Penang Hill - Naik Separuh Jalan No. 2

This is a continuation of the entry: Naik Separuh Jalan

No. 9 - Exercise. For those too poor to afford fancy gyms and personal trainers, hiking up the hill is a good form of exercise. Hence we see a lot of gorillas, whales, walruses, elephants trodding and plodding up the hill, in hopes of becoming svelte and trim.

Obama wins...So now what??

Well, well, looks like Obama made history today. Being the first American president of African descent, it is a great stride foward for him and his nation. He deserves a big round of applause. It shows that with the right campaign and attitude, racial barriers can be broken down.

However, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. With so many issues and challenges ahead for America, I am sure he would be facing tremendous pressure to deliver whatever change that he intends to make.

So as democrats celebrate tonight, the rest of the world looks on, hoping that US will not 'sneeze' again. For when and if they do, the rest of the world catches a cold.

Congratulations and most importantly, good luck to you, Obama.

Melamine anyone?? Yes? Errr No???

Warning: The author takes no responsibility for whatsoever interpretation that the reader may perceive from this article.

Everyone seems to have gone on a melamine fear mode nowadays. Who would not, with reports of cases involving babies. This fear created a lot of unchecked claims floating about in cyberspace, resulting in a lot of food dumping. I have friends who were throwing out their ice-cream, W*** mini-po**ers (cannot say the brand, nanti kena saman pulak) etc.

Fact is, melamine is a low toxicity compound. Unfortunately, it is most likely contaminated with another low toxicity compound, cyanuric acid. The two together, makes a whole different story. It is postulated that melamine and cyanuric acid allows the formation of crystals in your kidneys- hence your nephrons becomes clogged and fail.

Now, WHO (World Health Organisation) has an interesting article on Melamine dose. And I quote from this article:

"Considering a TDI of 0.5 mg/kg body weight, this would lead for a 50kg person to a tolerable amount of 25 mg melamine per day. Assuming this person would drink one litre of milk per day, this would indicate that the TDI would be reached at a level of 25 mg melamine per litre of milk. This level then would be considered as the 'level of concern'.

Considering a 5kg infant, the tolerable amount of melamine would be 2.5 mg per day. This amount would be reached when consuming 750 ml liquid (or reconstituted) formula contaminated at a level around 3.3 mg/l (ppm)."

Now where is my bag of Lemon Puffs? Yum yum.

List of products tested compliant by Ministry of Health, Malaysia (MOH)
List of products NOT involved in the melamine contamination scare, MOH
List of products tested NOT COMPLIANT by MOH