Posted via email from Blog.SteveHill.cc

Finally; a camera that can stop water drops in mid air!  And you can zoom in on the drops and they don't pixilate.

Posted via email from Blog.SteveHill.cc

You can find the rest of the photos at Flickr.

“A federal agency has joined some of the nation’s biggest landlords in trying to repeal stronger safety requirements for new skyscrapers that were added to the country’s most widely used building code last year, arguing that they would be too expensive to meet.

“The new provisions, which include requiring tall office buildings to have more robust fireproofing and an extra emergency stairwell, were enacted as a result of an exhaustive federal study into the collapse of the twin towers at the World Trade Center seven years ago this week.

The entire article is worth a read. Emotionally charged politics vs. economic interests of major political contributors square off. In the middle is the NIST’s report following the investigation of the WTC collapses and the ICC attempting to translate that data into applicable codes.

Link to Article, Link to ICC News Release from 2005

In Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress, 293 F.3d 791, the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, met en banc “because of the novelty and importance of the issues” presented before the court:

“The issue in this en banc case is the extent to which a private organization may assert copyright protection for its model codes, after the models have been adopted by a legislative body and become ‘the law’. Specifically, may a code-writing organization prevent a website operator from posting the text of a model code where the code is identified simply as the building code of a city that enacted the model code as law?”

In an exhaustive opinion that carefully traced the reasons why our laws must be public, the Honorable Chief Judge Edith H. Jones stated the conclusion of the court:

“Our short answer is that as law, the model codes enter the public domain and are not subject to the copyright holder’s exclusive prerogatives.”

So without further ado, please take the time to download the full set of the 2007 California Building Code, made available by Carl Malamud of the Public.Resource.Org as a gift to the public in honor of this country’s Declaration of Independence.

Link to Download Page, from BoingBoing.net

P.S. – Laws cannot be copyrighted.

“A Blaine County judge has rejected Tom Hanks’ second request for arbitration over what the actor says was $2.5 million in faulty workmanship by the construction company that built his sprawling compound north of this central Idaho resort town.

“Following the decision, a lawyer for the construction company said it will seek monetary damages from Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, for what it alleges was “abuse of process” for filing the second arbitration request.”

Link to Article

“To model how flames turn buildings into ashes, the nation’s leading fire researchers don’t play with matches over the sink. Instead they burn down entire homes, cubicles and warehouses.

“At the National Institutes of Standards and Technologies, researchers set huge fires under a 40-foot-long by 30-foot-wide exhaust hood that is connected to an $8 million control unit.

Link to Article

???????? ????? ????????From lippeatt.com

Link to Part 1, Link to Part 2, Link to Part 3

“In a case that is being closely watched in the multi-family housing industry, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday released its opinion affirming the lower court’s holding that the 2-year statute of limitations for a private civil action alleging violation of the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility requirements for design and construction is triggered, i.e., the violation is complete, at the conclusion of the design and construction phase, which occurs on the date the last certificate of occupancy is issued.”

It seems that for the foreseeable future, accessibility claims under Fair Housing Act will be subject to a two year statute of limitations after all. This means that plaintiffs only have two years from the occupancy date to file a claim for such violations. This is quite favorable for developers, contractors and designers but may go against the intent of the Fair Housing Act, as illustrated by dissenting Circuit Court Judge, Hon. Judge Fisher:

“The majority erroneously treats a building’s improper design and construction as the event that triggers the Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) two-year statute of limitations. It does so by finding an ambiguity in the statute and then resolving that ambiguity contrary to the overall purpose and structure of the FHA and its legislative and judicial history.

“I believe instead that the most plausible reading of the statute is that the limitations period begins (at the earliest) when a disabled person actually experiences discrimination — either in attempting to buy or rent a noncompliant housing unit, in “testing” such a unit or upon moving in as a tenant.

In other words, Fisher feels that the two year statute should begin following discovery of such a violation. However the majority opinion from the Ninth Circuit felt that this two year statute should begin once the work is done. So what happens if a property is completed, but nobody moves in for two years? According to this decision, if there is a violation of the Fair Housing Act that creates a situation that is discriminatory, nothing happens at all.

Link to Article, Link to Post from Ninth Circuit Opinions Blog, Link to Opinion (PDF)

1. Umm Said Qatar – April 3, 1977 (Weld Failure, Gas Processing Plant, 3 killed, US$ 76,350,000/179,000,000)
2. Abqaiq Saudi Arabia – April 15, 1978 (Corrosion, Gas Processing Plant, US$ 53,700,000/117,000,000)
3. Ekofisk Norway – March 27, 1980 (Weld Failure, Offshore Platform, 123 killed)
4. Edmonton Canada – April 18, 1982 (Fatigue, Petrochemical Plant, US$ 21,000,000/33,000,000)
5. Remeoville Illinois US- July 23, 1984 (Weld Failure, Refinery, 17 killed, US$ 191,000,000/273,000,000)
6. San Juan Ixhuatepec Mexico City Mexico – November 19, 1984 (Pipe Leaking, LPG Terminal, 650 killed 64,000 injured, US$ 19,940,000/29,000,000)
7. Las Piedras Venezuela- December 13, 1984 (Hydrogen Embrittlement, Refinery, US$ 62,076,000/89,000,000)
8. Norco Louisiana- US May 5, 1988 (Erosion-Corrosion, Refinery, 4 killed, 20 injured, 4500 evacuated US$ 254,700,000/336,000,000)
9. Piper Alpha North Sea UK – July 8, 1988 (Gas Leaking, Offshore Platform, 167 killed, US$965,000,000/1,270,000,000)
10. Antwerp Belgium – March 7, 1989 (Fatigue/Weld Failure, Petrochemical Plant, US$ 77,000,000/99,000,000)
11. Richmond California US – April 10, 1989 (Weld Failure, Refinery, 8 injured,US$87,170,000/112,000,000)
12. Baton Rauge Louisiana US – December 24, 1989 (Brittle Fracture, Refinery,US$ 68,900,000/89,000,000)
13. Coatzacoalcos Mexico – March 11, 1991 (Pipe Leaking, Petrochemical Plant,US$ 91,300,000/112,000,000)
14. Dhaka Bangladesh – June 20, 1991 (Weld Failure, Petrochemical Plant, US$ 71,000,000)
15. North Rhine Germany – December 10, 1991(Erosion-Corrosion, Refinery, US$ 50,500,000/62,000,000)
16. Guadalajara Mexico – April 22, 1992 (Corrosion, Fuel Pipeline, 206 killed, 500 injured, 15,000 evacuated, US$ 300,000,000)
17. Westlake Louisiana US – July 28, 1992 (Weld Failure/Corrosion, Petrochemical Plant, US$ 25,000,000/30,000,000)
18. Wilmington California US – October 8, 1992 (Erosion-Corrosion, Refinery, US$ 73,300,000/96,000,000)
19. Sodegaura Japan- October 16, 1992 (Fatigue, Refinery, 10 killed, 7 injured, US$ 160,500,000/196,000,000)
20. La Mede, France November 9, 1992 (Pipe Leaking, Refinery, US$ 260,000,000/318,000,000)
21. Baton Rouge Louisiana US – August 2, 1993 (Creep, Refinery Plant, USD 65,200,000/78,000,000)
22. Simpsonville Sacramento US- June 6, 1996 (Pitting Corrosion, Fuel Pipeline, USD 27,000,000/33,000,000)
23. Rio Piedras San Juan Puerto Rico – November 21, 1996 (Wrong Material in HCA, Gas Distribution Pipeline, 33 killed, 69 injured, USD 5,000,000)
24. Martinez California US – January 27, 1997 (Creep, Refinery, USD 80,000,000/82,000,000)
25. Yokkaichi Mie Japan – May 2, 1997 (Erosion-Corrosion, Petrochemical Plant)
26. Visakhapatnam India – September 14, 1997 (Pipe Leaking, Refinery,50 killed, 27 injured, 100 evacuated, USD 64,000,000)
27. St Helena California US – December 2, 1997( Corrosion-Pitting, Fuel Pipeline, USD 14,000,000/17,000,000)
28. Bintulu Serawak Malaysia -December 25, 1997 (Gas Processing Plant, High Temperature Failure, 12 injured, USD 275,000,000/294,000,000)
29. Longford Victoria Australia -September 25, 1998 (Brittle Fracture, Gas Processing Plant, 2 killed, 8 injured, USD 160,000,000/171,000,000)
30. Berre l’Etang France – October 6, 1998 (Corrosion, Refinery,USD 22,000,000/23,000,000)
31. Idjerhe Niger Delta Nigeria – October 17, 1998 (Pipe Leaking,Fuel Pipeline,100 killed)
32. Knoxville Tennesse US – February 9, 1999 (Brittle Fracture, 15 evacuated, USD 8,100,000)
33. Martinez Caifornia US – February 23, 1999 (Corrosion, 4 killed, 1 injured)
34. Winchester Kentucky US – January 27, 2000 (Crude Oil Pipeline, Fatigue, USD 7,100,000)
35. Hunt Texas US- March 3, 2000 (Corrosion, Fuel Pipeline, USD 40,000,000)
36. Prince Georges US – April 7, 2000 (Pipe Leaking, Fuel Pipeline, USD 50,000,000/ 57,000,000)
37. Mina Al-Ahmadi Kuwait – June 25, 2000 (Erosion-Corrosion, Refinery, 5 killed, 50 injured, USD412,000,000/ 433,000,000)
38. Carlsbad New Mexico US – August 19, 2000 (Corrosion-Pitting, Gas Pipeline, 12 killed, USD 100,000,000)
39. Roncador Brazil – March 15, 2001 (Tank Leaking, Offshore Platform, 2 killed, 8 missed, USD 515,000,000)
40. Carson City California US – April 23, 2001 (Pipe Leaking, Refinery, USD 120,000,000/124,000,000)
41. Rawdhatain Kuwait – January 31, 2002 (Pipe Leaking, Refinery, 4 killed,18 injured, USD 200,000,000)
42. Brookdale Manitoba Canada- April 14, 2002 (Stress Corrosion Cracking, Natural Gas Pipeline, USD 13,000,000)
43. Moomba Australia – January 1, 2004 (Liquid Metal Embrittlement, Gas Processing Plant, USD 5,000,000)
44. Skikda Algeria – January 19, 2004 (Liquid Metal Embrittlement, LNG Plant, 27 killed 72 injured, USD 30,000,000)
45. Humber Estuary Killingholme UK – April 16, 2001 (Erosion Corrosion, Refinery, USD 82,400,000)
46. Ghislenghien Belgium- July 30, 2004 (Pipe Leaking, Natural Gas Pipeline, 24 killed, 120 injured)
47. Mihama Japan August 9, 2004 (Erosion-Corrosion, Power Plant, 6 killed, 5 injured)
48. Texas City Texas US – March 23, 2005 (High Temperature Hydrogen Attack, Refinery, 15 killed, 170 injured, USD 30,000,000)
49. Sidoarjo East Java Indonesia- November 22, 2006 (Pipe Leaking, Natural Gas Pipeline,11 killed)
50. Free Town Sierra Leone – December 21, 2007 (Pipe Leaking, Natural Gas Pipeline, 17 killed)

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

“After crossing the short hallway to the master suite, she shows off her bedroom, the beautiful master bathroom, the seethrough gas fireplace and connected patio space. Then she leads her guest up a short flight of stairs to the exercise room, with gorgeous views of the Red Mountains. Coming back down the stairs she pulls from her pocket what looks like a car door remote. She stands back, presses one of the buttons and says, ‘And this is the secret room.’

“The stair case begins to raise and below it is a another set of stairs, this one leading down to a small dark room the same size and shape as the exercise room above it.

“‘Watch your head,’ says Kircher as she crouchees slightly and makes her way down the stairs.”

Link to Creative Home Engineering website, Link to Creative Home Engineering Gallery, East Valley Tribune article, Link to CNBC video, from Gizmodo

The billable hour is the dandelion of law practice: pervasive and not so popular.

So, when seeking to avoid the neg ative effects of a system that provides the profits for many a firm, there can be as many approaches as there are landscapers in the phone book.

Three law firms were among those changing the billable equation last year in hopes of reducing associate and client dissatisfaction. Each took a different approach, and though it’s still early, each firm’s leaders like the current results.

In summary, the concepts largely relate to reducing requirements for first-year attorneys, not billing clients for work by first-year attorneys, and flat-fee billing. This last concept is not discussed at much length in the article, but is worth exploring further. 

The Shepard Law Group, an employment law firm out of Boston, ditched billable hours completely in favor of flat fees. They call this “Up-Front Pricing” on their website, explaining that for the client, “You will always know how much our work is going to cost before we do it.” As they also state, “you don’t pay for our time — you pay for the work we do and the value you receive.” What a concept. 

Link to Article, Link to Shepard Law Group

Renowned French designer Philippe Starck says he is fed up with his job and plans to retire in two years, in an interview published in a German weekly on Thursday.

“I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact,” Starck told Die Zeit weekly newspaper.

“Everything I designed was unnecessary.

“I will definitely give up in two years’ time. I want to do something else, but I don’t know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself …design is a dreadful form of expression.”

Starck, who is known for his interior design of hotels and Eurostar trains and mass consumption objects ranging from chairs to tooth brushes and lemon juice squeezers, went on to say that he believed that design on the whole was dead.

“In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant,” he said.

Starck said the only objects that he still felt attached to were “a pillow perhaps and a good mattress.” But the thing one needs most, he added, was the “ability to love”.

Link to Article, from kottke.org

Weve gathered all the best construction jokes from all over for your amusement.

Here you will find construction worker jokes, architect jokes, engineer jokes, plumber jokes, funny worksite jokes, blonde construction worker jokes, project manager jokes, you name it, if its a joke about construction, here it is.

If you have a joke that isnt in here, send it in.

Please note – a lot of these jokes might be offensive to some people. The views of others do not reflect the views of SHCC, Inc. But some of these jokes are pretty funny. Enjoy at your own risk.

Link to Joke Index

Undersize gusset plates in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis were “the critical factor” in the bridge collapse last year that killed 13 people and injured 100, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

Chairman Mark Rosenker said the plates, which connected steel beams, were roughly half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. Investigators found 16 fractured gusset plates from the bridge’s center span, he said.

“It is the undersizing of the design which we believe is the critical factor here. It is the critical factor that began the process of this collapse. That’s what failed,” Rosenker said.

Interestingly, the bridge was found to be deficient structurally according to the federal government for nearly 2 decades, calling in to question the state’s maintenance. The legal outcome of this should prove interesting.

Link to Article, from Drudge Report

Buildings rot – it’s a matter of fact rather than a matter of time.

Defects like leaking roofs and windows, breaking insulating, concrete cracks, unfinished finishes and many more wait to be discovered before warranty ends. However, it’s not only the buildings’ age, but the result of increased planning and cost pressure. Even new erected buildings can be deficient.

But there’s help! Most common planning and building defects can be trained in the “Mängelquartett” (a playing card game like “Happy Family”, typically with cars) – a game designed by the German architectural practice “karhard architektur + design”. Have fun. Once started, you won’t stop compiling snagging lists wherever you are..

Too bad this game is in German..

Link to Article, from Treehugger

Ernest Svenson, an attorney in New Orleans at the forefront of using technology in the legal industry, recently taught a CLE for Louisiana attorneys on the concept of Digital Workflow. As part of the reference materials for his talk, he used the above clip that highlights the perils of new technology, from the perspective of folks from a long time back.

Link to Article (with links to his materials for the presentation)

“TranslucentConcrete is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete. Thousands of fibres run side by side transmitting light between the two surfaces of each element. Because of their small size the fibres blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of ballast. In this manner, the result is not only having the two materials mixed – glass in concrete – but a third, new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure and on its main surfaces as well.”

Link to Article, from Gizmodo

• $50 Million for Drywall? Serious Materials is a company that is best known for sound attenuation construction products. Recently they announced development of a new type of drywall that will take 90% less energy to produce resulting in a 98% reduction in greenhouse gases. EcoRock, as it is called, has impressed investors, raising $50M thus far.
• Nine Creative Staircases This article features some really inspiring staircase designs for what is normally a fairly boring subject.
• New Spin on Low E Glazing Glass isn’t the best product for energy efficiency by itself – something called emissivity. To increase the efficiency, which means decreasing emissivity (hence “Low-E”), special materials are applied to glass. Some glazing products are better for keeping heat inside the building in colder climates while other products reflect sunlight keeping the inside cooler in warmer climates. But what about temperate climates with both hot summers and cold winters? Dr. Heinz Kunert of KSD Fenster in Germany created a pivoting glazing panel with one type of each coating on either side. So during the winter, rotate the window with the more insulating side on the interior, and during the summer, rotate the window to face the reflective coating to the outside.
• The Big Dig House We covered the topic of The Big Dig before – a Boston area public works project that has ended in disaster. We re-visit the subject to highlight what some enterprising folks at Single Speed Design have done with some of the leftovers. They removed some 300 tons of material from the project and recycled it to make a very nice and modern home.

“A double glazing salesman launched a violent assault on a customer moments after discovering they had spoken to a rival company, a court was told yesterday.”

Link to Article

Link to Video

• At the top of this year’s holiday wish list for anyone in the construction defect investigation business is the Rigid SeeSnake micro Inspection Camera. This would almost fit on my tool belt. Link to Article, Link to Product Page
• Next up is a nail assist device to guide your nail into the board and away from your your thumb. Link to Article
• And finally, the very awesome ToolMonger.com brings us not one, not two, but three outstanding tools worth looking into:
  1. The Thinking Man’s Duct Tape
  2. Felker’s New/Improved Tile Master XL Plus
  3. Spatula-Tong Combination BBQ Tool

“So smooth, it was like sliding in a drawer. That’s how one local news organization described the delicate process of rolling in a new 6,500-ton segment of the upper deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge over Labor Day weekend. The operation also was remarkably fast, with the installation taking a little under three hours, about half the time originally predicted. In fact, nearly every aspect of the complex retrofit-by-replacement just to the east of the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel was so well-orchestrated that Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) were able to shave 11 hours off the schedule, and reopen the bridge to traffic at 6 p.m. on Labor Day proper — far ahead of the original deadline of 5 a.m. on Tuesday.”

Link to Article, Link to Video (from BoingBoing)

Apple Inc. co-founder and legendary hacker Steve Wozniak [book review] recently found a new passion in energy-efficient housing. Last month he told PC World magazine, “I have a long dream to build my own house in a very energy-efficient approach. That’s going to be very soon. It uses the right kind of wood that serves as a heater and as an air conditioner, combined with some other techniques in how the wood is assembled to operate energy life pressure. You don’t have to add energy into a house after you build it. I love that concept. It’s like the way I used to make computers. I want to build it myself. That’s a project that could be finished this summer, next summer, but not too far from now.” Here at ECN we thought you’d like to know more, so we interviewed Woz by email. Here is a transcript of our questions and his answers. His preface: “I’m too busy to do this [interview] now, but I’ll do it anyway. I have to say that I’m not a green expert but did encounter some technologies that were very right for a home.”

Link to Article

Shares of Standard Pacific Corp. plunged to a nearly seven-year low Monday on growing concerns that the homebuilder won’t be able to cover its debt.

The stock of the Irvine, Calif., company tumbled $2.28, or 18.7 percent, to $9.91 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, shares plummeted to $7.51, a level not seen since the stock hit $7.50 on Aug. 29, 2000.

Link to Article

But few have felt it as forcefully or as suddenly as the USG Corporation, the nation’s largest maker of drywall, the paper-wrapped plaster boards used to build walls in homes and offices.

USG, based here in Chicago, is in some ways a throwback to earlier times, when far larger swaths of the economy were unprotected against the brutal ups and downs of the business cycle. From banking to warehousing, modern managers have expanded nationally and globally, to minimize the impact of a downturn in any one region, and employed tactics like hedging and outsourcing to reduce risk and lower costs.

Link to Article

The soul of the American Folk farmhouse is at least 110 years old, but much of the structure itself isn’t a day over six months.

National builder Shea Homes moved and restored the historic Hudson-Schutte farmhouse on Escondido’s east end as part of a development agreement with the city to build 123 homes in a community named Chaparral Ridge in north Escondido near Dixon Lake.

Among the large, contemporary California homes inspired by Mediterranean motifs being built there, the little green farmhouse will remain as a memorial to the area’s agricultural past, the builders said.

Link to Article

Ryland’s net sales also fell 17 percent year over year in the second quarter, from 3,023 in 2006 to 2,521 this year. Compared to the first quarter of 2007, sales were down most in Texas, and off in the Southeast and North, but Ryland’s sales in the West were actually up 7 percent, Dreier said.

“Sales trends improved as the quarter progressed, although I’m hesitant to read too much into this, as the selling environment continues to be challenging across the country,” he said.

“Our sales were up in the West, and the only thing I read into that is that we had a really lousy year last year in Vegas, Phoenix, and California,” Dreier said.

Indeed, Ryland saw its cancellation rate jump from 28 percent in the first quarter to 34 percent in the second quarter. Dreier put the blame for the spike in cancellations on high inventory levels that make it harder for would-be buyers to sell their homes, forcing them to back out of closings.The company’s backlog at the end of the second quarter decreased 39.2 percent to 4,953 units from 8,151 units in 2006.

Ryland is also shifting its product mix from traditionally one-third each of entry-level and first and second move-up products to roughly 20 percent entry-level and 40 percent each for first and second move-up.

“We’re doing less true entry-level, it’s just harder, and the numbers don’t work,” Dreier said.

Wow! This is the fourth article in the last week that highlights the plight faced by major builders. The last couple sentences are very telling however – entry-level housing is not profitable enough for developers.

Link to Article

D.R. Horton Inc, the largest U.S. home builder, on Thursday reported its first quarterly loss as a public company after taking more than $1 billion of charges, chiefly related to the lower value of land and other assets.

For its fiscal third quarter, ended June 30, D.R. Horton posted a loss of $823.8 million, or $2.62 per share, versus a profit of $292.8 million, or 93 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Link to Article