Umno members among armed group?

Luke Rintod | February 28, 2013

STAR chairman Jeffrey Kitingan says he has also received reports that some of the armed men are holding dubious Malaysian documents.

KOTA KINABALU: The State Reform Party (STAR) wants the government to investigate claims that some of the more than 130 armed men currently surrounded by Malaysian security forces in Tanduo, Lahad Datu, are in fact Umno members.

STAR chairman, Jeffrey Kitingan, said he has received disturbing reports that these men could also be holding dubious Malaysian documents as many of them had been here in the past and had sometimes been living in the east coast of Sabah.

“I have been receiving reports that some of the armed foreign men currently holed up in Lahad Datu could be holding dubious Malaysian documents and, in fact, could be members of Umno or other Malaysian political parties,” Jeffrey said when met by FMT at his residence in Penampang last night.

He said the authorities including Umno must clarify the allegation so as to quash the rumours.

The group landed in Lahad Datu earlier this month and settled in an oil palm plantation near the Felda Sahabat area. A tense stand-off has since ensued between the group and Malaysian police as well as the army.

The group, which claimed to be a detachment of the Royal Sulu Army from the southern Philippines, is said to be armed with weapons that were already in the state, according to one of its leaders.

The police have formed a perimeter around the village and the army is on standby. Malaysian authorities have said they wished to give the “invaders” a chance to withdraw without bloodshed.

The latest deadline was yesterday.

Jeffrey, who has called for decisive action to end the siege in Tanduo, said: “We must instil confidence in public security and [ensure] that this country has not been infiltrated by enemies.”

He said he has also received reports that, besides women, there was also quite a number of old men in the armed group.

He said that members of the group could be holding dual citizenship, which is against the law in both Malaysia and the Philippines.

Jeffrey, who is also chairman of United Borneo Front (UBF), said the indecision by Malaysian authorities was putting the security of Malaysians and bona fide Sabahans at risk.

“Not that we will not defend ourselves but we do not want to go to war with our neighbours,” he said, adding that Sabahans are patriotic and ready to defend the sovereignty of Sabah.

“Sabahans do not accept excuses for letting our state be so vulnerable to rogue foreign incursions, more so by those who claim ownership to Sabah,” he added.

He also said that those who collaborated with the armed group that undermined the safety of the state must be dealt with at the ballot box in the coming general election.

If this is true then the Umno people are preparing for civil disturbance or 'Confrontation' to call for a Martial Rule or Emergency Rule where General Elections will be suspended indefinitely. Well, that one way to hold on to power when you do not have the populations support.

British Victims of Investing in Malaysia

British Victims of Investing in Malaysia

60 British Investors supported by British MPs, file a civil suit against the ex-Treasurer of UMNO, Dato Azim Zabidi and his company Doxport Technologies Sdn. Bhd. for alleged fraud.

This follows on from 5th October 2011 when British investors lodged a police criminal case in Malaysia against the directors of Doxport Technologies Sdn Bhd. Investors allege that Doxport Technologies solicited funds on a false basis using fraudulent invoices and documents and misappropriated funds amounting to some US$4,000,000.

Several British MPs have expressed their deep concern to the Malaysian Attorney General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail with the scope and speed of the police investigation. 14 months after lodging the criminal complaint, only one suspect has been interviewed by the police and the Money Laundering Investigation Division have, after a baffling delay of 14 months, only just started their investigation into the activities of Doxport Technologies.

60 British investors backed in the UK by Lord Ahmed of Rotherham and their MPs, have lodged a civil case at the High Court of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur to retrieve over US$4,000,000 of funds from Doxport Technologies Sdn. Bhd. and its directors, employees and representatives including Dato Azim Zabidi (Chairman & Director); Sivalingam Thechinamoorthy (Director) and Gurmeet Kaur (Accounts Department & Shareholder).

A Press Conference will be held on Wednesday 27th February 2013 at 11am by the Malaysian MP Zuraidah Kamaruddin at the PKR Headquarters, A-1-09, Merchant Square, Jalan Tropicana Selatan 1, 47410 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

The British High Commission in Malaysia will also have a representative present at the Press Conference and a Press Statement by Lord Ahmed of Rotherham will also be read/given out.

In addition, a Press Conference will also be held in London at the House of Lords in early March 2013 attended by British investors, their representative Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, their respective MPs and by UK and Overseas Press, News and Media organisations.

British investors are represented in Malaysia by The Chambers of Kamarul Hisham & Hasnal Rezua. Tel: 603 6201 3566

How 3D printing could revolutionise the solar energy industry

 More efficient, less complex and cheaper, 3D solar cells can also capture more sunlight than conventional PV models

 

3D solar cells, despite advances in energy storage, can capture more sunlight than conventional PV models. Photograph: Andy Newman/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama's recent state of the union address,, "A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionise the way we make almost everything." 3D printing has been increasingly used to produce jewellery, dental work, prototyping and even creating human organs. However, as an energystrategist, I'm most excited about the potential for 3D printing to revolutionise solar panel and photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing.

For starters, for those not familiar with 3D printing, it's the ability to make a three-dimensional "solid" object from digital design specifications. In other words, 3D printing is really a smart printer that creates objects layer by layer through additive manufacturing or the deposits of materials such as glass, silicon, plastic, resin and ceramic by following a virtual blueprint or animated software.

You may be asking why I'm so positive on its relationship to solar power. Well, that's easy. Right now there is a huge lack of energy storage, which, coupled with known manufacturing inefficiencies, have damaged solar industry sentiment. Therefore future production of solar cells must be more sustainable. This has me intrigued by the potential 3D printing can have on the solar sector.

This new printing medium could be a game-changer as 3D solar cells, despite advances in energy storage, can capture more sunlight than conventional PV models. They are more precise (using copper, indium, gallium, selenide: CIGS), less complex and weigh less. Greater efficiency in lieu of not having direct sunlight overhead is something I believe is extremely encouraging for 3D solar considering many pessimists who continue to question the longevity of solar power produced in a day by ordinary flat PV cells. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe 3D solar panels could be roughly 20% more efficient than flat solar panels. 3D printing can extend the amount of solar absorbed into cells, which may turn some haters of solar power into believers.

Another benefit is cost. While installation is the dominate cost for solar power, it is estimated that precision 3D printing could drop production costs by 50% by eliminating many of the inefficiencies associating with the waste of costly materials such as glass, polysilicon or even indium. The ability to control the material inputs of your finished solar product would further turn traditional manufacturing of PV on its head by creating more of an on-demand model that doesn't require fabrication at distant warehouses. The fact 3D printing can take place just about anywhere should mitigate the lofty shipping costs which also deters positive views toward traditional flat PV.

Then there's the lower weight and size. Most people think of solar as a power source for homes and that's fine. However, its my view 3D printing can produce extremely thin solar cells which can be printed on untreated paper, plastic or fabric rather than expensive glass. Therefore the advanced ability to create flexible solar panels at a lighter weight could have bigger positive implications for wearable hi-tech clothing, radios and future electronics. This gives 3D solar more mass appeal I believe. This could even bode well for some rather unique future opportunities for 3D solar in areas such as automotive paint and commercial/residential buildings which may incorporate a thin "solar spray", something that is far less of an eyesore than PV panels on the roof.

3D printing looks set to become a hot topic in coming years as the US tries to meet 2020 carbon goals while also further exploring ways to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil. That may ultimately mean 3D printing could turn the solar market on its edge sooner than later.

• John J Licata is the chief energy strategist of Blue Phoenix, an independent research and consulting company focused on next generation energy

 

3D Print a Real Ear

 How Hard Is It to 3D Print a Real Ear? One Lab Already Has

by Zachary Sniderman · a day ago · Health

Greatist News examines and explains the trends and studies making headlines in fitness, health, and happiness. Check out all the news here.

Lawrence Bonassar 3D printed a real, honest-to-goodness prosthetic ear: One made of living tissues that can theoretically graft onto a human head with the same flex and feel as the real thing.

Once the domain of tech labs and cute charms, 3D printing — the process of creating objects by “printing” successive layers of a structural material — had made massive gains in the medical field. Bonassar, an associate professor at Cornell University, focuses on regeneration and analysis of muscoskeletal tissues, a.k.a. regenerating “parts of the body.” He and his lab have successfully created a 3D printed ear which was grafted on to lab rats, but can these developments be applied to humans? Read on to find out why Bonassar believes so.

What’s the Deal?

The short version is that Bonassar created an ear from a 3D printer which could be used in humans in the near future. The long version is complicated, but also enormously cool. It turns out that an ear is a tricky thing to print — not just for its inner-workings, but for its consistency too.

The cartilage found in ears is uniquely flexible, but Bonassar and his lab at Cornell are working to create synthetic materials that make replacing ears — and other cartilage-based human parts — easier for everyone.

Replacing cartilage comes with a certain amount of trauma, since it generally has to be taken from another part of the body (like, say, the ribs). To create a synthetic ear, Bonassar is able to scan the head of a potential patient and use a 3D printer to build a precise and unique plastic mold. Unlike the objects found at Makers Fairs, Bonassar fills the molds with a combination of collagen, living cartilage cells, and other materials that promote growth. In effect, they are printing living tissue.

And about 15 minutes later, you have an ear.

Why It Matters

The prospect of printing replacement body parts and organs is huge. For the most part, 3D printing has been a way to quickly and cheaply prototype different projects. For example, it has become an expedient way for Kickstarter projects to demonstrate cool new ideas without having to spend hundreds to build a fully functioning prototype.

Bonassar’s project is a little different, however. Instead of prototyping, the technology is being used to create finished products, and instead of gizmos and gadgets, it’s being used to create real, organic materials. The impact goes well beyond simply replacing ears. The complexities of 3D printing cartilage can provide important lessons for creating even more complicated organs.

While it may sound a little like science-fiction, other labs have already started experimenting withprinting fully-functioning organs such as hearts, livers, and kidneys. The impacts of something like this are nearly endless. It could radically improve the quantity and quality of replacement organs and reduce stress on organ donor programs, as well as ease the surgery itself by allowing doctors and scientists to create bespoke body parts tailored and sized for every individual.

Is It Legit?

Almost. Bonassar was able to create a prosthetic human ear, but so far it has only been tested on rats. In tests, published in PLoS One, synthetic ears grafted onto rats kept their shape and flexibility even after the collage was overtaken by the rats’ own cartilage. Although those tests were a success, it’s still too early to test on humans.

Bonassar’s lab has also experimented with synthetic spinal discs, also tested on rats, to help those with chronic back pain. While both the discs and ears are better able to mimic the qualities of human cartilage, the ears are still purely prosthetic: They will look and feel right, but they won’t replace or repair the hearing function of a real ear. At least not yet.

What are the benefits of a 3D printed organ? Would you trust one? Sound off in the comments or tweet the author at @zsniderman.

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Marchers tear-gassed, invaders ‘embraced’

Joseph Tawie | February 21, 2013

BN leaders have 'lost the plot', says Sarawak PKR, alluding to the incursion in Sabah and the deportation of Aussie Senator Nick Xenophon.

KUCHING: Is it not ironical that thousands of Malaysians rallying for clean and fair elections were tear-gassed and hunted down like criminals, while 100 armed men in army fatigue who “invaded” Sabah recently are being dealt with “kid gloves”?

The double standard practised by the Barisan Nasional administration never ceases to shock, said Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.

Blaming Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s “weak” administration, Bian also cited another irony –the detention and subsequent deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon.

He said it was now obvious to all that the current leadership had “lost the plot”.

“A government that treats armed invaders in Sabah with kid gloves but deports a senator from a friendly neighbouring country has clearly lost the plot.

“Also, those of us who were tear-gassed, doused with chemical laced water and treated like criminals at the Bersih rallies want to know why our government is giving these invaders better treatment than what we received,” asked Bian, who is also Ba’Kelalan assemblyman.

He said Sarawakians were closely watching the developments in Sabah and were puzzled at the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s dismissal of the “invaders” as being “neither militants nor terrorists”.

“The Home Minister said they [invaders] are neither militants nor terrorists but did not tell us what he thinks they are.

“The people know which party is the real threat to our peace and security and are puzzled about the government’s actions [in Sabah and against Xenophon].

“The people of Sarawak are wondering whether we will be next. If we are invaded, will the BN government defend us as it is duty-bound to do?” he said.

H was alluding to the situation in Sabah where the police have engaged the armed Royal Sulu army in gentle “negotiations” much to the anger of Sabahans who see the incursions as a serious security breach and an “act of war”.

Tengah ‘oversells’ Najib
On another matter, Bian took to task Second Resources Planning and Environment Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan for urging Lawas constituents to continue rooting for BN.

Lawas, Tengah had said, was still in need of infrastructure and public amenities and only BN could ensure this.

Pointing out the irony of Tengah’s statement, Bian said: “Firstly, he [Awang Tengah] called for Lawas to continue to be BN’s bedrock and in the next breath, he said that Lawas still needs much infrastructure and public amenities.

“If Lawas is still so lacking [in infrastructure] after almost 50 years of BN rule, why should the people give the BN another term?

“Where is the much-needed hospital, which the incumbent MP professes to be completely ignorant?

“Awang Tengah is correct about the opposition singing a tune of change, and he can rest assured that the public will be wise to the fact that the change offered will benefit them.”

Bian also urged Awang Tengah not to “oversell” Najib’s track record of delivering the goods in Sarawak.

“If I were Awang Tengah, I would not be so confident about the prime minister’s track record and the effectiveness of his ‘constant engagement with the younger generation and across the board’.

“After all, his latest attempt at engaging the younger generation in Penang was met by a resounding ‘no’, much as Dr Mahathir [Mohamad] and the BN leaders may deny it,” Bian said.

Print a car.

Jim Kor is printing a car.

Kor, an engineer and entrepreneur from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has designed a two-passenger hybrid car of the future dubbed the Urbee. The ultra-sleek three-wheel vehicle will have a metal internal combustion engine, electric motor and frame.

But Kor is printing out the body in plastic, piece by piece, in Eden Prairie at RedEye, a business that uses three-dimensional printers to produce parts and prototypes on demand, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

Kor used RedEye a few years ago to create the prototype for Urbee, but he's worked out the bugs since then and now says he's ready to go into actual production.

But instead of assembling his Urbees on a Henry Ford-style assembly line the way cars have been made for more than 100 years, Kor wants to print his cars.

It's not a gimmick. He says the only way he can create the Urbee body is with 3D printers, which create objects that are impossible with conventional manufacturing.

For instance, instead of using sheet metal with a uniform thickness, he can create large, intricate pieces that vary in thickness as needed to strengthen and lighten the car.

He compared it to the way nature has designed the bones of birds -- they are extremely lightweight yet strong, without a smidge of extra material.

"The process has the potential to put the material exactly where you want it and not put it where you don't want it," he said. "Conventional cars carry around a lot of extra weight."

The capabilities of 3D printing also freed Kor to radically rethink the car's design: His Urbee will be made using only about 50 large pieces, some of which are deceptively intricate.

Take the bumper. RedEye had one incubating last week inside one of its top-of-the-line Fortus printers made by Stratasys, a maker of 3D printers and RedEye's parent.

From the outside, it looks any bumper, but inside, Kor included ductwork for both the dashboard and the rest of the car.

The ability to print out a bumper with ductwork allowed Kor to attach the windshield and dash directly to the bumper, which helped make it more aerodynamic than a Toyota Prius, with half the weight and rolling resistance, he said.

It also eliminated parts. Lots of parts.

"Take a car apart and put all the parts on the floor," Kor suggested. "For just the dashboard, there must be thousands!"

Using the unique capabilities of 3D printing, you can make a lot of those tiny individual parts into one unified piece, he said. The Urbee's car body will be assembled from about 50 separate parts, total.

"The surprise to us is that there are very few car parts in this. We didn't start out that way," Kor said.

Designing a printed-out car may initially be more expensive, but it could become an advantage if large-scale production gets under way, Kor said.

The technology of 3D printing continues to get better and less expensive, he said. The cost of printing out a relative handful of parts eventually could drop below the cost of manufacturing requiring thousands of individual parts be made and then assembled, he said.

Three-dimensional printing opens up the vision of the designer, said Jeff Hanson, business development manager for RedEye.

What you can make -- and how you make it -- is limited only by your imagination, he said.

At Kor Ecologic, when we design a product, we try to make the design fit our idea of the way things should be.

The Urbee design team had a vision. That vision was written out and posted on the walls of our shop. It is the fundamental design ideals we followed in working on the Urbee Car Project.

1. Use the least amount of energy possible for every kilometre traveled.
2. Cause as little pollution as possible during manufacturing, operation and recycling of the car.
3. Use materials available as close as possible to where the car is built.
4. Use materials that can be recycled again and again.
5. Use parts and materials that last as long as possible.
6. Be simple to understand, build, and repair.
7. Be as safe as possible to drive.
8. Meet the standards and regulations applicable to traditional cars.
9. Be buildable in small quantities so we don't have to wait for it to become more widely accepted before we can begin manufacturing it for the public.
10. Be mass-producable so it can be built more economically once it becomes more widely accepted.
11. Be affordable.
12. Be visually appealing.

3D printed meat

3D printed meat could soon be cheap and tasty enough to win you over

Feb. 12, 2013 (9:30 am) By: Ryan Whitwam

The next time you’re about to bite into a hamburger, take a moment to consider the resources that went into making it. In a recent Solve for X talk, Andras Forgacs laid out all the statistics, and explained how tantalizingly close we are to a more sustainable method of meat production. Basically, humanity may soon be 3D printing meat instead of growing it in an animal.

Forgacs starts by explaining just how costly a single quarter-pound beef patty is to produce. For that one serving, 6.7lbs of grains, 600 gallons of water, and 75 square feet of grazing land were used. Now multiply that by 1000 to find your (approximate) impact — the average American eats over 220lbs of meat each year. Additionally, at least 18% of greenhouse gas emissions are due to meat production. All this for one burger?

As economic opportunities continue to lift populations around the world into the middle class, demand for meat is rising. With 7 billion people on the planet, we are sustained by 60 billion land animals. When the population hits 9 billion somewhere around 2050 we would need 100 billion land animals. That would be ecologically devastating, so something has to change.

Advances in bioengineering have been able to produce meat analogs, but the process has always beenstupendously expensive, and the results were only passable. It turns out that it’s actually very difficult to match the taste and texture of animal muscle tissue by growing cells in the lab. The marbling of fats and connective tissue is integral to the experience of eating a burger.

Applying 3D printing to artificial meats could be the answer, according to Forgacs. If you take tissue engineering and add in some 3D printing, you get the burgeoning field of bioprinting. Researchers are working with cell aggregates as the medium in bioprinting (as opposed to plastics in regular 3D printing). Layer after layer of cells can be laid down to more closely resemble the genuine article. Researchers can basically build a block of muscle that never lived.

So maybe it’s going to be possible to make artificial meat that feels and tastes like the real deal, but what about cost? Well, Forgacs concedes that it does still cost a few thousand dollars to make a pound of meat in the lab. Unless you’re seeking the most expensive burger in the world, that’s no good. Still, the cost of real meat is inevitably going up and the printed stuff will become cheaper as economies of scale kick in. The process right now is taking place in a research lab, not a large production facility.

Printed meats will eventually become cost-competitive with the dead animal kind. Until then, we may all have to take a closer look at what we’re eating.

Dr M. abut to cause a disaster

Dr M brewing recipe for disaster

Jeswan Kaur | February 11, 2013

If there is anyone who is gearing up for an 'Arab Spring', it is none other than Mahathir himself, going by his anti-Malaysian rants and racist nature.

COMMENT

He may have ruled the country for 22 years before reluctantly calling it quits but Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who holds the record as the country’s longest serving prime minister, has no intention whatsoever of doing his bit to promote peace and harmony on Malaysian soil.

Instead, Mahathir is doing the reverse; he is accusing arch enemy Anwar Ibrahim of plotting an ‘Arab Spring’ to overthrow the Barisan Nasional government.

And the former premier regrets that regressive laws like the Internal Security Act and the Emergency Ordinance are no longer in use.

Mahathir is also supportive of the move by Malay-rights group Perkasa to burn bibles with the word Allah saying it was natural to torch banned books and that Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali  was merely expressing his opinion.

No wonder why Ibrahim has the audacity to continuously humiliate and threaten the non-Malays, for he has the ‘blessings’ of his patron Mahathir in all that he does.

When electoral reform activist Bersih took to the streets on July 9, 2011, Mahathir condemned the move saying it was politically motivated and aimed at repeating the 2008 election tsunami and tarnishing the BN government’s name and police.

If there is anyone who is gearing up for an ‘Arab Spring’, it is none other than Mahathir himself, going by his anti-Malaysian rants and racist nature.

Save Malaysia before its’s too late
Should people like Ibrahim and Mahathir continue with their scandalous views, it will not be long before the rakyat decides to take matters into their hands.

The fact that police brutality sees no end in sight, racism is at an all-time high and corruption continues to reign does not worry the leaders of this country; on the contrary they worry if the votes are split and if the opposition continues to win support from the people.

Just who do these politicians want? Or what really is their agenda that  veteran leaders like Mahathir and the current batch of politician-leaders seem to be forgetting the real purpose of their serving the rakyat?

Truth be told, it is these politicians who have  jeopardised the good name of Malaysia and threatened the tranquility of this nation boasting of multi-faiths.

Claims that the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat is out to paint a bad image of the federal government has no basis; if anything, Pakatan is doing damage-control to all the wrongdoings undertaken by the BN government prior to 2008.

Before matters get out of hand and tragedies become a daily occurence, something has to be done to save Malaysia from being prostituted further by unscrupulous politicians.

Bigotry, hypocrisy must be dealt with
Mahathir very conveniently justified Perkasa’s move to ban bibles using the word ‘Allah’ but he and his band of racist politicians cringe when an award-winning actor dares to tackle the subject of terrorism, as happened to actor-director Kamal Haasan’s movie “Vishwaroopam”.

A day after it was screened at the local theatres, the film was banned after a protest by the Indian Muslim League in Penang and a memorandum submitted by the Indian Muslim Youth Movement  to the Home Ministry – their claim was that “Vishwaroopam” portrayed Muslims in a negative light.

But when racist utterances are made and acted against the non-Malays of this country, no one comes to their rescue, forcing them to act accordingly to defend their respective faiths.

Looks like the independence achieved in 1957 has not taught the politicians of this country the importance of perserving harmony among the people. Nor have these leaders made any effort to improve for the benefit of the country and the rakyat.

In this respect, one such example would be Mahathir who after two decades of lording over the country has failed to shine as a leader worthy of respect.

Allowing dissenting voices from the Mahathir camp to continue is a confirmed recipe for disaster, one worse than the Arab Spring.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.