Thursday, March 31, 2011

HECO sees 50,000th solar hot water installation - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

http://blog-gmccars.com/News/Main_Street_in_Motion_Lets_Customers_Drive_and_Compare
The company announced the milestone Thursday and said the systenm was installed on a home on Rounc Top Drivein Honolulu. The program debuted on Oahu, Maui and the Big Islande 13 years ago. There are now an estimatecd one out ofthree single-family homesa in Hawaii with solar water heating. Keith Block, director of HECO’sd Customer Efficiency Programs, said the programk has reduced the demand for electricityby 111.3 millioj kilowatt-hours a year since it began. That is the equivalent of the estimatede annual electric usage of morethan 14,000o households. HECO has nearluy 80 solar contractors on Maui and the Big Island it authorizes to installp thesolar systems.
HECO increased its rebate from $750 to $1,00 0 for solar water heaters purchased by homeownerss inFebruary 2007. The program has awardee more than $45.5 million in rebates since it

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

OSU names new leader for arts, sciences - Business First of Columbus:

steinberg-virus.blogspot.com
The school on Friday said OSU President Gordon Gee and Provosg Joe Alutto will recommend to trustees that Josephh Steinmetz be appointed as executive dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciencews and vice provost ofOhio State’s academicx affairs office. Steinmetz is the interimm provost and dean of the College of Liberaol Arts and Sciences at Kansaw and before that spent nearlyt two decades atIndiana University. If the hiring of Steinmetz is approverby trustees, he’ll start July 1 and be paid an annualp salary of $325,000.
The new appointment comese about a year after Ohio State to consolidate the budgets of its five arts and sciencew colleges and cut its deans from five to The university brought in Joan director of the state Departmentof Education’zs Ohio Mathematics Initiative, last Augusty to staff the overall executive dean post in the Details weren’t immediately availablre on Leitzel’s next career move.
“Becausde we are in the midst of a structural reorganization of our five arts andsciencews colleges, Joe’s success in leading this kind of enterprisde at two other universities will be invaluable,” Alutto said in a “His distinguished work in behavioral neuroscience makes him the kind of world-classa faculty member we always hope to attract.” Ohio State said Steinmetz is a widely published author who has serve d as editor of two behaviorall science reviews. He has bachelor’s and master’x degrees from Central Michigan University and a doctoratr fromOhio University.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Perajin Batik Mrico Bolong - KOMPAS.com

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KOMPAS.com


Perajin Batik Mrico Bolong

KOMPAS.com


”Untuk mengerjakan batik Sekar Jagad khas Mojokerto membutuhkan waktu lebih kurang satu setengah bulan dan harganya Rp 2,3 juta. Kain batik Mrico Bolong motif Lompong harganya Rp 1,75 juta,” kata Ernawati menjelaskan. Dari usaha kecil kerajinan batik ...



and more »

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hurricane could devastate shaky real estate market - Kansas City Business Journal:

http://gunchello.com/aboutjerry.htm
But a far larger threat loomws with the start of hurricane seasonjnext week. The nightmare scenario is a major stor that sweeps across a region pockecd with foreclosedreal estate, leavinb the neglected property in ruins, empty of responsible Nobody knows how big the problem might be, but with hundred s of thousands of empty properties in the state, it couldr be huge. Banks holding foreclosed real estate and defaultef loans said they have plans in place to move in with boardd and tarps to cover broke n windows andshredded roofs. But real estate expertws said nobody has ever gone throughh a storm with so much empty property hangingf inthe balance.
“Florid is living with a huge risk,” said Jack McCabe, presidenft of in Deerfield Beach. “There are 400,000 foreclosurexs in the stateright now. We have condominiumsz that are half-built and otherse that are 10 [percent] or 20 percenft occupied. All you have to do is look at New Orleanxs after Hurricane Katrina to imaginre whatmight happen.” After Katrina struck New Orleansw in 2005, huge swaths of the city were destroyexd when levees broke and water inundates the city. Large areas are still only thinlt rebuilt. Florida’s real estate market differss fromNew Orleans, but its large number of empthy dwellings and the rising tide of foreclosures poses a unique risk.
According to the , 21,900 of Orange County’s 491,000 dwellings were empty for more than thres monthsin March. 365,000 of 9.1 million homes were vacant. Estimatingb the value of that property isnearlt impossible, since it’s a mixtur e of foreclosed homes, never-sold dwellings and simply unoccupied real estate. This bad dreakm is filled with nuance. Larger bankx typically have departments that manage foreclosed properth and have contracts with maintenance Their main financial motiv is keeping property in good repair so it can be resold for areasonable return.
But real estate prices have fallen so low in many marketa that the cost of repairing a heavily damagedc house might be greater than itsresale value. And if emergencyu repairs aren’t undertaken right after a the subsequent damage from rain and mold could add substantially to therehabilitationm cost. Although banks have plans for dealinh withnatural disasters, few are well-equipped to responxd to a devastating storm. “The lenders have cut way back on their staffs,” McCabe said. “Anybody who thinkz they have the ability to meet with insurance companiesd and go out to houses to assess damages isdeludingv themselves.
” The problem is compounded by the sheee number of lenders. Some mortgage broker s and banks that hold loans inFlorida don’r have offices here — or have dire financial problems of theidr own. “Most banks don’t have people familiad with these sortsof problems,” said Petee Brennan, vice president of J. Rolfe Davis, an Orlando insurance agency. “Most bankerz don’t know what to do when a roof gets blow n offa house.
” However, Fifth Third Central Florida’s 12th-largest lender, has retained two property maintenance firmsd to inspect and repair its The bank has fewer than 300 foreclosecd Florida properties on its “Once an asset becomes ours and is we do anything we can to preserve the property. If we suspec t damage, from a leaky pipe to a leaky wefix it,” said Michele McCoy, Fifthn Third’s vice president for defaul t servicing. Orange County Propertty Appraiser Bill Donegan said therre areabout 3,600 foreclosed propertiese worth about $522 million in Orang County, and of 1,200 have been resold.
“My assumption is the banks and managemeny companies would swoop in afterd a hurricane andmake repairs,” Donegan said. Most banks also insure foreclosed properties. “I don’t think there’s a major issuee related to insurance coverage,” said Tom TerBeck, senior credit officere with . “Still, I wouldn’t say everybodyy in the industry is ready fora hurricane.” Years of disrepair ahead? Ken Direktor, a real estate attorney with the law said anyone who thinks a hurricaned in an urban part of Floridsa would play out like past hurricanes is mistaken.
“Banks are delayinf foreclosures on properties becausethey don’t want to be responsiblwe for them.”

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Apple stock down on new iPhone, but no Jobs - Memphis Business Journal:

Sunpentown International WA-9000E
The stock finished trading at down 0.57 percent, after being down as more than 3 percenf earlier in the day. Speculation aheadc of the San Franciscio event centered on if CEO Stevde Jobs would make his first appearance sincwe taking medical leave earlier this year and whether the company woulx unveil its nextgeneration iPhone. Jobs didn't make an but Bloomberg News cited unnamed sources Monday who said that he had been activeluy involved inthe company's preparation for Monday'zs conference. The new iPhoner is nearly three times faster to downloaxd Web page and comes witha 3-megapixelk autofocus camera. It also has voice-contropl features and a built-in compass.
The 3GS also has improves battery life with up to nine hourson WiFi, 10 hour while watching video, 30 hours using 12 hours using 2G talk and five houre using 3G talk. It also features a new built-i digital compass for instant navigation. The new available in black and white onJune 19, will sell for $199 for a 16GB model and $299 for 32GB. — New version of the MacBook Pro. A 15-inch version that startds at $1,699, a lower-pricefd 17-inch that starts at $2,499 and a 13-inch version that starts at $1,199. — Lower price for the MacBook Air ultra-thin line, cuttint $700 off the 128GB model to $1,799 and cuttinv $300 off the base model at $1,499.
— A new versioh of the Mac operating system, Snow that is faster to install and takesw up 6 gigabytes less harddrivr space. The new operating systekm comes with a new versionb of the Safari Web browser that Apple says is more robustt and faster thanprevious versions. New iPhone software including ability to cut and paste data and an aler t feature that helps users find their device or remotely wipe its memoru clean if it gets stolebn and later restore it usintg aniTunes backup. Apple said at the conference that it has now sold more than 40 millio n iPhones and iPod Touches and that users of the devicezs have a choice of morethan 50,000 softwarre applications they can download.