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Showing posts from 2011

Remembering the 9/11 Tragedy

The gruesome and horrible attacks in 9/11/2001 still lingers and haunted the affected families. My heart all goes to the victim's families. It was heartbreaking and sad, thinking about the trauma endured by them. After 10 years of the tragedy, there are still many doubts and unanswered call pertaining to the issues. I have no intent to add more grief to the deceased's  families and friends. This article only pin point the circulated conspiracy theorist around the tragedy for us to ponder. In most of the people mind, anything huge and mind-blowing cases require a big reason or cause. One of the famous sources is the 911 Truth Movement (911truth.org). The website enlist some 40 reasons on why the official version of the attack is dubious. Below are some of the queries in the list: 1) Why did the third building, WTC7, collapse although it was not hit by a plane? 2) How come there was suspicious trading in American Airlines and United Airline     stocks right before the a

DILEMMA OF RARE EARTH PLANT

The radiation incident involving one the most developed countries had sparked an aggressive sentiment through out the whole world regarding to the quality of standard safety measures of nuclear energy plant. Rare earth (RE), even though not as risky as the actual uranium ores, still deemed as a threat to the local people. A heated debate lingers in Gebeng, state of Pahang, Malaysia.  In terms of quantity, the material was abundant in the earth's crust. However, only few places in the world have the most high quality  RE ores such as Lynas's Mount Weld in Western Australia. For decades, China has become the most prominent RE producers in the world with 80% reserves of RE in the world (Y.Zhang, Q.J.Meng & N.Zhou, 2007) The RE waste disposal procedure are a vital concern to scientist as it pose a serious threat to the food chain. RE ores and commodities, including the by-product and waste materials resulted from RE processing are naturally radioactive due the presence of

POSTGRADUATE STUDIES: Part 1

In postgraduate studies, there are two main program which is taught Masters and research Masters . Taught master emphasize more on the specialization of broader learning themes covered in undergraduate study. It involves mainly on coursework, presentation, experiments and exams which need to be passed in order to qualify a Master degree. As for research Masters, the student will carry out their research under the supervision of a senior academician and there are no exams in the final phase of study. The peak moment will be the viva-voce stage, a defend stance of the research in front of a panel of experts in their field. There are a simple advice to whom eager to pursuit their Master' degree.The study is more intense than the undergraduate level. Lacking of commitment will resulted to hard struggle to complete the program in time.

THE MYTH IN SLOPE SAFETY: PART 2

4) Retaining Wall capable to avoid the slope failure occurrence As a general understanding, the retaining  wall do able to retain the soil of the slope. However, there are several issues that could lead to disaster: a) Poor construction of the retaining wall b) Lack of maintenance work such as cleaning up the clogged drain and treat the eroded area at slope. 5) The slope already there about a decade ago. It is safe A natural slope can fail suddenly without any advance sign even though it is already there for years. Even thou there are no sign of failures, the Factor of safety (FOS) might be low or reaching at a critical level. 6) The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report guarantee the slope safety . The EIA report only describe the impact to the environment due to development proposal in one area and their surrounding. It did not check or taking account the engineering aspect of the slope in details whether it is safe or requiring a remedial method or not A detai