The Falcon has landed!

The Papua New Guinea Government’s controversial Falcon 900Ex aircraft landed at Jackson’s International airport in Port Moresby yesterday.

The aircraft, fitted with an inbuilt conference facility, modern entertainment, and an interior tailor made to suit the avid modern traveler, touched down just before 11am after an eight-hour 20 minute flight at 41,000 feet across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu in Hawaii.

Built in France by Dassault Aviation, the aircraft in its “green state” was flown to Little Rock in Arkansas where it was prepared for Air Niugini at a cost of US$40 million, which included the interior, avionics, cabinet making, and entertainment and specified paint scheme amongst other things.

It also has cameras fitted on it to aid in bad weather

The aircraft has a five year warranty and during that time, any changes in the Falcon range will also be made to P2-ANW as it’s registered under.

It will be leased to the Government as well as private sector organisations and individuals for hire.

The aircraft is powered by three Honeywell TFE31-60 turbo fan engines and has the capacity of carrying 12 passengers in a standard configuration.

It is the finest in its class; with its classic tri-jet engines design, it can land at smaller airports and fly at high attitudes, even on hot days.

It is designed to fly 4,500 nautical miles non-stop.

Only for the lexophiles

From PAUL OATES in Queensland, Australia

 Some new ones, some old....
1. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead giveaway.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
12. A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
13. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
14. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.
15. He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
16. A calendar's days are numbered.
17. A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
18. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
19. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
 20. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
21. The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
23. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
 24. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine .
25. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
26. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
 27. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
28. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
29. Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.   
30. The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
31. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .
32. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
33. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
34. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
35. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
36. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
37. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
38. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
39. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
40. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'
 41. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
42. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
43. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse
said, 'No change yet.'
44. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
45. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.  
46. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects.

Natural enemies of green scales

Caption: Ladybird…a local natural enemy of coffee green scale.-Picture courtesy of CIC

 

 By YVONNE NGUTLICK of CIC

 

 Biological controls are the way to go in minimising the spread of coffee green scale (CGS) affecting the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea.

Research conducted by the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) funded under the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) on CGS showed that most smallholder coffee farmers lived with the pest or ignored the problem due to limited knowledge on its control.

But the good news is that biological controls or natural enemies of the coffee pest are being reared under quarantine and others have been released into the field to control CGS.

The existence and effect of local natural enemies such as the ladybird (Metaphycus baruensis, and verticillium lecanii) on the CGS remains minimal.

According to technical experts on the study, this was caused by a variety of biophysical factors in the environment where the organisms existed and also due to local hyper-parasites and ants that protected the scales.

Another natural enemy, the wasp (Diversinervus stramineus), brought in from Australia to be released for CGS control, is currently being reared under quarantine.  

Other control measures are cultural and chemical measures.

Cultural measures include intercropping coffee with pumpkin.

Pumpkin attracts the ladybird insects, which in turn would feed on the scales on the coffee plant.

Pruning and good coffee sanitation is also a way to control CGS.

Another option is to increase shade level.

The level of shade appears to influence CGS infestation levels.

Where shade is high, CGS infestations are lower.

Some farmers apply chilli on the coffee crop to deter ants while others use soap water. Bonfires have also proven to keep ants away by creating smoke.

Chemical measures are usually applied in larger commercial coffee plantations and estates because they can afford it.

Farmers are prepared to take up relevant CGS control techniques if the cost is low in terms of money and time.

 

 

Green scales remain major coffee pest in Papua New Guinea

Caption:  Coffee green scale on the coffee crop. Ants facilitate the spread of scales. –Picture courtesy of CIC

 

By YVONNE NGUTLICK of CIC

 

Coffee green scale (CGS) is currently the most-serious pest affecting the industry in Papua New Guinea.

This was revealed during a project review meeting between the Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Under the Australian Government, ACIAR funded a project on sustainable management of CGS in PNG undertaken by the CIC.

A major ecological survey under the project confirmed that CGS was most prevalent at 1500 metres above sea level.

Other surveys conducted by CIC showed that CGS was a major coffee pest and widespread in smallholder gardens.

The pest is widely distributed and present in most coffee growing areas, attacking both Arabica and Robusta coffee species.

Coffee green scales are soft-scale insects.

They are oval-shaped, flat and pale green in colour.

They are often associated with ants and sooty mould fungus.

The ants and fungus feed on the honeydew excreted by the scales.

The scales suck the sap of mature and young coffee trees.

In mature coffee trees, the scales and sooty mould affect the fruiting parts of coffee, while the young coffee trees have a reduced growth and eventually die due to heavy infestation.

Farmers can sustain coffee green scale infestation on the tree if infestation is at the lower and middle canopy level.

 However, if infestation reaches top canopy, the cost of sustaining the crop increases and the coffee tree is likely to die.

To combat CGS on the crop, biological controls of the pest have been introduced including some cultural measures in addition to conventional chemical controls.

Cultural, biological and chemical controls are essential for the management of this pest.

Cultural control involve pruning of the unwanted or targeted parts of the crop. Biological control is the release of natural enemies of green scale and chemical control requires the use of chemicals only on heavily invested coffee blocks.

Extensive research on CGS is being carried out by CIC in collaboration with national and international partners.

 An evaluation of exotic biological control agents and other potential control methods is being carried out also taking into account grower information.

 Based on the findings,  regional and national strategies would be developed for a implementation of CGS control.

Lutheran World Information update on final statement from regional consultation on climate change

LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html

FEATURE: Don't Cry Tears Lest They Ask for Water

Lutheran Churches Urged to Protect Communities Threatened by Climate Change

KAJIADO, Kenya/GENEVA, 22 November 2009 (LWI) – Safiel Kulei's simple statement goes to the heart of the plight of many of his neighbors hit by consecutive years of drought in Kenya.

"I had 88 cows. I sold 50. The rest died. I have nothing at the moment. I have since moved to town," said Kulei, a farmer who is an evangelist with the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC).

Kulei is a member of the Maasai community inhabiting southern Kenya and neighboring northern Tanzania. The people's lives and economy are centered on livestock especially cattle, which are accumulated as a sign of wealth, traded or sold to settle debts, and slaughtered selectively. Before the current rains began, nearly three running years of drought decimated the community's economic mainstay and livelihoods.

"As opposed to previous years, when the clouds formed, no rains fell," Kulei said when he welcomed participants in a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) African region consultation on climate change, food security and poverty. Delegates to the LWF conference had visited the KELC Olirium mission area in the southern district of Kajiado. "When children cried, they were told to make sure there were no tears since people may ask, 'Where did you get the water?'" he said, emphasizing the scarcity of water.

The final statement from the consultation on climate change, food security and poverty in Africa is posted on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/LWF_Documents/LWF-Climate_Change_Nairobi_Statement-EN.pdf

Read the full feature article at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2440.EN.html

* * *
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 68.9 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

Pacific Storms Brisbane Invitation

Please click on image to enlarge.

Tourist ships in Alotau

Tourist cruise ships mv True North (left) and mv Oceanic Discoverer berthed at  Alotau recently during the 2009 Alotau Canoe & Kundu Festival.-Picture courtesy of PNGPCL