Denmark #39;s #39;living lab #39; for smart streetlighting
The Danish Outdoor Lighting Lab, a life-sized testing ground for the smart streetlights of the future, has opened in Albertslund near Copenhagen. Lux Review speaks to experts from around Europe,...
By: Lux Magazine
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Denmark's 'living lab' for smart streetlighting - Video
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, Melissa Weir, a mother of three young children, thought she could keep up with household chores, even during chemotherapy and daily radiation treatments.
I thought I could handle everything, but the cleaning is really hard during treatment, when you're sick and fatigued, says Weir, 37, who underwent a mastectomy in June. Her cancer was discovered just after she had stopped nursing her youngest daughter, now 2.
Despite a positive outlook, Weir who faces more surgery in March says the pressures of managing her home in the New Homestead neighborhood of Pittsburgh left her feeling not just tired, but stressed. When she learned from a fellow chemo patient about Cleaning for a Reason, a Texas-based foundation that arranges free house cleaning for women with cancer, it seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, Weir says.
I didn't take advantage of a lot of services available to cancer patients, but this was one I definitely needed, says Weir, who contacted Cleaning for a Reason and was put in touch with Sheraden-based Mr. Maid Residential and Commercial Cleaning, one of three area companies that partner in the program.
Once a month, Mr. Maid's Amy Byard has cleaned Weir's home. The last of four visits the maximum number the program allows was in mid-October.
It's been wonderful, says Weir, whose oldest child is 5. I'll miss it tremendously.
Visits were the standard three hours, and would otherwise have cost $100, says Mr. Maid owner Jim Jones. In addition to absorbing the fee, he is required to make a monthly $15 contribution to the foundation, which handles applicant screening and referrals. Jones has handled up to three Cleaning for a Reason clients per month since he joined the program seven years ago. He says he and his staff have reaped unexpected rewards.
I first got into it because, as a new business, I wanted the publicity, but we never pursued that aspect, because we found that being in the program was rewarding enough, Jones says. We've had people cry when we call to schedule appointments. They'll say, I can't believe you're doing this.'
Byard calls the program's clients amazing. They're always asking if they can get me something, like a cold drink, says the Carrick resident. They'll tell me, You don't know how much this means.' It's a little heartbreaking when you know there are only four sessions, and you want to do so much more.
Founded in 2006 by Debbie Sardone, owner of a maid service in Lewisville, Texas, Cleaning for a Reason partners with 1,100 cleaning companies in the United States and Canada, which, so far, have provided $4.5 million worth of free cleaning to cancer survivors, according to the foundation's website.
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Foundation arranges free maid service for women with cancer
Lawn Treatment: Lawn Rehab Before and After
The lawn rehab I did in Naperville IL 3 weeks ago - here #39;s a quick followup. Pretty decent results on a very big lawn with just one day #39;s work. Imagine what ...
By: The Lawn Care Nut
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Lawn Treatment: Lawn Rehab Before and After - Video
By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Authorities took a man into custody Friday after they say he admitted driving a car onto the Oklahoma Capitol grounds overnight and into a disputed granite monument of the Ten Commandments, smashing it to pieces.
The man was detained after he showed up at a federal building in Oklahoma City Friday morning, rambling and making derogatory statements about the president, and admitted destroying the monument, said David Allison, an agent with the U.S. Secret Service in Oklahoma City.
"He claimed he got out of his car, urinated on the monument, and then ran over it and destroyed it," Allison said. "He said Satan told him to do it, and that he was a Satanist."
The man was turned over to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for questioning, Allison said. A spokesman for the patrol didn't immediately return a phone call seeking information about the man.
The 6-foot-tall monument was erected in 2012 with the blessing of Oklahoma's conservative Legislature. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma has been suing to have it removed, arguing that it violates the Oklahoma Constitution and could be seen as a state endorsement of a religion.
"We consider this an act of violence against the state of Oklahoma," said Republican state Rep. Mike Ritze, of Broken Arrow, whose family spent nearly $10,000 having the monument erected.
"We are obviously shocked and dismayed, but we're not discouraged," he said, vowing to have it rebuilt.
Gov. Mary Fallin called it an "appalling" act of vandalism and volunteered to help raise private funds to restore it.
The ACLU sued on behalf of a Norman minister and others who allege the monument's location violates the state constitutional ban on using public property to support "any sect, church, denomination or system of religion."
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Disputed Oklahoma Ten Commandments statue smashed
By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - When gay marriage became legal in Pennsylvania earlier this year, Elissa Goldberg was ready to say "I do." Her longtime partner's reaction, however, was "I'm not so sure."
The couple had been together more than 20 years, which Anndee Hochman figured already made them good as married. They owned their Philadelphia home together, kept their money in a joint bank account and were both named as parents on their 13-year-old daughter's birth certificate.
"I didn't really see what the additional benefits would be," says Hochman, a freelance writer.
But deep down, she acknowledges, there was another reason.
"It had to do with coming out as a lesbian at a time when there was a certain pride in living outside the box," said Hochman, 52, adding she wasn't ready to give up a lifestyle she'd come to embrace.
That's the kind of conundrum facing gay couples across the country as marriage barriers many thought might never fall have come crashing down in the wake of this month's Supreme Court refusal to take up the issue.
"We thought once upon a time that it would be much later - if we ever saw it in our lifetime," said Steve Martin of Boise, Idaho, who watched in awe as his state joined some 30 others earlier this month in allowing same-sex marriage.
The gay rights organizer and his longtime partner had held a commitment ceremony in 1998, a non-binding civil ceremony in 2001 and, finally, a wedding in Washington last year after gay marriage became legal there. Now that it's legal in their home state they aren't going to bother.
"Four might be pushing it," Martin says, laughing.
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With gay marriage comes question: I do or I don't
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH Associated Press
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Even as Liberians fall ill and die of Ebola, many beds in treatment centers are empty because of the government's order that the bodies of all suspected Ebola victims in the capital be cremated, authorities have determined.
Cremation violates values and cultural practices in the western African country. The order has so disturbed people that the sick are often kept at home and, if they die, are being secretly buried, increasing the risk of more infections.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia decreed in August that the bodies of Ebola victims in the Monrovia area be cremated. The government brought in a crematorium and hired experts. The order came after people in neighborhoods of the capital resisted burials of hundreds of Ebola victims near their homes.
A recent analysis of bed space at Ebola treatment units concluded that out of 742 spaces, 351 were occupied and 391 were vacant, said Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah, who heads the government's Ebola response.
"For fear of cremation, do not stay home to die," Nyenswah urged Liberians at a news conference.
In her statement declaring the state of emergency and the cremation order, Sirleaf said: "Ebola has attacked our way of life."
That way of life includes honoring deceased ancestors.
In March, the second Wednesday of the month is National Decoration Day, a public holiday during which people flock to cemeteries to clear brush from the graves of relatives, and scrub and decorate headstones.
Cremations in the capital, and burials of Ebola victims in body bags outside Monrovia without relatives present, means there won't be a place to honor deceased relatives. Decoration days will come with many people not knowing where the remains of their loved ones are, or knowing they were cremated and that their ashes were not recovered.
Lawn signs an eyesore
Editor of the Reformer:
When we moved to Vermont, one of the most attractive things about our new home state was the ban on billboards and other large signs. Nonetheless, year after year we see hundreds of those hideous lawn signs that clutter our town. When people wrote complaining about the theft of their lawn signs, I wanted to hug the thief or thieves.
For the life of me, I cannot understand their purpose. Ive said it before and Ill say it again: If anyone can prove to me that someone changed their vote based on a lawn sign, I will not only no longer complain, but will welcome anyone to place them on my lawn at my home or my office. Any takers? If not, please remove those damnable eyesores.
Bob Fagelson,
Brattleboro, Oct. 20
We expect better
Editor of the Reformer:
When veteran state legislators join selectboards, they bring experience of higher levels of power, responsibility and decorum. Serving on legislative committees, legislators summon and question officials, also contacting them personally on constituents behalfs, as do members of selectboards. All walk the line between equal and special treatment in our small-town world, where constituents may also be colleagues, friends or relations. Decorum, however, is never optional.
Citizens and journalists rightly challenge any actual or apparent crossing of this line, when public acknowledgment of and apology for their concerns is an option.
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Letter Box
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) - Twenty-one Asian nations have signed on to a China-driven initiative to create a new development bank for Asia that's aimed at boosting infrastructure investment of all kinds. Beijing sees that as a way to raise its international standing, but Washington opposes the move as an unnecessary and potentially damaging rival to established institutions such as the World Bank.
- WHO'S IN THE GROUP?
Members are overwhelmingly developing nations, with Singapore the only advanced economy. The others range from economic powerhouses India and China to smaller but economically dynamic nations such as Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and Mongolia. A few are drawn from among the poorest nations including Laos, Cambodia and Oman.
Others taking part are Uzbekistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Malaysia and Myanmar.
Just as important is who's not in the group: Solid American allies Japan, South Korea and Australia, although they, along with the U.S. may enter at a later date if the venture proves to be a success. Although Singapore is a close U.S. ally, its officials say entering now will give them a chance to make a positive impact on the way the bank plans to do business.
- SO WHAT'S WASHINGTON'S VIEW?
The U.S. is concerned that the new bank will introduce laxer standards for lending when it comes to environmental and labor protection, transparency of the project bidding process, and human rights. Washington worries that could undercut existing institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank that have sought to impose standards to promote good governance, fair labor practices and a clean environment.
Naturally, Washington is also concerned about any move by China to shift attention away from institutions that it and its allies dominate. The world's first and second biggest economies deeply distrust each other and are locked in a ceaseless competition for pre-eminence in Asia, where the U.S. is the dominant military power but China's massive economy carries enormous heft.
- HOW MUCH CAN IT LEND?
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China, 20 other countries initiate new Asian bank
By DAVID A. LIEB and JIM SALTER Associated Press
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - Missouri police have been brushing up on constitutional rights and stocking up on riot gear to prepare for a grand jury's decision about whether to charge a white police officer who fatally shot a black 18-year-old in suburban St. Louis.
The preparations are aimed at avoiding a renewed outbreak of violence during the potentially large demonstrations that could follow an announcement of whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will face a criminal trial for the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown.
Police and protesters have repeatedly clashed since the shooting, which prompted a national conversation about race and police tactics. Images of officers in riot gear and armored vehicles confronting protesters have drawn widespread criticism.
Many protesters want Wilson indicted for murder. Grand jury proceedings are secret, but legal analysts say recently leaked information about Wilson's testimony to investigators may be an attempt to prepare the public for the possibility that he might not be charged.
The decision could be made public within the next month.
In the meantime, law officers have adjusted their tactics to interact more peacefully with protesters while also honing their procedures for quick, widespread arrests. They plan to have a large contingent of officers at the ready, but have been meeting with clergy, community leaders and students in hopes of building relationships that could ease tensions on the streets.
"I know there's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of fear, anticipation" about that announcement, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who was put in charge of security in Ferguson in the days after Brown was killed and is now part of a coordinated command with local police. But "I have a lot of hope."
Law enforcement officers expect to receive at least a day's notice before a grand jury announcement. That should provide time for them to execute security plans but may also allow demonstrators to prepare.
"The moment I learn that there is, in fact, a non-indictment, then there's going to be an organized protest," said Eric Vickers, a black St. Louis attorney and civil rights activist.
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Police prepare for grand jury decision in Ferguson
LITTLE ROCK A landscape architect and an auto refinish technician who performs shows as Elvis Presley are challenging Arkansas incumbent land commissioner.
Republican John Thurston, 41, of Little Rock has served as state land commissioner since 2011. He was formerly employed as a staff member at Agape Church in Little Rock and a certified religious assistant in the Arkansas prison system. He and his wife, Joanna, have five children.
Democrat Mark Robertson, 60, of Little Rock is the head of MESA Landscape Architects. A landscape architect and land planner, he previously worked as a surveyor for the U.S. Forest Service and in the construction industry. He and his wife, Le Ann, have one child.
Libertarian Elvis D. Presley, 48, of Star City is an auto refinish technician at Camps Custom Paint and an entertainer who performs shows as Elvis Presley. He legally changed his name in 2006. He ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2010. He and his wife, Valerie, have five children.
Candidates were asked three questions and allowed up to 150 words for each answer. Each responded via email.
What in your background qualifies you to be land commissioner?
Presley: I will answer your question with a question. Are there any qualifications for the office? I think if a person can balance a checkbook, then he or she could be qualified in a sense. I do believe that honesty is a start.
Robertson: I have over 35 years of experience working with Arkansas lands and land-based issues across Arkansas as well as globally. I have a real understanding of the communities within our state, and how our land can be used as an asset to help communities, and public education, thrive. As a citizen advocate Ive worked with the state Legislature on issues with significant importance to our local communities, bringing both sides of the aisle together to get things done for Arkansas. This experience will be invaluable in establishing policy to benefit Arkansas.
Thurston: I am the current land commissioner and have served since 2011 with a proven record of honesty, integrity and transparency. I set out four years ago to make this office a leader of ethics and transparency and I have done just that. Aside from my duties in the office I also serve as president of the Western States Land Commissioners Association and have received support from the Arkansas Realtors Political Action Committee.
If you are elected or re-elected, what plans to do you have for the office?
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Q&A: Democrat, Libertarian challenge land commissioner
