UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Noritta Samsudin: a tale of the high life, glamour and death

The previous story touches upon relatively uneducated people. But this one is different: the accused is an engineer, no less.

With all the other cases around, why this one created such a fuss?

She’s young, pretty, has “many boyfriends”, and an accounts executive with Transpro Sdn Bhd with 2 years experience but can afford to rent a room at the expensive Puncak Prima Galleria Condominium in Sri Hartamas, KL. She was found, on her bed in a condo, naked, gagged (mouth stuffed with a piece of cloth), hands tied with a bra and legs tied with several wires (including a handphone charger wire), and according to The Star, sodomised before being strangled (perhaps S&M session gone awry?). All evidence points to the fact that she knew her attacker – no sign of forced entry.

She apparently played basketball for Kelantan during MSSM, and that during Hari Raya in November she told her parents of her upcoming wedding plans to a Chinese
businessman with Australian citizenship, Lim Sean Kean, 38.

Noritta’s female housemate, is believed to be a guest relations officer, and regularly brings home her boyfriend.

Main accused, Mamak (Indian Muslim) Hanif Basree Abd Rahman, 36, tall and big sized, is an engineer with Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA). As at today, you can still see his name at MBSA website at http://www.mbsa.gov.my/mbsa/english_version/organization/officer_e-mail.htm

He could also be 2002-2003 VP of the national volleyball association (http://www.mava.org.my/about/exco.htm), and son of MRCB head honcho Abdul Rahman Maidin, who is also holds the top position in the national malay chamber of commerce.

He was arrested 3 days after the murder, and formally charged on 22nd December.

The trial will be held in May 2004.

A minor controvery was caused by a pic in The Malay Mail in Dec 2003 of three suspects in the Noritta Samsudin murder case, walking barefoot and handcuffed together while accompanied by police at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court. They were eventually freed.

They question whether it is an accepted practice by the police in this
country.

The suspects, remanded for 10 days until Dec 21, were Suhaimi Sanusi, 37,
an IT (information technology) businessman from Ampang; Khairul Anuar
Kamaruddin, 22, a private college student; and a foreigner from Finland,
Mikko Kouko Johannes Jarva, believed to be a financial executive in his
30s.

The others in police custody included Noritta’s boyfriend – a Chinese
businessman with Australian citizenship whom she was planning to marry;
an Indian Muslim, and a bald-headed broker.
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As reported by Jeff Ooi: http://www.jeffooi.com/archives/001394.php

Murder: Engineer accused and charged

Of the 10 people placed under remand to assist the police in the investigation of Noritta Samsudin’s death, one person is charged with her murder this morning.

According to Star Online around noon:

(Engineer) Hanif Basree Abdul Rahman, 36, is alleged to have murdered Noritta, 22, at the Puncak Prima condominium in Sri Hartamas, Brickfields (sic), between 1.30am and 4am on Dec 5.

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http://www.beautifulstuff.org – Dedicated to all things beautiful eg, the puzzle below
http://www.puzzles.com – self-explanatory

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Hotel Puzzle – where did the extra dollar go?

Puzzle Question:

3 men go into a hotel. The man at reception said the room is $30.

So each man paid $10 and went to the room.

A while later the man at reception realized the room was only $25.

So he sent a waiter to the 3 guys’ room with $5. On the way the waiter couldn’t figure out how to split $5 evenly between the 3 men. So he decided to give back $1 to each man. They were happy to save a dollar each and the waiter was happy to make $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men had now paid $9 each for the room, which makes $27. The waiter still had the $2 which makes a total of $29. They started off with $30 so what happened to the other dollar???

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Puzzle’s Answer:

Apparently this puzzle is very old, but don’t worry, if you don’t know the “answer”, the Internet is buzzing with various answers and explanations, among them the following websites. I leave you to have the pleasure to read the various versions of the answers (and questions):

http://www.beautifulstuff.org/archives/000094.html

http://www.puzzles.com/PuzzleHelp/PuzzleHelpItems13_24.htm

http://forums.philosophyforums.com/showthread.php?t=4808

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“The WorldWide WarDrive is an effort by security professionals and hobbyists to generate awareness of the need by individual users and companies to secure their access points. The goal of the WorldWide WarDrive (or WWWD) is to provide a statistical analysis of the many access points that are currently deployed. ”

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CNY came and went just like that. I guess only kids had a ball.

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Christopher Klaus of ISS Corp: Gen-X Hi Tech Hero for the 21st century

Christopher Klaus, 29 (born 1974) is the Founder and Chief Technology
Officer of NASDAQ-listed, billion-dollar company Internet Security
Systems (ISS), which is the maker of the ISS RealSecure Intrusion
Detection System (IDS) and the renowned Internet Scanner, which KKIPC/JPKN
is using.

He founded the company in 1994 at barely 20 years of age.

Klaus is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost security
experts and remains actively involved as the key technology visionary
at ISS, providing strategic direction and technical expertise to
the continued development of the company’s solutions. He also continues
to represent ISS as a spokesperson at technical events and industry
conferences each year, and provides high-level security consultation
to a number of government organizations and Fortune 500 companies
throughout the U.S. and abroad.

At the age of 26 (in 2000) he donated USD15 million to his alma mater
for the construction of an advanced computing and information technology
complex at Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT).

He left GIT before graduation to jump start ISS.

Someone commented: “We read a lot about middle-aged executives who
establish their own foundations or leave their jobs in the late-40s
to work for charitable causes. But I’m not aware of anyone who’s
been this generous at such a young age. At a time in his life when
many would be focusing on personal gain.”

“Chris has chosen to make a major, charitable investment in education
and research. I think that says lot about the kind of person he is.
”

In 1999, the average STARTING salary for graduates of the college
was USD49,626 a year (which translates to RM15,715 per month), a
sign of strong demand for its students.

Prior to founding ISS, Klaus foresaw the growth of the Internet and
developed a first-of-its-kind software program, Internet Scanner,
an integral component of ISS’ current SAFEsuite? software portfolio,
while attending the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT).

Having a glimpse of the demand for this technology, he left Georgia
Tech in 1994 to found ISS with the intention of helping organizations
around the world safeguard their critical data from the ever-growing
number of Internet security risks.

Today, ISS is credited as being a true Internet security pioneer,
and has grown to serve more than 5,500 customers worldwide including
21 of the 25 largest U.S. commercial banks, 10 of the largest telecommunications
companies and over 35 government agencies.

Through the years, ISS’ mission has remained synonymous with Klaus’
vision to provide the technology and service solutions necessary
to protect digital assets and ensure safe and uninterrupted e-business.

Klaus was involved in the founding of the Georgia Tech Center for
Information Security, GTISC, established in Spring 1998 for the Sam
Nunn NationsBank Policy Forum on Information Security. The Center
uses an interdisciplinary approach to conducting research and development.

Klaus is also an active participant in the Atlanta community supporting
Hands On Atlanta and as a founding member of Industries of the Mind.

Klaus was recently honored by the MIT Technology Review as one of
the top 100 young innovators for 1999, was one of the youngest to
be included in the 1999 Forbes Top 100 list, and received the award
for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the category of Internet
products and services.

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make millions without spending a dime

http://www.gaaj.com/jsg/money.html

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Anti Feng Shui

Look Before You Lease: Some Thoughts on Feng-Shui, By George Nava True II

http://www.netasia.net/users/truehealth/Feng-Shui.htm

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More on the case against Spirulina

http://www.netasia.net/users/truehealth/Spirulina.htm – “Health Frontiers Center for Quackery Control, Inc. The first and only Philippine skeptical website to challenge the claims of alternative healers, psychics, and other quacks ”

http://www.ncahf.org/ – The National Council Against Health Fraud

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The case against Spirulina

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/columnist/0,1886,56-200439-,00.html

Is Spirulina bad for you?

This was first pointed out to me, to my utter shock, by a highly experienced and respected dermatologist so popular that you can’t make appointments with him, you queue up on the day you want to see him.

He said any make of Spirulina, be it Propolis, Elken, etc etc

Pls read the following carefully. Conclusion is, Spirulina MAY be bad for you. Jury’s out, but better be on the safe side. Don’t eat it until it’s really established that it’s safe. I suspect a lot of politicking behind the scene, just like the tobacco industry.

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JULY 19, 2003

Spirulina: Pond scum or wonder food? Jury’s out

Andy Ho

POND scum may cause liver damage.

This possibility surfaced when British liver specialist Julia Wendon testified in the High Court recently that actress Andrea De Cruz’s liver failure may have been brought on by a health supplement that she was taking, called spirulina.

Detractors call it pond scum, but not a few people here have taken to this blue-green algae.

It is hyped as ‘so low on the food chain it has to be packed with nutrients and energy – and it is!’

Fans say spirulina is so rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and other beneficial nutrients, it is ‘nature’s perfect food, capable of sustaining life without the need for other foods’.

Yes, it has eight essential amino acids and high levels of vitamin B, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc.

Yes, it contains vitamin B12, otherwise found only in animal meat – but humans cannot absorb its B12.

The Aztecs ate spirulina as a food called tecuitlatl, if records kept by the Spanish conquistadors are to be believed; the Kanembu people of Central Africa have harvested it from Lake Chad from ages past, and eat it as sun-dried cakes with a salsa dip.

As algae reproduces very quickly and individual plants stick together, spirulina is easy to harvest, so fans call it ‘a food source to nourish the world’s population’.

True, dried spirulina is 70 per cent protein by weight, but the United States Food and Drug Administration says that the claim is meaningless: You will need to consume many mouthfuls of expensive spirulina capsules in order to get enough protein every day this way.

It is easier and cheaper to get the protein by eating grains or meat – and to get iron from dark greens, or carotenes and vitamins from common fruits and vegetables.

Spirulina is taken as a powder mixed with water or in tablet or caplet form. It is purportedly good for medical conditions ranging from cancers and high cholesterol to Aids and obesity.

Very preliminary evidence from very small studies suggests that spirulina – like other nutritious plant foods – may help in some of these conditions.

But the findings have yet to be confirmed by larger and longer studies.

Spirulina consists of one or more members of a family of blue-green algae, with some characteristics of bacteria and some of algae.

Under the microscope, it appears as a blue-green spiral of long, thin threads.

Blue-green algae grows in shallow, warm, slow-moving or still lakes, accumulating on the surface as blue-green scum that, at high enough levels, makes the water smell and taste bad.

Out of the 1,500 species of blue-green algae, a few – such as spirulina, chlorella and aphanizomenon flos-aqua – are popularly used in supplements.

Not unlike cultured table mushrooms being safe while wild ones can be poisonous, most types of algae appear to be non-toxic.

But some varieties produce microcystins, or toxins made up of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The problem is that these toxins may contaminate the algal supplements which you buy in health stores.

In 2000, the Department of Health in the US state of Oregon surveyed 87 commercially available blue-green algae products and found 85 of them were contaminated with microcystins.

How toxic are microcystins?

In February 1996, when a haemodialysis clinic in Caruaru, Brazil, used untreated water for dialysis during a water shortage, about 60 out of 100 patients with kidney failure died. The cause: The water was contaminated with microcystins.

That was dramatic but unusual.

More generally, microcystins accumulate in the liver over the long term and cause toxic problems. Evidence from China suggests a link between microcystins in drinking water and primary liver cancer.

In 1999, after several blue-green algal products were found to contain microcystins, Canadian health authorities sampled those being sold. They found that only products which were made from spirulina blue-green algae harvested from controlled ponds contained no microcystins. Other blue-green algae such as chlorella and aphanizomenon flos-aqua harvested from natural lakes contained microcystins in excess of World Health Organisation standards.

So cultured spirulina can be grown free of microcystins, and consumers deserve products that are certified to be toxin-free.

Spirulina is commercially grown in large ponds that depend on sunlight to evaporate the water off. Yet, how much toxin other algae may produce while in the water and how much toxin, if any, is present at harvesting cannot be predicted, as it depends on environmental factors such as the amount of sunlight, depth of water, minerals in the water and time of harvest, among others.

Contamination levels will thus vary from batch to batch. This makes it difficult to assess the risk in each brand, and even different batches of the same brand. Screening each and every batch calls for phenomenal resources.

To compound the problem, there are different levels of toxicity in microcystins, varying according to their molecular structures.

The means used to elucidate molecular structures are only available in research institutions.

Since spirulina is a food supplement and not a prescription drug, it is not subject to the same strict regulations that cover the latter. Makers do not have to declare fluctuations in toxin levels, how they monitor them, and if they do it consistently with every batch.

So because of the potentially variable composition, and until there are rapid, sensitive and reliable tests available for microcystins, a reasonable rule of thumb seems to be: Think pond scum.

Andy Ho is a Straits Times senior writer.

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MLM selling prepaid mobile phone a/c topups, apparently one Ridzwan Sarpin earned 5 figure income this way.

http://www.smsboleh.com

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Finally installed Streamyx 384 on 15th Jan 04

Malaysian TMnet Streamyx DSL FAQ: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/streamyxdsl
Aztech ftp site for DSL305E ADSL modem (contains tech info/manuals they never told u about): ftp://ftp.aztech.com.sg/pub/DSL305E/

to try out/issues:
- Win98SE got issues with ICS?
- raspppoe better than winpoet? to try it out – said to handle ics better
- turn the supplied aztech DSL305E ADSL bridge/modem into router/modem
- upgrade to 512……

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glowing fish for your aquarium, anyone?

actually zebra fish embryo implanted with certain corals resulting in GloFish (TM) !

USD5 each

www.glofish.com

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installed streamyx at home 2.30pm 15-1-2004

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This guy made Readers’ Digest some time ago………

Britain’s ‘Dr. Death’ Hangs Himself in Prison Cell

By Kate Kelland and Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s worst mass murderer Harold Shipman — a family doctor who killed hundreds of his patients — hanged himself with a noose of bed sheets in his prison cell Tuesday.

Shipman, whose suicide was immediately condemned by victims’ relatives as a final act of cowardice, was nicknamed “Dr. Death” after an horrific, 23-year-long killing spree in which he murdered at least 215 of his patients.

His death means his victims’ relatives will now never know what drove him to kill their loved ones.

“He was found dead, hanging in his cell,” a prison service spokesman told Reuters. He said Shipman had used bed sheets tied to his cell bars to make a noose.

Shipman was convicted in 2000 of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life in prison. An inquiry later ruled he had murdered at least 215 patients with heroin injections, making him Britain’s — and one of the world’s — most prolific serial killer.

The bearded, bespectacled doctor killed his patients over a more than 20-year period from 1975 to 1998. Of his victims, 171 were female and 44 male. The oldest was a 93-year-old woman and the youngest a man of 41.

A statement from Wakefield high-security prison in northern England, where Shipman had been held, said he was found at 0620 GMT Tuesday, the day before his 58th birthday. “Despite the best efforts of staff who immediately attempted resuscitation, he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 8:10 a.m.,” it said.

Shipman’s body was driven away from the prison in a funeral service van flanked by a police escort.

The prison said Shipman was alone in his cell when he died and that an investigation into the death would be carried out.

“ADDICTED TO KILLING?”

The official inquiry into Shipman’s killings found he had murdered his victims quietly, coldly and systematically, ending their lives in a betrayal of trust “unparalleled in history.” It said he may have been “addicted to killing,” but found no conclusive motive.

The death means his victims’ families will now never know what drove him to kill their loved ones.

Danny Mellor, whose 73-year-old mother Winifred was one of Shipman’s victims, said the killer was a coward whose death made it “desperately hard” for families to live with the mystery.

“I always harbored the remote possibility that one day I could confront him and ask him why,” he told Reuters. “Now that’s been taken away from me.”

Shipman’s conviction in 2000 sparked horror among Britons at how a doctor who had previous convictions for forging prescriptions to feed his own drug addiction was able to continue his career and run a one-man practice.

Working alone, he was able to stockpile huge amounts of diamorphine — the medical name for heroin — at his home and surgery, ready to use on his often elderly victims.

He was finally captured after the daughter of Kathleen Grundy, his last victim, challenged a new will that left all her mother’s wealth to Shipman. Her body was exhumed and traces of the fatal dose of heroin were found in her remains.

Prosecutors at Shipman’s trial said his drive to kill was fueled by his need for a God-like power over life and death.

Others say the killer was profoundly affected by the experience of watching his own mother die from cancer — and taking diamorphine to ease her pain.

The trial judge said Shipman’s actions were a “calculated and cold-blooded perversion” of his medical skills.

Ann Alexander, a lawyer who represents some of the victims’ families, said many of them would feel cheated.

“They had hoped that one day they would be able to find out why … and would have some understanding of why he did what he did. Now, of course, they are never going to know.”

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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
TEACHER EDUCATION
EDUCATION BUILDING
Room 503
(915) 747-7713
tcashman@utep.edu

www.utep.edu

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