Archive | December, 2011

Strawbale Housing

14 Dec
Straw is a waste material that can be used for building houses. Bales of straw are treated and arranged to form walls. Straw bales can be a highly efficient building material.

  1. Brief Applause: Straw Bale House
    WVIZPBS
    October 22, 2008 2:45:28 PM EDT
  2. Here is a tweet about a video on strawbale construction:
  3. “
    healthy living * Houses of straw – the rediscovery of strawbale building: bit.ly/swWwHQ
    Don Victor
    December 10, 2011 11:14:46 AM EST

  4. reverbca
    November 6, 2011 1:32:44 PM EST
  5. There are quite a few resources on strawbale construction on the Net:
  6. Straw Bale House made by Single Mom for $50,000
    strawladyhouse
    December 13, 2011 9:11:32 PM EST
  7. Some people say that strawbale houses take long to cool down, but strawbale construction offers excellent insulation.
  8. “
    @ottid88 @alicopeman @ronindotca @lulu03dotca a Strawbale house is quite hard to cool down quickly
    Paul Le Comte
    December 13, 2011 3:35:31 AM EST
  9. The strawbale construction method can be used to build upmarket good-looking houses:
  10. Alternative Construction: Straw bale, recycled wine bottles
    faircompanies
    March 8, 2007 6:44:39 AM EST

Building with Laterite

13 Dec
  1. Laterite is a beatiful gold-and-red coloured stone, with a wonderful earthy tone, that was very commonly used as a building material in Kerala, India, as well as other parts of South Asia. It can be left exposed without plastering.
    Laterite will always be sort of rough-hewn, because it is an agglomerate, unlike granite which is a metamorphic stone. See below for a beautiful seating area  made out of laterite.

  2. Myspacecdn
    December 12, 2011 10:26:31 PM EST
  3. Hewing and finishing of laterite is usually done manually in a centuries-old tradition of building.

  4. Wikimedia
    December 13, 2011 12:33:29 PM EST
  5. In South India, laterite is a cost-effective building material since it is locally available. However the lack of commercial production of laterite has resulted in brick and cement blocks being more common these days. Surprising, considering that laterite is beautiful when left exposed, and can be treated to withstand algae, without being plastered.

  6. Kumareducation
    December 13, 2011 12:33:29 PM EST
  7. Entire villages have been built of laterite in Vietnam:
  8. In Nigeria, compressed laterite blocks have been used to build low cost housing:
  9. However, I personally feel that laterite comes to its own in large buildings, where the natural beauty of the stone displays in a larger scale. I feel the same of face-brick buildings. There is something about scale…
  10. “
    Lovingly built (out of burnt orange laterite blocks) using doors
    Coorg C F Resort
    December 12, 2011 10:27:48 PM EST

  11. Francis Buchanan-Hamilton first described and named a laterite formation in southern India in 1807. He named it laterite from the Latin word later, which means a brick; this rock can easily be cut into brick-shaped blocks for building.


    Laterite is a surface formation rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. It develops by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides.


    Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument building. After 1000 CE construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick and stone.


    Laterites can be either soft and easily broken into smaller pieces, or firm and physically resistant. Basement rocks are buried under the thick weathered layer and rarely exposed.


    (From Wikipedia)

Doing business with a lackey

12 Dec

Do you do business with someone who uses the following expressions:

“… I have been summoned…”

“… I have been mandated…”

Do you do business with such a person? No, because that is the the language of a lackey.

While this may be nothing more than a grubby negotiating tactic, to claim to have to pass all decisions by a higher power, chances are such a person is merely buying time and is devoid of sincerity.

In other words, he or she would be, what we call in South Africa, a chancer!

 

 

Sean Parker dissing Twitter

4 Dec

Even multi-millionaire Silicon Valley whiz-kids have moments of irrational jealousy. Here is Sean Parker, founder of Napster and ex-president of Facebook (he was played by Justin Timberlake in the film Social Network), commenting on an article in Forbes.com:

Twitter is FAR from a Facebook competitor. To call Twitter a competitor is like saying Potato Chips is competition to Coca Cola. INCORRECT. What would replace Facebook if it ceased to exist? Twitter? No. That should be your 1st hint at if Twitter is a Facebook competitor. Steven Bertoni. You need to go to B School my friend. Your missing some remedial marks of the B world. It reflects poorly on your Editors at Forbes. Perhaps they need to be replaced. Your not adding INTEL. Your subtracting it.

The collective INTEL available via Twitter in form of two lines can be summed up in value and worth to when the Twitter heavy weight champion of all John Mayer said “I wonder what this button does” and deleted his account and its millions of followers. Follow him doing what? What does Twitter do exactly? I have hundreds of followers. And I have no idea who the hell they are nor do I care. I have no idea what they say nor interested in what they have to say. They “follow me”.

Twitter is kind of like the Nielson Ratings. It tells you how many people are watching you at that particular minute they decided to ‘follow you’. But it says nothing more.

To rely on Twitter as a measure of anything is akin to seeing ratings for the SuperBowl and assuming they are there for all time. The people I follow I can tell you I followed for that one second. I have no recollection of why I “Followed” them. They are worthless and meaningless and there is no way Twitter is organized in a way that will allow me to see what these people say in an organized or comprehensible manner. Twitters name in such times need to be changed to Jibberish. Which is why the heavy weight king of all time, amongst many others, have deleted this worthless account. Point of all this? Twitter is no Facebook. Friend.

Twitter is far from Facebook. Why it even exists , what is its worth or usefulness I will never figure out. Twitter is a Bubble waiting to Burst. It is the most overrated company on the face of earth.

To assume the 10 million following ABC Television during the SuperBowl are still following them 2 hours afterward is a critical mistake. Even in Nielsen ratings? Twitter is sheer absolute incomprehensible nonsense. Just ask John Mayer.

Steven Bertoni. Your not really to blame. Who is your editor? And why does he allow you to print cover stories littered with untruths that are exactly the opposite of what anyone knows out there. Twitter is no competition to Facebook. No more than Popcorn is to Coke. Different game. Very Very different game. Its like saying golf is competition for football. Get it in gear Bertoni. Wiser yet. Have your “Editors” get it in gear. They’re embarrassing themselves.

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