Tahu Gejrot (an Indonesian dish)

This is Tahu Gejrot, one of my fave dishes. It is a simple dish, as simple as how it is prepared! You do not need to burn up your money to squander on the luxurious ingredients. Because the dearest ingredients in this dish are the beancurds! Yes, the main ingredients of this dish are beancurds. Ok so let's how do you prepare it and what are the ingredients?

(Beware!, This dish is extremely hot, but you can always reduce the hot ingredients thereof)

We will need:

16 cubes of beancurds, divided into 2 parts

4 bulbs of garlics

2 pieces of red peppers

4 pieces of Thai peppers

5 shallots

2 pieces of green peppers

3 tablespoon of soured/acidic water (air asam), a solution of water, tamarind and some other constituents

1 tablespoon of sweet soysauce (Kechap Manis)

1 tablespoon of palm sugar

half a teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of fried shallot

now how it is preared:

Grind all (the ingredients excluding the beancurds and the fried shallot) the garlics, shallots, red peppers, Thai peppers, green peppers, palm sugar and salt.

Add water, soured water, and sweet soysauce into the ground ingredients, and stir it until it's finely mixed.

Then boil the mixture and voila it is ready for use as the sauce or the topping of the beancurds.

Put the beancurds on a saucer (traditionally it is served on a stoneware saucer) then pour the sauce gently onto the beancurds and the last thing is to sprinkle the fried shallot onto the dish!

Your Tahu Gejrot is ready to serve 4 persons! :)

Square One TV

I suppose to post these video clips at my Indonesian blog, but have I difficulties in embedding it on a WordPress' blog, I post them here. These clips are about Square One TV, one of my fave shows on TV. Ok, let's get down to the core: The first one is "The Mathematics of Love", a very nice skit, after all these years I can still sing along and swing my body to the song, ok here it is:




Next is also a piece from a Square One TV's serial: It's an all-rap clip featuring the Fat Boys. So if you get a kick out of a rap song, this one might be the one for you:

Coloured

When I born, I am black
When I grow up, I am black
When I go in sun, I am black
When I scared, I am black
When I sick, I am black
and when I die, I am still black

and you White fella
When you born, you're pink
When you grow up, you're white
When you go in sun, you're red
When you cold, you're blue
When you scared, you're yellow
When you sick, you're green
and when you die, you're grey

and you calling me coloured??

--------
This poem was nominated for the best poem of 2005,
written by an African kid. What an amazing thought from a little kid!
Thanks for sis sebeningdoamalam who has communicated this poem to me.

Ozone layer and Ozone hole

Largest Ever Ozone Layer (Picture courtesy of NASA)

In recent decades, media tell about a 'hole' in the ozone layer have appeared with regularity. And each year the 'hole' is getting bigger and bigger until it reaches the biggest ever like the one displayed in the photo above. The true fact is maybe around 75% of the ozone over the South Pole (the picture above shows the ozone hole over the South Pole) disappears in the south polar spring when the hole develops but it returns to near normal levels in the autumn.

Now what is exactly ozone? Ozone (O₃) is toxic to all life forms at high concentrations, but it is an unavoidable fact that this Oh-Three gas is important in the atmosphere because it acts as a shield to protect the earth from relentless solar radiation. If more ozone layer was depleted, more solar radiation will batter the earth causing a dramatic increase in the incidence of various skin tumours and eye cataracts.

The most contributors of the ozone depletion is the excessive use of chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, this is familiar to many as the Freons used widely in (old) air-conditioners and (old) fridges. Why those CFCs are very popular in use? The asnwer is simple: because they are inexpensive and very stable, yet not toxic, flammable nor corrosive. CFCs are ideal for many applications. They are used in aerosol cans as propellants, as solvents, as refrigerants (like the ones used in old air-conditioners and old fridges), as fire extinguishers and even they are ideal for blowing bubbles into fomaed plastic insulation.

But alas, the stability of the CFCs itself that takes the toll! CFCs do persist in the environment or in the atmosphere, it makes the chemical to slowly find the way to the upper atmosphere where they go through a series of reactions that eventually result in ozone depletion. These series of reactions involve ultraviolet light from the sun which strikes a CFC moelcule. The carbon-chlorine bond is broken, producing a very reactive free radical Cl^.. The chlorine free radical then reacts with ozone to produce oxygen and ClO. The chemical reactions that take place is depicted below:

UV light
CFCl₃ ---------------> CFCl₂ + Cl^.

Cl^. + O₃ -----------> ClO^. + O₂

Recognition of the problem led governments in the world to take action before it's gone too late. And worldwide efforts to reduce the use of CFC began with an international agreement reached in 1987. A total ban of CFCs was reached in 1996 worldwide including in our country, Indonesia.

(Written by Yari NK, simplified from various sources)

A Taliban soldier and his commander (jocular posting)

A Taliban soldier with a rocket launcher and his commander were in full alert. They were ordered to shoot down any unidentified foreign planes. Minutes later, came an America's F-16 overhead. The Taliban commander ordered the soldier to shoot down the plane. In no time a rocket was launched from the launcher and hit the American plane asunder. After they shot down the American plane, minutes later came a Russia's Sukhoi in the sky. Again, the commander ordered the soldier to shoot down the plane. The soldier aimed the launcher at the plane and successfully shoot the Russian plane down. After a few minutes came France's Rafale fighter overhead, like in the previous cases, the commander ordered the soldier to bring it down. Again, the soldier did the task very well in shooting down the plane. After finishing off the French plane, soon after came Indonesia's CN-235 in the sky, but unlike in the previous cases, the commander now remained silent and did not give any orders to the soldier. The soldier was amazed and eventually he asked his commander:

"Sir, shall we shoot down that plane too?" asked the soldier
"Save the rocket for the next plane son!" replied the commander
"But why??" wondered the soldier
"Don't worry son! The plane will hit the ground sooner or later without having to be shot down!" replied the commander calmly.

Retold in English by Yari NK

Indonesia 1, Saudi Arabia 2 aaaargh!

INDONESIA 1 SAUDI ARABIA 2

This is not about political stuff, this is not about war whatsoever. It is just about soccer or football. It is in AFC Asian Cup 2007, the Saudis beat us in our own homeland! A goal from a header in injury time is really a cruel especially if you've been playing a draw for 90 minutes! The goal resulted from a free kick just outside a penalty box. The high ball landed on a Saudi player's (I forgot his name, instead heck who cares??) head whose will net it to make a score! What a disastrous result! Ok enough! I can't say anything more!

How much heat can one stand?

How much heat do you think a man can stand? In the tropics (and in some parts of the subtropics as well) a temperature can rise up to a noticeable 45^oC in the room or in the shade. Even in some cases or in some places a temperature can soar up as high as 55^oC in the shade. In the region of "Death Valley" in California, if I'm not mistaken, the temperature of 57^oC had been recorded.

Ok now you might guess that above-mentioned temperatures are given as temperatures in the room or in the shade. Ok I'm telling you this, that's because the temperatures recorded in the room or in the shade is the best representation of the right air temperatures anywhere. If the thermometer you are using for measuring the temperature is exposed to the sun directly, it will be heated up to a much greater temperature than that of the surrounding air. In short, it is pointless in referring to readings of a thermometer exposed to the sun, speaking of heat waves!

Ok, now let's go back to our main topic above, how much heat can a man stand? Two British scientists in 1940s, Blagden and Chentry had proved that we can bear a temperature even above boiling point, as high as 160^oC by gradually warming up in a very dry air! Those two British scientists spent hours on end in a heated bakery furnace.

So Where does the explanation lie? In that our body actually repels the high temperature by producing excessive sweat to keep down the temperature close to normal. This abundant sweat absorbs much of the heat from the air layer directly envelopping the body, thus adequately lowering the temperature. The only essentials that need to be observed are for the body not to come into contact with the source of heat directly and for the air itself to be near absolute dry! A wet or humid air will impede the body to produce excessive sweat.

In daily case we understand how it can happen in the case of dry air. if you've travelled to many places in the world, it is easier to stand a heat of 37^oC in dry air than that of 24^oC in humid air.

(Adapted by Yari NK from a Russian entertainment physics book by Y. Perelman and A. Shkarovsky)

The callus begins to heal

It all began in January this year when I felt a bump on my right foot at the sole, and I started to feel pain when I stepped upon flat and hard surface. At first I didn't know what exactly it was, I tried to feel it, it was hard and thickened. It could be a coming pus that was ready to ooze or it could be a wart caused by a virus, I was not so sure. After I leafed through a Medical handbook to seek information on dermal diseases, I narrowed my suspicion on only two cases: wart or callus. Then I looked for more information on these two dermal problems on the Web and I found the whole answer. And the answer was backed by the abundant pictures that confirmed that it was a callus that was emerging from my ball on the sole of my right foot. It couldn't be a wart because a wart is highly contagious and easily widespread either by direct contact or indirect contact. So because there are no other 'warts' develop on the other parts of my body especially on my foot so I concluded that it was a callus, and it really was! Ok, callus is a thickening and hardening skin, especially on the feet. It is caused by constant pressures that work on our feet, especially when the elasticity of the footwear is poor. Callus is actually a natural mechanism of the skin to protect the inner tissues from deforming and injury.

Ok now let's get back to my own callus. The pain escalated and reached its peak in February when I had to curve my foot whenever I walked on a hard and flat surface. But in March the hardened skin started to peel off and left a small ugly pit on my foot, but after the hardened skin peeled off the pain was almost gone! No bleeding wound was produced from the peel-off. But soon after I noticed that the pit began to develop another hardened skin. I thought at first it was a normal skin developping to seal the pit. But I was wrong it was another callus since it's overgrown the normal level of the skin. But this time the bumpy callus caused less pain. Until two weeks ago I noticed that the hardened skin began to flake off again, and it left no pit as left by the previous peel-off. And the pain is getting less and less. And I hope in the near future the callus will be completely gone! Pray for me!

(Yari NK)

Venus Williams and Roger Federer Lift the Trophies

Venus Williams and Roger Federer seized the titles at Wimbledon 2007

After watching 2-week-action of tennis from Wimbledon through the television, we witnessed Roger Federer and Venus Williams seized the singles titles for this year's Wimbledon. Roger Federer, the first seeded in the tournament, had been predicted to grab the title long before the tournament began, and he eventually confirmed the prediction to seize the title for the fifth time in a row. This achievement equals the achievement of the Swede, Björn Borg, who took the most honourable title five times in a row in 1976-1980.

Meanwhile, Venus Williams grabbed the ladies' singles title for the fourth time (though not in a row). Venus Williams, only seeded 23th, came from the back door to beat the higher seeds including the second seed Russia's Maria Sharapova in the last eight. Venus is the lowest seed to capture the title ever since the turnover of the millennium.

Congratulation for Roger and Venus. I can't wait for another Wimbledon next year!

(Yari NK)

Reading an Indonesian address

ARIEF KEMALUDIN
PT RAJA MAS
JL. RAJAMANTRI KULON III/15
RT 003/05
KEL. TURANGGA
KEC. BANDUNG SELATAN
BANDUNG 40265



In this posting I'd like to take you to read an Indonesian address. It might be very useful for those who want to visit the country (It happens to be my country!). That imaginary address above is a typical Indonesian address. Like an address in any countries, an Indonesian address also has its uniqueness though it is not hard to understand it. Now let's examine each line of the address above:

ARIEF KEMALUDIN, is a name of the addressee. In Indonesia the last name is not necessarily a family name or a surname. There are lots of Indonesian names that don't bear a surname. So in this case, Kemaludin is not necessarily a surname. To identify whether the last name is a given name or a surname in an Indonesian name is very tricky, and there are no specific ways to identify it.

PT RAJA MAS, is signifying a corporation. PT is more or less identical to Co., or Ltd. in English. Some smaller businesses may bear the acronym Fa (Firma) or CV (Commanditaire Vennootschap). But the use of CV has become obsolete since it is derived from Dutch acronym. Alongside with PT, some company's names also bear an acronym 'Tbk." on the tail. It signifies that the company is a public company.

JL. RAJAMANTRI KULON III/15,
JL. is an abbreviation of 'Jalan' which in English is translated as 'street' or 'road'
RAJAMANTRI KULON III, is the name of the street. The roman numeral III on the name signifies that there are other streets which are called RAJAMANTRI KULON. There are RAJAMANTRI KULON I and RAJAMANTRI KULON II somewhere in the vicinity. And the number 15 signifies the number of the building. It is very common to separate the numeral III and the number 15 with a slash (/) in Indonesian address. But the using of 'No.' in place of the slash has become increasingly popular in Indonesia. So, JL. RAJAMANTRI KULON III No. 15 is identical to JL. RAJAMANTRI KULON III/15.

RT 003/05
KEL. TURANGGA
KEC. BANDUNG SELATAN
Those three lines above are the names of the localities in Indonesia. In personal or business letters, since the introduction of post code in Indonesia, the using of these localities in the letters has become obsolete. But if you come to Indonesia and if you would like to find a building, this information containing these localities' names are very helpful.

BANDUNG 40265
Bandung is the name of the city while 40265 is the post code. The post code in Indonesia always consists of 5 digits. If you find the number 1, 4, 5 and 6 in the first digit of the post code. It signifies that the address in the island of Java, the most populous island in the archipelago.

(Written by: Yari NK)

Sugar Substitute

When I had to stay the nights in the Tebet hospital about four months ago because we had to send our dad to the hospital since he fell and suffered from an intertrochanteric hip fracture, the doctor who examined my dad said that his glucose level in the blood was high and they needed to lower it down to minimize aftereffects that might come after the surgery. Well, alhmadulillah, the surgery itself went very smoothly after the doctor successfully controlled the glucose level in my dad's blood. And no negative aftereffects arose after the surgery. But it doesn't stop me from thinking to myself, because after he went out of the hospital yet we have to manage to control our dad's diet, that will help a lot to speed up my dad's recovery. Actually it is easy to find a sugar substitute in the market. High and low you will find saccahrine, cyclamate or aspartam to sweeten your beverages and food. But as I did the exhaustive searches in the Web, I found out that each individual of the substitutes above has never been a perfect replacement for sugar. Here I would like to highlight some of them from the various articles found in the Net.

Saccharine: This is the oldest sugar substitute. This artificial sweetener is approximately 300 times sweeter than sugar though often it leaves a bitter aftertaste. The upside of saccahrine is the stability of the molecular structure in high temperature and it does not react with other food's ingredients biochemically. So at the first place I think this will be the perfect substitute for sugar, at least before I read the next article about saccharine indicating that this artificial sweetener if used over a long period of time may give rise to malignant growth. At least the results in the labs on certain animal support such hypothesis. And the United States banned the use of saccharine in 1977. But later experiments from the labs show that no correlation between the malignant growth and the normal usage of saccharine! Scientists said that the malignant growth caused by saccharine on the labs' animal might be induced by ridiculously high dosage of saccharine given to the animal. The dosage of saccharine given in the experiments was hundreds of times higher than normal dose of human consumption. In 1991, the United States had lifted the ban over saccharine.

Cyclamate: Cyclamate is another artificial sweetener. Its sweetness is 30 - 50 times than that of sugar though it is not necessarily linear since for some people cyclamate leaves strong unpleasant or bitter aftertaste make cyclamate less favourite choice as the sugar substitute. The United States banned the use of cyclamate until today but in some 50 countries in the world including Canada, cyclamate is still approved as the sweetener. Some bacteria in the digestive system are suspected to produce cyclohexylamine from cyclamate to give rise to chronic toxicity in some experiments with animals. In the lab, the increase usage of cyclamate also results in the increased incidence of cancer. But later studies in both the UK and the US found that they could not reproduce the same result from such experiments done earlier! However, cyclamate is nowhere to be found here in the Indonesian market and it is enough for me to strike out cyclamate from the list! As simple as that!

Aspartame: The most popular artificial sweetener in Indonesian market. We will find easily products that come with this sweetener in diet products! According to an article I read, in our body, aspartame will be broken down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol (this one is highly toxic!). And further breakdown will produce formaldehyde (I remember some time ago in Indonesia there were products of noodles and meatballs or bakso containing this toxic ingredient!). For those who were born with phenylketonuria, aspartame can be a serious hazard to their health! In some experiments there is an indication that there is a relationship between the higher dosage of aspartame and the higher incidence of cancer. However up to now, there are no countries in the world are reported to ban aspartame from the market!

Xylitol: This is considered to be the 'safest' artificial sweetener. The reason is simple, that's because xylitol naturally occurs in the nature especially in some eucalyptic plants and in some berries! Yet more researches still need to be done to ensure the safety of xylitol over a long period of consumption! But for those of you who live in Indonesia and want to get this sweetener, it means you have to pay extra money since the nearest drugstore who sells this kind of sweetener is in Singapore!! Wait a minute! I thought I saw that Xylitol in a local supermarket! Yeah! Don't be fooled, it is Xylitol the gum from Lotte, not the sweetener itself! You get it??

Well, out of four artificial sweeteners outlined above I think I have to stick to aspartame because so far it is the best alternative especially when the availability comes in the first point of the list. It leaves me no choice. What about you people? Do you think it otherwise? Or do you have a better suggestion?

(Written by: Yari NK)

Ein schwieriger Gast ( A wearisome guest)

der Gast (G): Haben Sie Käse? (Guest (G) : Do you have cheese?)
der Kellner (K) : Ja. (The Waiter (W): Yes.)
G : Dann bitte ein Glas Käse (G : Then please a glass of cheese)
K : Ein Glas Käse? (W: a glass of cheese?)
G : Ja. (G: Yes.)
K : Sie meinen : ein Stück Käse?? (W : you mean a slice of cheese??)
G : Nein, ich meine ein Glas Käse! (G: No I mean a glass of cheese!)
K : Entschuldigung, ein Glas Käse haben wir nicht. (W: I'm sorry, we don't have a glass of cheese.)
G : Was haben Sie denn? (G : Then what do you have?)
K : Kartoffelsalat, Würtschen, Kotelett, Schinken..... (W: potato salad, sausage, pork chop, ham....)
G : Gut, dann bitte ein Stück Kartoffelsalat! (G: Good, then please a slice of potato salad!)
K: Ein Stück Kartoffelsalat?? (W: A slice of potato salad??)
G: Ja. (G: Yes)
K: Sie meinen einen Teller Kartoffelsalat? (W: You mean a plate of potato salad?)
G: Nein, ich meine ein Stück Kartoffelsalat (G: No, I mean a slice of potato salad)
K: tut mir leid, ein Stück Kartoffelsalat haben wir nicht! (W: I'm sorry, we don't have a slice of potato salad either!)
G: Dann nicht - Haben Sie was zu trinken? (G: you don't? - Do you have something to drink?)
K : Bier, Limonade, Wein, Sekt..... (W: Beer, Lemonade, Wine, Champagne......)
G: Gut, dann bitte ein Teller Bier! (G: Good, then please a plate of beer!)
K : Einen Teller Bier?? (W: A plate of beer??)
G: Ja. (G: Yes.)
K: Sie meinen ein Glas Bier? (W: You mean a glass of beer?)
G: Nein, ich meine einen Teller Bier (G: No, I mean a plate of beer)
K: Verzeihung, einen Teller Bier haben wir nicht. (W: I'm sorry, we don't have a plate of beer.)
G: Was haben Sie deen überhaupt? (G: What do you really have then?)
K: Nun, wir haben zum Beispiel Käse, Omelett.... (W: Well, we have something like cheese, Omelette...)
G: Gut, dann bitte ein Glas Käse... (G: Cool, then please a glass of cheese....)
K: ... (W: ...)

(Retold from: Themen 1, Kursbuch, Lehrwerk für Deutsch als Frendsprache)

The Richter Scale

A picture of a tsunami sweeping over a coast

Do you remember the Sumatran earthquake that gave rise to a giant tidal wave or a tsunami that swept over the coasts of the Indian ocean back in December 2004? The massive earthquake was recorded at 9.1 on the Richter scale according to a US seismologic station. In comparison, the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco in 1906 has the magnitude of 8.3 on the Richter scale. In this posting I would not like to bring you to look into the earthquakes since I'm not a geologist nor a seismologist, but I would like you to compare the magnitudes between two earthquakes.

Ok. Now let's go back to the Sumatran earthquake that has the magnitude of 9.1 on the Richter scale, how powerful is it in comparison with an earthquake that has a magnitude of 2 (of the Richter scale, of course!)? Let's round off the figure 9.1 to 9 to make it simpler, how much more powerful is it than the one meausring 2? Does it give you 4.5 times? The right answer is 10,000,000 times !!! How can I come up with such 'horrid' answer? This is how the calculation goes:

First of all, you have to know that the Richter scale (named after a US seismologist, Charles Richter) is a logarithmic scale and not an arithmetic scale. Since it is a logarithmic scale, the correct way to calculate the comparison between two earthquakes is like this:

The Sumatran earthquake is on 9 as I mentioned it above, then bring the figure 9 to power figure 10, thus it gives you 1,000,000,000 (10 powered by 9 or 10⁹). The other earthquake is on 2, and let's bring the figure to power figure 10 as well, thus it gives you 100 (10 powered by 2 or 10²). From those two new figures above (1,000,000,000 and 100) we can figure out how stronger is the Sumatran quake than the one on the scale 2! It gives the result 10,000,000 or 10⁷(1,000,000,000 divided by 100)! Thus, the Sumatran quake is 10 million times stronger than the one measuring 2! From here, we can also compare between the magnitude of the Sumatran quake and the one of San Fransisco quake in 1906. After rounding off the exact magnitude of the San Fransisco quake to 8, we can figure out that the Sumatran quake is about 10 times stronger than that of the Frisco quake! Easy! isn't it?

(Yari NK)

Internet, the 'best' thing we've got today at home?

In the late 1970s, when I was a kid, I used to think what would life in the future be like? Inspired by loads of sci-fis like 'Lost in Space' and 'Star Trek' and fostered by the 1970s atmosphere when the US and the Soviet Union were in the space race, I imagined that life in the year 2000 would be totally different from the one we had in 1970s. I envisioned that robots in the year 2000 would be ubiquitously available in the market to help us doing all kinds of works, from the most laborious works down to the trivial ones. But that's not all, space travels would be very common in the year 2000, and we would fly within a modern flying saucer to make interplanetary tours. And the clothes we wear would be something like the astronouts' outfits, metallic and lustrous!

But now, 7 years after the turnover of the millennium, what is the 'best' or the 'most advanced' technology that we've got at home? Internet? PCs and laptops? Cellphones? DVD Players? Digital (Video) cameras? Plasma/LCD screens? What else do you think that we did not see in the 1970s but we do have it today? Can you think of something else? Never mind! It is of no importance, besides this is also only a frivolous posting!

(Yari NK)

How far Neptune is?

Neptune from the eyes of Voyager 2

Do you know what is the farthest planet currently in our solar system? Pluto? No! Pluto is no longer the farthest planet in the solar system. Scientists and astronomers have eventually agreed that Pluto must be excluded from its status as a planet! Now since Pluto has been demoted from its status, Neptune takes the honour as the farthest planet in the solar system.

Does it mean that our solar system has 'shrunk'? Not exactly, the outermost limit of the solar system is not marked by the farthest planet, but by the farthest object that still revolves around the sun. Even though Pluto is no longer classed as a planet, it is still considered as the part of our solar system.

Even if Neptune is our outermost object in the system, our universe is still vast! Now let's see how far Neptue is from the earth! Supposedly that someone wants to 'waste' his time to go to the planet in a rocket with the available current technology, and with the current technology you can travel with the speed of 50 kilometers per second (kps) through the space. First let's see how fast is 50 kps. Actually it gives the figure of 180,000 kilometer per hour (kph) or 112,000 miles per hour (mph), it means that the rocket travels 1,800 times faster than your car dashing at the speed of 100 kph (62 mph)! But don't be too happy so soon, that speed is very slow in the term of vast distance in space! Now let's check the distance between the earth and Neptune, according to the data given in Wikipedia, the average distance between the sun and the planet is 30 Astronomical Unit (AU) approximating ( 4.5 billion kilometers / 2.8 billion miles), meanwhile the distance between the sun and the earth is 1 AU or 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles. Ok, now let's skip the arithmetical headache, it represents the fact enough that the distance between our blue planet and the gas giant Neptune is about 29 AU (4.35 billion kilometers / 2.7 billion miles). Now giving all the data above we can simply calculate that our rocket will reach Neptune from Earth in about 3 years!!

It still doesn't impress you? Ok now wait! We take another example! You know that if you communicate with your friend through your cellphone, you can hear your friend's voice almost instantly as he speaks! That's because the signal between the cells travels almost at the speed of light. But if you (on earth) communicate with someone in Neptune (provided with the most advanced communication technology available today), you might be surprised to find a long delay! Suppose that the communication signal travels at the speed of light or 300,000 kps or 1,080,000,000 kph (the actual speed of the signal of course is slightly less than the speed of light). Now think again that the distance between the earth and Neptune is 4.35 billion kilometers meaning that the signal will reach the earth from Neptune (and vice versa) in about 4 hours! What does it exactly mean? It means that you will hear your friend's voice on your set 4 hours after your friend in Neptune speaks on his set !!! What a delay!!

Well now we can imagine how vast is our solar system. Let alone the whole galaxy or the whole universe considering that our solar system is just a tiny tiny tiny speck in the universe!

(Written by: Yari NK)

Illusion

In my Indonesian blog, I have posted an article about an illusion (an object that deceives your eyes), but in that posting I connect it to a more absctract and broader meaning in the definition of the illusion itself, especially the illusions that happen in your life. But here in the posting, I would only like to present the illusive pictures that might entertain you in some way.



Here we go, like in the first picture below. In the picture, there are two groups of dots are displayed. The right group seems to have a bigger dot at the centre. Nope you are wrong, both central dots have the same diameter! This pic is playing tricks on your eyes!


Here in the second picture, all you have to do is to keep staring at the black dot at the centre. After a while you will see that the grey haze that surrounds the dot will start to shrink until it almost completely disappears. That's because as you focus on the central dot, your brain starts to ignore the surrounding objects! But as your focus is away from the dot, the shade begins to reappear!

In the picture below, you see yellowish green arrows on the blue background. All you have to do is to stare at them for a few seconds. You will see as if the arrows are moving very slowly.

Illusions like those above are everywhere to be found on the web. You can find them easily. I would just like to show you those illusions could be very fun and enjoyable. Feel free to look for more of them!

(Written by: Yari NK. Pictures taken from the Web)

Wimbledon!

Wimbledon is drawing near! Each year I can't wait for another Wimbledon to come. This is because Wimbledon is considered the best amongst the other Grand Slams and it is considered as the pinnacle of all tennis tournaments. The oldest grand slam classed-tournament that goes back as early as 1877 now offers equal prizes for both men and women for the very first time this year. The Centre Court's roof for the 2007 tournament is being remodelled, so for the time being there will be no roofs in the centre court. But in 2008, Wimbledon's Centre Court will be equipped with a modern retractable roof that will prevent the rain from interrupting the matches in the Centre Court.

For this year's Wimbledon, In the gentlemen's section I predict that Roger Federer will seize the fifth title in a row. While Andy Roddick and the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal will vie for the other spot in the final. In the ladies' section, the title is still open equally for Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Amélie Mauresmo, with the Williams sisters and several Russian top-notch players are looking for a spot in the semifinal.

Ok. I don't want to write a prolix posting on Wimbledon. If you want to know more about Wimbledon there are loads of sources on the Web for you to look for. In this posting I'd just like to welcome the annual Wimbledon. Now and for the next two weeks I want to stick my butt on the couch to enjoy the full live coverage of Wimbledon and let's see who will lift the trophies!

(Written by: Yari NK)

Maybe because I am a fool......

Scenes from OB (upper) and Bajaj Bajuri (lower)

in the course of the Indonesian television history, as far as I remember, there are only two Indonesian sitcoms that can make me as dumb as a couch potato. They are OB (Office Boy) and Bajaj Bajuri. Bajaj Bajuri, unfortunately, are no longer on any stations to be watched, the TV station which aired the sitcom cut off the programme with no distict reasons, but OB is still aired regularly in the late afternoon on weekdays.

If you ask me why do I like those coms, I don't think I have the right answer for you since up to now I still search for the most logical answer for it. Are they so funny that I pay special attention to them? Not necessarily! if we speak about the term 'funny', the ones of Srimulat or Extravaganza can also make me crack up as well as those two coms can. But those Srimulat or even something that is considered higher like Extravaganza have fed me up, while those two coms are still much of an entertaining horseplay.

What about their acts? So far I admit that they do it more than just good, but their act is not the best I have seen even though in the Indonesian scope! And the characters therein are inconsistent sometimes. Take a look at Oneng, Oneng is depicted as a woman with a double digit IQ, so foolish that she cannot digest the simplest information that is fed to her. But at times, Oneng is doing better than an average uneducated does! In some occasions, I found that Oneng spoke English (a foreign language) better than a newby does, with a good grammar though with an impaired pronunciation. Also Sascha in OB, she is supposed to be a forgetful girl with an inferior intelligence, yet in some occasions, her memory is surprisingly photographic!

Then why do I like them?? The best answer I can get is maybe because the scenes in both coms are very dynamic, it means the scenes are never trapped in a dragging dialogue! That's as close as the best answer I can get. Or maybe because I am a fool to like those coms! As foolish as the reason of why I wrote this posting with this topic!

(Written by: Yari NK)

A Counterfeit Watch (Intermissive Jocular Posting)

One day, a man took his timepiece to a watch shop to have it repaired. When he arrived at the shop, he handed over the watch to the shop owner and flowed a conversation like this:

The Shop Owner (SO) : What's happened with this watch, sir?
The Man (M) : I have no idea, it's kaput! It cost me $3000
SO : Pardon me, sir?
M : The watch cost me $3000
SO : But sir, this watch is counterfeit, it's not a genuine one! You were duped sir! Where did you buy this piece of junk???
M : I bought it at yours, moron! Almost a year ago! Where else could it be????

Thanks to sis Aisha from Malaysia, on whose blog I read this comical story! The original posting is in Malay.

(Retold in English by Yari NK)

The cheapest way of travelling à la Cyrano de Bergerac

An illustration of Bergerac's illogical way of cheap travelling

Low cost travelling is everyone's dream, it does not only belong to us who witness the magic of aerodynamic engineering today but it also belonged to everyone who lived in the past. Cyrano de Bergerac, a homosexual-suspected French writer who lived in the 17th century also had a dream of zapping himself to any places in this world at a low cost. Unfortunately de Bergerac was born two centuries before an actual air balloon flew for the first time carrying a pessenger within. His proposed way of cheap travelling was only on the text he wrote, and it is a laughing stock for everyone of us who reads his proposal today. Here is what he proposed to make a cheap far-off travelling:

De Bergerac was imagining that he had a balloon, large enough to bring him within up into the air. After he reached a noticeable height, all he had to do was to stay suspended in the air without having to move any inches. As he stayed suspended in the air, he would witness the earth rotating below, and after several hours he would land in a totally different place! De Bergerac was sure that he would be able to go to Canada from France without having to go by sea if he had a balloon he imagined!

But can we go travelling around the world as the way described by de Bergerac? Unfortunately things are not as simple as the theory that ran into de Bergerac's mind. If you are floating in the air, you don't really separate yourself from the planet earth! You are still tied together, because you are floating in the envelope of atmosphere which also participates in the earth's rotation. And the atmosphere spins together with the planet along with everything in it: clouds, airplanes, birds, insects, dusts or even viruses! Logically if the atmosphere does not rotate together with the earth, we would be always battered by a superstrong wind more terrible than the strongest hurricane we've ever witnessed in normal condition. We would take an analogy like this: suppose that you are on a motor cycle dashing at a speed of 100 kph in a very calm wind, what would you feel? Of course you would feel a strong wind coming towards you! The same case is also true for the spinning earth with the still atmosphere.

Now we understand why we can't benefit from the cheap (travelling) idea described by de Bergerac. Besides if de Bergerac's idea is applicable to actual physics, all of the commercial airlines would have already long gone, out of business!

(Written by Yari NK)

Do you really want to be an invisible man?

David McCallum

For those who were born before 1970s, do you still remember 'The Invisible Man' the series? The American series was starred by a prolific British actor, David McCallum. The series is about a scientist who experienced a terrible accident during his scientific expemeriments, resulting in his invisibleness. But fortunately this invisible man came with a good intension despite of the advantage he gained from the accident. He combatted the evil-doers along the series!

But what will you do if you become like him, an invisible man? Do you want to take the advantage to do otherwise? Imagine if you become an invisible man, you can do various malefactions for your own benefits and for your own pleasures. You can slink comfortably into a movie theatre to watch your favourite new released movies without having to be in the ticket line first! Or, you can steal cash from the cashier's registers at any stores you like, or take this one, you can sneak in the ladies' restroom stealthily to feed your blue imagination! You name your own malefaction! You will do them all with impunity and no one seems to be able to stop you.

Ok. let's drop the word fiction from the phrase science-fiction. We now resort to pure science. Do you know that if an invisible does really exist or in the future if we can create invisible men due to our future high technology, he will have the most critical downside?? What is it?? If you become an invisible man, surely you will become BLIND! It means that you cannot see at all!! How come?? Simple! Our eyes are like a camera, we can see things clearly because there is light to penetrate our eyes! This light will be stopped and will be refracted within our retina and create an image from the object we see in the back of the retina! Thus we can see the object clearly!! Now in the case of invisible man, the eyes are transparent and the retina will fail to refract the light to make an image in the retina because the invisible eyes fail to stop the light! So there will be no image created in the back of our retina thus we will see nothing!! The detail of this mechanism is quite complicated and it is beyond the scope of this posting and beyond the blogger's knowledge! Hehehehe.... But now you know that if you are an invisible man, I'm sure that you will benefit nothing from the advantage of being invisible! Ok?

(Written by: Yari NK)

Tallest Buildings in the World

Do you subscribe to pay-TV (Whether it's satellite or cable?) If you do, then you know that one channel in the line-up is National Geographic Channel (NGC). One of my favourite programmes is Mega Structures which tells us about massive (and tallest) buildings, how they are built, and what technologies are invloved in the buildings themtselves. So it was no surprise for me to find out that every tallest structure in this world involves multinational companies to combine their resources to build the structure! Here below are some of the tallest buildings (and the future tallest buildings):

THE PETRONAS TOWER

The Petronas Towers are the past tallest building in the world (1998-2004) before it was surpassed by Taipei 101. Yet the towers are still considered as the tallest TWIN towers in the world. Located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the building which is designed by a Norwegian architect, Dawid Tadeusz Mauno, has the original height of 375 meters. That height figure is actually not enough to make the towers the tallest building in the world. To make these towers the tallest building in the world, they added an antenna on the top of the building to make it as high as 452 meters. That's the world record at that time! The Building which began to be built in 1995 has 88 floors and 78 elevators within.

TAIPEI 101 (臺北101)
By the time this article was written, Taipei 101 (Located in Taipei, Taiwan of course!) was the tallest building in the world. It surpassed the Petronas Towers in height in 2004. The building who is designed by C. J. Lee & Associates has 101 floors, that's why the building is named Taipei 101. The height of the main building itself is of 449 meters, with the antenna added on the top of it the height becomes 509 meters. The building is equipped with a very high speed Internet connection which comes at the rate of 1 gigabit per second on fibre optic or satellite connection.

BURJ DUBAI برج دبي
In English it is simply translated as Tower of Dubai, is still under construction. The construction itself has begun in 2004 and will be finished circa 2009. The tower will be the tallest building in the world and it will surpass Taipei 101 by a very wide and record-breaking margin! Located in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates, the height of the tower will be estimated as 818 meters with the antenna installed on the top. The number of the floors will be estimated around 160 but I still have no idea who exactly desgined this building, perhaps you can come with the information I need.

Burj Mubarak al-Kabir

Also known as Mubarak Tower in English. Located in the future urban area in Subiya, Kuwait, this tower will also be the the future tallest building in the world. The building will have the height of 1001 meters, the only building on the planet that hits the mark of kilometer. This building is still proposed, and the construction has not yet begun. The other facts about this building are still little known.

(Written by: Yari NK)

Phobias

Do you have a permanent fear of something? If you do, then you might have suffered from a phobia. But you are not alone, people with phobias are here and there to be found. There are countless kinds of phobia, some are very common, some others are very unusual and sound so ridiculous. Here below I make a list of phobia to be recognised (sorry the list is not arranged alphabetically):

Zoophobia : The fear of animals
mymercophobia : The fear of ants
Ablutophobia : The fear of bathing (wow! I wonder how smelly someone with this phobia can be!)
Ailurophobia : The fear of cats
Coimetophobia : The fear of cemeteries
Pedophobia : The fear of kids (he/she who has this phobia might better remain single for life!)
Iatrophobia : The fear of doctors (Wow! Too bad I can't find the term for someone who fears of shrinks!!)
Oneirophobia : The fear of dreams (Should he stay awake for good and all?? Sigh!!)
Phantasmophobia : The fear of ghosts (Though I've never met such person, I believe that this phobia is quite common)
Cyberphobia : The fear of computers ( LOL, surely the one with this phobia will never know the fun of blogging!!)
Homophobia : The fear of homosexuality
Paraskavedekatriaphobia : The fear of Friday 13th! (Gosh! I don't believe it that such phobia does exist! The term itself is very much of a tongue twister!!)
Trypanophobia : The fear of injections (Maybe all kids do have this phobia)
Chrematophobia : The fear of money (Aaagh! Is this a phobia or a stupidity???? LOL.)
Icthyphallophobia : The fear of penis (Another tongue twister! But lesbos are free from this phobia!!)
Glossophobia : The fear of public speaking ( I think I do have this phobia when I was younger)
Enissophobia : The fear of comitting a sin (This phobia is one out of a few that has a positive characteristic I think)
Sequipedalophobia : The fear of long words !! (Surely he/she with this phobia would not like to know what kind of phobia he/she has when he/she reads this posting! LOL)
Didaskaleinophobia : The fear of school (Lazy pupils/students???)
Phonophobia : The fear of noise
Ophidiophobia : The fear of snakes
Technophobia : The fear of technology (This is even worse than cyberphobia!)
Arachnophobia : The fear of spiders ( I think this is a very common phobia especially amongst women! But strangely I can't find the term for the ones who fear of roaches!! Which is very common too amongst women!)
Zemmiphobia : The fear of rats
Scoleiphobia : The fear of worms
Virginitiphobia : The fear of rape (Heck !! Who likes to be raped anyway??????)
Ergophobia : The fear of work (Is it attributable to lazy people?)
Obesophobia : The fear of weight gain
Isolophobia : The fear of going out alone (Perhaps it has got something to do with phantasmophobia described above)
Nosocomephobia : The fear of hospital

..... and many others! You can find the rest of them easily online. Perhaps you can find the phobia for those who fear of pretty girls or handsome men!! LOL.

OK. That's all for now.

(Written by: Yari NK)

The Left Brain vs. The Right Brain

Ok now, let's play a little game in this posting. There are two charts above as you see. You can play it in English or in Bahasa Indonesia. The upper chart is for you who want to play in English, while the lower chart above is for the ones who play in Bahasa Indonesia. The rules of the game are very simple. Here they are:
Try to SAY the chart aloud and as fast as you can! Remember you have to SAY the COLOUR of each word and DON'T SAY THE WORD of each word!

That's it! The rules above are very simple. I hope you understand what I have written above. Let's see how well you can do it! As you try to play the game, you will find out that it is not as easy as you thought, is it? Why is it not that easy? The game above is a classic example of the conflict between our left brain and our right brain. As our right brain tries to say the colour, the other half of our brain is trying to outwit our right brain by telling us that we should say the word! That explains why this game is not so easy to do!

You can play with both charts interchangeably! I mean, you can play the game in Bahasa Indonesia with the English chart or vice versa. If you understand both languages well, you will find the same difficulty in playing the game. Now let us substitute the charts with the one which alphabet you are not familiar with like the ones written in Arabic, Chinese or hangul (Korean) alphabet (Too bad I don't have the charts with those alphabets). If you have any of them, you can try it by saying the colour from the chart, in a language that you understand, you will find out that it will be a lot easier to do! Why? That's because our left brain cannot read the word thus it cannot outwit our right brain. The case is also true if you are illiterate (you can't read)! Try to find an illiterate person to play this game, he/she will easily do the game!

Ok. That's all for now.

(Written by: Yari NK)

A durian seller and a frugal lady (an intermissive jocular posting)

One day a frugal lady went to the market to buy some durians, she saw a durian man (seller) in the distance, so she approached the seller and started to make a deal with him.

The Frugal Lady (FL) : Sir, how much is a kilo of durians?
The Durian Man (DM): They are 5 ringgit a kilo, ma'am!
FL: 5 ringgit?? are you kidding me?? Why is it so expensive??
DM : Because the durians sold here are delicious and very sweet!
FL : What if they are not sweet as you claimed?
DM : Then I will give them to you for free!
FL : Really? Cool! Then please give me 10 kilos of them which are not sweet!!
DM : *#?!!*$#@!!!

Thanks to sis Aisha from Malaysia from whose blog I read this comical story. The original posting is in Malay.

(Written and Retold in English by YARI NK)

MSG: Could it be that much of a health-risker??

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) powder: Ready to season our food!

In the late 1970s and in the beginning of 1980s.... there was a hypothesis (a hearsay to be more exact) stating that MSG, the flavour enhancer, is responsible for a syndrome called 'Chinese restaurant syndrome'. The symptoms of this syndrome are various including headache, palpitation, shortness of breath, chestpain, and many others including restlessness. But about 20 years later, studies show that there is no clear evidence that MSG is directly responsible for the syndrome. So the 'theory' of Chinese restaurant syndrome remains a controversy up to now. But does really MSG give rise to such syndrome? is MSG the culprit for such symptoms above? What is it exactly MSG? etc.... Well again, I searched for articles on MSG online, from the various articles I read, here in this post I would like to excerpt it below:

What is MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)? MSG is a very common thing in Southeast Asia. It is a flavour enhancer. Here in Indonesia, MSG is sold in the market under various brand names i.e. Ajinomoto, Miwon, Sasa, etc. It is widely used in seasoning oriental food. But do you know that glutamate is naturally present in our body?? Yes, glutamate is an amino acid that makes up proteins. It is a very abundant and important amino acid. Not only glutamate is naturally present in our body, without consuming it, the body itself produces this amino acid that is vital for our metabolism and brain function. And how is this MSG manufactured? In the past MSG was produced from protein-rich food like seaweeds, today MSG is produced from starch, corn sugar or sugar beet with the aid of natural enzymes. The next question is: does body treat glutamate from MSG similarly with the one naturally produced in our body? The latest studies show that our body cannot distinguish glutamate produced in our body from glutamate contained in MSG! So it means that glutamate contained in MSG will be treated and synthesized similarly with the one naturally produced in our body! Glutamate is not merely produced in our body, it is also widely present in our natural food we consume every day. Tomatoes, cheese, corn and milk are the rich sources of glutamate. Again, the glutamate consumed from these kinds of food is handled similarly with the one consumed from MSG in our body!

Now, the important question arrives: IS MSG SAFE? According to US FDA and other bodies worldwide responsible for the safety of food support the fact that MSG is SAFE. The oriental food seasoned with MSG is actually much much and much safer than American fast (junk) food! The 'theory' from the late 1970s about Chinese Restaurant Syndrome was apparently sparked by ignorant theorists and low-grade scientists to disserve oriental/Asian food! Now for those who follow blindly those low-grade scientists by avoiding MSG but being addicted to American fastfood, I dare to say that you are risking your health more! Now for those who enjoy MSG in their food, it is safe to take it moderately. Of course, excessive consumption of anything (including MSG) is never advised!

Ok. All for now and enjoy back your MSG. LOL.

(Written by: Yari NK)

Between Maria Sharapova and Angelique Widjaja

Maria Sharapova: The Rising Russian Superstar in Tennis

To open this topic, I would like you to remember our Indonesian tennis player from the 1990s: Ms. Yayuk Basuki! Do you still remember her? She is the best Indonesian tennis player in history. Of course I believe you all (Indonesians) do. Her best achievement in Wimbledon is the quarter-final in 1997, and her highest rank according to WTA is 19 in the world, also in 1997. To my opinion, Ms. Yayuk Basuki during her professional time could do better than what she had already achieved in 1997 if she followed what professionals do to boost her career. I remember how she turned down French Open for the sake of Wimbledon, an attitude that she should not have as a professional. I understand that she disliked clay court, the one like Roland Garros, the venue of the French Open. She could not maximize her effort in a slow clay court, that's why she skipped Roland Garros to concentrate more on the fast grass court of Wimbledon. But as a professional she can't choose where she had to play for she cannot be so picky. She should follow her fellow tennis pro, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, a Spaniard, who disliked Wimbledon's grass court but she always took part in the tourney without being so picky. She knew that as a true champion, she had to be able to play in all kinda courts! No matter how slow or how fast a court is. Sánchez-Vicario is the opposite of Yayuk Basuki in her preference of a court. I remember how Yayuk Basuki refused to move her home base to Europe or the United States to boost her career. The proximity of her residence to the great tourneys will help her to improve her career's achievement. A path that she did not follow for a bad rationale: home sickness!

Four years later, another Indonesian player was 'born': She is Angelique Widjaja. In 2001, she lifted girls trophy in Wimbledon and all of the sudden she was an everybody's hero in this country for making the headlines. Amongst the crisis that blanketed this country in many facets, the trophy lifted by Angelique Widjaja is like an oasis in the vast desert. But obviously the trophy was the zenith of her achievement since that time Widjaja's career declined as rapidly as it ascended. It seemed that Widjaja fell into the same pit as her elder, Ms. Yayuk Basuki! Now we have almost heard nothing from her again as she only played in some murky satellite tourneys.

On the other hand, Russia's Maria Sharapova has never lifted girls trophy in her career. When Widjaja was high on lifting her first (and the last) girls trophy in Wimbledon, Sharapova was focusing on bringing home the ladies trophy! Why bringing home girls trophy when you can bring home the trophy for the bigger ladies?? Who is gonna remember the ones who lifted girls trophy?? Nobody! That's what came across Sharapova's mind! As we see today, Sharapova hits the headlines of every sport pages in the newspapers and magazines.

Of course in this blog, I would not like to belittle the achievement of Ms. Yayuk Basuki. It doesn't matter what I say in this blog, Yayuk Basuki is still one of the greatest tennis player in this country. But would she follow the path of the professionals, she could make the bigger headlines in the newspapers front pages!

(Written by: Yari NK)

Scoville Scale.... Just how hot is hot??

Naga Jolokia: India's hottest chili pepper in the world!

Being addicted to chilis and hot food, I tried to search for the articles on chilis. Amongst the countless articles I found through exhaustive search on the web, I ended up at the article on Scoville Scale! Scoville Scale.... heck what is that? Yeah, this is something new to me as well, Scoville scale is a scale for measuring the hotness of chilis! Or if you read the article at Wiki, the term hotness is replaced by the word 'piquancy', a term that is not exactly synonymous. Then how do they scale the scale?? That's what I wondered too at the beginning before I read the article, but as I continued reading I began to see light on the scale. I will give you here the outline, for the detail about the scale you can look into it at Wiki (or elsewhere on the Web), the complete explanation is there to be read.

At first, I had no idea how they measure the hotness of a chili. Do they have to put it in the mouths and feel the hotness on their tongues? Well if that is how they do it to measure it, then the result would contain much subjectivity since the human's natural sensors are poor measuring tools for external stimuluses. Then how do they do it? It's apparently simple. All chilis contain a natural chemical compound called 'capsaicin', the compound that gives rise to a burning sensation at the neuro-receptor in your tongue (or even in your skin!). That's why as you chew the chilis you will sense the hotness on your tongue. Now to begin measuring the hotness of the chili, all you have to do is to dilute the extract of the chili in sugar water until the hotness is no longer detected in the chili or the capsaicin in the extract is completely diluted in the water. The degree of dilution will then give the reading of the measurement. For example, the bell peppers (aka the paprikas) have no capsaicin at all, it means that the scoville rating of a paprika is zero. On the other hand, the hottest chili pepper in the western hemisphere called habañero has the scoville rate of 200,000 (wikipedia). It means that the habañeros have to be diluted 200,000-fold before the capsaicin is completely diluted in the water or no longer detected in the chilis. Still confused? hehehe... don't worry I bet you are not alone in this case.

So according to Wikipedia (see the article about Scoville Scale for more detail), the hottest chili on the planet is Naga Jolokia, the chilis are cultivated in the region of Assam, India, (The scoville rating is about 1,000,000, approximately five times hotter than that of an habañero!) which picture is displayed above. What about Thai peppers (In Indonesia we call it 'cabai rawit' or in Malaysia it is dubbed as 'chili padi') ?? Well, a bit surprisingly, our Thai peppers are only rated at 100,000! which means 10 times milder than the Jolokias! Well, are you now interested in tasting that Jolokia?? Well I think you will have nothing to lose. At least eating too much Jolokia will help relieving your constipated bowels, and you will need no longer Vegeta to empty out your intestines... hehehehehe......

Ok folks. All for now.

(Written by: Yari NK)

Secondhand Smoke vs Fart

When I was browsing around at youtube.com, I unwittingly found something hilarious. It is about two men sharing the same enclosed room (They are seemingly sitting in a restaurant or in a diner, sharing the same table). The one on the left is puffing a smoke from his cigarette while the other one is struggling with his flatulence after having some meal. Maybe because the flatus is being pushed all the way down by the new occupants in his tummy, the man cannot hold his fart anymore and he eventually lets go a big fart in the middle of the meal! LOL!
I am a smoker myself, but I realise that it is not good to give the people of non-smokers the secondhand smoke from my cigarettes, so now I have made up my mind that I have to phase out my smoking habit especially when I am in the crowd.
What about the farting habit?? Yes I have a habit to pass the gas at will since I am an easygoing farter. LOL. But of course when I am in the crowd I would always try to make my farts as inaudible as I can though it was not always successful. Hehehe.... The safest place to let go a fart in my workplace is at the security post! My fellow securitymen would not complain since the post is also their safest shelter to pass the gas (apart from the toilet or the restrooms, of course!).
The wisdom of the video display is obvious. It is trying to show us that if you are annoyed by someone who is farting near you, the people around you (especially the non-smokers) are also likely annoyed by the secondhand smoke from your cigarette! And one more thing we have to keep in mind that gas from the fart is not as harmful as the smoke from a cigarette, though the gas from our farts is sometimes odourous due to the sulphurous compound produced in the gas.
Ok, I hope you can enjoy the video, but for those who cannot take the video for a decent display I would like to deeply apologise. I understand that in most eastern society, farting is still considered a taboo.

(Written by: Yari NK)

My Life, My Spectrum

I am gonna let you know that this is my very first blog. Until yesterday blogging was something that failed to attract my attention at all, until I found some interesting blogs on the web. I am basically not a writer nor an academician. I am just a commoner, a person with an average intelligence. I am of nothing special. So if you find my posts confusing either grammatically, analytically or logically I would like to apologise for that kind of inconvenience. But inshallah I will make myself clear for you and I will try to raise some interesting topics (though it might not be always succcessful, of course!), and I will try to show you the spectrum of my shallow knowledge on everything. Of course, I will exclude all of my personal life including the one of my family's. Anything that happens in my family will not be shown in this blog and I will need to create another blog to write about my personal life in the near future!
In return I would like to hear from you, guys, criticism is very welcome, and friendly opposition is something that I can take with my open arms! So don't hesitate to spit out anything that is already formulated in your head upon my posts! Any comments will anyhow enrich my spectrum!

Ok folks I think that's all for now.

(Written by: Yari NK)