| After lamps, Ombudsman probes P90-M traffic equipment
Overpriced street lamps may not be the only controversial expenses in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Cebu last January. After finding basis to charge 19 officials for the lamppost mess, the Ombudsman is setting its sights on alleged anomalies in traffic surveillance equipment. Sun-Star Cebu (www.sunstar.com.ph) reported Sunday that the Ombudsman is now looking into alleged anomalies in the procurement of some P90 million worth of traffic surveillance equipment, the installation of lamps in a private beach resort and the expenses incurred by the Lapu-Lapu city government. It is also looking into possible anomalies in the P155 million used in asphalting 15 short Cebu City road segments. Earlier, the Ombudsman asked for the immediate preventive suspension of all the public officials involved in the lamps mess.
$68 Million for Lamp this Fiscal Year
The Land Administration Management Programme (LAMP) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, has been allocated $68 million this financial year, as set out in the 2007/08 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. According to the Estimates, the project aims to promote efficient land administration and management, and to rationalize the allocation and use of land resources in an integrated and sustainable manner, by implementing critical aspects of the National Land Policy in the areas of: land use and development; public land management; land registration; and land information management. The project, which was implemented in April 2000, is being funded by the government of Jamaica and the Inter American Development Bank. This year's allocation will be used to complete tenure
clarification/regularization activities; continue stakeholders meetings in Spanish Town, St.
In brief: Laser dicing, UV LEDs, ST Systems
JPSA introduces new 100mm sapphire wafer laser dicing system; SET develops the shortest-wavelength LEDs on the market; STS issues profit warning, enters cost reduction program. JPSA updates laser dicing for 4-inch LED wafers The Manchester, New Hampshire, laser company, JP Sercel Associates (JPSA), has matched the move to 100mm sapphire wafers by LED producers, increasing the capacity of its Chromadice system accordingly. Moving to 100mm wafers has increased the capacity of the Chromadice from ten 2-inch wafers per hour to four of the larger wafers, the equivalent of 16 2-inch wafers, per hour. A spokesman for JPSA told compoundsemiconductor.net that demand for its products from the LED industry was expanding strongly, rapidly increasing this market's importance to the company.
He cycles for conservation
Nathan Phillips hasn't flipped a switch in his Boston University office for nearly two months. In his zero-carbon office, energy is generated strictly by a solar panel and a bicycle. Phillips burns calories, not carbon, while working on his laptop. With his wife's Raleigh Passage 3.0 bicycle attached to a stand equipped with a small generator, and a large solar panel he installed in February, Phillips, 40, never uses the radiator, air conditioner, overhead fluorescent lights, or wall outlets. In fact, he has blocked all outlets and light switches with plastic covers to ensure that he won't accidentally turn on lights or plug in appliances. For nearly two months, he declares with satisfaction, he has generated zero carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming.
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