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Don’t release GM mosquitoes

Anil Netto
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29

Male GM mosquitoes could be released at both inhabited and uninhabited sites in Pahang and Melaka in October or November, if the National Biosafety Board of Malaysia approves an application to conduct experiments.

The Aedes mosquito (OX513A strain) has been modified to include two new traits, fluorescence and ‘conditional lethality’, which means that in the absence of the antibiotic tetracycline, offspring from these males will die. The trial is aimed at finding out how long these GM mosquitoes will survive and how far they will disperse compared to the wild type non-GM mosquitoes.

If the Institute of Medical Research’s application is approved, up to 6,000 of these ‘non-biting’ GM mosquitoes and a number of non-GM mosquitoes will be released in the Bentong district of Pahang and Alor Gajah and Melaka district. The release will be carried out over two consecutive days during the second week of October or November 2010.

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Pornthip “most trusted” in Thailand: Survey

Anil Netto
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50

Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand is the most trusted individual in all of Thailand, according to a Readers’ Digest Trust survey.

This survey in October 2009 found that out of 80 individuals in the country, the Director of Thailand’s Forensic Science Institute was the most trusted.

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85% of new drugs offer few benefits: Study

Anil Netto
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11

A study just out reveals that about 85 per cent of new drugs offer few if any new benefits. In fact, a significant cause of death in the United States is due to the toxic side effects or misuse of prescription drugs, reports the Science Daily.

“Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs’ benefits,” said Prof Donald Light, author of the paper, Pharmaceuticals: A Two-Tier Market for Producing ‘Lemons’ and Serious Harm.

Drug firms also tend to spend two or three times more on marketing than research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs for conditions other than those for which the drugs have been approved, said Light, who is professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He added that doctors usually tend to dismiss patients’ complaints of side effects or take them lightly.

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Unhealthy politicians

Anil Netto
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6

Some light relief. Does this sound familiar though?

Unhealthy politics

Mahidol University and Pornthip

Anil Netto
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Now here’s some information about Pornthip’s academic background, her career and Mahidol University’s status to enlighten a certain lawyer.

Times Higher Educ Supplement (THES) Rankings:

2009 World Universities Rankings:
Mahidol ranked at 101 (Life Sciences & Biomedicine)
Mahidol ranked at 220 (Overall)

2010 Asian Universities Rankings:
Mahidol placed at 18 (Life Sciences & Biomedicine)
Mahidol placed at 28 (Overall).

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Live – It wasn’t suicide, insists Pornthip

Anil Netto
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Thai forensic pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand, testifying at the inquest into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, insists that the incident was not suicide: “I will not go into percentages. I am sure it is not suicide.”

When the MACC counsel accused her of taking sides, Pornthip responded, “You have to understand. I work for the rights of the dead, not the Selangor government.” The crowd in the courtroom broke into applause.

Photos by Rakyat@work

NEP and how they got-rich-quick

Anil Netto
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While Umno and MCA enjoy a public spat and put up a wayang for the rest of us, Zaid Ibrahim has a story on how the NEP was put to use to fabulously enrich a coterie of well-connected individuals.

Najib’s brother Nazir Razak noted the NEP had become bastardised, but Zaid writes: “What he (Nazir) doesn’t say explicitly is that the NEP, which was set up with noble aims of eradicating poverty irrespective of race, has become a system that is opaque, corrupt, non-accountable and highly secretive.”

Check out Zaid’s fascinating blog entry here to find out how a few familiar names made it big, thanks to the NEP. Now that’s the real 1Malaysia for you – all very muhibbah among the political and business elites as they get-rich-quick, while the ordinary, struggling rakyat are manipulated into squabbling about racial and religious issues in a highly polarised environment.

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RM1.3b Scorpene support contract

Anil Netto
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8

Boustead Holdings Bhd has revealed that one of its companies has received a letter of award from the government for a RM1.3 billion ‘in-service support’ contract for the navy’s Scorpene submarines.

The total contract sums amount to 193 million euros (RM785 million) and RM532 million, running up to 2015. That adds up to RM1.3 billion.

This is different from the RM115 million euro (RM467 million) contract amount with Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which Najib announced in 2008 – something that I don’t understand.

The other question is, what kind of expertise does Boustead have in submarine maintenance? “There is talk of transfer of technology, but if you look at what kind of technology has been transferred to Malaysian car manufacturers, you wouldn’t be too optimistic,” said a political economist.

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The shrine that Ting Pek Khiing built

Anil Netto
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Ting Pek Khiing built a shrine at the Bakun Dam site after its cofferdam collapsed more than 20 times, a business weekly has revealed.

Photo credit: Abdul Ghani Ismail/The Edge

The Ekran boss brought in a priest from Taiwan to conduct prayers, and six animals were slaughtered, the Edge weekly said in its latest edition: “It is believed that the shrine and prayers helped in getting the coffer dam done.” (A cofferdam is a temporary water-tight enclosure within a body of water that is pumped dry in order to create a dry work environment for the construction of the dam proper.)

Perhaps there were a lot of restless spirits hovering around who had to be appeased? Remember the Bakun Dam affects native ancestral burial sites, apart from destroying the forests and uprooting more than 10,000 people – which might explain why the dam appeared to be jinxed from the start.

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M’sia has “largest illicit cigarette incidence”

Anil Netto
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1

In 2009, as much as one out of three packets consumed in Malaysia was illicit, a cigarette firm has revealed.

The firm, JT International, cited the Global Tobacco Report by Goldman Sachs Research, which estimated that “the Malaysian market boasted the largest illicit cigarette incidence in the world in 2009”.

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