Solar Decathlon's Latest Designs for Affordable ... - AOL Real Estate

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| Posted Oct 15th 2013 10:13AM

Updated Oct 15th 2013 12:01PM

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By Diana Olick

Nineteen collegiate teams are in a tough competition to see who can design, build and operate the most energy efficient and affordable home of the future. From solar technology, to sustainable building materials, to futuristic heating and cooling systems, these teams are using the latest innovations from companies across the globe, while pushing the envelope of energy efficiency with their own new ideas. The homes are fully built and decorated, and the student teams are performing all kinds of tasks within the homes, from washing clothes to boiling water; whichever team does it all best wins.

The competition, which is called the Solar Decathlon, started in 2002, occurring biannually in Washington, D.C. This year, the Department of Energy-sponsored event moved to Irvine, Calif., to bring its homes to a wider audience. Irvine is the perfect place, as new construction is booming again after a lull during the housing recession. A big emphasis in this year's competition is affordability.

The homebuilders are watching, especially Lennar, which has a major development going on near the site of this year's competition. Lennar is building homes with solar standard.
Below are some highlights of this year's decathlon.

SOLAR DECATHLON HOMES:

• 
  

  House: Delta T-90

  
  
  

  Cost: $168,385

  
  
  

  Team website: nusd2013.org

  
  
  

  The Delta T-90 house was built at the Huntington Homes factory in Vermont. Norwich University is the first team in the history of the decathlon to partner with a home builder, which means in the future the homes could be made commercially available.

  
  
  

  The DOE judges estimate this home would cost $168,385. Along with two others, the Delta T-90 is a winner in the competition's affordability category.

  
  
  

  The house uses the "Big Ass Fans" brand and a smart e-monitor system, allowing homeowners to stay informed about their home's power usage and production.

  
  
  

  The "Big Ass Fan" helps maintain a comfortable 70-degree temperature inside when the outside temperature is below 20 degrees.

  
  
  

  Five teams competing in the decathlon use the "Big Ass Fans" brand.

  
  
  Norwich University
  
• 
  House: Start.Home
  
  Cost: $234,092
  
  Team website: solardecathlon.stanford.edu

  The Start.home is built around a core: like the engine of car, it runs the home. Designed to be low cost and efficient, the core can be shipped to home builders as a self-contained unit, so they can build their own custom home around it.

  The house features energy efficient appliances from General Electric and the roof is lined with energy efficient ceiling material developed by DuPont. Homeowners can control and monitor energy consumption using an Apple iPad.

  Stanford students also developed a proprietary track pad "home switch," to control electrical outlets and lights with the swipe of a finger.

  
  Stanford University
  
• 
  House: DALE
  
  Cost: $274,263
  
  Team website: meetdale.com

  The Southern California Institute of Architecture and the California Institute of Technology came together to create the DALE house, which splits in half to triple its living area.

  Sliding on rails like train tracks, the house expands from 600 to 18,000 square feet, opening up to make the most of California's sunny climate.

  Inside the home, the walls move to maximize or minimize different living areas, depending on what the homeowner is doing.

  
  SCI-Arc and Caltech
  
• 
  House: UrbanEden
  
  Cost: $350,686
  
  Team website: urbaneden.uncc.edu

  The cement used by UNC-Charlotte to make this house is generating a lot of buzz. The geopolymer cement concrete is made up of fly ash, which is a waste byproduct of coal-burning power plants.

  This entirely new type of cement is far more environmentally friendly than traditional Portland cement, which contributes 5 percent to 8 percent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. The team behind this home estimates their new cement reduces the home's carbon footprint by 90 percent.

  The other unique feature of this home is its use of outdoor space. The walls move to turn the living room into a bedroom and transform the outdoor deck into a living area.

  The deck is lined with plants—a different variety for each room: Outside the living room are flowers, by the kitchen are edibles and alongside the bedroom are thicker varieties for more privacy.

  
  The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  
• 
  Home: Harvest
  
  Cost: $280,952
  
  Team website: www.teamcapitoldc.org

  The Catholic University of America, George Washington University and American University joined forces as Team Capitol DC to build this home, which features sliding blinds along the front. Strips of metal called "lulvers" adjust, opening or closing to maximize energy from the sun's rays.

  Each blind has a Flexinol wire built in, a heat-sensitive black wire which expands or contracts to open or close the blinds automatically at certain temperatures. Right now the system is set to close the blinds at a comfortable room temperature of 75 to 85 degrees.

  Like all the homes here, The Harvest House is entirely solar powered with energy efficient appliances and a small physical footprint.

  
  Team Capitol DC
  
• 
  

  House: The Phoenix

  
  
  

  Cost: $248,423

  
  
  

  Team website: sd2013.teamkentuckiana.org

  
  
  

  Team Kentuckiana—the University of Louisville, Ball State University and University of Kentucky—designed the Phoenix House with victims of natural disasters in mind. It is constructed with a roof that easily pops back into shape after it is demolished.

  
  
  

  The bathroom doubles as a safe room for a homeowner to take shelter, with a strong metal outside door and shatter-proof window.

  
  
  

  In the kitchen, the table collapses down and in the bedrooms, like many of these energy-efficient homes, Murphy beds maximize space and minimize energy needs.

  
  
  

  For a complete list of all the Solar Decathlon Teams competing this year, click here.

  
  
  Team Kentuckiana
  

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/10/15/2013-solar-decathlons-latest-designs/
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Book News: Oscar Hijuelos Remembered As 'A Cultural Pioneer'

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos attends the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors) Awards in 2003 in New York City.

Myrna Suarez/Getty Images

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos attends the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors) Awards in 2003 in New York City.

Myrna Suarez/Getty Images

• Novelist Oscar Hijuelos, whose book The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love made him the first Latino author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, died on Saturday at age 62. NPR's David Greene interviewed Hijuelos' friend Gustavo Perez Firmat, a Columbia professor who said Hijuelos made Americans realize that there is a "rich and diverse body of writing being done by young Latinos in this country," noting that it "helped to open doors with both publishers and readers to other Latino writers." Hector Tobar of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Hijuelos was "a cultural pioneer who wrote elegant novels about ambitious Cuban expatriates and music-loving New Yorkers." Tobar added, "He told stories that revealed the texture and passion of the Latino immigrant experience to legions of non-Latino readers for the first time."


• With the announcement of the prestigious Man Booker Prize looming, The Guardian announced the winner of its aptly-named annual contest, the Not the Booker Prize. This year, Life After Life, a novel from the "tremendously talented writer" Kate Atkinson took the award.


• The poet, professor and critic James Emanuel died Sept. 28 at age 92, The New York Times reports. His poems often deal with racism in America. One, "Deadly James (For All the Victims of Police Brutality)," was written after his son, who Emanuel said was a victim of police brutality, committed suicide. In September, Emanuel spoke to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley about moving to Paris to escape racial discrimination in the U.S.: "It's the tragedy that I never can talk about. It was too evil, too vicious. And any country that would tolerate it is a country I can't put my foot in." He added, "If America ever solves its racial problem, it will be the greatest country in the world."


• Carl Bernstein is writing a memoir about his time as a rookie journalist at The Washington Star, the legendary D.C. newspaper that went bankrupt in 1981. The book will be titled The Washington Star and will be published in 2016 by Henry Holt. In a press release, Bernstein wrote ,"My understanding of journalism, and the world I've covered and written about, and the life I've led, crystallized in those five incomparable years at a uniquely great newspaper."


• The Color Purple author Alice Walker will publish excerpts from her personal diaries as a book, to be called Gathering Blossoms Under Fire. The Simon & Schuster imprint 37 Ink will publish it in 2017. The Associated Press notes that "the 69-year-old Walker has been keeping a diary for half a century, filling dozens of notebooks that track her rise from poverty in Georgia to international fame."


• Donna Tartt rails against prescriptivism in English in an interview with her editor Michael Pietsch: "English is such a powerful and widely spoken language precisely because it's so flexible, and capacious: a catchall hybrid that absorbs and incorporates everything it comes into contact with. Lexical variety, eccentric constructions and punctuation, variant spellings, archaisms, the ability to pile clause on clause, the effortless incorporation of words from other languages: flexibility, and inclusiveness, is what makes English great; and diversity is what keeps it healthy and growing, exuberantly regenerating itself with rich new forms and usages. Shakespearean words, foreign words, slang and dialect and made-up phrases from kids on the street corner: English has room for them all. And writers — not just literary writers, but popular writers as well — breathe air into English and keep it lively by making it their own, not by adhering to some style manual that gets handed out to college Freshmen in a composition class."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/15/234621717/book-news-oscar-hijuelos-remembered-as-a-cultural-pioneer?ft=1&f=1008
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Rights Groups Urge Justice Probe Of 1985 Bombing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil rights groups and members of Congress are pressing the Justice Department to renew its investigation of a 1985 office bombing that killed Palestinian-American civil rights leader Alex Odeh and injured seven people.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jewish Voice for Peace and others have launched a petition campaign asking Justice to further investigate the explosion, which demolished the committee's office in Santa Ana, Calif. The online petition has about 10,000 signatures.

California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez sent a letter to the department in June and is seeking other lawmakers to sign a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. The FBI identified suspects after the attack, but none were ever named or indicted.

"Whenever a leader for a civil rights organization is killed, it is the responsibility of our country as a whole— and a civil rights community as a whole— to stand up and demand that their killers be brought to justice and to insure that the U.S. Department of Justice does everything in its power to close the case," NAACP President Ben Jealous told reporters in a conference call Monday.

The DOJ, which has furloughed workers due to the government shutdown, had no immediate comment Monday, which also was the federal Columbus Day holiday. In 2010, the FBI described Odeh's killing in an agency news blog as "an active, ongoing priority investigation" and noted a $1 million reward.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said Monday that he wants the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations to convene a hearing on the bombing.

"We're going to pursue it vigorously and we're not going to let any more time lapse," Conyers said. "We're going to continue to help all of the organizations that are involved build up more and more support for us getting to where we ought to be in terms of a horrific, violent crime that has, I think, been put on the back burner for far too long."

At the time of the attack, the FBI said they believed the bombing was the responsibility of the militant Jewish Defense League. An attorney for the group denied the allegations and asked for a retraction from the agency. The FBI also linked Odeh's killing to two other acts of domestic terrorism in Brentwood, N.Y. and Paterson, N.J. that same year.

Odeh, the West Coast regional director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed as he opened the door to his office on Oct. 11, 1985. The bombing occurred the morning after Odeh said on a Los Angeles television news broadcast that Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yassir Arafat was a "man of peace" because of his role in securing the release of passengers from the hijacked Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in Egypt.

Odeh, who came to the U.S. from Palestine, was described by both Jews and Arabs as a nonviolent man who advocated compromise. According to the American-Arab committee, Odeh immigrated to the United States in 1972 and became a U.S. citizen in 1977. He was a poet and lecturer.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=234356181&ft=1&f=
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The end of the CIO as we know it -- and IT feels fine

Credit: Daniel Allan

It's a painful irony: As technology permeates the workplace, the CIO is becoming less relevant. I predict the position's stature will further decrease in the coming years for many -- though not all -- companies.

I've been watching CIOs try to reinvent themseves for most of the last decade, and I've heard all sorts of new roles for the CIO proposed: chief innovation officer, chief process officer, chief strategy officer, chief digital officer, chief integration office, even chief information officer (as opposed to chief technology manager, which is what most CIOs actually are). I've watched CIOs chafe about reporting to the CFO a decade ago to seeking a "seat at the table" (meaning being treated like COOs, sales chiefs, and CFOs in CEOs' eyes) half a decade ago to now seeking to be "more strategic."

[ What's driving the consumerization-of-IT trend. | Subscribe to InfoWorld's Consumerization of IT newsletter today. ]

CIOs don't want to be the digital version of the head of facilities or the technology purchasing manager. Instead, they've been trying to find a big role for themselves for much of the last decade. They've failed, and there's a reason for that.

The CIO rose under an extraordinary set of circumstances
The CIO job is about 15 years old, created in the aftermath of the Y2K crisis and the simultaneous rise of both ERP and e-commerce in the late 1990s. Before then, we had MIS (management information system) directors who ran the mainframe-era data centers in large companies. They were specialized departments that had little to do with the rest of the company's routine operations, though they were critical to key functions (usually financial).

The Y2K crisis and the ERP and e-commerce pushes made companies realize that technology was fundamentally important to the entire company and needed an elevated position in the corporate hierarchy to do the equivalent of the Manhattan Project or lunar landing: implement massive information systems that had never existed before. Thus was born the CIO.

By the mid-2000s, though, e-commerce and ERP were deployed at most companies, and Y2K was a distant memory. The CIO role became more about maintaining and operating those systems, and some CIOs began to miss the heady days of figuring out the brave new world. Many more were happy to get back to an operational role, managing IT as they had MIS, though it was now more complex because PCs were on nearly every desk, networks were widespread, and the amount of data to manage was several orders of magnitudes greater than it had been pre-Y2K.

After 9/11, CIOs got a boost to their strategic value due to the focus on security, which many CIOs used as a way to assert control or entrench themselves further, whether strategically or operationally, depending on their ambitions. Security became a convenient way to say no, and the cautionary joke about CIOs and their IT departments being Doctor No became common.

Then the financial meltdown hit, and most companies made their CIOs focus on operational efficiency through cost-cutting and automation. As a result, IT was less able to say yes and simultaneously recast it as an operational sink hole that could always be squeezed further.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/consumerization-of-it/the-end-of-the-cio-we-know-it-and-it-feels-fine-228472?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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Colts lead Chargers 3-0 on Vinatieri's field goal

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Adam Vinatieri kicked a 30-yard field goal on the game's first possession, and the Indianapolis Colts led the San Diego Chargers 3-0 after one quarter Monday night.

The Colts opened the game with a flea-flicker, with Trent Richardson taking the handoff and tossing the ball back to Andrew Luck, who completed a 35-yard pass to Reggie Wayne. The drive bogged down at the Chargers 11, leading to Vinatieri's field goal.

Philip Rivers' first four passes for San Diego were incomplete. Then he connected with rookie Keenan Allen on a 13-yarder on third-and-15 from the Chargers 33.

The Colts were trying to take a two-game lead in the AFC South.

Colts coach Chuck Pagano is the older brother of Chargers defensive coordinator John Pagano.

The Chargers were without three starters: linebackers Jarret Johnson and Donald Butler, and left guard Chad Rinehart. The Colts were without safety LaRon Landry.

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colts-lead-chargers-3-0-vinatieris-field-goal-012533305--spt.html
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Demand Media CEO And Co-Founder Rosenblatt Resigns

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Demand Media said Monday that its CEO and chairman, Richard Rosenblatt, will resign from the company he helped found by the end of the month.

The Internet publisher said that co-founder Shawn Colo is the interim president, effective immediately, and will become the temporary CEO when Rosenblatt resigns on Oct. 31. Demand Media will start a search for a permanent CEO soon. James Quandt, a member of Demand Media's board since 2008, will take over as chairman, effective immediately.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company did not explain why Rosenblatt was resigning. He has been CEO since the company was founded in 2006.

"I realize that all journeys must ultimately come to an end and want to wish Shawn and the entire team success as they continue to grow the business," Rosenblatt said in a statement.

Demand Media's shares have lost 66 percent of their value since the company went public in January 2011 with an initial public offering price of $17. Analysts expect the company to report a loss this year, after posting a profit last year, according to FactSet.

Demand Media assigns freelancers to produce stories about frequently searched topics online and then sells advertisements alongside the content at its own websites, which include eHow. That business has suffered from changes in Google's search formula that cut the amount of traffic to its websites.

Earlier this year, Demand Media announced it plans to split itself into two publicly traded companies. The company said Monday that it is still committed to that plan. One of the companies will handle the company's how-to articles and the other will offer domain registry services.

Demand Media shares closed unchanged Monday at $5.85.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=234307903&ft=1&f=
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Paint and Lighting: Lowe's Home Improvements DIY Kitchen Project ...

Recently Lowe’s Home Improvement and I partnered together to brighten up my kitchen! This is my second post to tell you about our kitchen DIY project: My work with Lowe’s, painting the kitchen and adding new lighting, and something I’m very excited about, new countertops are on their way!

It makes me giddy and excited for the holidays to come! One thing, in particular, is that I’ll have new WHITE solid surface countertops!

Our friend Jack came to help install, paint, and do some extra jobs around the house. I posted about our shopping experience  at Lowe’s, last week.

Now it’s time to get to work on the house! In comes Jack …

Jack’s not only our retired friend, we find him so enjoyable to be around. We decided after a few days of working and helping us that we’d actually let Jack, and his wife Carol, move in with us!

I’ll start with our front door. We painted it an HEIRLOOM RED using Valspar paint. We have our original 1978 front doors, which I believe keeps the integrity of our home, and it was nice to have a touch up. We had red in the past and I wanted red again. A red front door to me makes a statement: WELCOME.

Then we moved into the kitchen for more painting. We used Olympic paint with these colors:

Olympic ONE paint for the kitchen: Weeping Willow C11-3 and Babbling Brook D61-2

Once we get the back splash up and the counters in, I’ll show you the big reveal with the new paint colors!

The next project we worked on was lighting in our home. Up the staircase, and the entry.

Before we changed out the lights.

And after, with 2 beautiful allen + roth® wooden slat pendants in a warm pecan finish, with a fabric shade.

I love the allen + roth® brand, which is sold exclusively at Lowe’s.

Jack also hung a new pendant light in our dining room. It had been years since we’d repurposed  the old one by spraying it black. It was definitely time for an update!

The quality and style of this pendant tied in nicely with our dining/kitchen area– yellows, browns, and a touch of teal and green.

With the existing 3 red pendants in the kitchen, we decided to change up the colors with 3 beautiful teal-ish blue.

Construction is always messy!

Just when we finished the painting, Kevin came from Lowe’s Home Improvements, came to measure for our  new LG HI-MACS Solid WHITE Solid Surface Countertops!

Details to come on the installation. And then soon, the big reveal.

Love the process of making a template for the counters. Perfect idea!

Remember the goal for sprucing up our kitchen and home was to add more light. To brighten things up and to bring clarity and light to a dark space.

That said, I whipped into our local Lowe’s store for all of these products, because the partnership I have with is to “buy in stock.” That made it very simple for me!

I browsed the lighting section only a couple of times, and made my decision. I’m happy to say that our experience with shopping at Lowe’s was very easy and comfortable. And their staff was very knowledgable and had great style tips! The products we’ve decided to use were top notch, with no glitches whatsoever. So sometimes a “quick” shopping experience is much more profitable and time effective, than long drawn-out ones where you can’t decide. Part of not being able to decide I believe has to do with perfectionism and image. We worry too much about what other people will think, how they will judge our home, or “if we made the right decision.”

Easy Decision and Shopping Process:

• Make your choices.


• Stick with your gut.


• Ask 1 friend or professional. Don’t get a zillion other opinions or you’ll be terribly confused.


• Take samples home and lay them out.


• Use your a My Lowe’s account for easy planning.


• Head to the store and ask 1 employee to help you to collect all items.


• Try to get everything in 1 shopping trip.


• Make sure they help you out to your car if you need it.


• Put Lowe’s phone number in your cell, in case you need to call them for help.

Do everything you can to enjoy the experience and remodel process!

Do you have any small home improvements coming up?

Next post: The countertops are here! Installation time, and why we love our new LG HI-MACS Solid Surface countertops.

Today’s post is sponsored by Lowe’s Home Improvement, who provided me with product. As always, all opinions are my own.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Source: http://reluctantentertainer.com/2013/10/paint-lighting-lowes-home-improvements-diy-kitchen/
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