Sago or shortly after the inflorescence appears. The stems, which grow 10 to 15 metres high), are split out. The starch-containing pith is taken from the stems and ground to powder. The powder is kneaded in water over a cloth or sieve to release the starch. The water with the starch passes into a trough where the starch settles. After a few washings, the starch is ready to be used in cooking. A single palm yields about 800 pounds (360 kilograms) of dry starch. The sago palm, "Metroxylon sagu", is found in tropical lowland forest and freshwater swamps across Southeast Asia
Sago Mine disaster Lauriski in his article, "MSHA and the Sago Mine Disaster: How Many Brownies are there in this Administration?" An August 9, 2004, story in the "New York Times" by Christopher Drew and Richard A. Oppel, Jr., "Friends in the White House Come to Coal's Aid", had summed up Lauriski's record. Other problems cited included the rejection of a proposed clarification of an existing standard, "Escapeways and Refuges," by Lauriski's administration, which requires that a mine "shall have two or more separate, properly maintained escapeways to the surface..." A January 5 editorial in "The New York Times" explicitly linked the safety