Sunday, October 19, 2008

What is the best drink to have if your tongue is on fire?





In order to reduce the burning sensation, eat fatty foods such as buttered toast and milk. Drinking water won't help to reduce the burning sensation because Capsaicin is not soluble in water. Besides fatty foods, Capsaicin is also very soluble in pure alcohol, so drinking certain high alcohol content beers or wine should help a little be more than plain water. Even better yet, mouth wash is usually about 20% alcohol, which is much higher than all beer and wines. Rinsing with this may be your best and quickest bet.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

How and why spicy food causes a burn sensation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin

Our tongue is made up of a series of sensors. These respond to different taste sensations, such as sweet, sour, salt... Well, certain foods have chemicals which cause an over stimulation of a certain group of these sensors. Every one has a different level or trigger point, some chiefs are very sensitive to the smallest variation in taste.

The reason certain foods are spicy is mainly do to a molecule called capsaicin.
Capsaicin ( 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide ) is the main compound in chile peppers that give them their spice and is found in many hot sauces as well. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Orchestra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestra

An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble. In an orchestra, it consist of sections that is divided according to the instrument family that is string, brass, woodwind, and possibly a percussion section. The orchestra grew by accretion throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but changed very little in composition during the course of the twentieth century.

To form an orchestra, a necessary amount of players are needed. For smaller orchestra it must consist about fifty players or fewer where it is called a chamber orchestra. A full size orchestra must consist about 100 players and it may sometimes be called a "symphony orchestra" or "philharmonic orchestra".

In the organisation of the orchestra, there are principle in every section where they are resposible for orchestra solos. The principle of the strings is also considered as the concert master. In modern times, musicians are usually directed by the conductor.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Chinese Dialect - Teochew

Teochew is spelled in english, in some other words, it can be Teochiu, Tiuchiu, Tiochiu, or Diojiu. It is a Chaozhou language. Teochew is dialect of the Southern Min Chinese language, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong. An approximately of 2-5 million speakers in overseas.Chaoshan was one of the major sources of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia during the 18th–20th centuries, forming one of the larger dialect groups among the Overseas Chinese.

As a result, Chaozhou is now spoken in many regions outside of Chaoshan. One of it is our country Malaysia.In Singapore, Teochew has become one of the native language of many Chinese people and is the second largest Chinese group in Singapore, after the Hokkien. In Malaysia, most Teochew people is staying in an area located in a few parts of the places in each states.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Banana


What does the term "banana" mean? Plainly speaking its the group of Chinese people (associated with being yellow-skinned) who is fluent in English (associated with being white) but isn't proficient in their mother tongue, such as Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien & etc..

This phenomena is not only happening in the big cities like Penang, KL or Melaka ; it is happening in other countries either. There are other analogies, like Oreo. Oreo is for an African-American being "white" inside in the US.

Commonly, there are 4 types of Banana :

Type 1: He or she can speak fluent English and Chinese dialect; interpreter material.

Type 2: His or her English is good, definitely better than their own Chinese dialect; but they can converse with Por Por without trouble... although you wish they could speak English

Type 3: He or she is midway between the two, neither one is superior to the other and they are not a master at both.

Type 4: . They will struggle when speaking in Chinese dialect. English is their mother tongue.

In my point of view, different people have their different family background and different life-style. So, the most important thing is that we must learn to respect each others. It is very rude and stupid to discriminate our friends which could not master their own dialect. Conversely, we must learn to be humble. There are a lot of things that we can learn from them too.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Paracetamol

The common function of Paracetamol is reducing pain. One of the well known brand for paracetamol is Panadol. It comes with two types, liquids and tablets. Paracetamol can also lower a raised temperature (fever). A good example is Panadol Active Fast. As pain and fever are common, no home should be without some paracetamol, particularly homes with children. It is often in the middle of the night when fever or pains such as earache occur. Paracetamol can be used during pregnancy also as it is less toxic in nature.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Ways to prevent LRT crash

THE recent LRT collision was an incident many would not have expected. According to the news that i read from newspaper, this incident happened is due to the short interval schedule.Having trains running at three minute intervals is imprudent and an invitation to tragedy. There are a lot of factors coming into play when a train stalls. One is the breakdown in communications between the affected train and the operations room. Secondly, there might also be communication problems with another train that is on the same track as the stalled train.

It will be wiser to plan for 5 or 10 minute interval schedules during the peak periods and 15-minute intervals during the off-peak periods. Furthermore, the trains should have extra coaches with comfortable seats.

Apart from that, there is another kind of accident waiting to happen is that of passengers, especially children playing in the waiting area falling onto the tracks just as a train comes in.
An automatic gate controlled from the operations room should be set up, which opens only when the train has come to a complete halt.

An accident is an unexpected event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects. As the saying goes, prevent is always better than cure. So, before anything happen, we must be alert and becareful to the threats around us. Appropriate action should be taken to eliminate them.