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You can't always avoid being out in a winter storm, so if you have to be out and about, protect yourself with these handy hints from FEMA
Source: FEMA
During Winter Storms & Extreme Cold
- Stay indoors during the storm.
- Walk carefully on snowy, icy, walkways.
- Avoid overexertion when shoveling snow. Overexertion can bring on a heart attack—a major cause of death in the winter. If you must shovel snow, stretch before going outside.
- Keep dry. Change wet clothing frequently to prevent a loss of body heat. Wet clothing loses all of its insulating value and transmits heat rapidly.
- Watch for signs of frostbite. These include loss of feeling and white or pale appearance in extremities such as fingers, toes, ear lobes, and the tip of the nose. If symptoms are detected, get medical help immediately.
- Watch for signs of hypothermia. These include uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, disorientation, incoherence, slurred speech, drowsiness, and apparent exhaustion. If symptoms of hypothermia are detected, get the victim to a warm location, remove wet clothing, warm the center of the body first and give warm, non-alcoholic beverages if the victim is conscious. Get medical help as soon as possible.
- Drive only if it is absolutely necessary. If you must drive: travel in the day; don't travel alone; keep others informed of your schedule; stay on main roads and avoid back road shortcuts.
- Let someone know your destination, your route, and when you expect to arrive. If your car gets stuck along the way, help can be sent along your predetermined route.
- If the pipes freeze, remove any insulation or layers of newspapers and wrap pipes in rags. Completely open all faucets and pour hot water over the pipes, starting where they were most exposed to the cold (or where the cold was most likely to penetrate).
- Maintain ventilation when using kerosene heaters to avoid build-up of toxic fumes. Refuel kerosene heaters outside and keep them at least three feet from flammable objects.
- Conserve fuel, if necessary, by keeping your residence cooler than normal. Temporarily close off heat to some rooms.
- If you will be going away during cold weather, leave the heat on in your home, set to a temperature no lower than 55ºF.
Dress for the Weather
- If you must go outside, wear several layers of loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. The outer garments should be tightly woven and water repellent.
- Wear mittens, which are warmer than gloves.
- Wear a hat. A hat will prevent loss of body heat.
- Cover your mouth with a scarf to protect your lungs.
Stranded in a Vehicle
If a blizzard traps you in the car:
- Pull off the highway. Turn on hazard lights and hang a distress flag from the radio antenna or window.
- Remain in your vehicle where rescuers are most likely to find you. Do not set out on foot unless you can see a building close by where you know you can take shelter. Be careful; distances are distorted by blowing snow. A building may seem close, but be too far to walk to in deep snow.
- Run the engine and heater about 10 minutes each hour to keep warm. When the engine is running, open a downwind window slightly for ventilation and periodically clear snow from the exhaust pipe. This will protect you from possible carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Exercise to maintain body heat, but avoid overexertion. In extreme cold, use road maps, seat covers, and floor mats for insulation. Huddle with passengers and use your coat for a blanket.
- Take turns sleeping. One person should be awake at all times to look for rescue crews.
- Eat regularly and drink ample fluids to avoid dehydration, but avoid caffeine and alcohol.
- Be careful not to waste battery power. Balance electrical energy needs - the use of lights, heat, and radio - with supply.
- Turn on the inside light at night so work crews or rescuers can see you.
- If stranded in a remote area, stomp large block letters in an open area spelling out HELP or SOS and line with rocks or tree limbs to attract the attention of rescue personnel who may be surveying the area by airplane.
- Leave the car and proceed on foot - if necessary - once the blizzard passes.


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After a disappointing home loss against Sporting KC last weekend, the Fire head to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday to face a resurgent Vancouver Whitecaps side. The 'Caps beat arch rivals Seattle last weekend and are unbeaten in five games.
Here are some things to look out for from a tactical perspective.
Shaun Francis full debut – a baptism of fire?
Shaun Francis only joined the Fire Wednesday and seems likely to make his full debut for the team in Vancouver. The left back should replace suspended stalwart Gonzalo Segares and will need to hit the ground running in an intimidating atmosphere.
Luckily for Francis, Vancouver are without their usual wide right player in the 4-3-3 formation, Russell Teibert who is in Canada's Gold Cup squad. The winger has tallied six assists this season, twice the amount of the leading Fire player (Jeff Larentowicz and Daniel Paladini with three) . Instead of facing the pace of Teibert, Francis will likely be battling Corey Hertzog, who is in his first season with Vancouver.
Francis, who likes to get forward, will also have to face another outside back who likes to do the same in Young-Pyo Lee. Despite being 36, Lee is an extremely fit player and though he has lost a step of pace, is still very dangerous in the attack.
It will also be interesting to see how well Francis and presumed starting left mid Dilly Duka combine in Vancouver. A strong performance in this away game will not only boost Francis' confidence but will be necessary if the Fire want to leave Canada with points in the bag.
The Fire's back four – cutting out the individual mistakes
Before the game against Kansas City last weekend, ESPN showed a stat that since the arrival of Bakary Soumare, the team's goals against average per game has dropped. This is certainly true but stats can also be deceiving.
In the KC game, the Fire had a shambolic first 10 minutes defensively, giving up two very soft goals. The first came from a poor clearance from a long throw and the second from allowing KC's best player Graham Zusi too much space to shoot/cross from outside the box.
Since the arrival of Bakary Soumare and the switch of Jalil Anibaba to right back, the team's back four has remained stable and for the most part work well as a unit. Individual errors like those in the SKC game are the issue.
These are a hard thing for a coaching staff to work on because the majority are mental mistakes. It's been nine games in the league since the Men in Red kept a clean sheet and one would be very welcome on Sunday evening. If the back four and goalkeeper can keep their concentration for 90 minutes and communicate well with one another, a clean sheet can be achieved.
Breaking down the Whitecaps – how to defeat the 4-3-3
Vancouver coach Marin Rennie favors a 4-3-3 formation with three ball-winning midfielders and three attackers who are very mobile. There are a few weak spots in this formation however that the Fire should look to exploit.
The first is getting balls in behind the three-man midfield, either by playing through balls or looking over the top. In Vancouver's last loss, a 3-2 defeat by Seattle, the Sounders were able to get behind the three-man wall catching the Whitecaps center backs out of position.
The Sounders capitalized numerous times in that match when gaps opened up between the Whitecaps center backs. In Vancouver's recent 3-1 win against Chivas USA, the Chivas goal also came from getting behind the central midfielders, this time from a brilliant pass from the center of the park which split the Vancouver mids and resulted in a 1v1 between the Chivas striker and a Whitecaps defender.
Another area where the 4-3-3 can be exploited is on the outside, a strong area for the Fire. Patrick Nyarko and Dilly Duka's ability to stretch the three man midfield of Vancouver will be very important, not only because it leaves gaps in the middle to exploit, but it also forces one of the midfielders into a 1v1 battle with one of the Fire wide men. I would bet on our wingers in that fight.
When you add the Fire's outside defenders to that equation, it makes it difficult for Vancouver to defend. I look for the likes of Alex, Nyarko and Duka to try and exploit the 4-3-3 system whenever possible, for the Fire's benefit.
Prediction: 1-1 with a goal from Alex.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Mark Miller needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 38 designs submitted by 11 freelance designers.
Georgia Lions Lighthouse
Charity in Georgia that provides sight saving services to the needy. We provide over 3500 pairs of eyeglasses to Georgia's needy each year and provide 360+ sight saving operations. We were formed and closely related to Lions Clubs.
Need logo that shows who we are and what we do. You can see more about us and our current logo at http://www.lionslighthouse.org
Logo must contain new Lions Club logo within it. That file is attached. The name, Georgia Lions Lighthouse, must be in logo also.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Perhaps you have woken up with a bug with your bed? Perhaps you have seasoned the soreness of realizing there are lots of bugs in your bed? Most people are now dealing with this exact same practical experience, as bedbugs be a massive difficulty around the globe. Now you ask , whether or not you may destroy bed bugs on your own, or need to employ someone to get it done for you personally. Bed Bug Solutions
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Many people also feel that killing bed bugs is as easy as tossing out of the affected bed mattress. Regrettably, bed bugs could get in your carpeting, all upholstered household furniture, and might be trying to hide around your windows and then in the edges of your own wall surfaces. Inside a severe attack, you will end up unable to entirely rid your own home of your pests without attracting specialized help. Bedbug Solutions
Up unable to entirely rid
If you wish to make an effort to get rid of bed bugs on your own, start with placing your items in the impacted bedrooms in plastic material baggies. Usually do not remove garments, quilts, or cushions out of these bedrooms. They might have pests about them, and you will probably basically exchange these people to other parts of your own home. You require very strong, effective bombs to help remedy your home, and you might want to undertake it more often than once.
Basically exchange these people to
If you have a bug inside your your bed, the best course of action is call in the pros. Look for a services knowledgeable killing bed bugs and comply with a bunch of their advice. You will likely be made to pull all furniture from the surfaces and put your belongings in plastic luggage. You will be questioned not to remove everything from the property atmosphere, due to the fact who knows exactly where bedbugs could be concealing. It will always be wise to handle the property with everything else inside the organic surroundings. Bed Bug Solutions
Depending on the extent of your respective bedbug problem, the position of the difficulty, along with the organization you opt to commitment with, you could be inspired to do various things after treatment solutions are started off. You may or may not be asked to keep your own home for a couple of days. It depends around the the number of bugs are in your house and how several areas of your home are affected.
Difficulty along with
As soon as you find a bug within your mattress, you should advance with some kind of bedbug treatment plan. The more you wait, the greater number of substantial your infestation could become. If you live in a flat or duplex, you might want to call your residence management group. In many cases, bedbugs are spread out in one living area to the next, which means that your bug issue may well not vanish entirely without having also managing other units adjacent your own property. No one wants being the first to create the phone call to management, however you don't wish to spend money dealing with your unit when it can be paid by your landlord. As well as, the insects might simply can come back should your neighbors are the reason for the trouble. Bedbug Solutions
Bedbugs are spread out in one living
- When you have a bug in.
- If you wish to try to eliminate bedbugs all.
- Many people also feel that killing bed bugs is as elementary as throwing out of the afflicted bed..
- Depending on the degree of your bedbug.


text:
(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)
You can't really wrap a country song. There's no good way to tie a red velvet ribbon on one and put it under the Christmas tree. Which is so sad, because for just about everyone on my list, there's a perfect song. Each one would say so much and would say so much more than any candle, scarf, bracelet, frame, or bottle of wine ever could. So if I could find a way, here are the songs I'd give as gifts this year:
To those guys out in my garage, who I'm pretty sure are my husband and my son: "Flashlight," Chris Young
To my daughter, who is practically packed for college eight months early: "You're Gonna Miss This," Trace Adkins
To my parish priest: "Better Believer," Dierks Bentley
To my girlfriends: "Only Prettier," Miranda Lambert
To my first editor: "How Do You Like Me Now?!" Toby Keith
To my rodeo-lovin' sister: "That Girl Is a Cowboy," Garth Brooks
To the friend whose son is fighting for our country: "I Drive Your Truck," Lee Brice
To the friend coping with an alcoholic husband: "When You Love a Sinner," Martina McBride
To those busy moms and dads with their busy to-do lists: "My List," Toby Keith
To that mother who married too young: "Is There Life Out There," Reba McEntire
To that couple who fights incessantly: "100 Proof," Kellie Pickler
To my daughter who plays her fiddle every day, all day: "Even if It Breaks Your Heart," the Eli Young Band
To the friend who doesn't know how good he has it: "The Good Stuff," Kenny Chesney
To the neighbor with cancer so aggressive no one wants to talk about it: "Green Bananas," Jake Owen
To my entire family: "Where Did I Go Right," the Warren Brothers
To my mom, in heaven: "Good Ride, Cowboy," Garth Brooks


text:
China Tensions on the Rise
Obama Seeks Trade Sanctions While Beijing Faces Off With Japan Over Islands
Political pressures in both the U.S. and China are straining ties between the two superpowers.
President Barack Obama, under attack by Republican nominee Mitt Romney for being soft on China, said Monday he is asking the World Trade Organization to rule that Beijing is illegally subsidizing autos and auto parts. Mr. Romney, who has been running ads in Ohio criticizing the president on trade policies toward China, called the move "too little, too late."...


text: Think your PC might be infected with a virus? Would you like to know why you got infected? Tools & Tips to keep viruses in check. Disinfect your PC If you cannot access your PC More Info Panda Cloud Cleaner – USB scan Rescue USB to disinfect PCs that cannot boot up More Info Panda Cloud Cleaner - Rescue ISO ISO to boot and clean an infected PC (for Advanced users) If you can access your PC More Info Panda Cloud Cleaner Free disinfection tool More Info Panda Cloud Cleaner - Portable Portable version with no installer for advanced users Why you got infected 4 essential tips to prevent virus infections Keep Java, Adobe Flash and Acrobat Reader updated at all times, or uninstall them if you do not use them! Why? Nowadays viruses and malware bypass antivirus programs and infect PCs through outdated programs you have installed on your PC. + Info Always be cautious with the programs you install or run.Why? Virus authors make money infecting PCs and they can disguise behind programs or applications you think are not dangerous to open or to run. BEWARE! + Info Always Keep your Windows OS Updated.Why? Malware and viruses exploit security vulnerabilities present in outdated Windows OS. Having the latest security patches and Service Packs installed prevent viruses from doing so. + Info Use an effective antivirus and keep it updated at all times.Why? Because you need to protect yourself and your family from known and unknown viruses and other threats that can disrupt your everyday life. + Info Installation and uninstallation instructions Forum Register in the forum and let our moderators and the community help you resolve all your queries. Visit our forum Knowledge Base Check the help articles and othe useful contents to resolve and know more about virus and threats. FAQs on Virus Collective Intelligence PandaLabs Reports Glossary Technical Support Pages Homeusers Business If you still need to contact Technical Support, access CONTACT.* *Only for Panda Security clients.


text:
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Meet your fellow owners in our Owners Clubs
Lexus LS Owners: Meet the Members
Please take a moment to introduce yourself and share some details about your LS!
My name is KarenS and I am the host of the Edmunds.com Owner's Clubs. Please let me know what discussions you would like to see in your Club folder. I will create them ASAP. You may want to take a look through the other clubs to get ideas for discussions.
Also, if you are interested in a live chat, I can arrange that for you. All Club chats are set up on
4:00-5:00 pm PT/7:00-8:00pm ET
5:00-6:00pm PT/8:00-9:00pm ET
6:00-7:00pm PT/9:00-10:00 ET
7:00-8:00pm PT/10:00-11:00pm ET
(The latter may be rather late for East Coasters, but is available if you want.)
Let me know if you are interested in a chat and the day/time convenient for you.
Looking forward to meeting everyone!
Owner's Clubs
My name is KarenS and I am the host of the Edmunds.com Owner's Clubs. Please let me know what discussions you would like to see in your Club folder. I will create them ASAP. You may want to take a look through the other clubs to get ideas for discussions.
Also, if you are interested in a live chat, I can arrange that for you. All Club chats are set up on
4:00-5:00 pm PT/7:00-8:00pm ET
5:00-6:00pm PT/8:00-9:00pm ET
6:00-7:00pm PT/9:00-10:00 ET
7:00-8:00pm PT/10:00-11:00pm ET
(The latter may be rather late for East Coasters, but is available if you want.)
Let me know if you are interested in a chat and the day/time convenient for you.
Looking forward to meeting everyone!
Owner's Clubs
I've been posting on the Lexus LS topic under Sedans. I took delivery of my LS430 two weeks ago, and I am thrilled with the car. It's Mystic Sea Opalescent/Ecru with the ML/Nav/LLink options. Wheels and suspension are standard. Thanks to Jflx, wbwynn, flint350 and many others for help in making the purchasing decision and also for some C-Best recommendations.
One possible area for this board is a discussion of changes made to the default settings of the basic car and Nav system. Door locks are one popular change. The Edmunds list under profile won't let you select an LS430, only an LS400. You need to update this pull down list.0
edspider1 Posts: 195Yes, Yes. I've been asking for that change for 8 months. Amazing how hard it is for them.0
Hi Karen, is there a message board for IS owners? I looked but could not find one. Picked mine up yesterday, great car! Just curious to find out if any issues with the IS series that I should be concerned about.
LS owners, my apology for taking up your space and time here, thanks!0
As you can see, the LS owners aren't exactly active here in the LS club. Perhaps if I change it to Lexus LS AND IS Owners it will bring in some new blood?
Owners Club0
Actually, that's not a bad idea at all, as long as LS folks don't feel like they are being "down graded" But....International Scout?!?! My father used to have one!!!
Got my IS a couple of days ago, almost picked up a speeding tix on my way home from the dealer, got off with just a friendly warning, the officer must be a Lexus fan. God bless them CHP's! Does
any one know if the IS is considered a sport car? My insurance co. just tripled my policy, even though I have a spotless driving record, siting that the IS is a high risk car. I can see their point, though, the IS WILL do 90+ so effortlessly that you wouldn't even feel it! Time to shop for a new insurance co. ?0
But....International Scout?!?! My father used to have one!!!
Are you inferring that I am OLD???!!! Uhh..well..I guess I am. ;-) That Scout got me through a lot of weather. Since I was working nights at the time, it was comforting knowing I could make it home even if the plows hadn't gotten out yet. But, I do recall that the heater wasn't all that great.
I doubt if they LS folks will put up a fuss, and I will put it on my to-do list.
Owners Clubs0
Oh, Noooooooo! I would't bite the hands that feed me, would I? You were right about the heater in the Scout, always either too hot or too cold! But I should not complaint about it because for 5 years, it was our family car, and the previous car that my father had? A WW II surplus Jeep!0
Hi Everyone,
Just thought I'd say hello and that I'm looking forward to learning more about your experiences with the LS. I picked up my car in January and now have 2700 miles on it. I got the custom package...silver with ecru interior. Believe it or not, there was not a single problem with it....There are a few quirks with the dealer settings that kind of bug me, but I guess I'll get used to them.0
jsb16 Posts: 64Did your sealer have agood stock of the custom luxury vehicles vs. the ultra luxury vehicles? I can't see how the extra $5K for the UL model is worth it since the back seat is little used and then only by my kids. I guess my ideal vehicle would be a 2001 certified custom luxury trade-in since I only drive 8000 miles a year and like the idea of not taking such a big depreciation hit. How much below sticker were you able to purchae the vehicle for?0
The dealer did not have any Custom or Luxury vehicles on premises. However, I told him what I wanted (the Custom pkg) and color (silver/ecru) and he checked the shipments that were coming in from Japan. He found one and made sure I got it. It took about 3 weeks to get the exact car I wanted. Not bad!!! In case you're in CA, I got mine at Thousand Oaks Lexus. Ask for Junius. He was very patient.
My company has a fleet deal with Lexus so I think I got a pretty good price.
I agree about the Ultra. All the back seat extras does nothing for MY comfort...lol.0
jefftp Posts: 11JBianco & JSB16:
I don't know that I agree- the reclining rear seat in the Ultra is pretty sweet... Its the most comfortable you are going to be in a moving vehicle, with the possible exception of a private railcar or the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car Cartier "L". An then just think: No longer would the kids have to be content with rolling the power windows up, and down, and up and down and up and down and... They could recline the seet up and back and up and back and up and back and ...........0
I did seriously consider the Ultra. The back seat does provide serious comfort. But I guess I just didn't need it bad enough. Maybe next time. If the gadgets keep the kids amused, then there's certainly some value add for you.0
phung9 Posts: 2Hello everybody
I am considering of buying a LS400 1990, only one concern is the average maintenance cost of this luxury sedan.
Is there any advise or idea how much it would cost average for this car?
Thks for your time.
c5gold Posts: 4I'm a new member to this discussion.
I pick up a new LS430 UL tomorrow. I've seen several references to default settings for nav system and ??. Does this refer to the dealer's ability to "program" various functions in the car ? On the test drive, I noticed the auto door locks do not unlock (rear) when car is shut down or in Park. Is this programmable ?? What else is ?
Any info would be appreciated.
Dealers can set the door locks to work in the following ways:
1 click of unlock button on key unlocks drivers door (default) or all doors.
Putting car in park unlocks drivers door (default) or all doors
All doors lock when car is put in gear(default) or at 12 mph
Door relock setting 30 sec (default) or 1 min0
vross Posts: 1Thanks for the locks info. I have had my car Black on Black LS 430 for three weeks with no issues. I love this car. However, I would highly suggest the parking assistance accessary feature. I continually bump into pillars as it is difficult to judge the bumper from obsticles and there is no molding on the bumpers. Just a thought....0
pedronc Posts: 3Purchased my Pearl White '93 6 years ago with 42K and now have 110K. Great car, showroom condition with only the minor dash lite recalcitrance at start up during cooler weather which is November thru February here in North Carolina. Just signed up today, so will be an interested and active member. Plan to move up to a 2001 LS430 in a year or so.
billfalik Posts: 4I pick up my Lexus LS 430 in 2 days. I have owned BMW's (7 series) for 20 years. I just was wowed by the comfort of the LS and the quality of the GPS system. Any hints on asking the dealer (Serramonte- Daly City, CA) what to pre program for me. Also, any suggestions on a good hands free cell phone system. The Lexus cell phone at $3,000 is just too pricey.0
bcleepe Posts: 53I don't know much about car cell phone because I don't have one installed on the car. My Nokia hand held works fine with a handfree attachment.
As to the program on the LS, the first change is free. Unless your dealer's pre-program doesn't count to the first free change, I suggest you try out all the manufacturer default settings for a few weeks before deciding to change any. After I have my LS for a few months, I decide to keep the default settings.0
on lock settings and default values.0
josephhkim Posts: 2hi my family recently bought a 2003 ls430 with ultra luxury pakage. We chose it over the 430sclass and the jaguar xj. Was this a good disition. we don't care too much about looks. mostly just technology and reliabiliy.0
dwity Posts: 3I bought my car about 5 years ago with 23k on it. It now has 71k and is in like new condition with three excpetions: lcds on radio are moody, drivers heated seat does not work and front suspension "creaks" when changing directions. I've seen these cars with 300k on them and they are like new. It is truly an impressive automobile that gets 25mpg and goes like hell when you ask it to. Cost of maintenance is very low and the build quality is exceptional.
Best Regards,
kghoshal Posts: 1I am new to the LS Owners forum. However this is my second LS --- had a 1999 LS400 which I turned-in in 2002 to get my current LS430.
Can't tell if I am overly squeamich about my cars but can anyone comment if the LS430 is "noisier" than the previous LS400? The dealer has been more than generous in accommodating my paranoia -- going to the extent last year of even offering to give me a different car after about a month of purchase (I didn't accept that generous offer -- accepting to get different tyres put in instead).
After having driven this car for more than a year now, I still feel there is more wind-noise and road noise than the prevous generation of LS. Any comments?0
wwest Posts: 10,706Are a BIG part of the noise factor. For most quiet do not use all-season, only "summer" tires. I've found bridgestone turanzas to be the best. Oh, and anything above 16" wheels will add a significant level of noise.0
caroline Posts: 2you sound pretty knowledgeable about these 430's and i just joined the club and just took delivery of a 430 and my husband liked it so much he bought the UL to be delivered in a couple of days. we are converts from BMW 7 series. what do you know about bluetooth adapters for cell phones to communicate with the 430. i just bought a DC600 to go on my motorola T720 but i haven't read through the directions yet--i'm still working on the lexus and navigation books. will be grateful for any info you can share.0
Suggest you post this to "LEXUS LS". There have been several postings on BlueTooth. It is my understanding (2004 LS430) is BlueTooth compatible. You need a phone that is blue tooth capable, then register the phone with your navigation system, and start talking.0
Caroline -
My LS is a 2001, so no experience with Bluetooth yet. When the LS goes in off lease my wife is getting a 2005 RX which will have 4th gen Nav /w bluetooth. Hopefully by then Verizon will have a bluetooth phone so I won't have to work with adapters. Rgsw is correct in that quite a few of the 2004 LS owners have been discussing their bluetooth experiences on the Lexus LS board whaic is much more active, and I also recommend going there. Congratulations on your purchases. They are simply marvelous cars. Never looked back at MB once I got a Lexus. I will be getting another LS in 2007 (just leased an SC in an "wild and crazy" moment..also great, but very different. No regrets, but couldn't see having an SC, RX and LS for just my wife and I.0
1933 Posts: 3Hello Everyone just a few annoying problems with the 2004 LS430 that I don't like.I think most people are so exciteded to be driving one of these cars they don't notice anything else.
1.A few seconds of hesitation when accelerating.
Dealer says this has been going on since 1998 and is a engeering problem.
2.When braking heavy and then release brake pedal car continues to brake real hard.
3.Can not start car after parking car with front wheels a little crooked.
4. This car is over engineered.
5. I wish I had my old car back.0
As for the hesitation in accelerating, I had the new transmission put last week and I believe it has a lot less hesitation. Maybe it's just me, but at least I'm happier about it. As for the braking, I can imagine that the computer force that is applied for panic braking does not come off as fast as you do. That's interesting, may require a bit of tweeking? The front wheels crooked gave me quite a start the first time it happened. I jiggled the wheel a bit and it released. I now have an automatic response to jiggle the wheel if the ignition seems like it's tight or locked. Don't even consider it a problem any more. No comment on Over Engineered or wanting my old car back.0
jerry5505 Posts: 13Hi! Just wondering how you like your LS430 by now? I have had mine since last Nov and like it very much. I had a 1997 LS 400 before. The only problem I have is I don't think it rides as smooth as my 97. They tell me its because of the 16" tires. One thing I like is the service it has given me. In the past I have also had a 2000 RX300 and a 2002 RX300 with no problems. I think Lexus is a very well made car.0


text:
Coast to Coast: The Eagle Has Landed
We arrived in Cape Canaveral around 3 PM EDT on Wednesday June 3. We've been super busy settling into our oceanfront condo, so I haven't had time to post until now.
Until we find a home, we're renting a fully furnished 1,600 square foot fourth floor condo in a complex on the Atlantic Ocean. Sticker shock?! It's $1,600 per month.
I walked out to the beach this morning and shot some photos, which you can see below.
We finally got high-speed Internet Thursday night. This morning we got our advanced cable TV package, specifically with MLB Extra Innings so I can watch the Angels. It'll take a while, though, to get used to the time zone change. Home games will be on at 10 PM EDT so I'll have to record the games and watch them the next morning.
The first game tonight was the Angels at Detroit. It's the local telecast, so I get to watch my buddy Mario Impemba. Mario was the Angels' radiocaster in the late 1990s through 2001, when he left to accept the TV job with his hometown Detroit Tigers. It's pretty eerie watching Mario calling our game instead of the Angels broadcasters.
The weather here is as I hoped — predictably unpredictable.
It's rained each day so far. Today we were at Merritt Square Mall leaving the movie theater when a low black menacing cloud starting moving toward us. The wind really picked up, and a few minutes later it was pouring. It was that way for nearly an hour.
But it made for a perfect evening. We went for a walk on the beach, up to the jetty where the cruise ships leave Port Canaveral for the open sea. North of that are the old launch pads used during the Mercury and Gemini era in the 1960s. And beyond that are the Shuttle launch pads.
A launch is scheduled for 7:13 AM EDT on June 13. I hope to videotape the launch and post it online.
Speaking of videos … A friend who works in the Astronaut Office at Kennedy Space Center e-mailed me two video clips.
You may recall that last week Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base because of bad weather here at the Cape. When that happens, NASA flies the orbiter back to KSC on a 747. It's quite a show, especially when they arrive in town.
The 747 flies up and down the coast and circles KSC so everyone can have a good look. This video was shot by an employee in the parking lot of the Administration building. Click Here to watch.
Have you ever wondered what the view of a landing is like from inside the cockpit? This video is from a camera mounted in the orbiter as it lands. Click Here to watch.
Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection are required to watch the video clips.
For more on space events, I recommend the Flame Trench blog on the Florida Today web site.
Anyway, here are some photos from the first couple days.
The view from the condo balcony looking left (east) to the Atlantic Ocean.
Looking back at the condo from the beach. We're in the building to the right, fourth floor, the open balcony facing towards the building on the left.
The view from the beach looking north towards the jetty. In the distance are the Delta unmanned rocket launch pads and the Cape Canaveral lighthouse. Notice the beach is fairly empty. Most of the tourist and college crowds go further south to Cocoa Beach. Here it's mostly locals and retirees.
A flock of gulls take flight on the beach. In addition to the sea gulls, pelicans are very common. All other sorts of creatures are about; I saw a racoon this evening in the rocks by the jetty, and a couple of stray cats.
The Merritt Square Mall parking lot as a squall passed over the island.


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OMG! I can't believed it happened but it did? Today is Easter and it is celebrated by Christians worldwide as the resurrection or ascension of Jesus Christ. And, if I had not had my unique Afro-experience. I would be celebrating Christ's resurrection as well, but I did have that unique experience and it changed my perspective on it all.
To make a long story short, my Afro-experience began when I was searching for God. I had already read a number of books, so I knew already of the so-called "pagan" origins of Christmas, Easter, St. John the Baptist Day, etc. and how these holidays related to the solstices and equinoxes. I understood what it meant intellectually, but when I met my padrino, a little black man from Cuba. He totally gave me a different perspective on the whole picture.
Papa, I called him, was a babalawo in the Lukumi/Santeria religion, a member of the all-male exclusive Abakwa society and an omo of Ellegua. Like many practicing santeros (practitioner of Lukumi/Santeria), he was also a Catholic and his Afro-religious beliefs were blended with Catholicism. A concept that is very hard for a lot of us that weren't raised in North America to understand.
Anyway, one day I remember while talking to Papa he told me that it was his custom (from how he learned the religion) that when it is Easter, to place white kerchiefs over the faces of the orishas/saints/spirits to recognize the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, for an Apostolic Pentecostal, preacher kid, that raised in North America, it was very hard for me see how religious syncretism between the African and Christian ideologies could exist. So, placing anything on an object and even having such an icon was foreign to me. Fortunately, Papa somewhat seeing my confusion displayed on my face, with a smirk told me to write it down in my libro (spiritual notebook) anyway, like he knew one day it would all make sense. So, I did just that.
In time I lost contact with Papa but as the years went by I would on occasion read what I had transcribed from Papa in my libro, which helped me in the lonely times. During the time as I made my transition from the spiritual intellectual to practicing spiritual principles. I learned that the Catholic church was well-known for constructing cathedrals on top of indigenous religious sites, which helped to strengthen the Church's agenda but it also encouraged religious syncretism. Some of the earlier churches were constructed in…Guess? That's right Egypt, which were influenced by the Copts (Christianized Egyptians), who derived a bulk of their spiritual practices from their earlier ancient Egyptian or Kamitic ancestors. In fact, some scholars are now in agreement that most of the Christian ideologies about angels was directly due to the Copts, but that's another post.
Anyway, when my relationship with my spirits finally began to blossom from intellectualizing them to seeing them as archetypes that represent the multi-facets of life. Osar (Asar, Ausar or Osiris) the Kamitic Obatala or Oxala became the spirit that represented the lessons learned from Kamitic communalism and ideas about peace and unity. It occurred after reading the Story of Osar so many times that it began to become a metaphorical tool used by my Spirit.
That's when it happened. It wasn't by design (at least I didn't plan it)… All I know is that my Afro-spirit took over and the next thing I know Osar and Jesus were combined, because spirits aren't supposed to represent the perfect aspects of life, but the various ways one can choose to live their life. Osar is the spirit that truly wants peace, prosperity and knowledge for all people regardless of who they are and where an individual comes from, just like Jesus. Destruction, sin, violence, war, etc. are all due to ignorance, lack of self-discipline, hatred, jealousy, etc., which are the by-products of Set, the envious and youngest brother of Osar, who later became Set-an or Satan in Christian lore.
So when Jesus was crucified by the Romans, my Afro-spirit saw it as Osar being murdered by Set. When Jesus tells his disciples to eat of the bread and wine in remembrance of him. You guessed it right… My Afro-spirit saw it as Osar's body that was hacked up into 14 pieces by Set (See the Story of Osar), to prevent Osar from being "RE-MEMBERED." Can, I get an Amen?
I didn't know that this religious blending had occurred within me until I went to church today. I only did it out of respect for my mom. (Yeah, my faith is strong like that, besides I am not heartless… got to meet the people where they are at. Smile.) Anyway… they did communion and I didn't want to participate but Spirit told me to do so anyway. When, I did…that's when it was confirmed to me and that's when I witnessed religious syncretism.
The next thing I knew, this salt-less, hard, tasteless cracker was indeed the body of Lord Osar and the bitter red wine, which by the way all alcoholic beverages are taboo to pure spirits of the white cloth – Osar, Obatala, Oxala, the Dravidian Tara, etc.. When I drank the wine, it reminded me of the beverage that led to Osar's death. The partaking of this ritual gave me a closer connection to Osar because it reminded me of my responsibilities to my community and the peace that Osar expects from me.
After communion, the congregation sung a portion of a Christian hymn by Alfred H. Ackley called He Lives. Like many Black churches, they never sing the whole song only the most pertinent portion of the hymn. The words are….
I serve a risen Savior
He's in the world today
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy,
I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him
He's always near.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and He talks with me
Along life's narrow way.
He lives, He live, salvation to impart
You ask me how I know He lives:
He lives within my heart.
Religious Syncretism occurs whenever you begin making comparisons with another culture's religious perspective. We naturally learn by associating new ideas with old ideas that we have in our personal spirit/subconscious. So, what this means is that there is nothing new under the sun. Yes, you ask me how I know Osar lives…it is because He lives within my heart. Sidebar…This means that the revolution against Set is truly on. SMILE
Happy Easter. SMILE,
Ancestrally yours.


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UniFormat™ 2010 edition is a common elemental classification for the description, economic analysis and management of a building for its life cycle. Elements, often referred to as systems or assemblies, are major components common to most buildings that are identified as performing a given function regardless of the design specification, construction method, or materials used.
UniFormat is most often seen in the hands of estimators and design teams, who use it as a cost analysis format or arrangement for early project design documentation. Because it breaks a facility into the systems that perform distinct functions – shell, foundation, interiors, etc. -- without naming the specific solutions used to achieve them, it provides a consistent method for tracking and estimating costs and evaluating options even before the design team has finished developing drawings and specifications.
For more information or to purchase the UniFormat™ 2010 got to www.SpecMarket.com


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With the excitement of the launches of the HD 6870 and GeForce GTX 580 cards over, the focus is still on the price/performance of the under $200 price range for video cards. The choices for consumers on this "Sweet Spot" of the market where over 3x the number of cards are sold versus the highest end cards above that price point are important. NVIDIA has chosen to fight with their GeForce GTX 470 and 460 cards.
Micro Star International is a Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards and video cards. They release new video cards based upon NVIDIA and AMD video chips over the last few years. The GeForce GTX 470 card was released along with the NVIDIA GTX 480 card in March. With the announcement of the GTX 580 and AMD HD 6870, NVIDIA decided to compete using the GTX 470 card. Today's review is on the MSi N470GTX TWIN FROZR II card.


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Commercial, Military, Personal/Corporate, Products, Public Service, Regulatory
By James T. McKenna | April 1, 2008
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Developers of the X2 Technology Demonstrator are drawing on components and systems from other aircraft to expedite prototyping of the high-speed aircraft.
The Sikorsky Aircraft development team has been striving to achieve a first flight of the coaxial main-rotor helicopter, a milestone delayed (due to a variety of factors) by more than a year from the original target of late 2006. Nonetheless, Sikorsky executives elected to interrupt that effort to bring its sole prototype to Heli-Expo 2008 in Houston in February.
Program leaders gave Rotor & Wing editors a sneak peek at the flight test aircraft before unveiling it to intrigued Heli-Expo attendees. They reviewed the pedigree of the prototype's components and updated us on the development work. Their update made clear that much remains to be done before the demonstrator could be cleared for first flight. Sikorsky's latest target for that milestone going into Heli-Expo was March 31. "We've got work to do," said Peter Grant, Sikorsky's advanced programs manager.
Sikorsky executives chose to trade development time for the opportunity to assess commercial operators' interest in X2-based aircraft and plumb the uses they might make of such aircraft. The demonstration program aims to field an aircraft that can cruise at 250 kt with low vibration while retaining a traditional helicopter's capabilities for hover, confined-area, rough-field, low-speed maneuver, and nap-of-the-earth operations, and autorotation.
"We're really looking forward to gauging the reaction from the audience," Grant said. That will help "guide our direction as we conceptualize future products." Sikorsky will pursue the same conversations with potential military customers, he said. That will help it decide whether the launch X2 product will be a commercial or military one.
X2 team members were nervous about transporting the lone demonstrator from Sikorsky's rapid-prototyping center of excellence at its Schweizer Aircraft subsidiary to the exhibit halls in Houston. They secured internal systems as much as possible, they said, to prevent damage during transport. They also kept a wary eye on forklifts racing by the aft propulsor and rigid main-rotor blade tips and cherry-pickers moving up and down as exhibits rose around the prototype. It remained shrouded until Sikorsky President Jeff Pino unveiled it on Feb. 24, Heli-Expo's first day. It survived the show unharmed.
"We're helping the marketing guys expose the aircraft," said Kevin Bredenbeck, Sikorsky's director of test and evaluation and chief test pilot, of the value of bringing the prototype to the show.
"A picture is one thing," he said. "You come up and look at the aircraft and it's the real thing. The blades that are on that aircraft, those are the blades."
The demonstrator had accumulated about 4 hr and 22 starts in its current configuration prior to the trip to Houston, team leaders said. Other engine starts and ground runs had been done last year. They were focused on interfaces with the LHTEC T800-LHT-801 engine, while the most recent ones have focused on power-train interfaces.
Sikorsky's plan calls for about 10 hr of "bare-head" ground runs, without the main-rotor blades installed, followed by about 65 hr with those blades on. Then the aircraft would have to be run on the ground for about 10 hr with no changes to its flight-control or integrated-power system software before it could be cleared for the first flight.
The team was about halfway through bare-head runs before Heli-Expo. "We're probably a couple of weeks away from actually getting the blades on the aircraft and turning the blades" for test purposes, Bredenbeck said.
The aircraft at Heli-Expo was the real one, though it hadn't yet run with all its components. "This is how you know the aircraft is real," said Steve Chisarik, Sikorsky's X2 program manager, pointing to the engine exhaust. "There's carbon on the pipe."
The prototype is an amalgam of other aircraft's components. Its main wheels come from the Sikorsky S-76 and the pitch bearings from the CH-53E. It uses seats and an oil cooler blower from the S-92. The aft propulsor supplied by Aero Composites is based on a racing propeller for a fixed-wing aircraft. The engine was developed by the LHTEC partnership of Rolls-Royce and Honeywell for the cancelled Sikorsky/Boeing RAH-66 Comanche program for the U.S. Army.
"For the things that are not pertinent to the X2 technology itself, we use existing parts," said Steve Weiner, Sikorsky's chief engineer for the X2.
Most importantly, Bredenbeck said, X2 is building on the research done for the XH-59A Advancing Blade Concept aircraft Sikorsky developed in the 1970s for the Army, U.S. Navy, and NASA. "The math and the physics are done" as a result of that work, he said.
While that aircraft demonstrated a conventional helicopter could fly at high speeds, it was hobbled by extreme vibration at those speeds. Sikorsky officials are confident they can overcome that problem with Sikorsky's fly-by-wire system and an active vibration control system from Moog.
One objective is to simplify management of the aircraft in flight. While the XH-59A used a variety of analog gauges and controls, "we got it down to two controls," Bredenbeck said: a conventional collective developed for the X2 and a sidestick controller for cyclic control that also is borrowed from Comanche. Conventional pedals can be used to control turns in a hover or the pilot can use the beeper switch on the sidestick.
The X2 has two "dumb" displays. "Everything that you need to do from an advancing-blade concept point of view is sitting there," Bredenbeck said.
The main rotor blades are a blend of Sikorsky-proprietary airfoils, Grant said. Engineers calculate that, with the X2 flying at 265 kt, the retreating blade "is going to see upwards of 80 percent of its flow reversed," he said. "So that led to the need for double-ended airfoils close to the hub as part of our scheme for reducing drag due to the rotor hub."
The ultra-rigid blades were designed by Sikorsky based on XH-59A data and manufactured by Eagle Aviation Technologies in Hampton, Va.
Roughly 90 percent of the X2's power is expected to go to the aft propulsor at cruise speeds, "when the main rotor is pretty close to autorototation," Weiner said.


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When the receipts are tallied for "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," heroine Katniss Everdeen and her famed arrows will likely hit a box-office bull's-eye. The film starring Jennifer Lawrence is forecast by some to sell as much as $180 million in tickets for its U.S. debut this weekend, which would be the biggest opening of the year.
If it delivers as expected, "Catching Fire" will buck the recent trend in which films based on young adult books have fizzled.
In the last 18 months, Hollywood adaptations of "Ender's Game," "Beautiful Creatures," "Mortal Instruments," "The Host" and others have failed to ignite with audiences, scuttling hopes of moneymaking new franchises.
So why is the "Hunger Games" different?
PHOTOS: 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Los Angeles premiere
Like these movies, the "Hunger Games" films are based on a very popular literary franchise. But not all bestsellers are created equal — the Suzanne Collins books, like the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" titles that preceded it, are outright publishing phenomena that boast sales in the tens of millions of copies or higher.
Collins' dystopian trilogy, which depicts a heroine coerced into a brutal kill-or-be-killed competition, has appealed to males and females alike, which isn't always the case in the young adult genre.
"'The Hunger Games' is popular with both boys and girls almost equally, and I think that's because the story has a lot more adventure in it," said Maria Nikolajeva, a professor of children's literature at the University of Cambridge.
Collins' work also appeals to older audiences, giving it an edge over many other young-adult other properties. "Many of these [other] books are big sellers to children but they're not known by adults," said Diane Roback, children's book editor at the trade publication Publishers Weekly. "So when these [other books] come to theaters, for a lot of the audience they're really like new properties."
PHOTOS: Jennifer Lawrence's 'Hunger Games' red-carpet looks
Still, just because a book is a hit with a broad spectrum of readers doesn't always mean it will find success on screen. Other mega-bestsellers such as "The Lovely Bones," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Time Traveler's Wife" have become film flops.
To make sure adult filmgoers are interested in "The Hunger Games," studio Lionsgate has brought on pedigreed older actors, including Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tucci, who had juicy roles in the first movie and return for the second. They are joined in the new film by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and a pair of Oscar-winning screenwriters, Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire") and Michael DeBruyn (a pseudonym for "Little Miss Sunshine's" Michael Arndt), lending the movie a more grown-up vibe.
One of the film's younger actresses believes the franchise's more mature orientation has caused her generation to latch on too.
"I think [young filmgoers] have been hungry to be treated like adults for a while," said Jena Malone, who plays fellow Katniss competitor Johanna. "They're like, 'I get dragons and wizards and all this stuff, but what about actually what I'm going through, and the struggle of a real human living in society today?'"
PHOTOS: Jennifer Lawrence: Life in pictures
The young-adult category has generally been difficult for producers. While all movies offer a fair amount of risk, young-adult films, say those who make them, yield a unique challenge.
"With a YA movie, if you don't connect with a core audience, you often have nowhere else to go," said Andrew Kosove, principal at Alcon Entertainment and producer of "Beautiful Creatures," a romantic fantasy that grossed just $19 million at the domestic box office last winter. "It's the narrowest kind of green. If you miss, you're in the water or a bunker."
Kosove, whose producing credits include hits such as "The Blind Side" and "Prisoners," called "Creatures" the most unsuccessful movie he's made and said he wouldn't make another. "To really do these movies well you have to understand not just filmmaking but teen culture, like which actor is hot one month and which one is hot the next," he said. "I didn't understand teen girls when I was in high school, so I certainly don't understand them as a 42-year-old man."
The new "Hunger Games" is also given a boost by its emergent star, Lawrence. Since the first film was released, the 23-year-old won a lead actress Oscar for her role in "Silver Linings Playbook." Her Q-score — which measures the appeal and familiarity of celebrities to consumers — was a 5 ahead of the first "Hunger Games" movie. Two years later it had jumped to a 20 — far exceeding even the 12 that Kristen Stewart had when the final "Twilight" was released last year.
PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club
Though "Catching Fire" is now destined to become a blockbuster, it was only a little over a year ago that the fate of the project looked uncertain. Shortly after the first movie became a hit in spring 2012, director Gary Ross opted out, prompting a furious scramble to replace him. Producers eventually settled on Francis Lawrence, who, as the director primarily known for the Will Smith zombie tale "I Am Legend," had little experience with YA properties.
Despite the struggles of the YA category, the movie business is going back for more: In February, Lionsgate will release "Divergent," another hot dystopian property it hopes will follow in the footsteps of "The Hunger Games."
With the next "Hunger Games" movie, "Mockingjay Part 1," set to hit theaters a year from now, and a fourth film planned for 2015, is there room for another franchise?
Not right now, said Heather Duval, a 23-year-old fan from New Hampshire.
"It was 'Harry Potter,' then 'Twilight,' and now 'Hunger Games," said Duval, who traveled to Los Angeles for the "Catching Fire" premiere Monday. "Nothing will top this until it ends. There can only be one object of our fandom at a time."
PHOTOS: Faces to watch 2014 | Movies
ENVELOPE: The latest awards buzz
DOCUMENTARIES: 10 best of 2013, and a new crop in 2014
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I hope my english is not to bad After day's of struggeling to make mdm plugin work I found the soloution for me.
I gott the error "cant connect to z-push server" the reason was the certificate (letsencrypt).
The first problem is, when connecting over localhost or 127.0.0.1 the certificate is not valid because of the not matching domain name.
After searching the web for hours and hours here the tip for all with the same problem:
Edit /usr/share/kopano-webapp/plugins/mdm/php/class.pluginmdmmodule.php
Search for "return new SoapClient"
and add "'stream_context'=> stream_context_create(array('ssl'=> array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>fal se)))"
Now mdm accept every certificate
Maybe a parameter in the config would help e.g. Hope it helps


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Graduate Studies
Department of Dietetics, Fashion Merchandising, and Hospitality 2011-2012
Chairperson: Karen R. Greathouse
Office: Knoblauch Hall 140
Telephone: (309) 298-1085 Fax: (309) 298-2688
E-mail: email@example.com
Website: wiu.edu/dfmh
Graduate Faculty
- Karen R. Greathouse, Ph.D., Kansas State University
- Erskine R. Smith, Ph.D., University of Tennessee
Associate Graduate Faculty
Associate Professors
- Sheryl Boston, M.S., Western Illinois University
- Lorri Kanauss, M.S., Western Illinois University
- Janice King, M.S., Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
- Laura H. McArthur, Ph.D., University of California-Davis
Assistant Professors
- Susan Creasey, M.B.A., Western Illinois University
- Janet Evenson, Ph. D., University of Nebraska
- Heejun Kim, Ph.D., University of Illinois-Carbondale
- Carol Longley, Ph.D., Iowa State University
- Mijeong Noh, Ph.D., Auburn University
Course Descriptions
450G Professional Workshops in Family and Consumer Sciences (Home Economics). (1–3) These courses are intended to meet the needs of Family and Consumer Sciences majors and minors and others interested in the field and are offered in the following topic areas: (1) healthy cooking, (2) herbal/dietary supplements, (3) sports nutrition, and (4) weight management.
Table of Contents
- General Information
- Campus and Facilities
- University Services
- Special Programs
- Admission
- Academic Guidelines
- Graduate School Policies
- Costs and Financial Assistance
- Programs of Study
- Integrated Baccalaureate/Master's Degrees
- Post-Baccalaureate Certificates
- Other Departments Offering Courses for Graduate Credit
- Index


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Girl Scouts of Nassau County's Blog offers the latest news, trends and fun happening within Girl Scouts! Girl Scouting Builds Girls of Courage, Confidence and Character Who Make the World a Better Place.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Bullying: It's not just someone else's problem by Guest Blogger James Langan
Bullying is not just someone else's problem; it affects all of us. Every child has a right to an education, and bullying denies that right. A child constantly subjected to fear, threats, humiliation, and physical abuse is in no condition to learn. The school thus becomes, in the bullied child's mind, a prison; and the child's psychological state is reduced to that of a terrorized captive – whose main goal is not learning, but rather escaping from the incessant torture committed at the bus stop, in the playground, on the Internet, in the cafeteria, and even in the classroom. Emotional and physical survival become the only priorities, and all else gets cast to the wayside. In extreme cases, suicide becomes a distinct possibility. Of course, the bullied child understands none of this – anxiety not being particularly conducive to reflection.
The experience of being bullied is both immediate and concrete. In any case, prolonged exposure to bullying can cause life-long scars and the permanent destruction of the child's true potential. An uneducated child will eventually become a burden to us all, in one way or another.
But bullying also spawns other victims: Unrepentant bullies who are not put in check before it's too late become deprived of the possibility of understanding, appreciating, and respecting the rights and the dignity of others. This puts them on a collision course with a lifetime of pain and suffering when inevitably thrust into the world of adult relationships – be they within the context of a marriage, the law, a job, or common social situations. In addition, the bully's moral development will be delayed if nothing is done since bullying others is clearly a symptom of the inability to distinguish between right and wrong and that it is simply wrong to harm others. Bullies must be made to understand that by humiliating others they actually are demeaning themselves much more so than they could ever imagine. Each and every child has the right to strive for his or her maximum level of development in all domains; and we, as adults, are responsible to make sure that that happens. That is the main point of all that we do.
Finger-pointing will not solve the problem: Parents blame the schools, and schools blame the parents, and the suffering continues unabated. Only when both sides mutually agree to a cease-fire and begin to work together in good faith will the end of bullying be in sight. Politicians pontificate, and lawmakers legislate, and all manner of measures are proposed to leave the impression that the situation is under control and that the guilty will be punished. It is indeed a lovely show that accomplishes nothing. So something else is needed: An ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, respecting the dignity of others needs to be part of the curriculum in the education of every child at the earliest– in the home and at school. This will take some effort, but is far preferable to condemning bullies and the bullied alike to a lifetime of pain and lost opportunities, never knowing what could have been.
None of us want our children to be bullied or to be bullies; instead, we want our children to be kind, compassionate human beings with the education and moral development needed to build a better tomorrow. So talk to your children, their teachers, the school administrators, and even to other parents. This is not about "Us versus Them." But rather, about working together as members of a community with the common goal of putting an end to the destruction of our children's lives. And to ensure that they prosper and receive every chance to fulfill their true human potential, as is their right.
James Langan is an Information Technology Administrator at Girl Scouts of Nassau County. In addition, he also works with his Girl Scout colleagues to support language translation.
James has followed the Council's work on Critical Issues and is passionate about spreading awareness on the various issues facing children today. We look forward to hearing from him on other topics again soon.
3 comments:
- Tom WoskaSeptember 9, 2010 at 8:01 PM
Well said James. And so true.ReplyDelete
Excellent post James. Thank you!ReplyDelete
Thank you to Girl Scouts for addressing this ever growing issue. I'd like to add two very important issues:ReplyDelete
First: Zero tolerance is the only acceptable answer with bullies. Too many parents and teachers wrongly assume that 'boys will be boys', 'they'll grow out of it soon', or other reasons to not deal with the behavior. Parents of children who are bullied need to speak up and speak up loudly until their child is safe.
We also need to teach our children that watching, egging the bully on, and not telling what happened are harmful as well. Bullies draw power from an audience and rely on the hesitance of students to 'tattle'.
We as parents need to understand that bullying now is not the same as bullying when we were in school. The intimidation and emotional cruelty some students endure in this day and age not only causes fear, anxiousness, and declining grades in school, but have effects that last well into adulthood.


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You can view the page at http://www.petgroomerforums.com/chat...-Did-the-Math!
You can view the page at http://www.petgroomerforums.com/chat...-Did-the-Math!
Most questions regarding GroomerTALK are answered in the FAQ section, or in the Board Help Forum. Thanks for coming to PetGroomer.com http://www.petgroomer.com.
Wow, thanks for that...sure made it easy!!!
Finally! I got tired of taking my shoes off to do the math!
"We are all ignorant--we merely have different areas of specialization."~Anonymous
People, PLEASE..It's ONLY a website!~Me
This is awesome! I am going to write this down for my reference binder, thank you!
I lost mine glad I found this link.
Me too, m y boss was wrong.
Found this again, thanks.
My boss at one time didn't know the difference between 20 to 1 or 50 to 1. Our eyes would roll. Sometimes the shampoos were thick as mud, and next time watery as my eyes with an allergy.
OH good I needed a new chart.
We laminated ours and I posted by mix area.


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To qualify for CPO status, each
previously owned Ford vehicle must be less than six model years old and have
fewer than 120,000 kilometers on the odometer. Peace of mind comes with the
172-point inspection, a 12 month/20,000 km Comprehensive Limited Warranty*,
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Every Ford Certified Pre-Owned vehicle
comes with a 12-month, 20,000 - Comprehensive Limited Warranty* covering more
than 1000 components, including engine, transmission and more.


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Dinner in Prison
Loading Map....
20:00 - 23:00
Medicean fortress – Prison
Rampa di Castello 4
Cene Galeotte – Dinner in prison
As every year, Volterra's prison is exceptionally opened to everybody in occasion of the so called Cene Galeotte, literally Dinner in Prison, with famous chefs who are going to cook helped by the prisoners.
Price: 35,00 euros.
The whole price will be devolved to the "Il cuore si scioglie Foundation".
For further information e booking :
Argonauta Viaggi: Tel: 0552345040


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Web Searching Tips
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A summary of how to do advanced searches with the major search engines, including field searching.
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How to say search engines in major languages, such as French and German.
Under the Hood of Search Engines
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How Search Engines Rank Web Pages


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Dear Friends there is a strong rumour about enhancement of retirement age to 62 years. As per the news available in staff Corner.com, decision will be taken today's Cabinet Meeting and Prime Minsiter will announce the same during Indepenence Day Speech. Please see below the extract of the post or logon to http://staffcorner.com/blog/2009/08/...-raised-to-62/
Retirement age of central government staff to be raised to 62?
Written by Administrator on August 13th, 2009
The government is actively considering raising the retirement age of all central government employees, including those in the armed forces, from the present 60 to 62 years.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has submitted a report to the prime minister outlining all the pros and cons of the move, including the "cascading effects" on government employment and the huge savings, at least for two years, on account of retirement payouts.
If the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the prime minister find the arguments forwarded by the finance ministry credible and convincing, the announcement may come as early as August 15, as part of Manmohan Singh's Independence Day speech.
The Cabinet may discuss the matter tomorrow.
Although the finance ministry is making a strong case for the move, the DoPT is taking time to make up its mind, possibly out of consideration for the 1979 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and other central services. Officers of the 1979 batch have been empanelled for promotion to the ranks of additional secretary and secretary but can take up their posts only after the present incumbents retire. If an announcement extending the retirement age comes before November, a batch of empanelled joint secretaries stand to lose their future ranks. In turn, this will also affect those who joined the central administrative services in 1980. The DoPT also says that the age profile of Indian bureaucrats, instead of becoming younger, will become older, out of tune with the rest of the world.
For the finance ministry, the gains from the move are clear. The pension payout of all armed forces personnel of the rank of Lieutenant General and equivalent who were to retire this year will be postponed by 24 months; the government will also defer by two years the liability of paying pension to more than 100,000 employees. While salaries will have to continue to be paid, this will be cheaper than paying upfront benefits like gratuity.
This is all the more important given the government's other financial liabilities on account of stimulus spending and one drought, though the effects of the latter will kick in only in the next fiscal year. The fiscal deficit is 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product this year and a two-year lag in paying pensions will help in bridging this.
In 1998, the National Democratic Alliance government had raised the retirement age from 58 to 60, a move that benefitted 90,000 government servants and 50,000 defence personnel. At the time, the logic was: the retirement of 140,000 employees would have cost Rs 5,200 crore whereas paying salaries cost only Rs 1,493 crore.
That move came in the wake of the 5th Pay Commission report which had just been implemented by the then United Front government. In 2003, the government also right-sized the central government employee workforce by 30 per cent.
Every time the Centre announces an increase or concession on pay packages, both public-sector units and state governments follow suit. If the prime minister does decide to raise the retirement age, state governments and Public Sector Units (PSUs) will mirror this action. This has its own implications for many cash-strapped states like Punjab.
If the decision is finally taken, it will only be the third time the government will have raised the retirement age. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister to have increased the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 following the 1962 war with China. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government did it a second time in 1998.


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When you create a Directory Proxy Server instance, a default self-signed certificate is automatically provided. If you want to create a self-signed certificate with non-default settings, use this procedure.
The procedure creates the public and private key pair for a server certificate, where the public key is signed by Directory Proxy Server. A self-signed certificate is valid for three months.
You can use DSCC to perform this task. For information, see Directory Service Control Center Interface and the DSCC online help.
To create a non-default self-signed certificate for Directory Proxy Server, type:
$ dpadm add-selfsign-cert instance-path cert-alias
where cert-alias is the name of the self-signed certificate.
For example, you could create a certificate called my-self-signed-cert as follows:
$ dpadm add-selfsign-cert /local/dps my-self-signed-cert
For a description of all command options, see the dpadm(1M) man page or type dpadm add-selfsign-cert --help at the command line.


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St. Paul Church Picnic 2012 is history, but God again blessed us with a beautiful, warm, breezy day in the park.
My list of thank yous must start at the ministry center with Tammy and especially Mandy. You helped by guiding me in the right direction with all the rules and regulations. Sister Mary Emma was again my moral support and that meant a lot. Valeria and Vickie were helpful in the various planning stages.
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Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
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Hello dear friends and random wanderers,
I'm introducing my first ever completed Android application into the wild. It is called Nebula Live Wallpaper and is basically a bunch of dots made to look like outer space (as best I can). I want friends who have android and know how to download and install unsigned apps outside of the market to check out this apk and put it through the paces. Read more…
Smashing Melons Like Your Head
Well, I played my first live performance in about 4 years last night. A big thanks to Buenos Airwaves and the people of the Sycamore House in Harrisburg. It was a blast! Hopefully I'll have some pictures up.
I'm learning a lot about the music I make and the genre I play in. When people ask me what kind of music I make I have a bunch of different answers ranging from electronic to laptop rock. Playing music using computer software and various electronic peripherals is fun and affords infinite creative control, but performance-wise I find it difficult to engage the crowd. When playing on stage behind a guitar there is a raw energy of always connecting with the instrument that feeds the excitement of the crowd. Playing behind a computer makes me feel more like a drummer – trapped behind a bevy of equipment, separating my energy and crowds energy. I really have to learn to adjust my thinking from being a guitar player who isn't used to having that wall to being more like a drummer and going nuts like Animal to project a massive amount of crowd enraging energy. Read more…
Tropic Face & Ethereal Waves
So it's 100% official and here's the flier. You can get the full sized at flickr to spread around or use this one. The shindig is going to be September 30th 8pm @ the sycamore house (221 N. Front St., Harrisburg, PA). Cover will be $5 for charity (see the sycamore house site for more details).
Just to celebrate, here's another new track from the upcoming album.


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Thursday, August 7, 2014
Dave and Shelly's Pictures from July and August 2014
Posted by Paquette's Camp at 9:01 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Paquette's Camp is a vacation spot near Chapleau, ON. We offer fishing, hunting, and ATVing, as well as sight-seeing, wildlife viewing, berry picking, swimming, kayaking, and so much more! A great place to get away, we're family oriented and children friendly. Bring the whole family for a vacation they'll never forget! Check us out at www.paquettescamp.com and don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paquetteshuntingandfishing


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Finance & Development, September 1989
- Financial Systems and Development
- Restructuring Distressed Financial Systems
- Reinvigorating the Debt Strategy
- Recent Experience with the Debt Strategy
- Approaches to Debt Reduction
- The Effect of External Debt on Investment
- Structural Policies in Industrial Countries
- Implementing Structural Reforms in Industrial Countries
- Competition as a Tool of LDC Industrial Policy
- Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa
- The Price of Postponed Adjustment
- Guest Article: The Critical Role for Official Development Assistance in the 1990s
- Major Determinants of Long-term Growth in LDCs
- The Bank and the Environment: Questions & Answers
- Technical Change and Productivity
- Books
- Books in brief
- Letters
The Bank and the Environment: Questions & Answers
- International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept.
- Published Date:
- January 1989
Show Summary Details
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A Burning Issue
A Burning Issue
Palm oil shows promise as a biofuel, but the environmental cost of production can be high.
Tour guide Asok Kesavan has brought his multinational group of tourists to see some of the oil palm plantations in the countryside in his homeland, Malaysia. He asks his driver to stop the bus and the tourists unload briefly for a walk through the rows of palm. There are many, many rows. "This is not a family business. These are big private companies and Malaysia is the largest explorer and producer of palm oil," Kesavan says, pointing out the grape-like clusters of ripening fruit that nestle between trunk and branches like an overflowing treasure chest. The oil is used for everything from margarine to cosmetics, and it is exported worldwide. "We are the only country to sell oil to the Middle East," he jokes.
Palm oil is one of the world's leading agricultural commodities. The two biggest producers, Malaysia and Indonesia, account for 84 percent of the world's palm oil production and ring up sales of US$11 billion annually. But as Asok Kesavan knows, lucrative crops can bring trouble. He has seen the fires and the smog, just like his countrymen and millions of others in Indonesia, Singapore, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Plantation owners slash and burn existing vegetation to clear the way for more and more palm, rows and rows sown in place of once-lavish and ancient rainforests. The forests, obliterated by fire, are replaced by hectares of monoculture, and the ground beneath is kept clear of even shade-tolerant native species.
Bad as it already is, this situation may be set to worsen. The world can only use so much lipstick but its appetite for energy seems insatiable, and palm oil may be the Next Big Thing in energy. As biofuels take center stage and governments mandate their use-ironically for the environmental benefits-additional forest destruction, and the attendant loss of wildlife and proliferation of smoke-filled skies, are likely to ensue.
Hot Oil
The World Rainforest Movement (WRM) believes that plans for new plantations in Indonesia are already in the works. "Existing regional plans have already allotted a further 20 million hectares for oil palm plantations, mainly in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Papua," WRM noted in a recent bulletin, "and new plans are currently under discussion to establish the world's largest palm oil plantation of 1.8 million hectares in the heart of Borneo."
Ellie Brown, lead author of the U.S. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report Cruel Oil: How Palm Oil Harms Health, Rainforest & Wildlife, says the owners of these palm oil plantations will be largely either big business or government. "In Indonesia, half of the plantations are owned by private companies, which are often part of large conglomerates; the remainder are owned either by the state (17 percent) or by smallholders (33 percent), she writes. "Smallholders are farmers who own a few acres each in a section of a large company's plantation. Although they tend their own oil palm trees, they depend on the company for planting, pesticides, fertilizers, sale of the palm fruits (at a price set by the company), and initial processing in the company's on-site mill." And in countries where state-owned land is the norm, many of these plantations are affiliated with the state. "Especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, which have the lion's share of the global market, national governments have made mammoth tracts of land readily available for companies to establish oil palm plantations," writes Brown.
The biofuel boom is spurring companies to turn more and more of these vast areas into oil palm plantations. John Buchanan, senior director of business practices with the U.S.-based NGO Conservation International, says that palm oil's energy efficiency as a biofuel makes it very attractive to investors. "One of the common measures used to look at the factor or efficiency of a biofuel crop is a ratio-the number of units of energy put in, to get how many units of energy out," he says. "It's a key factor because in some of these crops, for example corn and ethanol, it's not a whole lot of savings. It's about 1 unit of fossil fuel only getting about 1.4 units of ethanol on the back end. Palm oil, on the other hand, ranges from about 5.6 to 9.6. So if palm oil were traded freely, palm is going to be more profitable." WRM notes that demand for palm oil is expected to double worldwide by 2020, and the Indonesian government reportedly has announced that it will designate 40 percent of its oil palm crop for biofuel production.
U.S. companies have long been eyeing the palm oil market for biofuel. Last December, the Illinois-based agro-giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) acquired shares of Singapore-based Wilmar International, a palm oil plantation operator and oil producer. The move made ADM the second-largest shareholder in the company. "ADM is making a big push and they're very bullish on the biofuels," said Buchanan.
The market may well deliver a windfall for palm oil investors. "The barriers to entering the biodiesel market for palm oil are very low," says Harry Boyle of the London research firm New Energy Finance. "It's not difficult and it's not expensive. To build a plant to process palm oil into biodiesel is pretty easy." He notes that the only hindrance to unlimited market potential may be shipping costs.
Paying the Piper
There are other costs, however, that markets often ignore. The oil palm grows only in tropical climates, the same climate that harbors some of the most biodiverse and abundant rainforests in the world. "The impacts on biodiversity are huge," says Ricardo Carrere of the WRM international secretariat in Montevideo, Uruguay. "Many animal species particular to tropical forests need extensive areas of forest to survive and to be able to reproduce, so when all of these forests are burned and then planted to one single species, that provides the animal with no food. Then many species tend to disappear or their numbers decrease substantially. At the same time, all of the local flora disappear because the plantation owners don't want anything to grow underneath, and we're talking in terms of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of hectares. There are enormous areas of land where the diverse tropical rainforest is being replaced by a monoculture."
A century ago, according to CSPI, 80 to 90 percent of Indonesia was covered by tropical rainforest. In 1997, only half was. At this rate, CSPI estimates, "virtually all Indonesian lowland tropical forests-which are the richest in plant and animal species-will be gone by 2010." Between 1985 and 2000, the group says, 87 percent of all deforestation in Malaysia was due to oil palm plantations.
Among the animal species vanishing in the rainforest destruction are the Sumatran tiger and rhinoceros, Asian elephant, orangutans, wild ox, barding deer, giant flying squirrel, proboscis monkey, gibbons, langurs, and clouded leopard; "...a species extinction spasm of planetary proportions," writes Ellie Brown in her report. The rainforest destruction and species elimination is directly attributed to these plantation burns: "Borneo's orangutan population was reduced by one-third in just one year, 1997, when almost 8,000 orangutans were either burned to death or were massacred when they tried to escape fires."
Human beings are not exempt from the destruction either. During the hot months (July through October) the effect of the smoke and smog on Southeast Asia is easy to see, and smell. Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) readings reached as high as 150 last year in Singapore during the months before monsoon rains squelched the fires. (Asian newspapers advise readers not to go outside on days when the PSI crosses 100-which is frequently-due to risks of respiratory distress and disease, lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke.) In Indonesia and Malaysia, long-time business owners had to close shop for good due to health impacts, and airports were closed for days on end due to low visibility. The fires had a major impact on regional markets: the Asian Development Bank estimated regional business losses from the 1997-98 fires at over US$9 billion.
But Carrere says that the impact on human health and welfare extends beyond the effect of lost revenues. "This is not environmentally friendly at all. It's genocide of local populations," he says. "What happens in many tropical countries is the land and the forest belongs to the state. However, in those forests there are a number of communities that have always been there and had no land title because they existed before the state, even before the colonizers came, so those lands belong to these people. But the state says no, this belongs to the state, so they give concessions first to the logging companies and then to the plantation companies. People resist... because they are protecting their land and their means of livelihood, so...people are put in jail...and are killed and tortured. Rights abuses are happening throughout the tropics, particularly with biofuel plantations."
And oil palm plantations make the land itself hazardous. "They drain the wetland areas because oil palm needs it [less] humid to be able to grow properly, so water trenches are made so water flows out of the plantation," says Carrere. "At the same time, they use a lot of pesticides, agrochemicals, so that's the same water that's leaving the area and flowing into the region's rivers." Rich organic peat is often set afire and burns for days deep below the surface of the land.
Finally, there is the cost of palm oil plantations to the climate itself-the very thing biofuels are supposed to help. Renyi Zhang of Texas A&M University and his colleagues conducted a three-year study of satellite imagery in the Pacific region. They compared images taken between 1984 and 1994 with images from 1994 to 2005 and determined that deep convective clouds had increased between 20 and 50 percent due to pollution from Asia. These high-altitude storm clouds, seeded by microscopic pollutant particles, are expected to result in more brutal thunderstorms and more severe rainfall, especially through the winter months, in areas already too familiar with extreme weather disasters. Zhang's team also projected that as more of the pollutants travel on these more energetic, large storms with warmer air currents from the tropics, the deposited soot could accelerate the melting of polar ice.
Pointing the Finger
The obvious question is, exactly who is setting these fires, and why are they not being brought to justice? Andrew Ng, secretary-general of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an organization of large oil palm companies, oil palm trade associations, retailers, manufacturers, environmental and conservation NGOs, and social and development NGOs, says that finding the fire starters is harder than it sounds. "Finding the source of the fires, the fact is that it's quite nebulous in a sense. It's all just smoke, isn't it? At the end of the day, that's all you see in the sky," Ng says. "For every fire that you find, the source of it is quite difficult to trace. Sometimes you can trace it back to [an] estate. Sometimes you trace it from outside of the estate coming from the adjacent communities of land where they prepare the annual crops. So trying to find many small little sources, the hot spots here and there that create the big fires, is hard."
But Ricardo Carrere argues that the inability to find the fire starters may itself just be so much metaphorical smoke. "Even the companies have been identified by name. And nothing happens because these companies have very strong links with government," he says. "They want this plant and it doesn't matter if the company is punished or not. It's the returns." Corruption in the Malaysian and Indonesian governments is nothing new, and certainly the lure of a lucrative crop is cause for these governments to turn a blind eye. In 2004, the civil society NGO Transparency International ranked Indonesia as the 13th most corrupt country in the world-that the country's plantation and forestry sectors are in fact rife with corruption, collusion, and nepotism. Singapore's Straits Times newspaper last October reported that the logging firms are "believed to be owned by or linked to people with ties to the ruling elite and the military."
Government officials deny responsibility. Malaysian officials last October blamed not the large plantations, but instead poor farmers who use fire to clear their land. On the other hand, the Center for International Forestry Research studied satellite photos of the burns that took place in Indonesia in 1997-98 and compared these photos to Indonesian land-use maps. They found that 75 percent of the hot spots in Kalimantan were in oil palm plantation and logging concessions.
One government official, Malaysian Environment Minister Azmi Khalid, believes the culprits are the big companies, and says so. "Open burning for land-clearing is the cause of the haze. In Kalimantan alone, there are now one million hectares of palm oil plantations," he said, noting that 16 companies were under investigation in connection with the fires last October. Still, these companies have never been brought to justice. During the previous prolonged period of haze in Southeast Asia, in 1997 and 1998, 176 companies were publicly identified as violators. Only five were brought to court. One was found guilty.
Corruption is only one part of the reason. Ng says the other part of the equation is the difficulty of enforcement. "Indonesia and Malaysia both have an excellent system of laws and within those laws the punitive measures are very good. But the problem that you have is enforcement, because of the lack of resources available for ensuring that government agencies have enough manpower to go out there and educate the public in these areas, and to monitor these areas and ensure that control continues," he says. "Unless people are willing to put money into these things, you're going to see the fires crop up again this year. We're going to have a dry spell in a couple of months time [June, July] and they'll keep going on until there's nothing left to burn because fire is really the only practical, in a sense, and I put that in quotation marks, way to clear land."
Ng's group has established a set of global guidelines for sustainable palm oil production, including compliance with all local, national, and international laws and regulations, and ensuring a flow of information from plantation owners to RSPO stakeholders for verification of methods. RSPO has also drawn up a zero-burn policy for plantation operators who are members. Ng says that zero burn is a win-win situation. "Ask anyone in the palm oil plantation industry and they'll tell you that it's actually far better for the land not to burn, not just from the point of view of carbon emissions, but zero burn actually gives you long-term benefits," he argues. "When you do zero burn, you recycle all of the planting material and reintroduce it back into the soil. That gives you long-term input into the soil for fertility."
The RSPO is not the only organization pressing to reduce and eliminate oil palm burns. Representatives from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Thailand met last November to set policy and budgets for dealing with burns and haze. During this summit they set aside funds to provide incentives to farmers to abandon slash-and-burn land clearing, and strengthened enforcement of burn laws against plantation companies and forest concessionaires caught violating them. For example, Indonesia says it will increase funding for law enforcement and train its police force, prosecutors, and judges to crack down on forest fire violations.
If these measures work, the evidence of success, or failure, will appear in the skies-literally as smoke signals. "I don't think we can solve this within a year. It will take a long-term solution," said Singapore Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim during the talks. "We will have to see if farmers are prepared to change habits, whether the Indonesian authorities are prepared to clamp down on errant plantation owners. By and large we are quite happy [with the talks' results], but obviously the devil is in the details." Ng agrees: "Depending on how bad the fires are, I guess we'll find out if the fires are an issue that will again be brought up as in the previous times," he said of this coming November's negotiations.
Many countries aren't waiting for the companies and governments in Southeast Asia to sort it all out and are instead taking matters into their own hands. This past April, scientists and policymakers from over 100 counties met in Brussels to discuss global warming, and palm oil as a biofuel figured into their equation. Dutch companies such as Biox and Essent have either scrutinized or completely halted palm oil production until they can verify that their suppliers did not burn forests in the growing process. "From the start, we knew we can't stay in business if we can't prove that production is sustainable," said Biox executive Arjen Brinkmann. Britain's largest electricity supplier, RWE npower [sic], announced that it too has decided against using palm oil for biofuel after a year of study due to the prevalence of unsustainable growing methods. In January the European Parliament considered a ban on imports of nonsustainable palm oil as well, even though it is anxious to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
This coming year's haze is predicted to be even worse than last year's. Ricardo Carrere suggests that the real culprits ultimately are energy consumers. "On one hand, all of the governments of the world are saying we need sustainable development, we need to conserve water, we need to conserve biodiversity and climate and all the rest. But on the other hand, all the economic policies go in the opposite direction," he says. "It's not that biofuels are wrong. It's the unsustainable consumption that is wrong. Too much energy is being used and there's no way that by producing biofuels it is going to be able to feed all of those cars in the [global] North. Consumers cannot keep using energy in an unsustainable manner."
Heather Augustyn is a freelance writer who spent five weeks in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia during the fall 2006 burns. She has written for E! The Environmental Magazine, EarthTimes.org, Shore Magazine, The Village Voice, and In These Times.


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