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Tag: palm oil
Asia, environment, geography, indigenous, Indonesia, Oil Palm Plantations, peatlands, Riau
Unregistered Plantation in Riau Encroaching on Giam Siak Kecil Biosphere Reserve
Figure 1: Clearing on the margins of an unregistered plantation in the Siak Kecil area of Riau Province
When I first saw this image it saddened me. I had already travelled through the region, not precisely this spot at 0° 59′ 54.9996′ N, 101° 53′ 3.0012′ E, but further to the north and west. Travelling by helicopter afforded an excellent view of the numerous forms of natural habitat destruction that is such a feature of Riau Province.
Years earlier, Indonesian friends had insisted that Riau Province was the most corrupt province in the country. Now, this was a big claim and I took it on board as somewhat of an exaggeration but after visiting the place, I'm not so sure. Now back to the main point of this post.
Locating the image on Google Maps.
As a first step in delving deeper into this image I decided to locate it on Google Maps which meant converting the coordinates to the decimal scale 0.998611 N, 101.884167 E. This allowed me to plot the image's location. There were several images taken from a location further south.
I've shaded the camera icons red so that they stand out on the map.
While attempting to locate the site on a map of Riau landholdings, I was fortunate to come across this map.
Figure 2: Land holdings and land use in Riau
I've loaded it as full size so readers can examine this map in detail. It has latitude and longitude clearly marked. The area in question is a little hard to discern so I've also clipped the relevant section of the map.
Figure 3: Segment of Land holdings and land use map
The cleared area, pictured in Figure 1, is on the border of the Giam Siak Kecil Biosphere Reserve, which is also the customary land of the Indigenous Sakai people. It appears to extend into the reserve. Such clearing opens up opportunities for illegal logging inside the reserve and leaves it prone to the danger of wildfire, particularly given the extent of forest debris visible in the image.
Also, note that the cleared area in Figure 1 is on the border of an Unregistered Plantation. Research conducted in 2014, found that occurrences of fire by land cover type, land management systems, landholders, and proximity to roads and canals showed that:
"The registered companies implemented a zero-burning policy to obtain a sustainable management certification. This certificate is mandatory for all palm oil companies in Indonesia. In contrast, unregistered companies do not follow the policy" it is also evident that they are more likely to use fire to develop plantations. "Oil palm plantations by unregistered companies were more prone to fire (8.5%) than those by registered companies (3.3%) or smallholders (2.1%)"
Figure 4 shows an isolated Sakai house deeper inside.
Figure 4: Sakai dwelling in the Giam Kecil Biosphere Reserve
Tagged environment, fire, indigenous, palm oilLeave a comment
Asia, economics, environment, geography, indigenous, Indonesia
Competition for land in Riau Province: Pressure from Oil Palm and Wood Pulp Corporations
January 12, 2018 April 9, 2018 maximos62
Fred Pearce writing in his book The Landgrabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns The Earth makes the point that "Until the late 1980s Riau was 80 percent jungle. Today the figure is just 30 percent. I've never met Fred but I have met the people of Sungai Tohor who face the consequences of a systematic destruction of peatland forest.
In February 2017 I joined members PM.Haze on the Peoples' Expedition to Experience Peat (PEEP). Later, I wrote Tackling the smoke #haze problem with alternative sustainable #peatland production The article explored the problem facing the community of Sungai Tohor, namely the loss of rainforest cover and the drainage of peatlands face.
The people were fighting back. Our visit led us to participate in a drainage canal blocking exercise part of an attempt to restore the water table in an area of peatland targeted for plantation development.
At the time I met Ridwan, one of many community members working to reintroduce rainforest trees but first some geographical and historical context.
To skip the historical and geographic background and read Ridwan's story directly, go straight to Sungai Tohor Today, at the end of this post.
Ridwan, front left with a co-worker and members of the Peoples' Expedition to Experience Peat (PEET) in the background.
Riau's settlement
Though many of the people living on Riau's peatlands might identify as Melayu (Malay) on the first enquiry some have ancient origins tracing themselves back to Indigenous Suku (Tribes). Over the centuries they have been variously ruled by competing Hindu, Buddhist and Malay coastal kingdoms. Competition between these kingdoms expanding into the territory now known as Riau heightened in the 7th century BCE. During the colonial era competition for territory was again heightened and has continued with renewed intensity since the late 1970s. The pressure of settlement and competition for land, driven both by formal and informal population movements, has had adverse consequences on the health of the biophysical environment and for the survival of Riau's remaining Indigenous people.
Indigenous people were closely connected with the Rokan, Siak, Kampar, and Indragiri rivers and their tributaries.
With its rich volcanic soils, Java attracted most of the Dutch colonial interest. Under Dutch control, large areas were devoted to sugar and tobacco cultivation. Later, as industrialisation created a growing global demand for rubber, plantation agriculture became a viable economic activity on the less densely settled island of Sumatra.
Prior to World War II, the Dutch had begun the development of large-scale rubber plantations in eastern Sumatra. In Riau, plantations were smaller since the province's extensive peatlands were not ideal for rubber cultivation.
A rubber plantation on Sumatra in 1935
A little less than 6% of Sumatra's rubber was grown in Riau.
Japanese invasion led to dispossession and interment of Dutch plantation owners. At war's end, the agricultural lands developed by the Dutch were invaded by three-quarters of a million squatters. Foremost among these migrants were the Toba-Batak.[2] This was followed by the settlement of migrants from several other parts of the archipelago principally Javanese, Banjar, Bugis and West Sumatran people attracted by the apparent availability of farmland where smallholders could cultivate rubber, cacao, coconut, and rice.
The opening of the Caltex oil well at Rumbai, at Minas and Duri also operated as a pull factor attracting settlers seeking opportunities created by the petroleum industry. In 1958 Caltex built a floating bridge over the Siak River and by 1962 Caltex had built an oil port and company town at the fishing port of Dumai connecting it Duri by road.
Beyond this growing cultural complexity and increasing density of settlement Indigenous people remained pressed into the upper regions of river systems and areas of closed canopy forest in hilly areas and peatlands. These impacts on Indigenous peoples will form the focus of my next blog post.
Settlement of Riau since the 1970s
Government and private companies were the dominant force in plantation development, particularly when synthetic rubbers began to displace natural rubber and plantations gradually converted to oil palm cultivation. Palm oil plantations require greater investment in planting, fertilizing crops, harvesting and oil processing and this favours larger organisations with an ability to raise the necessary capital. Building palm oil mills for extracting oil is a far more capital-intensive activity than rubber tapping, gathering cacao beans or harvesting coconuts.
During Sukarno's Presidency . ". . . the government resettled transmigrants in Riau . . . for security reasons, due to political tensions between Indonesia and Malaysia. Transmigrants were sent to the border regions that were considered by the central government to be underpopulated, in order to bolster territorial defense in the 'confrontation' against Malaysia."[3] It was not until 1975, during Suharto's New Order period, that Riau was formally designated as a transmigration area under Presidential Decree no. 29. Only small numbers were involved.
Border regions were invariably peatland areas. This process continued under President Suharto but with an emphasis on development for agriculture, specifically, rice cultivation.
"In Riau, the first transmigration settlement in the tidal swamp area was in Teluk Kiambang, Tempuling sub-district, in the District of Indragiri Hilir, where 150 families (735 persons) were resettled, followed by another 150 families (732 persons) in 1973/74" [4]
This is peatland and estuarine swamp.
Tirtosudarmo observes that "The government decision to use tidal swamp was partly because the best lands in the upland areas were already under cultivation by local residents. In many areas customary (adat) law gave land management rights to contiguously spaced local units known as marga or clans. In many areas where these rights had been exercised, particularly by shifting cultivators, the problem of alienating sufficient land for transmigration was more serious. Thus, in general, the upland areas of Sumatra presented difficult land rights situations for new settlements." [5]
The Suharto government established a rural development program called Nucleus Estates and Smallholders (NES) in 1978. Settlers known as Plasma Settlers were given two-hectare plots for the cultivation of cash crops such as rubber or oil palms. These were inside company plantations, usually government. At first, they were required to devote a further one hectare to food cropping but in 1997 they were extended the right to cultivate oil palm, exclusively.
NES has brought large changes to the rural economy and landscape in Riau as it was here that oil palm cultivation by smallholders has been greatest.[6]
Impact of increasing global demand for vegetable oils
An increasing global demand for vegetable oils led to an expansion of the land under oil palm cultivation in Indonesia. According to the World Bank (WB) Malaysia and Indonesia (notably Sumatra and Kalimantan) account for about 85 percent of global output. Since 2006 Indonesia has been the larger of the two producers.
The WB reports that Some 70 percent (4.2 million ha) of Indonesia's oil palm plantations are on land that was previously forested; more than 56 percent of the expansion between 1990 and 2005 occurred at the expense of natural forest cover. It also notes that the process of land acquisition for large-scale oil palm development can generate negative impacts on the livelihoods of communities including small farmers and Indigenous Peoples. This is particularly true when land titles are unclear or unrecognized and companies or the government, as a result of inadequate legal protections or poor enforcement, failure to consult adequately with existing customary users or provide appropriate compensation.
A study of the Indonesian palm oil industry carried out as part of a global study under the coordination of the Australian National University, concluded that palm oil developments have had a positive impact on the incomes and living standards of all involved.
Such statements don't adequately account for environmental costs and other externalities. They must be viewed against the reality of the largescale operations undertaken by plantation companies. These operations have had a serious impact on the natural environment and traditional rural livelihoods. Apart from forest clearing, the most noticeable impact has been smoke haze. The outer islands of Indonesia, particularly Sumatra and Kalimantan, have been greatly affected by the recent haze problems caused by the use of fire in forest clearing. More than 100,000 premature deaths in the region have been attributed to transboundary haze pollution in the El Nino year, 2015. Areas like Pekanbaru in Riau and Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan were seriously affected. Moreover, plantation companies are powerful enough to exploit legal vagaries, pressure various levels of government, particularly regional and local officials and to take community and Indigenous lands. At the same time the number of smallholders is increasing and their economic position, in monetary terms, is improving. So, the situation is complex. Serious tensions and conflicts sometimes arise.[7]
Forest clearing and the development of drainage canals, along with the use of fire for land clearing, are well-documented problems associated with palm oil plantation development on peatlands. Dispossession of Indigenous people is less well documented and will be covered in my next post.
Wood pulp and paper production
Since the 1990s Riau peatlands have also been cleared for plantations of eucalyptus and acacia sources of wood pulp in paper manufacture
Another major impact on peatlands is the development of the wood pulp industry. Two companies, Sinar Mas Group and Royal Golden Eagle Group have dominated this exploitation of Riau's forests since the mid-1990s.
Sinar Mas is a vertically integrated corporation that owns Asia Pulp & Paper, PT Aria Abadi, Golden Agri Resources, PT SMART, etc. Royal Golden Eagle has Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), Riau Andalan Pulp, PT Asian Agri Agro, etc
Under the New Order regime of President Suharto, forests were declared 'state forest'. "They were to be deployed in the name of national development, part of the 'new order' initially thrust on him by a group of US-trained Indonesian economists known as the 'Berkeley mafia'. In practice, in his hands, it meant they would be handed out to anyone with the cash and the connections."[8]
RAPP Pulp Mill, Kerinci
Both companies built pulp mills a mere 40 kilometres apart near the service town of Pangkalan Kerinci. It would be difficult to find any other part of the earth's surface where there is such a concentrated demand for wood. Sumatra and Indonesia Borneo have experienced the most rapid deforestation in human history. After forested peatlands had been cleared the companies planted out eucalyptus and acacia to maintain production. Where these plantings were on peatland, large area were drained to promote growth
In 2013 APP announced that in future the company would obtain the informed consent of local communities before preparing new plantations, they also announced, a moratorium on all natural forest clearance. This meant that it would no longer accept Natural Forest Wood (NFW) form its suppliers as part of its Forest Conservation Policy (FCP). It qualified this by adding "ensuring our forest clearance moratorium is properly implemented is a very complex task. While we believe we have made considerable progress, there have been some challenges. That's why we developed a procedure to address any grievance that our stakeholders might raise, in relation to the implementation of the FCP." It was not until June 2014 that the use of NFW.
Despite this commitment, the complexity of the task involved the simple reality that The ownership of 25 of the 27 suppliers is exercised through layers of shareholding companies that are almost always based in Sinarmas offices and in most cases have Sinarmas employees, ranging from top executives to humble IT workers and accountants, as their directors and commissioners.
Associated Press found that logging of NFW continued in Indonesian Borneo. In Riau province Sinarmas is pressing ahead with plans to turn 66,000 hectares (163,000 acres) of state land in the Bangka Belitung island chain off Sumatra into industrial forestry plantations despite substantial opposition from locals. The move puts the company on a collision course with villages that farm on the land and which some 100,000 people call home.
Drainage canals cut through peatland on an APP acacia plantation in Riau Province at 1°19'68" N, 101°56'12″W on the mainland north west of Tebing Tinggi
Wetlands.org reports that In South Sumatra APP has started operating its OKI pulp mill with $2.5 billion in loans from China's state-owned banks. The mill's pulp production capacity is 2.0 million tons/yr. but an OKI director advises APP will increase the mill's capacity to 2.8 million tons/yr, though its plant can be upgraded to produce 3.2 million tons/yr. At present, it seems there are insufficient plantation acacia and eucalyptus to support the mill and its South Sumatra concessions are at least 59,000 hectares short of the planted areas needed to produce the volumes OKI will consume.
The other big wood pulp operation in Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), the operational unit of Singapore-based pulpwood company Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), committed to a FCP policy in 2015. Through 2017 it was in dispute with Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) directives. The ministry had accused the company of failing to comply with new peatland protection laws, which aim to prevent choking annual haze and encourage plantation firms to move their operations to non-peatlands through land swap deals.
RAPP has a similar history to that of APP and is responsible for large areas of deforestation and peatland drainage.
The story of Sungai Tohor and Sago
Sungai Tohor is a district on the peatland island of Tebing Tinggi which is part of the Meranti Islands Regency. In 1904 it was settled by Malay people and has become an area of sago cultivation. Sago thrives in the wet conditions and benefits from interplanting with forest trees that help to draw moisture closer to the sago palm's shallow root system. Sago existed in the area before the permanent settling of Sungai Tohor and is not indigenous to the Meranti Islands.
Trade in sago dates back hundreds of years. It is believed to have been introduced by Bugis trading fleets or other ancient seafarers. This is consistent with a report in the Singapore Chronicle, 15 February 1827 titled On the Cultivation of Sago in the East.
Indigenous people such as the Akit and Orang Laut were the first to harvest sago in the region. 'Siak sago', as it was called, has been long regarded as the best quality. Siak was a generic term for the Indigenous people of the peatlands who seem to have spoken Austronesian languages that acquired loan words from Malay and became a distinct dialect. Sago was harvested first by these Indigenous people.
Sungai Tohor's community stepped up sago production after experiments with rice cultivation failed. In the 1980s they were encouraged by the provision of small government funded sago mills. See Managing Peatlands in Indonesia: A case study of small islands in Riau. Monash University Sustainability Institute. October 2013.
For more background on the origins and cultivation of sago on the north coast of Sumatra download the pdf from Oriental Herald Vol 14. On the Cultivation of Sago in the East – Singapore Chronicle, 15 February 1827.
Sungai Tohor's community stepped up sago production after experiments with rice cultivation failed. In the 1980s they were encouraged by the provision of small government-funded sago mills. See Managing Peatlands in Indonesia: A case study of small islands in Riau. Monash University Sustainability Institute. October 2013.
Sago cultivation does not leave peatland forest undisturbed but the ecological disruption it causes is small compared with the deforestation that comes with, extensive oil palm plantations or pulpwood extraction followed by development of eucalypt and acacia plantations.
The PT Lestari Unggul Makmur (LUM) concession on Tebing Tinggi island
In May 2007 the Minister of Forestry issued a Pulpwood plantation permit PT Lestari Unggul Makmur (LUM), a company associated with RAPP. The concession was 10,390 hectare total.
In 2009, LUM obtained natural forest clearing permit of 2,832 hectares. Its production target was 262,837 cubic meters. As a first step, according to Eyes of the Forest, Indonesia, LUM cut 10 kilometers of 12 metre wide drainage canals to a depths of 5 metres. These reduced the water table level in its peatland concession. The concession overlapped the Sungai Tohor's community lands in an area where peat depths ranged from 2 to 4 metres.
This map shows the PT Lestari Unggul Makmur concession and peat depths. Source http://www.eyesontheforest.or.id/ Source Eyes on the Forest
Map showing boundaries of the PT LUM concession in red with a key showing the recommended land uses and forest exploitation proposed. The shaded areas show areas of proposed change. This map shows the extent of production forest proposed in the PT LUM concession as of 2012. Source: Forestry Ministry Rupublic of Indonesia.
Community resistance to PT LUM
The canal project damaged the peatlands forest ecosystem and lowered water levels where sago palms were under cultivation provoking a response from the wider community of Tebing Tinggi. They rejected the LUM pulpwood plantation development insisting that as well as the negative ecological impact of the canals and planned natural forest clearing, the development would destroy the sago industry, cause subsidence and weaken the areas protection from ingress of salt water. They also stressed the negative social impacts for their community as it relied on a local economy based on coconuts, sago and areca palm (Dypsis lutescens).
Indonesian Government Regulation number 26/2008, the peat areas inside the National Protected Area including peat forest with a depth of 3 metres or more in a river catchment or swamp should be protected. The community argued that LUM PT LUM had breached the law.
A strong local campaign began building around the issues of:
the ecological destruction caused by deforestation bringing about flora and fauna extinction;
the potential for declining sago production because of drainage which could also lead to forest fires given peatlands flammability;
the damaging impact of the acacia of pulpwood plantation that would inevitably follow forest clearance not only on the supply of water but also because they acted as a host for beetles that attacked sago and coconut palms; and,
intrusion from seawater that will threaten sago palm plantation.
Sign 1: We the community of Sungai Tohor and district reject the presence of HIT PT LUM Sign 2:Let us fight to protect the natural forest and plantations of the Sungai Tohor community and surrounding villages. Source: Eyes of the Forest http://www.eyesonthefore
By 2011 sago production started to decline because canalisation had lowered water table.
Eyes of the Forest strongly supported the community stating, in summary PT Lum should:
1. curtail all plans to clear natural forest and canal drainage in
in its concession since its permit appears to be illegal and will cause social conflict, damage to the local economy, threaten high conservation forest and cause a negative effect on global climate;
2. dismantle all newly established canal infrastructure causing deterioration of the peat ecosystem and increased CO2 emissions; and,
3. leave all concession areas for conservation and limited utilization for boosting community's economy, by considering that its management is implemented under a fair scheme of mutual benefit for the community.
Resistance to PT LUM's concession spread rapidly to the 7 other villages of Tebing Tinggi. Community resolve was strengthened when in February 2014, fires broke out on Tebing Tinggi. Dry conditions made fire-fighting difficult.
With the support of WALHI, The Indonesian Forum for Environment, part of the Friends of the Earth International, leaders of Sungai Tohor posted an online petition asking Indonesia's President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to come to Sungai Tohor and see the damage.
The community of Sungai Tohor also began a project to dam the canals cut by PT. LUM aimed at raising water tables in the area.
In June of 2014 PMHaze sent a team to Riau as part of a hotspot investigation project. They visited three areas Mumugo/Rantau Bais; Pelintung; and Sungai Tohor. Reacting to the February fire Sungai Tohor's village head and WAHLI-Riau attributed the fire to drying of the peat because of canals dug by PT. LUM and PT. National Sago Prima (PT. NSP). PMHaze reported that new canals were still being dug during their site visit observing that on PT. NSP's concession, which has formerly been a timber concession with canals dug as far back as 1995 canal blocking had been undertaken in 2013 and 2014.
In November 2015, the President Jokowi visited the area and agreed plantation permits had to be reviewed if they were indeed destroying the ecosystem and would have to be terminated. "'We must not allow our tropical rainforests to disappear because of monoculture plantations like oil palm,' he said." He went on to highlight the need for:
1. enforcement of the law related to the Compliance Audit findings on 17 corporate transgressors in the peatland of Riau;
2. total protection of the peatland;
3. strengthening and extension of the moratorium on permits; and,
4. acceleration of the implementation of the one map policy that will force a consensus on territorial issues.
Sungai Tohor Today
Since my visit to Sungai Tohor on the PEET Expedition and have kept up contact with Ridwan.
At the time of my visit he explained that apart from canal blocking to rewet the peatlands, he and other members of his community were attempting to plant indigenous forest tres in amongst community sago palms and extending the plantings to areas already damaged by clearing and burning. This is a difficult task. Just before Christmas he explained that his project was in desperate need of funds to buy small pots for seed stock and shade cloth.
I couldn't help, the small amounts of money I could send him were going to be eaten up by transfer charges, so I decided the best way forward was to present a visual coverage of the work Ridwan and his team are doing in the hope that others might like to help him.
What follows is a collection of both my images and others that Ridwan has sent me.
I was unable to translated all the Malay names of the species being cultivated by the community. Some of the names might have been dialect, I'm not sure.
Seeds and seedlings are gathered in from areas from around the time of the equinox, in September.
Seeds and seedlings are transferred to plastic tubes and shaded. Plastic might be replaced by degradable material in future but money is the key.
Seedlings ready for planting out
[1]Kanō, H – Indonesian Exports, Peasant Agriculture and the World Economy, 1850-2000: Economic Structures in a Southeast Asian State. NUS Press. Singapore. 2008
[2] The Postwar Migration of the Toba-Bataks to East Sumatra. CLARK E. CUNNINGHAM. (Cultural Report Series.) New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1958. xii, 189 pp.
[3]Tirtosudarmo, R – Transmigration and its Centre-Regional Context: The Case of Riau and South Kalimantan Provinces/Indonesia. A thesis submitted for Doctorate of Philosophy, ANU, 1990 pp.190
[4]op.cit pp.192
[5]op.cit pp.192-193
[6]Kano – op.cit pp.3
[7]Koizumi, Yusuke – Migration and Its Impact in Riau Province, Indonesia: An Analysis of Population Census Data and Topographical Maps. Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies Vol. 4 (Dec. 2016) pp. 3-10
[8] Pearce, F. The Landgrabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns The Earth. Part Four: China's Back Yard, 15 Sumatra, Indonesia: Pluping the jungle
Tagged palm oil, Peatland, peatlands, Plantations, Riau, Sungai Tohor, Wood pulp1 Comment
Asia, environment, geography, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
Getting Singapore's eateries and companies to switch to #sustainable palm oil
October 6, 2017 October 6, 2017 maximos62
Here is a short digest of news I've written for the PM.Haze October Newletter. A full list of past newsletters can be found on the PM.Haze site.
How to fight the haze three times a day
The first part of my news analysis addresses an excellent article, How to fight the haze three times a day, written for the Straits Times by PM.Haze members Tan Yi Han and Maxine Chen. It is headed by this dramatic helicopter shot.
Smoke rising from clearings in Indonesia's Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve in February this year. The protected forest was being cleared illegally to make way for plantations
Mr Tan Yi Han, 32, is a co-founder of People's Movement to Stop Haze (PM Haze), a Singapore-based non-profit organisation empowering people to do their part to help solve the regional haze crisis.
He is driven to help people find their passions, and to shape a society in which every individual stands up for what is right. Mr Tan recently obtained a Master of Science in Environmental Management.
Ms Maxine Chen, 24, is a volunteer with PM Haze. She is inspired by writing and its power to drive positive change.
A lawyer by training, her stories on topics including climate change and sustainable consumption have appeared in, among other places, the environmental science and conservation news site Mongabay.
The article How to fight the haze three times a day reminds us that despite Indonesia's national moratorium on peatland forest clearing, deforestation continues. Protected peatland forests, home to rare and endangered species like the Sumatran elephants and tigers, are still being illegally cleared and burnt to make way for oil palm plantations.
Each dry season fires race across the peatlands producing masses of smoke and leaving behind a scorched earth ready for the planting of neat rows of oil palms. This smoke is a major contributor to global warming but it is also a toxic mix of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, ammonia, cyanide and formaldehyde. It also carries microscopic particles coated with carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Such is its toxicity that in 2015 it forced the closure of all Singapore's schools and may have caused the early deaths of more than 100,000 people in South-east Asia.
Surveying the problem
Palm oil is present in half the consumer products that we buy (packaged foods and personal care products), it is also the most commonly used cooking oil in Asia.
Last year the survey PM.Haze conducted revealed that 32 out of 33 popular eatery chains in Singapore used cooking oil that contains palm oil.
PM.Haze does not advocate boycotting palm oil but seeks to improve the way palm oil is produced.
The conscious consumer
There is much we can do about this problem. Consumers can adopt several strategies:
reduce unnecessary consumption of palm oil and other vegetable oils. Eat less fried food and choose less oily (and healthier) food instead. Reducing demand for vegetable oil is a key step towards driving down the need to clear more land.
choose palm oil products certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This certifies the palm oil is from growers that don't engage in forest clearing and burning. In Singapore, there are already four brands of cooking oil that are RSPO-certified. Also, Ikea Singapore and the Singapore Zoo use sustainable cooking oil in their food outlets.
tell others about the issue. Most of the eateries PM Haze spoke to were not even aware that they were using palm oil and mentioned terms like "vegetable oil" or "tempura oil" – generic names for palm oil.
Consumers have the power to spur businesses to minimise negative impacts on the health of our people and planet. Let's demand that businesses act responsibly and go haze-free.
A report from the WWF
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reports that two out of three Singapore brands they contacted failed to respond to a request to disclose their palm oil usage.
WWF Singapore contacted 27 local retailers, manufacturers and food service brands with a survey to assess their buying and sourcing of palm oil. Only 10 companies responded.
Ayam Brand, which uses only certified sustainable palm oil for its canned food products, and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which uses palm oil for cooking in its food and beverage outlets, scored highest in the report.
Those not responding included:
BreadTalk Crystal Jade
Bee Cheng Hiang
Khong Guan
Paradise Group
Tung Lok
Commonwealth Capital brand Soup Spoon, PastaMania and Udders
Since the launch of the campaign, these companies have committed to sustainable palm oil: Bee Cheng Hiang, Commonwealth Capital, Crystal Jade Culinary Concepts Holding, Paradise Group Holdings, Super Group and Tung Lok.
WWF said the level of "non-discosure and lack of action" among brands in Singapore and Malaysia was higher than the global average.
WWF-Singapore has launched a campaign to get consumers to pressure local brands on their use of palm oil, by sending emails to the companies via https://palmoil.sg.
WWF Singapore observed that unsustainable practices in the palm oil industry are at the root of the transboundary haze and deforestation. It added that, the brands not using sustainable palm oil cited internal factors such as capacity issues and higher costs preventing a switch to sustainable palm oil. Sustainable palm oil options start at less than S$0.01 more per litre.
Tagged palm oil, smoke haze, sustainable palm oil, transboundary haze5 Comments
environment, geography, Health, Indonesia, Singapore
#Indonesian #peatlands are torched again as the #burning season gets underway
August 26, 2016 August 26, 2016 maximos62
I wasn't expecting things to deteriorate quite as quickly as they have today.
Just in case readers aren't familiar with this Air Quality Index scale, readings are based on several factors but the figure 248 refers to parts per million of particles 2.5 microns in size. These have a capacity to enter the lungs and remain deep inside.
So, where is all this smoke haze coming from today.
First, here is yesterdays wind map showing hotspots in the ASEAN region. There are two in Sumatra.
Here is a map showing palm oil plantations and peat domes in Sumatra.
Without doing a precise mapping exercise to match the active hotspots with peat domes, it's still obvious that the most likely source of Singapore's smoke haze pollution right now is a hot spot west south west of Palembang. At the time of writing Palembang is at AQI 54 but this is a PM 10 reading
Indonesia's hot spots
The Straits Times recently carried this video from Reuters
Today the Straits Times carried this article.
Tagged Asia, Australia, carbon, carbon dioxide, El Nino, forest destruction, geography, health, Indonesia, palm oil, peatlands, Singapore, weather2 Comments
environment, geography, Health, Indonesia
Forest Burning and haze in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
September 25, 2015 October 10, 2015 maximos62
Living with the haze in Singapore.
Thunder, lightning and rain were a blessing through the night. Listening to the gentle tapping of rain drops on the window confirmed I'd been right switching off the airconditioning and air filter last thing. Rain always brings an interlude of clearer atmosphere. This was no exception with the PSI dropping to 87 and the PM2.5 to 95 from peaks of 224 and 274 in the previous 24 hours.
Sitting here in Singapore over the past two weeks I've watched as levels of air pollution have risen. In this connected island nation with it's ultra fast Internet gathering information about the problem is easy. The Haze Information Portal is my first reliable source of data. When the levels of air pollution rise to unhealthy I wear a mask to help filter out the PM2.5 the particles in the air that are smaller than 2.5 microns, the ones that can travel deep into the lungs.
The Air Quality Index (AQI)
Anyone living in a city listed in the Air Quality Index website can check their city's AQI by using this link I've set up for South, Singapore. Just click on this link and search for your own city.
The pollution indices and color codes available on this website follow the EPA graduation, as defined by AirNow and explained in wikipedia.
As an experiment I just walked about 300 metres to the Zion Road Hawker Centre without wearing my mask. The entire journey was conducted with PM2.5 at 167, in the red band. I wore a mask on the return journey. Now my nose is itchy, I'm sneezing, I can feel a burning sensation deep inside my nose and the back of my throat. My voice is slightly hoarse. I'm actually in an at risk group and I'm by no means alone.
This is the last time I'll attempt the experiment.
Source of the haze
After a few days living with the haze, particularly if PM2.5 reaches Hazardous, which it has done, reflecting on the cause of the problem is inevitable. In our case the problem is Indonesia, Sumatra to be precise, although it's not alone, Kalimantan also has huge problems. Of course none of this is new, it's been going on for a while. A friend who lived in Singapore back in 1993-94 reports encountering the haze.
This season in 2013 was also bad for haze but arguably the worst to date was the period 1997-98. At that time major forest and peatland fires broke out in South East Asia. Some of the areas plagued by fire were already very familiar to me, notably the Kutai region of eastern Kalimantan. An El Nino induced drought brought the critical conditions necessary for fire to break out in areas that had already been partly cleared of forest cover and contained huge fuel loads. A total of 10 million ha of forest was burnt during that time, primarily in Indonesia, but also in Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand. The fires burned or damaged over 1.45 million ha of peatlands, about 4% of the total peatland areas in the region. One million hectare of peat swamp forest in Indonesia was damaged in this period (BAPPENAS, 1999). Fires in the area of peat soils were identified as the major contributors (about 60% of particulates) to the smoke and haze which enveloped a major part of the region and contributed to an estimated economic loss of US$9 billion. [1]
Indonesian environments and palm oil plantations
Most people probably think of Indonesia as a land of rice fields and rainforests, and it is, but it's also a land of monsoon forests, mangroves, nipa palm swamps and swamp forests. It's in these swamp forests that the source of the problem lies dormant. If they are left undeveloped or developed in sustainable ways the problem usually doesn't arise, but unfortunately they are falling victim to the rapidly expanding oil palm industry. Indonesia is the world's largest Crude Palm Oil producer with about 10 million hectares of Palm Oil Plantation, more than 600 Palm Oil Mills, about 120 refineries, and some palm kernel oil mills, oleo chemical companies and biodiesel factories.
Palm oil is the world's most widely consumed vegetable oil representing 34% of all vegetable oils consumed with soybean oil in second place at 27% of vegetable oils consumed. As the world's largest palm oil producer, Indonesia is responsible for 52% of the world output. Production grew 11% per year between 1993 and 2013. Malaysia produces 34% of the global output. Combined Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil production in 2012 was valued at about $40 billion.
Well established palm oil plantations
Around 70% of Indonesia's palm oil plantations are in Sumatra and the remaining 30% in Kalimantan. These islands also contain stands of tropical rainforests. Early palm oil plantations were often established in areas where rainforests had been logged for their valuable timber. One notable area was the coastal fringe to the north-east of 3°N 99°E in North Sumatra province then extending south-east into the inland areas of Riau and Jambi provinces.
Mapping the Sumatran palm oil industry
Coastal areas of Sumatra support extensive swamp forests
Acknowledgement: B. Barus, Diar Shiddiq, L.S. Iman , B. H. Trisasongko, Komarsa, G, dan R. Kusumo) Staf Bagian Inderaja dan Informasi Spasial, Departemen Ilmu Tanah dan Sumberdaya Lahan, IPB; Peneliti Pusat Pengkajian Perencanaan dan Pengembangan Wilayah, LPPM, IPB; Presented in National Seminar Sustainable Peat Land Management in the Agricultural Land Resources Agency (ALRA), Bogor, May 4, 2012
Early oil palm plantation development tended to be mostly in well-drained areas with undulating to hilly landforms.
Sumatra Topography. (CCL. Author Sadalmelik)
Recent oil palm plantation development is being undertaken in the swamp forests and associated peatlands within the north-eastern coastal areas of Sumatra.
Tropical swamp forests and peatlands in Indonesia
Peatlands cover at least 9% of the Indonesian land surface, the exact area is somewhere between 16.8 and 27.0 million ha. They form in swamp forests. The process of peat land formation is illustrated in the following diagrams.
Peat is dead organic matter accumulated in a wet oxygen depleted environment, it is about 90% water and 10% plant matter. Such a high water content creates what is called a perched water table in the peat dome. Water retained in a peat dome is higher than in surrounding areas.
Deposits can accumulate over 1000s of years and those in South East Asia have been forming since sea levels stabilised after the Pleistocene, at the beginning of the Holocene.
About 70% of tropical peatlands are found in South East Asia. Most occur in coastal or peri-coastal swamp forests or lowland river catchments in areas of Indonesia in Sumatra, Borneo (Kalimantan) and West Papua, Papua. They play an important role in flood mitigation during wet seasons and maintaining water supply during dry seasons.
Tropical peat domes can be up to 50 km wide occupying entire catchments between adjacent rivers.
Although peat swamp forests have many species of valuable dipterocarps limited access, and the preponderance of dipterocarps in the larger tropical forests within more well-drained areas, ensured that they were less disturbed until recently. Consequently they have remained an important habitat for animals. In Sumatra peat swamp forests are habitat for endangered species like Orang Utan, Sumatran Tigers and Rhinocerous.
A store of carbon
Peat deposits are a large and highly concentrated carbon store. Peatlands and organic soils contain 30 percent of the world's soil carbon but only cover 3 percent of the Earth's land area. [3] It is estimated that carbon storage in peatlands is up to 58 kg per cubic metre. Their capacity for carbon sequestration alone makes them a valuable global asset.
Exploiting Sumatra's peat lands
Given the huge income earning potential of the palm oil industry the clearing of swamp forests is increasing. In Indonesia cleared peatlands under oil palm cultivation are expected to increase to between 6 and 9 million ha by 2020, amounting to about one-third of total peatlands. Such a large intervention will have major environmental consequences.
At a global scale, CO2 emission from peatland drainage in Southeast Asia is contributing the equivalent of 1.3% to 3.1% of current global CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel. If current peatland development and management practices continue, these emissions are predicted to continue for decades.
Methods of clearing
Clearing swamp forests and associated peatlands is a two stage process:
canals are dug through peat domes so that water drains away. This causes the peat dome to subside.
remaining forest cover is slashed and burned.
The process is well documented in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper of October 1, 2015. There are some brilliant graphics.
The CO2 problem
Once peatlands are drained they begin to release CO2. Once they are burnt the release of CO2 increases dramatically.
In an average tropical peat fire 33 cm of peat is lost, which corresponds to 702 t CO2 ha-1 (Ballhorn et al. 2009; Couwenberg et al. 2009). This is more than 15 times the annual oxidative loss from 50 cm deep drained peat soil and exceeds average Holocene accumulation rates by 100 to 550 times. As a result of burning peat and vegetation in Indonesia during the severe El Niño event of 1997/98 about 1.8-3.0 Gt of carbon dioxide were released to the atmosphere (Page et al. 2002; Van der Werf et al. 2008b; Couwenberg et al. 2009).
Subsidence in the coastal and peri-coastal areas where peatlands are drained and burned presents additional problems going into the future. More severe flooding exacerbated by sea level rise could render significant cleared tracts of land peatland unusable.
Summarising the impacts
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations offers this paper to the discussion on strategies for approaching the problem, Towards climate-responsible peatlands management.
Wetlands International also offers solutions in this document, Tropical peatlands, current issues and possible solutions, that can be readily adapted into a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation
Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme outlined in Peatlands – guidance for climate change mitigation through conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable use is also a useful resource on ideas for migigating the effects of peatland and wetland destruction which takes a more global approach.
Tackle illegal intrusions into Peatland National Parks
The World Resources Institute offers these stratregies in Preventing Forest Fires in Indonesia: Focus on Riau Province, Peatland, and Illegal Burning
Using digital technology and satellites to help
Finally the search facility in the Food and Agriculture Organisation website will turn up a rich stream of information on the problem and solutions
Why the air pollution and fires are such a problem at the moment
Apart from illegal and unregulated forest burning, three other geographic factors influence the problem, at any time. These factors are climatic and meteorological. Their interaction can intensify or modify the air pollution problem on a given day.
A primary driver is the monsoon
The southern monsoon brings south-west to south-easterly winds to Indonesia and mainland South east Asia
Wind directions between Australia & S E Asia October 1, 2015.
The influence of the monsoon is easily shown in this wind direction chart for Thursday October 1, 2015.
While the Australian continent is still relatively cool, winds are spilling out of Australia as south easterlies. Moving off shore they become easterlies then as they pass over the Equator they are deflected becoming south easterlies as the pass over Sumatra. Now they begin to blow smoke over Sumatra, Singapore and Malaysia.
Variations in Weather
The wind direction on a given day will influence the intensity of the haze blowing over Singapore. This is determined by pressure cells.
Synoptic chart of October 1, 2015
Variations in the isobars, particularly the wavy patterns along the Equator further influence local wind direction.
The southern oscillation plays an important role, particularly when the Indonesian and Philippines archipelagos move into an El Nino. Aridity increases both intensifying and prolonging fire regimes.
Areas experience reduced ocean temperatures and evaporation during the El Nino phase.
Tagged air pollution, atmosphere, climate change, El Nino, geography, Indonesia, land clearing, palm oil, peatlands, Singapore6 Comments


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Man yells at unoccupied Porsche | Bothell police blotter
The Bothell police blotter for Feb. 12-18
By Hannah Saunders • February 27, 2020 8:30 am
Domestic: At 5:36 p.m., in the 9800 block Sammamish River Trail, reports came in of a male and female in a heated verbal dispute along the trail. The couple was transient and the male insisted on putting medicated lotion on the female's facial sores. She insisted the lotion caused her significant pain.
Loitering: At 9:10 a.m., in the 11700 block of Northeast 160th Street, police received reports of two females loitering in a parking lot. The women claimed to be traveling from Redmond to Everett, and there were physical signs of drug abuse. They were in a vehicle registered to someone else, but one woman stated she was purchasing the car and had yet to transfer the paperwork.
Drug violation: At 10:24 a.m., in the 20800 block of Bothell-Everett Highway, officers responded to a disturbance report of a male who had spent two hours in a store and attempted to damage a photo machine, in addition to carrying a meth pipe and dropping it. Officers arrived, interviewed the subject, and arrested him for the possession of drug paraphernalia and two grams of methamphetamine.
Drug violation: At 3:28 p.m. on 9th Avenue Southeast, officers responded to assist aid on a female subject who had consumed an unknown amount of a controlled substance. The victim's boyfriend was in his car in the driveway at the time, and police later found him in possession of 0.87 grams of heroin and arrested him on an outstanding warrant.
Domestic: At 3:52 p.m. in the 16000 block of Juanita-Woodinville Way Northeast, officers received a report of a male punching a female on the bus. The two were in a common-law marriage. When officers located the couple, they detected alcohol on each of their breaths. The male resisted arrest and had made an advancement toward an officer.
Drug violation: At 4:27 p.m. in the 17900 block of Campus Way Northeast, an officer initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle for what appeared to be an unauthentic permit. The driver had also straddled two lanes on a turn. During the vehicle search, officers found an uncapped needle, several tourniquets, cotton balls, and foils.
Public intoxication: At 5:38 p.m. on 101st Avenue Northeast, officers received a report of a heavily intoxicated male yelling at a parked, unoccupied Porsche. The male was detained and educated on public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
Drug violation: At 11:47 a.m. in the 1000 block of 228th Street Southeast, an officer was patrolling the area and ran a vehicle's license plate. The driver had a suspended license. The officer had arrested and searched the male and found a tooter the male used to snort crushed Percocet pills with. During the vehicle search, the officer found a broken glass pipe, 30 plastic bags, and one bag containing one gram of methamphetamine. In addition, he found a black book containing notes on the street value of certain narcotics.
Drug violation: At 11:55 a.m. in the 900 block of 228th Street Southeast, a group of seven were detained for drug loitering, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of narcotics (as well as the intent to sell) to include amphetamine. Ammunition had been found on one individual during the search.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Clarkesworld on For the Win
March 11, 2011 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
In this Clarkesworld interview, conducted last year during my tour for For the Win, Jeremy Jones and I talk about the rigors of touring, the politics of labor, and the elusive Drama Hobbit.
Have there been any strange moments?
There've been a couple pretty weird ones. I've had two funny misunderstandings. A friend of mine was interviewing me for the Guardian over Skype at six in the morning in San Francisco. It was later in the day for her, obviously, and luckily she's a good friend. I forgot the camera was on and answered the phone naked. I'd been up since five but I hadn't gotten dressed yet.
The other funny bit was when a guy came to my signing in Austin and I said, "What would you like in your book," and he said, "Drama Hobbit." I said, "Drama Hobbit?" And he said, "Yeah," so I drew him the most dramatic Hobbit I could. I'm not much of a drawer and I said, "There you go!" And he said, "No, no, draw Muhammad." Well, nobody knows what he looks like…
For the Win on Readergirlz
March 9, 2011 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
My novel For the Win is the featured title this month at Readergirlz, a literacy site that does wonderful work. I'll be answering questions there through the month.
Hugo Award nominations are openare
January 11, 2011 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
The Hugo Award nominations are now open; attendees at last year's World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne or next year's in Reno are eligible to nominate. I usually wait until the annual Locus List of notable publications to help me make my choices and jog my memory, but in case you're wondering, yes, indeed, I do have some items eligible for this year's ballot:
* Novel: For the Win (Tor, 2010)
* Novella: Chicken Little (Gateways, edited by Jim Frenkel, Tor, 2010)
* Novella: Epoch (published in With a Little Help, Sweet Home Grindstone press, 2010)
* Novella: There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow Now is the Best Time of Your Life (published in Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Science Fiction Book Club, 2010)
* Short story: The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening, (Shareable.net, 2010)
* Short story: Ghosts in My Head (Subterranean Press, 2010)
2011 Hugo Award Nomination Period is Open
Canadian: last chance to vote in Indigo's Teen Read poll
August 30, 2010 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
Canadians: Now that summer's over, it's your last chance to select your favorite young adult reads in Indigo's summerlong Teen Read Awards. They're soliciting Canadians' daily votes for great books for teens to read, as part of a longer and larger promotion of teen reading and literacy. I'm honored to note that my latest young adult novel For the Win is in the final heat!
BEST CANADIAN READ NOMINEES
Canadians: One month left to pick your favorite YA book!
July 27, 2010 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
A quick reminder: Canadian teens have one month left to vote for their favourite YA novels in Chapters/Indigo's Best Canadian Reads series. You can vote every day, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my latest novel, For the Win, is eligible for your vote!
I'm incredibly gratified to see Canada's largest bookseller putting such a sustained, high-profile effort into promoting YA reading and YA literature. Please participate and show your support!
Last chance to RSVP for London event tonight with Mieville, me and Rob Sharp of English PEN
Reminder for Londoners! I'm doing a live event tonight at 7PM with China Mieville in Exmouth Market (EC1R 4QE), through the excellent Clerkenwell Tales bookstore. We've outgrown the store, so Pete, our host, has booked the Church of the Redeemer next door; but we're nearly full there, too! If you'd like to come, RSVP (quickly!) to info@clerkenwell-tales.co.uk or tweet @booksellerpete. We'll be emceed by the wonderful Rob Sharp of English PEN.
Interview with Reason.tv about FOR THE WIN
Here's some video of interviews I did with Nick Gillespie from Reason Magazine and Reason TV after my talk at Public Knowledge in DC last
month. We talk about For the Win and how technology and kids and society interrelate.
This story is fiction and describes a world known as "virtual." Yet, the economics discussed in its pages are as real as your laid off friend or the foreclosures up and down the street. In a time when national economies rise and fall on algorithms designed to sell money that never existed and corporate executives go unpunished for stealing thousands of people's pensions and livelihoods, the idea that the virtual world may well provide us with clues on how to organize the real one is not far-fetched at all. Perhaps we should listen up.
Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch
You can feel story pounding through the arteries of For the Win.
John Clute, Strange Horizons
Clute on For the Win
July 1, 2010 / Cory Doctorow / For The Win, News
John Clute's smashing review of For the Win in the latest Strange Horizons compares the book (and me) to Heinlein in his heyday. Color me delighted!
There are a lot of MMORPG battles in the first half of the book, and a lot of lessons—much more interesting —about gameworld economies, and gold farming, and derivatives, in the second. The climax of the tale is double: an at times kinetically arousing narrative of the joining of the oppressed of the world and gameworlds in worldwide strike actions; and a neat narrative—infodumps hanging into the page whenever necessary — explaining how the greedy corporations of the world have been lured into a ponzi scheme engineered by members of our extremely clever crew, and how these corporations are forced into a humiliating climb-down at the very end: in the line of SF created by Heinlein, proper mousetraps trap proper mice: period.
Doctorow doesn't write a bad sentence; he doesn't even ever write a sentence you have to read twice. You can feel story pounding through the arteries of For the Win


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New online tool to help freight operators plan their journeys during London 2012
Transport for London (TfL) has launched a new interactive online tool to help the freight and logistics industries plan their journeys during the London 2012 Games.
TfL's Freight Journey Planner, available at www.tfl.gov.uk/2012freight calculates the most appropriate route for operators to take during the Games based on the date and time of day, and the vehicle's dimensions.
It complements the range of advice and support already available on TfL's website for freight operators in advance of this summer's Games.
The planner, developed by PIE Mapping, currently includes information about the Olympic and Paralympic Route Networks (ORN/PRN) and shows the closest legal stopping points to the driver's destination.
More information, including the Road Events routes and the timings for the traffic management restrictions that will be in place around venues, will be added by the end of June.
From July, live data will be fed into the planner every five minutes, ensuring it provides new routeing options based on the latest information on road traffic incidents, congestion levels, temporary road closures, and any other road restrictions.
London's Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said: "Ensuring the freight industry has up-to-the minute information to help plan their routes during Games time has been a major focus for TfL.
"The challenges surrounding deliveries this summer are considerable but TfL has been working hard to ensure that operators have all the advice and support they need to continue running smoothly and profitably throughout the Games.
"The Freight Journey Planner is the latest tool in a suite of information that will help operators plan the most appropriate routes for their drivers depending on their particular requirements."
TfL's support programme for freight operators in advance of the Games has included offering tailored advice and support to London's major wholesale markets and individual retailers in transport 'hotspot' areas, organising a regular 'freight forum' for senior industry representatives, developing a code of practice for out-of-hours deliveries, and publishing a wealth of information online including top tips for operators and road 'hotspot' maps for each day of the Games.
In addition, over 2,200 people from 1,350 businesses have attended one of TfL's free freight workshops held both in London and in towns and cities across the country that have a concentration of businesses supplying the capital.
Author: Fleet News Fleet News


Quit taking the lives away I know this game has made enough money if someone sends you moves or lives they you should be able to keep them.
The game is back to its old trick of taking all your saved lives every night. Please fix this.
Your game is too dumb and stupid and please no more ads, I hate them. You have two choices. 1: Stop putting up ads. 2: Stop running this game and get rid of it. Everyone don't buy this I garbage, It's very bad. Same thing as Pet Rescue Sage. Get rid that stupid dog! You have the worst games ever.
I still love the game but I'm constantly losing lives/extra moves that friends have given me. Not very happy about that. Please fix!!!


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Design | 4 min read
Work like it's 2025 in the workspace of the future
Before their relocation in 2013, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) had close to 6500 employees in Sydney spread across 13 buildings in the city. Hardly a fact that supported the bank's need to be more collaborative across all lines of business. CBA's relocation in 2013 to a custom-built campus-style workplace in Darling Quarter was Australia's largest-ever corporate office relocation. But CBA weren't just changing where they worked. Implementing Activity Based Working (ABW), CBA were changing how they worked as well.
CBA recognised the need to challenge traditional assumptions of how workspace is used and how work is done. ABW as a concept has this mentality baked in.
ABW begins from the observation that traditional business fit-out usually provides a single workspace for all types of tasks, despite tasks having wildly varying requirements of personal concentration, collaboration, and technology. ABW promotes something different, however.
As Anna Sparks of Commonwealth Bank said speaking to HC Online: "Activity based means that you select your environment based on the type of work that you are planning on doing for the day."
The Technology to do it correctly
Despite being coined in the mid-1990s by Erik Veldhoen in The Art of Working, ABW has only recently seen wide adoption throughout businesses around the world. This is primarily because we finally have the technology to do it right.
In 1994, visionary architect Gaetano Pesce was presented with a problem by CEO of New York ad firm Chiat-Day. "He wanted an office without paper," Pesce recalls speaking with Planet Money. It turned out that Pesce had his own way of solving this problem. "I start to think you don't need the office."
Pesce's work for Chiat-Day is considered one of the first open offices and a prototype of ABW. Gone were the uniform, efficient cubicles and neutral colours of the typical workplace and in their place were (then futuristic) laptops and mobile phones. But it wasn't all rosy.
Laptop computers were one thing, but it would be half a decade before wireless internet really started to take off. Additionally, as much as the mobile phones of the era were straight out of science fiction, battery life still kept them from being a suitable option for most businesses. And getting work done out of the office wasn't really viable: laptops and phones were borrowed and returned to reception morning and evening.
ABW has hit its stride with the technological advances of the last decade, most notably in smartphones and wireless networking. This has allowed the promises of the ABW approach to be fully realised by those businesses courageous enough to innovate.
Empowerment and employee trust
Those promises begin at empowering employees through trust. When it is understood that an employee is best able to choose where and when to work based on the task they need to do, employees become more invested and, as the data suggests, more productive.
As Alexander Saint-Amand, CEO of GLG wrote for Fast Company: "Yes, we give up our personal desks, but we gain the whole office."
In certain ABW implementations, that "office" could be anywhere. As the same technology that has facilitated the rise of ABW also allows employees to be productive anywhere and at anytime, trust in employees to work anywhere they deem fit is heavily promoted. As the new adage goes: work is something you do, not a place you go.
Empowering employees also has an effect on their wellbeing. Increased trust and freedom can lower anxiety as well as giving your employees the flexibility to manage their own wellbeing when necessary.
Managing the disruption
For even the tech-savviest remote-working warrior, ABW will of course offer some disruption. It's a big change after all. As well as requiring corporate adaptation, ABW will also present its own challenges.
Chief among these challenges is the possible splintering of a team that can occur when everyone is trusted to work independently. As such, one of the key components of an ABW implementation is fostering collaboration and in-person interaction.
As Fast Company reports, the way agile, flexible working can be prevented from fracturing team unity - with everyone in their own world - is by rethinking the office as an incentive, as a luxury or a reward. Catered team lunches are a good place to start in luring even the most independent remote worker into the office.
Above all, though, ABW is just one conception of what many believe the future of work to look like. In the face of technological advances, the way we used to work has long stopped making sense. Thankfully the office of the future is already here.
Workspace Design Trends in the Legal Sector
Amicus delivers new Workspace for ARRB
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The odd thing about The Sinestro Corps War is that it's an epic battle with way more carnage than your average mainstream superhero comic, but it ends up feeling like a prologue to a larger story. Which in a way it is, since there are all sorts of broad hints dropped about the upcoming event Blackest Night. Plus there's Superman Prime and Sodam Yat, who both headed off to appear in Legion of 3 Worlds, the Anti-Monitor, and various other nasties running around who pop up later. This gives the ending anything but an air of finality; we know all these guys will be back. It's a little disappointing that the story feels so up-front about it.
Anyway, the premise is that long-time GL villain Sinestro gets his own corp, wielding yellow rings, and they go to war with the Green Lantern Corps. The Sinestros are willing to kill, while the Guardians of the Universe won't let the GLs kill, which makes the battle somewhat lopsided. Plus the Sinestros recruited the aforementioned villains to help take down the good guys. Meanwhile the Guardians are struggling with a prophecy in the Book of Oa (their homeworld), which most of them resist believing in, even though it seems clear it's all going to come to pass. So the war is sort of a test for the Guardians sticking up for what they believe in, which would be more comforting except that over the years the Guardians have seemed less and less trustworthy in that regard. Which of course is why things start to go downhill from here.
Green Lantern is writer Geoff Johns at his best, as I've said before: His best plotting, and his best character bits, seem to end up in here. The story's climax has the best moment, with Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner taking down Sinestro after they've all been taken out of the larger conflict. Unlike the Guardians, Hal and Kyle are all about sticking up for what they believe in. Ivan Reis' art is perhaps the best it's even been in this volume.
The story also includes several issues from Green Lantern Corps, which are not as strong as the mainline GL ones: Patrick Gleason's art isn't as polished as Reis', and the characters are generally not as interesting as Hal Jordan. The issue where Prime and Sodam Yat fight is disappointing; I still don't understand why Prime is so powerful, that a Daxamite with the full force of the Corps at his disposal can't take him down.
Overall, this volume and the one that precede it are a nice package. Green Lantern might be the best mainstream superhero comic out there… if it weren't for Invincible, which also came out this week, and which seems to raise the bar with each new issue.
Even though I'm not generally a fan of pulps and noir stories, I've been totally sucked in to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' comics series. Incognito is a clever suspense yarn, and this week we also get the Sleeper Season One collecting the first 12 issues of an older series of theirs. The main character is a guy with superpowers – well one rather awkward yet terrifying power – who's nominally a good guy, but his agency has sent him as a deep-cover agent into a nest of super-villains, working a long-term mission to bring down the organization. The problem is that when you're undercover for that long, you start to identify with the guys you're infiltrating, and it becomes difficult to tell which side you're really on.
I'm only two issues into the volume so far, but it's quite good, better than Incognito, maybe better than Criminal. It's got an open-ended set-up, so it certainly seems to have legs, but stories like this also have to have a big payoff. The first two volumes of Criminal did, so I'm hoping this one does, too. It's certainly got everything else going for it.


Several cabinet ministers on Tuesday threw their support behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to meet with visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, unless Berlin's top diplomat canceled planned meetings with left-wing groups critical of Israel's army.
As first reported by Israel's Channel 2 on Monday evening, Netanyahu's office presented the German minister with an ultimatum: either he cancel his meeting with Breaking the Silence — an Israeli NGO that publishes the testimonies of former Israeli soldiers who report on human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza — or the prime minister will refuse to welcome him.
German officials reiterated Tuesday morning that Gabriel does not intend to change his schedule, indicating that he would go ahead and meet Breaking the Silence and another leftist group, B'Tselem, later on Tuesday.
"Foreign countries must not intervene in Israel's internal matters," the minister wrote on Twitter.
However, President Reuven Rivlin announced his scheduled meeting with Gabriel would go ahead on Tuesday afternoon.
The showdown between Jerusalem and Berlin deepened on Tuesday morning, when Gabriel said that it would be "regrettable" if Netanyahu were to disinvite him, but insisted that he would not change his plans.
"It's difficult for me to imagine that the meeting will be canceled, because this would be very regrettable," he said.
"I don't want to make a drama about it," he said in a television interview, but added that it would be "exceptional" if the Israeli prime minister were to boycott him.
Speaking to German national television ZDF from Jerusalem, Gabriel said it was usual for him during trips abroad to speak with civil society organizations, even if they were critical of the government.
"In no country in the world can you get a reasonable and comprehensive impression if you only meet with government representatives. You have to meet, as we did yesterday, with writers, with artists and students, and also with critical organizations," he said.
Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem are organizations that are very critical of Israel's policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians, Gabriel allowed.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gabriel met with Palestinian officials in Ramallah. He also met with Ir Amim, a left-wing Israeli group.
Gabriel, in the country to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and discuss peace efforts, was originally slated to meet with Netanyahu and Rivlin later Tuesday. The Rivlin meeting is still going ahead, the president's office said, and Gabriel noted it as a sign that he was still welcome in Israel.
Being blackballed by Netanyahu "wouldn't be a catastrophe for me; I've been to this country so many times and have many friends. It won't change my relationship to Israel," he said.
The prime minister's ultimatum divided Israeli politicians, with many on the right backing his threat and those in the opposition warning it could harm ties with Berlin.
"Netanyahu's ultimatum to the German foreign minister seriously harms Israel's ties to Europe's largest economy and a true friend of Israel," opposition leader Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union faction said late Monday.
B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, uses Palestinian photographers and videographers to document the conduct of Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank.
Last October the NGO's executive director, Hagai El-Ad, called for the United Nations to take action against Jewish settlements in the West Bank, telling a special session of the Security Council that Israel was creating facts on the ground in advance of any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Breaking the Silence collects reports, usually anonymously, from IDF veterans about alleged abuses by soldiers in the West Bank. It has often locked horns with the Israeli political and military brass and its critics have denounced its reports as dishonest and part of an advocacy campaign intended to harm Israel's image overseas.
In February, Belgium's Ambassador to Israel Olivier Belle was summoned for a dressing down in the Foreign Ministry over a meeting by his country's prime minister, Charles Michel, with representatives of the two NGOs.
Michel met with the heads of Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem despite a direct appeal by Netanyahu to Belgium to end its support to groups he said he considers damaging to the country.
Amid intense public debate over the legitimacy of left-wing NGOs operating in Israel, Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem have been the target of Knesset legislation aimed at curbing their political activity.


Moments in Time is a series of free, relaxed sessions specifically designed to provide those living with dementia an opportunity to revisit a time in their lives.
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text:
Q: Trigger in SQL causing error "Product_Reorder is not a recognized SET option" CREATE OR ALTER TRIGGER CheckQuantity
ON dbo.Products
AFTER UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
    UPDATE dbo.Products
    SET Product_ReOrder = 1
    FROM Inserted i
    WHERE i.Product_ID = dbo.Products.Product_ID
      AND i.Product_QOH < 5;

I am not getting a syntax error

syntax error near ;

This is referring to the ; at the end of the code.

A: Not 100% sure what you're trying to do - you're not giving us much to go on, either!
I'm assuming you mean you want to set a column called Product_ReOrder in your table to 1 if another column Product_QOH is less than 5 - correct?
In that case - use a trigger something like this:
CREATE OR ALTER TRIGGER CheckQuantity
ON dbo.Products
AFTER UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
    UPDATE dbo.Products
    SET Product_ReOrder = 1
    FROM Inserted i
    WHERE i.PrimaryKeyColumn = dbo.Products.PrimaryKeyColumn
      AND i.Product_QOH < 5;
END

The trigger will fire after an UPDATE, and Inserted will contain all rows (can and will be multiple rows!) that have been updated - so I'm assuming you want to check the quantity on those rows.
I'm joining the base table (dbo.Products) to the Inserted pseudo table on the primary key column of your table (which we don't know what it is - so you need to adapt this as needed), and I'm setting the Product_ReOrder column to 1, if the Products_QOH value is less than 5.
Your line of code
Select @QOH = (select Product_QOH from inserted)

has a fatal flaw of assuming that only one row was updated - this might be the case sometimes - but you cannot rely on that! Your trigger must be capable of handling multiple rows being updated - because the trigger is called only once, even if 10 rows are updated with a command - and then Inserted will contain all those 10 updated rows. Doing such a select is dangerous - you'll get one arbitrary row, and you'll ignore all the rest of them ....
Is that what you're looking for?

A: I'm unclear what you were thinking when you wrote this code, or what template you were basing off, but there are many syntax errors.
It seems you probably want something like this:

*

*The update() function only tells us if that column was present in the update statement, not if anything was actually changed.

*We need to check if we are being called recursively, in order to bail out.

*We also check if no rows have been changed at all, and bail out early

*Note how inserted and deleted are compared to see if any rows actually changed. This also deals correctly with multiple rows.

*We then need to rejoin Products in order to update it.

create or alter trigger CheckQuantity
on Products
after update
as
    set nocount on;

    if not(update(Products_QOH))
       or TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL(@@PROCID, 'AFTER', 'DML') > 1
       or not exists (select 1 from inserted)
         return;  -- early bail-out

    update p
    set Product_ReOrder = 1
    from Products p
    join (
        select i.YourPrimaryKey, i.Products_QOH
        from inserted i
        where i.Product_QOH < 5
        except
        select d.YourPrimaryKey, d.Products_QOH
        from deleted d
    ) i on i.YourPrimaryKey = p.YourPrimaryKey;

However, I don't understand why you are using a trigger at all.
I strongly suggest you use a computed column for this instead:
ALTER TABLE Products
    DROP COLUMN Product_ReOrder;

ALTER TABLE Products
    ADD Product_ReOrder AS (CASE WHEN Product_QOH < 5 THEN CAST(1 AS bit) ELSE CAST(0 AS bit) END);

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text:
eCivis: 6 Takeaways From the Latest Guidance on the American Rescue Plan Act
by: Francesca El Attrash-Ukaejiofo
GMBoK TrainingChapter EventsCAPP CornerFederal GrantsNGMA Network
6 Takeaways From the Latest Guidance on the American Rescue Plan Act
By: Francesca El Attrash-Ukaejiofo on April 1, 2021
On March 19, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum for the heads of executive departments and federal agencies (M-21-20).
This memo was released to give guidance to federal agencies to foster accountability and public trust by delivering effective and equitable relief, while implementing sound financial management of the resources funding that relief. This will include working with the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) and agency Inspector Generals to strengthen payment integrity so governments can minimize the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. Additionally, the guidance aims to help governments improve the overall award and administration of financial assistance programs with an increased focus on human-centered program and service design to achieve more equitable results.
Reducing Administrative Burden on Funding Recipients
In an attempt to help governments receive and distribute funding faster amidst the urgency of the pandemic, Appendix 3 of the OMB memo gives guidance to agencies on how they can reduce administrative burden on recipients' performance and deliverables. The guidance applies not only to COVID-19 related awards, but also non-COVID-19 related awards.
The guidance is directed to the executive department and federal agencies by OMB in accordance with Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200. Agencies may allow these exceptions as they deem appropriate and to the extent permitted by law.
Here are six of the 12 areas of guidance given to federal awarding agencies that will affect recipient awards:
1. Flexibility with SAM/recertification
Federal awarding agencies may relax the timing of the requirement for active SAM registration at time of application to expeditiously issue funding. At the time of award, the requirements of 2 CFR § 200.206, the federal awarding agency's review of risk posed by applicants continue to apply. Current registrants in SAM with active registrations expiring between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021 will automatically be afforded a one-time extension of 180 days.
2. Waiver for Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Publication
Awarding agencies may publish emergency and competitive NOFOs for grants and cooperative agreements for less than 30 days without separately justifying shortening the timeframe for each NOFO. Recipients, however, will need to monitor funding opportunities and be prepared to compile an application in a shortened amount of time.
3. No-cost extensions on expiring awards
To the extent permitted by law, awarding agencies may extend awards that were active as of March 31, 2021 and scheduled to expire prior or up to December 31, 2021–automatically at no cost for a period of up to 12 months. This will allow time for recipient assessments, the resumption of many individual projects, and a report on program progress and financial status to agency staff. Project-specific financial and performance reports will be due 90 days following the end date of the extension. Awarding agencies will examine the need to extend other project reporting as the need arises. Recipients should contact their awarding agencies for information.
4. Abbreviated non-competitive continuation requests
For non-competitive continuation requests scheduled between April 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021, awarding agencies may accept a brief statement from recipients to verify that they are in a position to: (i) resume or restore their project activities and (ii) accept a planned continuation award. Agencies must post any specific instructions on their website as well as examine the need to extend this approach on subsequent continuation award start dates as recipients have an opportunity to assess the situation.
5. Extension of Single Audit submission
Awarding agencies, in their capacity as cognizant or oversight agencies for audit, should allow recipients and subrecipients that have not yet filed their single audits with the Federal Audit Clearinghouse as of the date of the issuance of this memorandum that have fiscal year-ends through June 30, 2021, to delay the completion and submission of the Single Audit reporting package, as required under Subpart F of 2 CFR § 200.501 to six months beyond the normal due date. Recipients and subrecipients taking advantage of this extension would still qualify as a "low-risk auditee" under the criteria of 2 CFR § 200.520.
Recipients with fiscal year-ends through June 30, 2021, will receive a six-month extension beyond the normal due date to submit to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. Findings within the six-months after normal due date will not cause the entity to lose their 'low-risk auditee' designation.
6. Flexibility with application deadlines
Awarding agencies may provide flexibility with regard to the submission of competing applications in response to specific announcements, as well as unsolicited applications, presuming these exceptions do not negatively impact underserved communities. As appropriate, agencies should list specific guidance on their websites and provide a point of contact for an agency program official.
Comments on "eCivis: 6 Takeaways From the Latest Guidance on the American Rescue Plan Act"


Southern California Mosin Owners • View topic - Welcome to our new users!
Re: Welcome to our new users!
Hey were glad to have you here.. So what type Mosin do you own..
WOW the users just keep coming!! I would like to welcome all of our new members!!
"Whats the fastest way to change some ones mind?"
1943 Izhevsk M91/30. Rearsenaled, as would be expected, but shoots great and is in great shape.
Shoot great; looks good...its a winner!
Im glad I found this forum. Lots of info on here an some amazing builds. Looking forward to getting to know the mosin community. I have a T53.
Hey y'all newby from South Catolina checking in and saying hey.


text:
#ifndef _QCAR_MULTITARGETHEADERFILE__
#define _QCAR_MULTITARGETHEADERFILE__

// Include files
#include <QCAR/Trackable.h>
#include <QCAR/Matrices.h>
#include <QCAR/Trackable.h>

namespace QCAR
{

// Forward declarations
struct Matrix34F;

/// A set of multiple targets with a fixed spatial relation
/**
 *  Methods to modify a MultiTarget must not be called while the
 *  corresponding DataSet is active. The dataset must be deactivated first
 *  before reconfiguring a MultiTarget.
 */
class QCAR_API MultiTarget : public Trackable
{
public:

    /// Returns the Trackable class' type
    static Type getClassType();

    /// Returns the number of Trackables that form the MultiTarget.
    virtual int getNumParts() const = 0;

    /// Provides write access to a specific Trackable.
    /**
     *  Returns NULL if the index is invalid.
     */
    virtual Trackable* getPart(int idx) = 0;

    /// Provides read-only access to a specific Trackable.
    /**
     *  Returns NULL if the index is invalid.
     */
    virtual const Trackable* getPart(int idx) const = 0;

    /// Provides write access to a specific Trackable.
    /**
     *  Returns NULL if no Trackable with the given name exists
     *  in the MultiTarget.
     */
    virtual Trackable* getPart(const char* name) = 0;

    /// Provides read-only access to a specific Trackable.
    /**
     *  Returns NULL if no Trackable with the given name exists
     *  in the MultiTarget.
     */
    virtual const Trackable* getPart(const char* name) const = 0;

    /// Adds a Trackable to the MultiTarget.
    /**
     *  Returns the index of the new part on success.
     *  Returns -1 in case of error, e.g. when adding a Part that is already
     *  added or if the corresponding DataSet is currently active. Use the
     *  returned index to set the Part's pose via setPartPose().
     */
    virtual int addPart(Trackable* trackable) = 0;

    /// Removes a Trackable from the MultiTarget.
    /**
     *  Returns true on success.
     *  Returns false if the index is invalid or if the corresponding DataSet
     *  is currently active.
     */
    virtual bool removePart(int idx) = 0;

    /// Defines a Part's spatial offset to the MultiTarget center
    /**
     *  Per default a new Part has zero offset (no translation, no rotation).
     *  In this case the pose of the Part is identical with the pose of the
     *  MultiTarget. If there is more than one Part in a MultiTarget
     *  then at least one must have an offset, or the Parts are co-located.
     *  Returns false if the index is invalid or if the corresponding DataSet
     *  is currently active.
     */
    virtual bool setPartOffset(int idx, const Matrix34F& offset) = 0;

    /// Retrieves the spatial offset of a Part to the MultiTarget center
    /**
     *  Returns false if the Part's index is invalid.
     */
    virtual bool getPartOffset(int idx, Matrix34F& offset) const = 0;
};

} // namespace QCAR

#endif //_QCAR_MULTITARGETHEADERFILE__

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