World Clock Keeps on Ticking

Watch this world clock information for a few seconds and imagine about the real lives that its represent.


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The Dabbawalas

Dabbawalas are about 5,000 men in Mumbai who routinely deliver home cooked lunches in lunch box or tiffin.  Dabba means lunch box or tiffin. The practice is 120 years old where lunch is cooked at home, picked up by a tiffin man between 9am and 10am, and then is passed quickly through a series of train and push cart transfer that get the tiffin to the customer's office.




One tiffin carrier changes hands at least four times between home and office. Each tiffin man can easily carry up to 40 tiffin carriers in a tray balanced on his head or arranged in a push cart.

Dabbawalas wearing traditional Gandhi topi usually work in groups of 40.




The tiffin boxes that arrived from the suburbs by train are divided up between the dabbawalas, each would sling 40-odd boxes onto his bicycle handlebars.

The distribution system has not changed since 120 years ago and is among the world's most efficient. It is claimed that the tiffin men make only one mistake in six million deliveries.

More information can be found HERE.

A House

IMG_3391
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

This house seemed to be has been abandoned for such a long time by judging from the growth of vegetation on top of its roof. The house was made visible due to the clearance of the adjacent land for future development. The design of the house is very simple and the entire house is made of wood.

Without the land clearance I will never know the existence of a house here. I decided to take the picture of the house because I think it is just a matter of time that the house will also being demolished to make way for development.

States to Have Highway Monitoring Systems by 2016

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule requiring the states and U.S. territories to have real-time traffic monitoring programs operational by Nov. 8, 2016.

The rule says, under the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users” (SAFETEA-LU), the DOT is required to establish a “real-time system management information program” that provides the capability to monitor—in real-time—the traffic and travel conditions of the major highways of the United States and to share that data with state and local governments and with the travelling public.

The rule does not specify which type of monitoring technology to be used. According to the notices issued by the U.S. DOT, the rule establishes minimum parameters and requirements for states to make available and share traffic and travel conditions information via real-time information programs.

In addition, while the rule becomes effective Dec. 23, 2010, the establishment of the real-time information program for traffic and travel conditions reporting along Interstate system highways shall be completed by Nov. 8, 2014, while a real-time information program for traffic and travel conditions reporting along the state-designated metropolitan area routes of significance shall be completed by Nov. 8, 2016.

A system to monitor the traffic and travel conditions of the major highways of the United States and to share that information to improve the security of the surface transportation system is needed to address congestion problems; to support improved response to weather events and surface transportation incidents; and to facilitate national and regional highway traveller information, the notice says.

I think the rule is implemented to acknowledge the importance of real time information in solving traffic congestion and the importance of disseminating the information to travellers. Hope one day the importance of the real time traffic information is realised in other part of the world especially to those cities that are experiencing chronic traffic congestion during peak hours.

For further information, read States to Have Highway Monitoring Systems by 2016,

Hopefully, the congestion problem especially during major festive seasons will be the thing of the past.  Also read HERE for traffic congestion during festive season.

The system will also help in preventing this type of unnecessary traffic jam.

The system can also alleviate traffic congestion during incident on Penang Bridge.

The system can also be used in other part of the world to reduce traffic congestion.

Video - The Hajj - National Geographic

Explore the history and meaning behind the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Join the Hajj, the five-day pilgrimage to the high plains of Arafat …

Eid mubarak to all muslims celebrating Eid ul Adha.
 
 

Drive Safely

During this festive season, I would like to wish everybody a safe journey home especially to those who are travelling long distance. As seen in the picture above, I don't really know what happen to the motorcycle rider whether he is safe or not. By looking at the condition of the motorbike, hope that the rider is ok. The picture is taken somewhere in the 7th Mile town area in Kuching.

Eid Ul Adha Mubarak

Eid mubarak to all muslims celebrating Eid ul Adha tomorrow, 17 Nov 2010 in Malaysia. It commences on the 10th day of Zul Hijjah and usually is celebrated in a similar manner to Eid Ul Fitr.

Eid mubarak is celebrated at the end of Hajj, which is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The ‘Festival of Sacrifice’ is followed by a ‘Feast of Sacrifice’, which pays homage to the Prophet Ibrahim's (Peace Be Upon Him) unselfish act of sacrificing his son, Ismail, to Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala). In turn, Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) spared the boy’s life and instead substituted a sheep. Now in remembrance, people sacrifice a lamb, goat, or other animal, and give the meat to family, friends, relatives, and most importantly, the poor.

It starts with a special holiday prayer, performed in congregation in the Masjid (Mosque) or other suitable place. It is a time of celebration, of visiting family and friends and of thanking ALLAH (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala), for all the blessings bestowed upon us. Fasting is prohibited during these days.

Video of Shanghai Skyscraper Inferno

A huge fire has broken out in a 30-storey Shanghai building at about 2pm local time (06000GMT), killing at least 12 people.


It was reported that more than 80 fire engines were at the scene trying to control the fire. The cause of the blaze is unclear, but construction scaffolding around the building caught fire first, and flames then spread to the main building, which has about 500 apartments.

Wheel's Clamping

The management of the Sarawak Government Hospital or Hospital Umum Sarawak had acted accordingly to overcome the problem of vehicles parked illegally at the hospital's parking lots. It is a well known fact that there are severe shortages of parking spaces at the Sarawak Government Hospital. Most of the parking spaces had to give way for new hospital building to provide more facilities for users. In order to prevent vehicles from blocking other vehicles due to the shortages of parking spaces, the Hospital management had resorted to giving fines for those who parked illegally.

The best ever method to enforce the parking regulation is by using wheel's clamping where users has to pay RM50 ringgit each time they wanted their vehicle to be unclamped. The measure is very effective where there is no more vehicles illegally parked everywhere as before.

Instead of a welcoming message provided at the entrance of the Hospital, those who are in need of medical attentions are forewarned that parking is the utmost important thing to be observed whenever anybody wanted to visit the hospital. Whatever happens after that is secondary, i.e. whether you are being treated on time or not. The first thing that you need to do is to circle several time looking for empty parking spaces around the facility before you headed outside of the hospital to avoid your vehicle from being clamped. However, in case you are dealing with an emergency situation, I don't think Rm50 is really matter to you. In that case please park your vehicle at the nearest location possible and make sure that your vehicle will not block other vehicles because for sure your vehicle will be surely parked there with an additional security measure i.e. wheel clamped.

Due to the wheel clamping measure being enforced at the hospital, a lot of business opportunities available to those land owners near the hospital vicinity. Before the wheel clamping exercise, don't ever think of parking your vehicle on the roadside on other people properties because you will be charged for trespassing. However, nowadays, everybody is welcome to park their vehicles on the specially prepared parking spaces for visitors near the hospital. For the unwary visitors, they will never know the amount of fees that they have to pay for the parking facilities because there is no information available anywhere near the parking facilities. Upon entering the parking lot, you will be stop by parking attendance requesting you to pay RM5. I don't think that you will tell the parking attendance, after spending several hours searching for empty parking spot, that you will not pay the amount because you wanted to find other parking places that is much cheaper. Thus, most likely you will just pay the RM5 and get yourself a decent parking space. With the RM5 charge also, not many vehicles are parked at the facility making it very easy for you to find an empty parking spaces.

Personally, I think the availability of the off street parking spaces really provide relieve to those who wanted find parking space to park their vehicles. The only concern is that the operators of the parking lot must provide enough information regarding the fees of using their facilities. Furthermore, I am not sure whether the operators have been given any approval for carrying out such business on their vicinity.

Read HERE for new offstreet parking.

Read HERE for parking woes.

Read HERE for solving parking problems.

Rare Pictures: Crocodile Attacks Elephant

Image via Wikipedia

Crocodiles are known to attack humans, buffaloes, birds, etc. but not elephant. These Rare Pictures: Crocodile Attacks Elephant quoted from the National Geographic website shows a Nile crocodile (20-foot-long or 6-meter-long) attacking a pair of African elephants. It might be a routine journey to the edge of the water when the pair of African elephants were ambushed by a Nile crocodile. The pictures were taken by tourists during a visit to Zambia's South Luangwa National Park in late September.

Kpg Goebilt

This picture, taken using compact Olympus camera. shows the Birdseye view of Kpg Goebilt. Adjacent to the Kgg Goebilt is the Senari Port. Kpg Goebilt is a small fishing town located about several kilometers from Kuching. Read HERE for more information about Kpg Goebilt.

Superjumbo

A new superjumbo plane owned by Qantas experienced an inflight trouble that forced the airline into an emergency landing in Singapore last week. Luckily everybody in the plane is safe and experiencing no major injuries except near traumatic experiences.

It was reported that the incident was caused by the failure in a specific part of its Trent 900 engine that causes a fire on one of the superjumbo's engine.

Hopefully, the manufacturer of the engine will quickly able to identify the specific part of the engine which causes engine failure.

Due to the complexities of a jet engine, only a small part of the engine can cause severe damage to the engine. Since the engine is new, the only defect is likely either to be a design defect or a material defect and not due to maintenance issue. As happened before, the design or material defect can only be detected after the engine experienced some kind of failure. Engineers or technicians will carry out detail study of the engine failure in order to detect the cause of the engine's malfunction. 

Authorities also had directed airlines to carry out repetitive test on the engine to find out if there are any abnormalities to the engine.

Luckily that the engine was designed in such a way that in any case of malfunction, it will not affect the fuselage of the aircraft.

I am sure that before the engine is allowed to be installed on any aircraft, a rigorous test had been carried out on the engine. But for the Trent 900 engine, it seems that the testing is not being carried out thorough enough to be able to detect the presence of any weak component in the engine. May be the testing procedure need to be reviewed to avoid future similar incidents from occurring.

Traffic Management Using Sensor Technology

City of Assen is equipped with sensors located throughout the city to guide users to use the best route, to advice on using public transport system and also to book for a parking slot. The sensors can identify when schools have finished their sessions so that travellers will not end up in the traffic jam. Also, the sensors can identify the stretch of road that is undergoing routine maintenance or construction. The sensors are integrated with traffic light system which enables the traffic lights to be responsive to real time traffic demand and to provide green-wave opportunity when necessary. Using the system can make travelling more fun and less stressful besides helping in reducing the detrimental to the environment.

Check-out the short-clip of the ease of using the technology.

Qantas Airbus A380

Last Thursday, Airbus A380 operated by Qantas experiencing an in-flight engine failure which forced the jet to make an emergency landing in Singapore. It was reported that, one of the A380 jet engines blew out, shooting flames and raining large metal chunks before making an emergency landing. The incident causes frenzy of activities involving all of the Airbus A380 in service since 2007 to ensure that the plane is still safe to fly.

According to Reuters, Singapore Airlines resumed flying its Airbus A380 aircraft Friday but Qantas kept its fleet grounded until further notice. All of the A380 fleets were inspected overnight in accordance with the requirements of Airbus and Rolls-Royce. Read HERE for more news.

Rolls-Royce and Airbus engineers are working around the clock to investigate the true causes of the engine failure. A Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at the University of New South Wales as quoted by Reuters mentioned that the fact that the failed jet engine survived the damage is a credit to the design which could cause the aircraft out of the sky twenty years ago.