Museum Exhibit A Whopper Its A House Featuring The Latest In Just About Everything

Take the best in efficient, affordable home construction, figure in the latest in home automation and add in a cache of green-friendly and you’ll get an idea of what the and Industry’s new “: Green + Wired” exhibit is all about.

The exhibit, which opened this week and celebrates the museum’s , is a freestanding, fully functioning home — called the mkSolaire — with 2,500 square feet of living space, , electricity and . To call it a house of the future might be an overstatement, since nearly all of the technologies displayed in this contemporary three-story home are available to consumers right now.

As expected, there are some interesting gadgets on display: a that tunes into the weather and learns the behavior of the occupant; a security system that lets you view who’s ringing your while you’re away (you can even let someone in); a plant-watering system that sends a text message from the plant saying “I’m thirsty”; a smart umbrella with a color ring that changes to blue if it’s going to rain and a kitchen countertop compost machine.

Some of the other cool features are: long strips of linoleum-like photovoltaic film (they cost about one-third less than traditional glass solar panels) that are applied to the roof with Velcro; made of recycled Chardonnay bottles; master bath vanity tops made of old toilets; a dual-flush toilet that regulates the amount of water used by measuring solid and ; and a rooftop garden. And, as expected, all the walls are painted with low VOC paint.

The home also puts the spotlight on how stormwater runoff can be collected to water the garden and landscaping; how toilets can be equipped to use waste water from the shower and bath; how spray-in foam insulation can completely seal a building and provide better air quality, sound reduction and reduced ; and how strategically placed windows can reduce electricity and heating bills. A survey by Kouba-Cavallo Associates concluded that the costs $837 per year to heat and $125 for cooling. (In comparison, it costs roughly $2,021 per year to heat a Chicago bungalow.)

The contemporary, loft-style home showcases the ways people can make eco-friendly living a part of their lives, said Anne Rasford, director of temporary exhibits for the museum.

“The exhibit is about choices and options [for consumers]. We were very deliberate in the choices that we made and wanted to be sure there were interesting stories for each of the products in the exhibit,” she said. “People will be able to see the new innovations in renewable resources, smart energy consumption, and clean, healthy-living environments in a functioning home.”

With the help of experts from Wired magazine, the home became “smart” with technologies that include a full- that allows homeowners to control heat, window coverings, lighting, security sensors and cameras. A touch screen tracks electricity and in the home on a real-time basis.

“We’ll have a guide available that goes floor by floor through all the room choices made for the home,” said Rasford. “It’ll also be available online.”

The interior architecture is designed to demonstrate the use of natural light with open spaces and energy-efficient building components. All of the materials in the home, from the windows and lighting fixtures to the counters and floors — tell a story of sustainable engineering and eco-friendly design, Rasford said.

Also, all of the furniture in the home is renewable or reused.

“Some of the furniture is from the Salvation Army. The is a slice of a fallen ash tree from Michigan,” Rasford said. “The two lighting fixtures above the table are called the Thomas Edison Twins. They’re made by a local artisan, Ted Harris, and are 16-inch wide globes filled with used light bulbs in all colors and sizes. We also have hemp bean bag chairs and are using FLOR carpet tiles in some areas instead of wall-to-wall carpeting. These can be easily removed and washed.”

A team from the University of Illinois Extension Horticulture, Environmental and Green Educators and a landscape architect created the that surrounds the house. Some of the highlights include a sustainable and rain gardens.

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Monday, May 12th, 2008

Landscaping No Comments

Clinton Obama chase next big prize Washington state

As the Super Tuesday votes were being tallied, Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were setting their sights on the next big prize: Washington.

After lagging behind Obama in getting a campaign up and running here, Clinton on Tuesday sent in a swarm of campaign staff from other states to help prepare for Saturday’s precinct caucuses.

Obama’s campaign announced Tuesday evening that he will make a campaign appearance Friday in Seattle.

And Clinton is scheduled to appear Thursday at 8 p.m. at Pier 30 on Seattle’s waterfront.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain the biggest winner Tuesday still has no paid staff in Washington and no plans to come here before the GOP caucuses. Instead, his campaign appears more focused on the state’s Feb. 19 primary, where he has a better chance of pulling in independent voters.

Could that open the door in Washington for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had a surprisingly strong showing Tuesday? Or could this be the state where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney revives his sagging campaign?

After dueling to what appears to be a draw in the 24 states that voted Tuesday, Clinton and Obama are digging in for a protracted battle for delegates that could last well into the spring.

“This race is a tie,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz. “This will be in play for at least a month, maybe all the way to the convention.”

Two other states Louisiana and Nebraska are holding Democratic contests on Saturday. But Washington with its 97 Democratic delegates, including 80 who will be selected through the caucuses and state convention has nearly twice as much at stake as those two states combined.

State party officials are bracing for what could be an overwhelming turnout. Pelz is predicting Democrats will easily surpass the record 100,000 people who showed up for the caucuses in 2004 a year in which the race was largely decided by the time it came to Washington.

It appears less is at stake here this weekend on the Republican side.

Washington’s Republican Party is selecting only about half of its 40 delegates through the caucus process. There will be more than twice as many Republican delegates up for grabs Saturday in Louisiana and Kansas.

The rest of Washington’s GOP delegates will be allocated through the state’s Feb. 19 presidential primary an event the state Democratic Party is ignoring.

McCain’s campaign has already said he will not be coming to Washington this week.

For the past few weeks, while most of the attention has gone to the Super Tuesday states, the campaigns have been quietly gearing up in Washington. Most of the campaigns last month began hosting caucus training around the state. Some recently launched aggressive phone-bank and doorbelling operations.

Obama, who has raised nearly twice as much money in Washington as any other candidate, for weeks had the biggest field operation here. A well-organized group of grass-roots Obama supporters has been rounding up volunteers.

The campaign recently brought in paid staff from other states and now has offices in Seattle, Spokane, Everett, Bellingham and Vancouver, and paid staff in Wenatchee and the Tri-Cities.

“They’re opening offices faster than Starbucks,” Pelz said.

Clinton, meanwhile, had been relying on an all-volunteer effort here. But this week the national campaign sent in 22 paid staffers from Super Tuesday states.

“It’s a huge shot in the arm,” said Jim Kainber, who had been running Clinton’s campaign here. “They know what needs to be done, who to call. … This is a ground fight. It’s about finding people and dragging people to the caucuses.”

Having spent seven years as executive director of the state Democratic Party, Kainber probably knows as much as anyone how each precinct ticks. To offset that advantage, Kainber said, the Obama campaign needed to bring in lots of paid staff early.

But conventional wisdom could get trampled if hordes of new voters turn out for Obama, as happened last month in the Iowa caucuses.

On the Republican side, almost anything seems possible. Washington’s Republican caucuses have a history of favoring insurgent candidates most notably in 1988, when they were dominated by supporters of televangelist Pat Robertson.

“There were church buses and vans pulling up at the caucuses,” recalled Chris Vance, a former state GOP chairman who was campaigning that year for Bob Dole.

Could that happen this year for Huckabee? A former Baptist preacher, he is a favorite among evangelical voters.

But Pastor Joe Fuiten, Huckabee’s state chairman, said the campaign has nowhere near as big of a presence here as Robertson had. The cash-strapped campaign has no paid staff in Washington and has instead been relying on the online networking site Meetup.com and other -roots efforts.

Fuiten said he thinks Romney, a Mormon, could be this year’s Robertson. A wealthy businessman who has pumped millions of dollars of his own into the campaign, Romney has raised more here than any other Republican.

“I think you’ll find the Mormons will be out in force this weekend,” Fuiten said. “And you can win the caucuses with a handful of people.”

Toby Nixon, a former state legislator who is helping run Romney’s campaign, said he is not aware of any organized get-out-the-vote effort by the church. But he said Mormons make up a large portion of the 20,000 or so voters the campaign has contacted.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who campaigned in Seattle last week, could also make a strong showing Saturday. Paul’s passionate anti-war, libertarian message has struck a chord with many young voters here.

Paul, who has five paid campaign organizers in the state, was the top Republican fundraiser here in the final quarter of last year. Meetup.com lists dozens of Paul groups in Washington, and his supporters frequently show up to wave signs at other candidates’ events.

McCain, meanwhile, has some of the state’s biggest-name Republicans on his side including Attorney General Rob McKenna and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton.

Vance, another McCain supporter, said the GOP caucuses are “not the best atmosphere” for moderate candidates. Still, he figures McCain will hold his own in the caucuses and then do well in the primary.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or %26#114;%26#116;%26#104;%26#111;%26#109;%26#97;%26#115;%26#64;%26#115;%26#101;%26#97;%26#116;%26#116;%26#108;%26#101;%26#116;%26#105;%26#109;%26#101;%26#115;%26#46;%26#99;%26#111;%26#109;

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Friday, February 8th, 2008

Landscaping Rock No Comments

Oh please, no more rustic roistering

e think they are so brave attempting to host anything as ambitious as a dinner party in their pokey little terrace houses of which they seem curiously proud. There, one is greeted by a harassed hostess sporting the grunge look: this remains hip in London, apparently.

She will still be chopping vegetables for dinner, a task she swiftly delegates to you and other guests while she busies herself changing the cat litter.

All this, apparently, is not a sign of slovenliness but of frightfully edgy urban living, even if it might appear to the uninitiated like a 1995 Jamie Oliver television ad meets Little Britain.

Eventually, one may get to serve oneself a plate of pasta and a few sprigs of wilted but trendy , washed down with a glass - and it is only a glass - of supermarket Chablis.

This will be enjoyed on hard stools in the kitchen or, in swankier abodes, in a dining room/drawing room containing a television seemingly larger than the house.

After being subjected to harrowing stories for an hour and a half from guests, in various states of exhaustion, about how little Jacquetta is being offered smack at school by a boy called Massive, the rings and some banker who has been somnolent all evening suddenly bursts into life.

“Our taxi is here!” he exclaims. Carriages: or at least a 12-year-old Datsun Sunny driven by a retired brigade commander from the Mujahideen. And so on the two-hour drive home we sigh: “Ah, wasn’t that a treat for us bumpkins to rub shoulders with London’s sparkling demi-monde%26#8230;”

Contrast this dinner party to those we now attend in the country. Everything appears proper - in contrast to what invariably follows.

To country virgins, the first shock is that the hostess looks attractive - partly because, very sensibly, she has dressed as an upmarket hooker, realising there is nothing alluring about “being yourself”. And partly because preparing this dinner has been her closest brush with work all week.

Next shock is that one is actually treated like a guest: ushered into a drawing room with roaring fires and pretty teenage waitresses from the local public school proffering canap%26eacute;s, as Champagne flows like pasteurised milk.

“Ah,” I hear City types snigger. “I bet conversation makes Benny’s on Crossroads seem nuanced.” True, we rustics rarely reach the conversational peaks of “where next for the congestion charge?” or “can house prices in Barnes buck the national trend?”

But we Sharps are coming to terms with the loss. Bear in mind that among the coves we encounter in our Home Counties village are: an eminent psychologist, a fellow of All Souls, a rock star’s bodyguard, a documentary maker, the publisher of an erotic magazine, a book designer, an Atlantic rower, a former model, a newsreader, an artist, and a war hero.

Drinks drift on, so everyone is convivial by the time they are seated - and they are seated, as opposed to grabbing the last available beanbag, as in London. Country wives tend to own more cookbooks than novels and like to drop in that the starter is “one of Heston’s”.

There is fierce competition between wives - in the country, men do not cook (yet) - who coo with as much sincerity as they can muster: “Ooh, so delicious; you are a genius.”

The men smile benignly, as by now they are far too p****d to care if they are chomping Nigella or Nigel. Besides, they are more interested in stroking the thigh of the adjacent woman.

Long before the River Caf%26eacute; Chocolate Nemesis and Raymond Blanc petit fours, conversation turns to sex. Perhaps it’s seeing all those copulating farm animals, but people are mind-bogglingly explicit.

An attractive young blonde mother confided at dinner: “Since a friend gave me a Rampant Rabbit, I’ve realised my husband just hasn’t been doing it right.” “Hmm,” I replied to head off a more detailed exposition. “More parsnips?”

At one dinner, while his wife was in the kitchen pouring fruit coulis over her cheesecake, our host logged on to a site called X Tube: this consisted of ordinary members of the public having sex for a webcam.

To other guests, I noticed, this site seemed as novel as eBay. At a recent dinner in the same house, I am reliably informed, a truth or dare game ended with guests sitting in their smalls. My informant insists that she made her excuses when the host emerged from his bedroom in a thong brandishing a whip. Really.

Even in mid-winter, swimming pools are cranked to Caribbean heat in the country and skinny dipping is not encouraged but enforced. One couple decided to demonstrate their mutual devotion so loudly I momentarily thought I’d strayed into the seals enclosure at London Zoo. No one batted an eyelid.

Any urbanite reading this will think I’m exaggerating; actually, I’m being discreet. We were invited to a party - the theme was Boogie Nights, after the movie about a porn star - which resulted in the kind of debauchery you longed for, forlornly, at college.

Guests were invited to enter a bathroom with someone of the opposite sex and a Polaroid camera: the resulting pictures were eye-popping. Ditto the seduction couch and video camera. As for what went on in the treehouse%26#8230; One hedge fund manager had to apologise to his wife for snogging the wife of a friend.

But he felt aggrieved because - genuinely, I think - he had no memory of the pleasure: he was too trolleyed. One stalwart of this high-octane thirtysomething group concedes: “Our village is crying out for its first marital road crash.”

No wonder Wendy Holden’s new novel, Filthy Rich: A Comedy of Mud, Lust and Money, draws on life in a Derbyshire village where inevitably, the antics “blight more than everyone’s carrots”.

Newcomers certainly require bedding in. Soon after we moved here, my wife was absolutely outraged when it transpired that the denouement of a party game played after dinner at a neighbour’s house was that a guest - whom we hardly knew - got to squeeze her breasts.

And before you conclude that our village is uniquely vice-ridden, a friend reports trogging along to a dinner party in Sussex where all the gentlemen diners elected to moon at the table.

When my friend declined to reciprocate with her derri%26egrave;re and merely stared back slack-jawed - in astonishment rather than erotic rapture - they gawped at her as if she was the freak.

Rustic roistering, I reckon, is the result of social deprivation. That, to be clear, is deprivation of social activity rather than of social status. In London, both couples are often working and will also tend to go out for supper, drinks or to the theatre, cinema etc. in the course of the week.

Here in the sticks, it is all packed into a single evening. There is also a friskiness between the sexes borne, I believe, from missing out on the normal male/female interaction that is unavoidable when you live and work in a city.

So a Saturday night in the country is all about flirting, shocking and drinking, and then weaving home in the Land Rover to the peril of unsuspecting wildlife and any humans unaware of the danger posed by locals in the early hours of Sunday morning.

And you know? I’m starting to realise dreary old Londoners aren’t entirely simple after all. Oh, for a Sunday without feeling my head has been stuck in the drum of the late Keith Moon.

Oh, for a relaxed evening entertaining friends that hasn’t required me to devote all Saturday to flower arranging, path sweeping, vacuuming and undertaking the job of 12 butlers. And oh for conversation not containing the intelligence that “Ann Summers sells much better lubricant…”. Oh, for the dull lights of London%26#8230;

Names have been changed

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Monday, January 28th, 2008

Backyard Landscaping No Comments

THE DATING GAME New ’someone’ appears when least expected

In the dating world, things seem to happen when you least expect it.

Things may be going well with your significant other, and then - BAM! - out of the blue she no longer wants to be a “we.”

You may meet a woman online, go on a couple dates that seem to establish a connection, and then all of a sudden she never calls you back or returns e-mails. One friend was going out with a woman who flipped after a month of dating. She refused to answer any of his calls and when my friend went by her place, she had a few of his items in a bag ready for him to collect. She had left the package outside the front door, refusing to answer the when he rang it. (Wasn’t this a scene in a movie?)

And then you can experience what recently happened to me, a “least expect it” moment that turned out to be positive.

A colleague at work invited me to a friend’s birthday party on a weeknight at Lucky Strike Lanes in South Beach.

Never one to turn down a chance to meet people, I accepted, although it would have been easy to say no. I could stay at work a little longer, go home, catch up on some daily chores and get ready for the next day. Singles seem to fall into that trap a lot and wait until the weekend to make the effort to take a risk. Thing is, the majority of singles make that effort on the weekend as well, which can crowd things. Why not zig left when most zag right? Take a risk on a weeknight and see what happens.

While this wasn’t a risky request (a birthday bowling party that started at 7 p.m.), when you are single, you have to give yourself chances to end up in situations that could result in positive gains (and no, I don’t have a side gig as an E-Trade investor).

I was already going to have fun hanging out at the party with my friend from work. And I’d have fun working on my bowling skills. (Can you name any other sport where you can participate while drinking a beer or cocktail?)

We arrived a few minutes late and bowling had already started with a crew of six people. My colleague and I ordered some drinks and food, and I sat back and assessed the situation. Catching my eye were two attractive ladies who were playing on the same bowling team. A quick glance on the scoreboard revealed they needed an additional player on their team to make things even, so of course I volunteered and they accepted.

As I got to know my new teammates, I realized one was a bit louder and talkative than the other, they both had a great sense of humor (a refreshing trait), but it was the woman wearing the stylish beret who was a tad more engaging and humorous. CoolGirl, as we’ll call her from now on, had piqued my interest and I could tell I had done the same.

We connected over the music that was playing and joked about our bowling skills. I met other people there, of course, and didn’t become too smothering (Rule No. 9 - women enjoy a man who has social skills). We exchanged business cards and e-mail addresses, and the party ended early enough for me to have enough time to get home and catch up on that laundry.

I also had time to call a buddy to report on the night’s activities - and figure out when to e-mail CoolGirl when she would least expect it.

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Friday, January 18th, 2008

Landscaping Stone No Comments

Penguin HarperCollins scout blogs for book ideas

BANGALORE:

The ‘blogosphere’ is where the publishing houses are scouting for

India’s next big writing sensation. With desi writers climbing popularity

charts globally, the Rs 13,000-crore domestic publishing industry may throw up a

few celeb story tellers amongst the

bloggers.

Penguin India has

signed on a popular blogger, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, to turn her blog

Compulsive Confessor into a full-fledged novel. Madhavan’s book is

reportedly an account of a single girl in the

metro.

Penguin says they

thought her book will have universal appeal. “We approached her to write a

novel because we felt she was readable, entertaining and very talented. We like

her writing and we thought she would tell a good story,” says Penguin

India’s managing editor %26amp; rights manager, Diya Kar Hazra.

And there are others chasing

your favourite blog that could be the next bestselling paperback. Harper Collins

India is keeping an eye on some bloggers as they find extraordinary pieces of

writing that are of wider interest.

Says Saugata Mukherjee, senior

commissioning editor, HarperCollins Publishers India, “I believe that

blogs are a great way of discovering an author’s capabilities and although

we have not made any offers yet, our first blog book is a possibility sooner

than later.”

Globally,

‘Blooks, loosely defined as books that emerge from blogs are becoming an

established trend, with even a ‘Blooker Prize’ at play for bloggers

migrating to the publishing world. British blogger Andrew Losowsky’s

collection of short stories The Doorbells of Florence and Colbey Buzzell’s

My War: The Killing Time in Iraq are some of the blooks that made an impact in

recent times.

Mr Mukherjee

reads interesting blogs and has been in touch with bloggers who may at some

point have a full length book. “But for a book one needs to have a

coherent body of work and not just little bits of great writing,” he adds.

Meenakshi’s case is not

the only one of a blogger publishing a book. Another popular blogger Annie

Zaidi’s book on poetry Crush hit the stands sometime back. Caferati, an

online forum of English writers, published a book Stories At The Coffee Table

that was the result of an online writing

contest.

Caferati says the book

was an experiment and though they can not boast of very big sales numbers they

believe the future of such books is bright. It intends to step up publishing

e-books or blooks going forward.

Media observers argue blogs

are an easy way for writers to showcase their works without layers of filters,

making it a potent vehicle for people to convert their writings into a resume of

work.

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Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Yard Landscaping No Comments


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