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        <title>Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Fadly</title>
        <description></description>
        <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:39:23 +0800</lastBuildDate>
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            <title>Tertinggal barang</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1961880</link>
            <description>In India, a first time pregnant woman was refered to U.F.H.T Medical college after she notice a strange lump in her abdomen. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A scan revealed a round tumor beside her fetus&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://www.ispub.com/ispub/ijs/volume_19_number_2_1/forget-me-not-gossypiboma-in-pregnancy-report-of-a-case/gossy-fig1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tumor was removed and cut open and this is what inside.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://www.ispub.com/ispub/ijs/volume_19_number_2_1/forget-me-not-gossypiboma-in-pregnancy-report-of-a-case/gossy-fig2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://www.ispub.com/ispub/ijs/volume_19_number_2_1/forget-me-not-gossypiboma-in-pregnancy-report-of-a-case/gossy-fig3.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&amp;#39;s a surgery sponge with pus. Apparently, She had undergone an open cholecystectomy two years back at another hospital. Following surgery she had reported to the surgeon for abdominal pain and fever, which was managed on medication. For anyone here who&amp;#39;ve undergone open surgery, i suggest you got yourself scan pronto.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.ispub.com/journal/the_internet_journal_of_surgery/volume_19_number_2_1/article_printable/forget-me-not-gossypiboma-in-pregnancy-report-of-a-case.html' target='_blank'&gt;http://www.ispub.com/journal/the_internet_...-of-a-case.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:31:17 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>How did they do it?</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1959980</link>
            <description>Anyone here know how thief can locate our laptop? My friend&amp;#39;s laptop were stolen. he hid the lappy under the car seat and put cover over it, but this doesn&amp;#39;t seem to hide it from a thief. The car window was smashed and the thief run away with a very expensive laptop. I wonder what kind of EM signal that our laptop emit even when it sht down and how the thief know how to track it?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:24:56 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Memory lane</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1956726</link>
            <description>[YOUTUBE]HaQvBbzslJE[/YOUTUBE]&lt;br /&gt;[YOUTUBE]94UDaYcUg68[/YOUTUBE]&lt;br /&gt;[YOUTUBE]nr_CJL1YQRc[/YOUTUBE]&lt;br /&gt;[YOUTUBE]PIfuaUTH9Y4[/YOUTUBE]</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:19:40 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>A. Samad Said</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1955463</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin- &lt;a href='http://www.esastera.com/asamadsaid/' target='_blank'&gt;http://www.esastera.com/asamadsaid/&lt;/a&gt; +--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE( &lt;a href='http://www.esastera.com/asamadsaid/' target='_blank'&gt;http://www.esastera.com/asamadsaid/&lt;/a&gt; )&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;BIODATA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A. SAMAD SAID dilahirkan pada 9 April 1935 di Kampung Belimbing Dalam, Durian Tunggal, Melaka. Dia menerima pendidikan di Sekolah Melayu Kota Raja, Singapura (1940-1946), Victoria Institution sehingga memperolehi Sijil Senior Cambridge (1956). Pencapaian dan sumbangan Samad Said dalam memperkaya dan meninggikan nilai kesusasteraan Melayu telah mendapat penghargaan pemerintah apabila pada 29 Mei 1976 bersama beberapa pengarang lain beliau telah diiktiraf sebagai Pejuang Sastera.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tahun 1979 turut memberi erti pada Samad, apabila beliau dilantik oleh Perdana Menteri sebagai salah seorang anggota panel Anugerah Sastera dan dalam tahun yang sama beliau telah memenangi Hadiah Penulisan Asia Tenggara (SEA Write Award). Kemuncak pencapaian Samad sebagai sasterawan ialah apabila beliau dipilih sebagai penerima Anugerah Sastera Negara 1985. Dalam majlis penganugerahan itu telah dipentaskan sedutan drama terbaru A. Samad Said berjudul Wira Bukit. Dalam bidang penulisan, A. Samad Said turut menggunakan nama pena Hilmy, Isa Dahmuri, Jamil Kelana, Manja, Mesra dan Shamsir.&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://www.esastera.com/asamadsaid/AsamadSaid2004.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://beliamuda.com/wp-content/uploads/Unggun-Bersih-A.-Samad-Said.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt; &lt;img src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V1DUKtf6Ko4/Tgh_WnBXJ3I/AAAAAAAACng/PHO09rbB6nQ/s400/A+samad+said-bersih.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4977/asgandalf.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/659/asdumbledore.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:52:34 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Summer Suit</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1952823</link>
            <description>I want to make casual suit suitable for Malaysian tropical climate. Please anyone has any idea on what material should i use?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:52:22 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>It&amp;#39;s always Nokia</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1951252</link>
            <description>I watched Transformers Dark of The moon recently and i noticed that Sam are using Nokia X7. And this is not the first time. Before it was N8 in the movie Tron Legacy, A futuristic Nokia car phone in a movie Star Trek, and Nokia N97 in the movie Source Code. There&amp;#39;s probably more that i didn&amp;#39;t notice (i only notice N8 in Tron after i watch it the second time). Have you notice any other Nokia phone in the movie or any other phone brands in the movie?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:23:35 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>What if...</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1950588</link>
            <description>What if i name my son &amp;quot;Mohammad Jutawan bin .......&amp;quot;. Do you think the registry office will have a problem with that?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:52:52 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Selling Nokia E7-00</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1949808</link>
            <description>How much can i get if i sell my Nokia E7-00? I&amp;#39;m not selling it yet. just give me a figure so that i can make my decision.</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:11:21 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>12 Greatest Foods</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1949278</link>
            <description>Barley: Good in fever, while use in a soup form.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dates: A house without dates has no food. It should also be eaten at the time of childbirth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Figs:  It is a fruit from paradise and a cure for piles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Grapes: it purifies the blood, provides vigor and health, strengthens the kidneys and clears the bowels.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Honey: Considered the best remedy for diarrhea when mixed in hot water. It is the food of foods, drink of drinks and drug of drugs. It is used for creating appetite, strengthening the stomach, eliminating phlegm; as a meat preservative, hair conditioner, eye soother and mouthwash. It is extremely beneficial in the morning in warm water.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Melon: ‘None of your women who are pregnant and eat of water melon will fail to produce off spring that is good in countenance and good in character… ‘&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Milk: milk wipes away heat from the heart just as the finger wipes away sweat from the brow. It strengthens the back, improved the brain, renews vision and drives away forgetfulness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mushroom: mushroom is a good cure for the eyes; it also serves as a form of birth control and arrests paralysis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Olive Oil: Excellent treatment for skin and hair, delays old age, and treats inflammation of the stomach.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pomegranate:it cleanses you of Satan and evil aspirations for 40 days.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Vinegar: eat it with olive oil. (That’s now a fashion in elite Italian Restaurants)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Water: The best drink in this world is plain water; when you are thirsty drink it by sips and not gulps, gulping produces sickness of the liver.</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:47:17 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Fleet Command reborn?</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1947385</link>
            <description>I&amp;#39;m not sure how many of you know about it, much less playing it. To many gamers, it&amp;#39;s boring long drawn out games. But to some, it&amp;#39;s a hit and i&amp;#39;m one of them. Do you think there will ever be any sucessor to the Fleet Command?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:14:58 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Just another spore bashing thread</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1946566</link>
            <description>&lt;b&gt;ZOMBIE WATCH - RMAF true air intercept story.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21/02/00-ORANGELAND AF MAIN AIR BASE.&lt;br /&gt;A pair of F16D Block 52 ready to perform SEAD &amp;#39;operational training &amp;#39;inside Malaysian airspace.Their objective is to gauged MAF air defence missiles/guns batteries reaction time + RMAF fighters scramble tactics.The F16Ds were equipped with ELSIRA advanced jammers + ASPJ pods,a pair of LANTRIN pods fitted on the first a/c,along with 2 drop tanks,a pair of AIM 9S,AIM 120 and PAVEWAY II bombs.The second a/c is fitted with a pair of drop tanks ,APSJ pods and a number of AIM 9S/AIM 120-purely air defence sorties.A E2C gaves a details ground mapping details to the F16s once airborne via datalink.Once airborne the F16s took the long route to gained access -inside Malaysian airspace by flying along the coastal area.At the same time Orangeland SIGINT C130 called in to the Malaysian ATC -pretending to be a commercial flight.Cruising at the level permitted only for civillian traffic-it is unlikely that the SIGINT a/c would be detected within the next 30 minutes.By then the aboved mentioned SEAD would be over.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MAF AIR DEFENCE MISSILES UNITS -STARBURST.&lt;br /&gt;Detected a pair of Orangeland F16s made a low level incursion inside Malaysian airspace-with the standing order not to fire any missiles at any Orangeland a/c w/o any proper high level &amp;#39;go ahead&amp;#39;.Pilot Maj.Samuel Lee -has been brief on this matter by the intell officers prior to this mission.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RMAF 3D AIR DEFENCE RADAR UNIT.&lt;br /&gt;Managed to detect and monitor the flight pattern of the F16s from the very beginning and almost instantly alerted the RMAF air defence command in Butterworth.MAF C4I relayed the relevant info to variuos air defence units to get ready to shot the F16s once they reach certain designated area.MAF electronis warfare units also played their role-by countering the F16s jamming transmission.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;RMAF KUANTAN&lt;br /&gt;A pair of MIG29N from the 19th Sqn-were scrambled within seconds after receiving alert from the air defence command.The MIGs -optimised for air intercept mission were fitted with a pair of R73 and the new and feared R77E.Within minutes the F16s has managed to made a deep incursion inside Malaysian soil.The MIGs did not on their radar in order to nailed the Vipers by surprise-hence a classic GCI sorties.F16s RWR would not beep unless there is a radar beam detected.The MIGs utilised their IRST to closed in from the back.F16s jammers could do serious damaged to the MIGs radar if the pilots were to turn on their radar.App 2 miles from the F16s the MIGs were detected by the E2C which in turn alerted the F16s to aborted their mission.It is to late for the F16s cause their incursion has been recorded by both radars and the MIGs HUD cameras.With heavy loads it is unlikely for the F16s to outrun the lean and mean MIGs.RMAF asked the F16s to identify themselves before escorting them out from Malaysian airspace.The SIGINT a/c were latter indentified by a MALAYSIAN AIRLINES pilots -who latter called in to report the irregular aircraft which have violated the civillian aircraft traffic route.Malaysia asked the Orangeland diplomatic corp.top brass to provide a clear explaination on the low level incursion made.We never got the answers.</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:55:57 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Addicted to sex, drugs.</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1943401</link>
            <description>&lt;!--QuoteBegin--&gt;&lt;div class='quotetop'&gt;QUOTE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class='quotemain'&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEBegin--&gt;MELBOURNE: A Malaysian neurosurgeon told a Sydney court that he realised his drug and sex addiction was “spiralling out of control” when a 22-year-old prostitute, Victoria McIntyre, died from cocaine overdose in his apartment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Australian newspaper quoted Suresh Nair, 43, as telling Downing Centre District Court in Sydney on Thursday, that “he made a big mistake and the whole thing snowballed completely out of control”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“There was a part of me that recognised things were out of control but there was another part of me that chose to ignore that rational part of my mind,” he said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A second prostitute, Suellen Domingues-Zaupa, 23, died in the same circumstances nine months later in November 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nair, who had earlier pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Domingues-Zaupa and one count of drug supply in McIntyre&amp;#39;s death, told his sentencing judge Robert Toner:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“If I had handled things differently and been honest with myself, I feel very strongly that nothing would have happened with Suellen.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In its report, The Sydney Daily Telegraph said Nair&amp;#39;s former colleague and prominent neurosurgeon Charlie Teo also defended his previous good character.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dr Teo told the court that he held Nair in extremely high regard despite the charges against him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“I have a public profile but I felt very strongly that Suresh was a good person and people needed to know that,” Dr Teo said, adding that Nair was “very remorseful” when he visited him twice in jail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dr Teo also described him as “awkward socially” but said his patient care and skills as a brain surgeon were exemplary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nair, who has been suspended by the New South Wales Medical Board, is awaiting deregistration after pleading guilty to the charges and also faces deportation to Malaysia because he is not an Australian citizen despite migrating here in 1980 at the age of 11.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since being remanded in jail 18 months ago, Nair has also been the victim of a vicious assault, which resulted in the loss of some vision.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nair&amp;#39;s barrister, Peter Hamill, said his client&amp;#39;s “dreadful, debilitating addiction” had resulted in a “tragic waste the waste of the lives of the victims. There&amp;#39;s also the awful waste of Nair&amp;#39;s incredible talents 20 years of work down the drain.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, Judge Toner disagreed, saying Nair was not an addict but a “binge cocaine user” and there was “one dead body too many.”&lt;!--QuoteEnd--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--QuoteEEnd--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/7/3/nation/9023351&amp;sec=nation' target='_blank'&gt;http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...3351&amp;sec=nation&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:10:51 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>Whopper is very filling</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1942990</link>
            <description>I ate a BK whopper set this afternoon. this is the first time i ate whopper. Before i usually ordered French Chicken. i&amp;#39;m still not hungry even now. Whopper is very filling i say. though the price is hefty too.</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 03 Jul 2011 21:03:13 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>What happen last night?</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/0</link>
            <description></description>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>How to build a PC without bottleneck</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/0</link>
            <description></description>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>How to build a PC without bottleneck</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1929849</link>
            <description>I&amp;#39;m planning on building a PC. It&amp;#39;ll be centred around the Core i7 2600K. Anyone here have any tips on how to build it without any parts bottlenecking the full performance?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:09:54 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>History of Food</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1928589</link>
            <description>Sandwich&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src='http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100904154961/callofduty/images/6/67/Ham-sandwich.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('1c14dc3a0ebf08d26c65620bebf552aa')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;1c14dc3a0ebf08d26c65620bebf552aa&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;Sandwiches have most likely been around much longer than their presence has been recorded. The earliest recorded combination of bread with fillings pressed between came when Rabbi Hillel put apple slices, chopped nuts, and some spices between matzos to eat with the bitter herbs during Passover in the 1st century B.C.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first mention of the word, ?sandwich? came around 1762 when a reporter wrote in the daily news about John Montague, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. As he sat gambling for long hours, the only sustenance he requested was spirits, water, bread, cheese and meat. As he continued to play with one hand, he sat the meat and cheese between the slices of bread and held them in his non-playing hand. Seeing this, others at the nearby tables requested ?the same as Sandwich&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 1827, Miss Leslie&amp;#39;s Directions for Cookery, a popular early cookbook, includes a recipe for ham sandwiches and officially gives them the designation of main dish which garnered public approval of the sandwich to be used as such in the early U.S. In 1900, unsliced, soft, white bread loaves begin to be sold in local general stores and grocery stores. As early as the 1920s, children begin to carry sandwiches in their lunch pails, the most popular fillings of that time were eggs and ham.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the 1930s, sliced, soft, white bread is first sold by Wonder Bread. During this same period, the comic strip, ?Blondie? introduces the U.S. to Dagwood Bumstead and his crazy, tall-stacked Dagwood sandwiches.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Americas favorite sandwich is, of course, the Peanut Butter and Jelly (PB&amp;amp;J) created by WWII soldiers. The soldiers combined bread, peanut butter and jelly from their c-rations (ready-pack meals). This filling treat spread through the ranks and they then brought the idea home to their families. One of the most famous sandwiches is the Elvis Presley favorite - fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. An interesting aside is that in 2002, the U.S. Army formulated sandwiches that are shelf-stable for up to three years. (However, the soldiers? favorite PB&amp;amp;J, the most requested by troops, is still being perfected.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sandwiches today are found not only on all variety of breads (rye, sourdough, pumpernickel, wheat, etc.,) but also on all types of types of breads ? tortillas, focaccia, matzo, pita, and more&amp;#33; Each culture seems to have created their own version of the ?sandwich? ideal for use of leftovers and/or convenient packaging of product and its consumption. Join Sandwiches here at Bellaonline for a journey through some of the classic, new and culturally diverse sandwiches youve ever met.&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11819.asp' target='_blank'&gt;http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11819.asp&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:38:58 +0800</pubDate>
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            <title>History of French Fries</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1928551</link>
            <description>&lt;img src='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_maobprvzkv4/SKEvXC8U5QI/AAAAAAAAAI0/_8Bjl-Bc5VU/s400/yummy+fries.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;WARNING&amp;#33;&amp;#33;&amp;#33; Wall of text inside. not for the faint hearted&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER BEGIN--&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilertop&quot; onClick=&quot;openClose('19b31c7bdf716a73b2ef875339cb27fd')&quot; style=&quot;font-weight: bold&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&amp;raquo; Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... &amp;laquo;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;spoilermain&quot; id=&quot;19b31c7bdf716a73b2ef875339cb27fd&quot; style=&quot;display:none&quot;&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER END--&gt;In the beginning was the potato. How it found its way from the South American highlands into those little sacks of McDonald&amp;#39;s fries is a long, adventurous tale, involving Conquistadors, Marie Antoinette, and Thomas Jefferson. Millionaires have been made and millions more have died from dependence on that simple, innocent potato. Here, then, is the story of the spud, which reached its crowning achievement only once it had been paired with oil.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The potato seems to us today to be such a staple food that it is hard to believe that it has only been accepted as edible by most of the Western world for the past 200 years. Our story begins thousands of years ago, in South America—Peru, Ecuador, and the Northern part of Chile, to be exact—where the Andean Incas friespotat1.giffirst discovered potatoes growing wild in the highlands, and were cultivating them as early as 750 BC. As well as being their staple source of food, the Incas also used potatoes for telling time, treating illness and injury, and divination. They worshipped potato deities, and when potato crops failed, the noses and lips of a few unlucky Incas would be mutilated in ceremonies designed to appease the potato gods. Although the Incas did many things with their potatoes, they did not fry them. Instead, their most popular potato dish involved laying them out in the sun for a period of weeks, then trampling on them with their bare feet to get all of the liquids out. Yummy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Potatoes were a well-kept Incan secret for thousands of years, as were the Incas themselves, until, in the early decades of the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquered the Incan empire and brought some of the strange little tubers back to Spain with them. The Spaniards, however, were not too keen on consuming what they called an &amp;quot;edible stone.&amp;quot; Nevertheless, the invading soldiers in South America used the vegetable as emergency provisions, and it was there that the English were introduced to the charming spud. In 1596, Englishman Sir Francis Drake, setting sail for England after having successfully battled the Spanish in the Caribbean, grabbed up some potatoes for the trip, and made a stopover in Virginia to pick up some homesick British colonialists. One of these passengers took a sample of this intriguing plant to his horticulturist friend, John Gerard. Gerard mistakenly believed the potatoes to have come from Virginia, and, described them to the world in his 1597 Herball as Virginia potatoes. In fact, it was not for another century and a half that the potato would even set foot in Virginia, which it did only after having crossed the Atlantic ocean once more, finally arriving in North America in the hands of Irishmen settling in New Hampshire.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact, overseas, nobody but the Irish were willing to actually eat this hearty little vegetable. Sir Walter Raleigh was cultivating potatoes on the Emerald Isles as early as 1576, but when he presented them to Queen Elizabeth, it was a disaster: the cook served the greens to the Queen and threw away the tubers. She was not pleased, and rejected the disgusting meal. Although this was bad news for the struggling staple, it was not the only negative publicity it was to receive in Europe. The Scots found no mention of the potato in the Bible and deemed the vegetable unholy; horticulturists discovered it to be in the same family as such plants as belladonna and feared that it was poisonous; the innocent potato was even thought to be a cause of leprosy when it was found that a substance in the tuber (solanine) could result in a skin-rash. The Irish, however, could not afford to be so cautious. They were suffering from inadequate food supplies, and the tuber grew fabulously in their climate. Possibly as a result of it&amp;#39;s popularity in Ireland and concurrent population explosion, the misunderstood potato even became known as an aphrodisiac. In 1733, the English seedsman Stephen Switzer summed up popular opinion of the potato as &amp;quot;that which was heretofore reckon&amp;#39;d a food fit only for Irishmen and clowns.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The potato arrived in Germany in 1588 and was considered suitable only for livestock and prisoners, until 1744 when King William ordered peasants to plant potatoes to save them from famine. He distributed potatoes and instructions for planting them to the lowly folk, and threatened to cut off the nose of anyone who disobeyed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was in Germany, too, that the potato met it&amp;#39;s greatest ally. Antoine August Parmentier was a French chemist who served as a soldier in the Seven Years War, and was fed only potatoes while in captivity there. When he returned to France, he made it his mission to popularize the tuber, which he felt had beenfriespotat2.gif unjustly rejected by his countrymen. A skillful public relations man, Parmentier published a thesis, &amp;quot;Inquiry into nourishing vegetables that at times of necessity could be substituted for ordinary food&amp;quot; in 1773, and soon afterwards brought a bouquet of potato flowers to the birthday party of King Louis XVI. Graciously accepting the gift, the King promptly placed the flower in his lapel, and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, wore them in her hair, and potato flowers quickly became a fashion among the aristocracy. Still, Legrand d&amp;#39;Aussy wrote of the potato, in his 1783 Histoire de la Vie Privee des Francais (History of the Private Life of the French) &amp;quot;The pasty taste, the natural insipidity, the unhealthy quality of this food, which is flatulent and indigestible, has caused it to be rejected from refined households.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Parmentier, however, was on a roll. He began throwing parties for the French upper-class, at which he served as many as twenty dishes at a time, all containing potatoes. Then, in a display of marketing genius, Parmentier obtained permission to plant an acre of potatoes in the French countryside. He had the plot fastidiously guarded by day, but at night left the land unsupervised. Acting exactly according to his predictions, the peasants assumed that anything watched so closely must be valuable, and they stole the plants by night. Soon, potatoes were being planted all over France. It became a staple food as well as a status symbol, and by 1813, almost one hundred and fifty years since it&amp;#39;s introduction, the potato finally gained acceptance in Scotland, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Thanks to the French, potatoes were finally deemed chic enough to eat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Irish dependence on potatoes not only accounts for their great immigration to the United States after the potato famines of 1845, but also resulted in Irishmen making their way to these shores in the mid 1700&amp;#39;s, when a crop failure resulted in the deaths of one fifth of the Irish population. These earlier immigrants brought their beloved spud to America but it received little attention. It was not until an adventurous farmer and admitted Francophile—Thomas Jefferson—began to cultivate them that Americans developed a taste for the tuber, although some were still insisting that they were poisonous.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was not long after this widespread embracing of the potato that some genius decided to drop slices of it into a pot of boiling fat. The identity of this individual is unknown; the friespotat3.gifFrench claim it was one of their countrymen, while the Belgians fiercely hold that it was one of their own who first frenched a fry. Expert opinion on this matter is divided as well. Whatever the case, by the 1830&amp;#39;s deep fried potatoes had become a popular taste sensation in both France and Belgium. It took another hundred years for them to become a fast-food staple in the United States. Although Thomas Jefferson is rumored to have served them in Monticello as early as 1802—a daring thing to do at the time, since tubers were still believed to lead to death unless the poisons were boiled out of them—it was American soldiers, having been stationed in France (or Belgium, depending on who you ask) during World War I who brought back a hunger for the fried potatoes they had eaten while overseas. Although today fries are commonly eaten in many other countries, they are only associated with the Gallic culture here in the U.S.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;French fries were born to be fast food. Deep frying foods in large vats of (expensive) fat is a smelly and messy task that was impossible for most people to carry out in their humble friespotat4.gifkitchens. At the beginning of their popularity, one&amp;#39;s only chance to obtain the delectable treat was at a restaurant, whose cooking facilities were better equipped to handle such a procedure, or from street vendors in Paris and Brussels. (The first place in Paris to do this was by the bridge Pont Neuf, and thick-cut fries in France are still known as pommes de terre Pont Neuf). To this day, in Belgium, where pomme frites are considered a national treasure, they are still prepared from fresh potatoes and sold on the streets from numerous french-fry shacks, known as a fritures or frietkoets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Given the difficulty of preparing the perfect fry, it is truly a wonder that McDonald&amp;#39;s manages to turn out millions of them each day. But that, too, was a process that took decades to perfect. A long, long time ago, when the McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant in Des Plaines, Iowa, the fries they served were made from fresh potatoes, but unlike today, they were not all uniformly yummy. Sometimes limp, sometimes greasy, sometimes too dark on the outside and not cooked enough on the inside, the path to total fry perfection constantly eluded them. The little restaurant quickly developed into a large food chain, but the brothers remained frustrated with their fries. They began pouring millions of dollars into research. At first, they tried to establish the perfect temperature for frying. What they found was that different batches of potatoes would reduce the temperature of the oil they were hurled into by different amounts. Fixing the frying equipment was not going to help this problem. Instead, they discovered that the variance was due to how long the potatoes had been stored before they met their fate in the fryer. The spuds that had been waiting for longer periods cooked up better than those that went immediately into the fryer. Curing potatoes for exactly three weeks prior to frying them became standard practice, allowing for enough of the spuds sugars to be converted into starches. Without this waiting period, the sugars in the potato make the fry turn brown too quickly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But McDonald&amp;#39;s potato predicament was far from over. There were questions about the best shortening to use, how to cultivate the right breed of potato that would contain the friespotat5.gifperfect amount of solids to water ratio, and whether to switch over to the two-step frying method (which had been used in Belgium for years). In 1957, the company even opened a research lab dedicated to turning the production of fries from an art into a science. The labs developed a potato computer, used to this day, which could monitor the temperature of the frying oil and notify the operator when a batch of fries was perfectly cooked. Flawless French fries had finally become a reality.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, French fries account for more than one-fourth of all potatoes sold in the U.S. market—over six million pounds of potatoes are processed into frozen fries annually. Twenty-five percent of kids report eating French fries instead of other vegetables, and the average American eats thirty pounds of the greasy things in a year. The potato has come from being reviled to being revered, and is now the second most popular staple food in the world. So the next time someone says, &amp;quot;You want fries with that?&amp;quot;, take a moment to remember the long, hard journey of the poor little spud. And answer, &amp;quot;Yes, thank you.&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--SPOILER DIV--&gt;http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.2/fries/fries-09.2.html</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:14:36 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>Cockroach, Cockroach on the wall....</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1926692</link>
            <description>&lt;img src='http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2552/21062011042.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Big cockroach dare to climb a wall in fron of my face. This picture was taken right before the execution...</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:57:29 +0800</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title>What happen last night?</title>
            <link>http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1921600</link>
            <description>Last night, my Interent connection are fast and consistent all evening and through the night. Usually, when i return home from office, the internet connection is crawling, sometimes to a single digit, and only pick up speed after 12 midnight. But last night, from the time i return home from the office, all the way to midnight and beyond, the internet connection is great. i got 170kbps on average. Anyone what happen?</description>
            <author>Fadly</author>
            <category>Serious Kopitiam</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:58:11 +0800</pubDate>
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