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rickb928 claimed:

In Maine, at least, some legislation was enacted to discourage using wood in a variety of systems to heat homes. IT seems that some of those were pretty dirty. Gasifiers were pretty large scale, and usually used a lot of otherwise unused biomass. And were, as mentioned elsewhere, mot often located where the biomass was. One I knew of was located at the chip and lumber mill it served to power.

Not exactly.

In 2015, the EPA published rules regarding emissions standards and suggested supplemental state legislation regulating residential wood heating systems. Main's own EPA essentially xeroxed the EPA's regulations.

Other states (most notably California and Washington) enacted stricter standards, and certain individual cities and counties within California have adopted even less permissive regulations. Most of those localities already experience high levels of air pollution, and their tough laws were specifically intended to reduce or eliminate residential wood smoke emissions.

As is universally the case in the USA, the new standards don't apply to systems that were compliant with emissions standards at the time they were installed. (Essentially, if your home already had a wood fireplace, wood stove, wood pellet stove, or wood boiler system, the new laws don't apply to you. However, you may not be permitted to operate existing wood-based heating systems in some of those localities, because, while the systems themselves are grandfathered, their emissions are still subject to the new regulations.)

In extremely rural areas - and especially in montane ones - residential wood heating is still the technology of choice. I know for a fact that 50% or more of the single-family homes in Mariposa County, CA still use wood stoves or pellet stoves for heat. Many of them are fueled by deadfall wood harvested from state forests with the blessing of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

CAL-FIRE has learned the painful lessons that the U.S Forest Service's long-standing policy of extinguishing every fire on National Park and National Forest land taught them: Forests evolved to burn. Humans can only delay that. We can't entirely prevent it - and the longer a forest goes between fires, the more ground-level fuel (mostly in the form of deadfalls and underbrush) accumulates. When a fire does occur in such "protected" forests - especially during a drought - and the winds are high, it frequently turns into a holocaust that burns that forest to the ground. If, on the other hand, naturally-occuring forest fires are permitted to burn themselves out, with firefighting efforts limited to protecting inhabited structures, they tend only to consume that ground-level fuel and thinner, more readily-combustible branches. More importantly, they don't usually burn hot enough to entirely econsume healthy trees. As a result, when the fire passes, the forest remains standing.

And it grows like a motherfucker afterward, because of all the "biochar" fertilizer such a fire leaves in its wake.)

Sorry about the digression into wildfire management policy, but it's a subject about which I am passionate, because I used to live in Mariposa County, and I've seen what can happen when forests the Fire Service has "protected" for over a century burn. It's pretty damned scary shit ...

(Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

--

Check out my novel ...

There is also the fact that the Maine Legislature explicitly tells people to leave out the Oxford comma. Part III, Chapter 4, Section 2, part A: "Although authorities on punctuation may differ, when drafting Maine law or rules, don't use a comma between the penultimate and the last item of a series. Do not write: 'Trailers, semitrailers, and pole trailers' Do write: 'Trailers, semitrailers and pole trailers'".

That is followed with a warning to be careful "if an item in the series is modified" (as is the case here). That warning is in the previous (2009) version of the manual, and so predates this dispute, but I am not sure whether it predates the overtime law in question. Both grammar and the law indicate that the court got this wrong.

Maine's implied warranty law says four years. I don't know whether anyone has successfully used that against Apple, though.

The State of Maine states that the Oxford comma should *never* be used in Maine legislation. This means the second(last) item after a comma in a list should be considered a separate item, based on the legislative drafting manual. I don't see how the court could ignore this.
https://www.maine.gov/legis/ro...

"A. Series. Although authorities on punctuation may differ, when drafting Maine law or
rules, don’t use a comma between the penultimate and the last item of a series.

Do not write:
Trailers, semitrailers, and pole trailers

  Write:
  Trailers, semitrailers and pole trailers

Be careful if an item in the series is modified. For example:
Trailers, semitrailers and pole trailers of 3,000 pounds gross weight or less
are exempt from the licensing provisions.

Does the 3,000-pound limit apply to trailers and semitrailers or only to pole trailers? If the
limit is not intended to apply to trailers and semitrailers, the provision should read:
Pole trailers of 3,000 pounds gross weight or less, trailers and semitrailers
are exempt from the licensing provisions.

If the limit is intended to apply to all three, the provision should read:
If a trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer has a gross weight of 3,000 pounds or
less, it is not required to be licensed."

The Maine Implied Warranty is the little known law that protects Maine consumers from being sold seriously defective items. It can be an Unfair Trade Practice to refuse to honor the Maine Implied Warranty Law within four years of sale. The basic test for possible implied warranty violations is as follows: The item is seriously defective, The consumer did not damage the item, The item is still within its useful life and is not simply worn out.

No class action needed.

The Maine Implied Warranty is the little known law that protects Maine consumers from being sold seriously defective items. It can be an Unfair Trade Practice to refuse to honor the Maine Implied Warranty Law within four years of sale. The basic test for possible implied warranty violations is as follows: The item is seriously defective, The consumer did not damage the item, The item is still within its useful life and is not simply worn out.

And then there's the "kids playing in the street" excuse. Keep the kids out of traffic. Streets aren't a playground for children, they are for cars driving places.

Actually I read on one of NCDOT's websites about "Drive slow, children at play" signs and the NCDOT says those signs are not sanctioned by them nor will they place any because those signs create a false sense of security and may actually encourage children to play in the streets. I also found information compiled by the WisDOT that echos much of the same idea.

In fact, though I can't speak for other states, here in NC it is illegal to place any sign not authorized by the DOT within their right of way especially if it imitates the design of an official sign.

Here's one implementation:
https://www1.maine.gov/sos/cec...

And yes, it's the Medicaid. You're correct in that. The rules are (at least as I'm understanding them) quite exactly like I describe. It's not just go ask and get it. There's a shit ton of people who are not covered. I know some of them. Chances are good that you do too.

I just noticed this sub-thread. Some friends and I call those the "Scoreboard." And, when reasonably safe to do so, we'll usually go out and see how high we can get the numbers with safety and not getting caught being the objective. Camera based enforcement is not used near my home. I'm not even sure if it's lawful to use cameras for speed enforcement in my State.

We've got a pretty active ACLU (I donate a bunch 'cause they're that good) and some actually protective laws. They can't use the license plate readers without a warrant in Maine. That may sound a bit crazy but no... They're not allowed to do automatic license plate acquisition without a warrant and they need to store the data for something like less than thirty days. Having to have a warrant makes license plate readers kind of useless so we don't have them. I am not a lawyer so I'm not sure of all the details.

Ah - I just checked. It's 21 days. You can read it for yourself:
http://www.mainelegislature.or...

We just had a law take effect recently and that pretty much ensures that police must get a warrant to use a drone in an investigation and that it's gotta be a real warrant, we don't have a FISA court type of thing. You can see that law in PDF format at this link:
http://legislature.maine.gov/l... (It's probably at the first linked site as well.)

We have an "Implied Warranty of Merchantability." That means, if you sold it to someone in the State of Maine it has to be free from defect and operate (key word) as long as would be reasonably expected to operate. You can just Google that one.

I intentionally have DSL. It's on the phone lines so if my ISP annoys me, I can fire 'em. I can use any provider willing to service my area - even if they're in Hong Kong. The line owner has no choice but to lease the lines at a reasonable price (pretty much without profit) or our PUC can, and will, come stomping in.

The list goes on but I retired to Maine and one of the reasons that I selected Maine was the justice system. It's not perfect but it's pretty good. It's exceptionally good when compared to some of the other States.

Oh, ha... I went and looked - Camera speed and red-light enforcement is illegal in the State of Maine. (So aren't billboards.) But, yeah, they can't actually use those in my home state. The cops are not allowed. If they want to stop speeders, they can go out and patrol the roads. If they want to watch a light-controlled intersection (there aren't that many, really) then they can go sit in the intersection and watch that intersection.

They're not even allowed to hide their vehicles - that's entrapment in Maine. Not even an unmarked vehicle is allowed to do certain things, hiding is pretty much not allowed. A "speed trap" means the cop at least has his headlights on and clearly visible at night.

Well, now I've gone and done it. :/ I've not only babbled at you again but you'll be trying to move to Maine next. It's kind of nice to have a government that sometimes actually does the right thing.

Where do you live? Just the State should do. Or, alternatively, look and see if you can find it yourself. I'll show you Maine's example:

http://legislature.maine.gov/l...

Here's a good description from the AG:

http://www.maine.gov/tools/wha...

See, specifically, 4 . 3 for a bit of a quick run-down. I'll quote it here:

The implied warranty of merchantability is created by Maine law and means that the product will
be fit for the ordinary purposes for which such products are used.6
For example, washing machines
must be fit for washing clothes. They must be able to do the job washing machines ordinarily do and to
last for as long as washing machines ordinarily last. The same is true for toasters, new automobiles,
mobile homes, clothing, furniture and every other item you purchase for family, household or personal
use. To prove a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability you must show that the product was
defective in design, materials, or workmanship.

(Emphasis added and emphasis mine.)

I have, in fact, used it for a cell phone that they said was no longer covered under warranty. Except, not really. What I did was contact the OEM for a repair. They said that they'd not be repairing it. I sent them a link to the above and asked if they were familiar with Maine's law. They sent me a new phone. I'm not sure if that actually counts as using the law or not?

Maine's one of ten States that has that protection - your State may afford similar consumer protections but you'll need to investigate that on your own or tell me where you live and I can search on your behalf. Unfortunately, such protections are not universal. I don't even actually know if the law would have applied (the screen had died just about a year and a half after purchasing it - this seems to happen a lot with my preferred style of phone, that with a slide-out "full" keyboard) but it worked in that I sent them a link to the law and got a new phone sent to me - they even express shipped it. I wouldn't have been so adamant but I'd already paid for it to be replaced once with the insurance plan.

Where do you live? Just the State should do. Or, alternatively, look and see if you can find it yourself. I'll show you Maine's example:

http://legislature.maine.gov/l...

Here's a good description from the AG:

http://www.maine.gov/tools/wha...

See, specifically, 4 . 3 for a bit of a quick run-down. I'll quote it here:

The implied warranty of merchantability is created by Maine law and means that the product will
be fit for the ordinary purposes for which such products are used.6
For example, washing machines
must be fit for washing clothes. They must be able to do the job washing machines ordinarily do and to
last for as long as washing machines ordinarily last. The same is true for toasters, new automobiles,
mobile homes, clothing, furniture and every other item you purchase for family, household or personal
use. To prove a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability you must show that the product was
defective in design, materials, or workmanship.

(Emphasis added and emphasis mine.)

I have, in fact, used it for a cell phone that they said was no longer covered under warranty. Except, not really. What I did was contact the OEM for a repair. They said that they'd not be repairing it. I sent them a link to the above and asked if they were familiar with Maine's law. They sent me a new phone. I'm not sure if that actually counts as using the law or not?

Maine's one of ten States that has that protection - your State may afford similar consumer protections but you'll need to investigate that on your own or tell me where you live and I can search on your behalf. Unfortunately, such protections are not universal. I don't even actually know if the law would have applied (the screen had died just about a year and a half after purchasing it - this seems to happen a lot with my preferred style of phone, that with a slide-out "full" keyboard) but it worked in that I sent them a link to the law and got a new phone sent to me - they even express shipped it. I wouldn't have been so adamant but I'd already paid for it to be replaced once with the insurance plan.

I see... You could have saved me some time by telling me that you don't know what corporations are. I kind of figured that and tried to help you understand with my first post. Not all corporations are publicly traded, beholden to their stakeholders/shareholders, or even must demonstrate capacity to profit. Again, you might want to look into this.

Also, you might want to note the examples that I used and wonder why it is that I used those examples and how it is that I am familiar with them. Again, I can assure you that you're mistaken. They don't "HAVE TO" do do anything of the sort. You could just save us both a few minutes and use your favorite search engine. If you need but one, of many, such examples to search for then look into the "nonprofit corporation act." That will be but one of many, many types of corporations to look into.

I'm trying hard to be nice but you're making it difficult. There are corporations, right this minute, that are doing exactly what is good for me - I know, I set them up with the aid of a legal professional. They not only do good for me, but they do things like provide scholarships, manage separate trusts, and ensure that I'll be able to continue to do good long after I've slipped off this mortal coil. I've been through the process enough that I can probably do it on my own.

Hell, I'll show you just one tiny example that I'm fairly familiar with:
http://legislature.maine.gov/l...

Not to worry though, I'm sure I'll find you in another thread ranting about how corporations are uncaring, don't have my interest at heart, and are oh so terrible. Do note: There are hundreds of types of corporations. You might want to look into this. It can seriously reduce your tax burden and offer you some exceptional protections with liability. Or, you can just keep parroting what you read other people say and not click the link, not use a search engine, and not consult a qualified legal professional.

There are plenty of corporations that *do* have your interests at heart and work for the betterment of society. Stop parroting what you read without taking a few minutes to use a search engine. You're not dumb, I've seen enough of your posts to know you're not dumb. There's all sorts of things to be pissed about but the right to incorporate is pretty important and not at all a bad thing in and of itself.

That might actually work in the state that I currently reside in. Maine has an Implied Merchantability Act that actually warranties things for a "reasonable length of time." This exceeds any manufacturer's warranties. Not many people know about it and fewer act on it. I know of no instance where this has been tried but, I suspect, it would be a reasonable case and would be heard and judged on its own merits. Few items have a defined implied merchantability length and most are subject to a judge's or jury's interpretation of "reasonable."

The law:
http://legislature.maine.gov/s...

A very VERY good PDF that has a lot more information including citations:
http://www.maine.gov/ag/dynld/... (Again, PDF warning.)

I have lived in a number of states that had such laws but I do not recall anyone I know using one in court. I have linked to the law and PDF in the past and had my money refunded when I got an inferior product that lacked quality. They did not want to refund my payment and it took linking them to the PDF and law to get them to act on it. I have only needed to do so once and it did not go to court.

That might actually work in the state that I currently reside in. Maine has an Implied Merchantability Act that actually warranties things for a "reasonable length of time." This exceeds any manufacturer's warranties. Not many people know about it and fewer act on it. I know of no instance where this has been tried but, I suspect, it would be a reasonable case and would be heard and judged on its own merits. Few items have a defined implied merchantability length and most are subject to a judge's or jury's interpretation of "reasonable."

The law:
http://legislature.maine.gov/s...

A very VERY good PDF that has a lot more information including citations:
http://www.maine.gov/ag/dynld/... (Again, PDF warning.)

I have lived in a number of states that had such laws but I do not recall anyone I know using one in court. I have linked to the law and PDF in the past and had my money refunded when I got an inferior product that lacked quality. They did not want to refund my payment and it took linking them to the PDF and law to get them to act on it. I have only needed to do so once and it did not go to court.

Car taxes? The fuck dystopian country do you live in?

I know counties in Virginia do it
http://www.pwcgov.org/governme...
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/d...

Apparently the state started doing it recently
https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/v...

Maine has done it as long as I remember, and your town gets the money.
http://www.maine.gov/revenue/p...

I felt these were nice places to live...

(And metallic mercury is "safe" - it's not bio-available. But there are many bio-available mercury compounds that are and contribute to mercury poisoning).

I cannot fathom how a post that ends like this is marked "+5 insightful."

Metalllic (elemental) mercury is nowhere near "safe." Sure, it's not particularly dangerous when handled carefully and knowledgeably in a lab environment.

However, elemental mercury can and does contribute to mercury poisoning. It isn't absorbed through the skin quickly, and even if ingested, only a tiny fraction is absorbed. So, unless you chronically handle mercury or ingest a decent amount, you're not likely to see effects.

But in a vapor form, it is readily absorbed into your bloodstream and can easily lead to poisoning. It will readily begin to evaporate at room temperature, particularly in small droplets or a fine mist. Any laboratory chemist will tell you, for example, never to heat mercury unless you REALLY know what you're doing and have sufficient ventilation. People have even absorbed fatal doses of elemental mercury from even heating a small amount and inhaling the vapor.

Now, back to your CFL -- the mercury that's contained there will be released in a fine mist or vapor if the bulb is broken. Much of it will vaporize almost immediately, making the area around the break unsafe until adequately ventilated. A number of scientific government studies (like this one) show residual mercury "powder" staying on carpets and porous surfaces for weeks or MONTHS after a CFL break. Enough so that the area above a carpet will have levels of mercury above safe levels when disturbed... by, say, an infant or small child playing.

I'm not saying that CFLs are very dangerous in terms of mercury content. Certainly they aren't anything bad compared to a broken thermometer spill on a rug that was never cleaned up. But at least the thermometer will generally released beads of mercury that can be easily collected on a hard surface. The CFL releases mercury vapor, which is the only form that elemental mercury is significantly hazardous in.

And by the way, yes -- organic mercury compounds (like methylmercury compounds) are generally significantly more hazardous, since they can often be absorbed more easily through ingestion or even through the skin. But how do you think the tuna or swordfish got those organic mercury compounds in its flesh? It absorbed elemental mercury slowly, and it built up. Same thing can happen for humans.

They contain mercury vapor, but it doesn't leave the glass tube unless you break the tube.

At which point, even this small amount of mercury vapor is a (minor) health hazard. Certainly much more than a broken thermometer, which the mercury is liquid and if cleaned up promptly will hardly result in any (much more) hazardous vapor. Don't listen to me: pay attention to a state study that actually looked at mercury releases from a broken CFL in real-world conditions, something you never hear about....

http://www.maine.gov/dep/homeowner/cflreport.html

The amount of mercury in a CFL is far less than the amount of mercury put into the atmosphere by burning coal to power an incandescent bulb.

If you're unlucky enough to have your electricity sourced from coal power plants, this is probably true. However, even if you have electricity from coal plants, if you use CFLs in places where their lifespan is significantly reduced, like in fixtures where they get too hot or in places where they are turned on and off A LOT, this benefit is significantly reduced (and even negated) unless you recycle the bulb.

Moreover, most cities don't make it easy to recycle CFLs yet. Most people undoubtedly throw them into the trash, so the mercury does get out.

Schizophrenics?

I've been told... actually, that's not good enough. I'm going to look it up.

OK, in Maine, under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 17-A: Maine Criminal Code, Part 2: Substantive Offenses, Chapter 18: Computer Crimes, unauthorized access is a Class D crime, and unauthorized copying, computer resource damaging, and virus introduction is a Class C crime. The classes are defined as such:

• Class D: Crimes punishable by up to 364 days incarceration and a $2,000 fine
• Class C: Crimes punishable by up to 5 years incarceration and a $5,000 fine

If I recall correctly, beating up a small child is also a Class C crime. By printing or forwarding these emails, this person in the article could be accused of a Class C crime in Maine.

So yeah, the courts may actually try and be reasonable, but be bound and restricted by the unreasonableness and especially the vagueness of the law.

Well, having had some experience with the Maine Laptop Initiative, their MacBooks did experience downtime due to system problems, and of course inevitable hardware failures.

School administrators that I worked with (I did Novell support for a few schools, and integrating their MacBooks into NetWare was nontrivial, but went pretty well) complained the most about having to re-image drives. They spent quite a bit of time optimizing that process, but there are only a few ways to re-image a MacBook, and none are fast enough. I could not get ZenWorks to do it, despite some heroic work by Novell engineers as a pet project. Oh well...

We were required to re-image the machines to a base system image after many repairs, most specifically hard drives and system boards. Data backup and restoration was the responsibility of the student and local administrators. It's their policy, we just had to follow the rules.

Our little business did well providing non-warranty repairs until both Apple and Apple dealers realized they were being cut out of the loop in a big way. I left before Apple got hard and cut off parts access. That was the end. But we saved some schools a little money along the way.

The MLTI has many lessons for other systems. Worth looking into before your school board leaps off the cliff.

http://www.maine.gov/treasurer/unclaimed_property/report_property/gc_index.html

If you want to see examples for other states, the laws usually fall under the "abandoned property" statutes. IANAL so I can only speak for the law that I've been affected by. Google is your friend.

In Maine, 60% of the value of any gift card not used for approximately two years (see citation above for more detailed explanation) must be remitted to the State. I work for a retailer here in the state who never, ever had an expiration date on our gift cards/certificates. We do now, but it's only to encourage the customers to use the damned things so we don't have to go through the paperwork of paying the state their 60% then filing refund paperwork if/when the customer ever finds the card and uses it. In fact, expiration dates cannot be enforced by Maine State Law. But most retailers put one on there now because the act of requesting a refund from the state is such a pain in the ass, so we hope the date gets the customer to spend the card/certificate before the expiration date.

This law is actually good for the Maine consumer because gift cards/certificates are now treated as owned property. Previously, retailers could expire gift certificates that the customer had paid for and there were no repercussions to the retailer. Now, if the retailer accepts your money, it is treated as an owed obligation to the customer. I never really understood why anyone would want to take perfectly good US currency and turn it into a gift card that is worth the same money but may only be spent in one store. But at least the new law ensures that the holder of the card can use it forever and the merchant can't simply expire it and keep the money.

A number of states have had "abandoned property" laws for a LONG time. Property that goes unused for a certain period of time reverts to the State, or a portion of it. These new statutes recognize the fact that anything a consumer purchases is their property.

Note that this really only includes gift cards/certificates that the customer has paid for. "Promotional gift cards" (ie, "buy $50 of stuff and we'll give you a $10 gift card") are not considered property that may be abandoned because the customer didn't actually BUY them. Technically, they are coupons. They have no cash value, and may have expiration dates at the retailer's discretion, and if they go unclaimed the state is owed nothing.

If the customer bought it, it's property, and falls under the abandoned property laws. If the customer earned it by buying something else or whatever, it's not property - it's a coupon.

Even though she should be laughed out of office for scientific ignorance, I'll wager the Maine voters keep this steaming turd in office way longer than she deserves.

Feel free to let her know how you feel.

http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/hsebios/bolaam.htm [maine.gov]

Address: 22 Kent Street, Sanford, ME 04073

Home Telephone: (207) 324-4459

Business Telephone: (207) 324-4459

Fax: (207) 324-1627

State House E-Mail: RepAndrea.Boland@legislature.maine.gov

Legislative Web Site: www.maine.gov/legis/housedems/aboland
(Additional information, news, etc., from the House Majority Office)

State House Message Phone: (800) 423-2900

State House TTY Line: (207) 287-4469

Even though she should be laughed out of office for scientific ignorance, I'll wager the Maine voters keep this steaming turd in office way longer than she deserves it. Feel free to let her know how you feel. http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/hsebios/bolaam.htm Address: 22 Kent Street, Sanford, ME 04073 Home Telephone: (207) 324-4459 Business Telephone: (207) 324-4459 Fax: (207) 324-1627 State House E-Mail: RepAndrea.Boland@legislature.maine.gov Legislative Web Site: www.maine.gov/legis/housedems/aboland (Additional information, news, etc., from the House Majority Office) State House Message Phone: (800) 423-2900 State House TTY Line: (207) 287-4469

Wrong on the Wrong.

But I understand your confusion - there are two "Use Taxes", metaomni was referring to the "Use Tax" used to reclaim lost "Sales Tax".

Maine, for example, has a "Use Tax". It is a "Sales Tax" that the BUYER pays the State if they have purchased something from a company that does not collect "Sales Tax" (usually meaning a SELLER that is not in Maine). Technically, it applies to any item "Used" in the state that was purchased without paying "Sales" Taxes.

http://www.maine.gov/revenue/salesuse/usetax.pdf

This is paid with your State Income Tax, and appears on the form. There are two ways to pay it:

1. You can keep all the receipts from all the crap you bought out of state and attach them to your form, paying 5%, 7%, or 10% of each receipt based on what kind of item it is. If you ate out at a restaurant and rented a car, that would be 7% and 10%, for example, respectively.

2. You can check a box for "Alternative Minimum Use Tax" and some small percentage of your total taxable income will be levied as a tax, and you can skip the paperwork. This covers all purchases under a given amount, individual purchases over that amount must still be documented and paid as "Use Tax" in addition to the Alternative Minimum.

Somehow my post got chopped a bit. The "My Favorite" bit referred to the difference between the brief and deeply incomplete summary on Wikipedia regarding Maine's taxes and the actual rules surrounding which of the four rates (0%, 5%, 7%, 10%) to apply.

http://www.maine.gov/revenue/salesuse/reference-03.htm

Inflation from 1990 to 2009 : inflation. OK it is Maine, ok it is not an official nubmers, but from 130 to 215 it is a 65% increase of cost of living. So at least for Maine, game are actually LOWER in cost than they were 20 years ago. In my experience it is the same in Europe.

"Mercury concentration in the study room air often exceeds the Maine Ambient Air Guideline (MAAG) of 300 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) for some period of time, with short excursions over 25,000 ng/m3, sometimes over 50,000 ng/m3, and possibly over 100,000 ng/m3 from the breakage of a single compact fluorescent lamp. "

study

Maine has had a similar program for the past 7 years. They use iBooks: Maine Learning Technology Initiative

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

• Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
• Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
• Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

• Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
• Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

• If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
• You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
• If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

• Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
• Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
• Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs

Maine's been doing this for years, Here's the research and reports on what's being done and why.

I've seen so many notebooks (mostly HP dv6000 and dv9000 series) being hit with this lately that it's unbelievable. And yes, HP did release an extended service offer for a few specific models; it tacks one year to the end of your current warranty. Even if you have an HP notebook that is one of the affected models, they won't touch it unless it fails within that 24-month period. Month 25? Sorry, time to shop for a new one.

Well, in my state there is an implied warranty law that applies here: Consumer Law Guide. Check it out if you live in Maine and you need it, or look into similar laws in your own state/province/territory/etc. All of my customers who are hit with this issue get a copy of the implied warranty section printed when they go.

Sorry, link ----> Implied Warranty

Depends on location; in some US states (Maine in particular), there is an "Implied Warranty" which covers the hardware, regardless of the seller's warranty. Can be a PITA to actually get, however I've seen it work (specifically with Dell) three years into ownership on a one year warranty.

Uh, two points:

1. There already exists an issue with the amount of toxic chemicals in most computers today.
http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/recycle/computerrecy.htm
"A typical processor and monitor contain five to eight pounds of lead and heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury and arsenic."

2. When you are dealing with quantum levels a gram of any element has a lot of area to work in and they are suspending the toxic bit with a field of silicon.
"Imagine a tiny arsenic atom embedded in a tiny strip of silicon atoms..."

Actually, Maine has a extremely advanced telecom infrastructure, especially given the low population density and sheer size of the state. In part, this is due to the legacy of having some very large call centers located in Maine in the past (MBNA, now Bank of America) and one of the more CLEC friendly public utilities commissions. And historically, Maine had more independent, private telephone companies than any place else in the US. Maine was the first state in the country to have every single public school and library Internet connected (56k or T1), starting in 1996, which is well over 1200 locations. Many of the high schools now have T3s and video classroom conferencing capability between each other and to the state University system.

In most towns over 10,000 people, there two or more competing broadband choices, and that doesn't just mean the ILEC (was Verizon, now Fairpoint) and a cable company. There are a number of regional CLECs providing DSL and dialtone services, and several rural areas with wireless ISPs that compete with FairPoint. The prices are not as low as you would find in MA or NY or CA, but it is available.

There is even one CLEC that has built their own fiber optic network in a Verizon/FairPoint city (Lewiston) that also has a strong cable company (Time Warner) and offers triple-play (voice/video/data) residential and business service and is expanding to two more cities in the state in the next year. You can purchase "lit service" multimegabit service in most of the cities, and leased dark fiber in the major areas, if you have the need and the budget.

As an example, you can get 10Mbit/sec of business class Internet pipe (fiber delivered) in the business districts of most central Maine cities from no less than 3 different carriers for about $1200/month. Typical residential DSL is about $40 for 2 Mbits.

That all said, there are still large sections of the state, in the towns and villages with less than a few thousand people, where you cannot get broadband at all, or you have only a single option. The state has recently setup a special program called ConnectME, funded by a telecom tax, to bring broadband to even the most rural of areas.

(yes, I live here. There is much that is still backward about Maine, but telecom ain't it.)

The problem is the mercury -- enough in one bulb to contaminate 1,000 gallons of water, even in newer low-mercury bulbs.

The number on another scaremongering article was 6,000.

Either way...

There's a gaping flaw in the logic that if you count PPM for a safe dose, look at the volume, then multiply up. It assumes the mercury is even close to equally disolved in that water.

If a drop, the volume of which is found in a typical CFL, dropped in to a thousand gallons of water and sank to the bottom, whilst I wouldn't happily do so, I'd still be willing to drink a glass from off to the side of where that drop went in. A little more nervously, I'd still be willing to do so a few weeks later, assuming the drop was still largely intact at the bottom.

On the flip side, let that drop sink in to a million gallons of water, thus apparently a thousand times under the "safe dose"... and I challenge anyone to be willing to drink the cupfull taken from where the drop sank, original drop included.

Yes, mercury is bad for you. It turns you in to a character in Alice In Wonderland.

On the other hand, we're druming up fear by pointing to a perfect distribution and the safe level (accepting that safe levels are usually many times lower than the point at which harm is a likelihood that's why they're called "safe" not "minimal risk" levels).

If you're going to get your panties in a bunch about that, you'd better not each fish (particularly swordfish, shark, smallmouth bass and pickerel). With an FDA "safe for human consumption" of 1ppm, shark ranged 0.30-3.53ppm in samples tested, averaging 0.88ppm and swordfish at 0.36-1.68ppm, averaging at 0.88 (FDA).

By comparison, the mercury maybe getting out of a bulb, disolved properly in to ground water, getting in to the water supply and failing to get filtered past the safe level is somewhat less of a risk than the statistical variance that means you'll almost certainly clear the safe levels in at least one case if you have a nice swordfish steak half a dozen times at your favorite restaurant.

Neither is likely to do you much harm. In both cases, getting in to your car and driving to work is a vastly greater risk, yet it puts the silliness of the debate in context when simply eating fish is far worse for you (on that one very limited axis).

There are a ton of kids in Maine who have spent the last few years proving this assumption -- that young kids don't learn anything useful on computers -- is wrong. Their program gave Powerbooks to all middle-school students and has produced remarkable results. It was recently renewed by the state legislature and is being expanded to additional grades with state $$, which is no small feat in a state under a lot of budget pressure. See link for published studies, etc. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Maine decided to go for OLPC's for the younger-then-middle-school set.

The primary problem in Maine's one-powerbook-per-child program has has come from backwards teachers like your Calc prof who won't adapt their teaching to the new technology.

People don't throw out thermostats quite as frequently as they will bulbs, and not usually in such large quantities. In my home alone I have 85 bulbs, I just now walked around with a notepad and started noting how many I saw in each room. Of those, I have five CFLs, but I stopped adopting them after I learned about the mercury. I used to have eight, but three of them went bad within a year (they're supposed to last seven years I thought) and I threw them in the trash before I understood they were dangerous. I would have eventually converted my entire home to CFLs if I had kept on that path.

Most people aren't this conscientious, and even if they knew it was harmful to humans/animals they're not going to make an effort to safely dispose of the contaminates or to stop buying these bulbs. Many people buy these bulbs for their longevity, and the energy savings, and some for the environment. This *is* going to be a giant landfill problem in the future. There's no way to stop it now really, even with the knowledge that these contain mercury people are still buying them in record numbers. The genie is out of the bottle.

Here's a story which people are calling an urban legend which is actually true and happened in Maine, the account is accurate. What was left out is any follow up, after the clean up contractor showed up, they tested the area again and found no contamination over 300 ng/m3 (the state limit), on the carpet as the toxicologist had on the previous visit, it probably dispersed into the environment as fumes. However, they removed the carpet anyways.

The story:

"According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, Brandy Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter's bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor. Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges' house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state's "safe" level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter. The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a "low-ball" estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began "gathering finances" to pay for the US$2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn't cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.

As each CFL contains five milligrams of mercury, at the Maine "safety" standard of 300 nanograms per cubic meter, it would take 16,667 cubic meters of soil to "safely" contain all the mercury in a single CFL. While CFL vendors and environmentalists tout the energy cost savings of CFLs, they conveniently omit the personal and societal costs of CFL disposal."

And, the local government of Maine's official explanation of the incident:

http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/pdf/prospecthistory.pdf

Now, in reality there's not much mercury in an individual bulb to really cause much of a problem but if all 85 of the bulbs in my home were CFLs and something like an earthquake caused many of them to shatter it would render the home inhabitable. How likely that is to happen, though?

In any event, they're going to end up in the landfills out of apathy. Look forward to increased levels of autism among the population in the coming decades.

Check your driver's license... and the local laws. for example:
Florida's Driver's Licenses states right on the front "Operation of a motor vehicle constitutes consent to any sobriety test required by law"

Maine law is that "Under Implied Consent, you automatically agree to a chemical test (blood, breath, or urine) at any time authorities have probable cause to administer it. If you refuse to take such a test for alcohol or drugs, your driver's license will be immediately suspended. The suspension could be for a period of up to six years. Because it is an administrative suspension, no court action is necessary. In addition, testimony from the arresting officer regarding your driving performance can result in an OUI conviction even without the BAC test! f you are found guilty of OUI based on the police officer's testimony, your refusal to take a test will be considered as an aggravating factor by the judge and another suspension, as well as mandatory jail time, will be tacked on. So by refusing, you will have a much harsher penalty than if you'd taken the test.

Remember a test can protect you. If you are not legally intoxicated, the test will show it. " http://www.maine.gov/dps/bhs/moui.htm
actual text of the law: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/29-a/title 29-Asec2411.html but if you "Operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, AND failed to submit to a test at the request of a law enforcement officer" you are guilty of Criminal OUI.. then "A law enforcement officer may arrest, without a warrant, a person the officer has probable cause to believe has operated a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants if the arrest occurs within a period following the offense reasonably likely to result in the obtaining of probative evidence of blood-alcohol level or drug concentration"

and then of course the meat-and-potatoes... if you don't take the test, the fine is higher... I'd copy/paste, but you can click the link just as well as I can

If a few of the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, MI, TX decide to blow it off. The Federal Gov't would be in a bind.

Suppose the US government sues Maine to require them to enforce the Act.* The Court could find that the law is unconstitutional, and everyone wins. However, it would likely find in favor of the federal government, at which point Maine has two options: follow the law, or don't. Under Maine Constitution Article 4, Section 2, the legislature has enough votes to override a Governor's veto. If the Governor enforces the federal law over the state law, there could be impeachment proceedings in Maine, as the Governor would no longer be "tak[ing] care that the laws be faithfully executed." See the Maine Constitution, Article 5, Section 12 and Article 9, Section 5.

If he favors state law over federal law, he'd be flagrantly disobeying the Court, and then all sorts of nastiness may follow. The President may call in the Maine National Guard, a lot of whom may feel more loyalty to their state than to him, what with the war in Iraq and all. The President may direct the DOT to stop paying for Maine highway repairs, the DOEd may stop subsidizing Maine schools... it could get really nasty. He might even attempt to arrest the Governor. The chances of things going that far are remote, but the fact remains that at the end of the day the President would have to do something. He can't just let this go, because it's all downhill once one state feels they don't have to follow laws passed by Congress. The word "secession" springs to mind.

* As a really nifty side note, the trial court for that case would be the US Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction since a state is a party. None of this dicking around waiting for the case to go up through the court system.

If a few of the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, MI, TX decide to blow it off. The Federal Gov't would be in a bind.

Suppose the US government sues Maine to require them to enforce the Act.* The Court could find that the law is unconstitutional, and everyone wins. However, it would likely find in favor of the federal government, at which point Maine has two options: follow the law, or don't. Under Maine Constitution Article 4, Section 2, the legislature has enough votes to override a Governor's veto. If the Governor enforces the federal law over the state law, there could be impeachment proceedings in Maine, as the Governor would no longer be "tak[ing] care that the laws be faithfully executed." See the Maine Constitution, Article 5, Section 12 and Article 9, Section 5.

If he favors state law over federal law, he'd be flagrantly disobeying the Court, and then all sorts of nastiness may follow. The President may call in the Maine National Guard, a lot of whom may feel more loyalty to their state than to him, what with the war in Iraq and all. The President may direct the DOT to stop paying for Maine highway repairs, the DOEd may stop subsidizing Maine schools... it could get really nasty. He might even attempt to arrest the Governor. The chances of things going that far are remote, but the fact remains that at the end of the day the President would have to do something. He can't just let this go, because it's all downhill once one state feels they don't have to follow laws passed by Congress. The word "secession" springs to mind.

* As a really nifty side note, the trial court for that case would be the US Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction since a state is a party. None of this dicking around waiting for the case to go up through the court system.

If a few of the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, MI, TX decide to blow it off. The Federal Gov't would be in a bind.

Suppose the US government sues Maine to require them to enforce the Act.* The Court could find that the law is unconstitutional, and everyone wins. However, it would likely find in favor of the federal government, at which point Maine has two options: follow the law, or don't. Under Maine Constitution Article 4, Section 2, the legislature has enough votes to override a Governor's veto. If the Governor enforces the federal law over the state law, there could be impeachment proceedings in Maine, as the Governor would no longer be "tak[ing] care that the laws be faithfully executed." See the Maine Constitution, Article 5, Section 12 and Article 9, Section 5.

If he favors state law over federal law, he'd be flagrantly disobeying the Court, and then all sorts of nastiness may follow. The President may call in the Maine National Guard, a lot of whom may feel more loyalty to their state than to him, what with the war in Iraq and all. The President may direct the DOT to stop paying for Maine highway repairs, the DOEd may stop subsidizing Maine schools... it could get really nasty. He might even attempt to arrest the Governor. The chances of things going that far are remote, but the fact remains that at the end of the day the President would have to do something. He can't just let this go, because it's all downhill once one state feels they don't have to follow laws passed by Congress. The word "secession" springs to mind.

* As a really nifty side note, the trial court for that case would be the US Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction since a state is a party. None of this dicking around waiting for the case to go up through the court system.

How about http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topi c=Portal+News&id=29095&v=article-2006 which goes to maine.gov?

Maine Governor John Baldacci (D) has commented on the proposed selloff. As is his wont, the comment said absolutely nothing.

That's funny. Here in Maine the MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative) has been going very well. The state started the program in 2000 and apparently the results have been good enough to convince the legislature to approve additional spending to renew Maine's contract with Apple Computer for MLTI.

See: http://www.maine.gov/mlti/

Providing the infrastructure to get something like this going is key. That is where the Maine School and Library Network (MSLN) comes in. MSLN, run by the University of Maine System, provides Internet access to the majority of Maine's 2000+ K12 schools and libraries (any k12.me.us or lib.me.us address belongs to MSLN). Along with these network connections are manageable website content filtering services that are used to limit exposure to sites not appropriate for minors. Filtering is not the entire solution though. The solution is teachers teaching students to be responsible to the point that filtering isn't necessary.

If you just give a school child a new laptop but don't engage them to think creatively then you just end up with another distraction. If this is what is happening then you should blame the teacher and not the laptop.

Along with laptops in the classroom Maine also has a distance learning H.32x videoconferenceing network, also managed by MSLN. This allows Maine students to interact with classrooms in other states and even other nations.

The next step for Maine will probably be moving towards online resources for education rather than expensive text books. There has been discussion about creating a Wiki for use by teachers to build up state-wide curriculum and supplemental learning resources.

Much work is also being done in understanding the most effective ways to teach with technology. At the University of Maine-Fort Kent (UMFK) virtually all classes are now built using WebCT to the point that students expect their classes to be available online. The different thing about UMFK is that while almost all of their courses are online, there are very few online-only courses. Rather than being used to replace the classroom technology is used to enhance the learning experience.

I'm not saying Maine has everything figured out. There have been plenty of bumps along the way since 2000, but for the most part technology in education has been statistically proven to be a good thing. Especially in attendance rates, grades, and enthusiasm for learning.

If this WSJ writer wants to do a story on Laptops in education, maybe he should look at a state that has been doing it successfully instead using one bad example to trash the idea.

I found a deployment page on the MLTI site that has PDFs of all the materials that were sent out to the school systems. They are, indeed, as you say, G4 iBooks, with 1 GB RAM, OS X 10.4, a 40 GB hard drive and a new "online learning management system," StudyWiz, preinstalled, whatever that is. Note that the StudyWiz website claims the software is being installed in "all schools in the state," which is just plain wrong (it's only the 7th and 8th grades that are getting the MLTI stuff).

Email:
governor@maine.gov


Mailing Address:
Office of the Governor
#1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0001

Phone:
207-287-3531
207-287-6548 (TTY) Fax 207-287-1034