BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH 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:20080905T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080905T000000 DTSTAMP:20080905T040000Z CREATED:20080905T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080905T040000Z UID:4309-1220572800-1220572800@limba.net SUMMARY:Michael Watt - Exec Dir Long Island Builders Institute DESCRIPTION:Our speaker this week was Michael Watt\, Executive Director of Long Island Builders Institute (LIBI). Michael began by talking about the numbers of young people who are leaving the region. Young men and women starting out\, have a slim chance of establishing themselves here\, and the situation is not resolving itself. Even the mortgage crisis that is causing housing prices to drop like stone in some parts of the country\, is not having the same effect on Long Island. He attributes that fact to the cost of land. High land prices has inhibited the speculative builder\, as a result our surplus of homes is not as bad as in other places. The reduction in home costs has not been enough to entice young\, or new buyers. \nMr. Watt said there is a myth that says new construction would inundate the local schools with new students that could not be absorbed without creating enormous expenses. He then pointed out that the typical family demographics on Long Island is that the average family is only three people\, refuting that assumption. He went on to say the rental apartments in the downtowns could be part of the answer. In some places downtowns already are building second story apartments. These apartments are largely occupied by single people. \nWatt addressed the "green building" movement\, and claimed that building green was more costly\, but resulted in lower utility bills for the life of the home. A few months ago we had "green" architecht\, Peter Caradonna speak at LIMBA\, and according to him\, even the initial costs were similar. So\, here we have a difference of opinion. Nevertheless\, LIBI has signed on to the new concept of building in an environmentally friendly way. As we get more used to building in the new style there will be more and more people who are knowledgeable in the new methods. \nBuilding "vertical" was discussed in the Q&A session. Building one or more acre housing is wasteful and costly. Where you have multi family housing land it is easier to keep open land. Here we get into the chicken and the egg problem. You cannot build multi family housing without sewars. At the same time municipalities are reluctant to invest in them. It appears the leadership we need is sorely absent\, but some of our recent political speakers do seem to be coming on board to do the things we need. URL:https://limba.net/calendar/michael-watt-exec-dir-long-island-builders-institute/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080912T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080912T000000 DTSTAMP:20080912T040000Z CREATED:20080912T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080912T040000Z UID:4304-1221177600-1221177600@limba.net SUMMARY:Bob McMillan- Health care issues DESCRIPTION:Our speaker today was Robert McMillan.  McMillan\, until June of this year\, served on the board of the American Medical Association.  McMillan began by giving us some pretty stagering numbers on the cost of health care. He stated that it was the largest segment of the economy at $2.2trillion\, yet there are 18\,000 deaths that are directly attributable to having no access to health care. It costs $100 billion just to provide for the uninsured. There is another $20 billion that is donated services by doctors\, and still another $20 billion on medical services that are simply written off. In short\, according  to McMillan\, we have an excellent system in terms of advanced medicine\, that is failing to serve the whole population. \nThe cost of healthcare has increased 87% from 2000 to 2007\, and the number of uninsured has balloned. He then went into some of the reasons why the cost have risen. One of the reasons is the costly new analytical tools and machinery for diagnosis and care. McMillan stated that every medical facility wants to have all of the latest equipment\, even when the equipment exists at another hospital a short distance away. Another cost factor is the ability to keep the hopelessly ill "alive" when there is absolutely no chance of recovery\, or ever gaining consiousness. \nThere are so many facets to this problem. The medical costs dictates to the general economy in many ways. Bob stated that the steel in an automobile actually costs less than medical insurance costs for the assemblers. There are 300\,000 medical bankrupcies each year\, and some of these bankrupcies are with people that actually have insurance. He went on to say that Medicare will be broke in 20 years and as these costs escalate\, the period of Medicare solvency may even be shorter. \nWhile both presidential candidates are speaking about health care\, the solving of this cost and availability problem is enormously complex. To be considered are the interests of the doctors\, the pharmaceutical companies\, the insurance companies\, the trial lawyers\, and the legitimate needs of the public. None of these interests are going to sacrifice anything voluntarily. \nWhen Mr. McMillan discussed medical malpractice he pointed out that 80% of all medical lawsuits were dismissed. Despite that statistic\, medical malpractice insurance costs have caused many doctors to simply retire rather than deal with the enormous costs which he stated could be $200\,000 per year. During the Q&A period I asked if the malpracice insurance problem could be mitigated by having a no-fault compensation system that would be similar to workers compensation.  McMillan said that this topic is among the many tasks he tackled while on the AMA board. Medical Compensation is not supported by the trial lawyers and they have a very powerful voice in congress. He didn’t hold out much hope for that item. It appears that the 100 year dicussion on universal health care\, which was first proposed by Teddy Roosevelt\, will go on a little longer. All things considered the resolution looks bleak. \nPictured: Bill Miller\, Bob McMillan\, Phoebe McMillan and Ernie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/bob-mcmillan-health-care-issues/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080919T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080919T000000 DTSTAMP:20080919T040000Z CREATED:20080919T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080919T040000Z UID:4308-1221782400-1221782400@limba.net SUMMARY:Hubert Keen PhD- President SUNY Farmingdale DESCRIPTION:Dr. Hubert Keen\, president of SUNY Farmingdale was our speaker this morning. Some of us can remember when this institution was known as an agricultural school. The farm animals are long gone\, and the march to progress has brought Farmingdale to a new and important place in the multi-billion dollar education industry on Long Island. After a long slide in enrollment the college is growing in enrollment at a rate that they literally cannot keep up with. Under this administration the enrollment continues to increase and programs are growing. Farmingdale\, until recently\, was issuing more associate degrees than bachelor degrees. That trend has been reversed in recent years. \nThe operating budget for the school is $64million and the present capital budget is $14 million. The capital part is being used to build a student center and a Business Studies school. There are 1100 employees at Farmingdale; half of them are full time. To accommodate the expanded bachelor programs there have been 30 new instructors hired in the last two years. \nThere have been solar photovoltaic trainning at Farmingdale for many years. In recent years the work in this field has expanded considerably. Research in solar PV and fuel cells has become an even more important part of the educational mix because of our present day needs. \nOther important educational components are the Dental Hygiene school\, Nursing\, Bio Tech\, Information Technology\, and Security Systems. Each of these disciplines are in a collaborative relationship with other important institutions such as Brookhaven National Laboratories and North Shore LIJ. \nThe school has been designing degree programs to provide the variety of personnel that are needed for us to grow\, and prosper as a region and a country\, but the emphasis is on educating local people. The enrollment at Farmingdale is principally Long Islanders. \nThe present economic situtaion has been having a detrimental effect on the institution\, and Dr Keen acknowledged\, that has been a serious challenge URL:https://limba.net/calendar/hubert-keen-phd-president-suny-farmingdale/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080926T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080926T000000 DTSTAMP:20080926T040000Z CREATED:20080926T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080926T040000Z UID:4311-1222387200-1222387200@limba.net SUMMARY:No meeting\, LIBDC meets in Montauk DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/no-meeting-libdc-meets-in-montauk/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR