FuN LivINg Lifestyle

Another beautiful project by Nathan Good Architect is situated near Lincoln City, Oregon. That is waterfront property overlooking Devil’s lake from many of its windows. The design is a combination of agrarian and contemporary styles. With small building footprint it has everything needed for a comfortable lifestyle. With a lot of clean nature around it blends with it because of materials used during the construction. The lake house also has many contemporary green features like hydronic radiant-heated floors, energy efficient lighting, controls and appliances, natural cross ventilation design, non-toxic materials, a central vacuum system for enhanced indoor air quality. The interior done in similar to the exterior style. Most of cabinets are handcrafted of sustainably harvested Lyptus and floors are made of polished concrete.

Here’s some cool on page SEO tips you can use…

Title tag: for the title tag to carry the maximum weight simply have the title tag as “main keyword” and nothing else.

H1 tag: same as title tag “main keyword” only will carry maximum weight.

H2 tag: “main keyword” in at least one of your H2 tags.

Meta & Description: Fairly meaningless, just include your main keyword in both. (more…)

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are carbon compounds that can vaporize (become a gas) at normal room temperatures21 and hence will tend to evaporate from a building product into the air over time where humans can breathe them in. VOC-type chemicals are used as feedstocks for some plastics and used in binders and other resins for products such as composite wood or insulation, in paints, coatings and adhesives, and treatments to provide water esistance or to enhance stain repellence. Some typical problematic VOC compounds released from building materials include formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, toluene, isocyanates, xylene, and benzene. VOCs are often emitted at high levels when a product is first installed and taper off to lower levels over time—related to cure time, or drying time, of components that are initially wet and ultimately dry. VOC emissions from solid materials, such as flooring, fabric, furniture and furnishings emit more slowly initially and maintain a low level of emissions over a longer period of time. Building materials wrapped in plastic at point of  manufacture and unwrapped at the project site can emit concentrated VOCs when uncovered. (more…)

Alot of webmasters and ‘SEOs’ alike ask tons of questions about why their PR has dropped, how they can increase it, etc., etc.

I’m here to set the record straight. Google PR IS a major part of your rankings. HOWEVER, the way everyone here uses the term (99% of the time) is in reference to the VISIBLE Google PR value found in their toolbar. This is a POOR measure of PR folks and should not be used in ANY discussion about rankings or loss.

What we know: Google Visible Green Toolbar is updated quarterly. The information in the toolbar is not only old, but it’s only snapshot of the overall health of a web site. Basically it’s a loose indicator of the value of the incoming links to that particular web site.

But even then it’s inaccurate. You do’nt want to even base links (those you acquire) solely on this value. Case in point. I have a web site, 60 Yahoo! back links recorded, more in Webmasters. There are nothing but junky (but related) links. The links are PR3 or less (ALL OF THEM), HOWEVER, what we see is a PR 5 for the web site that is slightly more than a year. WHY? (more…)

Google Chrome is a web browser released by Google which uses the WebKit layout engine and application framework. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on 2 September 2008, and the public stable release was on 11 December 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers. In May 2009, Chrome was the fourth most widely used browser, with 1.80% of worldwide usage share of web browsers.Development versions of Chrome for Linux and Mac OS X were released in June 2009.
Google released the entire source code of Chrome, including its proprietary V8 JavaScript engine as an open source project entitled Chromium, in 2008.This move enabled third-party developers to port the browser to the Linux and Mac OS X platforms, apart from being able to study the underlying source code. A Google spokesperson also expressed hope that other browsers will adopt V8 to help web applications.The Google-authored portion of Chromium is released under the permissive BSD license, which allows portions to be incorporated into both open source and proprietary software programs.Other portions of the source code are subject to a variety of different open-source licenses. Chromium implements the same feature set as Chrome, but has a slightly different logo. (more…)

Did You Know…

…that Some Building Products May Expose You to the Chemical Banned from Plastic Bottles?

Everyone has heard the news about the health concerns associated with bisphenol A (BPA) leaching from baby bottles, food can liners and perhaps most famously those distinctive polycarbonate plastic water bottles popularized by Nalgene.1 Last May, Chicago became the first city in the U.S. to ban the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups made from BPA. Few, however, are aware that BPA is a chemical component of epoxy resins used in a wide range of building materials, typically paints, sealants, adhesives and fillers,2 that may put manufacturing workers, installers, and building occupants at risk.

Epoxy resins are used in building materials, often listed on a material safety data sheet as a proprietary mixture, without disclosure that the resin is made from BPA. While manufacturers claim that the BPA in epoxy resins is consumed entirely in the production process and does not show up in the final products, scientists investigating the metabolic breakdown of epoxy resins during occupational exposure have found that epoxy resin products can be metabolized in the human body back into BPA and may impact the endocrine and reproductive system of those exposed.3

This is a case where government regulation trails the emerging science, and the Precautionary Principle applies. Animal studies have linked this hormone-disrupting chemical to prostate cancer, breast cancer, pre-diabetes (insulin resistance), abnormal fat metabolism, early puberty, and changes in the way the brain develops resulting in behavioral abnormalities.4 The BPA expert panel from the Center for Evaluation of Human Risks to Reproduction raised (more…)

Architect William Warner doesn’t act like the Robert Moses of de-paving. With a wry wit, a self-effacing manner, and a devotion to urban detail, the architect of Providence’s Waterplace Park doesn’t appear to be a man who could part the asphalt. Nonetheless, his transformation of a half-mile swath of hardtop into a canal and walkway, has created not only what some call the “Venice of New England” but has shaped a model for asphalt removal and urban renewal in the nation.

Last month, a generation after plans to re-engineer Providence began, Waterplace’s success in stitching together this severed city prompted the launching of the Old Harbor Plan, Providence’s final de-paving venture. The first phase of the $270-million, 10-year project, will complete waterway’s final push to the sea, moving interstate-195 and freeing some 45 acres of downtown area and shore land for greater access, recreation and renewal.

More than a triumph of architecture over asphalt in one New England city, Waterplace’s string of lagoons embodies a national impulse to remove the concrete flatlands left by half a century of hardtopping. Today, as 1950’s roads end their lifespan, Americans are refurbishing their waterfronts. Rivers once seen as prime candidates for highways could become locales for Downtowns seeking to restore rather than re-pave.

Though large de-paving projects are far from ubiquitous, erasing highways like Providence’s has an honorable history. Successes go back to the sixties when Portland, Oregon, the most notable, downed a highway and built a riverbank park. Today, San Francisco is re-designing land released by stopping the Embarcadero’s elevated highway. Boston is burying the Central Artery that looms over the waterfront. And, in Louisville, Kentucky, the half-mile Ohio River waterfront makeover formally opening in July dismantled an exit ramp from Interstate 64 to make a walkable link to the city. (more…)