Diving, swimming, waterfalls and beaches.

I like any outdoor activities. Not too much. Moderately. I like diving, swimming, watefalls and beaches. But once I awhile I take my friends up to hike. Air is always fresh at waterfalls and hills. Had a great time there.

Brought some of my friends to relieve some stress

On the way home. Saw some wild butterflies.

Organizing some games to make them laugh.

Climbing up to the 2nd waterfall. Incredible amount of spring water!

Standard photo before we go back.

Wow factor - One in a million - Connie Talbot - Age of 6

Her voice is heart grabbing. I love her so much! Listening to the whole song.

Connie Talbot "I Will Always Love You". At the age of 6, she can sing at the correct pitch with so much depth. Amazing.

Imagine

Hunk du Jour - Faizal

Helped a friend to take some pics in the month of March 2008 at Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Hunk du Jour

Vous ne savez pas comment je me sens.
Je n'ai pas encore vocalisent
Désir profond en moi.
Le voyez-vous dans mes yeux?

Je tremble quand je suis près de chez vous
Chaleur parcourt mes cuisses
Et je veux vous proposer une urgence
Que je ne peux pas décrire.

Oserai-je aller à vous toucher?
Pensez-vous que vous souhaitez réaliser
Combien je veulent et ont besoin de vous?
Le voyez-vous dans mes yeux?

J'ai long à dire «Je t'aime»,
Mais je suis effrayée de votre réponse.
Terrorisée comme un enfant
Je suis devenu paralysé.

Les émotions camouflé
Conduire à la douleur et de cris silencieux.
Et pourtant, je ne peux vous en dire.
N'êtes-vous pas de voir dans mes yeux?

Confesser à travers ce poème
Mon dilemme résumées.
Le sentiment est assez cathartique,
Mais conduira à ma disparition.

2 interesting facts about Terence

He has never missed a "live" Manchester United match played by Cristiano Ronaldo from year 2007 and 2008. That is about 60 over games since January 2007. In 2003, he predicted that Cristiano Ronaldo will be a World Best Footballer Player in 5 years time. Quite rightly his prediction will come true.

Ronaldo who is not a striker or a forward has scored more goals than any striker in top leagues today. With over 38 goals tis season, which is equivalent to a goal in every match, Ronaldo's game in a summary is all about style and efficiency.

He takes top-notch freekick, deadly penalties and performs skills like rabona, step over, flip flap, rainbow, panna, and elastico at professional level, which other footballers can only envy. Combining style and substances and yet producing highest level of goal scoring numbers sheets is no easy task. Currently the top scorer in English Premier league and Champions league. Cristiano Ronaldo Won all 3 Player of The Year awards last season voted by Fans, Footballers and FA associations.



Fact 2: Terence also appreciates how Owen Hargreavas plays football. One of the best undiscovered player in England at the moment.

Banting

Helped my friend to take some photos. Taken in Banting last year 2007... around April. She is a vegetarian and I learned a lot from her.

Took lotsa pictures in 2007

Jack and Shawn. Beautiful couple. Glad I was there.
They bought a duplex condo at the same address where I am currently staying!

Steven

Helped my friend 2 take some photos on his marriage registration day last year on the 7/7/2007

Morning Glory - Feel 100%

Taken at Rawang in Dec 2007. Woke up at 6:30 am, mandi and check all my equipments before I left to fetch. Had a good time learning photoshooting.

All My Feelings Dance - Taken in Dec 2007

Helped a friend to take photos in Damansara Perdana.

Talented Connie Talbot - Somewhere over the rainbow

Such a sweetie.

Connie Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English child singer from Streetly, Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands. She rose to fame in 2007 when she reached the final of the television talent show Britain's Got Talent, where she lost to Paul Potts.

Sweet on the outside, pure on the inside.

Talented! Unlike some girls without talents trying to act smart and talk so much

Angelic Looking!

Just so pretty!

Following her grandmother's death two years ago, at the age of 72, Connie sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the funeral.

"Her grandmother would have been so proud," Mrs Talbot added. "She had her fortune told years ago and was told her she was going to have a famous grandchild - maybe that's Connie."

Seven million viewers saw
her sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow at the reality show's Birmingham auditions.

She received a standing ovation and left the programme's three judges, Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, speechless.

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high.
There's a land that i heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday i'll wish upon a star and
Wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
Away above the chimney tops.
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then - oh, why can't i?
Why then - oh, why can't i?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh, why can't i?

One of those beautiful days in my life.

Today is one of those beautiful days in my life. Watered all the plants at home and bought 2 more plants for my office in Kluang. Will be planting 2 yellow heliconia flowers in the garden where I buried Pei Pei in memories of Pei Pei tomorrow It will be exactly 2 months by tomorrow. The dog passed away on the 7th of February 2008.

Climbed the mountain today and rested at the waterfall for 30 mins to inhale lotsa fresh air. Took back some spring water to drink and for the plants.

Took time to chat with a few folks about their business selling fruits and sugar cane at Gunung Lambak. These folks really enjoy doing something they like.

Bought 3 piece of fruits and fed a group of monkeys nearby.

I hope to own a piece of land.

A beautiful day indeed.

Terence L

Environmental Performance Index - EPI - Costa Rica

Brought my friends to a waterfall beautiful 3 weeks ago. Truly enjoyed the surrounding. And 3 weeks has passed so quickly and that reminds me of Costa Rica. Before that, I want to explain one of the technical health reasons why most people enjoy going to waterfalls.

"Remember that feeling you've experienced near a waterfall? It is one of the places that thousands of negative ions occur. They create an effect on human biochemistry."

The fresh air is created by nature. The fresh air is we breathe that we feel so good is because of the oxygen ions. This oxygen ions are made of negative ions, a molecule that has an extra electron attached.

Negative ions have been proven to have a positive impact on health, mood, and energy, affecting serotonin levels in the brain. Negative ions also bond with impurities in the air, adhering to suspended particles and removing them.


Negatively charged molecules are missing electrons and when they come into your body they will grab free-roaming electrons and make them apart of the water; they clean up your body. The other thing this water does is get into your cells much more easily. This is why people are so drawn to waterfalls and snow runoff water from mountains. Mountains are natural negative ion generating structures so water from mountains tends to be even more negatively charged.

The ions we are concerned with, oxygen ions, are most commonly produced through disturbance of water molecules, such as in fast flowing rivers. The disturbance of water molecules occasionally displaces an electron, causing it to break off from its host.

IONS PER C.C. EFFECTS

0-100 Dead air, oppressive, difficulty of concentration; virus and germs flourish.
500-1000 Normal air found indoors where pollution is low and the building has open windows.
1000-5000 "Country fresh air," the minimum level one should sleep, work and live in .
5000 + Exceptionally fresh, clean and invigorating air, "mountain air."
50,000 + Pure air, very stimulating, exhilarating and relaxing, germs cannot live in this air.


Concentration of Negative Ions in Different Environments

Environment
Concentration *
Waterfalls 95,000 – 450,000
seashores, breezy forest 50,000 – 100,000
Breezy country meadow 5,000 – 50,000
Cities 100 – 2000
Rooms and offices 40 – 100
Rooms with Air Conditioner 0 – 20


The next topic about be spring water. A whole new topic. Spring water ( water that comes from the mountain is still best water you can get ). Not distilled water ( dead water ). If you use distilled water to rare fishes in aquarium, the fishes will die. It happened to me. You can search on the net so much about distilled water or small clustered molecules of water. Naturally, water from the mountain or spring water when it flows down through the rocks, the molecules has been broken into smaller clustered.

Let's talk about Costa Rica for now.

According to the 2008 Environmental Peformance Index (EPI) Costa Rica is 5th among 149 countries of the world in protecting the environment.

The top five countries, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Findland and Costa Rica are definitely worth visiting due to its country's policy to the protect the environment. Costa Rica is the only country outside Europe to be rated at the 5th position.

The EPI ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change. The EPI identifies broadly-accepted targets for environmental performance and measures how close each country comes to these goals. As a quantitative gauge of pollution control and natural resource management results, the Index provides a powerful tool for improving policymaking and shifting environmental decision-making onto firmer analytic foundations.

Here is how Costa Rica fared in various categories (scale of 1 to 100):
EPI - 90.5
Environmental Health - 93.2
Ecosystem Vitality - 87.7
Environmental Burden of Disease - 1.0
Water (humans) - 92.8
Air Pollution (humans) - 83.8
Air Pollution (Ecosystem) - 99.3

Now, take a look at this.






and this

Now see this picture.

Why blue? Good question.
The awe inspiring Rio Celeste (Light Blue River) is turned literally blue due to the emanation of sulfur from the volcano and precipitation of calcium carbonate. Thermal springs and small geysers dot the area as do rivers, waterfalls, lagoons and panoramic views. The Rio Celeste river is located at Tenorio Volcano park, which consists of four volcanic peaks and two craters. One of the craters is sometimes referred to as the Montezuma Volcano.

Went up

Took some shots when I had the opportunity to go up to one of the few top floors at Petronas. Very high indeed.

If you have a blog or site, please link to my sites.

Hi Friends,

If you have a site or blog, please link to my website at www.terencelau.com and my another site at www.hostpulse.com using the title "Dedicated server".

1) Linking to www.terencelau.com using the title "Terence Lau"
2) Linking to www.hostpulse.com using the title "Dedicated Server"

Trying to improve the page rank at Google. Thank you

Terence L

What are major difference between white sugar and organic sugar?

Taking a lot of white sugar poses a lot of health risk from inflammation to to degenerative diseases. However taking organic sugar is very beneficial to our health. Organic sugar are unprocessed sugar made from sugar cane or beets.

Hundreds years ago, sugar is good for health. Modernization has allowed organic sugar to be processed and refined into white sugar which causes tremendous risk to our health. I will not emphasize on the negatives consequences of consuming white sugar. Instead, I pose some of the research and finding on the benefits of taking of organic sugar. Organic sugar has antioxidant properties, while white sugar do not have minerals, vitamins or any antioxidant properties.

These words are not from me, but from researchers, scientist and doctors. Ready the titles if you do not want to read the abstracts.

1. Antioxidant Activity of Phenolics Compounds From Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Juice
   
   Joaquim Maurício Duarte-Almeida1, Alexis Vidal Novoa2, Adyary Fallarero Linares2, Franco M. Lajolo1 and Maria Inés Genovese1 Contact Information
   (1) Departamento de Alimentos e Nutrição Experimental, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 580, Bloco 14, Cep 05508-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
   (2) Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidad de La Habana, La Habana, Cuba
   
   Received: 30 May 2006 Accepted: 20 September 2006 Published online: 22 November 2006
   Abstract Phenolic compounds in sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) juice were identified and quantified by analytical high performance liquid chromatography and photodiode array detection, showing the predominance of flavones (apigenin, luteolin and tricin derivatives), among flavonoids, and of hydroxycinnamic, caffeic and sinapic acids, among phenolic acids, representing a total content of around 160 mg/L. A tricin derivative was present in the highest proportion (>10% of the total). The phenolic extract obtained from sugar cane juice showed a protective effect against in vivo MeHgCl intoxication and potent inhibition of ex vivo lipoperoxidation of rat brain homogenates, indicating a potential use for beneficial health effects and/or therapeutic applications.
   
   Key words: Sugar cane - Polyphenolics profile - Antioxidant activity
   http://www.springerlink.com/content/a78390tmll1k421p/
   
   
2. IN VITRO AND IN VIVO ANTICARCINOGENESIS OF SUGAR CANE VINEGAR
   Authors: M. Yoshimoto, R. Kurata, M. Fujii, D.-X. Hou
   Keywords: antimutagenicity, apoptosis, natural killer cell
   Abstract:
   This study describes the in vitro and in vivo anticarcinogenic effects of sugar cane vinegar. Sugar cane vinegar components more effectively depressed the reverse mutation in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 induced by the mutagens, Trp-P-1, Trp-P-2, QI and DEGB. Antimutagenic components were estimated to be phenolics. Components of sugar cane vinegar were separated into non-adsorbed and adsorbed fractions by Amberlite XAD2 column chromatography. The adsorbed fraction effectively depressed the proliferation of a promyelocytic leukemia cell line (HL-60) by the induction of apoptosis. Further stepwise fractionation of the adsorbed fraction by 40, 60, 80 and 100% ethanol indicated that the inhibitory activity was greatest in the 100%-ethanol fraction. Fractionation of this fraction by the Folch method revealed that the responsible component was estimated to be a simple lipid. Administration of the whole adsorbed fraction as 5% of a mouse diet significantly stimulated the activity of natural killer (NK) cells and showed a tendency to depress the proliferation of tumor cells. These results indicate that sugar cane vinegar may provide protection against carcinogenesis by several steps, such as antimutagenicity, depression of cancer-cell proliferation with apoptosis induction, and stimulation of NK cell activity. Therefore, sugar cane vinegar may be an excellent acid seasoning with higher levels of physiological function.
   
   
3. Reduced Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-Induced Nitric Oxide Production in Peritoneal Macrophages and Inhibited LPS-Induced Lethal Shock in Mice by a Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Extract
   
   Kenji HIKOSAKA1)5), Yukari KOYAMA1)6), Maki MOTOBU1), Manabu YAMADA1), Kikuyasu NAKAMURA1), Kenji KOGE2), Kameo SHIMURA1), Takashi ISOBE1), Naotoshi TSUJI1), Chung-Boo KANG3), Hideki HAYASHIDANI4), Pi-Chao WANG5), Masatoshi MATSUMURA5) and Yoshikazu HIROTA4)
   1) National Institute of Animal Health
   2) Research Laboratory, Mitsui Sugar Co., Ltd.
   3) College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University
   4) Laboratory of Veterinary Hygiene, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
   5) Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of Tsukuba
   6) Laboratory of Animal Health and Management, Tohoku University
   (Received May 1, 2006)
   (Accepted August 3, 2006)
   A sugar cane extract (SCE) has been found to have an immunostimulating effect in several animals. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is known to induce endotoxin shock via the production of inflammatory modulators such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and nitric oxide (NO). We examined in the present study the effects of SCE on the TNF-α and NO production in LPS-stimulated mice peritoneal cells and the endotoxin shock in mice. The supplementation of SCE to peritoneal macrophages cultured with LPS resulted in a significant decrease in NO production. All the mice injected intraperitoneally with LPS and D-galactosamine (LPS+GalN) died within 24 h. However, a peritoneal injection, but no intravenous or oral administration, of SCE (500–1,000 mg/kg) at 3 to 48 h before the LPS+GalN-challenge resulted in a significantly improved survival rate. These results suggest that SCE had a protective effect on LPS-induced endotoxin shock via one of possible mechanisms involving the suppression of NO production in the mouse peritoneal cavity.
   Key words: endotoxin shock; lipopolysaccharide; nitric oxide; sugar cane extract
   
   http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=765_1
   
   
4. Antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of a tricin acylated glycoside from sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) juice.
   Duarte-Almeida JM, Negri G, Salatino A, de Carvalho JE, Lajolo FM.
   
   Laboratório de Química, Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular de Alimentos, Departamento de Alimentos e Nutrição Experimental, FCF, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 66083, CEP 05314-970, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. maudal@usp.br
   
   From sugarcane juice, a flavone, identified by spectroscopic methods as tricin-7-O-beta-(6''-methoxycinnamic)-glucoside, was isolated, in addition to orientin. The tricin derivative was shown to have antioxidant activity higher than Trolox by means of the DPPH assay and lower by the beta-carotene/linoleic acid system. It showed in vitro antiproliferative activity against several human cancer cell lines, with higher selectivity toward cells of the breast resistant NIC/ADR line.
   
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17350657?ordinalpos=
   11&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
   
   

In conclusion, taking sugar cane juice or organic sugar is good.

Do not confused if people are telling you that white sugar is also made from sugar cane. Yes, white sugar is also made from sugar cane, but it has been refined and processed to extract only the sucrose substances out, leaving out the antioxidant phenolics compounds of luteolin, apegenin and tricin.

Organic sugar is made from sugar cane that is unprocessed. The antioxidant properties remains intact in organic sugar. Looking into the nutrition all plant kingdom, most grains, fruits, vegetables and plants taken as whole consists of more nutrition compare to the extracts. For example, brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. Brown rice (or "hulled rice") is milled or partly milled rice, a kind of whole grain. Fruits eaten with skin has more nutritious values than just eating the inner part. Anthocyanins such as pelargonin, cyanin, delphinin,. malvin and petunin and flavonoids such as Quercetin, Kaempferol, Myricetin, Hesperetin, Naringenin, Apegenin, Luteolin are found most on the skin of most fruits and vegetables.

Warisan Wanita Yang Terakhir

Download this song or listen it at YouTube.

Meaningful song.

Bila kita dalam salam perpisahan
Namun aku tetap bersamamu
Ku rasa bagai satu sentuhan
Dalam mimpi ku terbayang wajahmu

Dalam dirimu penuh kelembutan
Semakin hari namun semakin rindu
Tapak tanganmu akan ku genggam
Akan ku sentuh ketika sayu

Untukmu akan ku semaikan
Cinta yang sejati tiada bandingan
Dalam kerinduan ku sendiri
Dalam kesyahduan kita hadapi

Warisan wanita terakhir
Jiwa raga ku serah
Kau ingin milik segalanya
Di mana kasihmu tiada kau memberi
Apa yang ku perlu hanya kau dapat memberi
Hanya satu yang ku pinta kasih
Kau warisan wanita yang terakhir

Dalam dirimu penuh kelembutan
Semakin hari namun semakin rindu
Tapak tanganmu akan ku genggam
Akan ku sentuh ketika sayu

Untukmu akan ku semaikan
Cinta yang sejati tiada bandingan
Dalam kerinduan ku sendiri
Dalam kesyahduan kita hadapi

Warisan wanita terakhir
Jiwa raga ku serah
Kau ingin milik segalanya
Di mana kasihmu tiada kau memberi
Apa yang ku perlu hanya kau dapat memberi
Hanya satu yang ku pinta kasih
Kau warisan wanita yang terakhir

Hati sucimu ingin ku miliki
Hanya satu yang ku pinta... Kasih...
Kau warisan wanita ynag terakhir
Kau warisan wanita... Yang terakhir...

Smile - The thing that goes the farthest

The thing that goes the farthest
Toward making life worth while,
That costs the least and does the most,
Is just a pleasant smile.

Picture Above: Consider yourself blessed. It doesn't mean just one situation at the moment that has gone bad overwrites all the love, and joy your and family has shared over the years. Yuji stays at a nearby orphanage in Petaling Jaya. His parents abandoned him at a very young age.

Mr Anson

Very hard working person. Keep calling me for photoshooting. LOL

My life, My Desire - Yvonne

She does ONLY cool and alluring poses :(, but I managed to get the best of the photoshoot.
After some of these photos went out, many people keep asking me to help them take photos for them. From aunties, kids, young adults and couples.Why? Bcoz it is free. LOL. Yes. I do it for free. I have to plan the theme carefully before going for a photoshoot. I have stopped portrait photoshooting for the moment. I will be doing commercial photoshooting soon.

Test your photography output by posting at image reduction websites.

One of the best way to learn the final outcome of your photography skill is to post it Friendster and other graphic image reduction websites like www.blogger.com and www.blogdrive.com . All image size will be reduced automatically when uploaded to these sites and that will test the quality of your photos if it is still sharp with good colours at very low image size.

Posting at www.pbase.com and Flickr and other photo sites retains the actual photoshopped photos. The larger the image size ( for example, 700kb and above) for a standard photo compare to other photos of the same image size, the better the photos retains the quality, however, the larger image size, the slower it loads on the net. And if you are too depended on large image size to produce good quality photos, then it is not your photography skill, but merely your photoshop skill in digital photography.

Learning to take portrait photos

Telling the her where to look and how to express is part of photography.

Smile Once More

Jeslyn can pose without me telling her what to do. She is very good and natural with camera. Very photogenic. I will be combining my photography into my business very soon after learning to do portrait for quite a while. Thanks for her participation.

Anti-inflammatory effects of Morinda Officinalis

I can spend hours researching plants. One of the research I am currently interested is the traditional usage of Morinda officinalis. Publication on the anti-inflammatory effects of Ba Ji Tian has been published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This plant has been used 2 thousands years ago by the Chinese. I stand in awe of how these people 2 thousand years without any medicnal technology are able to identify the beneficial properties and effect on biological activities of human cells. It is truly amazing that many effective Chinese plants and herbs have not yet been studied in any detail by Western medicine.

Taking western medicine like (NSAIDs) is risky. Many people have no idea what these drugs are made of. It takes many years of research to find out the internal problems and the history of western medicines. Modern technologies in medicine has helped millions to diagnose the problems effectively and easily but they treatment using drugs is not really the proper solution.

For instance, many people are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) unknownly or knownly to relieve pain such as muscular aches and pains, period pains, headache, backache, rheumatic pain, dental pain and neuralgia. The most prominent members of this group of drugs are aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen. These drugs merely brings temporary relief. It doesn't cure the situation. All the medicines in this group (NSAIDs) reduce inflammation caused by the body's own immune system, and are effective pain killers. Ibuprofen can be used to relieve pain such as muscular aches and pains, period pains, headache, backache, rheumatic pain, dental pain and neuralgia. It can also reduce feverishness and the symptoms of colds and flu.
Ibuprofen works by blocking the action of a substance in the body called cyclo-oxygenase. Cyclo-oxygenase is involved in the production of various chemicals in the body, some of which are known as prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are produced in response to injury or certain diseases and would otherwise go on to cause pain, swelling and inflammation. Ibuprofen is therefore used to relieve pain and inflammation.

Understanding NSAIDs
There is no question that the risks of NSAIDs can be serious, even life-threatening. According to the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), each year the side effects of NSAIDs hospitalize over 100,000 people and kill 16,500 in the U.S., mostly due to bleeding stomach ulcers.

But it's important to put those numbers in context. The AGA also says that every day, more than 30 million Americans use NSAIDs for pain from headaches, arthritis, and other conditions. And while some experts emphasize the dangers, others stress that living with chronic pain is terrible in itself.

Search through the internet on NSAIDs and you will find thousands of articles and publication warning the public about the risk and side effect on your health of these drugs.

Morinda officinalis
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15901350
The anti-inflammatory effects of the methanol extract of the roots of Morinda officinalis (MEMO) (Rubiaceae) were evaluated in-vitro and in-vivo. The effects of MEMO on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)induced responses in the murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 were examined. MEMO potently inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Consistent with these results, the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) at the protein level, and of iNOS, COX-2 and TNF-alpha at the mRNA level, was also inhibited by MEMO in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, MEMO inhibited the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) activation induced by LPS, and this was associated with the prevention of degradation of the inhibitor kappaB (IkappaB), and subsequently with attenuated p65 protein in the nucleus. The anti-inflammatory effect of MEMO was examined in rats using the carrageenan-induced oedema model. The antinociceptive effects of MEMO were assessed in mice using the acetic acid-induced abdominal constriction test and the hot-plate test. MEMO (100, 200 mg kg-1 per day, p.o.) exhibited anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects in these animal models. Taken together, the data demonstrate that MEMO has anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activity, inhibiting iNOS, COX-2 and TNF-alpha expression by down-regulating NF-kappaB binding activity.

Can you spot Petronas Twin Towers and Genting Highlands in this picture?

Picture above: Taken at Putrajaya Convention Centre on Friday, August 24, 2007, 11:13:56 PM. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Kuching - Une semaine dans une vie dans la ville des chats

Kuching - North-Western part of the island of Borneo - August 2007

A week in a lifetime in the city of cats ("Une semaine dans une vie dans la ville des chats")


The city of Kuching is located in the district of Kuching. The district covers an area of 1,863 square kilometres, and is one of three districts within Kuching Division. The district of Kuching is administered by three local governments. The administration of Kuching city is divided into three local governments, with the two cities overseen by two mayors also known as Datuk Bandars in Malay.

The area north of the Sarawak River, parts of Old Kuching, Satok and the western CBD is within the jurisdiction of Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara (Kuching North City Hall) covering an area of 369.48 square kilometres. Kuching North City Hall is directly under the supervision of the Chief Minister of Sarawak. The area south of the Sarawak River, eastern CBD and towards the South China Sea is within the jurisdiction of Majlis Bandaraya Kuching Selatan (Kuching South City Council), covering a smaller but more densely populated area of 61.53 square kilometres.

There are those who believe that the divisions in power for the Northern (primarily Malay and Bumi residents) and Southern (primarily Chinese residents) districts came about due to ethnic reasons in the 1980s. There are also those who believe the administration is divided due to geographical reasons, as the Northern and Southern districts are linked by only two bridges spanning the Sarawak River.
The third local government is Majlis Perbandaran Padawan or Padawan Municipal Council, formerly known as the Kuching Rural District Council, which administers the rural areas within Kuching district, Batu Kawah, Kota Sentosa and Third Mile. It covers a large portion of Kuching district with an area of 1,431.82 square kilometres.

1st of January 2008 - Take some pictures of me before I get old

Finally, I have some time to blog again. I was trying to recall how I had spend my time during the new year and I was reminded of Michael's camera. He said Jumei, wanted to take some photos. Jumei has been working in Singapore and Australia all the while since 1995 before coming back to Malaysia to work. As usual, ladies likes to travel here and there.

To think abt it, almost every year since 2003, I will somehow meet Jumei somewhere in people's house for Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or friend's wedding in Kluang, but this year, we met in KL. Michael, Arthur, Jumei and myself studied in the same high school and over the years we kept in touch. We took some pictures that day as she was "desperating" requesting us to take photos before she says looks old. LOL. I think it is impossible to look old with digital photography. We had a quick 2-hour photoshoot before we went for dinner with one of her best friend at Sri Hartamas to celebrate Jumei's birthday a day before which was on the 2nd of January 2008. It was one of the best dinners I have taken in KL. Why? Bcoz it is free ;) Hahaha. We rested for a while and Michael joined us shortly after that at Finnegan's Irish Pub.

Finally, she is in MSN. Yah.. everytime call me to fix her streamyx la, bring things back home la and on the 30th of Dec 2007, which was my birthday, can anyone imagine she "nicely" called me 2 meet her midnight at the Kerapai Tanah Melayu as though to bring me back to a nostalgic journey through the railway station life. The reality is she lost her direction and hence she needed someone to lead her back. Reaching there midnight, I had to lead her back to UE3 Cheras and after reaching her house, she did not even wish me. Hai....