Most vertical turning lathes (VTLs) have a single, vertical ram that holds the cutting tool normal to the diameter of the workpiece. The “up and down” stroke of this ram represents the Z (transverse) axis. The “in and out” travel of the ram represents the X (in-feed) axis. This configuration enables the ram to reach the entire OD surface of a workpiece sitting upright on the rotating table. However, when a part has multiple diameters that vary greatly (forming deep waists or wide bulges), the vertical ram can be limited. It may need to use cutting tools in extended holders to reach certain features. Because these extra long tools tend to be less rigid, vibration can compromise accuracy and degrade surface finish.
A VTL with an additional horizontal ram helps overcome this limitation. The horizontal ram can reach past wide diameters to turn difficult-to-access surfaces. It is possible to keep the cutting tool short and stout. More importantly, the part doesn’t have to be moved to another machine to complete those features.
American Vulkan Corp. in Winter Haven, Florida, is one example of a manufacturer that has benefited from acquiring a VTL with both a vertical and a horizontal ram. The new VTL from You Ji is large enough to accommodate a family of steel components that exceeds the capacity of the shop’s other machines. This means that these parts don’t have to be farmed out to job shops in the area.
Because the new VTL has a horizontal ram in addition to the usual vertical ram, this machine can successfully turn surfaces between the wide flanges on the ends of each part. These parts can not only stay inside the shop, but also be completed in one setup. Avoiding multiple setups and refixturing enables this shop to reduce turnaround time on emergency repair work, hold tolerances to the thousandths of an inch and minimize processing time. In addition, the company retains complete control of its production scheduling, quality assurance and process know-how.
These benefits are critical to American Vulkan’s efforts to grow in new market areas. The company, a subsidiary of Vulkan Kupplungs und Getriebebau B. Hackforth GmbH & Co. KG in Herne, Germany, produces flexible couplings that connect diesel engines with devices such as generators, compressors, pumps and gearboxes.
Typical couplings produced by American Vulkan are relatively large—some are 60 to 70 inches in diameter and as much as 80 inches long. Each is a complex, precise assembly of steel and rubber parts. A rubber core, sandwiched within steel housing components, provides flexibility to compensate for radial and axial misalignments between the engine and the device it powers. At the same time, the rubber elements calm vibration, muffle noise and absorb variations in torque. American Vulkan’s parent company in Germany produces all of the rubber components because it has developed the proprietary processes for vulcanizing specially engineered grades of rubber and bonding them permanently to steel. The U.S. firm machines and assembles most of the additional components for couplings shipped to customers in North and South America.
Marine installations, typically on cruise ships, cargo vessels, and ships in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, are the most common applications for these couplings. However, the company is eager to pursue sales opportunities in industrial areas, such as power generation units in airports, hospitals, oil platforms and mining equipment. New coupling designs for these emerging markets often call for components with larger dimensions and different features than those found on previous designs.
This situation created a strong incentive for American Vulkan to seek additional capacity in large vertical turning machines. Prior to purchasing the You Ji VTL, the company’s machine tools were limited to workpieces about 20 inches high, says Thomas Lehner, vice president. However, the aforementioned family of steel components required drilling, reaming and tappping at a height of 30 to 40 inches above the chuck of a vertical lathe. Wide flanges at the tops and bottoms of these parts make turning a challenge as well. “We had to outsource those operations to outside machine shops,” Mr. Lehner says.
This contingency created a problem. “In Florida, we just don’t have lot of shops that can process large parts at high precision. The decision was made to bring everything in-house to be more secure when it comes to quality, cost, efficiency and the ability to produce the parts in a timely manner and meet deadlines,” he says.
The new parts in question consist of a series of spool-shaped configurations. The largest are about 40 inches tall with 40-inch diameter flanges on both ends. Accessing the narrower, column-like shaft of the spool between the flanges would require a long, horizontal reach inward from the vertical ram. Using toolholders with long extensions appeared to be the only possible way for the vertical ram to turn the surface with single-point indexable inserts. This proved difficult and produced a less-than-optimal surface finish.
“The long tooling extensions were unstable and produced a lot of vibration,” Mr. Lehner explains. It was obvious that the typical vertical ram on a VTL was inadequate. “If we could come in with a tool mounted on a horizontal ram, machining would be more rigid, and there would be a clean shot to the surface,” Mr. Lehner says.
American Vulkan’s machining facility is home to about a dozen CNC machine tools, including several Okuma horizontal and vertical lathes, a Mazak Integrex 50, a New Century VTL with a 56-inch chuck and a Quickmill VMC. A recent expansion has raised employment to around 50, including service technicians, product engineers and manufacturing staff. The company, Mr. Lehner says, is familiar with most VTL suppliers because it relies heavily on this type of machine for the many large, round workpieces it produces.
Vertical turning is inherently advantageous because it facilitates setup of heavy workpieces, which can be loaded from above and stand on-end in the chuck of the rotating table. Gravity favors this orientation. There is no need to support a workpiece with steady rests and tailstock. Of course, the chief advantage of a VTL is the wide swing for turning large diameters.
In the search for larger vertical turning capacity, the size range sought by American Vulkan narrowed the possibilities right away. However, none of the suppliers had a VTL that was equipped with a horizontal ram. Fortunately, Mr. Lehner had become acquainted with vertical machines from You Ji, a Taiwan-based builder represented by Absolute Machine Tools. In addition to You Ji, Absolute distributes a selection of CNC machines from Tongtai, Johnford and Ecoca.
At the 2008 International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), initial discussions with Absolute about vertical turning from You Ji assured Mr. Lehner that this builder had solid engineering, machine design and construction experience in this field. Mr. Lehner was also pleased to learn that Absolute maintains a network of regional distributors, including one in Englewood, Florida, not far from Winter Haven. None of the other suppliers of machines in the shop’s size requirements offered this level of local support, he says.
However, the ultimate deciding factor was You Ji’s willingness to design and engineer a horizontal ram for incorporation on one of the builder’s larger VTL models. Adding a horizontal ram would create the first machine of its kind.
According to Mr. Lehner, the machine’s mass and rigidity are key contributors to machining accuracy. “Although the workpieces are very big, the allowable tolerance of the finished part is very small—in the thousandths of an inch,” he says. He reports that the machine routinely holds ± 0.001 inch on TIR, parallelism and angularity. It weighs more than 150,000 pounds and has a footprint measuring 23 by 29 feet. It is 26 feet high.
Rigidity and accuracy are reflected in results on the critical shaft surface of the large spools. For example, turning with the horizontal ram produces a 32-Ra surface smoothness to meet the specification for a ground finish. “Because the finish is achieved with turning on the You Ji, we do not need to do any grinding,” Mr. Lehner says. Special inserts with wiper geometry contribute to this success. That said, certain grinding operations can be performed with live tooling on either the vertical or horizontal ram. ID grinding of bores, for example, is common.
More important, however, is the ability to perform drilling, tapping and reaming operations following turning. As to be expected, many of the large components produced by American Vulkan include large bolt holes that require thread milling using circular interpolation as a CNC capability. Most thread forms must meet critical specifications such as those enforced by various certification programs for maritime, power generation and oilfield applications.
This multitasking capability, in combination with the presence of both vertical and horizontal rams, enables parts to be completed without refixturing. In addition to process flexibility, efficiency and quality benefits, multitasking reinforces American Vulkan’s reputation for customer service. A significant portion of the shop’s work is done on an emergency basis, and there is no time to move a large part from machine to machine or shop to shop. “If a tugboat is down or part of a cruise ship is out of commission, the customer says ‘I need it now. Tell me what to do.’ We put in some overtime and get the part repaired and out the door,” Mr. Lehner says.
2013年1月4日星期五
Area growth continuing quickly
Early in the year, local government set about determining how to deal with anticipated growth in Charleston, Cleveland and Bradley County in January 2012. Now that the economy is developing, officials have been looking at planned growth.
Planning consultant Greg Dale, McBride Dale Clarion, of Cincinnati, explained the process to more than 50 people registered for the continuation of a look at the future they saw in the BCC2035 Strategic Plan.
Bradley County, Cleveland, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Utilities and Volunteer Energy began working on planning in October 2009, when it was announced the U.S. Economic Development Agency awarded the city of Cleveland a $50,000 grant to assist in the development of the BCC2035 Joint Strategic Plan to address anticipated regional growth.
The total cost of that study was about $221,720. The local share was paid by the participants. The end result of that six-month effort ended in the regional plan that looked 25 years into the future. The BCC Comprehensive Plan is paid for by a 50 percent matching grant of $125,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Agency. Bradley County and the city of Cleveland each contributed $60,000 and the city of Charleston contributed $5,000.
The BCC Comprehensive Plan takes a closer look at Charleston, Cleveland and unincorporated areas of Bradley County than the more generalized strategic plan. It includes a detailed look at the northern corridor around Mouse Creek Road and Interstate 75 Exit 33; the southern corridor around Exit 20, APD 40 and McDonald; the central city of Cleveland, and the soon to be vacated Whirlpool manufacturing plant.
According to Cleveland Development and Engineering Services Director Jonathan Jobe, the team of consultants is analyzing collected data for a draft presentation to the public by March 1.
McDonald residents considered zoning changes and zoning overlays as methods to stop development from swallowing up their rural lifestyle and polluting Brymer Creek.
In Charleston, discussion centered around ways to encourage truck drivers to use the interstate instead of passing through two school zones to get to Bowater, and discussions and in Cleveland, the topics were redevelopment of old industrial sites and infilling older neighborhoods.
Five guiding principles serve as overarching themes for all elements of the planning process and as a foundation for the goal statements:
n The community highly values private property rights and responsibilities. Tools to help the community manage the demands of growth will need to respect this value placed on private property rights;
n The community enjoys a relatively low-tax environment and the plan and recommended tools should be designed to maintain a low tax structure, while adequately providing for the safety and well-being of the current and future citizens;
n Given the strong possibility that the cities and county will continue to face a fiscally challenging future due to national economic trends, as well as the low-tax environment of this region, decisions about the issues addressed in this plan should be made with careful consideration of fiscal impacts;
n The community highly values citizen-driven initiatives, private investment, a market-based economy, and nongovernment approaches, rather than a focus on government-oriented approaches to community development;
n As a result, these multiple considerations should be balanced when making public decisions.
There are different people with different views, but that is the purpose of taking the time to go through a planning process. While there are concerns unique to each area of the county, there is concern the comprehensive planning effort is agenda-driven by outside consultants with “cookie-cutter” solutions to growth.
Local business owner Dan Rawls, who is with the Liberty Coalition and a member of the Bradley County Tea Party said, “My main issue here is that it seems to be an agenda-driven meeting. No matter how you answer most of these questions it always leads you back to their agenda.”
He said the county should not have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring in outside consulting firms loaded with bureaucrats “to give us a cookie-cutter plan that doesn’t fit Bradley County. I think these plans should be drawn up by the County Commission so we have elected representatives, people we pay and that we have the ability to deal with from an electoral standpoint. If we don’t like what the County Commission does, we can vote them out. If we don’t like what these guys do, what do we do there?”
Rawls said people think he is against planning, but the Florida native said he has seen unplanned growth. He simply thinks it would better if the plan was from within rather than from without.
Planning discussions continued throughout the year. Cleveland City Planner Greg Thomas reminded the Economic Development Council why planning for the future is important to local government and the people it serves.
The EDC is a selection of leaders from government, education, utilities, business and industry that meet bimonthly at the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce to discuss development issues in those areas.
Thomas urged them to take an active role in the discussion because he said growth — planned or unplanned — is coming to Bradley County. Bradley County will grow by an estimated 33,000 people, 14,000 new households and 19,000 new jobs by the year 2035.
Bradley County growth is part of larger trends and patterns identified as “megaregions.” The county is part of the “Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion” anchored by Atlanta. However, it stretches east to Raleigh, N.C., and west to Birmingham, Ala.
“It has fingers reaching out to Chattanooga and Nashville which take in Cleveland,” he said.
The low cost of living and high quality of life in the Southeast are but two reasons for this region’s booming population growth. As a result, the area is facing traffic congestion, runaway land consumption and inadequate infrastructure.
Between 2010 and 2050, the population growth in the megaregion’s principal cities of Atlanta, Birmingham, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, N.C., is expected to increase from 17.611 million to 21.687 million in 2025 and 31.342 million by midcentury.
But not all of the discussions were pleasant. A flier anonymously distributed in June in neighborhoods south of the old Whirlpool Plant in downtown Cleveland warned homeowners of the impending loss of their property rights, if they didn’t immediately act.
The flier, written as an information handout by an unknown author, stated homes in the area around 18th Street S.E., between King Edward Avenue S.E. and Wildwood Avenue S.E. were targeted for demolition and redevelopment.
“That’s crazy,” Thomas said during an interview in June. It would make no sense for the city to move into a neighborhood and force everyone out. “It’s not true that we’re going to take people’s property. What is true is there will be a redevelopment of that Whirlpool site at the right time. It’s a large site. There will be a lot of change in that area.
“What I would anticipate is more infill type development — housing in that area with maybe some housing rehab.”
Some privately funded housing rehabilitation is occurring now, but other (public) rehab programs might be looked at in the future. However, that depends on needs identified by neighbors in the area and ongoing code enforcement.
“There are some rundown properties in the neighborhood. They are a source of complaint by neighbors and those neighbors have an expectation something will be done about it,” he said. “I think that kind of thing will happen going forward, but as far as the city going in and taking a whole bunch of houses away from people and them having to move — that would be crazy.”
In those three sites, there are 11 different floor elevations, which renders the property unsuitable for future manufacturing applications since most companies desire to be on one level.
Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce Vice President for Economic Development Doug Berry said the old plant was so widely spread that some parts traveled seven miles before they became an assembled stove. That was one of the reasons for moving to the new facility on Benton Pike.
Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland established the Southside Redevelopment Task Force in 2011 to help lead the discussion and decision-making process, because he realized then the biggest issue facing the city was raising public awareness and participation.
That was also the consensus of the task force members who recognized that before redevelopment could occur, there was a need to establish a connection with adjoining neighborhoods.
Berry said at a MainStreet Cleveland meeting, “The first thing I would say is nothing is fixed. The city of Cleveland has not issued a directive to the housing authority to establish a redevelopment plan for a specific area, which is the first legal step. We will not be taking 300 homes. We will not be bulldozing them and that was never the intent — ever. I will tell you where that number came from because I’m the one that [originated the] 300 ‘lot’ number.”
When talks first began with Whirlpool about replacing its century-old manufacturing facilities, the company wanted to remain in the downtown area where there is historical linkage. It is a big issue for a company to break that attachment.
Planning consultant Greg Dale, McBride Dale Clarion, of Cincinnati, explained the process to more than 50 people registered for the continuation of a look at the future they saw in the BCC2035 Strategic Plan.
Bradley County, Cleveland, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Utilities and Volunteer Energy began working on planning in October 2009, when it was announced the U.S. Economic Development Agency awarded the city of Cleveland a $50,000 grant to assist in the development of the BCC2035 Joint Strategic Plan to address anticipated regional growth.
The total cost of that study was about $221,720. The local share was paid by the participants. The end result of that six-month effort ended in the regional plan that looked 25 years into the future. The BCC Comprehensive Plan is paid for by a 50 percent matching grant of $125,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Agency. Bradley County and the city of Cleveland each contributed $60,000 and the city of Charleston contributed $5,000.
The BCC Comprehensive Plan takes a closer look at Charleston, Cleveland and unincorporated areas of Bradley County than the more generalized strategic plan. It includes a detailed look at the northern corridor around Mouse Creek Road and Interstate 75 Exit 33; the southern corridor around Exit 20, APD 40 and McDonald; the central city of Cleveland, and the soon to be vacated Whirlpool manufacturing plant.
According to Cleveland Development and Engineering Services Director Jonathan Jobe, the team of consultants is analyzing collected data for a draft presentation to the public by March 1.
McDonald residents considered zoning changes and zoning overlays as methods to stop development from swallowing up their rural lifestyle and polluting Brymer Creek.
In Charleston, discussion centered around ways to encourage truck drivers to use the interstate instead of passing through two school zones to get to Bowater, and discussions and in Cleveland, the topics were redevelopment of old industrial sites and infilling older neighborhoods.
Five guiding principles serve as overarching themes for all elements of the planning process and as a foundation for the goal statements:
n The community highly values private property rights and responsibilities. Tools to help the community manage the demands of growth will need to respect this value placed on private property rights;
n The community enjoys a relatively low-tax environment and the plan and recommended tools should be designed to maintain a low tax structure, while adequately providing for the safety and well-being of the current and future citizens;
n Given the strong possibility that the cities and county will continue to face a fiscally challenging future due to national economic trends, as well as the low-tax environment of this region, decisions about the issues addressed in this plan should be made with careful consideration of fiscal impacts;
n The community highly values citizen-driven initiatives, private investment, a market-based economy, and nongovernment approaches, rather than a focus on government-oriented approaches to community development;
n As a result, these multiple considerations should be balanced when making public decisions.
There are different people with different views, but that is the purpose of taking the time to go through a planning process. While there are concerns unique to each area of the county, there is concern the comprehensive planning effort is agenda-driven by outside consultants with “cookie-cutter” solutions to growth.
Local business owner Dan Rawls, who is with the Liberty Coalition and a member of the Bradley County Tea Party said, “My main issue here is that it seems to be an agenda-driven meeting. No matter how you answer most of these questions it always leads you back to their agenda.”
He said the county should not have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring in outside consulting firms loaded with bureaucrats “to give us a cookie-cutter plan that doesn’t fit Bradley County. I think these plans should be drawn up by the County Commission so we have elected representatives, people we pay and that we have the ability to deal with from an electoral standpoint. If we don’t like what the County Commission does, we can vote them out. If we don’t like what these guys do, what do we do there?”
Rawls said people think he is against planning, but the Florida native said he has seen unplanned growth. He simply thinks it would better if the plan was from within rather than from without.
Planning discussions continued throughout the year. Cleveland City Planner Greg Thomas reminded the Economic Development Council why planning for the future is important to local government and the people it serves.
The EDC is a selection of leaders from government, education, utilities, business and industry that meet bimonthly at the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce to discuss development issues in those areas.
Thomas urged them to take an active role in the discussion because he said growth — planned or unplanned — is coming to Bradley County. Bradley County will grow by an estimated 33,000 people, 14,000 new households and 19,000 new jobs by the year 2035.
Bradley County growth is part of larger trends and patterns identified as “megaregions.” The county is part of the “Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion” anchored by Atlanta. However, it stretches east to Raleigh, N.C., and west to Birmingham, Ala.
“It has fingers reaching out to Chattanooga and Nashville which take in Cleveland,” he said.
The low cost of living and high quality of life in the Southeast are but two reasons for this region’s booming population growth. As a result, the area is facing traffic congestion, runaway land consumption and inadequate infrastructure.
Between 2010 and 2050, the population growth in the megaregion’s principal cities of Atlanta, Birmingham, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, N.C., is expected to increase from 17.611 million to 21.687 million in 2025 and 31.342 million by midcentury.
But not all of the discussions were pleasant. A flier anonymously distributed in June in neighborhoods south of the old Whirlpool Plant in downtown Cleveland warned homeowners of the impending loss of their property rights, if they didn’t immediately act.
The flier, written as an information handout by an unknown author, stated homes in the area around 18th Street S.E., between King Edward Avenue S.E. and Wildwood Avenue S.E. were targeted for demolition and redevelopment.
“That’s crazy,” Thomas said during an interview in June. It would make no sense for the city to move into a neighborhood and force everyone out. “It’s not true that we’re going to take people’s property. What is true is there will be a redevelopment of that Whirlpool site at the right time. It’s a large site. There will be a lot of change in that area.
“What I would anticipate is more infill type development — housing in that area with maybe some housing rehab.”
Some privately funded housing rehabilitation is occurring now, but other (public) rehab programs might be looked at in the future. However, that depends on needs identified by neighbors in the area and ongoing code enforcement.
“There are some rundown properties in the neighborhood. They are a source of complaint by neighbors and those neighbors have an expectation something will be done about it,” he said. “I think that kind of thing will happen going forward, but as far as the city going in and taking a whole bunch of houses away from people and them having to move — that would be crazy.”
In those three sites, there are 11 different floor elevations, which renders the property unsuitable for future manufacturing applications since most companies desire to be on one level.
Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce Vice President for Economic Development Doug Berry said the old plant was so widely spread that some parts traveled seven miles before they became an assembled stove. That was one of the reasons for moving to the new facility on Benton Pike.
Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland established the Southside Redevelopment Task Force in 2011 to help lead the discussion and decision-making process, because he realized then the biggest issue facing the city was raising public awareness and participation.
That was also the consensus of the task force members who recognized that before redevelopment could occur, there was a need to establish a connection with adjoining neighborhoods.
Berry said at a MainStreet Cleveland meeting, “The first thing I would say is nothing is fixed. The city of Cleveland has not issued a directive to the housing authority to establish a redevelopment plan for a specific area, which is the first legal step. We will not be taking 300 homes. We will not be bulldozing them and that was never the intent — ever. I will tell you where that number came from because I’m the one that [originated the] 300 ‘lot’ number.”
When talks first began with Whirlpool about replacing its century-old manufacturing facilities, the company wanted to remain in the downtown area where there is historical linkage. It is a big issue for a company to break that attachment.
2012年12月29日星期六
Retro girlie look in a quiet corner of Old Montreal
It was. I hadn’t really intended to move, but a friend told me about this place because some people he knew were moving out. It’s one of the few rentals left in this area of Old Montreal. They’re tearing them all down and turning them into condominiums. It’s very cheap. I pay only $530 a month.
Having to downsize actually forced me to get rid of some of the furniture I’d brought with me from Saskatchewan. A lot of what you see here (she indicates the turquoise covered sofa and an armchair) are hand-me-downs or things I’ve picked up at St. Vincent de Paul. I paid $25 for chair and $50 for the couch. I’ve just had it re-covered.
(To illustrate her point, she shows me her camera collection, neatly arranged, with one old film camera on top of the other, on a CD rack. MacPherson is an accomplished photographer and her work, along with that of artist friends, hangs on the walls. We walk into her long, narrow kitchen. Her office space is at one end. A door to a terrace, “big enough for a barbecue” is at the other. In the kitchen, more of her collections — a row of vintage cocktail shakers and aquamarine glass containers.)
I notice you’ve used a lot of blues and greens in your decor. Are those your favourite colours?
Those and shocking pink. (She shows me the tiny bathroom, which has fuchsia walls and two bright pink gnomes, perched atop the toilet.) A friend gave these to me. I could do with a bigger bathtub, but the water pressure is great. That’s not always the case in older buildings.
His name is Mack. He’s a schnauzer and because he’s a German breed, I decided to name him after Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife. That’s another great thing about living in this area. There are lots of places to walk him along the Lachine Canal.
Also, I’m so handy to everything. When I lived in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, friends used to remark that I lived so far away. I didn’t agree because it took me only 30 minutes to cycle downtown. (She still has a bike, leaning up against the bottom of the stairs to her apartment.) Living here, so close to downtown, I can see they were probably right.
It needed a complete makeover. My parents helped me renovate. We put in a laminate floor in the living area, painted the walls and doors and my dad — he’s very handy — modified the kitchen cabinets. The floor in the living room was all square tiles covered in some kind of ship’s varnish. It was a real “manly man” decor. I prefer a retro, girlie look!
Before my dad redesigned the cabinets, they were really high. He actually cut one of them in half so that I could fit the fridge underneath. All in all, we probably spent about $3,000.
It probably dates back to around the late 19th century. It has a colourful history. There are seven apartments within the block and they’re cut into really weird shapes. I’ve heard from a couple of sources that the building may at one time have been a brothel!
One of the apartments has a sweeping staircase, which could have been where the Madame paraded the girls. We’re so close to the harbour — lots of sailors — and near what was once Montreal’s first prison for women.
Perhaps more interesting is the personal collection that was reserved for the seacoast retreat that is now a permanent repository for museum-quality maritime art, Civil War naval maps, Revolutionary War letters from the North Carolina signers of
the Declaration of Independence, first edition North Carolina history books plus scrimshaw, earthenware pottery and more decorative accessories that resonate with meaning for the lifetime steward.
All have found a new address in one of Wrightsvilles bedroom communities overlooking the skyline of the tiny beach town from a top berth above the Intracoastal Waterway. On a clear day its possible to see the southern tip of Masonboro Island from the window hanging above the kitchen sink.
The three-bedroom condominium floorplan is simple. The kitchen gives way to a small dining area that adjoins the living room. Both areas open to a terrace anchored at its southern edge by a Carrara marble urn purchased from the Palm Beach estate of Bernie Madoff. Italian tiles cover the terrace floor. Cushioned outdoor wicker settees and chairs surround conversation tables and a few well placed conversation pieces, like the 1850 confit pot and an 18th century walnut oil vessel.
Sliding glass doors separate the terrace from the living room appointed with built-in display cases. One is a showcase for English Delft. The tin glaze pottery is rarer than its Dutch namesake. This particular assemblage includes 1690 King William and Mary Regina chargers. The large 14-inch decorative plates bear the portraits of the king and queen of England who reigned from 1689 until 1702.
The regents portrait chargers are flanked by German Westerwald jugs, scrimshaw clock hutches and a 1720 English Delft bowl from Bristol, a locale, like London, well known for its Delft earthenware.
Making way for the display of more antiquities, a chase located along the living rooms interior wall allowed the addition of French doors leading into the entrance hall. This underutilized space allows the housing for the collection of scrimshaw made from whale teeth and bones.
Out at sea, when whalers were bored they whittled and engraved keepsakes called scrimshaw for their wives and children. This display includes a childs teething ring and ball, clothespins, corkscrews, a comb, a toy spinning wheel, a yarn caddy, rolling pin, pie dough crimper and a device that strapped on a sailors belt holds needles for sail mending.
Having to downsize actually forced me to get rid of some of the furniture I’d brought with me from Saskatchewan. A lot of what you see here (she indicates the turquoise covered sofa and an armchair) are hand-me-downs or things I’ve picked up at St. Vincent de Paul. I paid $25 for chair and $50 for the couch. I’ve just had it re-covered.
(To illustrate her point, she shows me her camera collection, neatly arranged, with one old film camera on top of the other, on a CD rack. MacPherson is an accomplished photographer and her work, along with that of artist friends, hangs on the walls. We walk into her long, narrow kitchen. Her office space is at one end. A door to a terrace, “big enough for a barbecue” is at the other. In the kitchen, more of her collections — a row of vintage cocktail shakers and aquamarine glass containers.)
I notice you’ve used a lot of blues and greens in your decor. Are those your favourite colours?
Those and shocking pink. (She shows me the tiny bathroom, which has fuchsia walls and two bright pink gnomes, perched atop the toilet.) A friend gave these to me. I could do with a bigger bathtub, but the water pressure is great. That’s not always the case in older buildings.
His name is Mack. He’s a schnauzer and because he’s a German breed, I decided to name him after Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife. That’s another great thing about living in this area. There are lots of places to walk him along the Lachine Canal.
Also, I’m so handy to everything. When I lived in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, friends used to remark that I lived so far away. I didn’t agree because it took me only 30 minutes to cycle downtown. (She still has a bike, leaning up against the bottom of the stairs to her apartment.) Living here, so close to downtown, I can see they were probably right.
It needed a complete makeover. My parents helped me renovate. We put in a laminate floor in the living area, painted the walls and doors and my dad — he’s very handy — modified the kitchen cabinets. The floor in the living room was all square tiles covered in some kind of ship’s varnish. It was a real “manly man” decor. I prefer a retro, girlie look!
Before my dad redesigned the cabinets, they were really high. He actually cut one of them in half so that I could fit the fridge underneath. All in all, we probably spent about $3,000.
It probably dates back to around the late 19th century. It has a colourful history. There are seven apartments within the block and they’re cut into really weird shapes. I’ve heard from a couple of sources that the building may at one time have been a brothel!
One of the apartments has a sweeping staircase, which could have been where the Madame paraded the girls. We’re so close to the harbour — lots of sailors — and near what was once Montreal’s first prison for women.
Perhaps more interesting is the personal collection that was reserved for the seacoast retreat that is now a permanent repository for museum-quality maritime art, Civil War naval maps, Revolutionary War letters from the North Carolina signers of
the Declaration of Independence, first edition North Carolina history books plus scrimshaw, earthenware pottery and more decorative accessories that resonate with meaning for the lifetime steward.
All have found a new address in one of Wrightsvilles bedroom communities overlooking the skyline of the tiny beach town from a top berth above the Intracoastal Waterway. On a clear day its possible to see the southern tip of Masonboro Island from the window hanging above the kitchen sink.
The three-bedroom condominium floorplan is simple. The kitchen gives way to a small dining area that adjoins the living room. Both areas open to a terrace anchored at its southern edge by a Carrara marble urn purchased from the Palm Beach estate of Bernie Madoff. Italian tiles cover the terrace floor. Cushioned outdoor wicker settees and chairs surround conversation tables and a few well placed conversation pieces, like the 1850 confit pot and an 18th century walnut oil vessel.
Sliding glass doors separate the terrace from the living room appointed with built-in display cases. One is a showcase for English Delft. The tin glaze pottery is rarer than its Dutch namesake. This particular assemblage includes 1690 King William and Mary Regina chargers. The large 14-inch decorative plates bear the portraits of the king and queen of England who reigned from 1689 until 1702.
The regents portrait chargers are flanked by German Westerwald jugs, scrimshaw clock hutches and a 1720 English Delft bowl from Bristol, a locale, like London, well known for its Delft earthenware.
Making way for the display of more antiquities, a chase located along the living rooms interior wall allowed the addition of French doors leading into the entrance hall. This underutilized space allows the housing for the collection of scrimshaw made from whale teeth and bones.
Out at sea, when whalers were bored they whittled and engraved keepsakes called scrimshaw for their wives and children. This display includes a childs teething ring and ball, clothespins, corkscrews, a comb, a toy spinning wheel, a yarn caddy, rolling pin, pie dough crimper and a device that strapped on a sailors belt holds needles for sail mending.
City ready to make waves
The huge stainless steel swimming pool at the heart of Windsor's new aquatic centre is only 19 weeks away from being filled with 1.4 million gallons of water.
The chaotic work site doesn't look close to completion, but construction of Windsor's $77.6-million indoor water park is about to move into the home stretch, city officials were told during a tour before the project shut down for Christmas.
Both concrete dive towers have been poured, and the balcony around the two-storey glass lobby facing north to Detroit is taking shape. Installers have finished torquing 30,000 bolts into place on the custom-built competition pool, and the final structural steel for the fun park side of the seven-pool complex will spring up over the next two weeks.
On Jan. 7, give or take a day, contractors will turn on the centre's gas furnaces for the first time to warm up the recently enclosed western half of the structure. Tile installers need the heat to lay a few acres of ceramic flooring in time for the 47th International Children's Summer Games scheduled for Aug. 14.
The cost of all that ceramic will be about $1.3 million, says contractor Max De Angelis. It will take a crew of eight people weeks to lay all that flooring as the project rockets toward its handover deadline of June 21.
The water park side of the building to the east, which will house a half dozen amusement park water features when it opens six months later, will be floored with "soft walk" material to protect children's feet. The floor of the big pool will be vinyl.
Five city councillors, top administrators and parks officials charged with bringing the project in on time and on budget were wowed during a tour of the building on Dec. 20.
"Fantastic. Just fantastic," Coun. Hilary Payne murmured to himself 30 minutes into an inspection of the three-storey structure. Payne became an early proponent of building a world-class aquatic centre in Windsor after touring a similar installation in his native Ireland.
It may be just starting to look big from the outside, but from the inside the place is impressively huge, from its 1,600-spectator capacity to the spacious health club overlooking the fun park and the rentable activity rooms.
The basement, which most visitors will never see, is a Borg-like maze of pumps, filter tanks, cisterns and electrical controls. It's lined with miles and miles of PVC water pipe and 10inch steel heating and cooling lines from Windsor's downtown district energy system.
In the centre of the basement is a massive concrete bunker the size of a small bungalow - a surge tank to keep water levels properly balanced in the main pool. Designed by Myrtha Pools, the three-bay swimming hole (diving, laps, and recreation) has special gutters designed to keep the waves, or "chop" levels down, to help swimmers post Olympic competition times.
Two movable bulkheads will keep the three bays separate, so that different groups can use the pool at the same time for different purposes; competitive swimmers prefer cooler water temperatures of 78 F, while seniors taking some exercise will want the water at 80 F and up. Practising divers like it up to 82.
"This will be the only pool in Canada with that feature," says Don Sadler, Windsor's retired parks and rec boss who is supervising the project on contract for taxpayers. While still on staff, he also oversaw construction of the WFCU arena complex.
They've made some changes to the original plans for the aquatic centre, and the kids and competitors who are expected to be the centre's main customers will probably benefit the most from them.
For instance, while there will be no windows on the competition pool for safety reasons, extra windows have been added on the building's eastern side. That's so people waiting for a ride at the downtown bus station on a wintry day can gaze in with envy upon those cavorting on the double FlowRider surfing machine.
There are only 50 double FlowRid-ers in use worldwide, and none yet in Canada. The other features on the amusement side of the building will include a wave pool, toddler pools, huge slides and a lazy river float ride.
There are no windows on the big pool because glare on the water can cause deadly or crippling accidents for divers plunging off the high tower. "We were told by the experts to be very careful about how much light gets in," says Onorio Colucci, the city's treasurer and a member of the executive committee overseeing construction of the pool centre.
Windsor has consulted widely to get the project right: showers and infrared heaters will be installed underneath the dive towers, because divers must carefully balance their body temperatures during competition. A fully connected media room has been added, for international meets which Mayor Eddie Francis is pushing to become a regular occurrence in the building.
The project is still on budget, the executive committee was told. But there are plans for some last-minute upgrades similar to those made at the WFCU Centre that could improve public enjoyment of the building. They're trying to make it perfect.
"There are no more surprises," Sadler told the committee about costs. While engineers had contingency plans to cope with the usual bad soil and other underground horrors often encountered on Windsor's soggy construction sites, they found none. That saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We discovered that the site had very good soil - in Windsor, who woulda thunk? So what we have now is the opportunity for some enhancements" with the savings, Sadler said.
Among the other unbudgeted extras being considered, the building committee is debating spending an extra $100,000 to upgrade the centre's hallway floors with a coating of non-slip epoxy to keep running kids safe from falls. They are also looking at installing a giant video screen on the eastern exterior of the building to promote events inside, and a sign on Riverside Drive.
Fulvio Valentinis, one of five councillors on the steering committee, has been demanding some kind of design change to break up the monotony of a two-block-long stretch of blue siding. Neighbours are already complaining about its bleak western face, he said.
Colucci, the money man, vetoed all of the extras last week. "Let's put these (suggestions) on the back burner until the last possible moment until we see how the budget goes," he told the committee.
Naming rights have yet to be determined for the building, which will also affect the final price tag. Unusually for a major government project anywhere in the world today, the aquatic centre is being paid for entirely in cash rather than public debt. About $21 million has already been paid to contractors so far, Colucci said, and the project will be paid off during the fiscal year it opens.
Francis says the new energy-wise aquatic centre will also be much cheaper to staff and to operate than its aging predecessors around the city.
De Angelis says he thinks the centrepiece of the project is something that employees were just unwrapping from its concrete formwork last week as the city hall suits were touring the site: the 10-metre-high diving tower at the south end of the big pool.
The chaotic work site doesn't look close to completion, but construction of Windsor's $77.6-million indoor water park is about to move into the home stretch, city officials were told during a tour before the project shut down for Christmas.
Both concrete dive towers have been poured, and the balcony around the two-storey glass lobby facing north to Detroit is taking shape. Installers have finished torquing 30,000 bolts into place on the custom-built competition pool, and the final structural steel for the fun park side of the seven-pool complex will spring up over the next two weeks.
On Jan. 7, give or take a day, contractors will turn on the centre's gas furnaces for the first time to warm up the recently enclosed western half of the structure. Tile installers need the heat to lay a few acres of ceramic flooring in time for the 47th International Children's Summer Games scheduled for Aug. 14.
The cost of all that ceramic will be about $1.3 million, says contractor Max De Angelis. It will take a crew of eight people weeks to lay all that flooring as the project rockets toward its handover deadline of June 21.
The water park side of the building to the east, which will house a half dozen amusement park water features when it opens six months later, will be floored with "soft walk" material to protect children's feet. The floor of the big pool will be vinyl.
Five city councillors, top administrators and parks officials charged with bringing the project in on time and on budget were wowed during a tour of the building on Dec. 20.
"Fantastic. Just fantastic," Coun. Hilary Payne murmured to himself 30 minutes into an inspection of the three-storey structure. Payne became an early proponent of building a world-class aquatic centre in Windsor after touring a similar installation in his native Ireland.
It may be just starting to look big from the outside, but from the inside the place is impressively huge, from its 1,600-spectator capacity to the spacious health club overlooking the fun park and the rentable activity rooms.
The basement, which most visitors will never see, is a Borg-like maze of pumps, filter tanks, cisterns and electrical controls. It's lined with miles and miles of PVC water pipe and 10inch steel heating and cooling lines from Windsor's downtown district energy system.
In the centre of the basement is a massive concrete bunker the size of a small bungalow - a surge tank to keep water levels properly balanced in the main pool. Designed by Myrtha Pools, the three-bay swimming hole (diving, laps, and recreation) has special gutters designed to keep the waves, or "chop" levels down, to help swimmers post Olympic competition times.
Two movable bulkheads will keep the three bays separate, so that different groups can use the pool at the same time for different purposes; competitive swimmers prefer cooler water temperatures of 78 F, while seniors taking some exercise will want the water at 80 F and up. Practising divers like it up to 82.
"This will be the only pool in Canada with that feature," says Don Sadler, Windsor's retired parks and rec boss who is supervising the project on contract for taxpayers. While still on staff, he also oversaw construction of the WFCU arena complex.
They've made some changes to the original plans for the aquatic centre, and the kids and competitors who are expected to be the centre's main customers will probably benefit the most from them.
For instance, while there will be no windows on the competition pool for safety reasons, extra windows have been added on the building's eastern side. That's so people waiting for a ride at the downtown bus station on a wintry day can gaze in with envy upon those cavorting on the double FlowRider surfing machine.
There are only 50 double FlowRid-ers in use worldwide, and none yet in Canada. The other features on the amusement side of the building will include a wave pool, toddler pools, huge slides and a lazy river float ride.
There are no windows on the big pool because glare on the water can cause deadly or crippling accidents for divers plunging off the high tower. "We were told by the experts to be very careful about how much light gets in," says Onorio Colucci, the city's treasurer and a member of the executive committee overseeing construction of the pool centre.
Windsor has consulted widely to get the project right: showers and infrared heaters will be installed underneath the dive towers, because divers must carefully balance their body temperatures during competition. A fully connected media room has been added, for international meets which Mayor Eddie Francis is pushing to become a regular occurrence in the building.
The project is still on budget, the executive committee was told. But there are plans for some last-minute upgrades similar to those made at the WFCU Centre that could improve public enjoyment of the building. They're trying to make it perfect.
"There are no more surprises," Sadler told the committee about costs. While engineers had contingency plans to cope with the usual bad soil and other underground horrors often encountered on Windsor's soggy construction sites, they found none. That saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We discovered that the site had very good soil - in Windsor, who woulda thunk? So what we have now is the opportunity for some enhancements" with the savings, Sadler said.
Among the other unbudgeted extras being considered, the building committee is debating spending an extra $100,000 to upgrade the centre's hallway floors with a coating of non-slip epoxy to keep running kids safe from falls. They are also looking at installing a giant video screen on the eastern exterior of the building to promote events inside, and a sign on Riverside Drive.
Fulvio Valentinis, one of five councillors on the steering committee, has been demanding some kind of design change to break up the monotony of a two-block-long stretch of blue siding. Neighbours are already complaining about its bleak western face, he said.
Colucci, the money man, vetoed all of the extras last week. "Let's put these (suggestions) on the back burner until the last possible moment until we see how the budget goes," he told the committee.
Naming rights have yet to be determined for the building, which will also affect the final price tag. Unusually for a major government project anywhere in the world today, the aquatic centre is being paid for entirely in cash rather than public debt. About $21 million has already been paid to contractors so far, Colucci said, and the project will be paid off during the fiscal year it opens.
Francis says the new energy-wise aquatic centre will also be much cheaper to staff and to operate than its aging predecessors around the city.
De Angelis says he thinks the centrepiece of the project is something that employees were just unwrapping from its concrete formwork last week as the city hall suits were touring the site: the 10-metre-high diving tower at the south end of the big pool.
2012年12月27日星期四
Jacksonville man describes time aiding New Yorkers
Street vendors were busy last week on Broadway Avenue selling lamb over rice with white sauce, and families milled about Macy’s department store on 34th Street where Santa Claus told their children that “while Santa can’t get you everything you want, he will surely surprise you on Christmas morning.”
Yet as life is largely back to normal for many after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast, there remains so much to do. That’s what Paul Locke took away from his time volunteering with the Red Cross in New York in early December.
The retired Jacksonville police chief returned to Alabama Dec. 12 after spending 15 days there, mostly in the boroughs of New York City.
Locke’s job was to act in sort of a police-function capacity, following up on complaints and keeping tempers down when residents would – as he described it – understandably lose their cool at the slow pace of the relief efforts.
But those blowups were few, Locke said, and he spent most of his time making sure that feeding stations and shelters were operating as they should.
“You saw a few flashes of temper where people are getting frustrated, but that was a rare thing,” Locke said. “And 10 minutes later they’d say, ‘I am sorry. I just had to let it go.’ And you understand that. I’d have been worse than them I’d imagine.”
Locke described one beachside subdivision of around 2,800 homes called Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. In the hours after Sandy hit, 111 of those homes burned and many more were flooded by storm-water. Amazingly, and despite the numbers of people who chose to stay in their homes even after an order was given to evacuate, no one was killed in that subdivision of tightly-packed homes.
Just how bad is it along portions of the East Coast? Locke said that things are “worse than I expected. It’s worse than what we see on TV.”
He described the residents of Breezy Point whose homes were destroyed by fire as the “lucky ones,” because while the majority of homes in the neighborhood had fire insurance, very few had insurance to cover flooding.
“And that’s something that doesn’t register when you see it. It didn’t register with me,” Locke said.
Homeowners have been cleaning as much water-soaked sheetrock and flooring as they can, so they can get electricity re-connected and reheat the homes to keep out mold, Locke said.
But the prospect of moving all those displaced families back into their homes does not look good in the near future, Locke said.
“If they started today, tearing houses down and replacing them, you’re still looking at a long-term event,” Locke said.
Many of those families are staying with friends and family, and there are several Red Cross shelters still open, but finding long-term housing for those families is the next biggest obstacle in the relief efforts, Locke said. On his last trip through Breezy Point, Locke could only find three homes with power.
Locke stayed just off of Times Square, and said that the city largely has picked itself up and moved on. The damage left behind is spotty, he said.
“You drive through some areas and you think, ‘they haven’t even had a rain here in six months. Everything’s just perfect.’ And you get 10 miles down the road and it looks like a bomb went off,” Locke said.
“The biggest thing I heard was they thought I had an accent,” Locke said. “I kept laughing. I said, ‘Ya’ll are the ones that talk funny. Not me.’ That really lightened people up. They enjoyed having something to laugh and smile about. They were ready for a break.”
Toward the end of his 15 days in New York, Locke said, there were signs that at least some of the families had begun to find places to live. He noticed that shelters had begun to consolidate, and some were closed for good, all pointing to an end to the first phase of disaster relief.
“Almost every day they were taking some off our list that we didn’t need to worry about anymore,” Locke said.
That’s good news, but for many who have lived in their homes for decades, finding a new place to live is not something done with happy hearts.
“They want back in their homes, and they want to be made whole again,” Locke said.
While the Red Cross can’t bring people’s lives back to the way they were before the storm, Locke said the organization is very good at putting the right people in the right places, and those people are working very hard to help. But he stressed “It’s not one of these things that you can make better quickly.”
The U.S. Senate passed a bill Friday to pay $60.4 billion toward recovery efforts to the states affected by the storm. The bill will now head to the House, where some say it may face an uphill battle with some conservative lawmakers who say the bill is bloated with unnecessary payments to Alaskan fisheries and museums unaffected by the storm. The House adjourned Thursday for the Christmas holidays.
On his trip home, Locke and another Red Cross volunteer discussed the frustration that he and many other workers felt at the enormity of the situation.
Variation is very important in any instructional material in order to keep the learner interested and motivated. Most typing tutor software only relies on the same old copies of texts, making the tutorial experience more tedious than entertaining. This is where Ultimate Typing breaks from the mold, offering a new Wiki Integration Feature as part of its software package.
Essentially, what this feature does is to allow the learner to base their typing exercises on articles lifted from Wikipedia, Wiki Books, Wiki University, and any other text sources of interest to the user. In effect, the learner does not only get to practice essential typing skills, they are also able to learn whatever new information is provided in the articles. It’s a two-in-one deal that will maximize the learning opportunities for the user.
Apart from the Wiki Integration Feature, Ultimate Typing also provides a library of over 600 practice ebooks for all typing levels. From self-help books to novels, children’s books, business management books, and more, the program immediately gives the user access to almost $3,500 worth of literature alone!
Variety and text availability are just two of the quality features included the typing tutorial software that have the specific goal of making the exercises more interesting for the user. Ultimate Typing has over 220 expertly-designed lessons, on top of a staggering amount of practice activities (more than 600 in all). It is because of this volume of activities that Ultimate Typing is able to deliver results in as little as a few days, with regular practice. Fortunately, one other good thing about this typing tutor software is that it does not demand too much time from the learner at all. Even for as little seven minutes in a day, the user can finish a lesson and get valuable practice in typing skills. Even a slow typist will soon be on the way to becoming a professional touch typist.
Yet as life is largely back to normal for many after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast, there remains so much to do. That’s what Paul Locke took away from his time volunteering with the Red Cross in New York in early December.
The retired Jacksonville police chief returned to Alabama Dec. 12 after spending 15 days there, mostly in the boroughs of New York City.
Locke’s job was to act in sort of a police-function capacity, following up on complaints and keeping tempers down when residents would – as he described it – understandably lose their cool at the slow pace of the relief efforts.
But those blowups were few, Locke said, and he spent most of his time making sure that feeding stations and shelters were operating as they should.
“You saw a few flashes of temper where people are getting frustrated, but that was a rare thing,” Locke said. “And 10 minutes later they’d say, ‘I am sorry. I just had to let it go.’ And you understand that. I’d have been worse than them I’d imagine.”
Locke described one beachside subdivision of around 2,800 homes called Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. In the hours after Sandy hit, 111 of those homes burned and many more were flooded by storm-water. Amazingly, and despite the numbers of people who chose to stay in their homes even after an order was given to evacuate, no one was killed in that subdivision of tightly-packed homes.
Just how bad is it along portions of the East Coast? Locke said that things are “worse than I expected. It’s worse than what we see on TV.”
He described the residents of Breezy Point whose homes were destroyed by fire as the “lucky ones,” because while the majority of homes in the neighborhood had fire insurance, very few had insurance to cover flooding.
“And that’s something that doesn’t register when you see it. It didn’t register with me,” Locke said.
Homeowners have been cleaning as much water-soaked sheetrock and flooring as they can, so they can get electricity re-connected and reheat the homes to keep out mold, Locke said.
But the prospect of moving all those displaced families back into their homes does not look good in the near future, Locke said.
“If they started today, tearing houses down and replacing them, you’re still looking at a long-term event,” Locke said.
Many of those families are staying with friends and family, and there are several Red Cross shelters still open, but finding long-term housing for those families is the next biggest obstacle in the relief efforts, Locke said. On his last trip through Breezy Point, Locke could only find three homes with power.
Locke stayed just off of Times Square, and said that the city largely has picked itself up and moved on. The damage left behind is spotty, he said.
“You drive through some areas and you think, ‘they haven’t even had a rain here in six months. Everything’s just perfect.’ And you get 10 miles down the road and it looks like a bomb went off,” Locke said.
“The biggest thing I heard was they thought I had an accent,” Locke said. “I kept laughing. I said, ‘Ya’ll are the ones that talk funny. Not me.’ That really lightened people up. They enjoyed having something to laugh and smile about. They were ready for a break.”
Toward the end of his 15 days in New York, Locke said, there were signs that at least some of the families had begun to find places to live. He noticed that shelters had begun to consolidate, and some were closed for good, all pointing to an end to the first phase of disaster relief.
“Almost every day they were taking some off our list that we didn’t need to worry about anymore,” Locke said.
That’s good news, but for many who have lived in their homes for decades, finding a new place to live is not something done with happy hearts.
“They want back in their homes, and they want to be made whole again,” Locke said.
While the Red Cross can’t bring people’s lives back to the way they were before the storm, Locke said the organization is very good at putting the right people in the right places, and those people are working very hard to help. But he stressed “It’s not one of these things that you can make better quickly.”
The U.S. Senate passed a bill Friday to pay $60.4 billion toward recovery efforts to the states affected by the storm. The bill will now head to the House, where some say it may face an uphill battle with some conservative lawmakers who say the bill is bloated with unnecessary payments to Alaskan fisheries and museums unaffected by the storm. The House adjourned Thursday for the Christmas holidays.
On his trip home, Locke and another Red Cross volunteer discussed the frustration that he and many other workers felt at the enormity of the situation.
Variation is very important in any instructional material in order to keep the learner interested and motivated. Most typing tutor software only relies on the same old copies of texts, making the tutorial experience more tedious than entertaining. This is where Ultimate Typing breaks from the mold, offering a new Wiki Integration Feature as part of its software package.
Essentially, what this feature does is to allow the learner to base their typing exercises on articles lifted from Wikipedia, Wiki Books, Wiki University, and any other text sources of interest to the user. In effect, the learner does not only get to practice essential typing skills, they are also able to learn whatever new information is provided in the articles. It’s a two-in-one deal that will maximize the learning opportunities for the user.
Apart from the Wiki Integration Feature, Ultimate Typing also provides a library of over 600 practice ebooks for all typing levels. From self-help books to novels, children’s books, business management books, and more, the program immediately gives the user access to almost $3,500 worth of literature alone!
Variety and text availability are just two of the quality features included the typing tutorial software that have the specific goal of making the exercises more interesting for the user. Ultimate Typing has over 220 expertly-designed lessons, on top of a staggering amount of practice activities (more than 600 in all). It is because of this volume of activities that Ultimate Typing is able to deliver results in as little as a few days, with regular practice. Fortunately, one other good thing about this typing tutor software is that it does not demand too much time from the learner at all. Even for as little seven minutes in a day, the user can finish a lesson and get valuable practice in typing skills. Even a slow typist will soon be on the way to becoming a professional touch typist.
No Women In CS? Well, Not For Long
Bonnie McLindon, a junior computer science major at Stanford University, fumes as she works in CS 103, her hardest class at Stanford, office hours. The two guys sitting behind her are referring to the tinsel in her hair, a tradition of Stanford’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Despite serving as section leader and interning at Apple, McLindon struggles with the stereotype that girls, especially sorority girls, don’t major in computer science.
In 2009, the Stanford CS department revamped its undergraduate curriculum, broadening the program so students could focus on tracks in areas that most interested them. Stanford Professor Mehran Sahami says the addition of multi-disciplinary tracks, such as collaboration with psychology, product design, and others, helped to cast a broader net for potential CS majors.
The department has seen growth across the board since the 2009 revisions, Sahami says, with female enrollment increasing faster on a relative basis. Since 2009, the number of female undergraduates majoring in CS at Stanford has increased by 9.5 percent.
The introductory course, CS 106A, has exploded in popularity and has reached a near celebrity status. Around 600 students (10 percent of the entire undergraduate population) take the class every quarter and over 90 percent of undergraduates will take at least one CS class, usually 106A, before they graduate. This past fall, so many students enrolled in the class that they were sitting on the floor and in the corridors of the packed auditorium.
Many students continue from 106A to further develop their skills in CS 106B. But those who want to major in computer science must continue from 106B to the daunting 107, often considered a “weeding” class to separate the wheat from the chaff before students can take upper-level courses.
Women do just as well as men in CS 106A and 106B but continue on to 107 in far fewer numbers. While many students, regardless of gender, drop the class, several students say that stereotypes, misconceptions, and lack of confidence cause women to drop the class in large numbers. The often anti-social, male-dominated culture is characterized by 107’s unofficial mantra of “dump your girlfriend before this class.”
Further broadening the gap is the fact that, on average, women at Stanford take their first CS class later than their male counterparts, often because they come to Stanford with less CS experience from their secondary schooling.
Sophia Westwood is a senior CS major who has worked at Google and Palantir, led CS sections, and is very active in recruiting more women to the major. She says her roommate took 106A the winter of sophomore year, loved it, and would have majored in it had she taken it earlier in her undergraduate career.
Despite taking programming classes in high school, Westwood didn’t consider CS as a major when she came to Stanford, fearing that she would be typing away in a cubicle all day and that all of her classmates would be stereotypes from The Social Network.
Her first professor in 106A recognized her ability and told her to consider the CS major, answering her questions about CS and its applications. When she realized she could use the degree for social good—she raves about Palantir’s work helping relief agencies prepare for Hurricane Sandy—Westwood was sold.
In the fall of 2011, Westwood organized a group of CS 106A section leaders to identify the best female freshmen and sophomores in each of their sections and invited them to small dinners sponsored by the department. The idea was for faculty and CS majors to mix with first- and second-year undergrads in an informal setting to answer their questions and encourage them to consider CS as a major. They now hold a dinner every quarter in response to high demand. Westwood estimates 50-70 people attend each dinner, and recent graduates who work in the industry return and share their experiences, both at Stanford and in the field.
“We didn’t know most of the girls in CS,” senior section leader Molly Mackinlay says. “Suddenly you recognized faces in your classes.”
Bonnie McLindon went to the first dinner in the fall of 2011 and talked to senior and junior CS majors, learning more about their work in the classroom and at internships before declaring. She says the dinners helped change her notions of being unable to handle the major or not being a good fit.
“I think people are really starting to break that down and say, ‘I can be a sorority girl and a CS major. I can be an athlete and a CS major,’” McLindon tells me. “The idea of ‘you have to fit a certain mold’ is evaporating.”
Westwood says that from these meetings with students, the section leaders have collected a ton of informal, anecdotal data about the kinds of things that almost a hundred female undergrads who are considering CS are thinking. She says the two biggest factors have been a lack of confidence — especially not having a sense of belonging in the department and field — and not understanding what CS is really about and its applications.
The students at these dinners have been selected by their section leaders as some of the most skilled in the entry-level classes, yet Westwood says students’ low confidence often makes it feel like they’re talking to the bottom of the class.
“It’s a delicate subject with the chats,” junior CS major and section leader JJ Liu says. “We don’t want to push females into CS because that’s definitely not good for anyone. It’s not a numbers game.”
Facebook director of engineering Jocelyn Goldfein has attended the dinners before and argues that universities need to stop being so reserved about encouraging undergrads to take one major over another. She believes departments need to be less shy about telling students that it’s better for them and better for the country if they major in CS.
Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni describe themselves as “good girls gone geeks.” Agarwal came to Stanford with an intention to be pre-vet while Israni intended to study psychology; the two juniors now study Symbolic Systems and CS, respectively.
“I think a major reason we have so few female engineers is the lack of concrete role models–that is, the lack of individuals we can point to and say, ‘Look, if you pursue technology, you could be her someday,’ Israni tells me.
The duo founded she++ in January 2012 as a Stanford community for women in tech, hoping to inspire more women to go geek. Unlike Westwood and the section leaders’ dinners, Agarwal and Israni look to make an impact beyond Stanford.
“We would like to see a self-sustaining community of female technologists in the Bay Area working to collaborate with and inspire each other to make technology a field as welcoming to women as it is to men, and to have this community be a model for similar microcosms throughout the nation and the world,” Israni says.
In 2009, the Stanford CS department revamped its undergraduate curriculum, broadening the program so students could focus on tracks in areas that most interested them. Stanford Professor Mehran Sahami says the addition of multi-disciplinary tracks, such as collaboration with psychology, product design, and others, helped to cast a broader net for potential CS majors.
The department has seen growth across the board since the 2009 revisions, Sahami says, with female enrollment increasing faster on a relative basis. Since 2009, the number of female undergraduates majoring in CS at Stanford has increased by 9.5 percent.
The introductory course, CS 106A, has exploded in popularity and has reached a near celebrity status. Around 600 students (10 percent of the entire undergraduate population) take the class every quarter and over 90 percent of undergraduates will take at least one CS class, usually 106A, before they graduate. This past fall, so many students enrolled in the class that they were sitting on the floor and in the corridors of the packed auditorium.
Many students continue from 106A to further develop their skills in CS 106B. But those who want to major in computer science must continue from 106B to the daunting 107, often considered a “weeding” class to separate the wheat from the chaff before students can take upper-level courses.
Women do just as well as men in CS 106A and 106B but continue on to 107 in far fewer numbers. While many students, regardless of gender, drop the class, several students say that stereotypes, misconceptions, and lack of confidence cause women to drop the class in large numbers. The often anti-social, male-dominated culture is characterized by 107’s unofficial mantra of “dump your girlfriend before this class.”
Further broadening the gap is the fact that, on average, women at Stanford take their first CS class later than their male counterparts, often because they come to Stanford with less CS experience from their secondary schooling.
Sophia Westwood is a senior CS major who has worked at Google and Palantir, led CS sections, and is very active in recruiting more women to the major. She says her roommate took 106A the winter of sophomore year, loved it, and would have majored in it had she taken it earlier in her undergraduate career.
Despite taking programming classes in high school, Westwood didn’t consider CS as a major when she came to Stanford, fearing that she would be typing away in a cubicle all day and that all of her classmates would be stereotypes from The Social Network.
Her first professor in 106A recognized her ability and told her to consider the CS major, answering her questions about CS and its applications. When she realized she could use the degree for social good—she raves about Palantir’s work helping relief agencies prepare for Hurricane Sandy—Westwood was sold.
In the fall of 2011, Westwood organized a group of CS 106A section leaders to identify the best female freshmen and sophomores in each of their sections and invited them to small dinners sponsored by the department. The idea was for faculty and CS majors to mix with first- and second-year undergrads in an informal setting to answer their questions and encourage them to consider CS as a major. They now hold a dinner every quarter in response to high demand. Westwood estimates 50-70 people attend each dinner, and recent graduates who work in the industry return and share their experiences, both at Stanford and in the field.
“We didn’t know most of the girls in CS,” senior section leader Molly Mackinlay says. “Suddenly you recognized faces in your classes.”
Bonnie McLindon went to the first dinner in the fall of 2011 and talked to senior and junior CS majors, learning more about their work in the classroom and at internships before declaring. She says the dinners helped change her notions of being unable to handle the major or not being a good fit.
“I think people are really starting to break that down and say, ‘I can be a sorority girl and a CS major. I can be an athlete and a CS major,’” McLindon tells me. “The idea of ‘you have to fit a certain mold’ is evaporating.”
Westwood says that from these meetings with students, the section leaders have collected a ton of informal, anecdotal data about the kinds of things that almost a hundred female undergrads who are considering CS are thinking. She says the two biggest factors have been a lack of confidence — especially not having a sense of belonging in the department and field — and not understanding what CS is really about and its applications.
The students at these dinners have been selected by their section leaders as some of the most skilled in the entry-level classes, yet Westwood says students’ low confidence often makes it feel like they’re talking to the bottom of the class.
“It’s a delicate subject with the chats,” junior CS major and section leader JJ Liu says. “We don’t want to push females into CS because that’s definitely not good for anyone. It’s not a numbers game.”
Facebook director of engineering Jocelyn Goldfein has attended the dinners before and argues that universities need to stop being so reserved about encouraging undergrads to take one major over another. She believes departments need to be less shy about telling students that it’s better for them and better for the country if they major in CS.
Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni describe themselves as “good girls gone geeks.” Agarwal came to Stanford with an intention to be pre-vet while Israni intended to study psychology; the two juniors now study Symbolic Systems and CS, respectively.
“I think a major reason we have so few female engineers is the lack of concrete role models–that is, the lack of individuals we can point to and say, ‘Look, if you pursue technology, you could be her someday,’ Israni tells me.
The duo founded she++ in January 2012 as a Stanford community for women in tech, hoping to inspire more women to go geek. Unlike Westwood and the section leaders’ dinners, Agarwal and Israni look to make an impact beyond Stanford.
“We would like to see a self-sustaining community of female technologists in the Bay Area working to collaborate with and inspire each other to make technology a field as welcoming to women as it is to men, and to have this community be a model for similar microcosms throughout the nation and the world,” Israni says.
2012年12月25日星期二
Homeless, low-income and code-compliant housing issues
People still face waiting lists at shelters and low-income housing units in Casper, but code enforcement has made some progress with safety inspections over the past year.
Casper’s McKenzie Apartments and the House of Hope transitional shelter closed in 2012, while the Sunshine Apartments opened. The new multiplex sits on the former site of the KC Apartments, which were closed in 2009 for code violations and demolished in 2011.
The city also rejected a low-income complex in Paradise Valley and ordered updates for a number of housing facilities, including Skyline Towers — a low-income senior housing center.
Meanwhile, federal numbers suggest homelessness in Wyoming increased by 75 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to an annual “point-in-time” count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported in December that Wyoming’s total homeless population jumped from 1,038 to 1,813, although national homelessness numbers declined slightly overall.
“The needs haven’t really changed,” said Lu Ann Allhusen, executive director of the Casper Housing Authority. “What’s tough is when people are in crisis, they need housing then, and not always do they get the housing through the different agencies.”
The housing authority owns 75 housing units and operates assistance programs, serving more than 600 families each month. Allhusen said the waiting list for HUD vouchers has continued to grow, and the list for public housing is equally long. The voucher program had nearly 100 people on the waiting list in June, a number that ballooned to 1,200 by December.
Marilyn Dymond Wagner, executive director at Interfaith of Natrona County, said she has also noticed a steady need for housing. She estimated her number of clients increased by 10 percent between 2011 and 2012. Aside from the general surge brought on by winter, Wagner said Interfaith had an extraordinary amount of visitors in July.
“The influx of people from out of state that were here looking for jobs in oil and gas certainly attributed to that number,” she said. “Then just an influx of folks from out of state, period, [who] think that Wyoming’s economy is so much better than elsewhere.”
Administrators at LifeSteps Transitional Housing and the Wyoming Rescue Mission reported full shelters in December, a trend consistent for most of 2012.
Brandon Espinoza, program manager at LifeSteps and former coordinator of an annual homeless count, said the family housing works off a constant waiting list. The agency attempts to refer people when possible.
“We will communicate with other organizations like Seton House, Turning Point, the Rescue Mission,” he said.
This year’s annual “point-in-time” homeless count, required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for areas that receive federal funding, is being coordinated by social workers at Interfaith. Plans are underway for the one-day tally done by communities across the nation to estimate the homeless population.
“It’s going to be very well orchestrated in terms of logistics this year,” Wagner said.
The 2012 count had plenty of volunteers, but social services reported a difficult time mobilizing them. To combat that problem, Wagner said the Casper Area Transportation Coalition will provide two buses for use.
Wagner also said La Cocina has offered to serve free tacos to the homeless, Little Caesars will provide pizza, and the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies will give out boxes of food at Set Free Ministries during the event.
HUD has also changed the rules this year regarding people who are doubled up, or staying with others because they don’t have a home of their own. They will not be counted as homeless in 2013.
Administrators of the transitional housing facility moved to Green River in late 2012 and are attempting to reopen. Bishop Charles Trimm, founder of the House of Hope, said he has identified two potential locations that would require a special use permit. The nonprofit expects to present their plans to City Council sometime in January.
Until then, Trimm said the agency will continue a partnership with Southwest Wyoming Recovery Access Programs to place people in hotels.
“I know it’s a Band-Aid, but that’s the best we can do until we get a permanent facility,” he said.
In addition to the House of Hope, the city of Casper closed the McKenzie Apartments for code violations in March. Code Enforcement Manager Doug Barrett said the building on Grant Street is now under new ownership and in the process of being remodeled by Trinity Builders.
A North Lincoln Street multifamily unit with prior reported problems that caught fire earlier this year is also being remodeled. Barrett said the city has worked with “several other units” to bring them to code in the past year.
A priority list of housing inspections created after code violations closed the KC Apartments in 2009 is still being addressed. Barrett said the city is currently focusing on high- and medium-risk locations but notes updates made to “problem properties” as proof the program is working.
Being optimistic that the next day would reveal mountain tops, I stayed an extra night and resolved to rise at 4 a.m. to catch the first glimmer of light. Others at the lodge were skeptical of my plan and thought it was crazy for me to get up so early on a cold morning. But I was already regretful about missing that moment while driving up the mountain and was not about to miss a second chance. Rising late and missing the magical morning light is the bane of a photographer.
Before dawn, out behind Paradise Lodge, I wandered, looking for the best composition and following the tiny tracks of a fox. Yep, there it was slinking from behind the lodge before daylight, a silver phase red fox that sat and posed long enough to find out that it wasn't getting fed, before running off. My first wild fox.
There were birds flying about, landing on snow laden branches - Jays, grey and Stellar, black-capped chickadees, Pine Siskin, and Dark-eyed Juncos. The Jays were looking for food handouts, but I did not know that at the time.
It was cold and the air snapped beneath my exhilarated breaths. My fingers could barely feel the cold camera. The sky was clear and I waited eagerly with my shaky tripod, my Nikon D200, and its kit landscape lens that was not wide enough for a shot behind the lodge with the mountain towering above it. But giving up or making do is not an option.
Working the angles and making the only footprints in the fresh snow, I waited for the perfect moment, but the sun came up like a lifeless ball in the sky and produced little in the way of alpenglow.
The fog began moving in to cover everything once again, and so I simply hurried from spot to spot, capturing every available view and moment -- the Tatoosh Mountain range, a lost gull in the snow, frozen moments in ice, and snow covered trees backlit by flares of the sun that had finally begun peeking over the mountains -- before, poof it was gone, and it was time for the breakfast buffet in the lodge.
Casper’s McKenzie Apartments and the House of Hope transitional shelter closed in 2012, while the Sunshine Apartments opened. The new multiplex sits on the former site of the KC Apartments, which were closed in 2009 for code violations and demolished in 2011.
The city also rejected a low-income complex in Paradise Valley and ordered updates for a number of housing facilities, including Skyline Towers — a low-income senior housing center.
Meanwhile, federal numbers suggest homelessness in Wyoming increased by 75 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to an annual “point-in-time” count. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported in December that Wyoming’s total homeless population jumped from 1,038 to 1,813, although national homelessness numbers declined slightly overall.
“The needs haven’t really changed,” said Lu Ann Allhusen, executive director of the Casper Housing Authority. “What’s tough is when people are in crisis, they need housing then, and not always do they get the housing through the different agencies.”
The housing authority owns 75 housing units and operates assistance programs, serving more than 600 families each month. Allhusen said the waiting list for HUD vouchers has continued to grow, and the list for public housing is equally long. The voucher program had nearly 100 people on the waiting list in June, a number that ballooned to 1,200 by December.
Marilyn Dymond Wagner, executive director at Interfaith of Natrona County, said she has also noticed a steady need for housing. She estimated her number of clients increased by 10 percent between 2011 and 2012. Aside from the general surge brought on by winter, Wagner said Interfaith had an extraordinary amount of visitors in July.
“The influx of people from out of state that were here looking for jobs in oil and gas certainly attributed to that number,” she said. “Then just an influx of folks from out of state, period, [who] think that Wyoming’s economy is so much better than elsewhere.”
Administrators at LifeSteps Transitional Housing and the Wyoming Rescue Mission reported full shelters in December, a trend consistent for most of 2012.
Brandon Espinoza, program manager at LifeSteps and former coordinator of an annual homeless count, said the family housing works off a constant waiting list. The agency attempts to refer people when possible.
“We will communicate with other organizations like Seton House, Turning Point, the Rescue Mission,” he said.
This year’s annual “point-in-time” homeless count, required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for areas that receive federal funding, is being coordinated by social workers at Interfaith. Plans are underway for the one-day tally done by communities across the nation to estimate the homeless population.
“It’s going to be very well orchestrated in terms of logistics this year,” Wagner said.
The 2012 count had plenty of volunteers, but social services reported a difficult time mobilizing them. To combat that problem, Wagner said the Casper Area Transportation Coalition will provide two buses for use.
Wagner also said La Cocina has offered to serve free tacos to the homeless, Little Caesars will provide pizza, and the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies will give out boxes of food at Set Free Ministries during the event.
HUD has also changed the rules this year regarding people who are doubled up, or staying with others because they don’t have a home of their own. They will not be counted as homeless in 2013.
Administrators of the transitional housing facility moved to Green River in late 2012 and are attempting to reopen. Bishop Charles Trimm, founder of the House of Hope, said he has identified two potential locations that would require a special use permit. The nonprofit expects to present their plans to City Council sometime in January.
Until then, Trimm said the agency will continue a partnership with Southwest Wyoming Recovery Access Programs to place people in hotels.
“I know it’s a Band-Aid, but that’s the best we can do until we get a permanent facility,” he said.
In addition to the House of Hope, the city of Casper closed the McKenzie Apartments for code violations in March. Code Enforcement Manager Doug Barrett said the building on Grant Street is now under new ownership and in the process of being remodeled by Trinity Builders.
A North Lincoln Street multifamily unit with prior reported problems that caught fire earlier this year is also being remodeled. Barrett said the city has worked with “several other units” to bring them to code in the past year.
A priority list of housing inspections created after code violations closed the KC Apartments in 2009 is still being addressed. Barrett said the city is currently focusing on high- and medium-risk locations but notes updates made to “problem properties” as proof the program is working.
Being optimistic that the next day would reveal mountain tops, I stayed an extra night and resolved to rise at 4 a.m. to catch the first glimmer of light. Others at the lodge were skeptical of my plan and thought it was crazy for me to get up so early on a cold morning. But I was already regretful about missing that moment while driving up the mountain and was not about to miss a second chance. Rising late and missing the magical morning light is the bane of a photographer.
Before dawn, out behind Paradise Lodge, I wandered, looking for the best composition and following the tiny tracks of a fox. Yep, there it was slinking from behind the lodge before daylight, a silver phase red fox that sat and posed long enough to find out that it wasn't getting fed, before running off. My first wild fox.
There were birds flying about, landing on snow laden branches - Jays, grey and Stellar, black-capped chickadees, Pine Siskin, and Dark-eyed Juncos. The Jays were looking for food handouts, but I did not know that at the time.
It was cold and the air snapped beneath my exhilarated breaths. My fingers could barely feel the cold camera. The sky was clear and I waited eagerly with my shaky tripod, my Nikon D200, and its kit landscape lens that was not wide enough for a shot behind the lodge with the mountain towering above it. But giving up or making do is not an option.
Working the angles and making the only footprints in the fresh snow, I waited for the perfect moment, but the sun came up like a lifeless ball in the sky and produced little in the way of alpenglow.
The fog began moving in to cover everything once again, and so I simply hurried from spot to spot, capturing every available view and moment -- the Tatoosh Mountain range, a lost gull in the snow, frozen moments in ice, and snow covered trees backlit by flares of the sun that had finally begun peeking over the mountains -- before, poof it was gone, and it was time for the breakfast buffet in the lodge.
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