Daniel

Daniel Ashrafi came to Melbourne yesterday with his cousin Rafid from Malaysia who is here for an interview. They were due to land at about 1600 and I left home in the Tarago at about 1545. I missed them the first time while going through that pickup zone so had to come back around.

I picked them up and we headed to Queen's College near Melbourne Uni, where Daniel's brother resides. We got there at about 1703. There was heavy traffic in College Crescent and I saw Nish drive past me. I honked and waved just as he drove past, but was unable to get his attention.

Akbar who is Daniel's brother had not arrived from work yet so we sat in the college courtyard and waited. Eventually he came and we went back to the Tarago so we could park it in the college car park. Normally it would have been about a 50m drive but because traffic was so heavy we couldn't turn right, and so we had to go around the University, in the heavy traffic.

We chilled at Akbar's flat for a while. Part of our time there was spent watching this video:


We decided to go for a movie, and settled for The Informant! since it had reasonably good reviews. The next movie was at 2100 so we left to get some dinner first, at the Flemington KFC which is apparently halal. There were a lot of Somali people around the area.

We got some family dinner thing with 10 pieces of chicken and some chips and stuff.

In the KFC men's bathroom there was an ad saying something like "Do you carry a weapon for self defense?// Now that's a defense that won't stand up in court."
I happened to be carrying a knife on my person at the time but it was more for the purposes of cutting fruit than actual self-defense. After coming home I tried to find that poster online but couldn't. I did however find this.

After that we went to some Mosque, which I think was somewhere near Highpoint shopping centre. The mosque had the layout of a typical local mosque in Sri Lanka, but it was full of Somalis instead. The imam was from somewhere else though.

After that we went to Highpoint and parked somewhere and walked towards the cinema. We watched 'The Informant!"

It was fairly amusing, but in the end I didn't really feel satisfied. After that we went back to Akbar's flat and chilled some more. I left the city at about 0052am. I did lose my bearing while trying to find my way onto the M1, but I got there eventually.

Uncle

My Maternal Grandfather's younger brother passed away last week, this is an obituary of him that was linked from Hosni

Hiatus

Hi everyone. It has been a while since I last posted. There have been a number of things holding me back.

I got an iPod touch about a month ago and I was writing draft posts using it's 'notes' feature but I cannot find a way to transfer the notes onto a computer so I can publish them.

Driving through the Dust

While packing my room this morning, at about 0530, my Dad called to ask what the whether was like. I looked out and saw the sky looked diffusely cloudy, with a tint of orange that I chose to attribute to the sunrise. I told him it was probably going to rain.

I woke Roger up and went out to load up my car. The car was covered in speckles of dust.

I left Armidale this morning at about 0620 with Roger.

We went to the Girraween station to fill up. When we left College I didn't want to damage my trilby hat by putting it in a bag, so I wore it on my head. I was also wearing sunglasses. This combination of clothes led me to receiving some suspicious looks while at the petrol station. After filling up with exorbitantly priced unleaded (129.9c/L) we headed off on the New England Highway.

Visibility was very low and the sky was orange. Visibility was about 400-500m.

We went through Thunderbolt's way and it was reasonably uneventful. We crossed many bountiful rivers and I regretted not bringing my fishing rod.

We stopped at Gloucester and went to the fish and chip shot just after the roundabout on the road that goes towards Newcastle. I got a vege burger and Roger got something else.

We drove on towards the Pacific Highway. At around pre-noon Roger said the Sun was blue. I could see its blueness on the reflections off other cars, but could not see the sun directly due to it being overhead.

Eventually we hit the Pacific Highway and Roger fell asleep. For a while here the sky went very orange but then reverted to the paler orange.

We stopped again at the 'last service station before Sydney' on the F3 and I went to fill up my car. They only had the ethanol blended unleaded (~113c/L) and two types of premium unleaded (~125c/L and ~129c/L). As you can see it was cheaper for me to by premium fuel here than plain unleaded in Armidale. I took the 125c/L option and Filled up about 25L. I had travelled 375km since the last top up, which means I got 15km/L or 6.67L/100km, which is quite decent.

The dust was clearing up mostly by now, and we could see for about 800m-1km. We went to Sydney and I dropped Roger off at Pennant Hills station and headed off to my uncle's house in Guildford. I made a wrong turn on Victoria St somewhere and ended up at some campus of the University of Western Sydney but I managed to get back on track towards Guildford by going on a certain James Ruse drive.

Interesting animals sighted on this journey include a rabbit (possibly a hair) and some sort of bird of prey.

I am at Sydney Domestic Airport now and there is no indication that my flight has been delayed.

I'm on a boat

Here are pictures of me in an inflatable boat I got from Big W some time ago. Photographs by Wanthony taken at Dumaresq Dam.

Ducklings

A few days ago I was near the duck pond at night when I saw two ducks. One of them hissed at me, and I saw that the other was sitting on something, probably eggs. I tried to get closer to take a photo, but the non-sitting duck flew up in my face and chased me away. There was no physical contact.

Anyway today I saw the ducklings, that is all.

Teaching Tamil Tigers

Here is an account of an Australian doctor who went to Sri Lanka some time in 2007. He ended up teaching medicine to soldiers from the LTTE's medical wing. He makes a comment at the end about how it felt strange being investigated for terrorism even though he is 'profoundly Australian.'

Miswaak studies

In Islam our prophet had a strong tradition of encouraging people to clean their teeth. They used a stick called a miswak, usually taken from certain types of trees.
Believers are encouraged to clean their teeth before or after doing certain things like sleep, prayer or eating.

These days we generally use toothpaste with a brush to clean our teeth, but its not advisable to use toothpaste so many times a day, so the tradition of miswak has been preserved. It has also been preserved because a lot of people don't trust the toothbrush and/or believe the miswak is superior.

At a lot of talks and stuff you will hear the speaker extolling the many benefits of miswak, like its alleged anti-bacterial properties. I never really believed it wholeheartedly, instead preferring to think the miswak's benefits were mainly from the mechanical brushing of the teeth. I did some searching on pubmed today, after seeing pubmed being used on House. Here are some of the results.

Strong antibacterial effect of miswak against oral microorganisms associated with periodontitis and caries.

Sofrata AH, Claesson RL, Lingström PK, Gustafsson AK.

Periodontology Department, Institute of Odontology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. abier.sofrataki.se

BACKGROUND: The chewing stick (miswak) is used for oral hygiene in many parts of the world. In addition to the mechanical removal of plaque, an antibacterial effect has been postulated; however, tests of miswak extract from Salvadora persica (Arak) disclosed only low to moderate antibacterial effects. This may be attributable to the extraction process. Our aim was to test in vitro the antibacterial effect of miswak pieces, without extraction, on bacteria implicated in the etiology of periodontitis and caries. METHODS: Miswak pieces were standardized by size and weight (0.07 and 0.14 g) and tested against Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (previously Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans), Porphyromonas gingivalis, and, as a reference, Haemophilus influenzae. The miswak pieces were tested in two ways: embedded in the agar plate or suspended above the agar plate. RESULTS: The inhibitory effect was most pronounced on P. gingivalis, A. actinomycetemcomitans, and H. influenzae, less on S. mutans, and least on L. acidophilus. Suspended miswak had comparable or stronger effects than miswak embedded in agar. The 0.14-g suspended miswak exhibited significantly greater inhibition on A. actinomycetemcomitans and H. influenzae than the 0.14-g miswak embedded in agar (P<0.01>

PMID: 18672998 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The effect of miswak extract on plaque pH. An in vivo study.

Sofrata A, Lingström P, Baljoon M, Gustafsson A.

Department of Periodontology, Institute of Odontology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. abier.sofrata@ki.se

The aim of this study was to document changes in plaque pH when an acidic challenge was followed by rinsing with miswak extract (Salvadora persica), and to evaluate the effect of miswak rinse on parotid gland secretion rate. Plaque pH was measured in 3-day-old plaque using the microtouch electrode. Rinsing with miswak extract, compared with water rinsing, resulted in protracted elevation of plaque pH (>6.0). The difference in plaque pH between miswak extract and water rinse was statistically significant at 30 min (p <>

PMID: 17823507 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Effects of extracts of miswak and derum on proliferation of Balb/C 3T3 fibroblasts and viability of cariogenic bacteria.

Darmani H, Nusayr T, Al-Hiyasat AS.

Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Science, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. darmani@just.edu.jo

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of extracts of two chewing sticks on proliferation of fibroblasts and viability of cariogenic bacteria. METHODS: Aqueous extracts of miswak (Salvadora persica; Arak tree) and derum (Juglans regia; walnut tree) were prepared and their effects investigated on growth of Balb/C 3T3 mouse fibroblasts by measuring the mitochondrial succinic dehydrogenase activity. Furthermore, the effects on the viability of various cariogenic bacteria (Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus salivarius, Lactobacillus casei and Actinomyces viscosus) was also determined. RESULTS: The data revealed that Balb/C 3T3 fibroblasts exposed to aqueous extracts of miswak or derum showed an increase in cell proliferation by 156% and 255%, respectively, in comparison with controls (p <>

PMID: 16637906 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]