Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It is most commonly smoked in the form of cigarettes or cigars. Tobacco has been growing on both American continents since about 6000 BC and was used by native cultures by around 3000 BC. It has been smoked, in one form or another, since about 3000 BC. Tobacco has a long history of use in Native American culture, and played an important role in the political, economic, and cultural history of the United States of America.

Dried, cured, and unprocessed tobacco is commercially available all over the world. Smoke from burning, or otherwise heated, tobacco can be inhaled in the forms of cigarettes, cigars, stem pipes, water pipes, and hookahs. Tobacco can also be chewed, dipped (placed between the cheek and gum), or sniffed into the nose as finely powdered snuff. Many countries set minimum legal smoking ages, regulating the purchase and use of tobacco products. Bhutan is the only country in the world where tobacco sales are illegal. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco smoke is the second biggest cause of death worldwide, and is reported to have been responsible for the deaths of 100 million people in the 20th century.

All methods of tobacco consumption result in varying quantities of nicotine being absorbed into the user's bloodstream. Over time, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed of tobacco consumption are believed to be directly related to biological strength of nicotine dependence, addiction, and tolerance.

Malaysian city warns women over make-up, high heels

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - A Malaysian city has urged Muslim women not to wear brightly coloured lipstick, tight clothes or high-heeled shoes while working, an official said Tuesday.

"Nowadays the way women dress attracts unwanted attention. It could lead to all sorts of vice," said Azman Mohd Daham, public relations director of the city council in Kota Bharu, capital of conservative northern Kelantan state.

"We do not advocate tight clothes, too much lipstick or thick make-up, and even the headscarf should not be too transparent," he told AFP. "Women should dress modestly, this is what Islam requires."

The guidelines were sent to local businesses and shops last month, he said, but denied reports that anyone flouting the code faced a fine.

"If they want to follow what we advocate in the campaign, it is entirely their choice but we hope they do because this is the best for them."

"We do not punish anyone for wearing thick make-up or high-heel shoes, there are no fines either," he said, but added that Muslim women did face a fine if they failed to cover their heads with a scarf.

Kelantan has been run by the Islamic party PAS since 1990 and is the most conservative state in Malaysia. Like the rest of the country, it is dominated by Muslim Malays, but also home to ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

The state's rulers have in the past made headlines with laws that require separate queues for men and women in shops, and for imposing fines on skimpy clothing.

However, in recent years the party has begun introducing reforms designed to tone down its hardline reputation and woo young voters.

Mobile Phone-Brain Tumour Public Health Advisory

* Mobile phones are convenient and frequently invaluable, yet exposure to their electromagnetic radiation is invisible. Therefore, any danger this exposure poses may be easily dismissed.
* Exposure is long-term and its effects on the body, particularly its electrical organ, the brain, are compounded by numerous other simultaneous long-term exposures including continuous waves from radio and TV transmitter towers, cordless phone base stations, power lines, and wireless/WiFi computing devices.
* A malignant brain tumour represents a life-ending diagnosis in the vast majority of those diagnosed. There is a significant and increasing body of evidence, to date at least 8 comprehensive clinical studies internationally and one long-term meta-analysis, for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours.
* Taken together, the data presented below compellingly suggest that the link between mobile phones and brain tumours should no longer be regarded as a myth. Individual and class action lawsuits have been filed in the USA, and at least one has already been successfully prosecuted, regarding the cell phone-brain tumour link.
* The "incubation time" or "latency" (i.e., the time from commencement of regular mobile phone usage to the diagnosis of a malignant solid brain tumour in a susceptible individual) may be in the order of 10-20 years. In the years 2008-2012, we will have reached the appropriate length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the impact of this global technology on brain tumour incidence rates.
* There is currently enough evidence and technology available to warrant Industry and Governments alike in taking immediate steps to reduce exposure of consumers to mobile phone-related electromagnetic radiation and to make consumers clearly aware of potential dangers and how to use this technology sensibly and safely.
* It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking, and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation, including very young children.

By:Vini G. Khurana, MBBS, BSc(Med), PhD, FRACS

How apple trees came to Ba’Kelalan

YES, apples do grow in Malaysia. They are grown and harvested by the lorry load at Ba’ Kelalan in the interior of Sarawak.

Pak Tagal examining a bunch of apples

This is how the apple flower looks like

Harvesting time

However, the apples are only sold in some shops in Lawas and Miri as the amount produced by the 3ha farm in Ba’ Kelalan is not enough even to meet the demands of supermarkets in the state.

Ba’ Kelalan is home to a community of Orang Ulu in the deep interior of Sarawak. It is close to Lumbawang in Indonesia which lies across the hills, an hour’s trek away.

This settlement, sitting at 1,000 metres above sea level and dubbed by some as the Switzerland of Sarawak, has a cool climate all year round, colder during the dry season, and is ideal for growing apples.

Although there are other places in Malaysia that have the same climate, only Rata Farm, located next to the Buduk Nur airstrip in Ba’Kelalan, has successfully cultivated apples.

The Ba’Kelalan apples are of the Anna, Rome Beauty, Granny Smith (also called Lady Williams) and Manalagi varieties.

Anna is red on top and yellow below, soft to the bite and tastes sweet-sour.

Rome Beauty is green with a reddish tinge at the bottom and similar to Anna in taste but is crispier.

The Granny Smith is green and tastes sour, and is suitable for cooking or making cider.

The Manalagi (Golden Delicious) is said to have got its name when visitors from Batu Malang in Indonesia, where the original seedlings were brought from, asked for more (“Mana lagi?”) after eating one apple. This is the variety that has become widely known as the Ba’ Kelalan Apple. This greenish yellow apple is sweet and crunchy and is great for making apple pie and fruit salad.

How It Began

Tagal Paran, a missionary turned farmer, is credited for his untiring efforts for almost three decades to grow apples there.

Affectionately called Pak Tagal, he is a feisty 75-year-old who speaks with a glint in his eye about the fruit of his labour.

He recounted how his family went through the heartache and joy of seeing their apple plants going through the difficult phase of adjustment before they started to bear fruit.

He said the plants grew well but then died. They replanted and these too grew and died, eaten by bugs. Finally, some plants adjusted to the conditions at their farm and have thrived till the present.

He said the Ba’ Kelalan apple story began in the 1960s when his younger brother, Andrew Balang Paran, brought back 50 wild apple seedlings from Kalimantan after he saw the locals there cultivating the fruit.

He said that it was only in the mid-1970s that he seriously ventured into apple cultivation by taking over the 300 apple trees planted on trial basis on his land by the agricultural authorities.

He noticed that the trees were slowly dying and the authorities had limited know-how on apple cultivation and could not do anything about it.

“I immediately set off to Batu Malang in Indonesia to learn more about apple cultivation and enlisted the services of two apple growers there.

“I returned to Indonesia three times to obtain new seedlings. It’s all done by trial and error until we succeeded in getting the farm to be as productive as it is today,” he said.

Pak Tagal’s farm now has about 2,000 apple trees producing about a tonne of apples per season.

He said apple fruiting season comes twice a year, usually in the middle and the end of the year. Artificial winter is created by pruning the leaves manually. After the pruning, the trees begin to bloom and fruit.

The farm does not use pesticide or other chemicals to make the apples look pretty. No wax or preservative is used, unlike some imported apples.

Pak Tagal is confident Malaysia can be an exporter of apples if the people in the nine villages in Ba’Kelalan start growing the fruit.

Better Access, Please

Pak Tagal said citrus fruits and other temperate fruits like strawberries and grapes can also be grown in Ba’Kelalan but some villagers prefer instead to cultivate Arabica coffee.

“Our main problem is access to the outside world as the nearest town is Lawas, 170km away on the coast. It takes four hours by four-wheel drive vehicle on a logging trek on a dry day. If the road is wet, it may take between seven hours and two days.

“We are now served by MasWings’ Twin Otter aircraft coming from Miri, Bario and Lawas a few times a week but what we really need is a good road. The state government had promised before the last general election that a RM520 million budget had been approved for the road project.

“With a good road, big companies can undertake apple cultivation on a big scale. The apples can move up the value chain and be processed into jam or cider.

“In future, Ba’Kelalan could also become a leading producer of highland fruits and vegetables for Sarawak, like how Cameron Highlands is to the peninsula and Kundasang is to Sabah,” he said.

The main produce of Ba’Kelalan, the Adan rice (Bario rice), overshadows the apples grown here. In fact, Ba’Kelalan means “rice field by the Kelalan river”. “Ba” is padi field in the local dialect.

The friendly people of Ba’Kelalan, who speak English widely, are now tapping into the tourism market. About 3,000 tourists, mostly Europeans, make their way to this Lun Bawaan community of about 1,000 yearly.

Tourists stay at the homestay-styled Apple Lodge or at a few other lodges and family homes.

A group of journalists from several media organisations were brought to Miri and Ba’Kelalan to experience the hospitality of the community there in conjunction with the launch of the Miri-Ba’Kelalan direct flights by MasWings and the annual Apple Fiesta.

The trip was organised by Tourism Malaysia, Sarawak Tourism Board, Sarawak Tourism Action Council, MasWings and Borneo Jungle Safari.


By: Sager Ahmad

Principles of Incineration

Burning waste has been a common means of disposal throughout history. In 1995, the EPA estimated that 16% of solid waste had been disposed of by some form of combustion. Incinerators reduce the volume of waste by about 90%, a significant reduction of waste that would otherwise go into a landfill. Incineration at high temperatures also destroys many of the toxins and pathogens in medical waste and other hazardous wastes, in addition to reducing the volume.

In order to understand how and why an incinerator works, it is important to understand exactly what incineration is. Many terminologies have been utilized when referring to incineration: pyrolysis, thermal oxidation, thermal destruction, etc., to name a few. By definition, incineration is to burn to ashes through a combustion process. That is probably the most relevant statement that can be made; all we are really doing is burning. The incinerator provides a means to control the combustion process through the application of engineered, proven technology.

Elastec/American Marine manufactures a variety of portable incinerators; MediBurn for medical waste incineration, Smart Ash for general refuse incineration, Oil Away Attachment for oil disposal, Smart Heat energy recovery incineration, Drug Terminator for confiscated drug disposal.

Most waste generated by human activity can be burnt in an incinerator. The main goal is to reduce the overall volume of the waste stream in a carefully controlled environment.

Cat giving birth

All in all she gave birth to 5 cute kittens.

Sweet 'tuak'

What's so interesting?

About 'aki' and 'buah genok'


to the eyes of these photographers?


Many. These are foreign photographers, covering the event's at Rh.Gare, Sg.Kain.

Mai Se Cawan

Six to eight 'cups of coffee' a day shown to protect mice from developing MS-like disease, Cornell study finds

High quantities of caffeine may do more than just keep people awake. The stimulant may one
day offer researchers a way to prevent multiple sclerosis.

Mice given caffeinated water -- in doses equivalent to a person drinking six to eight cups of coffee a day -- were protected from developing an MS-like disease called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), according to Cornell researchers.

The findings were presented April 7 at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting, which is part of the American Association of Immunologists 95th Annual Meeting in San Diego.

However, the researchers cautioned against drinking large amounts of coffee to treat MS, as more studies are needed to understand how caffeine blocks receptors that play a role in the autoimmune disease.

MS is a disease in which the immune system attacks and damages nerves in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in paralysis and impairment in speech, vision and mental function.

"We're not advocating large quantities of caffeine to prevent MS," said Jeffrey Mills, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral associate with senior author and principal investigator Margaret Bynoe, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We know that caffeine suppresses MS-like effects in mice with EAE."

In mice and humans, when inflammation occurs in the brain, damaged cells signal an immune response by releasing ATP (adenosine 5'-triphosphate), which gets broken down into adenosine. The compound is important in many biochemical processes, including energy transfer and sleeping. The adenosine molecule begins to degrade seconds after its creation, which means the body must use it very near where it is made.

The researchers reported that when adenosine binds to one of four types of adenosine receptors in an area of the brain called the choroid plexus, channels open up that allow immune cells known as T-lymphocytes to enter the brain. In EAE in mice and in MS in humans, these T-lymphocytes damage insulating fats called myelin that surround nerves, which leads to MS-like symptoms.

The researchers used genetically engineered mice (developed by co-author Linda Thompson at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation) to investigate whether adenosine and its receptors were truly responsible for EAE. The engineered mice lacked an adenosine-synthesizing enzyme called CD73. When tested, these mice had fewer lymphocytes enter the brain and failed to develop EAE. But, using immune cells from these mice, the researchers determined that CD73 plays a role in EAE only because it helps create adenosine outside the choroid plexus.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers turned to caffeine, which is known to block adenosine receptors. The caffeine prevented lymphocytes from entering the brain and causing nerve damage in mice with EAE. In the study, mice that drank highly caffeinated water did not develop MS-like symptoms.

"This study could lead to new therapeutic intervention to use adenosine receptor blockers including caffeine," said Bynoe. There is currently no way to detect MS in people prior to the onset of symptoms. Although caffeine would not provide a cure, one day it could lead to new ways of protecting against relapses of symptoms, she said.

By Krishna Ramanujan

Sex as an appetite suppressant.

Discovery of link in mosquito mating mechanism could lead to new attack on dengue and yellow fever


Cornell researchers have identified a mating mechanism that possibly could be adapted to prevent female mosquitoes from spreading the viruses that cause dengue fever, second only to malaria as the most virulent mosquito-borne disease in the tropical world.

Specifically, they have discovered 63 proteins that male mosquitoes transfer to Aedes aegypti females during mating and are thought briefly to change the females' physiology and behavior, in particular suppressing the female's appetite for mammalian blood.

In a study published in the journal Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Cornell researchers report that the proteins in the seminal fluid of the males also trigger a loss of sexual appetite in the females, stimulate egg production and influence clotting of the blood she has ingested.

The findings could lead to novel strategies to prevent the spread of dengue as well as mosquito-borne yellow fever viruses. "This is a new angle in our fight against vector-borne disease," said Laura Harrington, Cornell associate professor of entomology and the paper's senior author.

Dengue affects 50 million people annually, and two-thirds of the world's population is at risk. In the past year, it has reached epidemic levels in Asia, South and Central America and Mexico, where the number of dengue cases has increased by more than 300 percent from a year earlier. No dengue vaccine is available, and no treatment exists beyond supportive care.

Laura Sirot, a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biology and genetics, is the paper's lead author, and Mariana Wolfner, Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics, also is a co-author. The work builds on Wolfner's work on the reproductive biology of fruit flies.

The next step, said Harrington, is to isolate, identify and verify the targets of the mosquito proteins that regulate such key post-mating behaviors as reduced sexual drive or lack of appetite for blood; and also, to manipulate such physiological responses as increased egg production. Eventually, the researchers hope that this knowledge will lead to new ways to control mosquitoes that spread disease. This could involve the identification of highly specific chemicals that affect these newly discovered reproductive proteins, or potentially could inform experiments on the use of genetically modified mosquitoes with knocked out (or turned off) genes or modified reproductive behaviors.

The study was funded primarily through U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch Funds awarded to Harrington and Wolfner. It complements and enhances Harrington's work as a member of a global team of scientists that received a $19.7 million grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to cure dengue fever and control the mosquitoes that transmit the viruses that causes it.

By Krishna Ramanujan

Have a nice day

On a boat
Inside a basket

In a pond.

Going Up River

This is how going up looks like.

and down river.

Malay Monument (N 02.29246: E 111.82021)

Who came first?

Wisma Sanyan (N 02.28980 : E 111.82504)

This is the Tallest Building in Sarawak