Tortoise and Lion

One day, tortoise and lion met and want to have a fight. As they want to start, tortoise say, “hey lion, tie up your hair first!”

Then lion replied, “Hey tortoise, put down your bag first!”

The End.

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"It seems that a tank is the best solution."

Do you ever have a problem with parking? I’m sure you do especially if you are a car driver. What is the most irritated situation at parking lots?

As for me, the most annoying situation is when a motorcycle parks in a car parking space. It is really annoyed me especially when parking space for car are limited.

Then the person who parks their car into two slots also annoyed me.

In Malaysia, the officials usually use clamp to discipline the parkers, but in Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, Mayor Arturas Zuokas took the drastic step of driving a camouflaged Russian armored personnel carrier to fight illegal parking.

He said, "I wanted to send a clear message that people with big and expensive cars can't park wherever they feel like and ignore the rights of pedestrians and bike riders".

"It shows a lack of respect and won't be tolerated. Of course, you have to have a sense of humor in my line of work and I thought this would be a way of drawing attention to the fact that the city intends to be proactive in its fight against illegal parking," he added.

"It seems that a tank is the best solution."

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IMSAK

Salam Ramadan to all of you. As we are in Ramadan month, let talk a little bit about fasting. Today I want to write about imsak. So, what is imsak?

Imsak is exactly ten minutes before subuh(dawn). And what is the function of it? Well, the function is to make a gap between the time we stop eating (sahur-pre dawn meal), and the time we start to fast (subuh).

Is it wajib to stop eating before imsak? The answer is exactly NO. There is no such thing as imsak in any of our Prophet’s Sunnah or in Holy Quran. Furthermore, you won’t know about imsak in any other Islamic country other than Malaysia.

The real meaning of imsak is to abstain from eating, drinking, sexual intercourse and other things that invalidate the fast. But most of Malaysian does not know this. All they do know is imsak time which is ten minutes before subuh.

What make it worse is, some of them even think that if we eat pass the imsak time, our fast that day is invalidate. So, let me show you a few dalils to prove that imsak is just a bid’ah.

First, let see surah Al-Baqarah verse 187;

وَكُلُواْ وَاشْرَبُواْ حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ الْخَيْطُ الأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الْخَيْطِ الأَسْوَدِ مِنَ الْفَجْر

“And eat and drink until the white thread (fajar shadiq-the start of dawn/subuh) appears to you from the black thread (the end of night) of dawn”.

This verse clearly states that there is no such thing as Imsak before dawn but Allah s.w.t suggested that we eat and drink until subuh (dawn).

Then let see our Prophet says;

"When one of you hears the call (adhan), and in his hand has the balance (the food being eaten), then do not stop until he fills his needs." (Abu Dawud, Al-Hakim, Al-Baihaqi with records valid by Albani).

In another event, our beloved Prophet was allowing Umar to finish his need (eat and drink) after hearing to adhan for second dawn (fajar shadiq).

Even in other event, our Prophet once holds the muadzin from chanted adhan, to give the opportunity for Sahabats to finish up their sahur.

Based on this dalils, the Ulama’(s) have concluded that the time limit for sahur is adhan subuh (NOT imsak!!!).

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An Eagle Story

Do you know? Eagle can live up to 70 years old? But, in order to do that, they must make a hard decision.

At the age of 40 years old, their long and flexible talons (their nails) can no longer grab prey, their long and sharp beak becomes bent, their feathers become thick and make the old-age wings stick to its chest and make them difficult to fly.

Now, the eagle only has two options; going through a painful process of REBIRTH or DIE. DO or DIE. The process lasts to 150 days.

The eagle must fly to the top of a mountain and sit on its nest. There, the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until it plucks out. Then, the eagle will wait for a brand new beak to grow back before it can use it to pluck out all its talons. One by one until all pluck out. Then they wait again until their new talons grow back. Next, the eagle starts plucking its old-aged feathers until it feel light again.

After 5 months, the eagle will conquer the air again with its famous flight of rebirth and lives for another 30 years. This is the real ‘live begin after 40^th’.

p/s: moral of the story, sometimes we feel like we can’t go on further, but the truth is, we are too afraid to make a change. We are too afraid of what the community will think of us, we are too afraid to leave our old bad habit and superstitious. But, a CHANGE certainly needed in order for us to fly across the barrier.

p/ss: credit to: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/rebirth-of-the-eagle-hoax.shtml

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Foie Gras

Do you have any ideas what Foie Gras mean? As shown below, Foie Gras is considered as a luxury dish in France and several European countries and North America. Foie Gras (means fat liver in French) is made of a duck or goose liver that has been specially fattened.

Look appetizing? Want to know how to make it? And how they make a duck or goose liver more fat than ordinary duck/goose? The process called, ‘force-feeding’.

At the start of the process, the bird will be fed 250 grams of dry weight food per day. The amount will increase to 1000 grams dry weight food at the end of the process. The actual amount of food force-fed is much greater since the birds are fed a mash whose composition is about 53% dry and 47% liquid.

The food is forced into the bird’s esophagus by a long tube length 20-30 cm long (shown below). This force-feeding process will be done for 12 to 15 days with ducks and for 15 to 18 days with geese. During this phase ducks are usually fed twice daily while geese are fed up to 4 times daily.

Now, does it still delicious to you?

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