For those of you into social networking, I have just set up a Facebook presence; so you can find me there now.
Check out the ‘gang’ already there.
Another Big Pharma scandal erupts
Barely has the dust settled on the Celebrex research fabrication fiasco before another Big Pharma scandal has erupted. This time it centres on the diabetes drug Avandia, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.
US Senators have published a damning report linking Avandia (rosiglitazone) to heart attacks and deaths while two drug safety reviewers have recommended that it be pulled from the market. “At a July 30, 2007, safety panel on Avandia, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists presented an analysis estimating that Avandia use was associated with approximately 83,000 excess heart attacks since the drug came on the market.”
Even more shocking (actually not so shocking-lah), the Senate Finance Committee report suggested that GSK was aware of the cardiac risks associated with Avandia years before the evidence became public.
We need more pedestrian walkways like this
If only we could have more tree-lined pedestrian walkways like this all over Penang and indeed other urban centres in Malaysia. It is not impossible as this project clearly shows.
This spacious tree-lined pavement along the Esplanade is a good example of an accessible pedestrian walkway.
It is located opposite the Penang state assembly building and was upgraded recently as a commitment by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) to improve accessibility in the heritage area.
The improvements in the walkway were recommended by a UNDP-Government of Malaysia project on Accessible Public Transport. Some RM70,000 was spent by the MPPP in 2009 on enhancing the path. If more of the recommendations are implemented, Penang would have a very accessible pedestrian network around the heritage area.
Second Penang bridge: Foresight – or folly?
Spotted this letter in theSun today about the second Penang bridge (now in the preliminary stages of construction). It mirrors my thoughts exactly.
Penang’s roads are already congested during peak hours, Friday and Saturday evenings, and festive periods – and that is with three lanes of traffic along the newly widened Penang Bridge pouring into the island. What happens when the second bridge creates two or three additional lanes of vehicles flowing into the island?
No need for second link
I AM a resident of Penang Island and a regular user of the Penang Bridge. Every day the traffic report on the radio nearly always has the same good news for users of the bridge like me: “Clear on both lanes and at the entry and exit points both on the mainland and on the island.”
Ku Li says no 3-mile limit for offshore oil royalty
Refuting a government ad blitz, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah insists that oil-producing states are entitled to a 5 per cent payment on all oil extracted, whether onshore or offshore.
There is no such thing as a 3-nautical mile limit, he writes in his latest blog entry.
The Information Ministry’s full page advertisements in the major Malay newspapers had argued that Kelantan has no right to oil payments under the Petroleum Development Act because its oil resources fall outside the 3-nautical mile limit that delimits state versus federal jurisdictions.
Razaleigh counters:
The advertisement fails to point out that almost all the oil found in Malaysia is located more than 3 nautical miles offshore, and Petronas has nevertheless been making oil payments to the states. By the argument deployed in the advertisement, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak too are not entitled to the “cash payments” of 5% of profit oil (commonly and a little inaccurately referred to as “oil royalties”). Everything is at the arbitrary behest of the Federal Government.
Save the tigers
In this Year of the Tiger, let’s do something to save endangered tigers. The culprits in the video below are just the small fry: it’s the middlemen who make the most profits.
Read the full Channel 4 report here.
Protest at Umno event in Ptg Pauh school
1600: The crowd has dispersed as the protest ends peacefully. Meanwhile, Umno Youth’s Tun Faisal reports via Twitter that some 5,000 people turned up for a Juara Rakyat event in Sembrong, Johor.
1537: The police have prohibited the crowd from gathering outside the school-gate; so the protesters have moved across the road but they are still facing the school. Riot police have positioned themselves in front of the gate.
Photo courtesy of darisungaiderhaka.blogspot.com
1503: A small truck carrying about a dozen riot police personnel arrives.
1502: The police had given the crowd until 3.00pm to disperse. A Pas member is now negotiating with them. He says the protesters just want to know why Umno is using a school.
“This is my home”
If the racial chauvinists and religious bigots around us are making you sick, take two tablespoons of this beautiful antidote from Ambrose of ‘Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia’.
Live – Teoh Beng Hock inquest resumes
The Teoh Beng Hock inquest resumes today, with the second autopsy report to be presented.
‘One of the biggest medical research frauds’
Big Pharma firms usually peddle wonder drugs and vaccines citing “evidence-based medicine” and “real science” to back up their claims – so tell me, how did a medical researcher receiving grants from these firms get away with fabricating research data for 13 years?
A US doctor, a former member of Pfizer Inc’s speakers’ bureau, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to accusations of having launched “one of the biggest research frauds in medical history”.
Dr Scott Reuben has been charged with accepting a US$75,000 Pfizer grant to study Celebrex in 2005: problem is no patients were ever enrolled in the study! His research, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, “proved” that the painkiller helped reduce pain during post-surgical recovery.