Monday, June 02, 2025

Remembering Jamal Uddin, the Plumbing guy

Remembering Jamal Uddin, the Plumbing guy

I remember Jamal as a chubby, warm-hearted man who managed plumbing design work on FND projects. He was frequently seen with a contractor named Sher Ali. Like many others, Jamal had gained practical experience working on construction projects in KSA.  He had a wealth of interesting stories to tell from his time in the Kingdom.  There were stories of rivalries (Jamal amusing a supervisor by pointing out that the pumps ordered by that supervisor’s adversary were incorrectly configured to fit their intended installation spaces), and stories of strange priorities (one European expat upon receiving a lump sum payment of twenty-two thousand dollars deciding to go on a luxurious ski trip he had long dreamed of). I lost touch with Jamal after 1998 but had hoped to see him and other FND associates from the late 90s, somewhere sometime.  That chance is now gone.

 Jamal Uddin passed away on June 1, 2025

 

Tags: Jamal Sahab of FND Consulting Engineers, Karachi 

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Malnourished Gaza Children vs Healthy, Well-Fed Hostages

 

 


Something is not adding up! You hear about Gaza being devastated, besieged, choked, maimed, its infrastructure destroyed, and you see online appeals for aid to Gaza to provide food and medical supplies to helpless, malnourished people…and then suddenly you see the image of a hostage released from Gaza after a captivity of around 600 days--and that clean-shaven man looks like an athlete who just had a wholesome meal minutes ago, after a nice warm shower.  What is going on?


Edan Alexander’s photo, courtesy of AlJazeera

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Urgent: Security Risk Detected on Your Wallet

Another scary message.

 

Blockchain Update
Your wallet was unable to successfully update to the newest version of Blockchain due to high volume on the network. A manual update is now required to maintain functionality before September 13.

Security Notice: A suspected connection from China was recently detected in relation to your wallet address. This could indicate a potential compromise. Please take action immediately to protect your assets.

Suspicious Login Details:
Location: China
IP Address: 59.66.128.0
Operating System: Windows 10
Browser: Unknown

 Secure My Wallet

Monday, April 28, 2025

I get so scared by these messages....

Important Notice from Meta

Your Facebook Page will be permanently deleted due to lack of interaction and authorship verification, which violates our community standards, according to our policy.

If you believe this is an error, please submit an appeal for review using the link below:

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

I am about to send $1550 to Nigeria

 After getting the following email:

 

Greetings!<br>
Have you seen lately my e-mail to you from an account of yours?<br>
Yeah, that merely confirms that I have gained a complete access to device of yours.<br>
<br>
Within the past several months, I was observing you.<br>
Are you still surprised how could that happen? Frankly speaking, malware has infected your devices and it's coming from an adult website, which you used to visit. <br>
Although all this stuff may seem unfamiliar to you, but let me try to explain that to you.<br>
<br>
With aid of Trojan Viruses, I managed to gain full access to any PC or other types of devices.<br>
That merely means that I can watch you whenever I want via your screen just by activating your camera as well as microphone, while you don't even know about that. <br>
Moreover, I have also received access to entire contacts list as well as full correspondence of yours.<br>
<br>
You may be wondering, "However, my PC is protected by a legitimate antivirus, so how could that happen? Why couldn't I get any alerts?" <br>
To be honest, the reply is quite straightforward: malware of mine utilizes drivers, which update the signatures on 4-hourly basis, <br>
which turns them to become untraceable, and hereby making your antivirus remain idle.<br>
<br>
I have collected a video on the left screen where you enjoy wanking, while the video on the right screen shows the video you were watching at that point of time.<br>
Still puzzled how much damage could that cause? One mouse click is enough for me to share this video to your social networks, as well as e-mail contacts of yours.<br>
In addition, I am also able to gain access to all e-mail correspondence as well as messengers used by you.<br>
<br>
Below are simple steps required for you to undertake in order to avoid that from occurring - transfer $1550 in Bitcoin equivalent to my wallet <br>
(if you don't know how to complete that, just open your browser and make a google search: "Buy Bitcoin").<br>
<br>
My bitcoin wallet address (BTC Wallet) is: 1Gcpk3gmSCZDdihRp3Kc5HAsHoBcNhzXTQ <br>
<br>
Once the payment has been confirmed, I shall remove the video without delay, and that is end of story - afterwards you won't hear about me again for sure.<br>
The time for you to perform the transaction is 2 days (48 hours).<br>
After this e-mail is opened by you, I will get an automatic notice, which will start my timer.<br>
<br>
Any effort to complain will not change anything at all, because this e-mail is simply untraceable, just like my bitcoin address.<br>
I have been developing these plans for quite an extended period of time; so, don't expect any mistake from my side. <br>
<br>
If, get to know that you tried to send this message to anyone else, I will distribute your video as described earlier.<br>

Friday, April 11, 2025

My compost toilet at home and on road trips

My portable compost toilet at home is a pair of five gallon buckets stacked one on top of another, by the washing machine. One bucket is normally full of dirt from my garden; the other one, the toilet, starts as a bucket one-fourth filled with dirt.  When using my compost toilet, I get the two buckets out and put them beside the WC. I sit on the toilet bucket and get the job done; the solid waste lands on the dirt. Once my bowl is empty, I move to the regular WC and clean myself. The next step is to use a little shovel in the 'dirt bucket' to pour dirt on top of the fresh solid waste. I use copious amount of dirt to cover the whole thing so that there is no risk of any odor coming out of my toilet bucket. Once done, lids are put back on the two buckets and the buckets go back to their place by the washing machine. After a three or four time use of the compost toilet, I take the 'toilet bucket' out in the yard and empty it out in a pit. The bucket gets thoroughly washed and restocked with fresh dirt to start the process again.
 I also have a solution for my kidney waste. I collect my kidney drain in an empty milk gallon.  Once full, this container, full of high quality nitrates, is emptied out in the garden.
What do I achieve by doing this exercise? I get the confidence that I can be off grid without using a septic system. I generate high quality fertilizer for my garden. I save water. [I only need to flush the WC once every week or so because I use the WC only for cleaning myself, using water.]  I feel good being a responsible Earth citizen.
 
==
Use of compost toilet while traveling on the Pakistani motorways


Yes, there are a few OK toilets along motorways in Pakistan, but nothing beats having your personal toilet with you, that only you use.


If you have not traveled with a portable compost toilet/bucket toilet before I will encourage you to first use the bucket toilet in the comfort of your home. Some people fear they will not be able to balance themselves on a bucket, or that the rim of the bucket will feel painful. I never had an issue with the balance, nor did I ever find sitting on the bucket painful. You must try out the bucket toilet at home before taking it with you on a road trip. And you must feel comfortable that once the waste is well-covered with dirt, a 4+ inch thick layer, there is no odor from the compost toilet--cats already know this--and if you will have to show your compost toilet to a person not knowledgeable about its contents, they won't be able to guess what is hiding under the dirt.

You have a choice of two different types of compost toilets to use in your road trip.  The simplest one comprises only one bucket with its bottom cut out.  The bucket is your toilet and your waste will land directly on the ground.  Once done you can use a shovel to cover up the waste; wash your bottomless bucket and you are ready to go.

If you want things to be more contained consider taking your compost toilet with you. When packing the compost toilet for the road, you will have to use the 'toilet bucket' for both relieving yourself i.e., emptying out your bowl, emptying out your kidney, AND for cleaning yourself. This can generate a big quantity of liquid, but a thick layer of dirt can easily cover all that.

For making your portable toilet private, you can consider carrying four one-half inch rebars, four 4.5 ft. long ¾ inch PVC pipes, and a 4.5 ft. wide, 18 ft long fabric. You can park your car slightly away from the road. Hammer four rebars in a square fashion, four feet apart; put PVC pipes on top of the rebars and wrap the fabric around the PVC posts. Your very private, exceptionally clean compost toilet is ready for your use!


 

My compost toilet stored besides the washing machine
 

Two buckets taken out for compost toilet use
 

 Two buckets with their lids on
 

 Two buckets with lids removed
 

Job completed; dirt put on top of solid waste
 
 
Buckets put back in their place
Toilet bucket emptied in a pit, after 3-4 uses
 

 Toilet bucket washed over put, dirt put over the pit
 
An empty gallon to be used for kidney drain 


Kidney water in empty gallons
 
Waste gallon being emptied in front yard

 Road side stop to use compost toilet

 

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Alamgir Welfare Trust provides Oxygen Concentrators (Oxygen machines) for free

 
Alamgir Welfare Trust provides Oxygen Concentrators (Oxygen machines) for free



If you have a loved one in Karachi suffering from a lung disease requiring continuous supply of Oxygen, you can get an Oxygen Concentrator (Oxygen machine) for free from Alamgir Welfare Trust.  The machine is free but you need to keep a security deposit of Rs.60,000 (Sixty thousand rupees) with them—you get the security deposit back when you return the Oxygen concentrator.   To get the Oxygen Concentrator from the Alamgir Welfare Trust bring the following:
1.    Doctor’s advice that the patient needs 24X7 Oxygen supply.
2.    A copy of patient’s ID card.
3.    A copy of the ID card of the person taking the Oxygen Concentrator with them.
4.    Rs.60,000 in cash, for the security deposit. [Not sure if they also accept debit/credit cards]


Thursday, December 26, 2024

Thoughts on December 25, 2024

Jinnah’s biggest political failure was not to dissolve All India Muslim League on August 14, 1947.  There was no need to transform All India Muslim League into any form of a ‘Muslim League’ in Pakistan.  Just like Jinnah realized that the new state had to be secular in nature, he should have taken practical steps to show that on achieving the primary goal of the ‘Muslim League’, the days of religiously motivated parochial politics are over.
To this day, Muslim League (under different names) keeps functioning in a country that has over 96% Muslims.

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Gaza genocide?

 Is Israel’s Gaza campaign genocidal?

Two questions to consider:

1.    Does the weaker opponent have the capacity to resist?  Is the weak combatant showing any form of resistance?
2.    Does the weaker opponent have any leverage it can use against its rival?

If the answer to any or both questions is yes, then it is not a genocide.  It is just a war between two parties with grossly uneven military capabilities.

Monday, September 16, 2024

The deadwood theory of California Wildfires

 
 

 


Having lived in California regions prone to wildfires, for a decade, I have an opinion on what causes the wildfires to grow rapidly.  It is true that most wildfires start when dry bush is ignited, but how does a fire grow so big as to devour standing trees.  The answer lies in the observation about other readily combustible material, besides dry bush, present in the environment.  And that combustible material is deadwood.  It is the fallen branches of the trees; it is the old trees that die and are uprooted by wind.  The deadwood is the main ingredient that makes a small bush fire a ferocious wildfire.  Once we understand this phenomenon, we know the solution.  Remove the dead wood.  How?  Let people collect deadwood from wilderness.  Let them use the deadwood in their wood burners.  By eliminating dry bushes butting roadways, and by removing deadwood in the general vicinity of human presence, we can cut down on a great number of California wildfires. Is the State Fire Marshal (Daniel Berlant?) at Cal Fire listening?

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Social Media posts and the real stories behind them

Social Media posts and the real stories behind them

Post: I really appreciate the thousands of messages I have received on my birthday from friends around the world. You make me feel so special! I cannot possibly thank each one of you individually. Kindly accept my electronic hug to all of you.
The real story: Dammit! It was my birthday, and no one noticed! Let me post something clever online about the historical day to get something out of hundreds of my stupid cyber friends.

Post: I am humbled by the service to humanity award I have received from the International Society of Sages and Augurs.
The real story: I donated just $5 to the International Society of Sages and Augurs, and they gave me this award in recognition of my ‘services to humanity’! This piece of paper can most probably be used in a toilet. Oh, well, let me post this news online and see if I can get a few Likes.
 

Post: Last week, I was interviewed by the world-famous New England Journal of Science and Stellar Technologies. I never in my wildest dreams thought my life would take me where it has taken me. It is all because of my mother’s prayers and best wishes from friends like you.
The real story: New England Journal of Science and Stellar Technologies is a decent website. Why is nobody noticing my name there? Let me make an online post to wake up a few people who don’t bother to read these prestigious journals.
 

Post: My wonderful daughter, you make me proud! Look at her beautiful smile in this photo.
The real story: She is 25 and has not moved out yet; she treats me like an ATM. Let me put something online with her picture to shame her.

Post: My beautiful wife, my best friend, my companion for the last fifteen years, I love you beyond your wildest imaginations!
The real story: She is getting weird day by day. What a ruckus she made last night! Let me post something online to calm her down. If it does not work, this relationship is over.

Thursday, July 11, 2024

Package delayed due to incorrect address. Please update at this link.

Got a text message from 382-889-0796.  The image had the United States Postal Service logo.  The message read:

Package delayed due to incorrect address.  Please update at this link.

I wrote back.

Thanks for letting me know on my correct telephone number that the address on a package for me is incorrect.  Please send the package to the incorrect address and notify the incorrect telephone number associated with the incorrect address.  Love, always.  C.