General Chat

[Chindie]

I'm an avid Grand Designs watcher, got it recorded for watching shortly. Can't say I'm lookin forward to this weeks though, I've never really liked the episodes based on prefab houses. They usually tend to be a bit too 'procedural' and also, a little too 'off the hanger' modernist.

[Chindie]

Hmm... having watched the episode now... I can't see that taking off without considerable adjustment. the outside it's not an awful looking thing, not bad at all really but it does have a bit of the 'commercial' about it, it looks a bit like a classy visitor centre for something. Not bad though.

Inside however... it just didn't work. The grid pattern everywhere was stupid, especially when it started bisecting the carpet upstairs. Thats certainly not to everyones taste. It's not horrendous and it's liveable and indeed, in parts, nice, but I can't see it being that popular.

But the big issue with it is that it's not a massively original idea. Other companies already do similar things. Indeed a family on Grand Designs has already done the pre-fab house thing, where huge wall sections, with built in pipework and cables, are just slotted together in a steel frame. In fact I think it's something they've had on the show a couple of times. I can remember one guy who did it also with experience from the commercial world where they do it for speed and cost.

[JulieB]

I thought the interior was impressive. I'm sure if anything was built commercially it would need to be scaled down but don't forget this was just a prototype of a steel framed, timber clad house. Alan is not an architect, he's an engineer and a designer. His factory is responsible for designing and installing some fabulous metal work all over Europe.

The Eco credentials of Adaptahouse were not emphasised that much but that's one of the things with the design,

which will make it more marketable. It's superinsulated and heat efficient.

Whilst watching it struck me that a far more scaled down version of a quickly built abode could be adapted and installed in places like Haiti

after disasters, because the ground works are minimal & most of the parts can be manufactured elsewhere.

[Chindie]

I disagree that that style of building is much use for somewhere like Haiti post natural disaster.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Grand Designs is at it's best when it has people who are amazing passionate about their projects. The castle in Yorkshire springs to mind, or the episode with the long haired eccentric fellow who did something or other.

[Chindie]

Tomorrow is the first day in about 4 years where I'm busy for all of it. got to sign on in the morning (hoping they let me do it earlier than usual, shouldnt be a problem), get a couple of forms they seem loathe to give me, and then gotta go to work. It'll be bloody weird.

[Phumfeinz]

Hang about, you sign on and then go to work? How does that 'work'? Is it a part-time thing?

[Milfner]

First ever week of work, got given 45 hours :|

I was so bored earlier that I worked out that I earned a thousandth of what Wayne Rooney does in a week. rocket polisher.

[leviramsey]

Student falls to death while watching gridiron practice in 50 mph winds

Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletic director, said Thursday that an “extraordinary burst of wind” roared across the football practice fields Wednesday, toppling a video tower and killing Declan Sullivan, a 20-year-old student manager for the team.

Notre Dame will play its home game Saturday against Tulsa. Swarbrick said the university considered canceling the game but decided instead to dedicate it to Sullivan, with a prayer and a moment of silence beforehand. A pep rally and several other events before the game have been canceled.

Sullivan, a junior from Long Grove, Ill., had posted several messages to his Facebook page via Twitter while he was up on the tower, expressing his fear of the wind. He called the conditions “terrifying.” Just before the practice, Sullivan posted to Twitter a messsage in which he said, “Gusts of wind up to 60 mph today will be fun at work ...I guess I’ve lived long enough.”

Swarbrick said at a news conference Thursday that the university’s investigation, which began Wednesday, would look into whether Sullivan had expressed his fear to the team’s video coordinator, to whom he reported.

Swarbrick said he was attending the practice and heard the crash but did not see it. He said he did not notice the weather to be unusual before the wind gust, although the National Weather Service had a wind advisory in effect. News reports said gusts reached 51 m.p.h.

Sullivan was filming practice from the tower, which is commonly used for that purpose. Swarbrick said he did not know how high the lift was or its maintenance history.

“Every program makes its own decisions with regards to practices,” Swarbrick said. “We’re going to take a look at all of that in the investigation, the decision process that happened that day. It was not just one decision to practice outside. It was a series of decisions.”

Until those questions are answered, he said, there is little to do but honor Sullivan’s memory and mourn. “This is a time of extraordinary sorrow and grief,” he said.

Swarbrick said Sullivan appeared to be responding to commands from medical personnel at the scene. Swarbrick said that as Sullivan was being taken to a hospital in South Bend, Ind., he received a call that Sullivan had stopped breathing.

Coach Brian Kelly did not attend the news conference, and Swarbrick said neither Kelly nor the players would be available for comment until after Saturday’s game. He said he wanted them to be able to deal with Sullivan’s death privately until then.

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which classified the death as a workplace fatality, arrived on campus Thursday to begin its own investigation. The tower, a mobile hydraulic lift, remained where it fell.

[Chindie]

Hang about, you sign on and then go to work? How does that 'work'? Is it a part-time thing?

Part time. Very part time, until I can get my hours up.

If you work under 16 hours you can still claim Jobseekers, they just adjust it to the amount you've already earned (meaning that it's actually pointless getting a part time job since you'd achieve the same thing money wise by not bothering to work at all). Still, I'd rather be doing some work than none at all.

Annoyingly I've realised that it might be a little tight with my signing on and going to work so gonna have to ring to see if I can postpone going to the job centre till Monday.

[LondonLax]

Hang about, you sign on and then go to work? How does that 'work'? Is it a part-time thing?

Part time. Very part time, until I can get my hours up.

If you work under 16 hours you can still claim Jobseekers, they just adjust it to the amount you've already earned (meaning that it's actually pointless getting a part time job since you'd achieve the same thing money wise by not bothering to work at all). Still, I'd rather be doing some work than none at all.

Annoyingly I've realised that it might be a little tight with my signing on and going to work so gonna have to ring to see if I can postpone going to the job centre till Monday.

The Australian system when I was getting student allowance was that you lost 50c of welfare for every $1 you earn which is at least a bit better at incentivising work.

[Chindie]

Yeah I don't think it's the best system.

They actively try to discourage working part time, whereas I would have thought it would make sense to encourage people to work no matter what. I mean is it better for the country for me to just not bother and just turn up once a fortnight to sign on for my £103, or to work at least some hours and then have to be given less JSA, as well as getting me into the job market in some capacity at least.

I had to go in for a 'Back to Work' session last week and was basically told that, as far as the Job Centre is concerned, if I'm working part time below 16 hours a week, I'm effectively the same as someone who is completely unemployed, but has enough saved up to reduce whatever JSA I would get. As opposed to thinking of me as someone who is working short hours part time and is actively trying to get off the dole entirely.

Still, at least I am working and I should get my hours up soon. Something to improve my shocking CV at least.

[mjmooney]

I disagree that that style of building is much use for somewhere like Haiti post natural disaster.

Perhaps [isambard Kingdom Brunel's] most remarkable, yet little-known, project was the construction of a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital in present-day Turkey.

In February 1855, he was invited to design a hospital for use in the Crimean war that could be built in Britain and shipped out for speedy erection. The design took six days to complete and the parts reached Renkioi in the Dardanelles in May that year. As a civil hospital for military patients, it was staffed by experienced civilian doctors, and demonstrated the advantage of a hospital being run by a doctor rather than a military officer.

Renkioi also showed how infection rates could be reduced by able staff in a well administered, properly designed hospital. The hospital showed lower mortality rates than those of London hospitals.

There was scant recognition in the press that Brunel’s design was a major advance in hospital design, and a great improvement on the tented and hutted hospitals originally provided in the Crimea. However, Florence Nightingale commended its “magnificent huts” for their enhanced air circulation, which drastically reduced infection rates. And Brunel’s design was adopted by the federal forces during the American civil war (1861–65) and by the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war (1870–71).

Link

[wiggyrichard]

My lads got his second lot of injections today.

Is it too early for him to be teething? He's been a bit grumpy the last week or so, ive also noticed his cheeks are red and he wont take his fingers out of his mouth? He's 3 months old now.

[Chindie]

Theres little mention of the type of building that is however. From pictures it seems to be a pretty simple wood construction - Julie is talking about a steel framed building that has prefab panels completely wire and plumbed up slotted into it. The main issue with it, for me, bein that steel frames ain't cheap and either they would represent too solid a building for temporary use, or wouldn't be big enough/prepared enough to be used for long term use as, for example, housing.

And I think theres a difference between the relatively clear and undisturbed ground of the Dardanelles, in an area prepared for army use and away from the main battlefield, and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in a country with a crippled infrastructure (that wasn't much cop to start with).

[JulieB]

Not necessarily steel framed simple abodes because that would make the whole thing too heavy & expensive possibly to transport and it's maybe

not so eco friendly.

There's a company starting to make a replacement for concrete kerb stones out of recycled plastic so I've been told. Somekind of recyclable material or lighter metal might be more appropriate. Like I said in another thread..what it takes is a bit of imagination.

But something similar of a lighter material using the concept of the assembled Adaptahous on a much simpler, smaller scale, might be useful

in areas where quickly built structures are recquired to replace the inevitable tent cities.

[cheltenham_villa]

My lads got his second lot of injections today.

Is it too early for him to be teething? He's been a bit grumpy the last week or so, ive also noticed his cheeks are red and he wont take his fingers out of his mouth? He's 3 months old now.

my lad started around the 3 month mark, dribbling all the time is another sign.

[wiggyrichard]

My lads got his second lot of injections today.

Is it too early for him to be teething? He's been a bit grumpy the last week or so, ive also noticed his cheeks are red and he wont take his fingers out of his mouth? He's 3 months old now.

my lad started around the 3 month mark, dribbling all the time is another sign.

Yep, ticks all the boxes then.

[JulieB]

Red cheeks, mardy, dribbling.. it's teething.

I don't like to push the drugs but when you're dealing with it at 3am it's no joke. Baby bonjela, Calpol.

Cold things on the gums like teething rings you can put in the freezer are good.

You can also buy teething granules from the Health Shop.

[wiggyrichard]

Cheers Julie, we've already armed ourselves with Calpol.

Someone else has recommended the teething granules, whats the crack with them? How do they work?