SINGAPORE - More bees had been buzzing around Mr Gabriel Wong's home recently, but he was unfazed until his wife stepped on one in their home on Tuesday.

The incident prompted the F&B manager to investigate and he found a large beehive within the walls of his home, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

Armed with a camera with a powerful zoom lens, Mr Wong, 46, traced the bees to the air-conditioner vents outside his block of flats in Redhill.

To his surprise, the bees were flying into his air-con unit on the eighth floor - and not coming out.

He called pest control, which used pesticide and chemicals to kill the bees.

What they did not expect was the size of the swarm.

The next day, when they prised open the air-con compressor, they found a mound of dead bees and seven large honeycombs behind a wooden panel that was very near to Mr Wong's daughter's bed.

He told Wanbao that he had tried to save the bees, asking two pest control companies whether it was possible to move the hive. Both companies advised him to exterminate the bees.

Mr Wong also wrote to Stomp about the incident: "After the February drought, the rain came in March.

"All of a sudden, there is a sudden abundance of flowers blooming everywhere in our neighbourhood and the bees found themselves surrounded with a great surplus of food supply.

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That buzzing may not be a faulty air-con

(BPT) - After a winter of frigid temperatures and record snowfalls, the nation now faces the spring thaw and long, rainy months. Flood season is officially here is your home ready for it?

Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States. Over the past five years, the average flood insurance claim was more than $35,000, according to FEMA.gov. If you or someone you know has ever experienced a flood, you know that cleanup can require a massive effort.

The best defense against flooding is a proactive approach. Consider these flood tips to prepare your home and family for flood season:

1. Get a shop vac

Every home that is susceptible to water and moisture should have a reliable shop vac. This type of vacuum sucks up water quickly and efficiently. Keep in mind, flood cleanup must be done quickly within the first 48 hours to avoid mold growth and extensive property damage.

2. Test your sump pump

Take the time now to test your sump pump. Simply lift the float on the side of the pump and listen for the pump to turn on; that noise indicates your pump is working correctly. Next, install a water alarm that will let you know if water is accumulating in your basement. An alarm like AdvanTEXT from WAYNE Pumps sends text messages to up to three people in the event of power outages or high water levels. If you are away from home or even out of town, you can take immediate action to protect your property, rather than unknowingly coming home to a flooded basement. Visit http://www.waynepumps.com/preventflooding for more information.

3. Seal cracks

Seal the cracks in the basement floor and foundation to prevent water seepage when the water table gets too high. Similarly, if you have concrete walls, be sure to seal those cracks as well. This is a simple DIY task that can be done using a variety of affordable sealant materials available at home improvement stores.

4. Prepare and protect

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5 simple tips to prepare your home for flood season

Sonos is testing a software update for its wireless speaker system that removes the need for a physical connection to the home network. The software would allow for the system's SonosNet network to operate with one of the speakers accessing the local Wi-Fi network, and avoiding wiring either a speaker or the Sonos Bridge wireless networking device to a router.

At the moment, the speakers create the SonosNet wireless mesh network between each other independently from a home Wi-Fi network. In order to provide an Internet connection, one of the Sonos speakers has to be connected over Ethernet, or the Sonos Bridge can be used to join the two networks together. The new system would allow for a speaker to be wirelessly connected to the home network, configured by a smartphone, with the speaker then organizing the separate SonosNet network.

While the software update would effectively remove the need for the Sonos Bridge, it could still find itself useful in some instances in the future. Sonos notes that some large homes or "challenging network environments" where the speakers will not be in range of the Wi-Fi signal, so a Bridge or a wired speaker may be required. Sonos does claim that, in its early testing, the majority of homes will "work well" with the new software.

"Wireless technology has improved over the last 10 years and alongside other investments in evolving your experience with the changing times, we are preparing to take SonosNet to the next level," reads a company blog post.

Sonos did not reveal when it will be releasing the software update, but it is accepting applications for its beta program.

By Electronista Staff

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Sonos plans software update to make speaker system completely wireless

In his current role, Mark Walters leverages hisover 20 years experience with electronic product solutions, high-end sound reinforcement, vehicular sensing/controls, premise wiring solutions,automated building controls,RF mesh networks, home automation and security. The Z-Wave Alliance isa consortium of over 300manufacturers and service providers worldwidewith more than 1000 certified productsthe alliance isdedicated to interoperable wireless home control products based on the Z-Wave open standard. I first talked with Mark at the internationalCESwhich ledto this podcastinterview portions of which are extracted here.

Q: Can you talk about some of your top career successes and lessons learned that you feel will be useful to the audience? A: .My background is actually in sciences, biology and chemistry and somewhere along the line I ended up in technology, and have served in a number of different roles through a number of different companies including operations, manufacturing, engineering management, general business management and now I find myself running a global consortium. I think whats worked best for me throughout my career is being very curious, asking a lot of questions and being fortunate enough to find technologies and companies that have been exciting to me..

Q: Can you describe your journey leading to your current role? A: .I started out in sciences and got interested in electronics way back in the early 80s when the Ethernet was just starting to happen. It was always very exciting to me how we could communicate across great distances with people in many different countries and so Ive always kept some element of technology and communication in my career path.I think the key for me in my career path and getting to Z-Wave Alliance and the chairmanship has been keeping that broader scope, higher level perspective and understanding how to apply that technology to the business and how to solve problems about making peoples lives better using the technology rather than focusing specifically on the technology itself.

Q: Many people in the audience may not be familiar with the Z-Wave Alliance and the challenges that led up to the formation and you being the Chairman and President. Can you comment? Also what is the value of the work from the Z-Wave Alliance? A: .I ran into this group of engineers from Denmark in a company called Zensys and as we got to know each other a little bit we realized they had a great technology. At that time there were 3 or 4 companies in the world that were looking at the technology as well. We all got together and said this is a great technology, we should use it in our products, but we need to do it in a way that we could take advantage of each others fortes. In this way, when somebody wants to do a home control solution all they have to do is buy Z-Wave and it would all work together.This sounded very simple at the time; there were 5 companies involved so we thought lets collaborate. Very quickly that began to snowball as other companies started to contact us saying that they wanted to get in on it and add their products to this particular standard of technology. We realized that we had to create some structure around that concept and we formed the Z-Wave Alliance. As the Z-Wave Alliance formed I was chosen to be the interim Chairman.Here I am some 9 years later still the interim Chairman of 6 months.

Q: What do you wish to accomplish in the next three years?A: .Three years its going to be about continuing to grow, bringing more companies into the Alliance and taking a look at how we use our technology and evolve our technology.This whole thing I was talking about aging independently thats going to become much more necessary as people begin to age. We talk a lot about the Internet of Things, and all of the things out there somehow magically talking to each other into this big thing we call cloud and that is making our lives better. I believe very strongly that we will use technology in our homes through the internet into a much bigger collective; what we are now calling cyber-physical systems to do things like reduce traffic and reduce energy consumption.

Q: What surprises you as President? A: .It continually surprises me how business wants to be sometimes (conservative would be a good word), and how afraid some people are to dream, imagine or let go of the why we cant in favour of the how about we do. This is something I get caught up in so Im guilty of this myself, but Im often surprised by very, very bright people who spend all of their energy figuring out just what can go wrong and just why they shouldnt do something and spend very little energy thinking about what happens if this goes right.There are certainly visionaries everywhere, but they seem to be fewer and farther between.

Q: What do you see as the top upcoming disruptive innovations? A: .I think two things are going to be pretty disruptive, the hydrocarbon economy and the aging population.

Q: I was just thinking about what you are trying to do with Z-Wave Alliance. Im thinking as a consumer I see kind of a spectrum confusion theres my bluetooth device, cellular phone, wireless mouse, cordless phone, router with its own WiFi, etc. how do you address all of that where maybe theres interference? A: .You go to an IEEE meeting and you figure out how we design this stuff so that it doesnt interfere with each other. We are seeing situations where some of the more popular brands are causing some interference and the technology solution is open up more bands.From the consumers standpoint, if we as technologists and technology developers do our jobs right and continue to do our jobs right, as far as the consumers are concerned they dont need to be concerned about what the underlying technology is technology done right is transparent and magic.

Q: In my interviews with many senior executives of very large companies I ask the question where they see as growth areas (in technical areas) internationally. They talk about Africa, India, China, perhaps South America and even now greater growth in the United States. Do you define these as the same top ICT growth regions internationally? A: .Absolutely.Worldwide you cant put the technology genie back in the bottle, you cant put the commerce genie back in the bottle, but barring political unrest which unfortunately we have far too much of in the world today, barring disruptions like that we are going to see amazing growth worldwide in all of these economies..

Q: What are your views on this rapid growth in free content? A: .Whats interesting is that we have a whole new set of content out there that is deliberately free the creator actually puts it out there in the public domain and says here take it for free, I dont expect any compensation back from this. I think its going to be paramount that we recognize the difference between something thats being given free by the creator and something that is being stolen and made available freely through technology.My dad used to always tell me that theres no such thing as a free lunch and I dont think there is such thing as free content. If were getting that content for free then we are circumventing some system that is important and sooner or later if everybody takes everything for free and there is no remuneration happening then the whole system will collapse and the content will cease to exist.

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By Alessandra Malito

A woman putting the final touches on her dream home, an electrician making a Saturday house call and a 4-year-old boy are the latest victims of the Washington mudslide to be formally identified.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office positively ID'd the three people Thursday as Ron deQuilettes, 52; Sandra Miller, 64, and Wyatt Ruthven, 4.

They are among the 39 victims recovered from the March 22 slide that swept through the community of Oso.

Miller, was building a new home on the banks of the Stillaguamish River with her husband, Larry, 58. The couple was putting finishing touches on the house before moving in, and deQuilettes was there to work on the home's electrical wiring.

DeQuilettes leaves behind a wife, who he met 31 years ago, and four children.

Wyatt Ruthven was among three generations of family who died in the mudslide, including his parents, Shane and Katie Ruthven, his 6-year-old brother Hunter and his grandparents Louie and JuDee Vanderburg. Each was previously identified as a victim of the slide.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office said they are still working with the families of the remaining missing.

Alessandra Malito

First published April 17 2014, 8:47 AM

See the original post:
Washington Mudslide: Thirty-Nine Victims Now Identified

Oakville Beaver

A free home safety seminar dealing with the potential hazards of aluminum wiring will be held tomorrow night at the Holiday Inn, 590 Argus Rd.

Aluminum wiring poses hazards that many homeowners dont understand, Tim Birnie, president of Birnie CurrentSAFE, said in a press release.

The Mississauga-based electrical contractor is hosting the seminar.

It has been shown that homes with aluminum wiring are 55 times more likely to experience an electrical fire than homes with copper wiring, noted Birnie.

The seminar, titled Aluminum Wiring: Debunking the Myths, will feature a presentation by Michael Harrison, public education officer for the Oakville Fire Department.

Harrison will discuss the three lines of defence against residential fires and help families prepare a fire-escape plan.

The Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) has issued a number of warnings about potential hazards of aluminum wiring related to overheating and failure of aluminum wiring terminations at outlets, light switches and other termination points.

Aluminum tends to oxidize at termination points, and this can lead to failure and the potential for a serious electrical fire without proper maintenance, Birnie said. Our goal with this seminar is to give people the information they need to protect themselves and their families.

The seminar runs from 7-8:30 p.m., with registration opening at 6:30 p.m.

The rest is here:
Free home safety seminar Wednesday night in Oakville

Red Cross volunteer finds two feet of water in basement of rental bungalow in Sherwood after heavy rains Monday

File photo

The Red Cross was called to assist a university student who needed food and lodging for the night after the home she was renting with two other students flooded Monday.

Three university students had to find a place to stay after heavy rains contributed to flooding in the basement of the bungalow they've been renting for the school year.

One of the students, who is from British Columbia, accessed support for lodging and food from the Red Cross to get her through the night.

The Red Cross has not been asked for more nights of accomodation for the student, said Dan Bedell, media spokesman for the Atlantic provinces.

"I haven't heard if that (support) needs to be extended, which is something we can do," Bedell said in a phone interview.

"In fact, the volunteer told us she was due to be heading home to B.C. in a week for the end of the school year."

Her two roommates found places to stay with family and friends.

All three women were able to collect clothing and other necessities before vacating the home.

Read the original here:
Home rented by university students floods

hide captionA salmon fillet cooked sous vide, with miso-ginger glaze, gets a crisp finish under a broiler or torch flame.

A salmon fillet cooked sous vide, with miso-ginger glaze, gets a crisp finish under a broiler or torch flame.

Sous vide. Not that long ago, it sounded so exotic or, at least, so French. It was a phrase that belonged in restaurants, amid white tablecloths and flower arrangements and hushed conversations. Alternatively, it was a word that belonged to the modernist kitchens just beyond the swinging doors kitchens filled with gleaming dehydrators and transglutaminase "meat glues" and spherification siphons and more.

I first heard it in the kitchen of now-famous Wylie Dufresne's first restaurant, 71 Clinton Fresh Food, where I was a clueless intern in the spring of 2000. There in New York City's still-scruffy Lower East Side, early hipsters with interesting facial hair waited the tables, while in back we fashioned fish crusts out of edamame. It was a forward-thinking place, yet no one even there imagined that the mysterious vacuum-and-water-bath technique chefs were whispering about would be part of many home cooks' arsenal in just 15 years.

What is sous vide anyway? Briefly, it's cooking "under vacuum" i.e., in a vacuum-sealed bag at a specific temperature. Usually, that means in a temperature-controlled water bath. Why would you want to do this? Because careful temperature control results in a kind of protein sorcery. You can get perfectly cooked delicate fish because it can't dry out or overflake. You can coax meats into meltingly soft braises because the protein never gets hot enough for the fibers to turn to string. You can get eggs that are never rubbery. You can melt the layers in pork belly without liquefying them in the process. You can even keep chocolate from losing its glossy temper when melted.

The exactness of the temperature allows you to be loosey-goosey with the time. No matter how long you hold a water bath at 155 degrees, it will never boil and toughen your chicken tenders. And you cannot accidentally toughen a filet mignon if it's just sitting there, relaxing, at 145 degrees. All in all, sous vide is a strange mix of the precise and the forgiving. It's the forgiving part that makes it a natural for home cooking.

But it's the precise part that scares people. At the dawn of home sous vide a mere five or six years ago you could buy an industrial thermal circulator to submerge in your water bath. It cost, oh, a mere $1,000. Then came the Sous Vide Supreme, an all-in-one unit that cut the cost in half. Or you could rig your own, using a rice cooker or slow cooker, a thermocouple and a temperature controller. There are wiring diagrams on the Web, and in books such as Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks.

Last December, having the urge but not the funds to sous vide, I brought one such diagram to my technically proficient spouse, with a pleading expression. He cocked an eyebrow and went back to shopping on Amazon. On Christmas Day, I found a Dorkfood Sous Vide Temperature Controller under the tree. All you had to do was plug it into your slow cooker, and it only cost $100. (Yes, you could buy a set of at least three cast iron skillets for that, but none of them will hold a water bath within 1 degree Fahrenheit ... forever.)

And the fact is, you don't even need to do that much. I have friends who cook steaks sous vide in foam beer coolers, keeping track of the temperature with an oven thermometer probe and adding some hot water from time to time. You don't even need a vacuum sealer you can make do with heavy-duty Ziploc bags, as long as you've displaced the water out. (You do that by slowly lowering the bag into your water bath, so the pressure of the water squeezes the air out, and then you seal it the usual way).

There is, of course, the question of food safety. Maybe you've heard the stories about city health department officials forcing chefs to pour bleach on their sous vide meats. It's a story that always makes me want to cry, but for years public health has relied on a firm food safety rule: dangerous germs live at between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Even the pink interior of a medium-rare burger falls above this range, and most cooking techniques take place around or well above the boiling point of water (212 degrees F).

Read the original:
Sous Vide Makes Its Way To The Home Kitchen

When Kitka Galvin got a new job that allowed her to work from home, she looked around for a place to put a home office.

Like many homeowners seeking "new space" in their existing homes, she didn't want totake a bedroom from her children or impinge on the basement family room.

Afterbrowsing online for ideas,she hit on the perfect solution: opening up the space beneaththe basement stairs.

In the Galvin home, the stairs are built against a basement wall, and the side opening into the basement room wasdrywalled shut. An opening in the back allowed Kitka and her husband Mike to use theunder-stairs space for storage, but theyfelt they easily could part with that.

Remaking the space was a do-it-yourself project that began with removing the drywall on the side that opened into the basement room and then installing plywoodon the underside of thesteps.

The family room has laminate flooring, and to keep it from shifting once the original drywallwas removed, the Galvins installed a threshold. The floor inthe office area isconcrete, butGalvin has covered that with arug. The area already had wiring.

Although the space is small about 7 feet long and 3 feet deep it holds everything Kitka needs to do her job as an insurance auditor. Furnishings include a desk from Target, a computer, two monitors, a phone and a wood steamer trunk that belonged to her great-great grandmother on her mother's side.

Look closely and you'll see the words "Johanna Johanson, New Britain, Connecticut, 1863," painted on its side.

The area doesn't feelcramped or closed in, she said. "It might if I was just sitting there and relaxing, but I'm working. I'm focused on what I'm doing, which is all on the phone and online."

"Houzz" is one of the online sites Galvin used for ideas, and a tutorial helped her through the project.

See original here:
Home office gets tucked under basement stairs

Joanne Schnurr, Joanne Schnurr , CTV Ottawa Published Monday, April 14, 2014 5:17PM EDT Last Updated Monday, April 14, 2014 6:40PM EDT

Lightning struck a home in Ottawas Barrhaven neighborhood last evening, sparking a fire in the basement. The fire started just before 8 p.m. at a home on Noblesse Avenue, off Prince of Wales, south of Hunt Club. The bolt travelled from the roof, straight to the basement where it started a fire, causing an estimated $30,000 in damages. This morning, owners Dan Gagliardi and wife Cheyanne Eagle were busy packing up some of their belongings, including the family dog, to stay with relatives while their home is being renovated.

We'll be out for a while, says Gagliardi, This is not going to be a quick fix.

Gagliardi and his wife Cheyanne were watching TV last night with their two young daughters when a bright light filled the room, as a simultaneous boom was heard.

A loud bang, says Gagliardi, it sound like shattered glass and then the power went off.

Cheyanne Eagle adds, I knew it (lightning) had hit the house and I was telling Dan we've been hit by lighting, call 9-1-1. So we grabbed the pets and our jackets and headed over to the neighbors house in our pajamas.

Lightning had struck near the roof of the house, about three-quarters of the way down the roof line. Theres a visible charred hole where it appears to have hit. The jolt of power blew a second floor night light apart before it travelled straight down into the basement furnace room.

And it flash fired everything up, says Gagliardi, standing in the charred remains of his furnace room, This is one of our portable fans which now looks like piece of plastic goo.

The lightning strike fried the electrical lines and burst their plumbing. But their quick action and a quick response by Ottawa Fire Services saved the rest of their house and that of their neighbor, just a few feet away from their edge of their home.

We got out fast, no causalitie, says Gagliardi, houses can be rebuilt so well rebuild.

The rest is here:
Barrhaven family surveys the damage after lightning sparks a house fire