Cooper Griggs

Homes with a small footprint often need to take advantage of outdoor living areas. Recently, a means to attach an attractive and functional porch or patio cover was invented and is now widely available. This product, the SkyLift Roof Riser Bracket, is a simple piece of hardware that can support a roof cover and actually complement the design of a small home.

People typically install a patio cover to better enjoy the outdoors with protection from the sun and weather. Unfortunately, because of the way they are constructed, many covers darken the interior of the home and lead to unanticipated maintenance and structural failures.

As a remodeler for 20 plus years, I have seen my share of patio roof attachments that seemed to accomplish the opposite of what the homeowner envisioned. That’s why I invented SkyLift. This product solves major problems like low-slope leaks and dry rot, cave-like interiors, and trapped BBQ fumes. In addition, the SkyLift Hardware ensures structurally sound construction.

For years I had contemplated the prospect of creating a better patio cover. Then one day I stood in a client’s back yard and in every direction I looked I saw sad, leaking, dilapidated patio covers. “There has to be a better way,” I said to myself. I decided to dedicate my efforts to solving the problem and after a good deal of product development, SkyLift was launched. The response from both homeowners and builders has been fantastic.

SkyLift Roof Riser Brackets are attached to a house by accessing the top plate of an exterior wall through the roof. Once the riser is installed, the opening is then sealed with a standard pipe vent flashing and the two-part saddle is attached to the top of the riser. Once that has been accomplished, the carpenter can install the support structure and roof.

skylift attachment

Clients who have built patio structures using SkyLift hardware are delighted with the results. They enjoy the increased natural light and air circulation, and are especially relieved that the cover does not completely isolate the interior of their home from the outdoors. When they barbecue under the cover the fumes waft up and out instead of remaining trapped below.

Skeptics usually assume that the clerestory opening allows excess wind
and rain to infiltrate the structure. But SkyLift structure owners assure us that their covers are even more weather resistant than their old patio covers…AND they don’t leak!

The standard SkyLift Roof Hardware is 24” tall. That’s tall enough to blend or match with the existing roof pitch. The riser of the bracket can also be cut down if a shorter height is desired. For steep pitched roofs, SkyLift also comes in 30” and 36” heights. SkyLift standard finishes are Powder Coated Black or Hot Dipped Galvanized. The product can be installed with a shed style structure or the two part saddle can be turned ninety degrees for an open gabled fly-over style.

SkyLift also offers Shade Sail brackets for the fabric type fly-over covers. www.SkyLiftHardware.com

Condoms have evolved little since latex ones were first manufactured in the 1920s. Bill Gates is hoping to change that. His foundation is giving $100,000 to anyone who can come up with a condom that men or women actually want to wear.

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Questions and Answers About T-Mobile's New Plans ABC News Share. 0. T-Mobile USA swept away its old phone plans over the weekend in favor of Simple Choice, which does away with traditional service contracts but introduces installment plans for phone buyers. Here are some questions and answers about the ... T-Mobile kills off the wireless contractCNET (blog) all 674 news articles »

abluegirl:

Living Wall

These vegetated surfaces don’t just look pretty. They have other benefits as well, including cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building’s energy efficiency.What’s more, a recent modeling study shows that green walls can potentially reduce large amounts of air pollution in what’s called a “street canyon,” or the corridor between tall buildings.

For the study, Thomas Pugh, a biogeochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and his colleagues created a computer model of a green wall with generic vegetation in a Western European city. Then they recorded chemical reactions based on a variety of factors, such as wind speed and building placement.

The simulation revealed a clear pattern: A green wall in a street canyon trapped or absorbed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter—both pollutants harmful to people, said Pugh. Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.

Full Gallery

North Dakota’s state insect is the lady bug, but right now the state is just bugging ladies (let alone everyone who cares about women’s rights).

On Friday, North Dakota’s legislature approved a measure that would define life as starting at conception, giving personhood to fertilized eggs in the state Constitution. It’s  the first time a personhood measure has passed in a state legislature. The North Dakota House approved the measure in a 75-35 vote (it had already been approved by the state Senate), and it will now go to voters as a referendum in November 2014,  If it goes into effect, the measure would effectively ban all abortions in the state.

Another measure passed by the state House on Friday is a bill that would require abortion clinic physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. This particular measure is obviously designed to shut down the state’s only abortion clinic in Fargo, and is commonly known as a TRAP law. It now goes to Gov. Jack Dalrymple for his signature (or veto).

On top of these bills, the North Dakota House narrowly pushed down another Senate-approved bill that would have prohibited the intentional destruction of embryos, the goal being to block stem-cell research.

“Planned Parenthood will continue to fight these legislative attacks on women’s health in partnership with a broad coalition of doctors, patients, teachers, lawyers and other concerned North Dakotans who do not want to see politicians inserting themselves into the private medical decision-making of women and families in our state,” said Sarah Stoesz, the head of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock hopes North Dakota voters will see through this attack on Roe v. Wade and reject it.

I am outraged that North Dakota women’s rights and personal health are under attack by extreme politicians. Not only is the personhood bill extraordinarily dangerous, it’s unconstitutional.

 Photo of North Dakota state capitol in Bismarck by jimbowen0306 via Creative Commons 2.0.

 

 

It’s the season of Sakura and Ume with many wonderful photos uploaded every day. If you love cherry and plum blossom as we do, delve into the beauty of the many Hanami photos uploaded during the last couple of weeks.

Photos from torne (a little bit hungry), danoliverm, L’Ubuesque Boîte à Savon, Benjamin Belusie, kasa51, motocchio, and AdrienG..

via http://www.reddit.com/

Italian graffiti writer, painter and sculptor Manuel Di Rita (aka Peeta) lives and works in Venice where since 2000 he has risen to international fame for his unique 3D graffiti style. Using a variety of shading, gradients and shadows his work often appears to be hovering just off the surface on which it is painted. Peeta not only creates work in public spaces but also creates similar figures with paint on cavas as well as sculptures. Above is a mixture of artworks both old and new, and you can see much more over on Flickr and at Ayden Gallery.

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<a href="http://www.explosm.net/comics/3121/"><img alt="Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic" src="http://www.flashasylum.com/db/files/Comics/Kris/push.png" border=0></a><br />Cyanide & Happiness @ <a href="http://www.explosm.net">Explosm.net</a>

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Cyanide & Happiness @ [URL="http://www.explosm.net/"]Explosm.net[/URL] <—- Share this comic!

Help Carolyn and Sharine adopt!:

on the off chance that anyone out there can help make this happen…

(pictured: Carolyn and Sharine with their neighbor)

remymura: My dear friends, Carolyn & Sharine, have been trying to adopt for many moons. They are two of the kindest, caring, loyal, lovable, capable, passionate, responsible, and just plain fun human beings I know. They would be as much a blessing to a child out there as that child would be to them.

You all know that almost never explicitly ask anyone for a signal boost, but I really hope that this can be an exceptional case, that with all the focus on marriage equality today, that we all can use our powers of social media to transform someone’s life, to connect Carolyn and Sharine with a child and a struggling mom out there. The adoption doesn’t have to be local, and even if you’re out of the state or country, you’re all connected to networks of people here.

Can you please share, to help them get the word out?

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A Muslim cleric has condemned to death Amina Tyler, a young 19 year old Tunisian who published a picture of herself topless, Amina posted on her Facebook account a picture with the phrase: “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honor.” She is a member of the group Femen, a feminist movement emerged in Ukraine in 2008 performing their topless protests to draw attention. The unusual protest sparked rejected her own family, which is considered a “insulting the modesty of a woman” and Islam.

“This young woman according to Islamic law deserves to between 80 and 100 lashes, but she did much more than that so she deserves to be stoned to death,” the religious Tunisian daily said “Assabah News” .

Amina represents us.
We the undersigned unequivocally defend Amina, and demand that her life and liberty are protected and that those who have threatened her will be immediately prosecuted.
Sign the petition here

In this video uploaded by DAFNA kopelis on YouTube, a cat picks up a dog’s leash and walks it home with the help of some coaxing meows.

via Cineraria, Tastefully Offensive

A comic about people who wait tables

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Google is taking a lot of heat for its decision to scrap the popular Reader RSS feed aggregator, leading many to question why it would pull the plug on such a popular service. It turns out that the answer might have a lot to do with the hidden costs of safeguarding privacy. According to a report from All Things D, an unnamed source says that the closure is at least partly because of Google’s reluctance to build out the staff and infrastructure needed to deal with legal and privacy issues related to the product.

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"Unless it's going to get to 100 million users it's not worth doing."

The source says that Google is trying to position the company so that it stops getting stuck in expensive privacy lawsuits, like the $7 million Wi-Fi data-slurping case in the US. When the company announced it would be shuttering Reader, the service reportedly didn’t even have a project manager or full-time engineer assigned to it, and it’s said that Google didn’t want to spend the money to build the service out into a tentpole app. And while many longtime users of the service have questioned why Google doesn’t simply Reader off to a third party, its deep integration with other Google Apps means it’s easier for the company to just shutter it. So how many users would have made it worthwhile for Google to keep Reader around? Former Reader product manager Nick Baum tells ATD, "my sense is, if it’s a consumer product at Google that’s not making money, unless it’s going to get to 100 million users it’s not worth doing."

• Source All Things D
• Related Items google google reader rss closure nick baum compliance privacy

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Hiding from Monday

Remember those wild flexible paper sculptures from last month by artist Li Hongbo? This new video from Crane.tv shows the artist in his Beijing studio where we learn much more about how he makes each artwork. (via booooooom)

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/scanr/98916117/

“I’m just an average guy that likes taking photos with my smartphone,” says electrical engineer Jose Vazquez, known on Flickr as jmvazquezjr (jmv_nyc). “It started out as a hobby but now has truly defined my life.”

“I can’t imagine doing anything else”, he tells us.

Jose began taking pictures four years ago while traveling abroad with his wife. He bought a DSLR camera but found it extremely difficult. “I was very intimidated,” Jose says. “It was so overwhelming with buttons everywhere. I kept asking myself, ‘What does this do? What does that do?’ I was a mess.”

After a few years of taking pictures on a DSLR, Jose bought an iPhone and immediately realized its potential as a camera. “It was just simpler,” he says. “I liked being able to take a picture, edit and share it wherever and whenever I wanted.”

He began downloading apps, joining social networks and over time his skill set progressed. “It was very helpful as a learning tool,” Jose says. “I would upload a picture, ask for constructive criticism and learn new techniques that helped me as a photographer.”

Given the convenience and accessibility of his smartphone’s camera, Jose quickly developed his photographic style.

“I normally don’t have a plan when I go out,” he says. “From the moment I’m on the train, I’m snapping away. I go to the park, shoot interesting people, beautiful landscapes – I just kinda wing it.”

 

 

Jose became interested in urban exploration after seeing photos on Flickr. He was fascinated by abandoned buildings and old hospitals.

“Seeing the decay, the peeling paint, all these places that have been taken over by the elements was incredible,” he says. “Thinking about the history and what went on there…I was totally into it from then on.”

One of his favorite photos is the one above called Tunnel Seating (a photo taken with a DSLR camera) which was taken at a psychiatric hospital.

“That place had been open since the late 1800s,” Jose says. “Just thinking about what went on in there all those years – it’s like having an all access pass to a museum that no one can enter. It’s an amazing experience.”

 

Photography has completely taken over Jose’s life. He even plans to pursue it full-time in the future.

“My wife pushes me everyday to do more,” he admits. “She sees how happy it makes me and wants me to go down this route.”

Jose credits his smartphone for finding his new passion in photography.

“It is really surprising how much photography means to me now. It just drives me everyday,” he says. “I can’t wait to pull my phone out and snap away.”

For all of you aspiring smartphone photographers out there, Jose offers these tips:

1. Download an app that gives you control of the exposure and focus on your phone. It opens so many doors creatively for things such as: controlling depth of field or creating a silhouette.
2. Take the time to learn about what goes into picture taking – especially when it comes to composition.
3. Shoot pictures all the time. You’ll be surprised at what you’re into when you start shooting a lot.

Visit Jose’s photostream for more of his photography.

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