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One year after Pulse Nightclub tragedy, new NFPA standard for preparedness and response to active shooter and/or hostile events being developed

As the nation marks the one-year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando this week, a group of experts on active shooter/hostile incident response will assemble at National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) headquarters to develop NFPA 3000, Standard for Preparedness and Response to Active Shooter and/or Hostile Events. It is expected that the initial standard will be completed by early 2018; then the public will have the opportunity to offer input for immediate review.




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NFPA and The Center for Campus Fire Safety raise student awareness of fire hazards in on- and off-campus housing during September and October

September is Campus Fire Safety Month and this year the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and The Center for Campus Fire Safety (The Center) are working together to promote their national Campus Fire Safety for Students campaign. The campaign raises awareness about the dangers of fires among college-aged students who live in on- and off-campus college housing.





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Final Fantasy Record Keeper Review 2020

В конце 2015-го я заглянул в Final Fantasy Record Keeper – поглядеть, что это за мобильная финалка такая. Ей тогда было полгода всего, сейчас же – пять лет, и всякая игра-как-сервис за это время растёт. Не стала исключением и Record Keeper – так что пора бы в ней вернуться ещё раз.

Во многом я хочу это сделать потому, что с 2015-го я не переставал в неё играть. На то есть целый ряд причин. Во-первых, она (почти) бессюжетная, аутентичная и посвященная знакомым боям из знакомых финалок – она не городит что-то своё, а ремикширует знакомое и хорошее. Во-вторых, она очень мало требует от игрока в плане инвестиций времени/денег: я стабильно каждый день выигрывал там три боя за десять минут, и этого мне хватало, чтобы тащить почти весь актуальный контент и даже не задумываться о том, чтобы занести разработчикам бабла. Я до сих пор не заплатил ни копейки и всем доволен. В-третьих, в ней такие длинные лоадинги, что играть на ночь идеально – за десять минут усыпляет. Ну и в-четвёртых, она продолжала постоянно обновляться. С обновлениями не только появлялись новые испытания, но и расширялись возможности бойцов, и менялась мета.
Дальше »




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Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord $37.50 -- cdkeys.com (PC/Steam)

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is currently $37.50 on cdkeys.com. Yesterday it was $41. 

 

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/mount-and-blade-ii-2-bannerlord-pc

 

On Steam its MSRP is $50 with a limited time sale going on now for $45. The game just came out to Early Access 3/31.

 

The question now is: jump now on the good price, or will the price continue to fall?

 

Note: It's in Early Access and has been in development for like 8 years. Expect some clunk.




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RiteAid BonusCash rewards for Apr 5-11, 2020 ... 20% ROI on Xbox, GameStop, Apple, Google, Netflix, Nike, Panera, Fandango, AMC, & Regal GC's

It's a bumper crop of BonusCash at your local Rite-Aid this week, with not 1, 2, 3, but 4 gaming GC's, and 1 of those gives you even more options!

  • Nike, GameStop, Netflix ... $5 BonusCash when you buy $25 of these items.*
  • Google Play, AMC Theatres, Apple AppStore/iTunes, Fandango, XBOX, Panera Bread, Regal Theatres ... $6 BonusCash when you buy $30 of these items.*

FYI, "GameStop" is a big win, because not only can you purchase (additional) XBOX, PSN, Nintendo, and Steam credit there, but you order the GC credit from their website, and get a redemption code instantly after checkout.
 
For those who are new to the "Rite-Aid wellness+ reward BonusCash" program, you'll receive the $$$ amount when you purchase the minimum amount specified. Gift-cards within the same bullet-point share the same "limit 2 offers per customer", but you can earn rewards on the other bullet-point lines as well. For example, you can purchase $25 each of GameStop & Netflix (or $50 of GameStop) ... and still be able to purchase another $60 mix of Google & Apple & XBOX, and can stagger your 4 GC purchases throughout the week.

Screenshot of 2 separate GC offers (bullet points) included here:

Spoiler


Small print (at bottom of weekly ad) and BonusCash T&C's included here:
Spoiler


FYI ... the limit of "2 offers per customer" is tracked by your "wellness+ rewards" account, so you'll need to limit yourself to 2 offers per line item throughout the week, and not just "2 per transaction" or "2 per day". At the time of purchase, your printed receipt will indicate how many of the "limit 2" you've met, but neither the website nor register will indicate ...

  • if you've met the limit of 2 items per BonusCash group with the current transaction, or
  • if the transaction you're about to complete exceeds the limit of 2 per week, or
  • when your BonusCash rewards will expire.

Luckily the mobile RiteAid app (and website) list your individual accumulation & cashing out on a per transaction basis, so that's a good way to keep tabs on the expiration dates, since you only get 30 days to spend the BonusCash once earned. Good luck!

  • -->





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    Final Fantasy Remake - Double 10 Dollar Rewards for Preorder?

    Not sure if it was a glitch or intentional, but I got a notice this morning saying that my copy of Final Fantasy Remake Standard Edition had shipped.  That made me happy enough, as I was afraid it might be delayed - had it pre-ordered on Amazon but it shifted to delivery unknown earlier in the week so I canceled it.  But, back on topic - about 3 hours later I got a message that I had a 25 dollar reward.  I did not have anywhere near that many points before so I looked for where they came from.  When I clicked on the Final Fantasy VII Remake purchase, this is what it said:

     

    Total Points: 1142

    My Best Buy Visa Purchase Bonus - 83

    $10 Dollar Certificate for Final Fantasy VII Preorder - 500

    $10 Dollar Certificate for Final Fantasy VII Preorder - 500

    Base Points - 59

     

    Did this happen to anyone else?  Considering I preordered it when I still had Gamers Club - so got it for 51.23 ... this has been an especially Cheap Ass Gamer type of purchase.

     

    P.S.  Sigh, I really miss Gamers Club.  Hate spending 64.04 on new releases (that includes local tax).




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    Target Circle Deals April 12th - April 18th: 25% Off ROCCAT Vulcan Aimo Keyboard

    25% Off ROCCAT Vulcan Aimo Keyboard Black & White/Silver (Expires April 18th)

     

    10% Off My Arcade Gamestation Assorted Items (Expires April 22nd)




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    Raise Gift Cards - Save an extra 5%

    Saw this in an email. Save 5% on Raise Gift Cards until 11:59PM

     

    Use Coupon Code: APRIL

     

    Would be a good time to buy PSN / Xbox / Nintendo cards for digital sales.





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    Free $15 Target GiftCard with $100 iTunes Digital Gift Card purchase at Target

    Different digital styles to choose from!

    Online only.

     

    http://goto.target.com/itunesgiftcards

  • -->




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    What’s Weird About Where You’re From?

    Sociologists spend a lot of time thinking about lives in social context: how the relationships and communities we live in shape the way we understand ourselves and move through the world. It can be tricky to start thinking about this, but one easy way to do it is to start collecting social facts. Start by […]




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    Trump Signs Executive Order Greenlighting 'Corporate Takeover Of Oceans'

    Donald Trump issued an executive order late Thursday that environmentalists warned will accelerate the corporate exploitation of oceans by relaxing regulations on and streamlining the construction of industrial offshore aquaculture facilities, which critics deride as "floating factory farms" that pump pollution and diseases into public waters.

    The Don't Cage Our Ocean Coalition, which was formed to oppose ocean industrial fish farming, said in a statement that Trump's Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth "mandates federal agencies to craft a program for rapid authorization of industrial offshore aquaculture facilities, which use giant floating cages to cultivate finfish, allowing toxic pollution to flow into open waters."

    "The federal government should strengthen local food security during this health crisis by supporting sustainable seafood, rather than allowing corporations to pollute the ecosystems we depend on."
    —Marianne Cufone, environmental attorney

    read more




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    High Vibe Honey: Week Of 23rd February 2020 + What To Do If You Feel Lonely!

    Do you struggle with feeling lonely or alone? Hilariously, you’re not alone! Loneliness is an epidemic, and in fact, it’s the number one public health crisis. We are increasingly disconnected from one another, while at the same time we have more opportunities to connect than ever. So if you find it hard to make friends, […]

    The post High Vibe Honey: Week Of 23rd February 2020 + What To Do If You Feel Lonely! appeared first on Gala Darling.



    • High Vibe Honey

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    SokoBunny Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One

    NOTE: You may pre-download this game, but it will not be playable until the release date/time: 05/22/2020 – 3:00 AM (check the product page for release date/time in your region).   Product Info: Developer: DillyFrameGames Publisher: DillyFrameGames Website: SokoBunny Twitter: @DillyFrameGames




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    NASCAR Heat 5 Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One

    NOTE: You may pre-download this game, but it will not be playable until the release date/time: 07/10/2019 (check the product page for release date/time in your region). Get three days early access when you purchase the Gold Edition. Product Info: Developer: Motorsport Games Publisher: 704 Games Company Website: NASCAR Heat 5 Twitter: @704Games / @MSportgames / @NASCARHeat




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    Oregon Deputy Fire Marshal Receives National Award for Home Fire Sprinkler Advocacy

    NFPA’s  Fire Sprinkler Initiative and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) are pleased to announce that Chase Browning from the Medford Fire Department, is the recipient of the 2019 Bringing Safety Home Award.   The award recognizes




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    Why The Flynn Dismissal Is Way Worse Than A Pardon

    No, this is not like a pardon by other means. The Barr Justice Department’s corrupt abandonment of the prosecution of...




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    HyperX Teams up with Ducky and Launches HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

    The HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini mechanical gaming keyboard features HyperX red linear mechanical switches built for performance, longevity and an 80 million lifetime click rating per switch.

    The post HyperX Teams up with Ducky and Launches HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini Mechanical Gaming Keyboard appeared first on ThinkComputers.org.






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    ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Technical Preview

    Today we will be taking a look at the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard. While we are not allowed to tell you about performance of these parts, we are able to give you a technical preview.

    The post ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Technical Preview appeared first on ThinkComputers.org.




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    Book Week 2019: David Shariatmadari's Don't Believe a Word

    Welcome to the third review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing this week. In the end, there will be four posts. I thought there would be five, but one of the books has (orig. BrE) gone missing. Having had a day off yesterday, I will also have a day off tomorrow, so the final review will appear during the weekend. Probably.

    Anyhow, today's book is:

    Don't believe a word
    the surprising truth about language

    by David Shariatmadari
    Norton, 2019 (N America)
    W&N, 2019 (UK/RoW)


    David Shariatmadari writes for the Guardian, often about language, and is one of the sensible journalists on the topic. The number of sensible journalists writing about language has really shot up in the past decade, and judging from reading their books, this is in part because of increasingly clear, public-facing work by academic linguists. (Yay, academic linguists!) But in Shariatmadari's case, the journalist is a linguist: he has a BA and MA in the subject. And it shows—in the best possible way. 

    The book is a familiar genre: busting widely held language myths. If you've read books in this genre before, you probably don't need these myths busted. You probably know that linguistic change is natural, that the border between language and dialect is unfindable, that apes haven't really learned sign languages, and that no form of language is inherently superior to another. Nevertheless, you may learn something new, since Shariatmadari's tastes for linguistic research and theories is not always on the same wavelength as some other books directed at such a general audience.

    Once again, I'm reviewing with a partial view of the book (this is the practical law of Book Week 2019). In this case, I've read chapters 1, 5, and 9 and skimmed through other bits. The introductory chapter gives us a bit of insight into Shariatmadari's conversion to full-blown linguist, as a reluctant student of Arabic who was quickly converted to admiration for the language and to the study of language as an insight into humanity. "It's not hyperbole to say that linguistics is the universal social science", he writes. "It intrudes into almost every area of knowledge."
    UK cover

    I chose to read chapter 5 because I'd had the pleasure of hearing him talk about its topic at a student conference recently: the popularity of "untranslatable word" lists. Goodness knows, I've contributed to them. What I liked about the talk was his detective work on the words themselves—some of the words and definitions presented in lists of 'untranslatables' are practically fictional. And yet, those of us who don't speak the language in question often eat up these lists because of our ethnocentric need to exotici{s/z}e others. This leads inevitably to discussion of linguistic relativism—the notion that the language you speak affects the way you think—and the bad, old (so-called) evidence for it and the newer evidence for something much subtler. The chapter then goes in a direction I wasn't expecting: introducing Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), an interesting (but far from universally taught) approach to meaning that uses about 65 semantic building blocks to represent and compare meanings across languages. NSM adherents make the case that few, if any, words are truly equivalent across languages. But while any word in one language may have no single-word equivalent in another language, that doesn't mean those words are untranslatable. It just means that translating them can be a delicate and complicated thing.

    US cover
    The final chapter (9) takes the opposite view to David Adger's Language Unlimited (in my last review), and argues that the hierarchical (and human-specific) nature of linguistic structure need not be the product of an innate Universal Grammar, but instead could arise from the complexity of the system involved and humans' advanced social cognition. While Adger had a whole book for his argument, Shariatmadari has 30-odd pages, and so it's not really fair to compare them in terms of the depth of their argumentation, but still worth reading the latter to get a sense of how linguists and psychologists are arguing about these things.

    Shariatmadari is a clear and engaging writer, and includes a good range of references and a glossary of linguistic terminology. If you know someone who still believes some language myths, this might be a good present for them. (Though in my experience, people don't actually like getting presents that threaten their worldview. I still do it, because I care more about myth-busting writers earning royalties than I care about linguistic chauvinists getting presents they want.) It would also make an excellent gift for A-level English and language students (and teachers) and others who might be future linguists. After they read it, send them my way. I love having myth-busted students.




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    2019 UK-to-US Word of the Year: knock-on

    It's the end of the year, and time to declare the Separated by a Common Language Words of the Year. As ever, I've got two categories: US-to-UK and UK-to-US. In other words: I'm interested in borrowings between these national dialects. To be a SbaCL WoTY, the word doesn't have to have been imported precisely in that year—it just needs to have been noticeable in some way. For past WotYs, see here. I'll post the US-to-UK word soon; this post is for UK-to-US.

    I've been noticing a lot of Britishisms in American English this year (and, as ever, Ben Yagoda is recording many of them at his Not One-Off Britishisms [NOOB] blog). I've decided to go with one nominated by Neil Dolinger last month. The UK-to-US SbaCL Word of the Year is:

    knock-on

    The relevant sense is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:
    Being a secondary or indirect consequence of another action, occurrence, or event
    It's most commonly found in the phrase knock-on effect, which is first recorded in the OED in 1972. Knock-on itself seems to have passed into general usage from physics:

    Ben Yagoda's blog had knock-on effect as an "on-the-radar NOOB" in 2012, and the reason I've chosen it as the 2019 UK-to-US Word of the Year is its 2018-19 surge in US usage, as can be seen here in the US portion of the News on the Web corpus:



    Of the 612 US examples of it in this corpus, 481 are in the phrase knock-on effect(s). Another 83 are followed by another noun, such as impact, employment, and delays.

    It's still very much a British expression: while knock-on still occurs about 5 times per million British words in the News on the Web corpus, it's still less than once per million in the US news corpus (.63 in 2019 overall). And that corpus is showing the marks of globali{s/z}ation—a frequent source of knock-on in the US data is from the US edition of the UK paper The Guardian and of the Irish Times international edition. Still, it is showing up in a lot of homegrown US media: local news channels, the Washington Post, Forbes, Variety, and others:

    Click to enlarge
     
    Why is it more common in the first half of each year than the second? Well, for 2019, there are no examples after October, so I think that might be an effect of the corpus collection methods. It could also be because of rugby, in which knock-on is a noun (for when the ball is knocked forward). The Six Nations tournament starts in February and 4 out of 24 US examples of knock-on in February 2019 and 4 of 13 in March have the rugby sense. By contrast, in January and April, zero of the 29 US hits have the rugby sense. So, while there is definitely noise from the rugby sense in two months of the year, that effect seems limited.

    I'll let Ben Yagoda have the last say about whether this shift is enough to take it from "on the radar" to being a full-blown Not One-Off Britishism in the US, but I thank Neil for nominating it.
    But before I go, it seems fitting to mention this dialectal difference: BrE Heath Robinson machine versus AmE Rube Goldberg machine. You can click on the links to learn about their namesakes, but here's an OK Go video to illustrate knock-on effects, just for fun. Happy New Year!




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    2019 US-to-UK Word of the Year: gotten

    For part 1 of the 2019 Words of the Year, click here.  Now we're on to the US-to-UK WotY.

    Radzi Chinyanganya, WotY inspiration
    I had pretty much decided not to do a US-to-UK Word of the Year for 2019. The words nominated were generally ones that had made a big splash in English recently on both sides of the Atlantic, rather than long-standing Americanisms that were making a splash in Britain. I had begun to think that BrE had reached peak Americanism. But then I went through my top tweets of the year, and saw one that made me think: "Oh yeah, that's it."


    The US-to-UK Word of the Year is:

    gotten



    Here's the tweet that reminded me: 
     


    Now, this choice might be controversial in that gotten is not just and not originally American. It is one of those linguistic things that mostly died in the UK while it thrived in the US. When I moved to the UK, a colleague told me that you'd still hear gotten among old people in Yorkshire. I haven't had the chance to bother any old people in Yorkshire about that, but -en forms of get were found far and wide in English dialects. That said, the OED has it as "chiefly U.S." and it is widely perceived in the UK as an Americanism. In England you do hear it more from Americans (in the media, if not in person) than from British folk. Here's a bit of what I said about it in The Prodigal Tongue:

    That part of the book goes on to examine the evidence that gotten only really got going in the US—that it was not used much in the formal English of those who came from England to the Americas, and that its use exploded only in the late 19th century, when the US was finding a voice of its own. (Want to know more? I have a book to sell you!)

    So, while gotten is not just American nor originally American, America is where gotten made its fortune. The "standard" British participle for get is have got, as discussed (along with its meaning) in this old post.

    What's interesting about gotten in Britain in 2019 is that it's been used quite a bit in places where you don't tend to hear non-standard, regional grammatical forms: like on the BBC and in Parliament. And I have heard it among my child's middle-class (orig. AmE) tween friends here in the southeast. Here are some interesting examples, besides our friend Radzi.*

    On the CBeebies (BBC channel for young children) website:


    In a BBC news story about an orange seagull in Buckinghamshire:

    Hospital staff said the bird "had somehow gotten himself covered in curry or turmeric".

    In the linguistically (and otherwise) conservative Telegraph newspaper:**
    Yet, it is the ageing filter that has gotten most people talking.

    By then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, who got into trouble for saying:
    The Lib Dems have gotten kind of Taliban, haven’t they?

    And in the House of Commons:
    • "I would like to share some of the thoughts of organisations that have gotten in touch in recent days to share their experience of training mental health first aiders..." —Luciana Berger, 17 Jan 2019
    • "...those in Sinn Féin say, 'Well, we’ve gotten away with two years of saying we’re not going back into government until...'" —Gregory Campbell, 5 Mar 2019
    • "...the mess that this place has gotten itself into..."  —Deirdre Brock 19 Mar 2019
    • "...the best way of dealing with this is not through a voluntary levy based on the least that can be gotten away with" —Jim Shannon, 2 July  2019
    There's a difference, though, between the ones from the House of Commons and the others. The parliamentary ones have gotten in a set phrase of some sort. It's long been the case that British speakers say gotten in close proximity to mess and into, since they're alluding to Laurel and Hardy films, where gotten is indeed the form. And in the other cases above, we've got gotten away with and gotten in touch, which are figurative and idiomatic uses. (Neither of those particular idioms is particularly American.) Since gotten is heard in Parliament as part of set phrases, it's not clear that it would be a 'normal' way for those speakers to form the past participle of get in general.

    The other examples above (and indeed Radzi's uses that inspired my original tweet) are have gotten just as a plain old verb in its many meanings. Those interest me more because they do seem more like the re-introduction of the get-got-gotten paradigm, and not just certain constructions that have been remembered with a certain verb form.

    A lot of the British gotten that I've been exposed to is from homegrown children's television and children, and that's what really seals it for me as a 2019 word. After 20 years of not hearing it much (and training myself out of saying it much), I'm really noticing it. You can find lots of people, particularly older people, in the UK talking about its ugliness or wrongness, but the fact that younger people are un-self-consciously saying it makes me think that it will get bigger still.

    And on that note, a bit later than is decent, I say goodbye to 2019!


    Footnotes:

    * I haven't presented corpus numbers in this post, since the bulk of the gotten numbers in corpora tend to be (in news) quoted Americans or (in other things) in set phrases. The Hansard corpus tool at Huddersfield University doesn't seem to be able to separate the gottens from the ill-gottens—which is a form that has remained in BrE despite the more general loss of gotten.

    ** (I got quite a few google hits for gotten in the Telegraph, for which I could see the gotten in the preview. But for some, when I clicked through, the same sentence had got. Might this be because some stories were originally posted with gotten then changed when the "error" was caught?)




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    Changing of the guard at the Fire Protection Research Foundation

    Amanda Kimball has been named executive director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation (Research Foundation). The eight-year veteran of the independent, non-profit research affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association replaces Casey Grant



    • fire protection research foundation
    • research

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    NFPA’s Lorraine Carli named to National Fallen Firefighter Foundation Board of Directors

    The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) recently announced the appointment of new members to their Board of Directors including the addition of Lorraine Carli, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) vice president of Outreach and




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    International Firefighters’ Day: Recognizing and Supporting Firefighters in Their All-Hazards Role

    Today, May 4th, is International Firefighters’ Day. Each year on this day, firefighters are celebrated – and rightly so.   Most people have an image of firefighters clad in heavy coats, over-sized boots and sturdy helmets, rushing into





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    Wedge-shaped Sideyard champions CLT construction

    When Portland, Oregon reconfigured the roadways in the Central Eastside community, a 9,000-square-foot berm space was leftover from the move. To make the most of the small and oddly shaped site, Key Development teamed up with local architecture firm Skylab and Andersen Construction to use cross laminated timber (CLT) in the construction of Sideyard, a mixed-use development. The CLT components were prefabricated in a factory and then transported on-site for final assembly, a modular process that streamlined the building process and boasts environmental benefits.[...]




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    PICO microgarden lets you grow anywhere from home to car

    Indoor gardening offers all the same benefits as a garden in the ground outside. Namely, fresh food and a low environmental impact. But not everyone has the natural space for a garden, which is where indoor planting comes in for the win. While there are many systems and techniques you can implement inside the home, PICO stands out as a versatile option that you can place anywhere and still achieve growing success. [...]




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    Should you make sourdough starter?

    Because the pandemic has ushered in a back-to-the-kitchen movement, social media is filled with gorgeous, professional-looking loaves of sourdough bread. Is it easy to make a sourdough starter? Should you jump on the sourdough bandwagon? Here’s what you need to know about making a sourdough starter.[...]




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    Inspiring rammed earth hospital brings affordable care to rural Nepal

    An inspiring beacon of humanitarian architecture has arrived to one of the poorest and most remote regions of Nepal — the new Bayalpata Hospital in Accham. Opened earlier this month to replace an aged and overrun clinic, the new hospital is a model of sustainable rural health made possible through a collaboration between the government of Nepal and NGO Possible Health. New York City-based Sharon Davis Design crafted the 7.5-acre campus, which is built primarily from locally sourced rammed earth and powered by rooftop solar panels.[...]




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    Planning a low-water garden with expert Guy Banner

    For those fortunate enough to have some outdoor space, gardening has become a top pandemic activity. It gets people outdoors doing something constructive while maintaining social distancing. You might even grow something to eat. But as all eco-conscious people know, gardening requires water. Sometimes a lot of water.[...]




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    Greenhouse gas emissions expected to hit record decline

    While your home energy bill may have increased while you shelter in place, the planet’s overall energy use has taken a significant downturn. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) first quarter report, global carbon emissions could be down by 8% this year, the biggest drop the agency has ever seen.[...]




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    Bace presents Rotofarm, an automated garden for your kitchen

    There’s never been a better time to grow your own herbs and veggies at home, but limited space is a common issue, especially in urban areas. In steps Rotofarm, the newest product from Australian-based company Bace, offering a compact indoor garden suitable for the kitchen counter complete with technology inspired by NASA.[...]




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    Record high amount of microplastic found on seafloors

    Researchers in a new U.K.-led study found a staggering volume of microplastics on the seafloor. At up to 1.9 million pieces on a single square meter, it’s the highest level on record.[...]




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    Invasive "murder hornets" arrive in US, threaten honeybees

    If you’ve been itching to get back to the outside world, two words might make you think again: murder hornets. For the first time, these gigantic, invasive hornets have been spotted in the U.S., which could be a problem for both humans and honeybees.[...]




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    Skate the streets in style on these handmade wood skateboards

    With limited traffic on the roads, cruising down abandoned streets on a slick new skateboard can be a dream come true for many skateboarders. Thanks to Rustek's new collection of wooden skateboards, handcrafted out of sustainably sourced wood, we can all dream of popping sweet 180-degree ollies while soaring down the street.[...]




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    Kibardin shares creative recycled paper furniture designs

    Creating furniture is an age-old art form that has incorporated standard materials such as aluminum, wood and rattan. However, one artist has perfected a way to use another prolific material, cardboard, into furniture designs, and he'll show you how to use it too. [...]




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    Critical Bugs Found in 3 Popular e-Learning Plugins for WordPress Sites

    Security researchers are sounding the alarm over newly discovered vulnerabilities in some popular online learning management system (LMS) plugins that various organizations and universities use to offer online training courses through their WordPress-based websites. According to the Check Point Research Team, the three WordPress plugins in question — LearnPress, LearnDash, and LifterLMS —




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    New Android Malware Steals Banking Passwords, Private Data and Keystrokes

    A new type of mobile banking malware has been discovered abusing Android's accessibility features to exfiltrate sensitive data from financial applications, read user SMS messages, and hijack SMS-based two-factor authentication codes. Called "EventBot" by Cybereason researchers, the malware is capable of targeting over 200 different financial apps, including banking, money transfer services,




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    When Will a Self-Published Book Win a Major Book Award?

    The post When Will a Self-Published Book Win a Major Book Award? appeared first on Fiction Notes.

    Dear Librarians who serve on one of the ALA Youth Media Awards committees (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Michael L. Printz, Schneider Family, Alex, Mildred L. Batchelder, Odyssey, Pura Belpré, Robert F. Siebert, Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media, Stonewall, Theodor Seuss Geisel, William C. Morris, YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, Continue Reading

    The post When Will a Self-Published Book Win a Major Book Award? appeared first on Fiction Notes.




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    Prenez soin de vous + Take care of your French with a dozen more words

    A gift from our guest: dried cyclamen, a ballet of expressive flowers! Today's Expression: Prenez soin de vous : take care of yourself (plural: yourselves) Audio file: Click here to listen to today's phrase in French and English A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristi Espinasse Someone close to us, someone young and strong, had an accident--une chute while alone at home-- followed by a trip to ER for some points! The emotional and physical scars are there, but our bien-aimé is here with us now and will stay in time to recover from the choc. Today's short entry is a reminder to you and me to continue to check in with those who are living alone. Which of our friends are on their own? Which family members? Which colleagues? Have you seen the post lady lately? Big, strong, young? Grand, fort, jeune? Don't forget to check on these ones! Check on everyone. Self-check. Vérifie! I am off to check on our guest, who somehow managed--between the ER and here--to pack a bunch of goodies for us to share at the table: gingembre, poireaux, citrons, oranges--les agrumes--which have since been added to soup and put into a simple cake....

              




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    You Can't Skateboard On A Highway, No Matter How Cool It Looks

    By Dan Duddy  Published: May 07th, 2020 




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    Guns N' Roses Wrote A Children's Book, And It's Weirder Than It Sounds

    By Amanda Mannen  Published: May 08th, 2020 




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    NFL Player Earl Thomas And His Brother Are Weird AF

    By Dan Duddy  Published: May 08th, 2020 




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    Pizza-Fueled Lizard Broke The Constipation Record, RIP

    By Dan Duddy  Published: May 08th, 2020 




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    Weird Ways Science Is Screwed

    By Adam Wears  Published: May 09th, 2020