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| Friday, May 30, 2008 |
| No short cut to excellence, please ... |
This is interesting .. picked it up from Yahoo .. on the The Dallas Morning News: 29 may 2008 Grapevine student with top grades won't be valedictorian Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta holds the highest grade-point average of the 471 students graduating from Grapevine High School this year. In fact, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD officials believe her GPA of 5.898 may be the highest in the high school's history. It's still not enough to make her the valedictorian, which brings a one-year college scholarship from the state. Her closest competitor's GPA is 5.64. No one disputes that she's the top student in her class numerically. The problem rests with another number entirely. Anjali rocketed through high school in only three years. But a school district policy states: "The valedictorian shall be the eligible student with the highest weighted grade-point average for four years of high school." Anjali says she and her parents are baffled. "I have not heard of any educational institution penalizing a student for excellence – for completing a demanding set of classes 'too quickly,' " said her father, Deepak Datta. "Anjali's experience will surely send a strong negative signal to other talented students trying to excel. "They will most certainly be discouraged from trying to do their best – instead will be more focused on gaming the system." Ooops, sorry guys, you've gotta do it in four years, like everybody else, smart a***. Hmmm ... wonder if the name Susan (fictitious), instead of Anjali would make a difference .. aiyaaa .. tak tau lah ...
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posted by Rozhan @ 5/30/2008 05:29:00 PM   |
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| Sunday, May 25, 2008 |
| Blinkey (2007-2008) |
It's kind of ironic, the name Blinkey. To top it all, we gave the name to this scrawny kitten that appeared on our doorstep sometime in the month of Ramadhan of 2007. We were in two minds whether to keep the kitten or send it to the SPCA. After initially feeding it with some milk that transformed into kitten food (yup, we actually bought kitten food from the pet shop), it looks like the kitten was going to stay .. outdoors, that is.
   These shots were taken on the 14 Nov. 2007. Blinkey had such a good appetite that in no time it had a bulging tummy. We were puzzled that it was constantly eating and finishing the food supply pretty quickly. A visit to the pet shop for more food revealed that it was worms. So we had to deworm Blinkey and we threw in a bottle of shampoo as well.
 Things were getting serious, the cat was getting groomed as well, with body brush and shampoo and all.... However, Blinkey comes and goes as it pleases, never requiring an overdose of love or extra patting. A moment in your arms is all that is needed and off it goes. Its' favourite place is on the rug right at the back door. It will be curled up right there in various positions only a cat can muster. As a natural course of a cat's life, the call to mate was ceremoniously trumpetted by the appearance of several male cats. Dang, where did they come from ... not seen them before except one hanging around for some time. Still, the pursuit came to fruition when Blinkey became pregnant. At that time, we could only presume that Blinkey was around 6-7 months old (which would be about right) as physically, many cats are able to get pregnant when they are only six or seven months old [1]. Unfortunately, Blinkey's maternal term did not progress well and the pregnancy did not take its full course. We can only presume (again) that it miscarried as it gave birth to four still-born kittens in the first week of May.. A cat is pregnant for about 65 days, so naturally, this was not the case.
  Then, in a blink, Blinkey died on the morning of the 21st of May 2008. I last saw a healthy Blinkey sleeping under the kiddy trampoline on the porch on the morning of 18 May. It was nowhere to be seen on the 19th, not even for food. Then, on the 20th of May, the maid found Blinkey just outside the house, on the pavement, bleeding from the rear end, so to speak. Blinkey was cleaned but looked weak and had no appetite for food, but instead retreated to rest in the bushes near the garden shed, still bleeding. We speculated that it may have gotten itself pregnant again and miscarried again ... Cats can get pregnant again anytime - it's not unusual cats come into heat a few days after giving birth [1].
Although it had the most frightened look on its face, it was still cleaning itself, and was kind of mobile but fidgetty. All we could do was place its food tray beside it near the bamboo plant in the back garden to save from moving unnecessarily and hopefully get better. We had no idea what else to do and even contemplated taking it to the vet the next day if its' condition persisted. As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes ... Blinkey was found (by the maid) under the car in the porch in a pool of blood the next morning. Blinkey must have moved to the front and bled all night long. She must have laid there, in the cold and on the cold tiles all night.
  The maid took Blinkey to the side of the house and cleaned it and placed it at the side of the house. I was not at the scene, but my wife actually saw Blinkey gasping for breath after it was cleaned, until it breathed no more a few moments later. Inna lillahi wainna ilaihiroji'un .. Blinkey's gone, forever. We buried Blinkey at the back of the garden. Looking back at the whole incident that happened in the space of three days, we strongly believe that Blinkey may have been hit by a motorcycle near the house, and although no physical injuries could be detected, there may have been serious internal injuries... hence the bleeding. No feelings can describe the moment when looking at the lifeless form of Blinkey ... and it was still bleeding. It was so sad ... still, God giveth and God taketh away .. Goodbye, our Blinkey ...
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| posted by Rozhan @ 5/25/2008 12:24:00 AM |
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| Tuesday, April 01, 2008 |
| What's wrong with them?? |
What is with those who are still antagonising Islam and the Muslims?? They have nothing else to do?? Sheesh ... perhaps, I will join the call by our former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ...
NST, 20/03/08 - Mahathir calls on Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products
KUALA LUMPUR, Sat: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called upon Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products in protest of a film released Monday on the Internet which criticised Islam’s holy book, the Quran. He said such a boycottt could result in The Netherlands having to “close shop”, as Muslims made up the wealthiest portion of the world’s population and were also the biggest importers. However, in order to be effective, all 1.3 billion Muslims in the world must unite in the boycott and put the interest of Islam and Muslims over that of individual needs. “We must not be afraid of losing trade with them. If we do, then we won’t be thinking as Muslims, but more for our own self intersts,” he told reporters after opening the Malaysian Islamic Welfare Organisation’s (Perkim) 46th annual general meeting at a hotel here, today. Dr Mahathir was referring to Fitna, a 15-minute film posted on a website on Thursday that highly criticised Islam, setting verses of the Quran against a background of violent images from terrorist attacks. Dutch legislator Geert Wilders created the film, which also shows statements from radical clerics and cited verses from the Quran interspersed with images of the Sept 11 attack on the United States, the 2004 commuter train bombings in Spain and the murder later that year of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street. Earlier, Dr Mahathir had said the film was a result of misconceptions about Islam and there was also a “critical motive behind it”. “They will continue to do this until we show to them Islam is a good religion, that we are not violent people, that we don’t tell lies to people...but this must be shown in practice by the Muslim community,” he said. On the home front, Dr Mahathir who is also Perkim president, said it was very important for Perkim to give the right impression of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims alike so that there would be no misunderstanding on the religion, which could lead to fear, suspicion or hostility against Islam. — BERNAMA
Excerpts from The Amazing Quran by Gary Miller
One thing which surprises non-Muslims who are examining the book very closely is that the Qur'an does not appear to them to be what they expected. What they assume is that they have an old book which came fourteen centuries ago from the Arabian desert; and they expect that the book should look something like that - an old book from the desert. And then they find out that it does not resemble what they expected at all. Additionally, one of the first things that some people assume is that because it is an old book which comes from the desert, it should talk about the desert. Well the Qur'an does talk about the desert - some of its imagery describes the desert; but it also talks about the sea - what it's like to be in a storm on the sea. Some years ago, the story came to us in Toronto about a man who was in the merchant marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a translation of the Qur'an to read. The merchant marine knew nothing about the history of Islam but was interested in reading the Qur'an. When he finished reading it, he brought it back to the Muslim and asked, "This Muhammed, was he a sailor?" He was impressed at how accurately the Qur'an describes a storm on a sea. When he was told, "No as a matter of fact, Muhammed lived in the desert," that was enough for him. He embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed with the Qur'an's description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he knew that whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the sea. The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds" was not what someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written; rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was like. This is one example of how the Qur'an is not tied to a certain place and time. Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago. Recently, the leading intellectual in the Catholic Church - a man by the name of Hans - studied the Qur'an and gave his opinion of what he had read. This man has been around for some time, and he is highly respected in the Catholic Church, and after careful scrutiny, he reported his findings, concluding, "God has spoken to man through the man, Muhammad." Again this is a conclusion arrived at by a non-Muslim source - the very leading intellectual of the Catholic Church himself! I do not think that the Pope agrees with him, but nonetheless, the opinion of such a noted, repute public figure must carry some weight in defense of the Muslim position. He must be applauded for facing the reality that the Qur'an is not something which can be easily pushed aside and that, in fact God is the source of these words. As is evident from the aforementioned information, all of the possibilities have been exhausted, so the chance of finding another possibility of dismissing the Qur'an is nonexistent. For if the book is not a revelation, then it is a deception; and if it is a deception, one must ask, "What is its origin" And where does it deceive us?" Indeed, the true answers to these questions shed light on the Qur'an's authenticity and silence the bitter unsubstantiated claims of the unbelievers. Certainly, if people are going to insist that the Qur'an is a deception, then they must bring forth evidence to support such a claim. The burden of proof is on them, not us! One is never supposed to advance a theory without sufficient corroborating facts; so I say to them, "Show me one deception! Show me where the Qur'an deceives me! Show me, otherwise, don't say that it is a deception!" An interesting characteristic of the Qur'an is how it deals with surprising phenomena which relate not only to the past but to modern times as well. In essence, the Qur'an is not and old problem. It is still a problem even today - a problem to the non-Muslims that is. For everyday, every week, every year brings more and more evidence that the Qur'an is a force to be contended with - that its authenticity is no longer to be challenged!
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| posted by Rozhan @ 4/01/2008 09:57:00 AM |
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| Friday, February 29, 2008 |
| 8 March 2008 |
To the polling stations.
Do your duty, don't let other people decide for you.
Do you know where you are supposed to go to cast your precious vote?
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| posted by Rozhan @ 2/29/2008 04:07:00 PM |
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| Thursday, November 22, 2007 |
| Alternative Way to Eliminate Cancer |
Thanks to Bro Rickywan Melaka
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY (TRY THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY
Cancer Update from John Hopkins :
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often r educe tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Man! uka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibio! tics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water- best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells! to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor ssence,Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrio! r be a survivor. Anger, un forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
(PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT)CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL , U. S. - PLEASE READ 1. No plastic containers in micro. 2. No water bottles in freezer.3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.
He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body.
Instead, he recommends using glass, such as CorningWare, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soup! s, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper.
It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked inthe microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.
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| posted by Rozhan @ 11/22/2007 02:26:00 AM |
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| Physicists Rule OK |
 Axeman/astrophysicist May named university chancellor - Donald MacLeod, Monday November 19, 2007, Guardian Unlimited
[Brian May, member of the band Queen, performs during their 'European Tour 2005' at the Palau Sant Jordi Stadium in Barcelona in this April 2, 2005 file photo. (Reuters)]
Rock guitarist Brian May is named today as chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. The lead guitarist and songwriter for Queen, who recently completed his much-delayed PhD in astrophysics, succeeds Cherie Booth QC as ceremonial head of the institution. Earlier this year, May was made an honorary fellow of the university for his contribution to the arts and encouraging the public understanding of science through his book Bang! the Complete History of the Universe, co-authored with Chris Lintott and Sir Patrick Moore. Previous works included We Will Rock You, Fat Bottomed Girls, Tie Your Mother Down, I Want It All and Who Wants To Live Forever. But his website mixes music and astrophysics; May's blog today deals with the hyperbolic orbits of interstellar particles, for instance. The chairman of the university's board, Sir Malcolm Thornton, said: "Not only is Brian an icon in his own sphere but he is a real academic star, as well. He perfectly embodies the 'can do' attitude of LJMU. He is going to be a great chancellor for the students and a wonderful figurehead for the university." The rockstar is a long-standing supporter of the university's Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI), whose research, work with schoolchildren and development of robotic telescopes earned a Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2005 (from Her Majesty rather than the group). A postgraduate student at Imperial College, May put his academic career on hold to pursue musical fame. But more than 30 years later, in July this year, he completed his PhD thesis, A survey of radial velocities in the zodiacal dust cloud, and was awarded his doctorate last month. Prof Michael Brown, LJMU vice-chancellor, said: "In this age of celebrity culture, it is rare to find someone who has fame, fortune and universal acclaim and yet who remains true to his core values of learning and enlightenment. "When Brian returned to his studies and completed his PhD this year, he earned the respect of students and academics the world over." May said: "Of course, I am already familiar with the LJMU astrophysics team and their work with robotic telescopes and I look forward to visiting the LJMU telescope in La Palma very soon. "I agree wholeheartedly with the LJMU ethos of dream, plan, achieve - such simple words but they summarise perfectly the educational experience that LJMU provides, changing people's lives and helping individuals to reach their goals and realise their dreams." He follows Booth, the leading Liverpudlian lawyer and wife of the former prime minister Tony Blair, who held the position of chancellor for seven years from 1999 to 2006. Established in 1999, the ARI was awarded the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education in 2005 for developing the world's largest and most sophisticated ground-based robotic telescopes  Wow, can we imagine this scenario in Malaysia. A rocker as a Chancellor of a University .. there is still hope, I'd say .. No? .. why not .. where are our academically inclined artists?? SHOW YOURSELF !! Precedent has bee set .. by others .. as always. In any case, Your Hon. Chancellor Brian May, my congratulations and salute .. from a rocker, physicist and Professor .. yeehaaa ..
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| posted by Rozhan @ 11/22/2007 01:43:00 AM |
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