Forest and Nature

JAKARTA (Antara): An incident in Maluku occurring when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Ambon (Maluku`s provincia capital) last week showed that a separatist group still posed a serious threat on the unitary state of Indonesia, a legislator has said.

The remarks were made by members of the House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission I, Yuddy Crisnandy (Golkar), Effendy Choirie (National Awakening Party) and Chairman of the National Mandate Party faction at DPR Zulkifli Hasan here over the weekend. (more…)

MORE than a quarter of a million dollars have been spent painting silver street poles green since Clover Moore became the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Council papers reveal that over the past three years, 5000 galvanised signposts, light poles and traffic signals have been given the forest green make-over, costing $260,500 - more than $50 a pole.

The Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard called the project “an outrageous waste of money”. (more…)

MORE than a quarter of a million dollars have been spent painting silver street poles green since Clover Moore became the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Council papers reveal that over the past three years, 5000 galvanised signposts, light poles and traffic signals have been given the forest green make-over, costing $260,500 - more than $50 a pole.

The Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard called the project “an outrageous waste of money”. (more…)

June 27 (Reuters) - Guitar Center Inc. (GTRC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said it agreed to be acquired by affiliates of private investment firm Bain Capital Partners LLC for about $2.1 billion, including assumed debt. Under the terms, Guitar Center stockholders will receive $63 in cash for each share held, the company said in a statement.

The offer represents a 26 percent premium over Guitar Center’s closing price on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Debojyoti Ghosh in Bangalore) (more…)

Believe it or not, there are a dozen stocks that are components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index and also provide yields of more than 2.5%.

While it’s nice to own a blue-chip stock, it’s better to own a blue chip with a high yield — and it’s best when the stock is also owned by professional investors who agree with your shareholdings.

With that in mind, we have set up a portfolio of 12 High-Yield Dow Stocks on Stockpickr.com.

The highest-yielding Dow stock is Pfizer (PFE - Cramer’s Take - Stockpickr - Rating), which offers a yield of 4.5% and has been paying dividends for 25 years (more…)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will invest up to $375 million in three new research centers that will develop cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels that will help reduce America’s gasoline demand.

The centers will advance the Bush administration’s goal to make cellulosic ethanol produced from cheaper agricultural and forest wastes cost-competitive with traditional corn-based ethanol and cut U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next decade. (more…)

I have been in the forest industry for 30 years and so I read Bruce Strachan’s column with great interest. It generated several reactions.

First, I was surprised that someone with Bruce’s knowledge would make such an uninformed (and off the cuff?) statement as: “dimension lumber will more and more be relegated to the category of yesterday’s building technology.” He seems to have forgotten that lumber is the only building material that comes from a renewable resource and, over its life cycle, has been proven to be the most environmentally friendly material for society to use for its housing needs.

As we all become “greener” in how we treat our world and its resources, lumber’s favoured (more…)