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14/08/08

Global warming brings new iceberg threat to Antarctic ecosystem

Mark Henderson, Science Editor
 
A new global warming threat to the fragile marine ecosystems of Antarctica has been identified, with the discovery that an increasing number of icebergs are tearing up the sea floor and destroying any life in their way.
 
The shallow habitats of species such as giant sea spiders, Antarctic worms, sea urchins and corals are facing a growing risk from icebergs, according to research that shows more bergs are floating freely in coastal waters as temperatures rise.
 
While these near-shore ecosystems have always been pounded by icebergs, crushing the animals and plants that live there, the rate of destruction is increasing as a warmer climate shrinks the winter sea ice that would otherwise lock the bergs in, scientists said. The retreat of coastal glaciers and the collapse of floating ice shelves also mean that more bergs are being shed into the sea, adding to the likelihood of scouring.
The findings, from a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), indicate that the ecological risks of climate change go farther than those posed by rising ocean temperatures.
 
Iceberg scour is a natural phenomenon, and while it is destructive on a local level it often adds to broader biodiversity by clearing spaces for new life to populate. Scientists, however, are concerned that a substantial increase in the rate of scouring could have unpredictable consequences, creating swaths of shallow water in which organisms with longer life-cycles cannot become established. "The whole balance of the ecosystem could be affected, with consequences that are very difficult to predict," said Dan Smale, who led the study.
 
"The focus of research has all been on rising temperatures, but what has been overlooked is that it isn't just warming of the water that changes the structure of the ecosystem. The distribution of species is likely to be just as important, and that is going to be affected by iceberg scour."
 
The research, published in the journal Science , has been dedicated to Kirsty Brown, who died in 2003 while conducting fieldwork at the BAS's Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Ms Brown, 28, who drowned when she was attacked by a leopard seal while snorkling, is named posthumously as one of the authors.
 
The study was conducted over five years at South Cove, on the Antarctic Peninsula, where temperatures are warming more quickly than anywhere else on the planet, by half a degree celsius each decade. This has led to the collapse of part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in March, and to the loss of seven other floating shelves over the past 30 years.
 
The BAS team analysed the effects of these trends on iceberg scour by placing grids of small concrete markers on the seabed, at depths of 5, 10 and 15 metres. These were checked by divers for disturbances caused by iceberg strikes.
 
Dr Smale said that because sea ice was predicted to shrink further under the impact of global warming, iceberg strike rate was expected to increase.
 

Warming creates giant iceberg

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March 27, 2008
 
A VAST iceberg seven times the size of Manhattan has broken away from the Antarctic coast, threatening the collapse of a bigger ice shelf that is now "hanging by a thread".
 
The Wilkins Shelf on March 6. Picture: AFP Satellite images have revealed that about 415sqkm of the Wilkins Shelf has been lost since the end of last month, suggesting that climate change could be causing it to disintegrate more quickly than scientists had predicted.
 
"The ice shelf is hanging by a thread," said David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey. "We'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."
 
Professor Vaughan was a member of a 1993 BAS team that said the Wilkins Shelf could collapse within 30 years, if the pace of global warming continued.
 
"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened," he said. "I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. We predicted it would happen, but it's happened twice as fast as we predicted."
 
The retreat of the shelf was first spotted from satellite data by Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado, who alerted Professor Vaughan and his BAS colleagues. BAS sent a Twin Otter aircraft on a reconnaissance mission.
 
Jim Elliott, who was on the plane to video the break-up, said: "I've never seen anything like this before - it was awesome. We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. Big chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble - it's like an explosion."
 
The Wilkins Shelf is protected by only a thin thread of ice between two islands. It covers an area of 14,500sqkm. The Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches north from the frozen continent towards South America, has had unprecedented warming over the past 50 years, leading to the retreat and collapse of several ice shelves. Six have been lost entirely: the Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and Jones shelves.
 
The Wilkins Shelf is farther south than other ice that has retreated, and should thus be protected by colder temperatures. But Professor Vaughan said: "Climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has pushed the limit of viability for ice shelves further south, setting some of them that used to be stable on a course of retreat and eventual loss.
 
"The importance of it is that it's farther south than any ice shelf we've seen retreating before, it's bigger than any ice shelf we've seen retreating before and in the long term it could be a taste of other things to come.
 
"It is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region."
 
As the shelf is already afloat, it will not affect sea level, but Antarctica's ice shelves act as buffers for land ice that could lead to big changes in sea level if it melts.
 
The Times

Filosofi Semar dalam Kebudayaan Jawa

Dikalangan spiritual Jawa ,Tokoh wayang Semar ternyata dipandang bukan sebagai fakta historis, tetapi lebih bersifat mitologi dan symbolis tentang KeEsa-an, yaitu: Suatu lambang dari pengejawantahan expresi, persepsi dan pengertian tentang Illahi yang menunjukkan pada konsepsi spiritual. Pengertian ini tidak lain hanyalah suatu bukti yang kuat bahwa orang Jawa sejak jaman prasejarah adalah Relegius dan ber keTuhan-an yang Maha Esa.
 
Semar dalam bahasa Jawa (filosofi Jawa) disebut Badranaya
 
Bebadra = Membangun sarana dari dasar
Naya = Nayaka = Utusan mangrasul
 
Artinya : Mengemban sifat membangun dan melaksanakan perintah Allah demi kesejahteraan manusia
 
Javanologi : Semar = Haseming samar-samar
Harafiah : Sang Penuntun Makna Kehidupan
 
Semar tidak lelaki dan bukan perempuan, tangan kanannya keatas dan tangan kirinya kebelakang. Maknanya : "Sebagai pribadi tokoh semar hendak mengatakan simbul Sang Maha Tunggal". Sedang tangan kirinya bermakna "berserah total dan mutlak serta sekaligus simbol keilmuan yang netral namun simpatik".
 
Domisili semar adalah sebagai lurah karangdempel / (karang = gersang) dempel = keteguhan jiwa.
 
Rambut semar "kuncung" (jarwadasa/pribahasa jawa kuno) maknanya hendak mengatakan : akuning sang kuncung = sebagai kepribadian pelayan. Semar sebagai pelayan mengejawantah melayani umat, tanpa pamrih, untuk melaksanakan ibadah amaliah sesuai dengan sabda Ilahi.
 
Semar barjalan menghadap keatas maknanya : "dalam perjalanan anak manusia perwujudannya ia memberikan teladan agar selalu memandang keatas (sang Khaliq ), yang maha pengasih serta penyayang umat".
 
Kain semar Parangkusumorojo: perwujudan Dewonggowantah (untuk menuntun manusia), agar memayuhayuning bawono : menegakan keadilan dan kebenaran di bumi.
 
Ciri sosok semar adalah
- Semar berkuncung seperti kanak kanak,namun juga berwajah sangat tua
- Semar tertawannya selalu diakhiri nada tangisan
- Semar berwajah mata menangis namun mulutnya tertawa
- Semar berprofil berdiri sekaligus jongkok
- Semar tak pernah menyuruh namun memberikan konsekwensi atas nasehatnya
 
Kebudayaan Jawa telah melahirkan religi dalam wujud kepercayaan terhadap Tuhan yang Maha Esa, yaitu adanya wujud tokoh wayang Semar, jauh sebelum masuknya kebudayaan Hindu, Budha dan Islam di tanah Jawa.
 
Dari tokoh Semar wayang ini akan dapat dikupas, dimengerti dan dihayati sampai dimana wujud religi yang telah dilahirkan oleh kebudayaan Jawa.
 
Semar (pralambang ngelmu gaib) - kasampurnaning pati.
 
Gambar kaligrafi jawa tersebut bermakna :
 
Bojo sira arsa mardi kamardikan, ajwa samar sumingkiring dur-kamurkan Mardika artinya "merdekanya jiwa dan sukma", maksudnya dalam keadaan tidak dijajah oleh hawa nafsu dan keduniawian, agar dalam menuju kematian sempurna tak ternodai oleh dosa. Manusia jawa yang sejati dalam membersihkan jiwa (ora kebanda ing kadonyan, ora samar marang bisane sirna durka murkamu) artinya : "dalam menguji
budi pekerti secara sungguh-sungguh akan dapat mengendalikan dan mengarahkan hawa nafsu menjadi suatu kekuatan menuju kesempurnaan hidup".
 

Presiden Klaim Angka Kemiskinan Menurun

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: Presiden Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono menjawab permintaan Ketua Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, Agung Langsono, agar kesejahteraan rakyat miskin diperhatikan. Menurut Presiden, jumlah orang miskin terus menurun setiap tahun. Tingkat penurunannya mencapai  17,7 persen pada 2006 menjadi 15,4 persen pada Maret 2008. "Angka kemiskinan 2008 ini adalah angka kemiskinan terendah," katanya dalam pidato kenegaraan di depan Sidang Paripurna di DPR, Senayan, Jumat (15/08).

Terus menurunnya jumlah orang miskin, katanya, karena pemerintah  melakukan harmonisasi dan sinergi program dan anggaran kemiskinan. Program penanggulangan kemiskinan  antara lain  penyediaan beras murah untuk rakyat miskin, program keluarga harapan, jaminan kesehatan masyarakat, dan bantuan operasional sekolah.

Pemerintah, menurut Presiden,  juga menggulirkan agenda anggaran berbasis masyarakat yang diwujudkan dalam Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat. "Dalam program ini, masyarakat desa dan kelurahanlah yang menentukan sendiri penggunaan anggaran," kata Yudhoyono.

Penanggulangan kemiskinan  dilakukan dengan cara mendongkrak pemberdayaan usaha mikro, kecil, dan menengah. "Termasuk perbaikan iklim usaha dan penyediaan kredit usaha rakyat." Pada 31 Juli 2008, kata Yudhoyono, dana kredit usaha rakyat yang terealisasi sebesar Rp 8,9 triliun dengan jumlah debitur lebih dari 950 orang diseluruh tanah air. "Menunjukkan betapa besarnya potensi masyarakat kita," katanya.

Anggaran penanggulangan kemiskinan juga telah dilipatgandakan. Sepanjang 2005-2008 alokasi dana untuk proyek ini meningkat tiga kali lipat. "Peningkatan ini juga membantah anggapan bahwa pemerintah hanya melakukan retorika dan berwacana," kata Yudhoyono.

Dwi Riyanto Agustiar
http://tempointeraktif.com/read.php?NyJ=cmVhZA==&MnYj=MTMwOTQy

Terkait Konflik PKB ; Gus Dur Merasa Ditipu Pemerintah

KH Abdurahman Wahid atau biasa disapa Gus Dur dalam pidato politik syukuran HUT-nya menyatakan, pemerintah telah menipu dirinya dan partainya.

"Anda tak tahu, kami di PKB sedang bergulat dengan penipuan itu. Pertanyaannya, kenapa Menhukham (Menteri Hukum dan HAM) menipu kita semua," katanya dalam acara syukuran yang berlangsung di rumah Bondan Gunawan, Menteri Sekretaris negara pada era Gus Dur, di Cempaka Putih, Jakarta, Kamis (14/8).

Gus Dur menunjuk upaya penipuan itu dilakukan Menhukham dengan seolah-olah menyatakan Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) yang sah itu adalah Muhaimin Iskandar dan Lukman Edy.

"Sekarang ini dia (Menhukham Andi Mattalatta --Red) mengakui Muhaiman Iskandar dan si menteri itu yang apa namanya, Lukman Edy, sebagai orang PKB yang sah. Padahal surat itu tak pernah ada," tegas Gus Dur, dalam acara yang juga dihadiri para tokoh dan aktivis pro demokrasi serta kerabat dekatnya.

Dari penelusuran orang-orangnya, lanjut Gus Dur, surat yang ada hanyalah menyangkut tak diakuinya dua Muktamar PKB, baik di Parung maupun di Ancol. "Yang ada hanya kembali ke Muktamar Semarang, berarti saya (Ketua Dewan Syuro -red) dan Muhaimin Iskandar (Ketua Dewan Tanfidz --Red). Berarti kan ini dibohongkan, dan ini SBY tahu tapi kok dibiarkan saja," ujarnya.

Penipuan lainnya, menurut Gus Dur, terjadi pada pemilihan kepala daerah Jawa Timur (Jatim) dan pemilihan umum 2004.

"Dalam pilkada gubernur di Jawa Timur kemarin bahkan KPU Jatim tidak mengundang 8 juta orang, yang tidak dipanggil dalam proses Pilkada. Sedangkan pada pemilu 2004, PKB seharusnya nomor 1 tetapi dijadikan nomor 3. Ini lho yang begini (penipuan --Red) dilakukan eksekutif," katanya.

Karena itu, ia meminta Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) segera merevisi surat-suratnya ke daerah tentang siapa sebenarnya PKB yang sah, dan alamat resmi DPP PKB itu mesti di Kalibata bukan di tempat lain.

Gus Dur juga menegaskan, PKB tetap pada motonya, menegakkan hukum dan keadilan demi kepentingan rakyat. "Jika hukum keliru, hukum itu kita ubah, agar lebih baik. Kedaulatan hukum jalan, kalau ada kejujuran," katanya dalam pidato tanpa teks yang kemudian dilanjutkan pidato politik oleh Bondan.

Hadir dalam acara tersebut antara lain Hariman Siregar, Aristides Katopo, Rahman Toleng, AS Hikam, juga hadirin lain yang jumlahnya sekitar 200 peserta.
 
[EL, Ant]

Kondisi Guru Korban Bacok Murid Membaik

Baban Gandapurnama - detikBandung

Bandung - Kondisi guru korban penganiayaan muridnya, Budi Kuspriyatna (42)membaik dibandingkan kemarin, saat dirinya dibawa ke RS Hasan Sadikin, Bandung. Budi sudah bisa tersenyum bahkan bisa diajak berbincang oleh rekan-rekannya yang datang menjenguk.
 
Dari beberapa orang rekannya yang kebanyakan satu profesi dengan Budi, tampak pula Asep Sulaeman yang sejak kemarin ikut mengantarkan Budi.

"Kondisi sudah membaik. Namun karena dia (Budi - red) memiliki penyakit jantung, maka kita menunggu terlebih dahulu hasil laboratorium. Karena rencananya hari ini tangannya akan dioperasi," ujar Asep saat ditemui detikbandung di ruang tindakan bedah UGD RSHS, Jumat (15/8/2008).

Menurut Asep, Budi mengalami dua luka di kepala yakni di bagian ubun-ubun dan bagian belakang dekat telinga sebelah kiri. Lengan kirinya pun mengalami luka menganga.

Budi terluka akibat dianiaya oleh salah seorang muridnya yang bernama Zaki (18) murid kelas 3 SMA Rian Sulaeman Kadungngora, Garut. Zaki tersinggung karena dirinya ditegur setelah ketahuan merokok di lingkungan sekolah.

Usai pulang sekolah Zaki menghadang Budi di jalan. Dia menyabetkan golok yang sengaja dia bawa dari rumahnya ke arah Budi, sehingga gurunya tersebut terluka di bagian kepala dan lengan tangan kirinya.

Saat ini Zaki sudah diamankan oleh petugas polisi. Dirinya ditahan di Mapolres Garut untuk dimintai keterangan.

Menurut polisi, Zaki terbukti telah melakukan tindakan penganiayaan berat dengan ancaman hukuman minimal 7 tahun penjara. Bersama dengan Zaki turut pula diamankan barang bukti berupa sebilah golok dan helm.

Lagos: Big, busy, traffic-plagued and awfully expensive

By Will Connors Published: August 13, 2008
 
LAGOS: The governor's son sits hunched at the bar, contemplating his nearly empty bottle of Hennessy. On the dance floor, the airline director's daughter sways back and forth to a hip-hop beat. Nearby, the star soccer player, just in from London, tries to squeeze past his growing circle of fans and hangers-on. In the center of the club, the oil magnate's son gets on top of a table and takes a swig from a bottle of Dom Perignon.
 
Just another Saturday night in Lagos, one of Nigeria's and Africa's money- and contrast-rich boomtowns. Already a city of superlatives (it has variously been deemed Africa's most traffic-plagued, most populous and fastest-growing megacity), Lagos has a new title to add to its mantle: most expensive.
 
Lagos has always been one of the most powerful commercial hubs in West Africa, ever since slaves were first shipped from here to Europe and the Americas. But because of the rising price of oil, the declining dollar, the relocation of foreign workers from the oil-rich but kidnapping-prone Niger Delta, large privatization efforts and a mad dash for the city's remaining plots of land, Lagos is more flush with cash and full of glitter than ever.
 
A recent study of the most expensive cities for expatriates by the consulting firm Mercer found that Lagos ranked 30th, making it only slightly less costly than New York but considerably more expensive than Los Angeles, Miami and Washington. Lagos moved up seven places from the previous year's ranking, while most African cities moved down.
 
Even European cities like Stockholm and Barcelona were found to be more affordable - and in Lagos the high prices are that much more eye-popping because the average Nigerian survives on less than $2 a day.
Today in Africa & Middle East
 
Evidence of vast amounts of money floating around the "islands" - two small pieces of land poking into the Atlantic that anchor the city's economic activity and are home to banks, foreign consulates and oil and telecommunications companies - is everywhere. Dinner for two at an average restaurant costs more than $200. A cocktail costs more than $15. A box of cereal costs $12 at a supermarket. Hotel rooms under $400 are difficult to find.
 
In the aisles of glistening new malls, expatriates and wealthy Nigerians browse for - and often buy - $10,000 watches and $5,000 cellphones. New BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Bentleys plod along through grinding traffic, bumping over rocks and weaving around potholes.
 
Multimillion-dollar yachts speed up and down the creek separating the two islands. (The creek was recently determined to be too shallow for the biggest yachts, so a dredging project has been started to deepen the waterway and make it accessible for the more lavish boats.)
 
Apartment rents on the islands start at $3,000 a month, but rents of $6,000 to $7,000 a month are common here, and renters are required to pay two or three years of rent in advance.
 
But high prices do not always mean high quality. The city was built to accommodate fewer than 100,000 residents, but it is now home to an estimated 14 million people or more, according to the state government.
 
So no matter your station in life, it is impossible to avoid the city's traffic or its lack of reliable water and electricity. Most homes and businesses on the islands run on diesel-powered generators nearly 24 hours a day, resulting in thousands of dollars in energy bills.
 
Tayo Emden, 33, a British-educated Ghanaian who has lived in Lagos for five years as a director for a telecom company, said the costs were just too high to stay. "After living in London with colleagues, we thought Lagos would be nice and cushy, but we're having second thoughts," Emden said. "You used to get a lot of bang for your buck, but that's not the case anymore."
 
Several efforts have been made to create economic hubs away from the islands to reduce traffic and lessen the burden, but none have been successful. So at least three million commuters fight their way through hours of traffic to the islands every day. Many leave before 5 a.m. to beat the traffic, and many do not return home until after 10 p.m.
 
Moreover, most Lagosians do not enjoy the privileges of the city's new wealth, and perhaps no economic division cuts deeper than housing.
 
On the islands, plots of 60 square meters, or 645 square feet, sell for millions of dollars, and houses built on the plots are subdivided and rented out to wealthy Nigerians or expatriates whose companies do not bargain down.
 

Iran a friend of Israelis? Unforgivable, Parliament says.

By Nazila Fathi Published: August 14, 2008
 
TEHRAN: There are some things, Iran's Parliament has decided, that a public official should simply not be allowed to say — especially in reference to Israel.
 
Threats of a "crushing response" to Israeli aggression seem to be fine, as a representative of Iran's supreme leader recently demonstrated. But suggesting that Iran is a friend of the Israeli people, well, that is an "unforgivable mistake," Parliament declared Wednesday.
 
In a statement signed by some 200 members of the 290-seat assembly, Iranian lawmakers called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the vice president for tourism, after he repeated on Sunday his earlier comment that "we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans."
 
In his comments, Mashai, a political ally of Ahmadinejad and one of his in-laws, specified "for a thousandth time" that his country was against Israel, not Jews.
 
But Parliament was not placated. "We do not recognize a country called Israel and so we cannot recognize a nation called Israel," the lawmakers said in their statement, according to Fars, the semiofficial Iranian news agency.
 
"If Mr. Mashai does not have the political awareness that the Israeli people are the same people who have occupied the homes of millions of innocent and oppressed Palestinians and have created the army of the Zionist regime, he has no right to hold such a position," the statement added.
 
Mashai, whose daughter recently married Ahmadinejad's son, was the second member of Ahmadinejad's cabinet to come under fire by Parliament this week.
 
Parliament also ordered an investigation into the academic credentials of Ali Kordan, the interior minister who was approved by lawmakers this month despite great opposition. He secured the post only after Ahmadinejad said he had the personal backing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
 
The Interior Ministry is in a delicate position because the minister would be responsible for carrying out the presidential elections in 2010.
 
Kordan had claimed that he had obtained an honorary doctorate from Oxford in 2000 for "opening a new chapter" in comparative legal studies.
 
But one of Ahmadinejad's opponents in Parliament, Ahmad Tavakoli, inquired about the authenticity of Kordan's degree from the university and posted the answer on his Web site.
 
"The University of Oxford has no record of Mr. Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the university," according to a letter from the university posted on the Web site. It also said that the professors who had signed Kordan's certificate did not work in the field of law or ever signed certificates.
 
Kordan has served in high positions in government, but his critics say his education amounts to only a midlevel college diploma.
 
The government retaliated by blocking the Web site, and Ahmadinejad said that Kordan should not be judged based on a "piece of torn paper."
 
Parliament was elected in March and is dominated by conservative politicians, many of whom criticize Ahmadinejad's policies.
 
Khamenei, the supreme leader, who has the final word on all state matters, has backed Ahmadinejad in recent months as the criticisms have become fiercer amid inflation of 26 percent.
 

GM Investasi USD 445 Juta di Thailand

Laporan Tri Mujoko Bayuaji
Bangkok, Thailand

Berencana Bangun Pabrik di Indonesia
RAYONG -Pasar ASEAN yang potensial mendorong General Motors (GM) Corporation untuk berinvestasi. Kemarin, pabrikan kebanggaan Amerika Serikat itu meresmikan mulainya pembangunan pabrik khusus kendaraan bermesin diesel di Rayong, Thailand, yang bernilai total USD 445 juta.

Menurut Chairman and CEO GM Coproration G. Richard Wagoner, investasi berupa pabrik yang khusus memproduksi brand mobil Chevrolet itu untuk memenuhi permintaan pasar, baik di Thailand maupun di kawasan ASEAN. ASEAN bagi perusahaan yang tahun ini tepat berusia seabad itu memang berperan sangat penting.

Karena itulah, lanjut Wagoner, GM intens mengepakkan sayap bisnis di kawasan Asia Tenggara. "Kami memprioritaskan ASEAN untuk memperkenalkan produk baru," ujar dia.

Sementara itu, Presiden GM Asia Tenggara Steve Carlisle mengatakan, pabrik baru tersebut akan mulai berproduksi pada 2010. Saat beroperasi nanti,�pabrik tersebut akan memperkerjakan 340 pekerja dan memiliki kapasitas produksi hingga 100.000 unit mesin turbo disel kapasitas 2.5 liter dan 2.8 liter.

Pabrik tersebut akan memproduksi mesin diesel empat silinder untuk digunakan pada produk-produk Chevrolet yang diproduksi di Rayong. "Kami akan fokus mengembangkan diesel dengan energi alternatif," ujar dia.

Energi alternatif itu selain CNG (compressed natural gas), terang Carlisle, juga berupa pengembangan mobil diesel berbasis bahan bakar ethanol, bio diesel, dan BBM Solar. Pabrik di Rayong berdiri di lahan seluas 14.492 meter persegi dan menjadi pabrik pertama yang memproduksi mobil bermesin diesel di ASEAN. Meski belum dipastikan, General Motors juga berencana membangun pabrik baru di Indonesia. Pabrik ini nantinya akan memproduksi 20.000 unit mobil setiap tahunnya.

(bay/ttg)
http://www.jawapos.co.id/

Mabes Polri Panggil Rizal Ramli

Mantan Menteri Perekonomian, yang kini Ketua Komite Bangkit Indonesia (KBI), Rizal Ramli, Kamis (14/8), dipanggil penyidik Direktorat I Badan Reserse Kriminal Polri, sebagai saksi kasus unjuk rasa anarkis kenaikan bahan bakar minyak (BBM) beberapa waktu lalu.

Kepala Divisi Humas Polri, Irjen Pol Abubakar Nataprawira menyatakan hingga Kamis siang, Rizal belum juga hadir di Mabes Polri untuk dimintai keterangan.

Abubakar mengatakan, jika hari ini dia tidak hadir maka Polri akan memanggil untuk yang kedua kalinya.

"Jika dia mangkir panggilan tiga kali maka akan ada panggilan yang disertai dengan upaya paksa untuk dihadapkan kepada penyidik," katanya.

Menurut dia, penyidik berwenang memanggil paksa seseorang tidak saja yang menjadi tersangka tetapi juga yang menjadi saksi.

"Mungkin, Selasa (19/8) depan, Polri akan memanggil Rizal Ramli untuk yang kedua kalinya sebab hari Senin kan libur," katanya.

Pada Rabu, 13 Agustus 2008, Polri juga memanggil Humas KBI, Adhie Massardi sebagai saksi.

Dalam kasus ini, Polri telah menahan Sekjen KBI, Ferry Joko Yuliantono sebagai tersangka.

Pekan lalu, Polri telah melimpahkan berkas penyidikan Ferry ke Kejaksaan Agung namun berkas dikembalikan dengan disertai sejumlah petunjuk yang harus dilengkapi.

Polri menduga Ferry Joko Yuliantono menjadi penyandang dana sejumlah aksi unjuk rasa untuk menolak kenaikan bahan bakar minyak (BBM) yang berakhir anarkis.

Sejumlah aksi unjuk rasa yang didanai Ferry antara lain 21 Mei 2008 di depan Istana Negara dan 21 Juni 2008 menjelang pengumunan kenaikan harga BBM.

Ferry ditangkap di Bandara Soekarno Hatta setelah tiba dari Cina.

[TMA, Ant]
http://gatra.com/artikel.php?id=117494

Anggrek "Raksasa" di Kebun Raya Bogor

Bogor (ANTARA News) - Pusat Konservasi Tumbuhan Kebun Raya Bogor (PKT-KRB) di bawah otoritas Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) memiliki rumah anggrek (Orchid House), yang merupakan bagian dari koleksi tanaman di kebun raya itu.

Namun, khusus di pekarangan KRB juga terdapat beberapa jenis anggrek lainnya, dan salah satunya adalah "Grammathophyllum Speciosum Blume "(Giant Orchid) yang dikenal dengan "anggrek raksasa" atau dikenal pula dengan "anggrek tebu".

"Disebut dengan `anggrek tebu`, karena perawakannya yang mirip (tanaman) tebu," kata penanggung jawab Rumah Anggrek KRB, Eka Ratna kepada ANTARA News di Bogor, Kamis.

Eka Ratna menjelaskan rumah anggrek memiliki koleksi beragam jenis anggrek, baik dari Indonesia maupun dari mancanegara. Koleksi tersebut antara lain berbagai macam spesies anggrek mulai dari "Phalaenopsis", "Dendrobium", "Coelogyne", "Cymbidium", "Vanda", "Spathoglotis", "Phaius", "Mokara", "Oncidium", dan "Caheya".

Koleksi anggrek tersebut, katanya, ditanam di dua ruangan yaitu ruang hibrid dan ruang spesies. Di ruang hibrid sebagian jenis anggrek seperti "Phalaenopsis", "Dendrobium", "Cheya", "Ochidium", "Mokara", juga dapat dibeli masyarakat umum penggemar tanaman anggrek dengan kisaran harga mulai dari Rp20 ribu hingga Rp250 ribu.

Dikemukakannya bahwa tanaman anggrek Bulan adalah jenis anggrek yang banyak diminati oleh pengunjung.

"Bunga berwarna putih tersebut harganya Rp120 ribu per satu pot-nya," kata Eka sambil menambahkan bahwa jenis "Dendrobium" juga cukup banyak diminati oleh pembeli, dengan harga mulai Rp20 ribu rupiah hingga Rp70 ribu.

Selain menjual anggrek, pihaknya juga menjual tanaman lainnya seperti "Anturium".

Menurut dia, untuk merawat anggrek supaya tetap sehat harus disiram setiap harinya. Selain itu, perlu diberikan pupuk dan pestisida agar tumbuh subur. Air beras juga dapat digunakan sebagai pengganti pupuk tanaman anggrek yang dapat diberikan dua kali dalam seminggu.

Dijelaskannya bahwa setiap jenis anggrek memiliki cara perawatan yang berbeda. Untuk anggrek Bulan misalnya, jenis ini membutuhkan tempat yang lembab dan teduh, sedangkan untuk jenis "Dendrobium", justru membutuhkan lebih banyak cahaya matahari. Jika tidak, maka tunasnya tak bisa tumbuh kokoh dan bagus.

Medium anggrek juga berbeda dari tanaman lainya, yakni mediumnya tidak berupa tanah, tetapi berupa arang atau pakis cacah.

Omset yang bisa didapat dari bisnis anggrek tersebut bisa mencapai Rp8 juta hingga 10 juta per bulannya, demikian Eka Ratna.
 
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COPYRIGHT © 2008
http://antara.co.id/arc/2008/8/14/anggrek-raksasa-di-kebun-raya-bogor/

A step toward the invisibility cloak: Bending light

By Kenneth Chang
Published: August 12, 2008
 
Using tiny wires and fishnet structures, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found new ways to bend light backward, something that never occurs in nature.
 
This technology could lead to microscopes able to peer more deeply and clearly into living cells. And the same kind of structures might one day be adapted to bend light in other unnatural ways, creating a Harry Potter-like invisibility cloak. "This is definitely a big step toward that idea," said Jason Valentine, a graduate student and a lead author of a paper being published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature. But scientists are still far from designing and manufacturing such a cloak.
 
The work involves materials that have a property known as negative refraction, which means that they essentially bend light backward.
 
Once thought to be pure fantasies, these substances, called metamaterials, have been constructed in recent years, and scientists have shown they can bend long-wavelength microwaves.
 
Negative refractive materials can in principle lead to fantastical illusions; someone looking down at a fish in a pool of negative refractive liquid would see the fish swimming in the air above.
 
Two separate advances are described in two scientific papers, both out of the research laboratory of Xiang Zhang, a professor at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center in Berkeley.
 
When a ray of light crosses the boundary from air to water, glass or other transparent material, it bends, and the degree of bending is determined by a property known as the index of refraction. Transparent materials like glass, water and diamonds all have an index of 1 or higher for visible light, meaning that when the light enters, its path bends toward an imaginary line perpendicular to the surface.
 
With the engineered metamaterials, scientists can create refractive indices less than 1 or even negative. Light entering a material with a negative index of refraction would take a sharp turn, almost as if it had bounced off the imaginary perpendicular line.
 
In the Nature paper, the Berkeley researchers created a fishnet structure with 21 layers, alternating between a metal and magnesium fluoride, resulting in a metamaterial with a negative index of refraction for infrared light. The researchers said that by making the fishnet structure even smaller, they should be able to do the same with visible light.
 
In the second paper, to be published in the issue this Friday of the journal Science, a different group of scientists in Zhang's laboratory used a different approach, building an array of minuscule upright wires, which changed the electric fields of passing light waves. That structure was able to bend visible red light.
 
One application of negative index materials could be a "superlens." Light is usually thought of as having undulating waves.
 
But much closer up, light is a much more jumbled mess, with the waves mixed in with more complicated "evanescent waves."
 
The evanescent waves quickly dissipate as they travel, and thus are usually not seen. A negative refraction lens actually amplifies the evanescent waves, preserving detail lost in conventional optics, and the hope is to eventually build an optical microscope that could make out tiny biological structures like individual viruses.
 

Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop

By Marsha Walton
CNN
 
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Fossil fuels that keep our planet running -- oil, natural gas and coal -- were created from the decomposition of plants, plankton and other organic material over millions of years.
 
A California lab has developed genetically altered bacteria that eat sugars and excrete a form of diesel oil.
 
Today, scientists all over the globe are working to create fuels with the same properties but without that pesky 100 million-year wait. And "renewable petroleum" is now a reality, on a small scale, in some laboratories.
 
The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.
 
"We started in my garage two years ago, and we're producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
 
How does it work? A special type of genetically altered bacteria are fed plant material: basically, any type of sugar. They digest it and excrete the equivalent of diesel fuel.
 
Humans have used bacteria and yeast for centuries to do similar work, creating beer, moonshine and, more recently, ethanol. But scientists' recent strides in genetic engineering now allow them to control the end product.
 
"So these are bacteria that have been engineered to produce oil," del Cardayre said. "They started off like regular lab bacteria that didn't produce oil, but we took genes from nature, we engineered them a bit [and] put them into this organism so that we can convert sugar to oil."
 
The company is focusing on diesel fuel, but the microbes can be "programmed" to make gasoline or jet fuel.
 
The bacteria used are a harmless form of E. coli. And the feedstock, or food for the microbes, can be any type of agricultural product, from sugar cane to waste such as wheat straw and wood chips. Choosing plants with no food value sidesteps one of the biggest criticisms of another synthetic fuel, corn ethanol, because critics say that corn should be used as food, not fuel.
 
It takes a lot of microbe poop to fill a gas tank, however. Biofuel experts say that processes like those used at LS9 are scientifically viable but that there's still a long way to go before they can address global energy needs.
 
"Scalability is really the critical issue," said Robert McCormick, principal engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. "If you've got something that you can make work in a test tube, that's good, but you've got to be able to make it work on a very large scale to have an impact on our petroleum imports."
 
But del Cardayre says his product has other benefits over traditional fossil fuels.
 
"What we've done is make the same molecules from renewable sources, so that it can go into the existing infrastructure, be made domestically and in an environmentally friendly way. That's the goal," he said.
The LS9 product does not have the cancer-causing benzene that is in other fossil fuels and has far less sulfur, he said.
 
LS9 President Bob Walsh says that using existing petroleum pipelines is crucial. Ethanol, for example, requires its own distribution system because it can corrode oil pipelines.
 
"You can't put ethanol in a pipeline, [and] even your car needs some adjustments to it; whereas the product we're making is going into the existing system, and that's a big difference," he said.
 
LS9 expects to be in large-scale commercial production in three or four years. But del Cardayre is the first to admit that microscopic oil fields are not a silver bullet for the world's energy woes.
 
"I doubt we're going to completely eliminate our dependence on oil, but we'll certainly be able to supplement the amount of oil we need in the short term," he said.
 
Although energy researchers are spending tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, McCormick believes that "just making more" is not enough.
 
"I think that the answer to reducing our petroleum-import problem and reducing the carbon emissions from transportation is really threefold," he said. "It involves replacement fuels like biofuels, it involves using much more efficient vehicles than we use today, and it involves driving less."
 
One thing that McCormick and del Cardayre agree on is that energy research is a great place to be these days if you are a scientist.
 
"The fun of the challenge from the science perspective is that you do have farmers and biologists and entomologists, and biochemists and chemical engineers, and process engineers and business people and investors all working to solve this, and it ranges anywhere from a political issue to a technical issue," del Cardayre said.
 
"Honestly, I couldn't think of a more exciting thing to work on as a scientist or technologist right now," said McCormick, a chemical engineer. "Part of the excitement comes from the fact that this is such a complex problem, it can't be solved by a farmer or an ag expert, and it can't be solved by a chemical engineer or a chemist.
 
"We all have to pool our various talents and training and try to come up with a whole new system of producing energy," he said. "And the current energy price environment has made literally everyone interested in replacements for petroleum."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/12/bug.diesel/index.html
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