota and Ford hybrids, when you step on the gas pedal, you are really controlling a pedal positioning device that tells the computer how fast you want to go, and the computer is once again making a lot of decisions about when to use the gas engine, when to go electric, or when to use a combination. The computer is, in fact, sending its signals to a gearbox, known as the power split device, which connects the gas engine and electric motors through a series of gears.
Battery Charge and Discharge
You probably understand the basics of how the gasoline engine is working, but where is the electric motor getting its juice? It’s actually drawing power from, or pumping power into, a set of nickel metal hydride batteries. The computer is performing a lot of magic by knowing when to reclaim excess energy when braking the wheels with the electric motor (which is now working like a generator). It also knows when to pass power from the battery to the electric motor for acceleration. The computer is monitoring the amount of charge in the batteries, making sure that they never charge more than 60 percent and never less than 40 percent of their capacity. In this way, automakers say, the batteries will last a couple hundred thousand miles.
You probably understand the basics of how the gasoline engine is working, but where is the electric motor getting its juice? It’s actually drawing power from, or pumping power into, a set of nickel metal hydride batteries. The computer is performing a lot of magic by knowing when to reclaim excess energy when braking the wheels with the electric motor (which is now working like a generator). It also knows when to pass power from the battery to the electric motor for acceleration. The computer is monitoring the amount of charge in the batteries, making sure that they never charge more than 60 percent and never less than 40 percent of their capacity. In this way, automakers say, the batteries will last a couple hundred thousand miles.
Wrap It All Up
Cover this technology with an aerodynamic frame and you’ve got yourself a major boost in fuel efficiency and a big-time reduction in poisonous, global-warming-causing tailpipe emissions. It’s not science fiction. It’s technology available today, in more than a dozen different sizes, shapes, and degrees of electric hybrid-ness.
Cover this technology with an aerodynamic frame and you’ve got yourself a major boost in fuel efficiency and a big-time reduction in poisonous, global-warming-causing tailpipe emissions. It’s not science fiction. It’s technology available today, in more than a dozen different sizes, shapes, and degrees of electric hybrid-ness.
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