Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ready for PhD

I checked my application status at the USM Institute of Postgraduate Studies website and it shows that my PhD student application has been accepted.

Great! So, it's about time for me to go over to USM to register myself as a PhD student in Organisational Behaviour.

Also, I have read through a few dozen journals and I have come up with a new theoretical framework which is different from the one I sent in together with my application earlier. I hope my supervisor will agree on this framework or else, I have to come up with a new framework again. That's a usual thing. The framework will keep changing until it is robust.

Ok, it is time to sift more journals.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Constantly taunted stray dogs will turn aggressive

Yay, it was published!

In my previous post, I mentioned that I sent an article to The Star. Hence, it was published today.

You can read it here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Stray dogs menace or human menace?

I wrote in to The Star again and let's see if they would publish it in a few days time. The last time I wrote in to The Star was last year March. You can read it here.

This time I am writing about stray dogs. Yes, stray dogs again.

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Referring to a few numbers of recent write-ups about the stray dogs menace in Batu Ferringhi, I am compelled to voice out the other side of the story.

If you had a chance to visit Penang, please take a stroll along the Batu Ferringhi beach and chances are that you might encounter mischievous children and even adults taunting or even pelting the stray dogs unprovoked. Yes, there are even adults who behaved childishly by provoking those dogs.

So, it seems that all these stray dog abuse incidents are never reported in the press and it gave the impression that those stray dogs have to take full blame for their aggression. No, I am not saying that the victims are the one provoking the stray dogs. What I meant is that all these abuses have been ongoing for years unreported and common sense tells me that when a stray dog has been abused continuously, it has the tendency to turn aggressive and might attack unprovoked.

Thanks to us, human beings ourselves, we had moulded those stray dogs into a killer pack by continually taunting, pelting or even walloping them.

I agree that the population of stray dogs should be controlled, at least in an ethical manner but at the same time, everyone should be educated to respect animals. I just don’t’ understand why some people have to taunt the stray dogs even if those dogs are just lying down quietly. Let sleeping dogs lie, shall we?

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Singapore: Increase in new TB cases

Thinking of moving to Singapore? Think again...

According to Reuters, Singapore is the 2nd most crowded country in the world. That explained the headline above.

Yes, new TB cases in Singapore are rising. You can read the news at The Star.

Some of the highlights are:

The Health Ministry was alerted to 2,791 new cases last year, a figure 10.9% higher than the 2,517 in 2009.

Last year, TB affected 39.2 individuals for every 100,000 residents here; the year before, it was 38.6 for every 100,000.

As I have blogged before, TB is different from H1N1 or the common cold. The mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB can linger in the air for up to four hours after an infected individual coughs, sneezes, laughs, sings, or talks. This is unlike H1N1 (or any influenza/common cold virus) where the virus dropped to the ground after an infected individual coughs or sneezes.

H1N1 (or any influenza/common cold virus) is spread via respiratory droplets while TB is spread airborne. Both are highly contagious and one should not be infected.

Being infected with TB is not nice at all. You have to undergo an antibiotic therapy for 9 months (or even more) just to cure it. You have to eat antibiotics every single day for 9 months. You must not missed a day or you will be in serious trouble (meaning you can't be cured). And these antibiotics are not the ordinary antibiotics you see in the clinic. The side effects are awful.

And again, no Chinese sinseh is able to cure a person from TB. Probably, that's why TB cases are rising. Some infected people keep going to the Chinese sinseh hoping to find a cure but instead they spread their infection to others because they keep coughing and they can't be cured by the sinseh!

So, stop the spread, go to a proper medical clinic, and observe cough/sneeze etiquette!