Merapi Meletus Lagi, Ini Himbauan Sultan

Selasa pagi 1 November 2010, Merapi muntah lagi. Pukul sepuluh lebih 4 menit. Ini letusan ke empat. Letusan pertama berlangsung petang, 26 Oktober 2010. Sejumlah 37 orang meninggal. Dihabisi awan panas, yang sohor disebut wedhus gembel. Juga Mbah Maridjan si penjaga gunung dan wartawan VIVAnews.com, Yuniawan Nugroho.

Letusan kedua terjadi dini hari, Sabtu 30 Oktober 2010. Letusan itu membuat warga di pengungsian dan sekitar Cangkringan, Sleman, panik alang kepalang. Beruntung yang dihembuskan cuma abu vulkanik, bukan wedhus gembel yang mampu menyudahi hidup.

Tapi ada keganjilan pada letusan kedua ini. Suara dentuman terdengar keras berbarengan dengan muntahnya vulkanik dari perut gunung. Aneh, "Sebab dalam sejarahnya, Merapi tidak pernah mendentum," kata Surono, Kepala Pusat Vulkanologi Mitigasi Bencana Geologi (PVMBG) Kementerian ESDM kepada VIVAnews.com, Senin 1 November 2010.

Pada letusan ketiga yang berlangsung Minggu siang, Merapi memuntahkan awan panas. Sepanjang hari Minggu itu, Merapi gempa 33 kali dengan skala kecil. Guguran lava terjadi 166 kali.

Pada letusan keempat dentuman keras itu terdengar berkali-kali. Warga dan sejumlah pejabat penting yang berada di tenda pengungsian sontak jadi panik.

Selasa kemarin itu, sejumlah orang penting memang sedang menjenguk dan menggelar rapat di tenda pengungsian. Wakil Ketua Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) dari Fraksi Golkar Priyo Budi Santoso dan 15 orang anggota Komisi VIII pimpinan Abdul Kadir Karding meninjau para pengungsi. Kunjungan itu, kata Priyo, untuk menunjukkan rasa empati dewan terhadap korban. Baik korban meninggal maupun yang luka.

Rapat KSAD Sempat Bubar

Selain sejumlah anggota dewan itu, Kepala Staf Angkatan Darat (KSAD), Jenderal TNI George Toisutta, juga berada Posko Utama, Pakem Sleman, sekitar 15 kilometer dari Merapi. Toisutta sedang memberi pengarahan kepada pasukan TNI yang membantu pengungsian dan pengamanan di sana. Rapat ini dihadiri oleh Bupati Sleman, Sri Purnomo.

Tiba-tiba terdengar suara gemuruh dari atas gunung. Peserta rapat panik. Para peserta di barisan paling belakangan berhamburan ke luar, menyaksian letusan sesudah dentuman keras itu terjadi. "Letusan, letusan, letusan," begitu mereka beteriak.

Jenderal Toisutta, yang paling akhir keluar ruangan. Dia lalu ikut menyaksikan asap yang membubung ke langit. Angin yang bertiup membawa awan itu ke arah timur. Ke arah Boyolali dan Klaten. "Dua daerah itu diperkirakan akan mengalami abu vulkanik,"kata Sri Purnomo di sela mendampingi Toisuttta.

Warga sempat mengira bahwa ini letusan terbesar. Karena gulungan awan yang menggumpal terlihat begitu 'gemuk'. Warnanya hitam pekat. Dugaan itu sempat membuat banyak orang panik. Beruntung, Kepala Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi, Surono, cepat memberi penjelasan bahwa letusan itu tidak lebih besar dari tanggal 16 Oktober itu.

"Ledakan 26 Oktober 2010 masih lebih besar dari hari ini," kata Surono kepada VIVAnews.com. Meski bukan yang terbesar, letusan kali ini juga menerbangkan awan panas sejauh tujuh kilometer. Awan panas meluncur, merambat dinding gunung ke arah timur. Beruntung tidak ada korban.

Gempa, abu vulkanik dan juga wedhus gembel memang membuat rakyat, juga pemerintah siaga 24 jam penuh. Sesaat sesudah letusan itu, Sultan Jogya, yang juga menjadi gubernur provinsi itu, langsung meluncur ke Posko Utama di Pakem. Menggelar rapat kordinasi.

Lantaran letusan Merapi susah ditebak, rapat itu kemudian memutuskan untuk menarik semua Tim SAR yang sedang bertugas di sekitar Merapi. Saat rapat Sultan ini berlangsung, warga terus berduyun dari sekitar Merapi menuju posko itu. Petugas sibuk mengatur mereka.

"Petugas SAR diminta mengimbau anak buahnya yang berada di sisi Kaliurang untuk segera turun, sebab dikhawatirkan ada perubahan arah angin, awan panas bisa berbelok," begitu bunyi pengumuman dari pengeras suara di posko itu.

Sekitar 120 petugas tim SAR gabungan ditarik dari beberapa titik di sekitar Gunung Merapi. Menurut Koordinator Tim SAR Sleman, Suharyono, penarikan dilakukan untuk anggota tim yang menyebar di Purwobinangun, Hargobinangun, Kaliurang, Kaliadem, dan Kepuharjo. "Kami khawatir awan panas akan mengenai para anggota Tim SAR," kata Suharyono.

Jangan Panik

Arah wedhus gembel memang susah ditebak, sebab angin selalu berganti haluan. Tapi pemerintah meminta agar para pengungsi tidak panik. "Percayalah kepada Satkorlak dan semua informasi akan disampaikan secara terbuka kepada pengungsi," kata Suharyono.

Himbauan itu memang sungguh penting. Sebab kepanikan warga dan pengungsi kadang membuat suasana jadi kacau. Lalu lintas mendadak ramai. Suharyono meminta para pengendara motor dan mobil untuk tidak panik, memacu kendaraan dan berebutan jalan.

Sultan mengimbau agar sebelum status Awas Merapi dicabut, warga tidak boleh meninggalkan lokasi pengungsian. Himbauan ini dilakukan, sebab banyak warga yang nekat kembali ke kampung atau rumahnya guna memberi makan hewan piaraan. Selama tinggal di pengungsian, kata Sultan, biaya akan ditanggung pemerintah. Jadi jangan cemas tentang makanan.

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Fundamental Lessons in Photography - Understanding Exposure Like a Professional

Plainly stated, exposure is a state of vulnerability. More specifically and when thinking about photography, exposure is the amount of light being reflected off your subject and falling onto your camera's image sensor. It stands to reason that the more light which you allow into your camera, the more saturated with light your image sensor would become. The converse is also true in that if you limit the amount of light entering your camera, you'll experience a resultant decrease in exposure.

An uncomplicated analogy to explain exposure is to imagine light as being random particles or rays and your aim is to trap one thousand of these tiny particles into a small black box. You get faced with two scenarios, firstly one in which you find yourself on the surface of the sun! To trap a thousand particles or rays there, your common sense would tell you to open the box for a very short time to let your required quota of particles inside your box. No problem, there is light everywhere so your box gets filled quickly. Secondly, place yourself on the dark side of the moon where you are well shielded from the suns influence. In order to fill your box you would need to take the lid off the box for a very long time if you wanted to stand any chance of catching these elusive rays. You find yourself keeping the box open for a considerable time and you still may not necessarily meet your one thousand light particle quota.

Let's transpose the above analogy into photographical terms. Replace the word box in the above paragraph with the word camera, and replace the word lid with the term shutter. On the suns surface you would logically opt for a very fast shutter speed (in the order of milliseconds) to try to limit the number of light particles or rays entering your camera and falling onto your image sensor, because, too many light particles will unquestionably over expose your photograph and ruin it. Now going back to the moon, a very slow shutter speed in the order of minutes or hours would ensure that you do not under expose your image sensor to light rays, and ultimately produce a photo which is too dark.

It's important to remember that exposure and aperture go hand in hand with one another and that one can never consider either in isolation of the other.

For Conrad Strehlau and wedding4africa, photography is a state of mind and a passion like no other. Perfect it, live it and love it and the results will speak for themselves.

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The Nose Knows - Using Aromatic Oils to Enhance Your Environment

Everyone loves smelling something good. Fresh air scented with fragrant flowers and trees, a freshly baked apple or peach pie, the aroma you get when you walk into the chocolatier, or even your favorite perfume are all exhilarating to your sense of smell. From richly scented candles to reed diffusers, thousands of products claim to deliver those scents to your home--but which ones are worth your while?

Nose Overload
Air fresheners and home fragrances are a multi-million-dollar industry, and we see the results through the thousands of advertisements for new products each year. Claiming to last 30 days, 60 days--even years!--each product is more "new and improved" than the next. You can choose sprays, solid wax, electric units, motion sensors, candle forms, and even "flameless" candles. And don't forget all those odor absorbing products, from good old baking soda to expensive sprays for your car, upholstery, and clothing.

After being bombarded with ads every day, you might be tempted to throw up your hands and buy the "latest and greatest" product out of sheer frustration. But what if you could keep your favorite scent in your home or workplace for three to four months at a time without even trying--and without overspending?

A Different Kind of Aromatherapy
When it comes to fragrance, simplicity and pure ingredients will win out any day. Three products in particular--aroma oils, reed diffusers, and candle tart warmers--do wonders to calm your mood and relieve stress, all without the cost, waste, and gimmicks of the commercial fragrance industry.

One of the best ways to enjoy your favorite fragrance is by finding essential aroma oils. These oils are simple to use, economically-priced, and last much longer than a typical store-bought air freshener. They are available in a variety of scents, from floral and fruit to decadent chocolate. By pouring a small amount of richly scented oil in a decorative jar and adding handful of diffuser reeds, you can enjoy a wonderful fragrance for months. Aroma oil diffuser reeds are inexpensive, safer than candles, and don't use electricity.

Warm and Wonderful
If you like candles, try a tart warmer--and no, that doesn't refer to dessert! A tart warmer is a small ceramic container that uses your scented tart candle to warm the complimentary aroma oil. The effect is wonderfully rich and long lasting. This is a great way to add fragrance to your home or office without worrying about the cost, maintenance, and effectiveness of other scent systems. You do have to remember to blow out the candle when you're done, though.

Using aroma oils in your environment is an economical, safe, and healthy way to experience aromatherapy.

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How to Create a Free Playlist of Your Favorite Music Online

Music is a piece of our culture that is constantly changing and evolving. There are many styles, preferences, and performers. Everyone has their own taste in music and it is not uncommon for someone to like several types of genres. When listening to the radio they generally only play one genre of music and target one audience. It is hard to find a method of listening to music that allows you to pick what genre of music you want to listen to and even let you pick your songs.

There are websites out there that do let you listen to the type of music of your choosing, the most popular is probably Pandora.com. They allow you to create your own stations but they select the songs that are played. The beauty of Pandora.com is the fact that they allow you to play as many stations at as you want in a shuffle format. For example, if you want to listen to a channel playing country, a channel playing songs related to Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a hip hop channel they allow you to play all three channels at one time. They will shuffle between those three channels playing songs in those channels only. Pandora is a free service for the first 40 hours if every month, but, you have to pay after to use their service after the first 40 hours. They also have a phone app that you can open and play through the speaker on your phone.

Although Pandora is an excellent method of customizing the music you listen to it does not let you customize your own playlist with songs of your choosing. The best method for this is using YouTube.com. Yes, YouTube.com is a video site but they have hundreds of thousands of music videos and videos with songs in them. Even new releases are found on YouTube.com. YouTube.com also gives you the ability to create playlist. You can search for music videos and add them to your playlist. You can create one playlist with all your music or even create multiple playlist with certain songs in each playlist. When playing your songs YouTube.com even gives you the opportunity to shuffle or play in the order you choose. This is completely free, you just need to sign up for a YouTube.com account.

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