Art Exhibition

Walking On The Green Green Grass at Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, 221, 5th Floor, Jln Pudu, KL. Artist Tong Siew Bee shares some of her works featuring different scenes of nature, allowing the viewer to find beauty and peace in plants, trees, streams and hills. July 18-31. Daily, 10am-6pm. 017-246 3200/012-230 9363

Honey the better antibiotic

Honey the better antibiotic

HONEY has been shown to be a more useful antibiotic for treating wounds and infections than some pharmaceutical antibiotics, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by the ­University of Sydney, appeared in the June issue of the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Researchers tested medical ­variations of New Zealand Manuk and Australian Jelly Bush honeys and found that they were more effective than antibiotics in treating bacteria, including highly resistant superbugs that infect hospitals.

The bacteria also did not adapt or develop resistance to the honeys as they did to the antibiotics.

Honey-based products could replace conventional antibiotic products used on wounds and to disinfect medical equipment, and their intermediate use could also prolong the life of antibiotics, the researchers said.

“Most bacteria that cause ­infections in hospitals are ­resistant to at least one ­antibiotic, and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface ­infections,” said Assoc Prof Dee Carter, from the ­University of Sydney’s School of ­Molecular and Microbial Biosciences who led the research.

“New antibiotics tend to have short shelf lives, as the bacteria they attack quickly become resistant.”

The honeys that were tested were produced by bees that feed on native Australian and New Zealand tea trees (Leptospermum plants).

The honeys also worked on ­pathogens known to have a high level of resistance, including superbugs such as flesh-eating bacteria, or MRSA, the study said.

Carter said: “We don’t quite know how these honeys prevent and kill infections, but a compound in them called methylglyoxal seems to interact with a number of other unknown compounds in honey to prevent infectious bacteria developing new strains that are resistant to it.” – AFP-Relaxnews

Why English should not be taught in Bahasa Malaysia

Why English should not be taught in Bahasa Malaysia
7 July, 2009

There is currently a brouhaha going on about the proposed teaching of Science and Maths in English. Some would like these two subjects to be taught in Bahasa Malaysia. I am not too concerned about Science and Maths. I am more worried about English. I feel English should no longer be taught in Bahasa Malaysia.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

And why do I think that English should not be taught in Bahasa Malaysia? Well, maybe this circular from one of Malaysia’s leading universities would explain everything.

*************************************************

4th UiTM INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FIESTA
19 – 23 November 2009 FUTSAL-RUGBY 7- TENPIN BOWLING-BADMINTON

Dear Sport Friends,

Regarding about the global issue H1N1 happens around the world, sadly to be informing that our UiTM International Sports Fiesta will be postponing to 19-23 November 2009.

For all teams which have been confirm to participate in our events, we have to say sorry for this announcements and our Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Health also advise to us to change the date for this current situation.

By the date have been confirm incoming this November hopefully your teams still can participate in our event and don’t hesitate to contact us for further information.

And again, we would like to say sorry about the date change for the sake of our health among us.

See you in this November at UiTM Malaysia!!

Regards,

Mr. Mustaza Ahmad
Director
Sports Centre
Universiti Teknologi MARA
Malaysia

*************************************************

By the way, I have a friend who ensures that his kids say their prayers every night before they go to bed and one night be peeped into the kids’ room and overheard his seven-year old son utter this prayer:

Oh, and by the way Lord, I also wish our Wakil Rakyat would be struck down by a sickness or knocked down by a car. I know, Lord, it is not very nice to wish for someone’s death but I have been told that it is okay to sacrifice one’s life if it is for the sake of the entire community. I mean, Lord, that is what soldiers do everyday. They die so that the rest of the people can have a good life.

If our Wakil Rakyat were to die then there would be a by-election in our constituency. That would mean the government would spend hundreds of millions to upgrade the roads in our neighbourhood. Yesterday, I hit a huge hole in the road and fell down. I not only hurt my knee and elbow but my bicycle is now destroyed.

I heard my dad say that the residents have been complaining for more than a year but the government still did nothing about the bad roads while our neighbour said that unless there is a by-election then don’t hope for anything to be done. So, if our Wakil Rakyat were to die, then there would be a by-election called and our roads would immediately be upgraded.

My dad said he is not prepared to buy me a new bicycle because the economy is very bad and he does not have the money to spend on such things. But if there is a by-election then the government will give out free bicycles to all the kids and I will then get the new bicycle that my dad can’t afford to buy.

Furthermore, my dad’s car has been stuck in the garage for the last three months because the road tax has expired and he can’t afford to renew it. So we now have to take a bus to go to town. If there is a by-election then the government will hand out RM1,000 ang pows and with this money my dad will be able to renew his road tax.

Thank you, Lord, and I hope my wish is not too personal. I will talk to you tomorrow night, Lord, but in the meantime maybe you can see what you can do about the Wakil Rakyat thing that I wished for.

The untold MAS story: part 1

The untold MAS story: part 1
7 July, 2009

But it was not Tajudin Ramli who was arrested and charged for fraud and abuse of power. Instead, Ramli Yusuff, the head of the CCD, was arrested and charged for abuse of power and for not declaring his assets.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In 1994, when Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli took control of MAS through his company, Naluri Berhad, Malaysia’s national airline had a cash reserve in excess of RM600 million. Seven years later, in 2001, when the government bought back MAS for the same price that Tajudin paid, the national airline had accumulated losses in excess of RM8 billion.

What happened to the RM600 million in cash? How did MAS lose as much as RM8 billion over just seven years after showing a profit before that? And why did the government buy back an almost bankrupt airline for the same price that it was sold to Tajudin?

We are talking about a plus of RM600 million down to a minus RM8 billion. Yet there was no discount on the share price. Tajudin got back every cent he paid after ‘bleeding’ the national airline to the tune of almost RM9 billion.

One man decided to launch an investigation into the affairs of MAS to get to the bottom of the whole thing. This man is Datuk Ramli Bin Yusuff, the Director of the Commercial Crime Division (CCD). And this man is now on trial after getting arrested for allegedly abusing his authority and for not declaring his assets.

The basis for launching the investigation was because MAS had earlier made two police reports. The police reports are Dang Wangi Report No. 347/02 dated 4 January 2002 and Dang Wangi Report No. 12532/05 dated 4 May 2005.

The police investigation revealed that MAS had been the victim of fraudulent transactions, breaches of fiduciary duties, and breaches of various statutory duties. And the people guilty of these crimes are Tajudin, his business associates, as well as his family members.

But it was not Tajudin who was arrested and charged for fraud and abuse of power. Instead, Ramli, the head of the CCD, was arrested and charged for abuse of power and for not declaring his assets.

Even before the investigation against Ramli could be launched to establish whether he really did commit any crime as alleged, the Anti-Corruption Agency leaked information to the media that Ramli is guilty of not declaring RM27 million in assets.

Corruption investigations and information related to it come under the Official Secrets Act. How, therefore, could this information be made public when the investigation was still ongoing and nothing had been established yet? It was not known yet whether Ramli had really committed any crime and if so whether the assets he was alleged to have not declared does come to RM27 million. Nevertheless, the details of the investigation were made public as if he had already been proven guilty.

Ramli then engaged a lawyer, Rosli Dahlan, to handle his case and the lawyer submitted a set of accounts to prove that not only does Ramli’s assets not come to RM27 million but also that he had properly declared everything he owns. Furthermore, all his assets had been acquired in the proper and legal way and not through fraud or corruption.

And that was when they also arrested and charged the lawyer for allegedly also not declaring his assets.

Why do they want to shut the lid on the MAS investigation? Why does the government wish to protect Tajudin? Is it maybe because it is not Tajudin who is behind the shady dealings but that he is merely acting as the nominee or front man for those who walk in the corridors of power?

There is more in this series of revelations about how the police officer ends up behind bars while the criminal with links to Putrajaya walks free with billions in his pocket. In the next episode, Malaysia Today will show the confidential reports related to the police investigation.

Invariably, all these confidential reports come under the ambit of the Official Secrets Act. So this means they can now arrest me and send me to jail for the so-called crime of violating the Official Secrets Act. But what choice do I have? I can write my story and be accused of spinning, lying, or of making wild allegations without any evidence to support that allegation. Or I can publish copies of those reports and run the risk of getting hauled in for committing a crime under the Official Secrets Act.

I choose to do the latter.

Beware the MJ virus

Beware the MJ virus

Fri, Jul 03, 2009 my paper

ALABAMA, BIRMINGHAM - The world's obsession with superstar Michael Jackson's sudden death is being exploited by a range of digital crooks who - in at least one instance - are using it to infect computers with a virus that can steal bank-account numbers and passwords.

According to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Spam Data Mine, cybercriminals are embedding the data- stealing virus in an e-mail "that claims to link you to a website that will reveal Michael Jackson's killer".

If you click on the message, you will open a door to malware that will invade your hard drive, dig up key information and even redirect certain Google searches you perform by inserting links to other virus-infected pages in the top positions of search results, warned Mr Gary Warner, UAB's director of research in computer forensics.

In another e-attack, an Internet worm is being transmitted via a mass e-mail claiming to contain secret Jackson songs and photos, computer-security firm Sophos reported yesterday.

If you open the attachment, you risk infection. "Once infected, a computer will automatically spread the worm to other Internet users," Sophos said.

Besides spreading via e-mail, Sophos experts note that the malware is also capable of spreading through an autorun component in USB memory sticks.

Even relatively less virulent e-attacks could land your e-mail address into a spam mailing list that is being compiled for sale.

The first Jackson-related cyber- threat emerged within eight hours of his death.

Sophos has also warned of another e-scam that is not malware, but rather a phoney humanitarian cause seeking money for the "Michael Jackson Organization". - AGENCIES

The Malaysian Airlines Fuel Fiasco

The Malaysian Airlines Fuel Fiasco
3 July, 2009

Malaysia Today continues with the exposes on the many scandals involving Malaysia’s national airlines, Malaysian Airlines. Today is a report by Dr David Stone with regards to the fuel scandal involving the airlines. There is more to come in the next episodes in these series of articles where we shall talk about the cargo handling and cartel scandals.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

by Dr David Stone
http://www.insidetraveller.co.uk

The first thing to say is that Malaysian Airlines itself does not have a bad safety record. Unfortunately, facts in this issue have been thin on the ground and no one has ever really come clean on what actually happened. It does however seem certain that on a number of occasions Malaysian Airlines landed Boeing 747s at Heathrow, which were seriously short of fuel. Comments have been made that, in at least one instance, an aircraft did not even have enough fuel to make another circuit of the runway had there been a problem. It seems quite scandalous that such serious problems should have been hidden from public view even though they were apparently known to the authorities. We need to ask how this could happen and what went wrong.

A very firm finger of blame needs to be pointed towards the Civil Aviation Authority who are in charge of policing the safety of all British airlines and foreign airlines flying into Britain. It is interesting to contrast the CAA with its American counterpart, the FAA. The FAA shares the charmingly American characteristic of believing that American organisations are inherently safe while foreign ones are automatically suspect. Thus, foreign airlines flying into the States are subject to rigorous checks and are quite often suspended or allowed in only subject to strict limits. Quite well known foreign airlines have either been suspended or restricted and the list is always changing. On the other hand, many people, including some American experts, believe that the FAA takes a far too lax attitude towards American airlines. From my own point of view, there are certainly some American airlines I would prefer to avoid.

In Britain, the CAA seems to take the opposite approach. British airlines are very strictly regulated, but foreign airlines much less so. Occasional suspensions do occur, such as when Nigerian Airways was stopped from flying here, but at that stage the airline had so many financial problems it probably could not have continued flying anyway. The CAA is clearly anxious to avoid harming Britain's political or commercial relationships with other countries by causing problems. Thus, for the most part, foreign airlines are allowed to operate without intervention. The Malaysian Airlines issue is a good case in point. The Malaysians are notoriously sensitive to criticism and any move against the airline by the CAA would certainly have had implications. However, it seems clear that the CAA was aware of these safety breaches by Malaysian Airlines, did nothing to punish them and avoided making the facts public. This is a scandal and it is amazing the CAA have been allowed off the hook so easily.

We ought to be able to rely on our own government to protect us against unsafe practices by foreign airlines. Unfortunately, we cannot. The other question that needs explanation is how such incidents can occur. Since we are unlikely to get any help from either Malaysian Airlines or the CAA, let me suggest what happened.

When you board a Boeing 747-400 series aircraft at an airport such as Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore you will probably hear the captain telling you he expects to land in London at a fairly precise time. His computer has told him the weight of the aircraft, the prevailing winds and the routing, and produced an exact flight time. The trouble is, it is all dependent on factors which can change. The biggest issue is crossing India or Pakistan where air traffic control facilities are rather limited and at peak hours for flights coming from Asia to Europe some aircraft might be forced to fly at a lower altitude. At a lower altitude planes not only travel more slowly but they burn substantially more fuel. Flights from these destinations to London are right at the limit of an aircraft's range. What is more, they all attract not only heavy passenger loads but very large amounts of cargo as well. When they check in for a flight to London, flight crews make a complicated calculation of the maximum weights allowed and, if they think the flight is likely to be slowed down, they will want to take more fuel. This could mean losing either some booked passengers or cargo to make the weights. In many instances cargo is actually more valuable to an airline than the cheapest economy tickets - and it is also time sensitive - so it might well be the passengers that get left behind.

If the aircraft takes off without the extra fuel and is subsequently forced to fly more slowly or at a lower altitude because of slight wind changes or air traffic control, then it could well begin to run short of fuel before reaching London. The only option is then to land at an airport close to London to refuel. Unfortunately, landing at Frankfurt or Amsterdam to refuel is not like popping into a motorway service station. Because these flights are at the limit of an aircraft's range they are also at the limit of the crew's permitted flying time and, depending on the exact circumstances, a full change of crew might well be mandatory. The airline is therefore faced not only with a delay for the time it takes to land and refuel but the huge extra cost of flying out a reserve crew to take the plane on to London. A British airline will have crew available on standby but a Malaysian airline obviously will not have standby crew immediately available in London, so the consequences for them are even more serious.

What would seem to have happened here is that pilots of Malaysian Airlines were faced with difficult decisions before leaving - either take extra fuel and leave some cargo or passengers off, or take a chance and hope there were no delays. Having lost the first gamble and suffered some slight delay, they decided to continue to London without landing and suffering the huge costs and problems that would bring. Both gambles are quite clearly based on cost. The first being the cost of leaving off passengers or cargo and the second being the cost of an extra stop.

It is surely not a coincidence that Malaysian Airlines is just recovering from a very poor time financially. It seems highly likely that economic factors persuaded the pilots to take these risks.

The good news is that it is highly unlikely to happen again. Despite the fact that the situation was handled very badly by the CAA they must surely be watching Malaysian Airlines very carefully now. The airline itself is hardly likely to want any further bad publicity so one must now assume they will err on the side of safety when making their fuel/load calculations.

A final, interesting point is that Malaysian Airlines is considering joining one of the big airline alliances, with One World tipped as most likely. If this happens their whole safety procedures will be investigated by the other airlines involved. This is because the reputation of the alliance is on the line if one of their members has a safety problem, but also because the other airlines' insurers insist on it. If an American bought a ticket with a bad airline through an American or British airline that subsequently had a crash they would be likely to sue the American or British airline. Membership of airline alliances thus offers the passenger some guarantee of acceptable standards.

The final lesson to be taken from this whole sorry story is that it should lay to rest the whole idea that pilots never take risks with passengers lives because they are in the aircraft as well. Just as the man who has had one drink too many thinks he is fit to drive, so a pilot can be tempted to take unnecessary risks. This is all the more so when he is under commercial pressure from his airline.

Vegetarian diet weakens bones: research

Vegetarian diet weakens bones: research

Posted: 02 July 2009

SYDNEY : People who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, Australian researchers said Thursday. 

A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2,700 people found that vegetarians had bones five per cent less dense than meat-eaters, said lead researcher Tuan Nguyen. 

The issue was most pronounced in vegans, who excluded all animal products from their diet and whose bones were six per cent weaker, Nguyen said. 

There was "practically no difference" between the bones of meat-eaters and ovolactovegetarians, who excluded meat and seafood but ate eggs and dairy products, he said. 

"The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, are associated with lower bone mineral density," Nguyen wrote in the study, which was published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

"But the magnitude of the association is clinically insignificant," he added. 

Nguyen, who is from Sydney's Garvan Institute for Medical Research and collaborated on the project with the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City, said the question of whether the lower density bones translated to increased fracture risk was yet to be answered. 
"Given the rising number of vegetarians, roughly five per cent (of people) in western countries, and the widespread incidence of osteoporosis, the issue is worth resolving," he said. 

- AFP/il 

Daily sex makes for healthier sperm

Daily sex makes for healthier sperm

Tue, Jun 30, 2009 Reuters

LONDON - Having sex every day improves the quality of men's sperm and is recommended for couples trying to conceive, according to new research.

Until now doctors have debated whether or not men should refrain from sex for a few days before attempting to conceive with their partner to improve the chance of pregnancy.

But a new study by Dr David Greening of Sydney IVF, an Australian centre for infertility and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, suggests abstinence is not the right approach. He studied 118 men with above-average sperm DNA damage and found the quality of their sperm increased significantly after they were told to ejaculate daily for seven days.

On average, their DNA fragmentation index - a measure of sperm damage - fell to 26 percent from 34 percent, Greening told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Frequent sex does decrease semen volume but for most men this is not a problem.

"It seems safe to conclude that couples with relatively normal semen parameters should have sex daily for up to a week before the ovulation date," he said in a statement.

"In the context of assisted reproduction, this simple treatment may assist in improving sperm quality and ultimately achieving a pregnancy."

Greening said it was likely frequent ejaculation improved the quality of sperm by reducing the length of time they were exposed to potentially damaging molecules called reactive oxygen species in the testicular ducts.