World TB Day 24 March

Today is World TB Day.

Our Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai just announced today that the total number of TB (Tuberculosis) cases in Malaysia in 2011 is 20,666 cases, which was a 7% increase from the previous year.

This is not a good news.

In conjunction with World TB Day, we as individuals can help to stop the spread of TB by raising the awareness of TB.

Stay away from people who don't cover their mouth when they cough/sneeze. And if you cough/sneeze, please practise cough/sneeze etiquette. Also, seek immediate treatment if your cough persists over more than 2 weeks. That's the most important rule - two weeks!

The only cure for TB is by taking antibiotics. It won't go away by itself. Chinese herbs won't cure it either. Be a responsible citizen by going to a medical doctor and not chinese sinseh.

Lost World of Tambun - Water Theme Park

The facade of the Lost World of Tambun is similar to those typical ancient building you will see in 'Indiana Jones' movies. In fact, the Lost World of Tambun is akin to a fort complete with a moat surrounding the entire theme park. The fort looks centuries-old. Yea, even the water in the moat looks nasty and dirty.

But thankfully, the water theme park is clean and pristine, unlike the moat.

Welcome to Lost World of Tambun.

Adult = RM45 per entrance

Children = RM35 per entrance (if I'm not mistaken)

Fortunately, I bought the ticket from Groupon at only RM34 for the adult ticket.

The ticket entitles you to gain entry to every single area in the Lost World of Tambun. There are no other tickets for you to buy.

Dirty moat

The building looks ancient

Entrance to the wave pool

Gathering area

This is the slow river. Look at the pristine water.

This is the Lost World Hot Springs and Spa. The temperature at this pool is about 40 degrees Celcius. I dipped my leg into this pool and I can tell you it is really hot.

The Lost World Hot Springs and Spa is also opened at night everyday. The only difference is that there are fancy lights at the surrounding pools.

Lost World Hotel

About two weeks ago, I saw something interesting from Groupon. There was a Groupon voucher for a night stay at Lost World Hotel for just RM120. Immediately, I decided to buy the voucher.

So, I went to Lost World of Tambun on 1 March 2012 and I stayed at Lost World Hotel. I paid RM120 per night instead of RM200. It also came with 2 free passes to the Lost World of Tambun Hot Springs & Spa by Night and buffet breakfast.

The voucher is for the Exotic room. The view I got is overlooking some housing estate. If you want to have the theme park view, you will have to go for the Classic room. For the classic room, you have to fork out additional RM20.

What I like about this hotel:

- Everything is new inside the hotel because it just opened last April 2011.

- The room and toilet is new and clean.

- The staff are friendly.

- Lots of parking spaces available.

What I don't like about this hotel:

- The sound barrier is bad. You can hear people talking and walking in the corridor and it is rather loud. I believe it is because the room and the corridor are not carpeted.

- You have to slam your door to lock your door if you are leaving your room. After we left the room, we tried closing our door but it couldn't lock by itself. Later, we figured that we have to slam our door hard to ensure that it is locked.

- Since the sound barrier is already bad, imagine hearing everyone slamming their doors. Yes, I could hear that clearly the entire night from the room.

- No covered car park is available.

Nice bed. Notice that the floor is not carpeted.

There is an additional bed by the side of the window.

The toilet is new and clean.

The view overlooking a housing estate.

Registering as a PhD student in USM

I have finally registered myself as a PhD student in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia). My area of research is in organisational behaviour. I have already developed the theoretical framework and all I need to do now is to strengthen that framework.

USM being an APEX university, is a no-nonsense university when it comes to research. My work will be highly scrutinised by the examiners. Now I have to make sure that my proposal is extremely robust in order to be accepted by the examiners.

I will be facing three oral examinations as a PhD student in USM.

1. Proposal Defence
2. Proposal Findings
3. Viva Voce

Once you have passed through all the three stages and after having making corrections as required by the examiners, you will be conferred a PhD.

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.

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.

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.

--------------------------------------------------------

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?