Arson Attempts! This time towards surau in Muar

PETALING JAYA: Four men, including the son of a policeman, were arrested by Johor police for Thursday’s arson attempt on two surau in Muar, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said Saturday.

He said the suspects, aged between 16 and 28 years old, were picked up in separate raids conducted on Friday from morning to evening, and, with their arrests, believes the case has been solved.

“The youths who were picked up, lived near the surau that were attacked and had done it without thinking about the effect their actions.

“Nonetheless, their irresponsible action is considered a crime and the Johor police, who have performed professionally, will continue gathering more evidence to try and (charge) them in court,” he said during a press conference held in Bukit Aman police headquarters Saturday.

He said police were trying to establish the youths’ true motive and were checking to see if anyon had instigated them.

Based on initial investigations, police strongly believe the four were involved in both arson attempts at the Muar surau, located about a kilometre apart, Ismail said.

He said the youngest of the arrested suspects, was just 16 and a school dropout, while the 18-year-old was a restaurant worker and the son of the policeman with the rank of L/Kpl.

All four are believed to be friends.

He said the case was currently being investigated under Section 436 of the Penal Code for causing mischief and expected the youths to be remanded later Saturday.

Ismail also commended the swift action by Kuala Lumpur, Perak and Johor police in nabbing the people involved in the attacks on places of worship and warned everyone against acting emotionally, doing any mischief or provoking people of different faith.

On Thursday, two surau in Sabak Aur and Parit Beting, were partially damaged in two arson attempts.

In the first incident, the Surau Sirrahtulrahim at Jalan Ismail in Sabak Aur had its curtain and parts of the wall scorched after kerosene was splashed near the window on the front wall. The fire was put out with the help of passers-by.

The second surau at Jalan Salleh had its side door burnt and a window broken.

The damage was only noticed at 11am when some children went to the surau to attend a Quran class.

Air asia aids Haiti!

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia has joined hands with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in an effort to raise RM438mil (US$128mil) for children and families in earthquake-hit Haiti.

Its group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said AirAsia had established a dedicated link on its website to allow guests to contribute to the fund called Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal 2010.

“The AirAsia family wanted to help when we first heard about the tragedy in Haiti. When Unicef asked us to join them, we readily agreed.

"Our website receives about 20 million visitors every month and we carried an estimated 25 million guests last year,” he said in a statement here Saturday.

Guests can contribute to the fund by visiting www.airasia.com and click on the link to make donations.

Meanwhile, the Muslim communities in the United States are raising funds to help Haitians.

“The Zakat Foundation of America is another Muslim-American organisation aiding the Haitian population.

“Impoverished Haiti is a familiar territory for the Zakat Foundation,” the United States Embassy said in a statement.

It said that Muslim Americans at the local level are donating aid to Haiti through the Islamic Society of North America and other Muslim-American organisations.

Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake on Jan 12, which killed over 100,000 people. -- Bernama

Katrina and Haiti?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/15/tierney.haiti.katrina/index.html?hpt=T2


The media have begun to make comparisons between Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti. And in some ways, the two events are comparable.

Like Katrina, the earthquake has produced effects of catastrophic proportions. Both events rank among the largest catastrophes ever experienced in the Western Hemisphere.

They both have resulted in large loss of life and immense human suffering and make the coordination of emergency resources extremely difficult. Ordinary citizens are left to fend for themselves in the wreckage. And as we saw in Katrina and see now in Haiti, residents of disaster-stricken areas are the true first responders.

The aftermath of such catastrophes brings more prolonged suffering and massive recovery challenges. People pay attention as the media cover them, but they turn their attention elsewhere when the cameras leave, even though many of the real challenges that victims and affected regions face emerge later. Like the Gulf region, Haiti will struggle for years and perhaps decades to rebuild and recover.

But there, the comparisons end.

To get an idea of the distinction between the two events, imagine that all of the U.S. west of the Mississippi were to be destroyed or extensively damaged by some immense catastrophe in one minute, with absolutely no warning. That is the situation Haiti faces.

As horrific as it was, Katrina was a region-wide catastrophe, not a national one. Damage was enormous in the Gulf region, but the resources of the larger nation remained intact and available for mobilization, even though aid was slow in coming.

Katrina did not flatten our nation's capital or prevent national leaders from communicating with one another. Impacts were catastrophic in areas where Katrina struck, creating significant logistics problems, but the infrastructure of the rest of the nation was untouched. Also important, it was possible to issue warnings for Katrina, which enabled the vast majority of those who were at risk to evacuate to safety. The victims of the earthquake had no such warning.

In contrast, the earthquake in Haiti destroyed much of its capital, Port-au-Prince, and affected approximately one-third of the population of the entire country. The proportion of the nation's population that has been killed, injured or left homeless is enormous. The facilities that could have assisted victims, such as hospitals, clinics and the UN headquarters for the nation, were destroyed or are not operational. Aftershocks, which will continue for weeks, months and perhaps even years, will do additional damage and further compound both rescue and relief efforts.

There is another distinction that makes these events non-comparable.

Katrina affected the most vulnerable in the impact region: the poor, the elderly, the disabled, nursing home and hospital patients, and other at-risk groups. But the concept of vulnerability takes on a new meaning in the Haiti earthquake. The entire nation is desperately poor; 80 percent of the population lives in poverty and more than half that number in abject poverty.

On almost all indicators of well-being -- health, education, literacy, income -- Haiti ranks very low. The nation has a long history of rule by dictators, political coups and savage violence. The capacity of Haiti's series of governments to provide services to its people has been abysmal for most of its history.

In many ways, residents of Haiti faced a daily disaster even before the earthquake. These differences matter, and they should be kept in mind by those seeking to see parallels between the two catastrophes.

Financial Crisis Review by Obama

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/16/obama-we-wont-let-wall-street-take-the-money-and-run/#more-85596

FOLLOW UP!

Over the past two years, more than seven million Americans have lost their jobs. Countless businesses have been forced to shut their doors. Few families have escaped the pain of this terrible recession. Rarely does a day go by that I do not hear from folks who are hurting. That is why we have pushed so hard to rebuild this economy.

But even as we work tirelessly to dig our way out of this hole, it is important that we address what led us into such a deep mess in the first place. Much of the turmoil of this recession was caused by the irresponsibility of banks and financial institutions on Wall Street. These financial firms took huge, reckless risks in pursuit of short-term profits and soaring bonuses. They gambled with borrowed money, without enough oversight or regard for the consequences. And when they lost, they lost big. Little more than a year ago, many of the largest and oldest financial firms in the world teetered on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed by the consequences of their irresponsible decisions. This financial crisis nearly pulled the entire economy into a second Great Depression.

As a result, the American people – struggling in their own right – were placed in a deeply unfair and unsatisfying position. Even though these financial firms were largely facing a crisis of their own creation, their failure could have led to an even greater calamity for the country. That is why the previous administration started a program – the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP – to provide these financial institutions with funds to survive the turmoil they helped unleash. It was a distasteful but necessary thing to do.

Many originally feared that most of the $700 billion in TARP money would be lost. But when my administration came into office, we put in place rigorous rules for accountability and transparency, which cut the cost of the bailout dramatically. We have now recovered most of the money we provided to the banks. That’s good news, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not good enough. We want the taxpayers’ money back, and we’re going to collect every dime.

How to prevent gaining the Freshmen 15

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/26/freshman.15.weight/index.html

So many first-year college students gain unwanted pounds that the so-called Freshman 15 is the subject of a new MTV reality show. (They're auditioning now.)

Structure your eating habits

Nadina Bourgeois, 24, packed on 15 pounds her first year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and added another 10 to 15 over four years. She blames her "weird" schedule for her expanding size.

"Some days I'd wake up at 1 p.m. and go straight to class, and other days I'd be up at 8:30 a.m.," she says. "There was no way to plan ahead -- especially when it came to meals." Delinsky suggests that fitting three meals and two to three snacks into each day can keep your eating habits on track and your calorie intake under control. Health.com: Top 10 energy-boosting nutrition strategies

Health Library

• MayoClinic.com: Weight-loss help -- How to stop emotional eating

Don't overdo your dining plan

Campus dining rooms encourage an all-you-can-eat mentality. Counter it by filling your plate with at least 50 percent green stuff, suggests Frances Largeman-Roth, R.D., the senior food and nutrition editor at "Health."

It can be fresh salad, cooked veggies, or a combo. Then pick up a piece of grilled chicken or a burger without the bun from the grill. The remaining 25 percent of your plate should be filled with a whole grain such as steamed brown rice, whole-wheat bread, or, if your college is really with it, quinoa salad or tabbouleh. "And steal a couple pieces of fresh fruit to bring back to your dorm room," she says. Health.com: 5 surprising myths about excess weight

Avoid peer pressure

Just because everyone else from your Intro to Psych study group heads to the local pizza joint after class doesn't mean you have to join in the feeding frenzy, says Largeman-Roth.

"Either join in and keep it to two slices plus a salad (eat the salad first to fill up), or take a rain check," she says. "It's easy to overdo it when you're with your friends--especially if beer is flowing."

Watch the liquid calories

Speaking of beer, liquid calories add up quickly! That's often part of the reason why people gain the first year. "Not only does alcohol contain a lot of calories, but people also make poor food choices when they're under the influence," says Delinsky. Alternate with water and diet soda and try not to get so drunk that judgment is impaired. Health.com: How crash diets harm your health and heart

Plan for cramming

When you're trying to stay awake and focused, studies show that chewing gum can help, and the sugar-free kind is virtually free of calories. "But when you just need those chips or cookies to get through an all-nighter, keep the damage down by buying single-serving packs," advises Largeman-Roth. "An entire bag of chips can do anyone in when they're stressed."

Keep your dorm free of junk food

Although you don't need a stocked kitchen in your dorm, it helps to keep on hand yogurt, fruit, and granola bars with at least 2 to 3 grams of fiber per serving and no more than 10 grams of sugar, such as TLC Chewy Granola Bars from Kashi. Health.com: 20 little ways to drop pounds and keep them off

Take a course on healthy eating

In one study, adding a nutrition science course to a student's curriculum was an effective intervention against weight gain. If that's not possible, make an appointment with your campus nutritionist for advice on maintaining or losing weight.

Weigh yourself daily

A 2006 study by Cornell University researchers suggests that daily weight-monitoring can be a useful tool for keeping college weight gain in check.

Arax-Rae Van Buren, 24, who gained 20 pounds her first year at Arizona State University, agrees that nutritional education and self-monitoring would have helped her. "I gained the weight so fast I still have stretch marks on my inner thighs," she admits.

Join the gym

Many students swap high school sports for college studies, and they end up burning fewer calories. Delinsky suggests they check out the campus gym. "The campus gyms are amazing and they are high-end," she says. "They have really fun offerings--rock-climbing, yoga, and it can be a great way to socialize without eating."



ONE WEEK TO A SLIMMER YOU!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/healthmag.one.week.slimmer/index.html

Sunday: Shoot it, and shed pounds.
Studies show that recording meals may help you lose up to 5 percent of your weight, says Robert A. Carels, Ph.D., an associate professor in the psychology department at Bowling Green State University.

Start today: Snap before and after photos of each meal with your camera phone. Keeping a visual food diary is a more accurate way to see what and how much you're eating, United Kingdom researchers say. Afterward, download the pics so you'll have a record.

Monday: Pop a vitamin to kill hunger.
Taking a daily multivitamin may make you less hungry, two studies in the British Journal of Nutrition suggest; people who take one tend to weigh less and have lower BMIs.

Start today: Pop a multi with at least 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance for vitamins included in the studies: chromium, copper, folic acid, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamins B6 and B12, and zinc. Health.com: 20 little ways to drop the pounds and keep them off

Tuesday: Speed up to burn more calories.
Strength-training circuit-style torches more calories than the traditional way, says Jim Stoppani, Ph.D., author of "Encyclopedia of Muscle and Strength." Research shows that the shorter the rest period between sets, the more calories you blast off. "In addition," Stoppani says, "doing a whole-body workout employs more muscle, which in turn burns more fat."

Don't Miss

• In Depth: Fit Nation

Start today: Turn your usual strength-training routine into a circuit by doing one set of 15 reps for each exercise with no rest in between; wait 20 seconds and repeat the circuit twice.

Wednesday: Triple your C and burn more fat.
Regularly consuming 500 milligrams or more of vitamin C may help you burn 30 percent more fat while working out, according to research in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Start today: Eat at least three servings of vitamin C-rich whole foods like citrus fruits, broccoli, and cantaloupe. Try this to knock a couple servings off: "Pack a vitamin C-rich, easy-to-transport snack, such as a mix of baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and cherry tomatoes," suggests Debra Wein, R.D., the president of Wellness Workdays, in Hingham, Massachusetts. Health.com: How crash diets can harm your heart and health

Thursday: Have a gab session and drop pounds faster.
Not only can an exercise buddy help you show up for your workouts, but she can also help you melt fat faster, says Tim Lohman, Ph.D., a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, and an expert on the connection between exercise and body composition.

Start today: Create your own weight-loss network. "The buddy system works best when you can turn to someone you're already friends with," Lohman says. Meet at least once a week (even if it's in cyberspace) to discuss obstacles and celebrate successes.

Friday: Color yourself slim.
An apple a day will do more than keep the doctor away -- it'll keep pounds off, too. Filling up with a range of fruits and vegetables is an easy way to cut your calorie load, a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests.

Start today: "Follow the rainbow," Wein suggests. "Do your best to eat from all of the color groups during the day." Add blueberries to your cereal, snack on apples, and load your lunchtime salad with carrots, tomatoes, and peppers. Health.com: How to eat out without getting fat

Health Library

• MayoClinic.com: Health A-Z

Saturday: Inhale and conquer cravings.
When we're stressed we tend to look for quick-fix calories. "Yogic breathing offsets this. When you're relaxed, you don't have as much hunger pain," says Ralph LaForge, an exercise physiologist in the endocrine department of the Duke University Medical Center. "People make better food choices when they're relaxed."

Start today: When hunger strikes, try this exercise from Kristen Eykel, creator of the DVD series, "Yoga Emergency: The 12-Minute Workout." Rest your right thumb near your right nostril, ring finger and pinky by your left nostril. Close the left side and inhale through the right for four counts, then close your right nostril and hold for four counts. Open your left nostril and exhale through that side for four counts.

Repeat cycle again on other side; continue alternating for at least a minute. You'll relax in no time -- and may even forget about that cookie you longed for. Health.com: 4 tips for sticking to your diet

TOP TEN WORST FAST FOOD MEALS!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1905549_1905546,00.html

1. CheeseFries! -2000calories
2. Taco Bell Chicken - 960calories
3. Large French Fries (Really large) - 1460Calories
4. Mc Donald Chocolate shake - 1160calories
5. cheese Bagel - 690calories
6. Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate - 600calories
7. Quesaddilla Burger - 1400 Calories
8. Burger King Shake - 960Calories
9. Salad Wrap - 787 Calories
10. KFC Chicken Bowl - 700 calories

Im staying away from Fast Food for good right now. Daily Calorie Intake for me - 2200calories.

MORE SEX

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/07/sex.health.benefits/index.html

BENEFITS OF SEX? gosh. That is nice to hear.

1. A longer life

In a British study, men who had intercourse at least twice a week lived longer than men who had sex less than once a month. A U.S. study had similar findings, and a Swedish study examining the sex lives of 70-year-olds found that men who died before their 75th birthday had ceased having sexual intercourse at earlier ages.

The Swedish study didn't find that women lived longer if they had sex more frequently, and neither did a study in North Carolina. However, in the North Carolina study, women who reported enjoying sex more lived longer than those who didn't report enjoyment.

2. A healthier heart

In a British study, people who had intercourse twice a week or more were less likely to have heart attacks and other fatal coronary events. Those who had sex less than once a month had twice the rates of fatal coronary events, compared with those with the highest frequency of intercourse.

3. Lower blood pressure

In a study published in the journal Biological Psychology, people who had sex more often tended to have lower diastolic blood pressure, or the bottom number in a blood pressure reading. Brody's experiment, in which more sexually active study subjects had markedly less dramatic blood pressure spikes when they were put under stress, also supports the benefit.

4. Lower risk of breast cancer

A French study found that women who have vaginal intercourse not at all or infrequently had three times the risk of breast cancer, compared with women who had intercourse more often.

5. Lower risk of prostate cancer

A Minnesota study found that men who'd had intercourse more than 3,000 times in their lives had half the prostate cancer risk of those who had not. While it's not clear why this would be true, studies have found that men who had more intercourse tended to have better prostate function and eliminated more waste products in their semen. "These differences could conceivably impact prostate cancer risk," Brody writes in his article.

6. Pain relief

Whipple and others have conducted studies suggesting that more sexual activity helps relieve lower back pain and migraines.

7. A slimmer physique

A study of healthy German adults revealed that men and women who had sex more frequently tended to be slimmer than folks who didn't have as much sex. Sex burns 50 to 60 calories per encounter, Whipple says, so sex three times a week for a month would burn about 700 calories -- or the equivalent of jogging about seven miles.

8. Better testosterone levels

A group of men being treated for erectile problems saw greater increases in testosterone when, along with the treatments, they had frequent sex. Specifically, men who had sex at least eight times per month had greater increases than those who had sex less than eight times per month.

9. Fewer menopause symptoms

Menopausal women in Nigeria experienced fewer hot flashes when they had sex more frequently. Brody says this may be because sexual activity helps regulate hormonal levels, which in turn affect the symptoms of menopause.

10. Healthier semen

In three studies, men who had frequent intercourse had a higher volume of semen, a higher sperm count and a higher percentage of healthier sperm, compared with men who tended to participate in other sexual activities.

News of the Week

Haiti Earthquake Spawn Medical "Perfect Storm".

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/haiti.earthquake.medical.risks/index.html

On Tuesday, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake ripped apart buildings, shearing huge slabs of concrete off structures in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross estimated.

The disaster cut power, electricity and other utilities. This could leave people without clean drinking water and at greater risk of malnutrition and disease. The potential new mass of displaced persons could create crowded, unsanitary conditions that facilitate the spread of contagious respiratory infections, said Dr. Peter Hotez, head of the department of microbiology at George Washington University.

Usually in natural disasters people suffer extreme physical and mental shock along with the initial injuries caused by the disaster, such as amputations and fractures, said Dr. Tamman Aloudat, senior health officer with the International Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

"This is going to a big setback for public health control measures, and you will see the impact of this earthquake at least for months and possibly for years," Hotez said. "What you're going to need is something equivalent to a Marshall plan for Haiti. These are our neighbors. You go to Haiti, it's like you go back in time 500 years and see incredible neglected tropical diseases that don't need to be there."

"I have the hope this situation may lead to improvements, because it's bringing lots of attention and help to the area," Kaplan said. "There's that silver lining."

reader's comment.
Whoever is moderating this, PLEASE, have these idiots remove the term "perfect storm" off their title. In trying to be eloquent, the article writer is sounding dumber than a third grader. This is not eloquent journalism. NOTHING is "perfect" in this tragedy. We all get that you are meaning '...the situation could cause the worst medical problems'; but implying that something negative (medical issues) is at "perfect proportions" for those poor folks at this moment, is just flat-out idiotic. Any rookie journalist would no not to use these terms. Sometimes, we viewers wonder if you folks are just in it to make noise and get ratings or are truly concerned about realities of people's struggles -- which you
parade as your news.


There are cheap supplements out there (like MMS, for example) that can treat water and make it potable (drinkable). I have some at my home and in my emergency kit in case of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina... why don't people use these sources? 1 bottle (that can purify more than 1,000 gallons of water) costs less than $20 retail... or use NutraSilver, it is a bit more expensive, but studies have shown it works, too! Always good to have those on hand. how about you start a charity idea for people to send that stuff there. sounds like a good
idea.



MENTAL AFTERSHOCKS: HAITI

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/15/haiti.mental.psychological.effects/index.html

As Haitians struggle to recover from the devastation of Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, mental health experts caution that the most severe psychological effects won't take form until individuals' situations stabilize.

In the immediate short-term period after a large-scale traumatic event, people are concerned primarily with self-preservation and taking care of family and friends, said Dr. Sandro Galea, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. These people experience acute stress and anxiety, which is taken up by trying to fulfill the immediate physical needs.

"People can accept uncertainty, as long as they are brought into the uncertainty and told what central authorities do know, and also what central authorities don't know," he said. "It's critically important that there is information that comes out centrally from a single source."

About a month after a disaster occurs, once the immediate physical needs are addressed, symptoms of mental illness begin to coalesce into specific conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, Galea said. PTSD in particular can last years after the event in a substantial portion of people, he said.

The life expectancy in Haiti is just 61 years, according to the World Bank, well under the average life span of 78 years for an individual in the United States. About 56 percent of Haitians live on less than $1 per day, according to the World Bank.

There is some research to suggest that fatalism -- feeling that you are powerless against life's external control -- is also related to long-term emotional consequences of disaster, Cook said.

I hope all those media reporters with cameras are taking closeup full face, profile and full body photos of EVERY body they pass, so that families will know where their loved one was when he or she died. CNN, PLEASE help with this task, grim as it is. Not knowing will cause lasting pain to so many.
- Perhaps there could be a possibility of setting up a specific sectoral management to deal with the immediate anxiety of families having loved ones trapped with such Haiti earthquake disaster. (Possible).

WHERE BODIES GO AFTER NATURAL DISASTER

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/14/haiti.mass.fatalities.bodies/index.html

Throughout the city, people covered their noses from the stench and some resorted to face masks. CNN correspondents in Haiti reported efforts to remove the bodies, including the creation of a mass grave. It's still unclear how many people have been killed in Tuesday's earthquake; the prime minister suggested there could be several hundreds of thousands.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, reporting Friday from a mass grave on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, described seeing hundreds of bodies mixed with garbage in open pits. Some bodies were bulldozed into the half-filled pits.

"These people will vanish," Cooper said in a phone report. "No one will know what happened to them. That's one of the many horrors.

"There's no system in place here. Literally these people here are being collected off the streets, dumped into a dump truck, then brought out here and dumped in the pits," he said.

The fear of disease is frequently the reason for rapidly burying bodies in mass graves. But contrary to popular belief, bodies do not cause epidemics after natural disasters, experts said.

"The reality is that most of the disease that live in us -- once our body is dead they can't survive very long," said Oliver Morgan, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fecal matter from the deceased could contaminate the water supply, posing a risk, but "it's nowhere near the risk of all the survivors living in the streets with no sanitation," said Morgan, who contributed to the World Health Organization's guidelines on managing bodies after a natural disaster.

Mass graves, it warned, are "not justified on public health grounds. Rushing to dispose of bodies without proper identification traumatizes families and communities and may have serious legal consequences."

Are there any scientific ingenuity to expedite and prolonge the body preservation of deceased victims from major disaster for possible extensive identification by families? Otherwise, a process of documentation and rapid publication of deceased identities? A system, be it through the Web, or through a central information disseminator, could be invented.

I think its mainly about closure.

People have only as much compassion as they can afford (resource wise, not just dollar wise). Hundreds of thousands of bodies rotting have to be disposed of as efficiently as possible. Remember the roads are shot, and there is no heavy equipment. That can't be digging individual graves. Try to picture yourself in that situation -- just you. Your house has collapsed, your family is dead, you have no food, water, shelter. No phone that works to call for help. Oh, and you have a broken arm and leg yourself. What would you do? I doubt you would be digging graves. Don't judge anyone for this. This is beyond comprehension. Normal rules don't apply

For the Better: a worthwhile risk to get the spin started

BY GREGORY ZUCKERMAN AND JENNY STRASBURG

Banks are boosting their lending to hedge funds and private-equity firms to levels unseen since before the financial crisis, raising their risk levels and adding fuel to the buying power of key players across the stock, debt and buyout markets.

Banks and investment banks, including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are offering levels of borrowing—known as leverage—that they haven't provided in more than two years, according to people familiar with the banks and funds.

Borrowing terms also are easing, though not to the extent witnessed several years ago.

"You'll see some ...

Sony's 3-D Vision: 3-D in the living room

"With its once-revered electronics business flagging, Sony Corp. is placing a huge bet this year that 3-D technology will vault the company back into a leadership position in the living room.

In his latest effort to resuscitate the struggling Japanese behemoth, 67-year-old CEO Howard Stringer has bulled past the hesitancy of some top aides to drive every unit of the company -- from TV production to the movie studio to its videogame arm -- to advance three-dimensional viewing in the global marketplace."

The Butcher's Style

Harvesting Human Meat: The Butcher's Style.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703481004574646233272990474.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal

"Harvesting human organs for sale! The idea suggests the lurid world of horror movies and 19th-century graverobbers. Yet right now, Singapore is preparing to pay donors as much as $50,000 for their organs. Iran has eliminated waiting lists for kidneys entirely by paying its citizens to donate. Israel is implementing a "no give, no take" system that puts people who opt out of the donor system at the bottom of the transplant waiting list should they ever need an organ."

Governments are going on a shopping spree - for human organs. Well, and also for a more noble purpose. To keep troubled needies from the agonizing purgatory of accessing the breathe of new life from an organ transplant, actions have been imposed to increase the availability of life-saving "raw supply" of organs.

And to the lesser know facts of surgical post-mortem, "To combat yet another shortfall, some American doctors are routinely removing pieces of tissue from deceased patients for transplant without their, or their families', prior consent. And the practice is perfectly legal". Ethical issue at hand: why aren't families given prior consent but instead dubious assurance that their deceased loved ones are, to put it simply, in one piece.

"In a number of U.S. states, medical examiners conducting autopsies may and do harvest corneas with little or no family notification." Such an unassuming statement towards the whereabouts of the harvest made - noble research, treatments, or personal pockets? The so called routine removal statutes, an evidence of pressurizing shortage of donated organs?

Organs can be taken from deceased donors only after they have been declared dead, but where is the line between life and death? Philosophers have been debating the dividing line between baldness and nonbaldness for over 2,000 years, so there is little hope that the dividing line between life and death will ever be agreed upon. Indeed, the great paradox of deceased donation is that we must draw the line between life and death precisely where we cannot be sure of the answer, because the line must lie where the donor is dead but the donor's organs are not.

Now, greater attention is being given to donation after cardiac death: no heart beat for two to five minutes (protocols differ) after the heart stops beating spontaneously. Both standards are controversial—the surgeon who performed the first heart transplant from a brain-dead donor in 1968 was threatened with prosecution, as have been some surgeons using donation after cardiac death. Despite the controversy, donation after cardiac death more than tripled between 2002 and 2006, when it accounted for about 8% of all deceased donors nationwide. In some regions, that figure is up to 20%.

Kidneys donated from people over the age of 60 or from people who had various medical problems are more likely to fail than organs from younger, healthier donors, but they are now being used under the pressure

Routine removal has been used for corneas but is unlikely to ever become standard for kidneys, livers or lungs. Nevertheless more countries are moving toward presumed consent. Under that standard, everyone is considered to be a potential organ donor unless they have affirmatively opted out, say, by signing a non-organ-donor card. Presumed consent is common in Europe and appears to raise donation rates modestly, especially when combined, as it is in Spain, with readily available transplant coordinators, trained organ-procurement specialists, round-the-clock laboratory facilities and other investments in transplant infrastructure.

Devaluation of Bolivar

Devaluation of Bolivar: Venezuela's fervent attempt in hopes of ailing lackluster economic performances and contracting oil revenue.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126300282296422631.html?mod=article-outset-box

President Hugo Chávez bowed to economic reality and after nearly five years of standing firm devalued the Venezuelan bolivar in hopes of safeguarding the government's depleted oil income and curing some of the symptoms of stagflation in the economy.

Perhaps it has been months since the last thoughts of economics came upon me; concepts are rather distant, untouched, like cobwebs spindled all over the very antiquated antiques of the chamber of mind. Nonetheless, it still feels a great sense of accomplishment recalling the concepts learned in class.

"With the new exchange rates the government will be able to squeeze more bolivars for every dollar it receives from its oil sales, which plunged last year on lower prices. Venezuela's oil-dependent economy entered a recession in 2009 with a 2.9% drop in economic activity while inflation neared 27%."

Apparently, the new currency control has allowed the greater yield from per dollar sales of Venezuelan oil. Trying to figure out the demand and supply concepts, and interweaving some macro-economic government policies into the question. Well, seems like it will take a bit of time to take a hitchhike back to the old well of knowledge, just to candidly put it.

Food for thought: Currency manipulator, i suppose?

More to come.

"The devaluation is a humiliating setback for Mr. Chávez, who two years ago led with much fanfare the redenomination of the currency to bolivar "fuerte," or "strong" bolivar. The 2.15 bolivar rate, however, had become untenable as accumulated inflation for the last five years shot up to a whopping 160%.

The sale of dollars at the official exchange rate crumbled last year and became a curse for companies that relied on those dollars for their operations. Many turned to an active black market and paid as much as three times the official rate, while others scaled back output."

The devaluation may cause a short-term jump in inflation, but it will help rein in price increases after six moths, said Maikel Bello, an analyst with Ecoanalitica, a Caracas based research firm. Devaluing now will give Mr. Chávez "more room to increase public spending as way to spur economic activity," he said.

Malaysia: a young Afghanistan?

Tension in Malaysia: Vehement grunts of several radical Muslims over the recently legitimized quasi-double-faced personality of "Allah".

"Malaysia's government sought to calm tensions in the multiethnic nation after three churches were fire-bombed early Friday, escalating a dispute over whether Christians here can use the word "Allah" as their translation for "God.""

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126294272302121275.html

"Political analysts say Mr. Najib is attempting to tread a fine line between wooing the support of Malaysia's large ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up around 40% of the country's 27 million people, and maintaining the support of an ethnic-Malay majority that has become increasingly defined by its Islamic faith in recent years."

Certainly that is one of the biggest challenge, or more so unfailingly scrutinized obligation, of the prime minister of a multi-racial, multi-faceted, highly pluralistic (at least stipulated with high regard of political correctness, or from wikipedia to the least), dynamic country and gradually treading on the guidance of religious, or more accurately Islamic faith. It seems as though both sides are unrelentless in this tuck-of-war, with the so-called Princes of the Land (bumiputera) coming stronger. And our prime minister finds compounding difficulty as a mediator to keep the interest of either sides.

Gosh, hopefully our country won't turn into a substitute of the highly-renowned radical team of Afghanistan.

Quote of the day: Andre Malraux

What is man? A miserable little pile of secrets.


and maybe a random one with much violence that subsequently followed much nervous upheavals much more violent that those of the most violent heavy metal bands.

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread".

Nausea.

Wow i love this Dialogue by Michel Houellebecq and Bernard-Henri Levy, "Nausea".

"Everything, they say, separates us - with the exception of one of fundamental point: we are both rather despicable individuals".

And thereon, there were witty bashing, opposing their differences through their "similar despicable-qualities" yet at the same time contriving a very blunt and brutal criticism, or more candidly over the top hatred.

"A confidant of the powerful, languishing since childhood in obscene wealth, you are emblematic of what certain downmarket magazines like Marianne consider the "limousine left" and what German periodicals more gracefully dub the Toskana-Fraktion."

"It is still the case that I am ill at ease and vulnerable before frank hostility. Each time I performed one of these infamous Google searches, I experienced the same sensation as during a particularly painful bout of eczema that ended with me scratching to the point of drawing blood".

An amazing sardonic metaphors delivered by the author. It is undoubtedly very harsh, if were to be placed into my perspective, or worse I being the subject of derogatory. It is particularly thrilling to discover the multiple layers of interwoven debilitating judgments of one onto the other, with such indirect frontal impact.

To illustrate such case, think of the indirect progression of harsh criticism bestowed upon the mere stipulation of "I am a pessimist". That "I believe in the opposite - that people who meddle with too much in the lives of their fellow men, to regerate it, are dangerous madmen, miscreants, or worse both". Clearly, or perhaps not so obviously, there is a delineation of criticism in such statement. Impressive.

Two Heavens - One difficult to get through, one ended with a smiley.

Just had two readings.

One, completely crashed my system, churned my stomach inside-out (not because it was partly revolting, but it was too intelligent that it put myself as revoltingly simple, i.e dumb), made my head spinned, and got me pissy the whole day. But to be honest, it was just classic. Probably takes a bit more time to dissect the author's ideas and stylistic. Some other day perhaps.

The other, was equally intelligent, but less tormenting to my desperate attempt of leafing through more recognized and supposedly "invigorating to the mind" articles - call it a new year resolution. It was very funnily put forth, his arguments, and most importantly entertaining. To the point that i intended to punctuate that with a smiley - but no, remember the resolution, intelligent.

Ok let's just set it straight. First article was by David Berlinski "The Evidence of Things Not Seen". A very sophisticated writing about faith, religion and science. It tackles in a very enchantingly convoluted manner regarding the long-time duel of some scientists condemning the existence, or the belief of the existence, of God. To the point, that you might be left with a twisted tongue in this mental debate with David. Gosh, he's just sophisticated. Pure intelligence.

My goal is to dissect his argumentative structure, his writing styles and his eclectic attempts to justify (more than convincingly) the arguments he put forth. And the most interesting deal about this guy is that he eventually gives a balance overview of the debate, yet convinces you of his own stand. Amazing isn't he. No wonder he is one of the most recognized writer in the field of Faith and Science.

Second article is by Mark Slouka and he wrote about the masked ideology of Democracy in US, one less practiced but more preserved in what he coined it as "lips services". What i love the most about this guy is the tone of his writing - so sardonic yet very casual and entertaining :). ok this time i shall punctuate it with a smiley since its more casual. And the many analogical paragraphs reciting upon Power, as a Right of Man, as a Privilege of Abuse, and one of the Most Time-Honored Perks of All Time - an unbelievable truth, at least to the mindless unthinking robots/victims of such truth. One of the most entertaining points that set him apart is his array of sardonic analogies, from the daring cowboy-worshiping woman in Bush's Rally, the cold sweating jittery president in the BBC live talk show, to the septuagenarian journalists of "Tom" and "Judy", and not forgetting of course, "Mr President".

Definitely need to learn his writing style. Very candidly put forth, yet firm in his stand. Gosh, so brilliant, that it forces me to put another :).

Gonna head on to more readings now. And also Poems. Creative writings. Novels. Movies.

There you go, my first babbles as an Orang utan. Till next time, see ya!