Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Protecting public trees from needless removal has always been a priority for the city of Kent, but buckling sidewalks and old age are forcing the removal of some trees.

Several projects are either in progress or about to get started, according to a city media release.

James Street sidewalk and street tree replacement

In order to provide a safer route for pedestrians, crews are repairing failing portions of the sidewalks on both the north and south sides of James Street between Clark Avenue to 102nd Avenue Southeast. The work requires removal of the existing trees.

According to Public Works Director Tim LaPorte, trees planted decades ago have caused the sidewalks to buckle, posing a tripping hazard to pedestrians.

Were making the sidewalks more usable for walkers," he said. "While we hate to remove the existing trees, theyll be replaced by a type of tree that is less likely to cause sidewalk damage."

City officials expect the work to be finished by late summer 2015.

Meeker Street sidewalk and street tree replacement

After the existing trees are removed, crews will replace the sidewalks, curbs and gutters on the south side of West Meeker Street between Fourth Avenue North and Sixth Avenue North. The work will be complete and trees replaced by the end of December.

Motorists should expect weekday curb lane closures on both James and Meeker Streets between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pedestrians should expect sidewalk and crosswalk closures during their removal and replacement; however, access for local residents will be maintained.

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City of Kent plans tree removal, sidewalk repairs

24 Ways to Kill a Tree

There is a tremendous diversity of herbaceous perennial plant species being grown for both the retail and landscaping sectors of the industry. Because of the diversity in species grown, there is much more unknown about perennials production than is known. Growth regulation is of particular concern. In production settings, as well as in retail locations, herbaceous perennials grown in pots tend to stretch and become leggy or simply overgrow their pots before their scheduled market date. These plants are less marketable, and harder to maintain. Many growers resort to pruning, which is not only costly in terms of labor, but also delays plant production two to four weeks.

Seldom needs pruning - remove multiple leaders, dead and broken branches

Trees that shed their leaves annually are classified as deciduous. Before getting out your hand pruners, learn some basics about the anatomy, or supporting framework, of a deciduous tree.

The above-ground part of a tree consists of the trunk, scaffold branches, and lateral branches. The leader is the vertical stem at the top of the trunk. Scaffold branches are primary limbs that form a tree's canopy. Secondary branches that emerge from scaffold branches are laterals. Growth comes from buds at the tips of branches (terminal buds), or along branch sides (lateral buds).

Evergreen trees have leaves that persist year round, and include most conifers and some broad-leaved trees. Evergreen trees generally need less pruning than deciduous trees.

Conifers are distinguished from other plants by their needle or scale-like leaves, and their seed-bearing cones. Because conifers have dominant leaders, young trees rarely require training-type pruning. The leader is the vertical stem at the top of the trunk. If a young tree has two leaders, prune one out to prevent multiple leader development. Selective branch removal is generally unnecessary as evergreens tend to have wide angles of attachment to the trunk.

Understanding the natural "habit" or shape of shrubs will help you determine how to prune them. All shoots grow outward from their tips. Whenever tips are removed, lower buds are stimulated to grow. Buds are located at nodes, where leaves are attached to twigs and branches. Each node produces from one to three buds, depending on shrub species.

Pruning is a regular part of plant maintenance involving the selective removal of specific plant parts. Although shoots and branches are the main targets for removal, roots, flower buds, fruits and seed pods may also be pruned.

Pruning wounds plants, but plants respond differently to wounding than do animals. In plants, damaged areas are covered by callus tissue to close wounds. Simply put: animal wounds heal, plant wounds seal.

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Trees, Shrubs, & Groundcovers | Publications and ...

Whilst all fire safety sprinkler specialists use the same specification of equipment, the design method used can vary considerably. At Fire Logistics Ltd we harness a huge resource of experience and expertise to analyse each situation. We can offer several different designs to deal with the fire hazard in a particular situation, all of which are regulation compliant. The client is then free to evaluate each and with our help select the option which provides the optimum solution.

Managing Director and design engineer Mike Graham has vast experience of the fire industry and has designed solutions for a wide variety of challenging situations such as :-

Hotel Bathroom Modules We undertook the offsite sprinkler fabrication for 1,000 individual hotel bathroom modules. This involves the installation of two sprinklers for each bathroom and a further sprinkler head projecting into the bedroom. All are pressure tested to 15 bars for 2 hours, prior to despatch.

New Italian Caf/Bar/Restaurant Concept Fire Logistics works with a chain of Italian caf/restaurants a new concept for the UK. We install full sprinkler systems to BSEN 12845, to a retail design from South Africa. Installations have to date been completed in Newcastle and Camberley in Surrey.

Tyre Factory Sprinkler System Upgrade This client needed to increase the height at which tyres are stored, to 7.6m. To facilitate this, we upgraded the sprinkler system, with each sprinkler head capable of discharging 100 gallons of water / min. The work was completed with minimal disruption to the client's operations.

Listed Building Project in Derbyshire We recently undertook a sprinkler installation for an English Heritage listed property in Derbyshire. The project involved installing specialist fire sprinkler systems to four buildings. Our engineered solution enabled the client to avoid putting in expensive fire safety systems, whose visibility would not have been in keeping with this listed property.

Luxury Yacht We worked in Barcelona on a 12 month contract to design & install watermist protection to a luxury 42m yacht. The protection covers accommodation, crew quarters, galley, bridge and engine room and includes the associated detection and fire alarms.

BPI Industries Stockton, Teesside Here Fire Logistics worked in conjunction with Franklin Hodge to replace the fire sprinkler system and water storage tank. We also engineered a temporary solution to provide water supply to the sprinkler system whilst the water storage tank was out of operation.

Sanofi, Fawdon. Various sprinkler works in a pharmaceutical environment.

Enterprise Eight, Chinese restaurant, Newcastle city centre. Full sprinkler installation, including control valves to complete restaurant, kitchen and cellar areas.

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Sprinkler Systems Fire Replacement Maintenance Design ...

It's not only your home that's getting smarter these days. Your yard can boost its intelligence too. Rachio, makers of the Iro smart sprinkler system, announced a new update to the company's companion smartphone app that promises to lower residential outdoor water usage by as much as 30 percent.

The new update, Rachio version 1.7, improves the Iro system's ability to monitor conditions on your lawn. Using what the company calls Evapotranspiration Technology (ET), the Iro system can monitor the soil's moisture loss between waterings. If a scheduled watering comes up and there's enough water in the soil already, then the watering is skipped.

Rachio's smartphone app.

Iro also monitor moisture evaporation every week and makes adjustments for water usage. This is a helpful feature as the seasons change and the days get warmer or colder.

We believe software can play a huge role in the fight against water waste, Rachio CTO and Co-Founder said in a statement. The enhancements made to our ET algorithms gets Iro even closer to identifying the absolute minimum amount of water needed to maintain a beautiful lawn or garden.

Beyond water usage improvements, Rachio added Nest Protect integration. The new feature triggers the sprinkler system after the Nest smoke alarm goes off for an extended period of time. Rachio's system then automatically starts the sprinklers in an attempt to keep the fire from spreading to other homes.

The new update also adds a few upgrades such as new vegetation, soil, exposure (shade), nozzle, and slope options to create 168 different watering cycles. Rachio says the new upgrades can also reduce runoff and improve the system's scheduling.

The Rachio app is a free download available from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

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Rachio smart sprinkler update reduces water usage, ties into Nest for fire protection

FIFTY SHEDS OF GREY - OFFICIAL TRAILER (50 SHADES PARODY)
The hotly anticipated antidote to that OTHER erotica film trailer, complete with power lube, dripping hoses and a very steamy shed. This is the official teaser trailer for FIFTY SHEDS OF GREY:...

By: Pan Macmillan

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FIFTY SHEDS OF GREY - OFFICIAL TRAILER (50 SHADES PARODY) - Video

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has shed tears in the Legislative Assembly while delivering an update on the $1 billion Mr Fluffy buyback and demolition scheme.

This week the ACT Government agreed to accept a concessional loan of $1 billion from the Commonwealth to help pay for the demolition of the 1,021 properties affected by potentially deadly loose-fill asbestos.

But the decision to demolish all of the homes has been a difficult moment for Ms Gallagher's Government.

On Thursday as she updated the ACT Legislative Assembly on the buyback and demolition scheme, the Chief Minister showed some of the strain, shedding tears and pausing to wipe her eyes during the address.

Ms Gallagher told the assembly she could not let the shadow of Mr Fluffy hang over the ACT any longer.

"1,021 houses is a big call, but I cannot see any other way through this. We cannot let this legacy continue, it has plagued this city for more than half of Canberra's history. It must end and it will with the buyback scheme being put in place this week," she said.

But it was the stories of the families that live in the homes that were the focus on Thursday.

All have been combined into a group impact statement, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly today by the Chief Minister.

Many accounts speak of the social isolation and guilt that has come with living in a Mr Fluffy home.

"I am confused and anxious about what the future holds ... I feel very distressed most of the time and there is never a day that goes by where I do not cry," one statement said.

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Chief Minister Katy Gallagher sheds tears during Mr Fluffy buyback scheme address

Journalists stare at the Sistine Chapel with its new lighting during a press visit at the Vatican Thursday. Photo by Filippo Monteforte/MUSEI VATICANI/AFP

The Sistine Chapel just got a makeover. Vatican officials unveiled new state-of-the-art energy-efficient lighting and air purification systems to protect Michelangelos more than 500-year old frescoes. The three-year-long installation cost roughly $3.8 million.

The masterpieces have seen their fair share of deterioration over the years from the throngs of tourists who visit. The Vatican is now capping the chapels visitors to 6 million each year, its current level. The preservation efforts are designed to help shield the chapel from the dust and carbon dioxide those crowds leave behind.

The high-tech illumination installed by the German firm Osram is comprised of some 7,000 LED lights that will better highlight Michelangelos work as well as the chapels lesser-known frescoes by Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Its an emotional experience, said Osrams project leader, Mourad Boulouednine. Its difficult to talk in words but if you see it, many details in the frescoes, nice and wonderful colors, the plasticity and the three dimensional effect that Michelangelo has used in his figures is really outstanding.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, told Reuters, I got to see the Sistine Chapel like I had never seen it before. This light allows you to see every little detail of the paintings and at the same time it allows you to grasp and experience the Sistine Chapel as a whole, in its entirety.

As an added benefit, the modernized lighting is also expected to cut the Vaticans energy bills by more than 80 percent.

As for the new air-conditioning system, it will direct airflow slowly through the hallowed room to avoid damaging the frescoes. The air temperature and humidity levels can also be adjusted based on data from 70 sensors in the Sistine Chapels walls as well as cameras monitoring visitors.

This chapel is a unique structure so we spent a great deal of time understanding how air flows here in order to map the technology, said John Mandyck, the chief sustainability officer for United Technologies unit Carrier which developed the air purification system. Air flows differently here than it does, say in an office building or even another church.

The previous air-conditioning system was installed 20 years ago, back when the chapel received only 1.5 million visitors each year.

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Vatican sheds new light on Sistine Chapels masterpieces

Voters in Mill Bay won't be pondering any surprises from unfamiliar candidates before marking their ballots in the civic election Nov. 15.

The positions of both incumbent Mike Walker and challenger Kerry Davis for the job of representing Area A on the Cowichan Valley Regional District board are well-known.

Current director Walker served two terms from 2002 through 2008 before taking a break and then returning for another term from 2011 until the present.

Davis ran for the Green Party in the provincial election last year, losing the seat to the NDP's Bill Routley.

Walker vows to continue on the same path as the last several years and residents know what to expect from him. There are some significant issues at the front of his long list of duties that need attention.

"For me, I've been focusing on our storm water management and sewer issues,'' Walker said.

"We're finding some of our older subdivisions here in Mill Bay, septic systems are starting to go.''

With that in mind, Walker would like to see something similar to what's being done in the Capital Regional District where there's a mandatory pump-out required within a certain period of time and charges are added to taxes.

"A lot of our residents are on that eastern slope and everything goes to the water,'' Walker said of the importance the issue places on the environment.

"With the heavy rain, it really becomes a concern.''

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ELECTION 2104: Men vying for Mill Bay director identify sewer and salary issues among top priorities

Although Smith & Wesson introduced their centerfire top-break revolvers, complete with automatic simultaneous extraction and ejection, in 1870, they were only available as bulky holster pistols for over half a decade. It wasn't until 1876 that they brought a smaller model, suitable for concealed carry, to the market.

The smaller models, however, had much wider appeal on the civilian market and, in one form or another, continued in production long after their more martial bigger siblings had been discontinued. With the last .38 caliber models shipping in 1940, these little guns had been in production for over sixty years and hundreds of thousands had found homes, making them easily the most common and affordable antique Smiths on the market today, so a quick overview of the most common variants may be helpful.

The first to show up was the .38 Single Action. The earliest variants had the complicated rack-and-pinion ejection system of the bigger .44 Russian models, complete with its long underbarrel housing, earning them the nickname Baby Russians. There were obvious differences, however.

Their smaller size dictated a five shot cylinder, chambered for the new .38 S&W cartridge. Further, as a single-action pistol intended for boot or pocket carry, they lacked the usual trigger and triggerguard arrangement of the bigger guns, having instead a spur trigger; a protruding nubbin protected by flanges integral to the bottom of the frame.

In 1878, they were joined by the similar, yet even smaller, .32 Single Action. The .32 enjoyed a couple of mechanical refinements, namely a simplified and more compact actuation system for the ejector and a rebounding hammer that kept the firing pin from resting on the primer of the cartridge, both features shared with the larger New Model Number 3 .44 revolvers that debuted the same year. In 1880, these features were added to the latest version of the .38 Single Action. LEFT: .38 Single Action 2nd Model (top), .32 Single Action (bottom)

The .32 Single Actions were discontinued in 1892, but the .38 received a conventional trigger and triggerguard in 1891 and remained in production until 1911.

Also in 1880, double-action variants of both the .32 and .38 were introduced. These are immediately distinguishable by their conventional triggerguard, with the trigger sitting about halfway forward inside the guard. The .32 Double Action remained in production until 1919, while the conventional .38 DA was discontinued in 1911.

RIGHT: .38 Double Action 2nd Model (top), .32 Double Action 4th Model (bottom)

In 1909, however, an interesting variant of the .38 Double Action was introduced, known as the Perfected Model. In addition to the topstrap-mounted latch shared with other Top Break Smiths, it had a knurled thumbpiece latch like the newer solid-frame Hand Ejector models. Because of this second latch, they were the only Top Break S&W revolvers with their sideplates on the right-hand side of the frame. The Perfected Model was discontinued in 1920.

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The Arms Room - blogspot.com

ACCENTURE, a global leader in management consulting, technology and outsourcing services, has opened its first Ideas Exchange Room in Cebu City, teaming with the University of San Carlos. The new facility supports Accentures Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship initiative, which aims to equip 700,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business.

The University of San Carlos has always been a great source of talent for the information technology and business process management industry, said Ambe Tierro, senior managing director for technology in the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea.

It is our privilege to work with the university to help further develop the skills of our youth.

Tierro said the Accenture Ideas Exchange Room promotes productivity and collaboration among students and faculty members of the College of Engineering at the university. In addition to making physical improvements to the Ideas Exchange Room and upgrading computer equipment, Accenture will conduct training to enrich students educational experience.

The addition of the Cebu location brings to five the number of Ideas Exchange Rooms Accenture has opened in the Philippines. The other facilities are located at the University of the Philippines Diliman; Polytechnic University of the Philippines; University of Makati; and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. (PR)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 31, 2014.

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Accenture opens facility in USC