That's why my labmates eat bananas everydy!

Bananas... This is very interesting.

After Reading THIS, you'll NEVER look at a banana in the same way again -

Bananas. Containing three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression:

According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana.

This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia:

High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of haemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure:

This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect to beat blood pressure.

So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power:

200 students at aTwickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation:

High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers:

One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn:

Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness:

Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites:

Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves:

Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work?

Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers:

The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control:

Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

(SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking:

Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress:

Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes:

According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine,

"eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts:

Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals.

It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around.

So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say,

"A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

sikap tamak tidak boleh ada dalam kejuruteraan

Melihat dokumentari berkenaan tragedi empangan pecah di Stava, Italy di salah satu saluran dokumentari di Astro menguatkan lagi pendirian saya bahawa ketamakan akan membawa bencana. Tragedi yang mengorbankan 268 nyawa pada 19 Julai 1985 itu diakibatkan oleh sikap tamak pemaju lombong yang tidak bersetuju untuk menanggung kos keselamatan yang tinggi sedangkan laporan penyelidikan telah dikeluarkan bahawa empangan kedua yang dibina oleh mereka bagi menampung sisa perlombongan adalah tidak selamat. Kawasan penempatan di kaki pergunungan Alphine itu akhirnya tertimbus oleh banjir lumpur apabila empangan kedua yang dibina di atas empangan pertama tidak dapat menampung beban air limbah dari lombong bahan pembuat kaca dan menyebabkan kedua-dua empangan itu pecah.

Kilang kayu

Kemudiannya, saya terus mengaitkan permasalahan ini dengan persekitaran tempat kerja saya di Universiti Tun Hussein Onn (UTHM). Tidak boleh dinafikan bahawa sudah banyak kali aduan dilakukan berkenaan masalah kilang kayu di sebelah universiti yang mengganggu kesihatan dan keharmonian bukan sahaja warga universiti malah penduduk setempat. Tetapi aduan ini seolah-olah tidak di ambil endah atas alasan bahawa kilang kayu itu dibina sebelum kewujudan UTHM lagi.

Tetapi bagaimana pula dgn kesihatan para pelajar dan suasana pembelajaran tidak kondusif yang terpaksa mereka hadapi. Mungkin kira-kiranya nampak tidak serius bagi sesetengah pihak kerana kesannya adalah jangka panjang. Bagi menghasilkan para jurutera yang cekap, modal yang bukan sedikit telah dilaburkan untuk prasarana dan insfrastuktur sesebuah universiti. Sayangnya, para pelajar yang menghidu bau-bauan bahan kimia selalunya tidak dpt menumpukan perhatian , sakit kepala dan mengalami masalah pernafasan. Malah mereka sering tidak dapat mengulangkaji pelajaran dengan baik. Mungkinkah kerana kos pemindahan kilang kayu adalah terlalu tinggi maka kesihatan para pelajar dan staf harus menjadi bayaran untuk itu? Bagaimana pula dengan persepsi para pelajar ini terhadap etika kejuruteraan yang mereka pelajari di dalam pengajian sedangkan persekitaran mereka menunjukkan realiti yang sebaliknya?

Jalan Ayer Hitam – Batu Pahat

Juga telah diketahui umum bahawa Jalan Ayer Hitam – Batu Pahat yang telah dinaik taraf sejak tahun 2006 merupakan jalan raya yang paling merbahaya dengan jumlah korban tidak kurang dari 36 kematian dengan anggaran 1000 kemalangan setiap tahun. Secara logiknya, pemanduan laju di jalan ini tidak boleh dibenarkan kerana kawasan tersebut merupakan kawasan penempatan luar bandar selain mempunyai universiti, sekolah, pusat-pusat latihan, dan kilang. Tetapi secara psikologinya, semakin luas dan selesa jalan raya yang disediakan semakin tinggi keinginan untuk memandu laju. Pihak berkuasa perlu mencari kaedah kejuruteraan yang terbaik untuk mempengaruhi psikologi pengguna jalan raya agar tidak memandu laju di kawasan tersebut sebagaimana yang telah digunakan oleh banyak negara-negara maju bagi mengatasi masalah kemalangan jalan raya.

Sesuatu kawasan yg membangun tidak dikira dari kelajuan pengguna jalan raya tetepi diukur dari aspek keselamatannya. Kos RM50 juta yang diumumkan oleh Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor. Menteri Kerja Raya untuk membaiki taraf keselamatan Jalan Ayer Hitam – Batu Pahat ini mungkin satu nilai yang besar tetapi jika dihitung kos jangka masa panjang ia tidak setinggi kos yang melibatkan kehilangan nyawa terutama para penuntut universiti yang merupakan pelapis para jurutera di masa akan datang.

Berada di dalam situasi ini, para pelajar kejuruteraan UTHM seharusnya dapat melihat dgn jelas bahawa ketamakan dan sikap tidak mengambil berat di dalam kejuruteraan membawa kesan negatif kepada masyarakat. Tidak dinafikan bukan sahaja di kawasan Parit Raja malah di Malaysia sendiri kesedaran tentang etika kejuruteraan masih cetek. Jika tidak masakan begitu banyak bencana akibat dari kesilapan kejuruteraan berlaku. Bagi pihak penyelidik UTHM, ini adalah cabaran dalam penyelidikan kerana kajian dan analisa yang mampu memperbaiki masalah setempat itu mendatangkan faedah bersama. Bidang kejuruteraan bertujuan membangunkan negara tetapi kejuruteraan tanpa kesedaran dan rasa tanggungjawab terhadap masyarakat hanya akan memburukkan keadaan.

Kesimpulannya,pengajaran dari tragedi empangan pecah di Starva,Itali adalah hampir serupa dengan permasalahan di negara kita sendiri. Jika pemaju lombong pada awalnya bersetuju dgn kos keselamatan tinggi tersebut ia mungkin dapat menyelamatkan ratusan nyawa yang terkorban serta kenangan pahit yang tidak terganti dengan wang ringgit.

Peace in mind

There is no day in life without a story. Sometimes it is full of joy but sometimes it brings a distraction to your aims. But we always have a choice. Being distracted or focus straight. But I highly recommended that to be a successful person, we don't have to afraid of making mistakes and do admit it. Furthermore, don't put our attention too much on what other peoples say about us. Just do what we think is suitable and reasonable for us. We know ourselves more than others.

Two days that full of agendas and no relax for me on this weekend. But, insyaAllah, it will brings barakah and rahmah for my future life. ;-). This poem is really inspired me. I have wrote it once and I would like to write it again here. It just so calming.

Do it anyway by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical, And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysisit is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway.

My qualitative research begins.

Mencabar. It is a word that I think enough to explain this task. I have to gain 300 respondents in kampung ( rural area) for my survey and it is not easy. In engineering research it is less likely to use questionnaire as a main tool and seems that not so important rather than using technological tools, experiments, software, simulation, etc. That is what I thought previously before I involving myself in this kind of methodology. I also thougt that - Ah! My thing is not a robust research. It is simple, no adventure.

But actually no. It is an adventure.

Qualitative data is usually used by researcher in education, social science or marketing. But don't forget that human engineering needs this! To educate people to use technology, infrastructures, and what so ever that engineer s/professionals have invented is started by understanding how they react, behave and accept those things. If we don’t have a clue on their perception, we can’t never know either our invention/work/policy/rules etc. are good for community or we just following the trend of development/research. We need a top-down communication to gain the trust from our society towards the development for this country. Thus we really need qualitative datas.

Mendekati masyarakat bukannya mudah. Masyarakat terdiri dari pelbagai lapisan dan mempunyai kepelbagaian pendapat. Tetapi jika kita tidak berani untuk turun padang, kita tidak dapat menyelami masalah sebenar yang mengekang kemajuan dalam penyelidikan kita. Cara untuk mendekati masyarakat sangatlah mencabar.Tetapi jika tidak dimulakan dengan cabaran, kita tidak akan belajar. Namanya pun belajar membuat research, kan?

Okay. I start my work today – distributing the questionnaires in Muar. I would like to focus on motorcyclists that use motorcycle lane in Jalan Abdul Rahman. I never have an experience and this is the first time. The hard thing is to explain to old respondents what actually my questionnaire wants from these pakcik and makcik. They hardly understand my questions. I asked about their perception while using motorcycle lane and while not using motorcycle lane and it is repeated for purpose. I want a different perspective for both conditions. But they said it is confusing while it is repeated. It is something that I fail to recognize while designing the questionnaire. I forgot about the pakcik and makcik and their ability to understand it. Well, I can’t handle a pilot study while I was in Japan and my respondents in Malaysia. It is really a risk to my analysis. Fuh!!

Their ability to examine and understand the question is very low and I have to read and explain to them what the questions really want. It takes time and patient. ( I am also studying the community then.) Another thing is, it is hard to get cooperation from non Malay. They don’t want to answer the questions and think that my work is rubbish. From 300, today I just gain 18.

A lot of things I have learned actually. My hypothesis that it is not easy to educate community is true. But it is not their false at all. It is just not our culture for being helpful. I realized that there are too much skeptical to the authorities or even individual. Believe me. It is easier to work with computer and tools rather than to work with people. But in travel BEHAVIOR analysis laboratory we have to study about human and understand how engineering today effects and improve their life. Are they understand enough, are they have moral obligation, thankful and realized that we need a strong union to develop as a successful country.

Maybe my research is a tiny little thing, but I hope it is a good start for me to help my nation. I just inspired from my sensei. ;)


Can we have the society like they have in developed country one day ? When we will fully developed, or we just love to be as the unmatured country?