Project Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Yes.
Twilight.
The book by Stephenie Meyer that has received mixed reception.
The book that has spread worldwide, even to Indonesia.
The book that will be adapted into a movie, and will be released this year (with yummy Robert Pattinson, who plays Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter, and Kristen Stewart).

I haven’t read that book.

Me, the self-acclaimed bibliophile, haven’t read it, and I have the e-book all along.

Shame on me.

Really, this is out of ordinary. I usually devour any kinds of book, especially those which were famous, controversial, or best-seller. I read Harry Potter way before my peers were attracted to it. I read Mitch Albom’s books. I even read Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Mill on the Floss, but why haven’t I read this??

So I decided that I have a project for this 2-week holiday:
Finish the whole Twilight series.

Yes, the whole four of them. And I will get it done.

Hopefully.

Melamine Alert!

What is melamine?
Melamine is an organic base which has the chemical formula C₃H₆N₆ and has the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.

Chemical Structure of Melamine

Melamine is a trimer of cyanamide, and like cyanamide it consisted 66% of nitrogen (by mass).

In China, melamine was found to have contaminated several milk products.
In September 2008, Sanlu recalled all powdered milk in the China’s Gansu province where melamine was reported to have been used in 22 brands of infant formula, resulting in more than 53,000 ill infants and hopitalizing almost 12,9000. Melamine has also been found in the products produced by Yili Industrial Group Co.

As of 18 September 2008 there had been four confirmed infant deaths that were caused by this contamination. Those who survived were diagnosed with acute kidney failure.

Melamine was supposed to be made into plates, etc. What are they thinking, adding it into milk??
In China, water has been added to raw milk to increase its volume. As a result of this adulteration, the milk has a lower protein concentration. Therefore, the companies that use milk for further production (e.g. powdered infant formula) started checking the protein level through a test that measures the nitrogen content (nitrogen is present in amino acids, and therefore it is also present in proteins). Adding melamine will therefore increases the nitrogen content of the milk, and will ‘fool’ the protein test.

Of course, no test for melamine had been conducted since there had been no reason whatsoever to suspect the addition of this ingredient.

Allegedly, someone in the supply chain, milk supplier or manufacturer, is adding the one adding melamine to milk formula. They may have make themselves a nice little profit, but at what cost?

According to Badan POM Indonesia, these 28 products are contaminated:

1. Jinwel Yougoo Susu Fermentasi Rasa Jeruk
2. Jinwel Yougoo Aneka Buah
3. Jinwel Yougoo tanpa Rasa
4. Guozhen susu bubuk full cream
5. Meiji Indoeskrim Gold Monas Rasa Cokelat
6. Meiji Indoeskrim Gold Monas Rasa Vanila
7. Oreo Stick Wafer
8. Oreo Stick Wafer (disebut dua kali, karena ukuran berbeda)
9. Oreo Cokelat Sandwich Cookies
10. M&M’s Kembang Gula Cokelat Susu
11. M&M’s Cokelat Susu
12. Snicker’s (biskuit-nougat lapis cokelat)
13. Dove Choc Kembang Gula Cokelat
14. Dove Choc
15. Dove Choc (disebut dua kali, karena ukuran berbeda)
16. Natural Choice Yoghurt Flavoured Ice Bar
17. Yili Bean Club Matcha Red Bean Ice Bar
18. Yili Bean Club Red Bean Ice Bar
19. Yili Prestige Chocliz
20. Yili Chestnut Ice Bar
21. Nestle Dairy Farm UHT Pure Milk
22. Yili High Calcium Low Fat Milk Beverage
23. Yili High Calcium Milk Beverage
24. Yili Pure Milk 205 ml
25. Yili Pure Milk 1 L
26. Dutch Lady Strawberry Flavoured Milk
27. White Rabbit Creamy Candy
28. Yili Choice Dairy Frozen Yoghurt Bar (kembang gula)

BPOM stated that the products banned were ones produced overseas, not the ones produced here. But just to be safe, lay off the oreo…

Sources:
http://www.who.int/csr/media/faq/QAmelamine/en/index.html
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/melamine-in-milk.html
http://planet-bekasi.web.id/index.php?/archives/1844-28-Produk-Makanan-Ditarik,-Akan-diteliti-apakah-ada-kandungan-melamin..html

Black, Bold, Beautiful

Alexander McQueen’s Fall 2008 collection. The moment I saw it, I lurrrrve it. It’s black, it’s bold, it’s beautiful. I might have died and gone to heaven.

And the hair! Genius! Pure genius!

And then when I thought it can’t get any better, the second half of the show was even more beautiful. Preview, anyone?

For more of Alexander McQueen’s fall 2008 collection, click here.

Enzymatic Conversion of Starch Into Glucose Syrup

 

This is my first laboratory activity: converting starch into glucose syrup using enzymes.

Starch is a polysaccharide carbohydrate; a polymer of glucose joined together by glycosidic bonds. Starch consists mainly of amylose and amylopectin; amylose being a relatively linear polymer of glucose joined by α-1,4-glycosidic bond, and amylopectin being a branched polymer of glucose joined by both α-1,4-glycosidic bond (linear) and α-1,6-glycosidic bond (branching) (Caballero, 2003).

To convert this polymer into its monomer, the amylase enzyme is used. The amylase enzyme can be classified into three categories: α-amylase, β-amylase, and glucoamylase. α-amylase will break the α-1,4-glycosidic bond randomly, giving molecules of dextrins. α-amylase can also break the α-1,6-glycosidic bond, but at a much slower rate (usually the enzym pullulanase is added to accelerate the breakage of α-1,6-glycosidic bond). β-amylase breaks the α-1,4-glycosidic bond from the non-reducing end, giving molecules of maltoses. And glucoamylase breaks the α-1,4-glycosidic bond also from the non-reducing end, giving molecules of glucose (Wiseman, 1985).

The α-amylase used is obtained from the bacteria B. subtilis or B. licheniformis, whereas the β-amylase is obtained from Aspergillus sp. and Rhizopus sp.

This conversion took place in a couple of steps:

• First, we make a solution from the starch. In Wiseman (1985), a 30-40% solution w/w is preferred, which will -after the conversion reaction- give a 94-97% glucose in equilibrium mixture.
• Then, we gelatinized this solution. Gelatinization is the process of breaking down the intermolecular bonds if starch molecules in the presence of water and heat.
• After the starch solution is gelatinized (by heating), the solution became very viscous, just like the starch (kanji) we used to stiffen our clothing items. This is where the α-amylase is added, at 90 degrees Celcius and stirred for approximately 2 hours. This is the process of liquefying the starch. See, this α-amylase will break down the α-1,4-glycosidic bond, but not the α-1,6-glycosidic bond. Therefore, the reaction yields molecules of branched but short glucose. Branched molecules are soluble in water, whereas linear ones are insoluble. In other words, the branched molecule will make a less viscous solution that the linear ones. Hence the viscosity of the starch solution will decrease as the α-amylase works (Wiseman, 1985).
• Liquefying can also be done with acid (HCl), in room temperature and acidic condition (pH 4.5-5). The downside of using acid is that acid can hydrolyze protein into amino acid, which will cause the browning reaction (or the Maillard reaction: reaction between amino acid and reducing sugar which will result in the presence of flavour. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). This is of course not desirable, because in order to get a pure glucose (or high concentrated, at least), the starch has to be really rid of impurities, where as an enzymatic reaction is specific and only the starch will be converted.
• After the liquefying process, saccharifying is done with glucoamylase. The temperature for this step is 55-60 degrees Celcius. Saccharifying literally meant to convert into sugar (saccharose). Or, in more scientific words, saccharifying is the process of converting a sugar derivative or complex carbohydrate into a simple soluble fermentable sugar by hydrolysis.
• The conversion is assumed to be done. A sample of the sugar is to be taken repeatedly at a time interval, and analyzed. Here we use the Fehling’s reagent. The Fehling’s reagen consisted of Fehling A (blue, copper sulfate solution) and Fehling B (colorless, potassium hydroxide and potassium sodium tartrate solution). This reagent specifically oxidize reducing sugars (glucose is a reducing sugar), and will result in a change of color from blue to red (cuprous sulfate). A standard solution of pure glucose is used to standarize the Fehling’s reagent.

After obtaining the glucose concentration at every interval of the reaction, these data is plotted according to the Michaelis-Menten kinetics.

Looking For Alibrandi

A Brilliant Piece by Melina Marchetta

Josephine Alibrandi, is a 17 year old Italian descent who lives in Australia. She lives with her mother, who is a single parent. Her mother, Christina Alibrandi, got pregnant with Josie when she was just 17. Christina’s father, who was a very stern man, kicked her out of the house, and her mother didn’t do anything to help her until her husband (Christina’s father) died. Then she tried to reconcile with her only daughter and her somewhat rebellious daughter.

Josie enrolls in St. Martha’s, a rather elite Catholic school on a scholarship. She is a minority there, the school being filled with white kids. She is friends with Sera, Lee, and Anna, even though none of them share any similiarities except for being outcasts in school.

Here Josie is pictured to be having trouble placing herself: the Italian kids rejected her because she is an illegitimate child and the white kids because she is a wog (Australian slang for immigrants: Italian, Greek, Maltese, Spanish, Portugese, Croatian, Serbian, and Macedonian descents). She’s looking for her identity, hence the title: “Looking For Alibrandi”.

Josie then met her biological father, Michael Andretti. Both of them resolutely decided to have nothing to do with one another. But of course, things took small turns along with the book and Josie ended up reconciled with her father (she even changed her name to Andretti).

Then there’s John Barton, the son of a politician, who Josie had a big crush on since ever. But they remain friends. John has problems with his father wanting him to study law and become a solicitor when he doesn’t want to, and he confided to Josie. But their world are different, and hence Josie couldn’t understand what John’s problem are. Instead of John Barton, Josie started dating Jacob Coote even though they fight almost most of the time.

I started reading this book in high school, and hasn’t stop since. I read it over and over and over. I found the English edition on a second-book store and bought it without a second delay. It’s great. Funny, entertaining, yet intense. Josie’s problems were well written that even I can relate to her.

My favorite part of the book is the ending, where Josephine says that she is Josephine Andretti, formerly Alibrandi, who should’ve been a Sandford and would never be a Coote. It’s sort of depicting her search for identity.
I think…

Petite Cupcakes

Seriously. Check out this cool website.

It’s oh-so-cute…Check out its home page:

Sweet, ain't it?

The hanger on top of the hanging pole is for “What’s New” and will glitter when the mouse pointer is over it. It’s cute, really.

But the content is so very disappointing.

It’s suppose to sell clothing and accessories, so as you might imagine, I click on the ‘clothing’ first, with high hopes. I found only 23 items and none of them are really my thing. Here’s one that’s rather cute:

Marjorie Dress

But I wouldn’t be caught dead in that.

Then I click on the ‘accessories’ and found my favourite item: shoes…

Rum Raisins...Hmmm...

French Vanilla... Especially adores the bows. =p

And then I decided that this site IS worth posting about.

The problem is, I hate buying things without trying them on. I mean, I know that my shoe size is 40 or so, but sometimes I’ll find that 39 fits more, or that in 40 my feet don’t fit that well, and then I’ll take the 41. I even bought a 37 once (and for my gigantic feet, that’s something). I’m sure you can relate to that…

Hello World

This is my very first blog, and I haven’t really decided what I’m going to write about specifically, so I might just bore you all to death with the little details of my ordinary life.

About the title…
The blog’s title, I mean…
It’s something that just sprung to mind… I think that for one reason or another, my life is beautiful. I like to stay positive, even though most of the time I’m more pessimistic than anyone you can think of.
For some obscure reason I think very well of my life… It’s ordinary, yes…, but it’s mine and I cherish it.

Lemme just give you glimpses of the things I like…

Coffee: A tall glass of irish cream coffee latte,, my special favourite

High Heels: Manolo Blahnik's Something Blue Satin Pump

High Heels: Alexander McQueen's oh-so-cute platforms

Shopping: one of the passions in my life

Books: not just any books, though,, I strictly repel textbooks

P Movies: cinemas are the best place to relax and have fun,, of course, second to shopping malls

Chocolate: an addiction

Well, I really could go on and on and on, but it a long list and I’m bored doing this, so…
again, Hello World!