BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Limba X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://limba.net X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Limba REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20070311T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20071104T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20080309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20081102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20090308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20091101T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080606T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080606T000000 DTSTAMP:20080606T040000Z CREATED:20080606T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080606T040000Z UID:4295-1212710400-1212710400@limba.net SUMMARY:Lawrence Gray held at LaQuinta DESCRIPTION:Lawrence gray was a prosecutor that has had notable success prosecuting corrupt public officials in the city of New York and seems to have a keen sense of smell when dealing with official corruption. As our guest this morning\, Mr Gray was forthcoming and  disturbing. Disturbing if you think your public officials are always doing things in the best interests of the people they serve. He gave the example of how the highway departments in the various towns have enormous economic power. The highway department has the responsibility of buying goods and services\, such as asphalt concrete\, lumber and a number of other commodities. Strangely the contributors of the parties political campaigns also get the contracts to do business with the town. This is not confined to a specific town. It’s just the way the system operates\, and it is corrupt.  \nGray did get specific about the town of Smithtown only because that is the town in which he lives\, and he is most familiar with the antics that are practiced there. He was involved in exposing the malfeasance of a former highway superintendent\, Edmund Lynch. An investigation into Lynch uncovered by Gray showed the  direct correlations of money donated to bids let. Lynch was prosecuted for the various charges against him. \nAnd don’t rely on local newspapers\, according to Mr. Gray. These journals are the handmaiden to the corrupt politicos because they derive so much revenue from the legal notices that every town uses. One of the local newspapers is run by David Ambro\, and that newspaper has been rewarded handsomely and as a result\, they have been the chorus for what ever comes out of town hall. Having two newspapers does not seem to matter either. He calls them Pravda and Izvestia. \nIn listening to this\, I was trying to determine if it was the Republicans of whom he was most critical\, but as he spoke further\, he was clear that he was no kinder to the Democrats. "Corruption is to New York what racism is to Mississippi" and then he said that remark was unfair to Mississippi. Gray quoted John Mc Laughlin when he asked his panel one Sunday morning\, "What posses the most danger to America?" the answer "Official corruption\, bye bye" URL:https://limba.net/calendar/lawrence-gray-held-at-laquinta/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080613T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080613T000000 DTSTAMP:20080613T040000Z CREATED:20080613T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080613T040000Z UID:4298-1213315200-1213315200@limba.net SUMMARY:The State of Healthcare with Panel of Experts- TBC @LaQuinta DESCRIPTION:This morning’s program was a panel discussion about health and wellness as well as the aspects of insurance. \nThe panel consisted of three experts with different perspective. Mike Mussler of Edwards Insurance\, Dr Mathew Lewis\, president of Health maintenance company and John (last name will be inserted later)  a health program administrator from St Joseph’s College \nMussler circumscribed some of the reasons health insurance is so expensive. Over use of available resources is one reason and that stems from the fact that the user is not accountable. MRI’s are often ordered simply because the plan will pay\, but that attitude adds to cost without any increase in patient well- being. He then gave several examples. \nWhen Dr. Lewis presented his opening remarks he stunned us with some statistics. According to the doctor 70% of all illness is preventable. Here is how he backed that up. Only 20% of health issues are attributable to genetics. Another 20% is caused by environmental factors\, and 10% is attributable to lack of access to care. The other 50% is attributable to lifestyle. In other words smoking\, obesity\, lack of exercise\, our stress\, and food choices play an enormous role in whether we are healthy or not. There is some very good news here as I see it. We can make a serious impact on our good health probabilities\, if we pay attention to those factors which are largely within our control. \nWhile the above suggests that we can lower costs\, there are other factors. The example of a doctor who spends 1/3 of his income on malpractice insurance drives up costs. We discussed the imposition of a medical compensation board. This would be similar to a workers compensation board. Under such a system all negative medical outcomes would be paid for under a formula. There would be no need to establish culpability under this system. Bad doctors would be ferreted out but the injured patient would be compensated.  This would be preferable to one family collecting many millions\, while another family with a similar case could receive very little\, or nothing. Usually the way things are settled now the lawyers receive 1/3 of the settlement. It would be interesting to see how that system could be developed\, but it may be a good idea. It was also pointed out that most states have limits on medical suits. \nAccording to John\, 40% of all deaths are preventable. He also pointed out that as premium costs increase participation decreases\, and that too drives up costs further as the insured class shrinks. The last staggering statistic is that we spend $3 trillion on health care in the US. That’s more than any country in the world on a per capita basis\, yet we rank 37th in good health outcomes. Obviously this system needs work. \nErnie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/the-state-of-healthcare-with-panel-of-experts-tbc-laquinta/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080620T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080620T000000 DTSTAMP:20080620T040000Z CREATED:20080620T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080620T040000Z UID:4296-1213920000-1213920000@limba.net SUMMARY:Ken Morelly\, President\, LIFT Held at LaQuinta DESCRIPTION:Ken Morelly\, President of LIFT\, Long Island Forum for Technology\, was  our speaker this morning\, and as promised\, gave us some insights. LIFT is engaged in research\, education and the coordination of efforts among various groups. Morelly stated that the great driver of technology is manufacturing. Using resources to leverage the manufacturing process is among the efforts that LIFT is engaged in. By concentrating on the manufacturing all the disciplines are spurred to perform. He emphasized the transformational nature of the way we educate our skilled engineers and others that are involved in manufacture. According to Morelly there must be the ability to move quickly into a new way of doing things and that open minds must be recognized\, not as a lack of focus but a requirement in a fast moving world. \nKen said something that surprised me. He said that Long Island is a product development community rather than a research community. Many of us think of Brookhaven National Labs and Cold Spring Harbor as centers of research\, and while that is true\, according to Morelly it is a much smaller component of our economy. On the other hand some companies concentrate on research and do very little manufacturing. He gave the example of Corning in upstate NY. \nWe must study the requirements of industry and gear education toward those needs. He then went into the subject of material development. That discussion began with aviation technology\, which\, early on\, was principally based on wood frames and canvas skins. With the advent of aluminum\, aviation was greatly advanced. Presently\, new composites comprise more and more of the aviation parts. These components are stronger and lighter. The first use of new composites were only 2% of the plane\, today we are approaching 50% in the latest aviation technology. \nMaterial research is on a roll.  Advanced Material Research under the direction of LIFT  will be linked to 16 educational units in New York. We spoke about the prospect of using materials that are used in automobile manufacture that are ten times stronger than steel\, and 1/3 the weight. The implications of this technology are enormous. Using these new materials would mean needing much smaller engines that use less fuel. Combining these lightweight cars with hybrid technology would make the fuel consumption even less. I think we could speculate that a mid sized car could conceivably get 80 miles to the gallon. \nWe finished by discussing Homeland Security. $25 million has been set aside for advanced homeland security systems. The many companies that will be participating will be housed at the center. The expectation is that the cross pollenation of ideas in this unit will create new systems that will eventually be deployed. \n\nPictured: Mitchell Pinckney\, US Chamber of Commerce\, Ken Morelly President of LIFT and Ernie Fazio\, LIMBA Chairman\n  URL:https://limba.net/calendar/ken-morelly-president-lift-held-at-laquinta/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080627T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080627T000000 DTSTAMP:20080627T040000Z CREATED:20080627T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080627T040000Z UID:4299-1214524800-1214524800@limba.net SUMMARY:BlueWater Wind - KC Sahl - at LaQuinta DESCRIPTION:This week our speaker  was KC Sahl of Blue Water Wind. When Mr. Sahl gave his presentation this morning he began with a film of the project that has been proposed off the coast of Delaware. In that region the public response was considerably different from the proposal that was advanced by Florida Power & light here on Long Island. Yes\, there were the usual questions about the affect the towers would have on migrating birds\, but those questions were answered years ago when the original wind farm was placed off the coast of Denmark. \nThe Blue Water presentation showed interviews with the Danes\, and the Danes treated any controversy about wind power as old\, and debunked news. "Birds are not stupid" said one Danish engineer\, "they simply avoid these towers or fly in straight lines between them." Then he went on to show migratory studies that proved his point. Delaware as of last week is a "done deal"\, when a power agreement was signed. There seems to be no controversy about marine life. Everything points to a positive marine life effect. These structures are natural havens for marine growth. mussels clams\, oysters and fin fish are abundant when structures are in place on the ocean floor. \nThe towers that are proposed by Blue Water for Long Island are twice as far away from shore than the original proposal called for\, and the generators will be larger\, at 3.6 megawatts each. Not only will this added distance make them difficult\, or impossible to see\, it puts them in an even more reliable wind field. I asked about the additional cost of the cabling\, which costs $1 million per mile. The answer is that three million extra dollars is not significant as a percentage of costs for a project of this size. \nThe generators for wind power are getting bigger\, and the question came up about putting in larger generators if they were developed while the process continued. KC said that not only would they shift to the new generators if developed during the process\, they would eventually add more towers if they were developed after the original installation. He also said that the cabling being used would be robust enough to accommodate the additional towers and/or er generators. \nThe builders are a $70billion global enterprise with many completed wind projects. They will build\, and maintain the towers\, and generators under a power agreement with LIPA. Since fuel never enters into the picture they can project 30 years out with stable costs. We know that is not something you can say about any generator that uses fuel\, regardless of what fuel you may be talking about.         \nWhen asked what would happen if there was an abundance of power when it was not needed\, as in the dead of night in the middle of winter\, Mr Sahl said the generators would be shut down. I then asked\, “Why not use the energy being produced to elecrolitically produce hydrogen and oxygen from water?” The answer\, perhaps we can. \nPictured: KC Sahl\, Blue Water Wind\, Ernie Fazio\, LIMBA Chairman URL:https://limba.net/calendar/bluewater-wind-kc-sahl-at-laquinta/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR