11-9-08

 11-9-08Modesto BeeUC Merced student hurt in lab blast...Rosalio Ahumadahttp://www.modbee.com/local/story/492796.htmlMERCED -- A graduate student was seriously injured with cuts and acid burns Saturday afternoon when his experiment exploded in a research laboratory inside the Science and Engineering building at the University of California at Merced.Eric Josephs suffered cuts to his hands and face from an exploding beaker that contained nitric acid and butanol, as well as burns to his forearms and face, said Tonya Luiz, a campus spokeswoman. His age and city of residence were not available Saturday night.Josephs was taken by ambulance to a burn unit at a Fresno hospital, Luiz said. His studies focus on nanoscale measurement and molecular devices within quantitative and systems biology, she said.No other injuries were reported.The minor explosion occurred about 2:45 p.m. in room 261 on the second floor of the science and engineering building. Luiz said only the injured student was in the lab at the time of the explosion.Classes were not in session, and only a few people were in the building when the explosion occurred. A campus police officer was at the scene two minutes after the explosion was reported, and people in the building were immediately evacuated, Luiz said.Merced city and county fire crews, along with a hazardous materials team, responded to the campus as a precaution.Luiz said nitric acid is commonly used in many lab experiments, but campus officials did not know what type of experiment the student was working on. She said nitric acid can cause severe burns.Nitric acid is a liquid with a suffocating odor that irritates the eyes and nose, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It's noncombustible, but nitric acid increases the flammability of combustible materials.Butanol is an alcohol derived from butane and is used as a solvent and in organic synthesis.Luiz did not know if Josephs had been wearing safety gear.After the explosion, Josephs activated a safety shower in the lab room before he ran down the stairs and out of the building to get help, Luiz said. The safety showers are used to wash chemicals off the skin with water.Josephs left the shower on and water spilled into the hallways, the stairs and the first-floor lobby.The building was closed, and a portion of the building will remain closed until at least today. Luiz said classrooms in the building were not affected, and classes in the building will resume Monday.Los Angeles TimesIs that a housing market bottom or a mirage?...Peter Y. Honghttp://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-realblog9-2008nov09,0,6334212,print.storyIs it pointless to ask whether a bottom is near? News reports have been seizing on data to raise the possibility of a leveling in house prices -- the tiny bump in new-home sales reported last week is one example. Never mind that the 2.7% increase in new homes sold in September versus August was smaller than the uptick in the same period last year. Irvine real estate consultant John Burns, in an e-mail exchange with me, wonders why the idea of a bottom is getting so much play. "What's the expectation? That once a bottom is reached that housing prices will shoot back up? Doubt it," he writes.Here at The Times, we have avoided jumping on the "Is the bottom close?" question. We've quoted economists stating that even when a bottom is hit, it will be a long time before home prices begin any meaningful appreciation. They include Christopher Thornberg, an economist who was one of the first to call the real estate boom a bubble, as well as the California Assn. of Realtors' Leslie Appleton-Young.As consultant Burns notes: "The bottom line is that the housing prices in L.A. are still overinflated from all of the false appreciation from 2000-2006."Indeed, home prices in Southern California have fallen more than 30% from their peak in 2007, and sales are picking up. But Los Angeles-area homes are still expensive compared with local incomes.About 15% of homeowners could afford to buy a midpriced house in the Los Angeles market in the second quarter of 2008, according to a National Assn. of Home Builders index. That's up from about 10% in the first quarter, and much higher than the 2% rate in 2006. But it's still a long way from the late 1990s, when about 50% of L.A.-area residents could afford a midpriced home. The gulf between incomes and house prices suggests that we are not close to a bottom in the market. Declining prices may have made some homes more affordable, but now unemployment is rising. Therefore, some people will not be able to buy a house at any price.If the past is any guide, when prices start leveling they do tend to bounce along that floor for a long time. When the Southern California median home sale price began to bottom out at around $150,000 in January 1995, it took almost three years to climb back up even to $160,000. During our most recent long run-up, we often heard that double-digit annual percentage gains would not lead to a crash because this cycle was different. Now that we are in a downturn, is there any reason it should not last as long as the previous one? Get ready for a round of stories exploring why it is really different this time.San Diego Union-TribuneCALIFORNIA'S WATER: A VANISHING RESOURCEOK of water mandates expected Council likely to approve upgrade to drought alert...Mike Leehttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081109-9999-1m9water.htmlMandatory water-saving measures for all San Diego businesses and residents will start to take shape Monday, when the City Council likely will approve an emergency conservation plan. Most of the rules won't begin immediately because it's not clear how much water the city or the region must save in 2009.Barring heavy mountain snowfall this winter, water agencies statewide are widely expected by spring to step up conservation with new rules and stronger enforcement amid a prolonged drought. San Diego's role is particularly important because it is by far the largest water user in this county, accounting for more than one-third of the overall consumption. The city's proposal includes year-round regulations against water waste, such as a ban on landscape irrigation runoff. It also establishes a system of progressively stricter mandates that includes outdoor watering schedules, a ban on the use of most ornamental fountains and restrictions on car washing. The biggest potential change for customers is a property-by-property water “budget” that would impose dramatically higher rates for those who go over their allotted limit.San Diego also is preparing to stop issuing water permits for most new development projects unless builders can offset their water demand through conservation or other measures. That provision would start only if the drought becomes more severe, but it already has sparked concerns about the lack of details. “What this provides the business community is a lot of uncertainty,” said Craig Benedetto, a spokesman for building owners and managers in the region. “The city needs tools to get their customers to conserve water. We just want to make sure that they aren't killing the economy at the same time.” San Diego's strategies for dealing with drought, and those for the rest of the county, are based on the amount of water the region must conserve. Level 1, the current stage, relies on voluntary steps to achieve savings of up to 10 percent. The next three levels include mandates of increasing severity. Late last month, California officials said they have enough water to meet 15 percent of requested deliveries in 2009 – the second-lowest initial allocation in the history of the State Water Project.Water leaders for the city of San Diego said some water-saving measures should be made permanent. For instance, they have proposed a year-round ban against irrigating to the point where water flows off properties. City officials also want to compel restaurants to serve water only on request and force people to wash their vehicles at commercial facilities unless they use a hose with an automatic shut-off nozzle or a hand-held container. Until now, those measures have been voluntary. At Level 1, San Diego encourages, among other things, landscape watering between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. and using recycled water at construction sites. Level 2 provisions require that most landscaped areas be irrigated no more than three times per week from June through October, on a schedule set by the city, and no more than once a week for the rest of the year. The use of ornamental fountains generally would be prohibited. The most complex Level 2 strategy is creating, monitoring and enforcing usage budgets for some 274,000 customers with water meters. The City Council won't review details about how those targets are set for several weeks. Water officials are studying historical water-use data to establish consumption limits for each ratepayer, said Alex Ruiz, a deputy director for San Diego's water department. It's possible that light water users will avoid mandatory cuts because they already have done their part. "We are committed to ensuring that any allocation properly credits those who have stepped up to the conservation challenge,” Ruiz said.The city could penalize heavy water users with a surcharge on their water bill of 20 percent or more. Ruiz said repeat offenders also may be subject to flow-restriction devices on their water lines. At Level 3, landscape irrigation would be reduced to two designated days per week. Car washing would be prohibited unless residents use high-pressure, low-volume wash systems or go to facilities that use recycled water. The city also would largely stop allowing new hookups to its water supply system if its needs to curb consumption by at least 30 percent. For months, many residents have demanded a halt on new developments because they increase water use. San Diego is proposing exceptions for public health and for builders who pledge to offset their water use by, for instance, reducing existing water demand somewhere else in the city. At Level 4, landscape irrigation generally would be banned except for crops and for hand-watering trees and shrubs two days a week. Also, the city would prohibit filling pools and spas when the conservation goal exceeds 40 percent. San Diego officials said sanctions for violating emergency regulations would range from warning letters to fines of as much as $1,000.