text:
Volume 16, Issue 11
June 20, 2017
Assembly Bill 113, recently signed by the Governor, requires private and public employers to provide nursing mothers a reasonable break time and a clean, private place to express breast milk. Unlike the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act where a place to express breast milk may be a reasonable accommodation, this new law expressly requires that all covered employers provide such a location to nursing mothers. These new requirements become effective July 1, 2017.
Who Is Covered?
This law provides rights and protections to one narrow group of employees: nursing mothers of children under 1 year of age. It applies to most public and private employers with the following limited exceptions:
- If a private employer has fewer than 50 employees, it may be exempted if the law's requirements would impose an undue hardship on the employer, considering the size, financial resources, nature and structure of the business of the employer.
- An employer who is a contractor licensed pursuant to Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 624 is not subject to the requirements of this law with regard to an employee who is performing work at a construction jobsite that is located at least 3 miles from the regular place of business of the employer.
- The Department of Corrections is not required to comply with this law but is encouraged to do so to the extent practicable.
What Is Required?
Covered employers are required to provide nursing mothers with children less than 1 year of age with the following:
- Reasonable break time, with or without compensation, for the employee to express breast milk as needed. "If break time is required to be compensated pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement entered into by an employer and an employee organization, any break time taken pursuant to [this requirement] by an employee which is covered by the collective bargaining agreement must be compensated."
- A place, other than a bathroom, that is reasonably free from dirt or pollution, protected from the view of others and free from intrusion by others where the employee may express breast milk.
- Protection from retaliation for exercising her rights under this law (i.e., using break time and/or the designated location to express milk, or taking any action to enforce the law, such as complaining about a violation, filing a complaint, etc.).
If an employer determines that complying with the first two requirements will cause an undue hardship considering the size, financial resources, nature and structure of its business, the employer may meet with the employee to agree upon a reasonable alternative. If the parties are not able to reach an agreement, the employer may require the employee to accept a reasonable alternative selected by the employer. Public employees are provided the right to appeal this decision.
What Remedies Are Available to Employees for Violations?
There are specific ways public employees may complain about and/or appeal actions taken in violation of this new law, including seeking expedited review by the Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board ("EMRB"). As to private employers, the Nevada Labor Commissioner is authorized to enforce the law and a private employer who violates this law will be guilty of a misdemeanor, subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation.
What Do We Recommend?
First, determine whether you are covered. Simply having fewer than 50 employees does not exempt you from this law's requirements. Instead, smaller employers must be able to prove that complying with this law will create an undue hardship. A careful analysis is needed to determine whether you can use this exception.
Second, if the law applies, you will need to:
- determine how you can give nursing mothers access to a place, other than a bathroom, that is reasonably free from dirt or pollution, protected from the view of others and free from intrusion by others where they may express breast milk.
- develop procedures for the use of this location and for ensuring that a qualified employee has sufficient break time to use this location when needed.
- modify handbooks and policies as necessary to incorporate these new requirements.
- train supervisors on the law's requirements and your policies and procedures.
As always, we are available to assist you with the requirements of this new law.
KZA Employer Report articles are for general information only; they are not intended and should not be construed to be legal advice. Reading or replying to such articles does not establish an attorney-client relationship. In addition, because the subject matters and applicable laws discussed in Employer Report articles are often in a state of change and not always applicable to every type of business entity or organization, readers should consult with counsel before making decisions based on the same.


text:
This site is intended for young people aged 11 – 18 and not all the content may be suitable for younger viewers
During the COVID-19 pandemic - for local information please visit www.burgesshill.gov.uk or facebook.com/BurgessHillTownCouncil
Theatre workshop / Drama group. Drama, games, improvisation, mime, etc. One hour sessions according to age. A hearing loop is installed in the theatre.
Saturday 10am-1pm (term time only)
Players Theatre, 147 High Street, Hurstpierpoint.
Who for?
Unisex. 3yrs - 18yrs.
How much?
£65 per term for all ages
More info?
Jacqui Edwards (Leader): 01273 776006
Debbie Menadue: 01273 722240
or email firstname.lastname@example.com
or visit their website www.centrestagetheatregroup.net
You are viewing the text version of this site.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
MVC Applications & Presenters
We will learn how to create applications in Nette Framework. After this chapter you will know:
- MVC, directory structure and
- what are presenters and actions
- how to use templates
- what are persistent parameters
Model-View-Controller (MVC)
Model-View-Controller is a software architecture that was created to separate utility code (controller) from application logic code (model) and from code for displaying data (view) in applications with a graphical user interface. With this approach the application is easier to understand, it will simplify future development and enables us to test each unit of the application separately.
Model is data and it is the functional base of the whole application. It contains application logic. Any user action (login, insertion of goods to basket, a change of value in the database) represents a model action. The Model is managing its internal state and provides a stable interface to the outside. By calling methods on this interface, we can read or update its state. The Model doesn't know anything about View or Controller.
Concept of Model represents whole layer, not only a single class.
View is an application layer that is taking care of displaying. It usually uses the templating engine and knows how each component should be rendered by getting data from the model.
A controller handles requests from the user, calls relevant application logic (Model) and then asks the View to display data. In Nette Framework, controllers are represented by presenters.
Directory structure
When you look at
sandbox after downloading the Nette Framework package you will see the following recommended
directory structure:
├── app/ ← directory with application
│ ├── config/ ← configuration files
│ │ └── config.neon ← main config file
│ │ └── config.local.neon
│ │
│ ├── model/ ← model layer and its classes
│ ├── presenters/ ← presenter classes
│ │ └── HomepagePresenter.php ← Homepage presenter class
│ │
│ ├── templates/ ← templates directory
│ │ ├── @layout.latte ← template of shared layout
│ │ └── Homepage/ ← templates for Homepage presenter
│ │ └── default.latte ← template for default action
│ │
│ └── bootstrap.php ← application boot file
├── log/ ← contains logs, errors, etc.
├── temp/ ← for temporary files, cache, ...
├── vendor/ ← directory with libraries (for example 3rd party)
│ ├── nette/ ← all Nette Framework libraries
│ │ └── nette/Nette ← Nette Framework itself installed by Composer
│ ├── ...
│ │
│ └── autoload.php ← script that handles autoloading of all classes from installed packages
└── www/ ← public directory, document root of project
├── .htaccess ← rules for mod_rewrite
├── index.php ← triggers the application
└── images/ ← other directories, images, styles, ..
Moreover in some directories, there are
.htaccess and
web.config files, which deny access from
browser (for Apache or IIS). Make sure that these are working, and that you cannot reach
app/ and
directories from your browser.
Don't forget to grant write privilege (
chmod 0777) to directories
log/ and
index.php & bootstrap.php
The browser is sending all requests through one and only one file, located in public directory
www/ and that is
index.php. It only passes the control to the application (that is the
app/ directory), to a boot file
Nette Framework saves all its paths consistently, without the right trailing slash.
The described directory structure is only a recommendation. You can easily change it to whatever you want. All you have to do
is rename directories and change paths in
Firstly, the file
bootstrap.php loads Nette Framework and all libraries that we depend on:
require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
The class
Configurator creates so called DI context and handles application
$configurator = new Nette\Configurator;
Activates debugger and logger in strict mode:
$configurator->enableDebugger(__DIR__ . '/../log');
Setup directory for temporary files
$configurator->setTempDirectory(__DIR__ . '/../temp');
Activate autoloading, that will automatically load all the files with our classes:
->addDirectory(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/others')
And according to the configuration files it generates a DI container. Everything else depends on it.
We will return this DI Container as a result of calling
$configurator->addConfig(__DIR__ . '/config/config.neon');
$configurator->addConfig(__DIR__ . '/config/config.local.neon');
return $configurator->createContainer();
and we will store it as a local variable in
www/index.php and run the application:
$container = require __DIR__ . '/../app/bootstrap.php';
That's it.
Processing presenter action
So how are requests handled? Every request to our application will pass via
index.php and
bootstrap.php to the
$application object. But this object does not understand http requests, so it will
ask the router to translate the request. The router will look at the request, and tells what
presenter is needed, and what action it should execute. For example, the router answers, that the user wants action
show of presenter
Product (it's a good habit to write it like
Product:show) and pass it
id = 123. You can read it like: user wants to show product with id 123.
This is finally understandable to the
$application and it will proceed to fulfill the request. It will create an
object of class
ProductPresenter, that represents presenter
Product. (To be completely accurate, the
application asks the
presenterFactory service for creation of a presenter). This new presenter will be asked for
execution of action (
show with parameter
The presenter is an object that takes the request, translated by router, and computes the answer. This can be an HTML page, an
image, an XML document, a file, JSON, redirection or anything that you need. In detail, the
ProductPresenter will
query the model for data, and pass that data to the template for displaying. This is usually done in method
renderShow, where the word
Show must match the name of the action and request parameter
will be passed to the method as argument:
class ProductPresenter extends Nette\Application\UI\Presenter
public function renderShow($id)
// we will get data from model and pass it to template
$this->template->product = $this->model->getProduct($id);
If you really want, you can get an array of all the GET request parameters by calling
$this->request->getParameters(), but usually you shouldn't need them, bu instead use routing and action parameters.
Similarly you can get all received POST parameters by calling
$this->request->getPost(). And normally,
neither should you need this method. Mostly you're processing form requests and there is a form component for that.
Then the presenter will render the template.
The presenter will deduce the path to the template file from a few simple rules. It will try, for presenter
Product and action
show, if one of these files exists:
- templates/Product/show.latte
- templates/Product.show.latte
Presenter will also try to search for a layout (that is optional):
- email@example.com
- templates/Product.@layout.latte
- firstname.lastname@example.com layout shared by multiple presenters
You can change the way of searching the templates by overriding the formatTemplateFiles or formatLayoutTemplateFiles methods.
Presenters and its components pass a few useful variables to the templates:
$basePathis an absolute URL path to root dir (for example
$baseUrlis an absolute URL to root dir (for example
$useris a object representing the user
$presenteris the current presenter
$controlis the current component or presenter
$flasheslist of messages sent by method
You can read more details about template rendering in a separate chapter.
Actually it's not hard at all! When you're requesting an action, for example
Homepage:default, then
- an object of class
HomepagePresenterwill be created
- method
renderDefault()will be called (if it exists, but it doesn't have to)
- template, for example
templates/Homepage/default.lattewith layout, for example
email@example.com, will be rendered
and in template we can create a link to mentioned
Product:show($id), roughly
like this:
product detail
It looks like creating applications in Nette Framework will be child's play.
When developing complex applications, we can separate directories with presenters and templates to subdirectories. We call them
modules. If our application would contain for example modules
Front and
Admin, its structure could look
like this:
app/ ← directory with application
AdminModule/ ← Admin module
presenters/ ← its presenters
templates/ ← its templates
FrontModule/ ← Front module
presenters/ ← its presenters
templates/ ← its templates
Modules don't have to be arranged in flat structures, you can even create submodules.
If module
Front would contain presenter
Product. Action
show can than be written as
Front:Product:show and class
ProductPresenter will be placed into namespace
namespace FrontModule;
class ProductPresenter extends \Nette\Application\UI\Presenter
// ...
Link creation
Creation of links belongs to the strongest features of Nette Framework. Thanks to two-way routing you don't have to hardcode your URLs or nastily assemble them. You can just refer to actions of presenters, and pass them parameters and the framework will generate URLs by itself. Creating links is as easy as calling a function. You will really like it!
When programming and coding templates, we don't have to care about URLs design, we will refer directly to action of presenter,
that's for example the already mentioned
Links in templates
Most often we create links in templates. To make it as easy as possible the framework offers three macros. The smartest of them
product detail
Note, that instead of the HTML attribute
href we've used n:macro
n:href. Its value isn't a URL, as you are used to with the
href attribute, but directly an action of a
presenter. The syntax is
[Presenter:]action [,] [arg1] [, arg2] [, ...]
After clicking on the link, method
ProductPresenter::renderShow() will get its word and as parameter
$id will get the value of
$productId. We can pass even more parameters in the same way, just like we
call a method. Could it get any easier?
Best practise is to write the presenter with a capital letter and the action without. The separator is a colon.
Besides that, it's even possible to pass named parameters. The next link passes the parameter
lang with value
 cs">product detail
Although the method
renderShow doesn't have
$lang in its declaration, it can read the value of this
parameter by calling
$lang = $this->getParameter('lang').
If we have all parameters in an array, we can expand them with
(expand) operator:
{var $args = [$productId, lang => cs]}
product detail
If the template, in which we are creating links, is part of the
Product presenter, we can omit the name of the
presenter and write directly
n:href="show $productId". Similarly, if a link leads to the an action named
default, you can skip that and write
n:href="Product: $id" (don't forget the colon).
Links can even refer to other modules. Here we distinguish, if it's referring "relatively" to a
submodule, or "absolutely" to a different module – then the path begins with a colon. Let's assume that the actual
presenter is part of module
Front, then we will write:
link for Front:Shop:Product:show
link for Admin:Product:show
A special case is linking to itself. Here we'll write
this as the target.
The generated link is in absolute path format. When you want to generate an absolute link including the domain, for example
http://example.com, simply supply two slashes at the beginning
n:href="//show $productId". If we set the
property $absoluteUrls in presenter to
TRUE, all the links will be absolute by default.
We can refer to specific parts on the page using so called fragments, or anchors, with the hash
# symbol:
link to Product:show and fragment #comments
The macro
n:href is really handy if we are creating an HTML tag
. When we want to have this
link elsewhere, for example in the text of the template, we can use the
{link} macro with the same internal
The address is: {link Product:show $productId}
{ifCurrent $link}...{/ifCurrent} is a conditional statement. If the link is referring to the current page, the
block inside the tags is executed; otherwise it is discarded. Typical use case is adding CSS classes to the active link.

edit

...

...

...

...

{ifCurrent Admin:login}{else}Sign in!{/ifCurrent}
Read more details about the syntax of Latte templates.
Linking in presenter
Presenter and a component have the method
link, which can be used to create links just like in a template. The first argument is presenters target action,
followed by passed arguments:
$url = $this->link(destination [,arg [,arg ...]]);
They can also be passed using an array. Examples:
$url = $this->link('Product:show', $productId);
$url = $this->link('Product:show', array($productId, 'lang' => 'en'));
If you pass
FALSE as method parameter when generating a link, it won't be added to the link at
all. The solution is to define this parameter with default value
TRUE or
FALSE. Nette will then
understand that its type is boolean, and it will be passed to the url as 1 or 0, and converted back to boolean when processed by
a presenter.
Invalid links
It may happen that we create an invalid link – either because it refers to a non-existing presenter, or because it passes
more parameters that the target method receives in its definition, or when there can't be a generated URL for the targeted action.
What to do with invalid links is determined by the static variable
Presenter::$invalidLinkMode. It can have one of
these values (constants):
Presenter::INVALID_LINK_SILENT– silent mode, returns symbol
#as URL
Presenter::INVALID_LINK_WARNING– visual warning
Presenter::INVALID_LINK_EXCEPTION– there will be thrown an exception InvalidLinkException
Default setup in production mode is
INVALID_LINK_SILENT and in development mode it's
INVALID_LINK_WARNING. When setup to
INVALID_LINK_WARNING, presenter and components returns error message
as URL which stars with
error:. To make such links visible, we will add CSS rule to our stylesheet:
a[href^="error:"] {
background: red;
color: white;
Persistent parameters
Except classic parameters, that we know by now, there are so called persistent parameters. Those are different in a very essential way: they are passed through requests automatically. That means, we don't have to explicitly mention them in links, but they are passed anyway.
When your application has multiple language variants passing the actual language in every link will be incredibly tiring. But
that's not needed with Nette Framework. You can simply mark the
$lang parameter as persistent just like this:
class ProductPresenter extends Presenter
/** @persistent */
public $lang;
If the actual value of parameter
$lang will be
'en', the into the link
product detail
the parameter
lang => en will be passed automatically. Great!
But we can also add parameter
lang and by that, change its value:
 cs">detail in Czech language
The parameter will be accessible in the class variable
$lang in objects of
ProductPresenter and it
can be accessed through
$this->lang. We can even set the default value of the persistent parameter to presenter
class. If the parameter value will correspond to the default value, it will not be passed in a URL.
A persistent variable must be declared as public.
Persistence reflects hierarchy of presenter classes, thus parameter defined in specific presenter will be automatically taken into account in every single presenter inheriting from it.
Life cycle of presenter
We know by now that a presenter action causes invoking
render<Action> method, thus for example
renderShow. But it's not the only method that gets invoked. When writing presenters, we can write the following
Life cycle of presenter
startup() gets invoked immediately after the presenter is created. It initializes variables or checks user
If you write your own
startup() method, don't forget to call its parent
Analogous to the method
render<View>(). There are situations when the presenter executes some specific
action (authenticates the user, writes to database) and then redirects to somewhere else. To call it
render would be
inappropriate, because nothing is rendered. Because of that, there is an alternative called
It's important to know that the method
action<Action>() gets called before
render<View>(). It can even decide to change what render method gets invoked, by calling
$this->setView('otherView') (
renderOtherView() will get invoked).
Method handles so called signals aka subrequests. Designed mainly for components and handling of AJAX requests. Processing of forms is also performed on this level.
beforeRender, as the name suggests, gets invoked before
render<View>() and it can
contain for example setup of template, passing variables to template common for more views and so on.
Usually passes required data to templates.
Gets invoked at the end of the presenters life cycle.
More accurate would be to say, that we were talking about life cycle of the class Nette\Application\UI\Presenter, from which presenters are inherited most often. In general, a presenter is any class implementing the simple interface Nette\Application\IPresenter.
Termination of presenter
We can terminate a presenter anytime during its life cycle. We usually do this to prevent rendering a template.
- termination of presenter directly by method:
- termination of presenter and immediate render the template:
- termination of presenter and dispatch of the payload:
$presenter->sendPayload()(for AJAX)
- termination of presenter and dispatch of own response:
A presenter can be terminated also by redirecting or by throwing a
There are two methods
redirect() and
forward() for jumping to another presenter, which have similar
syntax as mentioned link(). For example, after submitting a form and writing to the database, we will
redirect to the product's detail by calling:
$this->redirect('Product:show', $id);
forward() will pass to new action without redirecting, method
redirect() will redirect the
browser with HTTP code 302 or 303. If we would want to use a different code, we will put it before the name of the action of a
$this->redirect(301, 'Product:show', $id);
To go to URLs outside of your application, you can redirect using
Redirection immediately terminates activity of the presenter by throwing the so called terminating exception
Sometimes, before redirection, we want to send a so called flash message. That's a message that will appear after redirection in template.
Error 404, etc.
When we can't fulfill the request, because for example the record is missing in the database, we will throw an exception
Nette\Application\BadRequestException, which represents HTTP error 404:
public function renderShow($id)
$product = $this->model->getProduct($id);
if (!$product) {
throw new Nette\Application\BadRequestException;
// ...
When a user is not authorized to see the page, we will throw a
exception (error 403). Other error codes can be returned using second argument of
Flash messages
These are messages informing about a result of some operation. An important feature of flash messages is that they are available in template, even after redirection. Even when displayed, they are available for three seconds – in case that a user would unintentionally refresh the page – thus messages will not be lost.
Just call the flashMessage() method and
presenter will take care about passing the message to template. First argument is the text of the message and second optional
argument is its type (error, warning, info etc.). The method
flashMessage() returns an instance of flash message, to
allow us to add more information.
public function deleteFormSubmitted($form)
// ... model asks for deletion of record ...
// we will pass the flash message
$this->flashMessage('Item was removed.');
$this->redirect(...); // and redirect
These messages are available in templates variable
$flashes as anonymous objects, that contains
message and
type properties and they can even contain previously mentioned user-defined information.
They can be rendered for example like this:
{foreach $flashes as $flash}

type}">{$flash->message}

Usage of model classes
As we've said before, model is a whole layer composed of many classes, where each one is taking care of one part of application
logic. If we'd have for example a model
App\Articles, which would take care of loading and saving articles, we may
ask for it in a presenter using Dependency Injection, assuming we've properly registered it as a service in DI Container.
class ArticlePresenter extends Presenter
/** @var \App\Articles @inject */
public $articles;
public function renderShow($id)
$this->template->article = $this->articles->find($id);
What just happened? Let's go through it together. As we've said before, instances of presenters are created using the PresenterFactory and what this class does after
creation, is that it checks if the presenter has some public properties, that are annotated with
@inject and if so,
it tries to find a service that implements or is instance of the type, that is in
@var and passes this service to the
property from DI Container.
Thanks to this mechanism, we can use the service right away, without caring where it came from or trying to instantiate it, because we're sure that it will be passed to the property, as long as it's correctly registered in the DI Container.
You can only inject into public properties of classes.
Presenter and components
When we talk about presenters, then under the term components we usually mean descendants of class Control. More accurate would be to use term "controls", but it has a different meaning in czech and "components" did better catch on.
Nette\Application\UI\Presenter by itself, is descendant of class
Control, so there is major
similarity between components and presenter. But
UI\Control (and thus even
UI\Presenter) is primarily a
so called component container. Which means that you can add to it other components. Just like we add to form inputs (text field, button, …). And just like with forms, you can access them through
// attach component to presenter
$presenter['mymenu'] = new MenuControl;
// get component from presenter and render it
Attaching the component to the presenter (binding them) you will be able to:
- create links in component
- use signals
- use persistent parameters in components
When you don't need any of these features, you don't have to bind the component with the presenter.
Component factories
Component factories are an elegant way to create components only when they are really needed (lazy / on demand). The whole
magic is in implementation of a method called
createComponent<Name>(), where
<Name> is the
name of component, that will create and return the desired component. This component is then attached to the presenter. The method
createComponent<Name>() is optionaly passed the
$name of the component, that is being created, as
an argument.
class DefaultPresenter extends Nette\Application\UI\Presenter
public function renderDefault()
$menu = $this['menu']; // access to component
// if this was the first access, method createComponentMenu() will be called
// ...
protected function createComponentMenu()
// create and configure component
$menu = new MenuControl;
$menu->items = $this->item;
// and return it
return $menu;
The first letter of a component name is always lower case, despite that the first letter in the factory name is upper case.
Because all components are created in separate methods, the code is cleaner and easier to read.
We never call factories directly, they get called automatically, when we use components for the first time. Thanks to that, a component is created at the right moment, and only if it's really needed. If we wouldn't use the component (for example on some AJAX request, where we return only part of the page, or when parts are cached), it wouldn't even be created and we save performance of the server.
You can access and render component using macro {control}. So there is no need of manually passing the components to template.

Edit form

{control editForm}
You can read more detailed information about components on a separate page.
Persistent components
Not only parameters, but also components can be persistent. Their state is then passed around when jumping to another
presenter, just like with persistent parameters. We mark persistent components with this
annotation (here we mark components
calendar and
* @persistent(calendar, menu)
class DefaultPresenter extends Presenter
// ...
You don't have to mark subcomponents as persistent, they are persistent automatically.
Where can i get some components?
On page Add-ons, plugins and components you can find some open-source components that were made and shared by community of Nette Framework. Nette Foundation is not liable for them.
Related blog posts
HTTP requests and responses – Part 3
In the first and second sections of this mini-series I describe the possibilities of controlling HTTP protocol from the presenter in Nette…
HTTP requests and responses – Part 2
In the first part I describe presenter methods, by which we can control HTTP responses of the application. In this section, I will address the…
HTTP requests and responses – Part 1
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text:
"The clothier Alexander Julian once quipped that imitation is the sincerest form of aggravation. In the years after he designed the inaugural uniforms, in 1988, for the Charlotte Hornets, his purple and teal—especially the teal—started popping up on everyone from the Detroit Pistons to the San Jose Sharks and the Jacksonville Jaguars. "The streetwear label […]
Archive for June 13th, 2017
Yet another way to knock off Julian: Instagram
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged alexander julian, charlotte hornets, supreme clothing, supreme copies on June 13, 2017 | Leave a Comment »


text:
This is the first in a series of occasional blogs about the ever-changing quality of travel destinations around the world—about what's going on behind the scenes and how it affects the character of the places we care about.
The "best mayor in America" was furious with a lot of people, evidently including me. Mayor Joe Riley's frustration was spraying in all directions, and some of us sharing the on-stage panel with him were getting bits of flack. He had his reasons.
The occasion on May 9, 2011, was a civic forum in a packed auditorium, latest event in a months-old, increasingly heated debate. At issue is a well-liked urban renewal plan with one colossal sticking point: a new cruise ship pier, right next to old-town Charleston. According to some points of view, the fate of one of the country's finest historic cities is now at stake. The Historic Charleston Foundation, sponsor of the event, had asked me to join the seven-person panel to comment on destination stewardship. (Disclosure: They paid an honorarium and covered my travel.) I discovered the furor over the pier had almost eclipsed the reason why the matter came up in the first place.
So walk with me east through the shady streets of Charleston's historic Ansonborough neighborhood, lined by bright, tastefully painted "single houses" set sideways to the street, all clapboard, shutters, and louvered porches, and it's easy to see why this city is considered one of the country's finest historic gems. After we cross East Bay Street, though, it all stops, sudden and ugly, at a blank wall of gray warehouses. It's an aesthetic insult to everything Charleston represents. We've reached Union Pier, a decades-old eyesore with its back turned to the city, blocking the views out over the Cooper River arm of Charleston harbor. The pier and its 74 acres of prime real estate belong to the South Carolina State Ports Authority.
In a way, the architectural rebuff could symbolize the attitude of many port authorities, typically run by appointed, not elected, boards. According to John Norquist, fellow forum panelist and former mayor of Milwaukee, port authorities have a tendency to arrogance when dealing with the cities they occupy.
So Mayor Riley was justifiably proud when he and Port Authority director James Newsome agreed on a "concept plan" that would reincorporate the southern portion of Union Pier into the fabric of the city. Streets would open up all the way to views of the water. New, architecturally suitable buildings would fill reclaimed blocks. A public landing for small craft would connect at the foot of Market Street much as things were a hundred years ago. That part sounded great!
Riley's successes in helping Charleston balance its tourism popularity with livability and economic growth has earned him frequent local accolades as "the best mayor in America." Perhaps so: He's running for his tenth term. Fixing Union Pier would one more brick in his tower of achievement.
But now there's the cruise-ship issue. Based at the south end of Union Pier, the 2,056-passenger Carnival Fantasy has already been using Charleston as a home port since 2009, annoying nearby locals with traffic tie-ups on embarkation days. Other cruise ships stop at Charleston, too, usually sending passengers ashore for a few hours before sailing on. The trend is up. Under the redevelopment plan, the cruise ship pier would move to the north end, which most folks concede would be an improvement on the current situation.
But many think it would be even more of an improvement to if the towering ships and their accompanying crowds and traffic moved away from the historic district entirely, farther up the peninsula to another port facility at Columbus Street. That portion of passengers actually interested in Charleston could ride a shuttle into town. "Not on the table," insists Newsome. The Port Authority wants that entire terminal reserved for cargo.
At the forum I reported how Charleston ranked on two National Geographic surveys on destination stewardship, scoring very well, with a 71 in 2004 and 77 in 2009. The surveys, published in National Geographic Traveler, have been polls of expert opinions whereby 200-400 survey panelists consider several factors—environment, culture and social integrity, historic preservation, aesthetics, tourism management—and rate places accordingly. Both times, Charleston came in among the very best in the United States. On the 2004 survey, by contrast, Key West came in with a bottom-hugging 43, largely due to the unbridled increase in cruise ship visitation. In such towns, floods of passengers create a mini-tsunami of humanity that pleases some shopkeepers but can annoy local residents and stay-over visitors who have come to enjoy the place for its own sake. Some Charlestonians have raised the specter of Key West as a reason to go slow on cruise ships.
A rule of thumb in tourism is that an overnight visitor contributes at least four times more to the economy than a day-tripper, sometimes much more. A Port-sponsored study touting the benefits of cruise ships found that many cruise passengers claimed they would return to see Charleston, but it didn't determine how many actually do so.
Although the historic Charleston peninsula and historic Key West are comparable in size, Riley dismissed the Key West comparison as "ridiculous," noting that cruise passengers were a small fraction of Charleston's yearly tourism flow. Riley also rejected a study showing the enhanced value of converting the entire 74 acres to housing and shops. "This is a city!" he exclaimed "not a boutique." Charleston, he said, needs a lively working waterfront. Many agree with him there, including me. But does the waterfront handle cargo and seafood, or floating cities of vacationers?
Currently, the Port Authority gets only 7 percent of its revenue from cruise ships. Newsome has proposed voluntary limits: no ship bigger than 3500 passengers, no more than 104 ships per year, no more than one ship at a time. Not too bad. But he refuses to lock it in formally, saying to do so would hurt the port's credibility with its customers and lenders.
The proposed cruise ship pier seems long enough, 1,800 feet, to handle two ships. Even the voluntary limit allows ships 75 percent bigger than the 10-deck Fantasy.
Shortly before the night of our forum, someone contacted the National Trust for Historic Preservation, proposing that the Trust put Charleston on its annual "11 Most Endangered" list. The Trust is considering doing so. For Riley, whose career was built in part on protecting Charleston's historic sense of place, the threat was infuriating, like putting Giorgio Armani on the "Worst Dressed" list. The Trust will release its 2011 list June 15.
The issue revolves around numbers. If hundreds of tourists flood iconic city blocks, they change the character of those blocks, and in some eyes, the character of the city. The world's population of tourists keeps growing. Cruise ships keep growing in both size and numbers. The money involved keeps growing, an irresistible temptation. The number of passengers keeps growing. But the port communities they visit remain the same size. Without constraints, Charleston could find itself an example of that oxymoron attributed to Yogi Berra:
"Nobody goes there any more. It's too crowded."


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Weekly Lore #10 — On The Prancing Pony
The Prancing Pony was the main Inn of the town of Bree. In addition to providing beds and meals for travellers, the Inn also served as a meeting place for the local townsfolk. While most rooms at The Pony were used by Rangers and dwarves, there was also a wing with rooms specifically designed with hobbits in mind.
The Inn was also notable for serving good food and excellent beer, at one point made better by an enchantment from Gandalf. The Inn had been owned by the Butterbur family since its start, with Barliman Butterbur the innkeeper at the time of the Lord of the Rings. Due to the status of the Inn as a meeting place, Butterbur was considered an important person in Bree.
Aside from Barliman Butterbur, the hobbits Nob and Bob worked at the Prancing Pony; Nob typically taking care of the guests while Bob worked as a stablehand. Gandalf, Strider, and Tom Bombadil were regular guests at the Inn, and it also hosted Frodo and Company during their trip to Rivendell. In addition, it was where Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield had a chance meeting that would eventually lead to the downfall of the dragon Smaug.
In LotRO:
The Prancing Pony is located in the north-east corner of Bree. There are a number of quests started by or involving Barliman Butterbur. In addition, Aragorn and Gandalf can be found staying at the Inn as part of the first book of Epic quests. While Nob can be found fetching water for the Inn, Bob is located near the Barrow-Downs, having set off to search for his daughter. The Inn is also the subject of one of the skirmishes, the aptly named "Defence of the Prancing Pony."
The Prancing Pony also offers the services of a barber, a bard, and a Minstrel class trainer in addition to the standard Tavern Keeper and Healer vendors, with a Milestone and mailbox located just outside.
[Spoilers Follow]
During the stay of Frodo & Company on their trip to Rivendell, The Prancing Pony was attacked in the night by agents of the Black Riders, likely including Bill Ferny and Harry Goatleaf. The Inn suffered from a lack of business when ruffians and bandits began operating in the Bree area, but customers began returning when Frodo & Company came back from the events "away south," as the Bree-folk called it.


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I am a well seasoned Mortgage Professional with more than 20 years in the Mortgage Industry. While the majority of my career I have focused on Residential Mortgages, I have experience with Commercial lending as well, and continue to be able to assist my clients with both their Residential and Commercial Mortgage needs. I am committed to ensuring that my clients receive the best possible customer service and the best programs and rates available. Client satisfaction is the reason that over 70% of my business comes from satisfied past clients who both return to me for their mortgage needs as well as refer me to their friends and families in addition to referrals from business and industry associates.
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. specializes in mortgages for residential properties. We have access to a wide array of programs - conventional, jumbo, FHA, VA, reverse mortgage products, and construction to permanent loans. We originate, underwrite and finance your mortgage from start to finish. Every client has a different and unique situation, so I am there to customize and meet your individual needs and circumstances. I am available to serve my clients who are either looking to purchase a new home, or refinance an existing residence, second home, or investment property. I also assist and have access to programs for first time home buyers.
As a direct lender my borrowers will benefit from quick turn times, great competitive rates and a smooth process from beginning to end. I am available to my clients throughout the process, starting from the initial meeting all the way to the closing table.
|Blog Posts
|Poll Votes
Contributions to Lender411
Contact Ronald


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LocationRedding, CA
4850 Westside Rd
Redding, CA 96001
New 2019 Keystone RV Hideout Single Axle 186LHS For Sale in Redding, CA
Keystone Hideout Single Axle travel trailer 186LHS highlights:
- Large Slide
- Rear Corner Bath
- Queen Bed
- Jack Knife Sofa
- Pass-Through Storage
Abundant storage throughout makes this Hideout Single Axle unit easy to keep organized! You will love the exterior pass-though compartment up front for all of your outdoor camping gear and yard games. With a 12' power awning you can enjoy the evening playing corn-hole and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. When inside, there is plenty of space thanks to the large slide which features a booth dinette and jack knife sofa, and both seating spaces offer storage drawers as well.
Stock# 211464
Interior Color: DESIGNER&aposS CHOICE
|22 ft 10 in
|Ext Height
|10 ft 4 in
|Interior Color
|DESIGNER&aposS CHOICE
|Fresh Water Capacity
|27 gals
|Grey Water Capacity
|30 gals
|Black Water Capacity
|30 gals
|Available Beds
|Refrigerator Size
|6 cu ft
|Number of Awnings
|LP Tank Capacity
|20 lbs
|Awning Info
|12' Power
|Axle Count
|Number of LP Tanks
At Keystone we do things differently, and have since we first opened our doors in 1996. This different way means focusing on you, our customer, and building RVs that are much more than great floor plans and prices. It starts with innovative products that are built tough, and doesn't stop there. It's our commitment to provide a better ownership experience. We understand that when you put your hard earned money down, you expect your RV to deliver as promised. That's why "Building Adventures for the Long Haul" is more than just a slogan here at Keystone; it is our number one mission each and every day. It's the reason today we are honored to say we have nearly one million Keystone owners out on the open road who we consider family.


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We are considered as one of the fast growing companies that have been involved in Qatar market in past 10 years,
GABRO MIX was established in 2015 to deliver transport and logistic solutions for GEMCO ROCKS.
our sepicalized teams and huge fleet of trucks and tippers allow us to provide efficient and effective solutions for our clients and partners.
GEMCO ROCKS. is registered under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the State of Qatar, under registration number 26509.
- Fully Qatari Owned Company with excellent rapport and connections.
- Diversified staff with loads of experience in the trade.
- We built, managed and currently operate Simaisama port.
- Financial Strength.
- In-House assets to delivery your cargo from port to your door.
- Lastly, but not the least we have multifold experience in cargo deliveries. lighterage operations at Simaisama Port.
Our Mission is to Supply high quality products and services according to standards specifications.
- We implement the high quality of our products according to certified laboratories to comply with QCS 2014.
- We import quantity of 6.240.000 Tons yearly, to be supplied to our customers in Qatar Market.
- We have storage yard located in Mesaieed industrial Area with approximately 45000 M2 capacity of storage.
- We supply high-grade of gabbro rock, mainly for the construction industry.
- We ensure that SAFETY and PRODUCTIVITY of our operation is our main priority by providing highly dedicated and professional staff.
- We provide transportations and shipping solutions and services offshore and onshore.
Our Vision is to Grow and Expand our business in Qatar and in the Middle East Region.
We expanded and established our own transportation division to ensure on time delivery of aggregates with different sizes and types to various locations to our valued clients.
We are capable to increase the number of trucks to match market requirements. We are expanding in order to transport the materials to our yard and deliver them as per our orders in the shortest possible period. To ensure non-stop progress.
Our Transportation Division operates a fleet of Barges, Bulk Carrier, Landing craft and tugs.
As well as a fleet of more than 60 trucks and trailers, dedicating for the transportation of aggregates
and rocks from Mesaieed to all clients in state of Qatar.
- Flexibility in equipment and equipment sizes.
- Well trained professional drivers.
- Clean and well maintained equipment.
- Record keeping, logs and statistics necessary to meet government requirements.
- Spare and back up drivers available when the situation arises.
Our Values is to Fulfill our clients requirements through dedicating our Maximum potentials, which is the key factors to the success of our business.
- GPS monitored trucks in real-time and historical record.
- Modernized fleet managment system.
- Online freight database.
- Imaging system document controller.
Our fleets of vehicles are fully compliant in accordance with all Qatar traffic rules & regulation.


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Gemma & José are graduates of the National Centre for Circus Arts.
Specialising in Chinese pole, Gemma has worked across the world with companies such as Avant Garde Dance, Cirque Bijou and Upswing, and in the Olympic Torch Relay show in 2012. Gemma is from Girona, Spain, and has a background in rhythmic gymnastics.
José has performed with Gandini Juggling since 2012, touring Smashed and 8 Songs internationally. He has also performed in Kezziah Serreau's Strike, and New London Consort's Fairy Queen.
The pair first worked together after José won the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award for Circus in 2010 to create "H", which he co-directed and Gemma performed in. The show was developed at Jacksons Lane and had a small international tour in 2012.
Cul De Sac was born out of a desire to create circus with strong skills and sharp humour. This juggling piece is where it all began.


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I was born and raised in Olympia, Washington. I went to University of Washington in Seattle, and after that, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I concentrated on foreign language pedagogy, first and second language acquisition, and minimalist syntax.
I've studied abroad in Avignon, France; Rome, Italy; Antigua, Guatemala; and most recently in Hangzhou, China.
For the past 8 years, I was a Spanish teacher and campus minister at a Jesuit high school in Seattle. Now I'm moving to Shanghai, China to work for a company developing online study material for people learning Spanish.
The posts previous to September 2007 have been imported from my previous blogs you don't have to read and China Trippin'. I've decided to move to wordpress.com because it's easier to use in China.
This blog is just a journal. Sometimes I tell stories, but mostly I just take pictures of my food, worry about diabetes, and complain about my life. This new blog will probably be about the wonders and challenges of my new life in Shanghai. I hope you enjoy it.
john patrick | 万吉平
It's 2010. I was in China for about 2 years, working at SpanishPod. Now I'm in living in Battery Park City Manhattan, working in Midtown at Spanishpod101.
It's almost the end of 2010. I was downsized from Spanishpod101, but months before I had applied for teaching jobs. The best offer was from… wait for it… the Jesuit high school I used to teach at before I went to China! So I took the summer off in Las Vegas, with the folks, and then when school started I moved back to Seattle. So now I'm back to my old life; same office, same townhouse… it's almost like I never left. I hope this goes well!
It's the fall of 2015. In a lot of ways, my 2nd round of high school teaching was nice; I got to live in Seattle again, I got to teach Chinese, I was finally making grown-up money, and there was a renovation at the school that made my work day better: an office with a million dollar view, a pretty swanky classroom of my own, etc. But in the end the workload was piled on to me in a way that I thought was inequitable, and I didn't have time to take care of myself. It was miserable. Others suggested that I take my professional standards down a notch, an idea that was an anathema to me… but in the end, my students were getting fewer carefully crafted speaking and learning opportunities, and more worksheets. When I saw that there was no end in sight, I left.
I took the summer vacation I always wanted to: six weeks in the Philippines with extended family and daily Tagalog lessons. And then I reported to work in Glendale, California, where I work in an office, developing language learning activities for an online early learning website.
I never thought I'd be in LA. But here I am! Let's see where this new path takes me.
|From Me
Update IV
It's the fall of 2017. I left that corporate job in LA after 10 months of boredom. I was getting a nice paycheck but not doing the project they had hired me to do, and not helping anyone learn language. I had to leave.
I took a job at a Jesuit high school in the Coachella Valley, teaching Spanish initially, but now I'm building a Mandarin Chinese program too. I'm actually teaching AP Spanish Language and Culture, which is something I've been against for most of my career, but here I am doing it for money. I'm still annoyed with the corporate aspect of it, but it's gratifying to teach people how to be good students and get good results.
California is weird to me and I'm not a Californian. I'll stay here as long as the job works out for me, it might be years or decades before I move again, I don't know. If I stay, it will be because they have allowed me to build a strong Mandarin program.
I'm going to write a memoire, a collection of short stories from my adventures, which illustrate how I've become a multilingual as an adult. When people who know me from SpanishPod hear this, they are often enthusiastic. When people who know me from my work in the classroom hear this, I see a curtain of boredom fall over their gaze. Not sure what to make of it. I know a bunch of people who are not multilingual, and honestly I'm not sure why they'd want to stay that way. In any case, I have to keep believing that what I have to say is interesting and worth telling. After that, book deal, media pundit, disposable income, etc. Wish me luck.


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This topic describes the features and tasks of the Job Definition view. The Job Definition view allows you to create and manage new jobs.
The following figure shows the Job Definition view.
The Job Definition view consists of the following sections:
- Job Definition
- Advanced Options
Job Definition Panel
The Job Definition panel allows you to define and schedule Warehouse Analytics jobs.
The following table describes the fields on the Job Definition panel.
Enables the report schedules and runs the report.
The unique name for the report.
The name of the Data Science model or jar file to be imported. This option is visible only when you define a Job.
Note: Depending on the model you select, the values are pre-populated in the Advanced Options panel.
|The name of the Warehouse data source. (For example, MapR or Pivotal).
|Past - Allows you to specify the number of days on which the query is run.
|Range Specific - Allows you to select a date range From and To for which the query is run.
Advanced Options Panel
The Advanced Options panel allows you to define or customize several parameters such as:
Model, HDFS, MapR, Sandbox JVM of the Warehouse Analytics job.
The following table lists the fields in the Advanced Options panel.


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Sometimes they're sad. Sometimes they're drunk.
Typically I find that when they're drunk, they're less sad. At least until you get to the very final moment – the moment when you really have nothing left to do but "say goodbye." And then really, if tears do fall, you're probably just drunk crying – does that count? I honestly love that part.
You see how useful drunkenness is?
And so, when the time came for our rockstar 20-something MBA candidate intern to return to his native France after six months serving as the only real dedicated form of "assistance" I've ever had at work, I decided the whole team had to get drunk together to send him off. Because I couldn't let anyone see me cry FOR REAL.
Only drunk cry.
And drunk cry I did, this past Friday night. Just a weeeeee bit.
Really, though – this kid is special. He'll be hot shit some day. But I doubt he'll ever go to six bars in a row after a full work day with his coworkers again.
Bon Voyage, Anthony! You made our work days easier and our happy hours a little rougher the next morning. Here's to your future, and to our long-gone 20s.
See all our pics of the epic farewell French bar crawl here.


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In this scenario I am Lassie and you are Timmy. I'm all worked up because I'm watching helplessly as a senseless law is passed, a law which has the potential to seriously damage the microfinance sector in Nicaragua and rob many of the poor of financial growth and opportunity. So be patient and listen close as I bark at you…
June 2008: A group of farmers, led by Omar Gonzalez Vilchez from Wiwili, Nicaragua, revolt in front of the government (See Victoria Kabak's Blog). Not only is the global economy suffering at this time, but commodity prices in Nicaragua have weakened, especially cattle. Thus cash is tight, the farmers can't make payments on their loans, and they join forces to say so.
July 2008: Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua, tells the farmers to take it up with their respective microfinance institutions. And with Daniel's support, they do. Delinquencies rise, the nation's microfinance portfolio falls 15% because international funders start pulling out, and the "No Pago" group continues to demand the government do something about this!
Well that was in 2008, so what now?
And here I would like to quote, the economic adviser to the president of Nicaragua, Bayardo Arce,
"This law contributes nothing to the forward movement of the economy… if the people get mixed up in the political game the government officials have made, yes, it can have a harmful effect for the financial system, if not for the national economy. What it's going to do is the banks aren't going to lend, and production is going to fall, therefore the employment will go down." – El Nuevo Diario, "Piden Veto a Moritoria"
A motion was filed to suspend approval until involved parties were consulted [i.e. banks, microfinance institutions, funding sources] but it went unanswered.
The president had until March 24th to veto the legislation.
The president's silence on the subject is inspiring interpretation; hopefuls think it indicates room to negotiate, others believe he's silent because he will not budge.
"It's unconstitutional!" The director of ADIM told me. And so I read more to find out. Sure enough, Julio Flores Coca of ASOMIF agrees, he is quoted as saying the law is in violation to the constitution, "The law says only the Central Bank of Nicaragua can govern the monetary system in this country."
Well, March 24th has come and gone. Despite economists nation wide disapproving, Daniel does not order a veto. Now for a three month period before the law is enforced, giving all parties involved "time" to comply. During this time modifications and changes will be proposed, and we can only hope Daniel will listen.
Run and get help Timmy, a golden retriever can't save Nicaragua by itself!
By Monica Hamlett, KF10 Managua, Nicaragua
You can help, lend to a Nicaraguan entrepreneur now.
*To give you a little context to that interest rate, most of the funding to ADIM ranges from 14% to 18%. This means the average (for simplicity sake, not weighted and excluding Kiva) would be 16%. How will the institutions pay salaries, purchase software for computers, pay electricity bills, get toilet paper for the office bathrooms, anything?
La Prensa:
- http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2010/03/24/politica/20050
- http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2010/02/24/nacionales/17284
- http://archivo.laprensa.com.ni/movil/ley-de-moratoria-en-manos-del-presidente-ortega-27674.html
El Nuevo Diario:


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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
This is specialized communications work in receiving and dispatching accurate information on an assigned shift to appropriate personnel. Positions in this class are employed in both police and fire communications and dispatch personnel based on seven digit calls and 911 calls. Work involves responsibility for operation of specialized radio utilizing multiple channels and frequencies in a communication center. Position requires fast, efficient, and accurate receiving, dispatching and processing of calls and messages from and to appropriate vehicles and personnel. Employees work in considerable independence, subject to instructions or orders to meet special operating circumstances or emergencies.
Work is primarily sedentary in a central telecommunications room. This room is located in a building with no windows. Incumbent often works fast-paced in a harried work atmosphere, confronted by disturbing or stressful call situations.
Click here for more information or to apply for this job.


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experiments macerating dried flowers, roost, rinds and herbs are completed and I have detailed notes on the results. After a month's time the liquor was strained off and clarified and then some were matched with hydrosols. Certain recipes didn't work at all and were discarded but most of them yielded results. I was really surprised by the tenacity of the different brews, some of them will last days on a tester strip.
Summer Splash came as a real surprise. The floral note that resulted from roses and lavender macerating with vetiver, sweet annie and orange peel was astonishing. It was blended with lemon balm hydrosol to create a summery splash. This one changes over time in a most interesting way.
Florida Water epitomizes summer for me. There is a large Latino community intermingled in my Brooklyn neighborhood and a lot of the pharmacies cater to this clientelle so are stocked with Florida Water. I have memories of my first years in Brooklyn discovering the pleasures of an evening shower followed with a splash of Florida Water. Orange blossom and clove are the distinctive notes in the cologne so I decided orange blossom hydrosol would be used with a maceration of meyer lemon rind, sweet woodruff, lavender, benzoin, cinnamon and clove. The results smell surprisingly like the water I used all those years ago, and I think it could be considered suitable for men as well as women.
Verbena Water is the result of macerating fresh lemon verbena and sweet woodruff from my garden, dried jasmine, linden blossoms and vanilla pods and then mixed with verbena hydrosol. It's as fresh as it sounds, the softness of the woodruff and vanilla pared with lemon verbena counterbalance each other beautifully.
Rose Garden is a blend of dried roses, angelica root, jasmine, vanilla pods and lemon verbena which was then mixed with rosewater to create a veritable rose garden in a bottle.
Violet Water is the result of orris root, sweet woodruff, benzoin and jasmine marrying beautifully to create a woodland violet sort of fragrance which was then blended with cornflower water. Violets contain a chemical called ionones which give them their characteristic fragrance. Orris root, the dried and aged rhizome of the Iris pallida, also contains ionones but also has a woodland quality to it. There are no violets in this blend so the name is merely a suggestion.
Each cologne is bottled in a one of a kind vintage glass bottle collected from the beaches of Brooklyn, NY. They've been scrubbed clean and sterilized but they're old and scratched to different degrees. Expect some wear from tumbling in the ocean for who knows how long.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Cologne Experiment Results
Posted by Julianne Zaleta at 2:45 PM No comments:
Labels: alchemy, apothecary, bay, bay rum, bayberry, beach bottles, botanical cologne, Brooklyn, florida water, foraging, gift certificate, hay, Herbal Alchemy, jasmine, lemon verbena, linden, orris root, roses
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Making Elderflower Liqueur
|Elderflowers macerating in vodka
Elderflowers grow all over Prospect Park and another artisanal cocktail enthusiast told me that he'd made his own liqueur from the flowers in the park. I made a point of getting together with another friend, a local forager and farmer, to hunt for the blossoms. Armed with wildflower guides we set out and identified plenty of look a likes but came home empty handed. A second foray found what we were looking for.
Posted by Julianne Zaleta at 10:18 AM 5 comments:
Labels: alchemy, apothecary, Brooklyn, cocktails, elderflower, essential oils, foraging, infused vodka, infusion, Julianne Zaleta, liqueur, meyer lemon, neroli, peru balsam, recipe, yuzu
Thursday, August 2, 2012
My First Class Coming Up at the New York Horticultural Society
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About Us
Kathy's House is a non-profit Hospital Guest House that provides lodging and a supportive environment to families who are experiencing one of life's most stressful situations—personal illness or the serious illness of a loved one.
Kathy's House provides a true "home away from home" for patients and/or their caregivers.
It is a caring place where guests can eat, sleep, and be with others when they want – or be alone when they need time, introspection, and quiet healing. The house provides a place where mutual support thrives, which is one of the great strengths of Kathy's House.
A vital and an affordable resource in the Milwaukee health care community, Kathy's House is the only Hospital Guest House in the area that serves patients of all ages and their caregivers who need to travel to Milwaukee for medical care.
Any patient receiving outpatient treatment at a Milwaukee area hospital, along with their caregiver(s), is eligible to become a guest at Kathy's House. Caregivers of patients in a Milwaukee area hospital are also eligible. Read our Guest Policy to learn more.
The application process for a prospective guest starts with a Referral from a Health Care Professional.
Kathy's House By the Numbers
- $649,000 donated to Kathy's House in 2018
- 131,000 lodging nights provided to guests since opening in 2001
- 300 volunteers provided $114,100 worth in total economic impact
- 9,000 families have been served over our 15 year history
- 11,528 lodging nights provided in 2018
- $87/$32 cost for a night's lodging versus average donation
- Over 150 health providers refer patients to Kathy's House each year
- 85% of guests are here because of a cancer diagnosis
- 71% of guests are Wisconsin residents
- 75% growth of occupancy in the last six years
- 55% of guests are caretakers for someone who is receiving inpatient care in the Milwaukee area
- 45% of guests are patients themselves, many of them receiving an outpatient bone marrow transplant
- 50 miles Almost all of our guests live 50 miles outside of Milwaukee, most from eastern Wisconsin
- One agency focused on making guests welcome and feel they are home
Where Our Guests Come From
Of all guests that stay at Kathy's House:
- 71%: Wisconsin Residents
- 15%: Michigan Residents
- 6%: Illinois Residents
- 8%: Other United States Residents
- <1%: Outside the United States


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Training and Events
Descriptive & Inferential Statistics in SPSS
Organised by
|Ulster University
Dr James Houston
02/09/2019 - 03/09/2019
Ulster University
View in Google Maps (BT52 1SA)
Synopsis of the course
This two-day short-course is designed for researchers who have little or no experience using statistical software such as SPSS or who may need a refresher course on methods of dealing with quantitative data. The course is ideally suited to participants who have, or whose organisations may have, quantitative data but are unsure of how to analyse it or are unsure of how to get the most information out of their data. The rationale underlying this short-course is to promote evidence-based decision making through exploiting data. Participants will be made aware of how they can answer research questions using various types of data and various types of analyses.
The short-course begins with an introduction to the SPSS interface, detailing the many features available in this statistical software. We will also show participants how to get data into SPSS from various sources, including databases such as excel. The short-course will to introduce and develop knowledge of statistical analysis, with specific reference to hypothesis testing; statistical concepts and techniques; selecting an appropriate statistical technique; the application of statistical software to data analysis; and the production and interpretation of statistical and graphical output.
The short-course will use lectures to provide a clear understanding of the logic underlying the use of statistical techniques and procedures. However, a greater amount of time will be devoted to giving participants experience of hands-on use of SPSS. At the end of each day participants will be given the opportunity to discuss any data they might have, particularly in terms of selecting and applying an appropriate form of analysis or questions they might have about conducting research in general. No prior knowledge of SPSS or statistical analysis is required.
Further information
No prior knowledge of SPSS or statistical analysis is required. This two-day course will be held on Coleraine Campus, Ulster University.
Entry (no or almost no prior knowledge)
Fees (includes lunch and refreshments)
Website and registration
Northern Ireland
Quantitative Data Handling and Data Analysis
Related publications and presentations


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U.N. Fair and U.N. Balanced (In process?)
Redacted from an original article by Matthew Continetti that should be absorbed in its entirety. It describes, in spades, the duplicity, in fact, the un-Americanism of The New York Times!
Somini Sengupta, who covers the United Nations for the New York Times, recently tweeted about the new U.S. ambassador there. "I find Nikki Haley unusual among diplomats here," she wrote, "in that she speaks often without notes, she's confident about what she needs to say." Imagine: a prepared, competent, and spirited representative of U.S. interests at the world body. How novel.
Sengupta appears puzzled by her subject. For not only is Ambassador Haley self-assured and capable of extemporaneous speech, she is unlike her immediate predecessors in that she is a conservative willing to defend her country's ideals and interests before others.
Moreover, Haley does not reflexively criticize the government and people of our ally Israel. So trapped within the liberal bubble is the Times that such behavior comes across to the paper as aberrant, freakish, worthy of incredulity. The coverage that results is almost funny when it is not outright embarrassing.
… The article is thin as profiles go. What the reader comes away with is a feeling of wonderment that the piece was written at all. A more apt but less eye-catching headline might have been, "Haley Hires Aide Who Shares Her Views." The gist is that conservatives exist. This is news to the New York Times.
The detached style of the copy fails to conceal the spirit of adversarial condescension in which it is written. This article is not labeled opinion or analysis or fact check. It purports to be a dispassionate retelling of Haley's speech. It therefore misleads the reader by juxtaposing Haley's statements with Sengupta's barely disguised commentary. In the following excerpts the emphasis is my own:
1 "Ms. Haley said the United States would never close its doors to foreigners who flee persecution, even as she defended the Trump administration's travel ban, which closed the door to refugees from six war-torn, mainly Muslim nations."
2 "She insisted that American taxpayers should get value for the money they contribute to the United Nations. She said nothing about whether the United States would help head off a potential humanitarian disaster from famine that the United Nations has warned is looming over 20 million people abroad."
3 "She cited what she called a 'ridiculously biased report attacking Israel,' and criticized the Security Council for holding monthly meetings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (The council also discusses Yemen every month and Syria three times a month.)"
The measure of Sengupta's disingenuousness and bad faith can be taken by examining the above sentences.
… Moral equivalence between Israel and its adversaries might as well be part of the New York Times style guide, I suppose. What's remarkable about Sengupta's piece is that even as she clumsily attempts to provide left-wing "context" to Haley's appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, she can't bring herself to mention that the charge of corruption against the UN Human Rights Council is a long-standing bipartisan element of U.S. foreign policy.
Haley's charge is obviously true. The council exists only because its ancestor, the UN Human Rights Commission, had become so monopolized by autocrats, dictators, anti-Semites, anti-Americans, and chronic human-rights violators that it was dissolved upon American withdrawal in 2006.
Its replacement is little better, since any human-rights body whose members do not recognize rights within their own borders is not worthy of the name. Nikki Haley has the clarity of vision and political gumption to call corruption by its name. No wonder the Times finds her so unusual.
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Some background information that you probably won't care about:
A small sample of those hundreds
(thousands?) of books waiting to be
I've seen a fair bit of buzz around the books of Jason M. Hough, particularly his first trilogy (The Dire Earth Cycle) which is a form of military science fiction that I've just never found myself in the mood for, even though I have full trilogy collecting dust on a bookcase. Anyway, I had that privilege to meet Jason when he visited Arizona last year and converse over a beer or two (I'm still rather unhappy that I had forgotten his books to get them signed). So, I will be completely honest, I read his book because we had beers together – yes, I had copies of his books and yes, they seemed like fun books to read. But the distinguishing feature that made me read his book over the hundreds of others I have lying around my office was that I met him in person and enjoyed our conversations. And it didn't hurt that in an earlier conversation that I had with Brian Staveley, Brian had very positive things to say about Zero World. Yes, book tours matter. Yes, there are sometimes 'perks' to being a blogger. And yes, I hope to meet Jason again, converse over more drinks, and hopefully I'll remember to bring books for him to sign.
Zero World intrigued me initially because it sounded like a fun and interesting take on a spy thriller in a near-future science fiction world. Basically, and Asian James Bond in the future. And initially, that is exactly what Zero World is – a fun and interesting take on the spy thriller where our spy/assassin has his memory wiped after every mission. There are some interesting bits about the whole memory reset process, the moral ambiguity that comes from being a successful assassin with no memory of his actions, and of course just who is the 'god' voice in this assassin's head and what are their motivations. This, and our assassin gets a physical boost in speed, strength, and healing through some nice chemical enhancements.
But, even though all of that is more than enough for its own story, it gets bigger. Before long, this near-future SF book becomes 'portal' SF to a parallel world, with things ending up in a near Space Opera scope, though we still see it all through our Bond-like assassin. Then we begin to see things through the eyes of another spy from the parallel world. With the broadening of the scope comes a broadening of exploration – our assassin questions his morals, his goals, his purpose. In parallel we learn to question the motivations of others, particularly those in power. The further up the proverbial tower of power, the worse things seem to be. In this respect, Zero World is a fresh take on old ideas.
But, don't let me get too deep here, because I run the risk of skipping over the true strengths of this book. It's the pacing – a lot of things happen fast. This is about 3 books in 1, and it works. Zero World keeps the adrenaline flowing, the mind begging to know what comes next, and it won't let you go to sleep. This is entertainment. This is fun. And I can't wait to see what comes next.
So, as usual, no plot summary here. And as is (sadly) becoming more and more common with my reviews, it's rather short and doesn't dig in as I like to do. But, in the end it doesn't matter. In the end, a review is an opinion, and in my opinion, Zero World is great book written by a great guy.
Zero World (Amazon)
The Dire Earth Cycle
The Darwin Elevator (Amazon)
The Exodus Towers (Amazon)
The Plague Force (Amazon)


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A Chat with "Harper's Island" Victims #2 and #3
If you're particularly persnickety about the death count on "Harper's Island" since its debut last week, then you're probably grousing about how, although we referred to Uncle Marty – who's half the man he used to be – as the first victim, he was really the second person to be murdered within the episode. This is completely true, of course, since I think it's fair to say that we collectively shuddered as Cousin Ben bought the big one at more or less the same moment the boat left the mainland dock and began its voyage to the island. Similarly, there were actually three deaths in Episode #2. So why are we only citing two of the victims here?
Here's the thing: we're only counting the people who appear on the list that CBS and the show's producers have helpfully provided us to use as a scorecard of sorts. If they're not on the list (which you can find right here), then we're not counting them in the grand total.
Okay, now that we're all on the same page about how the victim count works, let's prepare to chat with Victims #2 and #3, shall we?
You can follow us on Twitter @moviebuffs and on Facebook as well.
Posted in: Actors, Actresses, Harper's Island, Horror Movies, Interviews, Movie Dramas, Sci-Fi Movies, TV, TV Dramas
Tags: 2012, Ali Liebert, Alien Trespass, Anna Mae Routledge, Bob Goodwin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Gorham, Dan Lauria, Harper's Island, Harper's Island interview, Harper's Island interviews, Harry Hamlin, JD Dunn, John Billingsley, Kelly Seaver, Lucy Daramour, Oliver Platt, Poltergeist 2, Reverend Fain, Sarah Smyth, Shane Pierce, Thandie Newton, Ugly Betty


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Tribes: Ascend lacked mod support, which made it the black sheep of the family. However, a leaked developer build allowed one user to implement what the developers didn't. He goes by the name Altimor, and I reached out to him to ask a few questions surrounding his Software Development Kit.
This article is available in both video and transcript format. Watching the video is the best way to support me, but if you can't watch a video at this time, a modified transcript is provided below.
When Hi-Rez Studios released Tribes: Ascend in 2012, they opted for a 'games as a service' model, which, in their eyes, nullified the need for mod support. As fate would have it, Hi-Rez would abandon Tribes the following year, left without map making tools or the ability to host private servers.
Despite the lack of official support from Hi-Rez, someone found a way to add both of these features, all thanks to a small mistake on the part of the developer. Tribes community member Altimor discovered a public dev build of the game by modifying the parameters of its launcher, and this allowed him access to the developer console and several unreleased maps. Hi-Rez soon realised their mistake, but it was too little too late. With the dev console, Altimor created a Software Development Kit that would enable its users to create content for the game. More than four years after the release of the SDK, I reached out to Altimor to find out more about its impact.
Before the SDK was available, was modding possible in Tribes: Ascend?
Not conveniently, but anyone with the right skillset could hook the game in the same way the SDK does.
A while back, someone obtained the source code for the original StarCraft, and, instead of uploading the code, they returned the disc directly to Blizzard, the original developer. Do you think they should have kept a copy for preservation?
Having the source would be cool, but I think respecting Blizzard's IP was the right thing to do.
In July [2013], Hi-Rez announced that Tribes wouldn't be receiving updates for at least 6 months, so they could work on Smite. What did you think about this decision?
I think it was a mistake to wait so long with the patches they eventually made. By the time the competitive balance ended up in a satisfactory state most of the players were gone.
Did the SDK allow users to skip item progression? Did Hi-Rez ever contact you over this matter?
It does allow you to use any item. Since the SDK is completely open source there are no restrictions on what you can do with it and there's no way for a custom server to check what items a player owns either. Hi-Rez didn't contact me over this. I don't think it was an issue because everyone was interested in modded weapons and physics rather than playing the base game with free stuff.
The SDK ran in D, but required a compiler to run. What was the benefit of using D as a language?
D was a lot easier to automatically generate code for based on the game's UnrealScript. D has a more modern system for referencing other source files instead of C/C++'s header system, so there's no need to work around linker errors. In C++ you have to be careful about what you define in headers or you'll end up redefining it every time the header is included and cause an error.
How did the SDK impact community map-making and server-hosting?
I think the only map that ended up in a decent state was a remake of Damnation. A few private modded games were played before the SDK was its own project but it never went beyond that as far as I know because there wasn't much of a community left when the SDK was finished.
Hi-Rez themselves promised map-making tools after Tribes development ceased, but they never delivered. How do you feel they handled Tribes post-Smite?
I understand they don't want to focus on a game that isn't making money anymore, but they shouldn't have made those promises in the first place. The Out of the Blue updates were nice though. I think those updates were mostly the work of the actual developers and not Hi-Rez's mangement. A lot of the people developing Ascend were passionate about it and loved Tribes. It seemed like the management was the biggest problem with the handling of Ascend.
Hi-Rez seems to follow a policy of 'games as a service' as an alternative to modding. What impact do you think this has on their games' longevity?
I think this is only a viable model for FPS games if there's a strong and well supported competitive scene. It could have worked if they had put more work into competitive balance and supported tournaments more but with the way the game turned out I think it really hurt the game's lifespan.
With the servers still up for Tribes: Ascend, and the availability of TAMods for modding the game, how much life do you think the game has left in it?
I'd honestly just call the game dead at this point.
Tribes: Ascend was a game built upon passion: Passion from the game's developers, from the competitive community, and from Altimor himself, who dedicated his time to make modding a possibility. However, despite his efforts to create the Software Development Kit, Altimor acknowledges it himself – it couldn't save the game. Poor decisions on Hi-Rez's part doomed a game brimming with potential, and that can't be changed. Thankfully, all is not lost, for when Hi-Rez eventually shuts Tribes: Ascend down, the SDK ensures that it won't be for good.
If you're interested in the changing state of games, consider subscribing to my Youtube channel, Game Revo, where I cover other games affected by time's influence. I recently uploaded an in-depth video covering Global Agenda and Tribes: Ascend, and how they affected Hi-Rez's reputation.


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Hey guys, I would be interested in meeting up. I nominate a meeting at Frankenbike Saturday Dec 27th. If you are mustachian, you like bikes and this is best place to find parts, bikes, and talk with cool like minded people. Lets say 11am. Its going to be at yellow bike project this month. Ill be selling parts, with my longtail homebuilt ebike.
Also interested. Glad to see a few others. For what it's worth a park is always a winner. Play structures for kids, picnic area / tables for adults, water, open space etc...For consideration: if anyone is South of Town Lake, then Little Zilker is pretty fabulous. Northwards, Ramsey Park is pretty good. Both offer reliably easy parking or roads with bike lanes to get to, and plenty of flat green space with known working water fountains and play + shade structures. They're my favorite family weekend day haunts...
Looks like I may miss tonight - woke up just now (gah!) and have a terrible head cold. Where did it come from? No idea
but no desire to share that around. See you all at the next one!!


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The Surprising Career Move That Pays Off
Taking the "riskier" job could make you more successful in the end.
When it comes to choosing a practical, more stable career over one with a meager salary that you're more passionate about, there's now a case for going with your heart instead of your head.
A new study from Tel Aviv University, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, examined the success and happiness of individuals who followed a "riskier" career path that they were passionate about. Researchers found that, in certain fields, young people with a strong passion or drive eventually got their dream jobs, and were ultimately more satisfied both professionally and personally.
Researchers, who surveyed 450 high school music students at two elite summer programs over 11 years, found that "participants with stronger callings toward music in adolescence were likely to assess their musical abilities more favorably and were more likely to pursue music professionally as adults regardless of actual musical abilities," explained researcher Dr. Daniel Heller of TAU's Recanati School of Business in a release. Even though participants who were able to "break into" a musical profession were paid less than people who pursued music in their spare time, they reported similar or greater happiness and fulfillment.
There are many factors to consider before choosing a career path, but these findings might hold weight in the decision-making process. "If you experience a strong calling, you need to be cognizant of your relative preferences for intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards and potential trade-offs between the two, then decide accordingly," Dr. Heller said in the release. "However, we found that, in certain fields, one's drive or passion afforded a competitive advantage over others, even when unrelated to objective ability or talent."


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Not to be outdone by its upstart open-source sibling, .NET Core, the team behind the venerable .NET Framework has put out an Early Access version of version 4.8 with toys aplenty for developers.
While .NET Core often captures the limelight, and the new Microsoft would point you at it for your cross-platform or lightweight container needs, .NET Framework continues to enjoy support simply through the number of applications written using it over the years that devs are reluctant to port, and because technologies such as ASP.NET Web Forms and ADO.NET data services are not present in .NET Core (and not likely to be in the near future).
The most visible change in the early access code is tweaked accessibility in Windows Forms that will allow the likes of ToolTips to appear when users navigate commonly used controls using the keyboard. Microsoft has made much of its accessibility credentials in recent years and a few simple AppContextSwitch settings in the App.Config file is all it takes to make an interface easier to use by the visually impaired. Assuming you've been populating your ToolTip properties. Which you have, right?
Other Windows Forms accessibility improvements bring better support for notification of events (such as a progress bar ticking over) via the Windows 10 Narrator when a control is not necessarily visible, along with enhancements in the DataGridView control and LiveRegion support in Labels and StatusStrips.
Outside of Windows Forms, the Just In Time (JIT) compiler in .NET Framework 4.8 is now based on .NET Core 2.1, so all the performance boosts from the young upstart can now be found in its chubbier, older sibling.
Security worriers will be pleased to note that images from the .NET native image generator (NGEN) no longer contain writeable and executable sections, which will reduce the surface area for attacks that seek to run arbitrary code by modifying memory. Obviously, there will still be writeable and executable memory at runtime, but this change removes those mapped from NGEN images.
Lastly, the ZLib compression library, which has been a feature since version 4.5 of the .NET Framework, finally got an upgrade to version 1.2.11 in order to take advantages of fixes and enhancements to the library from, er, 2017.
Windows Insiders are due to see the code appear in the "next" update for Windows 10, although it is unclear if that means the October 2018 Update or skippy builds aimed at 2019. We've asked Microsoft for clarification and will update with any response. Certainly, the last build (17760) was more focused on fixing whatever broke .NET 4.7.1 than inflicting early access code on users.
Other developers wanting to have a play with what is very much an iterative release can grab the code, which is not for production use and likely to be fiddled with further, right now. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Simplify data protection on AWS


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Crossroads Community Church Summer Carnival
Melissa Byers, left, draws a paint to Keeli Bell at Meridian Park on Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2015. God's Answer Book, a bible club in the Crossroads Community Church hosted a event to promote its bible study, held at the same park every Wednesday for all elementary age children from Jun. 17 to Jul. 29 between 2 to 4 PM. Tae-Gyun Kim | Kokomo Tribune


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Kelowna Passive House…
priMe haBitat Builders: Kelowna's Green Building Expert!
June 2019
The world has one more #NetZero home! Our latest Design/Build project in the #Okanagan has received a "0" Rating on the #Energuide scale… This home will create as much energy as it uses in a year. On top of that, there will be no greenhouse gas emissions. A beautiful home designed and built for great clients. Thank you to all of our suppliers and trades for making it possible. Contact us to Design& Build your #EnergyEfficient home!
#Net Zero #PassiveHouse #Passivhaus #Kelowna #DesignBuild #NoCo2 #Insulation #GoodWallAssembly #Airtight #HRV #AspectDesign #ThermalBreaking #Healthy Home.
December 6, 2018
One of our newest projects… How's this for a nice view?
One of priMe haBitat Design|Build current projects… great design, great clients and a seriously nice view of Okanagan Lake! #foundationstage #kelownabuiler #OkanaganLife #Kelowna#greatgroupofguys #grateful
One of Our Most Important Builds to Date….
priMe haBitat Design | Build is pleased to announce our latest High-Performance build:
GB house cross-section: R45 marshmallowy-extruded polystyrene insulated slab-on-grade. R55 double-stud walls with high-calorie dense-pack cellulose. R85 roof assembly with 8 caloric KWH Solar array. AND it's delicious! #EvenHasEarthTubes! #NotSoNetZeroCalorie #MerryChristmas!
October 20, 2018
So Much Going On!
2018 is going quickly! priMe haBitat Design/Build firm of Kelowna, BC is working on multiple projects… from our Code-Plus builds, to Net Zero design/builds and deep-energy retrofits. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to build such comfortable, beautiful and energy-efficient homes. Contact us today to Design/Build your home!
August 14, 2018
priMe haBitat Design | Build: Another Net Zero Home
July 24, 2018
New Net Zero Home: Breaking Ground!
priMe habitat Design | Build breaking ground on our next Net Zero Energy Home! July 2018
July 15, 2018
Deep-Energy Retrofit Renovation: A Video.
priMe haBitat Design | Build president Mike Banner takes us on a tour of their latest "Deep Energy Retrofit" whole-house renovation project. This 1970's home will not only get a beautiful new look, it will now use considerably less energy and be healthy & comfortable for the owners. We love this project!
July 8, 2018
"Code-Plus" Home: A Better Option. Video of Code Plus Build
In this video, priMe haBitat Design | Build president Mike Banner talks about strategies to make your home more efficient and healthy using simple design/build concepts. Simple techniques that are cost-effective adds great value. Ask us about our "CODE-PLUS" Options for your home!
April 1, 2017
Net Zero & Passive Design: Once you know about it….
We just met with a new client who is looking forward to building their new home. They hadn't really given much thought to energy-efficiency and high-performance design, but have now done some research. It's Net-Zero/Passive or nothing. Why? Why is it that so many people don't know their options when it comes to the home that they will live in…raise their family in? Shouldn't they know the options when it comes to perhaps the most important long-term investment they will make?
We admit- It's our fault! The building industry. Developers, builders, realtors, designers. It's takes a bit more effort, more education, and is a bit more difficult to find staff that really cares about what they build. It's time-consuming to learn the new processes, and to talk to various stakeholders about it. To introduce planners, envelope engineers, and sub-trades to it. It's easy to just build standard. But we have learned that it is so very worth it!
By using a few different strategies, we can make a home infinitely more comfortable, healthier and better than a standard code-built home. Most home owners talk only about cost, but when it's all taken into consideration, the costs for building a superior product like a Net-Zero / Passive House are negligible. You are either going to pay your utility provider every month for the rest of your days (and we all know that those costs don't decrease), or you can build thoughtfully and efficiently and pay a whole lot less, if anything, on utility bills. Paying your energy bills (with after-tax dollars!) will never stop, but an extra
investment in maintenance-free insulation for example, can cuts those costs significantly. By positioning your home to make the most of the free heat from the sun is inflation-protection that you certainly won't get from Fortis or BC Hydro. By decreasing the active heating/cooling systems you typically need in a standard-built home, you significantly cut down on your on-going maintenance costs. By knowing a bit about how the heat/cool you pay for escapes in a standard-built home, and how a Net-Zero or Passive House mitigates that, you will want to build to better standards.So, we, the building industry, need to do a better job.
Building this way is not only the right thing to do environmentally… that's a super-delicious icing on the cake. But these homes, because of their superior ability to efficiently and effectively transfer stale air out of the house and bring fresh air in, reduces mold and allergens in the home. These homes, by far, are healthier to live in. And because of the extra insulation and other building fundamentals on these homes, they are extra quiet to live in.
Win, Win, Win.
If you are considering building, please talk to us about the possibilities and options available to you. You may be glad you did!
priMe haBitat Builders / Kelowna Passive House
Net Zero and Passive House Design & Build firm, serving Kelowna and the Okanagan.
March 30, 2017
HRV Love… Look at this beautiful Heat Recovery Ventilator!
HRV: a key component to all Passivhaus and Net-Zero Homes. So….What is It?
In a Passive House, we keep the home airtight in order to keep energy usage low. But there's a drawback… Our homes NEED regular changes of air to keep them healthy. So, we use a Heat Recovery Ventilator.
An HRV consist of two ventilation ducts running side by side, and passes between the inside and the outside of a house. One duct carries colder, fresh air in; the other carries the moist, stale air out. The clever bit is that the airstreams run through a device called a heat exchanger that allows the outgoing air to pass most of its heat to the incoming air without the two airstreams actually mixing together.
This process will reduce energy requirements by using the heat from the air (that you have paid for), to 'pre-warm' the fresh air that you need to bring into the house. What does that mean? You don't need to use excessive energy (and money!) to heat up the air coming into the house- it's already warm. A good HRV will keep a consistent and controlled supply of fresh air into the home, making it more healthy and comfortable.
Passive House = Energy Efficient, Healthy and Comfortable thanks to this gorgeous HRV!
March 17, 2017
How is Net Zero Different from Passive House?
A question we hear quite often is how does Net Zero differ from Passive House? Green Building
A Net Zero House:
Is designed to generate as much energy as it uses on an annual basis. Net Zero uses many Passive House design principals, however, will also use on-site renewables like solar panels which can be connected to local electric grids. This allows the home-owner to reduce the need for energy through the design/build process, as well as using renewables (like solar) to "net" out their draw from the electrical grid.
A Passive House:
Will focus on achieving the least amount of energy required to heat/cool a home by using "passive" strategies: Additional insulation, air-tightness, home design/aspect to take advantage of solar gain, eliminating thermal bridging.
Aim is to REDUCE the need for energy at the design/build phase without the use of on-site renewables like solar panels. A Passive House can use solar panels to make the home Net-Zero, however, is ultimately designed to avoid the need for them. By using those passive house design strategies, a home-owner can reduce heating and cooling needs by up to 90%! Truly remarkable.
(For a comprehensive description of Net-Zero Housing, click to see the Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corp's "Net Zero" Page.)