Malaysian Post

From The NST today:

PUTRAJAYA: Mohd Hafiz Alias, 16, is no stranger to visitors at the Perlis Snake Park.

The Form Four student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Abi, Padang Melangit, Kangar, has been handling snakes since he was 6.

Yesterday was no different.

He showed deftness in handling the snakes, including a king cobra, before 200 visitors at the Karnival Gegar Jelajah Tahun Melawat Malaysia 2007.

The performance was one of the highlights of the carnival jointly organised by the Tourism Ministry, RTM and Putrajaya Corporation.

The carnival ends today,

Under the supervision of Abdul Kahar Abdul Malek and assisted by four snake trainers, including Mohd Hafiz’s father, Alias Mohd Isa, Hafiz displayed great patience in handling the slithery creatures.

He proved his mettle by kissing the king cobra twice.

His secret?

“Contrary to the popular belief that snake charmers have to recite Quranic verses before kissing the snakes, I just have to hold my breath for several minutes before doing so. This is what I was taught by my trainers.”

The reference to 666 is taken from the Biblical book of Revelation

A town in the US state of Louisiana is to be allowed to change its telephone prefix so that residents can avoid a number many associate with the Devil. Christian residents of Reeves have been complaining since the early 1960s about being given the prefix, 666 - known in the Bible as the “number of the beast”.

For the next three months, households will able to change the first three digits of their phone numbers to 749.

Mayor Scott Walker said CenturyTel’s decision was “divine intervention”.

However, he admitted it helped that Louisiana’s two senators had also lobbied for the change with the phone company and the state Public Service Commission.

The Book of Revelation has fascinated Christians for centuries

Revelation 13:18 states: “If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

The number has fascinated and puzzled Christians for centuries and led to a great deal of speculation about its meaning.

Many scholars believe it is a reference to the Roman emperor at the time Revelation was written - either Nero or Diocletian. Both men put large numbers of Christians to death.

Using the Jewish system of Gematria, in which each letter is given a number, either name can be made to add up to 666.

The fear of the number 666 is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

A look at things to come from The BBC:

The i-Snake is highly flexible

Experts are developing a flexible surgical robot, known as the i-Snake, which they say could revolutionise keyhole surgery.

It could enable surgeons to do complex procedures previously possible only through more invasive techniques.

A team at Imperial College London has been granted £2.1 million for the work.

They envisage using the i-Snake - a long tube housing special motors, sensors and imaging tools - for heart bypass surgery.

But it could also be used to diagnose problems in the gut and bowel by acting as the surgeon’s hands and eyes in hard to reach places inside the body.

The Imperial College team, which includes health minister and surgeon Lord Ara Darzi, will test the device initially in the laboratory before it is used on patients.

KEYHOLE SURGERY MILESTONES   1900s - Mirrors, lights and lenses attached to endoscopic tubes are used to examine bodies’ interiors 1930s - Fibre-optics offer an essential light source; endoscopes now thinner and more flexible 1970s - Cameras attached to endoscopes mean that surgeons can operate from images on a screen. Lasers developed which can perform surgery Source: Ghislaine Lawrence, Science Museum, London

Minimally invasive surgery has obvious advantages - it can mean smaller scars, reduced hospital stays and shorter recovery times.

Surgeons are also looking at ways to avoid skin incisions altogether.

One approach is Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery or Notes. This means operating in the peritoneal space through natural orifices or cavities, such as the bowel.

Lord Darzi said: “The unrivalled imaging and sensing capabilities coupled with the accessibility and sensitivity of i-Snake will enable more complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures than are currently possible.

“The cost benefits that i-Snake will introduce include earlier, cheaper and less invasive treatment, faster recovery and procedure times and intangible benefits through an increase in patient care and quality of life.”

Dr Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: “Gone are the days when the surgeon’s knife ruled in the operating theatre. The future of surgery is in smart devices like i-Snake.”

Found this rather disturbing piece in the BBC today. Has the Malaysian Government copyrighted the word “Allah”? :-((

Religious freedom is guaranteed under Malaysian law

A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word “Allah” can only be used by Muslims. In the Malay language “Allah” is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries.

Opponents of the ban say it is unconstitutional and unreasonable.

It is the latest in a series of religious rows in largely Muslim Malaysia, where minority groups claim their rights are being eroded.

A spokesman for the Herald, the newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, said a legal suit was filed after they received repeated official warnings that the newspaper could have its licence revoked if it continued to use the word.

“We are of the view that we have the right to use the word ‘Allah’,” said editor Rev Lawrence Andrew.

‘Unlawful’

The Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also taken legal action after a government ministry moved to ban the import of religious children’s books containing the word.

In a statement given to Reuters news agency, the church said the translation of the bible in which the word Allah appears has been used by Christians since the earliest days of the church.

There has been no official government comment but parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the decision to ban the word for non-Muslims on security grounds was “unlawful”.

“The term ‘Allah’ was used to refer to God by Arabic-speaking Christians before Arabic-speaking Muslims existed,” he said.

Religious issues are highly sensitive in Malaysia, which has a 60% Muslim population.

Religious freedom is guaranteed in the law but minority groups have accused the Muslim Malay majority of trying to increase the role of Islam in the country.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), in a Press Release on 21st December 2007 announced the issuance of a new design for the RM50 banknote to commemorate Malaysia’s 50th Anniversary of Independence. This new design of RM50 banknote is the first denomination of the Fourth Series of Malaysian currency notes which will be replacing the existing series in stages.

The New Design RM50 Banknote

The new design RM50 banknote retains the predominant colour of green-blue. The main theme of the design is the National Mission where the first thrust is “to move the economy up the value chain” which reflects Malaysia’s economic transformation to the higher value-added activities in the agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors of the economy.

The dominant intaglio portrait of the first Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Tuanku Muhammad, is retained on the right and the national flower hibiscus is in the centre on the front of the new RM50 banknote. Design patterns from songket weaving, which are in the background and edges of the banknote, are featured to reflect the traditional Malaysian textile handicraft and embroidery.

The first 50 million pieces of the new RM50 banknote features Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj at the historic declaration of Malaya’s independence and the logo of the 50th Anniversary of Independence on the reverse side.

Security Features The security features incorporated in the Fourth Series of RM50 banknotes are as follows :

• The Watermark Portrait can be recognised by tints that are lighter or darker than the surrounding paper. This watermark portrait which has a three-dimensional effect appears without sharp outlines. At the base of the watermark, the numeral 50 is clearly visible.
• The Security Thread is embedded in the paper and appears on the reverse side of the note as a silver coloured dotted line. When the note is held against the light, it is seen as a continuous dark coloured line and the repeated text BNM RM50 can be read. When viewed under ultra-violet light, the thread is seen in various changing colours known as the “rainbow effect”.
• Micro-Letterings of “BNM RM50″ which can be viewed under a magnifying glass.
• Invisible Fluorescent Elements can be seen through various elements of the background on the obverse and reverse side of the banknote and will fluoresce in different colours when viewed under ultra-violet light.
• Perfect See-Through Register feature where the graphic songket design on the obverse side of the note will register perfectly with the same graphic songket design on the reverse side when it is held against the light.
• Multicolour Latent Image of the denomination 50 can be seen when the banknote is tilted slightly and the colour changes when it is rotated.
• Holographic Stripe features the denomination 50 and the hibiscus flower, with a multi-coloured pumping and matt-structure effect.
• Hidden image with moiré effect where certain areas of the design appearance will change when the banknote is copied.

Members of the public are advised to take note of the security features and design of the new RM50 notes outlined above. The existing series of the RM50 banknotes will continue to be legal tender.

Sale of RM50 banknote with Special Packaging The new RM50 banknote with a special packaging will be available for sale to members of the public. It will be priced at RM60 per set. Twenty thousand (20,000) sets will be available for sale from Wednesday, 26 December 2007 at Bank Negara Malaysia’s Head Office, and at Bank Negara Malaysia’s branches in Pulau Pinang, Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. The availability of these banknotes will be on a first come first served basis and will be limited to one set per person.

The new RM50 banknotes without special packaging will be available through commercial banks on 30 January 2008 onwards.

I queued up at BNM in Kuala Lumpur and managed to obtain a handful of these new notes in Special Packaging at RM60.00 a piece.

Scans of the notes and folder as follows: