Second eerie die-off hits state's wildlife

The Look Out: Mon Jan 3, 12:10 pm ET
Thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas leave many scratching heads
Maybe just as the calendar nudged a year closer to that fateful date, birds began falling from the sky in Arkansas and a massive fish kill occurred some 125 miles to the west.
Roughly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas, and observers spotted the fish kill near the town of Ozark.
Why? There were many suggestions.
1. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission quoted staff ornithologist saying that such events have happened before around the world: "Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
2. Because it happened New Year's Eve, some officials suggest that revelers shooting fireworks may have spooked the birds, to the point that they died en masse from stress-induced cardiac arrest.
3. It is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin.
4. Preliminary necropsy results from several birds show that they died of "multiple blunt trauma to their vital organs," though what caused the trauma remains uncertain. Their stomachs were empty, so they weren't poisoned, and they died in midair, not upon impact with the ground
Meanwhile, wildlife officials say that the estimated 100,000 drum fish discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River appears to be a natural occurrence that isn't tied to the bird kill in any way.But Why?
The fish kill only affected one species of fish, if it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish. Fish kills in the area are common, though this one was larger than most.
Is there any relation to climate change at specific locality, time, and height on bird migration?

University Way Forwards

Among the important aspects that we need to observe.

1. Quality Graduates: quality student’s intake, attractive & quality programmes, learning process/English/employability/high quality graduates. Teaching and learning are facing a great challenge.
2. Research and publications: ISI/Scopus list. Mathematic/Engineering/ Biotechnology/Economy/Business/Medicals are among the dominant fields.
3. Professor must leading, nurture innovation and enterprising. One way is strengthen the fundamental in order to go for higher ranking university. Put the source at the right place, time, and quantity and strengthen the academic culture, indexes, and indicator.
4. Execution of the entire strategic plan can be failed because of no ownership. Without commitment and proper ownership difficult to implement the strategic plan. Commitment is important and the professors can play roles, by owning the strategic plan. Do to the level best and beyond the best.
5. Teaching and research culture, students quality, skills, critical thinking, problem solving, negotiation, team work, respect rules and ethics, outcomes approach of activities, problem base learning (PBL) are among the important thing to excel in the university. Skills development needs a proper process, systematic, environment and time.
6. Search committee/head hunting for leaders/head, more transparent and highly respected by the community. Leadership in academic, management skills, experience and tract record in service should be considered in appointing the leaders such as dean or directors or head of department.
7. KPI of the Vice Chancellor: Quality students (satisfaction in teaching, scholarship in teaching and learning, students satisfaction, employability), Research (breakthrough research, high Impact Factor Journal, Bench marking to top university in the world), Good Governance (Financial management, academic governance).
8. Professors must be in front leading the university and following the national issues. Regular meeting and forum to participate in contributing ideas in managing university towards world class university.
9. Supporting staff and systems to ensure research and teaching on the right tract.
10. University’s values, Professors and the students.

Fighting Dengue Fever OR Fighting Mosquitoes OR Discipline People?

Australia launched world-first project to wipe out dengue feverXinhua China Daily
Updated: 2011-01-03 10:35:00
CANBERRA, January 3 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of lives could be saved each year by a groundbreaking Australian scheme to wipe out dengue fever. Australian scientists have developed a bacterium that acts as a vaccine for mosquitoes, which could in turn stop the disease spreading in humans. About 6000 dengue mosquitoes bred in a laboratory will be released as part of a world-first science experiment starting in far north Queensland of Australia on Tuesday. The trail will last for 12 weeks. Up to 100 million people, largely from developing countries, being infected with dengue fever each year, a global solution was long overdue. 40,000 people die, because families in poorer nations are unable to seek health care. This project could become the safest and most cost- effective solution, eliminating the need for environmentally harmful insecticides.
"By April we should know if we are on the right track or not, in our bid to stop the Aedes aegypti mosquito from being able to transmit the dengue virus between people,"
The project aims to control dengue by introducing bacteria to mosquitoes which stops them passing on the virus to humans. The bacteria, known as Wolbachia, has a powerful ability to invade natural populations of insects and alter their reproduction and lifespan. Dengue is a significant disease that has no effective controls or vaccine. It affects hundreds of millions world-wide and costs millions of dollars to treat. It is carried by an urban dwelling mosquito that is almost impossible to eradicate.
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easy way to reduce dengue fever in Malaysia, we fine mosquitoes breeder or jail them instead of promoting advance research in biology.
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The Star; Sunday December 5, 2010
Mosquito breeders face maximum RM10,000 penalty


JOHOR BARU: Johor is one of the top states in meting out fines against premises found to be mosquito breeding grounds.

State Women, Family, Health and Community Development Committee chairman Dr Robia Kosai said until Nov 20, a total of 58,243 premises have been checked and 10,038 have been found to be breeding mosquitoes.

The state health department has issued fines totalling more than RM783,120 to premises found to be breeding mosquitoes.

Effect of Industrial Pollution on the Ecosystem

Semua orang tahu yang aktiviti industri mengeluarkan bahan kimia beracun dan mencemar persekitaran. Seluruh dunia telah membincangkannya. Kesannya bukan sahaja kepada hidupan akuatik, hudupan liar yang bergantung kepadanya malah manusia juga akan merasa akibatnya. Tetapi kenapa kita tidak mengambil tindakan yang positif dari sekarang? Tanyalah saintist. Kita mesti mampu menerangkan kepada orang politik dan orang bernaga yang mementingkan keuntungan semata-mata. Bahan kimia merbahaya seperti bom jangka (time bomb), tidak tahu bila akan meletup. Berhati-hatilah dari sekarang apabila ramai menceritakan pertambahan penyakit barah yang tidak tahu sebabnya sekarang. Ambillah kursus ekotoksikologi.

Nationwide campaign on "No Plastic Bags on Saturdays" launched

Good Start for 2011 to save the environment. At the same time please think how to help the customers. Paper bags? Boxes?...Basket?

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Published: The Star Saturday January 1, 2011 MYT 3:34:00 PM
Nationwide campaign on "No Plastic Bags on Saturdays" launched
By DHARMENDER SINGH


PUTRAJAYA: The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry has launched a simultaneous nationwide campaign that will see all hypermarkets, supermarkets and Petronas petrol stations no longer giving out free plastic bags on Saturdays.

In statement issued on Saturday, the ministry said it had also met with retailers to discuss the effort to minimise the use of plastic bags in the country starting yesterday and some of them had agreed to join the campaign.

With the campaign, shoppers nationwide will now have to pay 20sen if they want the shopping centre or outlet they visit on Saturdays, to give them a plastic shopping bag.
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Guide for Recycling in Malaysia.


In Malaysia we produce 19,000 tones of waste every day, and a majority of that ends up in landfills. Malaysia currently has 230 landfill sights and 80% of them will reach capacity within the next two years, and with land for landfill sights being at a premium there is soon going to be a big problem right on our doorsteps.
To put in perspective 19,000 tonnes of rubbish,; if you piled it all up it would be as high as 36 Petronas Twin Towers, that’s an awful lot of rubbish to deal with on a daily basis.
Our task now is to try and reduce the amount of rubbish going into these landfills. If everybody
does their little bit then it amounts up to a lot. Alam Flora Sdn Bhd has an extensive list on their website of all recycling centres in and around Kuala Lumpur. Please visit www.alamflora.com.my for the nearest recycling centre closest to you and learn how a little effort can make a big difference to this beautiful country.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Paper
All the items below need to be separated bound and then can be recycled.

Newspapers
Manuals
School books
Computer paper
Leaflets and catalogues
Paper boxes.
Metals
The below items need to be drained of liquid, rinsed and placed in bags or boxes.

Aluminium cans/ drinks cans
Food and sauce cans
Tin containers of food beverages (milk & Milo etc)
Biscuit tins
Plastics
The items below need to be rinsed then stored separately in bags or boxes

Soft drinks and juice bottles
Mineral water bottles
Food and sauce containers
Liquid soap and detergent bottles
Shampoo and lotion bottles
Plastic bags
Glass
The items below have to be washed and stored separately in bags or boxes.

Soft drinks and juice bottles
Jams and food jars
Sauces and seasoning bottles
Vitamins and cosmetic bottles
Beverage Cartons
All tetra pack beverage and food cartons need to be rinsed and flattened as per the directions
on the box.

Continue to support save Kuala Langat South Reserve Peat Swamp Forest

Even though the forest was gazetted as a peat swamp forest reserve long time ago. Not many information available to support the protection of this forest. Less activities around the forest allow opportunist to cut and burn the forest and converted to agriculture activities such as oil palm and other short term crops. The illegal activities still going on. If this forest reserve is actively use for research, education and perhaps some recreation activities, the forest will be watched and illegal activities such as tree cutting and wildlife poaching can be observed and reported to the authorities. Perhaps from now on more activities by nature volunteers such as recreation, education and research can be done. If the forest is left unused, some people look as a waste land especially the business man and politician. This year is an international forest year. We should do something to educate the politician, business man and the public to understand the important of forest such as this Kuala Langat Selatan Peat Swamp Forest Reserve to human being now and the future. Happy New Year 2011.Save This Remaining Peat Swamp Forest in Selangor.

Selamat Tahun Baharu 2011

Mulakan Hidup Baharu 2011 dengan Cita-cita, kekuatan dan perubahan.
Adakah Kuasa penentu kehidupan adalah kewangan, populariti, politik atau ilmu.Sejauh mana kita boleh dipengaruhi. Kalau kita lihat mereka yang berkuasa di dunia ini semuanya mempunyai wang yang banyak dan tersenarai orang yang terkaya di dunia. Adakah wang boleh membeli kuasa. Kalau benar maka carilah apa-apa cara untuk menjadi kaya dan dengan wang boleh membeli kuasa. Bagi saintis mestilah bekerja kuat menjual ilmu dengan harga yang mahal. Bagi yang masih muda amalkan budaya GILA membaca, berfikir dan bekerja kuat untuk ilmu, wang dan kemudian kuasa untuk di DUNIA ini. 2011 mengubah cara hidup anda.