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Weatherization Tutoring for the Homeowner
The key to a happy client is not just work that's done well, but work that involves the client's participation in the project.
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Home invasions can be very distressful for families—even benign invasions, like visits by work crews out to perform weatherization services. Homeowners who contract to have their house weatherized certainly want the work to get done. Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of trepidation involved in letting strangers into your house accompanied by tools and a mission. You think: How disruptive is this going to be?
For the past 13 years, our nonprofit organization, Community Environmental Center (CEC), has performed weatherization services in metro New York City, "invading" some 200 one- to four-family homes each year for fee-for-service jobs as well as no-charge services under New York State's Weatherization Assistance program (WAP) for low-income families (see "From Wall Street to Green Construction" and "About Community Environmental Center").
Based on our experience, CEC has learned that the key to a happy client is not just work that's done well, but work that involves the client's participation in the project.
Making the Client Comfortable
Client participation happens through on-site education. Weatherization professionals explain to the client what the crew intends to do and what each step should accomplish to help make the structure more weathertight and energy efficient. For many organizations performing weatherization services across the country, this may seem standard operating procedure. However, it is advice that should be reiterated. Routine makes for carelessness. And a slipup—something as simple as a worker who seems brusque—can sour a client/work crew relationship. We encourage our work crews to respect the house and to respect the client.
|From Wall Street to Green Construction
Richard M. Cherry is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Community Environmental Center (CEC). Early in his career, Cherry left a lucrative position as a Wall Street lawyer to devote himself to less-fortunate New Yorkers. He joined the New York Urban Coalition (NYUC), a not-for-profit project started by the corporate community to bring labor, businesses, and government together to deal with poverty and racial strife. Over a 20-year career there, Cherry rose to become executive vice president of the NYUC and president of the NYUC Housing Group, managing housing, community development, and employment and training programs and providing legal consultation and leadership to various citywide policy advocacy efforts.
When the Urban Coalition dissolved in 1994, Cherry used his broad network and knowledge of publicly supported housing and community development programs to create the CEC, the first New York City nonprofit to focus exclusively on environmental issues of housing and development.
Over the years since Cherry founded CEC, the organization has emerged as the largest not-for-profit energy conservation contractor in New York State, as well as an overall promulgator of green values in building construction.
The result of our taking the time and trouble to explain each step we take is feedback from clients that is 99% affirmative and that often leads clients to refer us to their friends. As one Brooklyn, New York, homeowner told us, "I was a little scared [about the weatherization process]; this was an unknown quantity to me . . . But they told me all I needed to know about what they were going to do and why. When they said they would come at 9, they came at 9. They said it would take three or four days—it did."
The first step in the weatherization process is most often a phone call to introduce ourselves to the client and present an overview of the weatherization process and what we hope to accomplish. We confirm an appointment and give the householder an estimate on how long the job will take. We don't just explain what we do; we emphasize the benefits that will come from weatherizing the home.
We begin the relationship like a doctor: We take a history of the "patient." How long have you lived there? Have you had construction done before? What kind of work? Do you have ongoing service contracts?
Energy Audit as a Teaching Tool
Following the initial contact, when we go to the home for the energy audit phase, it's time to do more explaining. We've done an overview of the dwelling from the outside; now we want to tour the house with the client to scope the work that must be done, while inspecting the heating system and activating detectors to check for gas leaks and CO buildup.
Meanwhile, we are also keeping an eye out for unsafe conditions, such as loose wiring, and water seeping into the basement. If we do spot a hazard, more often than not an electrical problem, we must be diplomatic. We explain to the client that correcting such a problem is not the responsibility of weatherization work crews. The client must redress
the problem with qualified professionals, like electricians, before the work crew arrives.
Explaining the Work Scope
With the audit completed, we discuss with the client what we think needs to be done to the house—and this does not always accord with what the client thinks or expects should be done (see "The Use of Energy Labels in Two European Countries," HE Mar/Apr '08, p. 8). We steer the client in the right direction, again by explaining why a different approach to making the home weathertight may be a more cost-effective way.
There seems to be an assumption, for example, that "weatherization" means "new windows." This is not necessarily so. We might explain why a strategy like adding insulation around windows would be more effective in retaining heat than replacing windows. We want clients to clearly understand what renovations they will get—and what they won't get—before the auditor leaves the home.
Make Sure the Client Is at Home
When setting a date and time to start work, it is important to stress that the client be on premises. There are times when a work crew arrives to find no one home. Or the homeowner decides at the last moment that he or she doesn't want the work done right now. Or the wife made an appointment with us, but the husband appears to say, "I don't want you to touch my house."
These kinds of situations are becoming increasingly rare, thanks to the public's growing awareness of environmental matters and the need many people feel to conserve energy. When we explain to clients the difference in energy use, and what that means in savings, between CFL bulbs and fixtures and conventional ones, they are much more appreciative than they might have been a few years ago.
Similarly, we get a more knowledgeable and appreciative response when we describe how the client will save on utility bills by replacing an old refrigerator (or dishwasher or clothes washer) with an Energy Star appliance, or how much more efficient a gas-driven drier is than an electric one. Never lose the opportunity to ballyhoo, and to demonstrate when possible, how a household's life will change, how much more comfortable the home will be, how the client will save dollars, with the upgrades being made to weatherize the home.
With the arrival of the work crew, we make another tour of the house, always in the company of the client. We will not work in the house if the client is not there, for various reasons. One reason is the security of private property, always a touchy subject for work crews, who must defend themselves if the client claims, for instance, that an earring is missing from her dresser top.
Minimize Disruption
The work crew tries to work as much outside the bounds of the client's daily life as possible. For instance, insulation can often be blown in from outside the house. Otherwise, to install insulation and perform other disruptive tasks, we prepare clients in advance by asking them to remove clothing from closets, pull back carpeting, and get dogs and other pets out of the way. Work crews may have to move furniture from one side of the house to the other; they always do this carefully and in consultation with the client.
Since installing insulation under the floorboards in the attic often affects lights, we turn the lights on and leave them on after the job is completed to show the client that all is well.
When the job is completed, it is beneficial to point out various improvements, especially if they are not obvious to the eye. If the heating system has been replaced or revamped, we explain any new technology involved and how it works.
Safety Drill for Workers
An on-the-job education program also should target the crew, serving as a workday drill or constant-reminder program that emphasizes following safety guidelines. Patrick Goodluck, CEC's on-site manager, puts workers through their paces regarding proper use of protective clothing and equipment, including the so-called Tyvec space suits and face masks essential for such jobs as installing insulation in closed spaces, hard hats, and gloves. If a worker is being newly outfitted with protective clothing, does it fit properly? Is it comfortable?
This is established as our routine morning safety drill to check the proper working order of equipment, including extension ladders, triangular (step) ladders, extension cords, drills, saws, blowers, and vehicles. We have been trained in OSHA standards, and workers are made familiar with them. For example, workers can't grow beards, so facemasks will fit snugly.
Among other procedures, the crew is drilled on the proper setup and securing of scaffolding; is taught that extended ladders are positioned at a 70° angle, with the base planted firmly 3 feet from the threshold or the wall; and is taught not to stand on the topmost platform of a triangular ladder.
When we start work on an older house, we assume that we will encounter a certain amount of lead, and quite possibly asbestos. These materials may show up when we strip old insulation from pipes, for example, before performing blower tests. We watch for out-of-ordinary situations, such as water seepage, loose wires, and kerosene space heaters that must be removed. That's why we always wear protective clothing and masks for even the most routine tasks.
The goal is safety for the client and for the worker.
Sharing the Work
With the client comfortable with the work crew and briefed on everything that we are doing, and with work crew members always cognizant of the procedures that mean professionalism, we are accomplishing a sound job of weatherization for a household that now fully appreciates what goes into this kind of work—and what it accomplishes in making the home more comfortable, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly.
This on-the-job tutoring of the client pays an added dividend: An educated client will take much better care of the house and be much more alert on ways to save energy. We've also recruited another client to the cause of improving the environment.
Henderson Callender is energy auditor for Community Environmental Center, Long Island City, New York.
For more information:
Community Environmental Center
43-10 11th St.
Long Island City, NY 11101
Tel: (718)784-1444
Fax: (718)784-8347
Contact the author at firstname.lastname@example.com, or visit the CEC Web site, www.cecenter.org.
|About Community Environmental Center
Community Environmental Center (CEC) has been in the forefront of the growing effort to improve the performance of the built environment in New York, especially in the New York City metro area. As a not-for-profit, the firm is uniquely dedicated to this goal, which includes reducing environmental pollution, limiting the need for expensive public infrastructure projects, and assisting the lower-income population by reducing the cost of utilities.
High-Performance Building Services
CEC, established in 1994, focused initially on the energy conservation needs of existing residential buildings. With the advent of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED system and increasing market interest in making buildings more energy and water efficient and healthy to live in, CEC added staff to provide green building and LEED certification consulting services. CEC's Engineering Services and Technical Services departments now have 15 professionals experienced in various aspects of high-performance building, including five engineers. Six members are LEED accredited. While the majority of CEC's projects involve existing residential buildings, our client base includes owners of commercial and industrial facilities and new construction of all types. Eight of CEC's projects are registered to be LEED certified at various levels. CEC has published Affordably Green in NYC, a guidebook to green design for low-income housing in New York City.
CEC's experience ranges from contracts to develop ambitious efficiency standards for an entire city agency and for a major New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA) housing program, to overseeing the work of other firms in implementing the standards and to consulting and contract work on individual buildings.
In a large urban area like New York City, the stock of existing buildings far outweighs the amount of new construction. CEC has played an important role in the upgrading of existing buildings as it continues to be the largest not-for-profit energy conservation contractor in the state, currently managing over $8 million in annual contracts from the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), NYSERDA, and private building owners. CEC has reached more than 250,000 people with energy conservation programs that reduced their utility costs by an estimated $22 million. This energy use reduction translates into 44,000 tons less of CO2 being emitted into the air per year.
With its knowledge of the available federal, state, and local government programs, CEC is able to access applicable public incentives for its clients and guide them through the application and compliance procedures. CEC directs clients as appropriate to the private energy market programs in peak load reduction to create income incentives for energy efficiency.
Environmental Education
CEC began its public environmental education effort in 2002, when it won a city contract to construct an environmental education center at Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan. A year later, CEC created a related not-for-profit, Solar One, to manage and guide the project forward. Staff provide specialized environmental issues classes for students and adults and host various cultural events out of a small classroom structure powered largely by solar energy, which serves as a living example of solar power use. Designs are under way for Solar 2, an 8,000 ft2 facility to house a larger program and to demonstrate the feasibility of green design. It will be a net zero energy building.
Deconstruction Service and Materials Outlet
CEC established its salvage material warehouse and deconstruction service, Build It Green!/NYC, in support of its goals to assist building owners in achieving LEED certification and to support affordable housing efforts in New York City. The service addresses two of the LEED criteria dealing with materials and resources and has diverted tons of reusable materials from New York City's waste stream. Builders and homeowners are able to buy high-quality used appliances, cabinets, doors, and other items from our Build It Green!/NYC warehouse.
Proud to Serve New York City
CEC's staff reflects its pledge to social equity, boasting a high percentage of women and various minorities in both management and operations. CEC has deep roots in the New York City community through its relationships with government agencies and the many community service organizations, housing authorities, and building managers and owners with whom it has worked. This, together with its unusual combination of experience in all kinds of buildings, from single–family homes to large complexes like Co-op City and commercial facilities, and its deconstruction and public education services, enables CEC to play an important role in transforming New York City into a sustainable high-performance city.
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subset: commoncrawl


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In accordance with the article L 233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and with the article 223-16 of the French Financial Market Authority (AMF) General Rule.
Toulouse, 3 April 2018
Total number of shares composing the registered capital: 1,427,800
Total number of voting rights:
Gross (1) : 1,428,469
Net (2) : 1,303,486
(1) In conformity with the article 223-11 of the AMF General Rule, the total number of voting rights is calculated on the basis of the whole shares composing the registered capital.
(2) The net total number of voting rights is calculated on the basis of the whole shares composing the registered capital after deduction of the shares without voting right (in particular treasury shares).
The following threshold crossing statutory obligation is added to the legal thresholds: Any natural person or legal entity, acting alone or jointly, who would hold, directly or indirectly, through one or several legal entities he controls according to the article L.233-3 of the French Commercial Code, a number of shares or voting rights representing two (2) percent of the capital or of the company voting rights or any multiple of this percentage and even if this percentage is superior to the 5% legal threshold, will have to notify to the company by registered letter sent to the head office the total number of shares or voting rights he holds within 15 days beginning from the day one the threshold is exceeded.


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John Long Reading The Only Blasphemy
John Long's gripping tale of a big free solo day with John Bachar, in Joshua Tree in the late 1970s. Check out the iBook Gorilla Monsoon by John Long, a compilation that includes The Only Blasphemy and other classic tales from the Stonemaster era. As a bonus, you get to hear Long read several of his favorite stories.
Narrated and written by: John Long
Photography by: Dean Fidelman
Edited by: Dean Fidelman, Ted Distel


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Today in the news: France legalizes gay marriage
Quote of note
"We believe that the first weddings will be beautiful and that they'll bring a breeze of joy, and that those who are opposed to them today will surely be confounded when they are overcome with the happiness of the newlyweds and the families." - French Justice Minister Christine Taubira. France legalized gay marriage today, amid much debate and protesting, according to The Associated Press. Taubira said same-sex marriages could begin to take place as early as June.
News to know
The Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to various government officials, including the president, has been released from federal custody today, CNN reports. Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator from Corinth, had been set to appear at a hearing scheduled for today, but the hearing was cancelled. Curtis' attorney stated that charges against Curtis were not dismissed, but that she believes her client was framed.
Hot video: AP Twitter account hacked, falsely reports explosions at White House
More Content Now


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Morning Jolt: Man arrested after telling kids Santa not real
In the news: A 24-year-old Canadian man was arrested after getting drunk and telling kids that Santa Claus isn't real - while they were at an annual Santa parade. The charges are for being drunk in public, but officials weren't happy with the man's anti-Santa message. "It was pretty despicable that someone, during this time of the year, would tell kids Santa isn't real - which of course we would argue," Const. Steve Koopman told the Toronto Star.
Opening bell: The Dow Jones opened at 12,967.37, finishing down 42.31 points Monday.
Motivational quote: "Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison
Watercooler talk: Camel runs amok after escaping from circus
GateHouse News Service


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Get real-time updates when the price is lowered or when there are new matches for this search.
The Ford F250 trucks offer best-in-class towing and hauling capabilities, thanks in part to an impressive Power Stroke diesel engine that produces an incredible 925 pound-feet of torque. With interior amenities that range from sparse to ultra-luxurious, there's a Super Duty F-Series pickup for everyone. With the largest selection of cars from dealers and private sellers, Autotrader can help find the perfect F250 for you.
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SmealConnect is a password-protected career opportunities and networking website designed to connect Penn State Smeal College of Business students and alumni to corporate recruiters. The system is primarily utilized to post internship opportunities for undergraduate students, internship and full-time opportunities for MBAs, and experienced-hire positions for Smeal alumni. Additionally, added features allow on-campus support and coordination for employer interviewing.
Corporate Recruiters
Learn more about the SmealConnect system and how to advertise jobs to the Smeal population (undergraduate, MBAs, and alumni) by reviewing information for Corporations and Recruiters. Or, learn how to register for an employer account in SmealConnect.
Search for and apply to job opportunities posted by top companies interested in hiring Smeal graduates. Learn how to register for a SmealConnect alumni account.
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Search for and apply to internship and co-op positions via SmealConnect. Register for SmealConnect yearly by visiting the Undergraduate Student Exchange.
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Top Videos: Leonardo DiCaprio Dances at Coachella, Amy Schumer Parodies Aaron Sorkin
This week, a bunch of kids learned what a Walkman is, and the worst Wheel of Fortune contestant ever blew not one, not two, but three puzzles on the game show. Amy Schumer and Josh Charles made a video that poked fun at Aaron Sorkin tropes, and Oreo staged a marketing campaign that challenged chefs around the country to "hack" everyone's favorite cookie. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio (maybe) showed off some interesting dance moves at the Coachella music festival in California. Check out those clips and more in our weekly roundup of the best online videos:
Shows on the bubble: Which will survive?
Kids with Walkman: Get ready to feel old. The Fine Brothers published a video this week of kids reacting to a portable cassette player. Their theories about what it is include a phone and a walkie-talkie (sigh). In retrospect, the fast-forward/rewind function was severely lacking.
Leonardo DiCaprio dancing at Coachella: Is this short video really footage of Leonardo DiCaprio getting down to MGMT at Coachella? Who knows, but we like to think that it is. And the girl behind him seems pretty excited, either way.
"The Foodroom": This parody sketch featuring Amy Schumer and Josh Charles teases a new Aaron Sorkin series called The Foodroom, a high-stakes drama that's set in a fast-food restaurant. Walk-and-talks and rapid-fire dialogue abound!
Oreo Snack Hacks: Oreo's getting into the web series market with "Snack Hacks," which offers recipes for Oreo-themed foods that few people would ever dream could exist - i.e. Oreo tacos, Oreo chicken cutlets and Oreo shandies. Check out one installment below (viaTubefilter):
Worst Wheel of Fortune contestant: D'oh! Julian Batts' appearance on Wheel of Fortune is downright painful to watch. First, the Indiana University student loses a (completed) puzzle because he mispronounces "Achilles." Then, he blows two more puzzles by the end of the episode. That buzzer is the sound of $1 million (and a car, and a trip to London) slipping through Batts' fingers. Consolation? He eventually won the game.
World's Toughest Job Interviews: In this video that's been making the rounds on social media this week, applicants apply for a "Director of Operations" position that essentially sounds like the worst job ever. Requirements include standing up most of the time, and 135+ hour work weeks. (Surprise: There's a twist ending.)
Cute Combat: This is the best idea for a web series we've ever heard. Lucas Cruikshank pits adorable animal videos against each other for the recently launched "Cute Combat." In the first episode, aggressive seagulls square off against snugglefests. (via Tubefilter)
View original Top Videos: Leonardo DiCaprio Dances at Coachella, Amy Schumer Parodies Aaron Sorkin at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Chris Brown Countersues In Frank Ocean Fight
Chris Brown COUNTERSUES In Frank Ocean Fight
Chris Brown is doing what he does best -- fighting back ... in this case using legal means by filing a countersuit over the Frank Ocean brawl in West Hollywood.
You'll recall ... Chris and Frank got into it outside a recording studio back in January. The building was damaged and Sha'Keir Duarte -- Frank's cousin -- claimed he was kicked and beaten by one of Brown's bodyguards. Duarte sued Chris in August for his injuries.
Now Chris has fired back, claiming Duarte provoked the fight by threatening to kill him. In the countersuit -- obtained by TMZ -- Chris claims Duarte kicked and punched him.
And get this ... Chris -- who is currently in rehab for anger management and faces criminal assault charges in D.C. -- claims he attempted to avoid the confrontation "with the aggressive and hostile Mr. Duarte."
Chris says this is a shakedown for $$$, saying Duarte's demand for $2 million is absurd.


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College News
55 results found
SpecializationsAll (55) Cinema (1) Humanities News (55) Language Learning (1) Literature (6)
Teachers of every subject and grade improve their teaching through writing.
Joe Darowski argues that pop culture can have as much literary value as traditional canon.
BYU's Young Adult Novelist Conference (YANCON) introduces aspiring student novelists to published authors and professional writing techniques.
Barbara Newman gives annual Nan Osmond Grass Lecture on the meaning of the book of Revelation in the Bible.
Jesse Richmond's Chifir becomes Juried Winner in the Short Fiction Category and is being published by Short Edition along with Kath Richard's The Widow Interim and Braden Robinson's roses.
You don't have to choose just one.
At the 2022 P. A. Christensen Lecture, Dr. Kristin Matthews analyzed the focus of contemporary Black American women's poetry on historical archives and documents.
BYU has so many wonderful alumni and emeriti who have served the community; it would be impossible to recognize everyone. But from time to time, we recognize a few individuals who have lived particularly exemplary lives of service, mentorship, and impact. Dave Wolverton (Farland) was such an individual—not just to the Latter-day Saint writing community but to any aspiring writer—and is worthy of mentioning as an example to us all.
Adjunct Professor Madeleine Dresden highlights common racist tropes and stereotypes in writing and offers solutions and alternatives for more diverse and inclusive writing for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
Do you need poetic inspiration? Try gathering from the symphony of life to create the perfect audio experience.
The conversation about racial diversity and inclusion at BYU has grown increasingly urgent since the events of Charlottesville in 2017, and the continuing pattern of racial oppression and injustice has brought these issues to the forefront of national attention.
Martine Leavitt crawled into her characters' skins, journeyed to other worlds, and let the Spirit guide—becoming an award-winning author along the way.


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- Handmade in the USA from only the finest sustainably harvested woods.
- Precisely detailed woodworking using unique wood grain to make each bookmark one of a kind.
- Hand selected hardwoods are chosen for a naturally beautiful look and feel. Complimentary toned wood variations are used along both sides to accent the design and fine craftsmanship.
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- Hand selected woods for a beautiful look and feel.
- The perfect gift for students, teachers, and readers of all ages, easily fits inside a card or book.
The brilliant color image is printed directly on the wood bookmark using a very durable non fading UV ink. A green suede tassel is added as a finishing touch, and to help keep your book page well marked. This is the perfect bookmark for all readers and nature lovers.
There's nothing quite like holding a book in your hands and turning the pages. Whether it's a cookbook, a map, an old classic novel, a new favorite mystery, or an instruction manual, we want you to enjoy what you're reading. Our unique bookmarks are made to create a more intimate, personalized reading experience. We hope our creative selection inspires a continued love for the printed word.
Craftsmanship and Stewardship Make the Difference
Nestled in a hundred-acre forest of lush, green ferns and towering fir and cedar trees, Mitercraft is a company truly inspired by its surroundings. Using only hand-selected, sustainably harvested wood, we celebrate its natural beauty by hand-making products that allow the glory to be showcased. Our passion leads us to design unique bookmarks with pride that only comes from a handcrafted process.
We're excited to be a part of the resurgence of makers and old-world craftsmanship. We've been handcrafting our bookmarks with the same multi-step work process since 1991. Technology may come and go, and it certainly helps enhance our products, but there is no substitute for good, old-fashioned woodworking that produces heirloom quality products. Our complex production steps include precision cutting, laminating, shaping, sanding, polishing, finishing, laser engraving, drilling, and tasseling.
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The Washington Nationals have selected 50 finalists from the 120 applicants they received to become one of the 12-foot-tall racing presidents for the 2008 season.
The presidents race finalists have been invited to the new Nationals Park for auditions on Monday, February 18. Presidents Day, of course.
The finalists will be asked to demonstrate their ability to run the presidents race, dance, and celebrate while wearing a 45 pound costume.
Hoping to get some photos to share.


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Want to name Pluto's two tiniest moons? Then you'll need to dig deep into mythology.
Astronomers announced a contest Monday to name the two itty-bitty moons of Pluto discovered over the past two years.
Pluto is the Roman equivalent of the Greek's Hades, lord of the underworld, and its three bigger moons have related mythological names: Charon, the ferryman of Hades; Nix for the night goddess; and the multi-headed monster Hydra.
The two unnamed moons — no more than 15 to 20 miles across — need similarly shady references. Right now, they go by the bland titles of P4 and P5.
Online voting will last two weeks, ending Feb. 25. Twelve choices are available at the website http://www.plutorocks.com.
Among the choices: Hercules, the hero who slew Hydra; Obol, the coin put in the mouths of the dead as payment to Charon; Cerebrus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of the underworld; Orpheus, the musician and poet who used his talents to get his wife, Eurydice, out of the underworld only to lose her by looking back: Eurydice; and Styx, the river to the underworld.
As of Monday afternoon, Styx and Cerebrus were leading. The vote tally is updated hourly.
"The Greeks were great storytellers, and they have given us a colorful cast of characters to work with," said Mark Showalter, senior research scientist at SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center in Mountain View, Calif.
He and other astronomers who discovered the two mini-moons using the Hubble Space Telescope will make the winning selections.
Write-in name suggestions are welcomed, but they need to come from Greek or Roman mythology and deal with the underworld.
The name for the planetoid, or dwarf planet near the outer fringes of the solar system came from a little English girl. Pluto's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, liked that the first two letters were the same as the initials of late American astronomer Percival Lowell. Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930 using the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is en route to Pluto, arriving in 2015 on the first robotic flyby ever of the planetoid.
The winning moon names will need final approval by the International Astronomical Union.
Hopefully, there won't be any conflicts like when the name Nix was picked. The night goddess actually is spelled Nyx, but an asteroid already had the moniker so the proper spelling for the moon had to be nixed.
Click here for the website.


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Fisker is taking a major step forward in development of its upcoming Atlantic sports sedan by setting up a technical center in the Midwest.
Because the smaller-than-Karma luxury sedan will be built in Wilmington, DL and the heart of the country's automotive supply base in near Detroit, Fisker will likely situate the center in southeastern Michigan. The company's design and advanced engineering work will remain in Anaheim, CA.
Fisker had a tech center in Pontiac, MI during development of the Karma, but it was closed in 2010. As for the return to the Midwest, Fisker Automotive, President and CEO, Tony Posawatz said, "We will be bringing our own engineering footprint closer to our supplier base and the expertise and professional workforce that have driven the American automotive industry for more than a century."
The Atlantic will be equipped with the second-generation EVer, Fisker's gas/electric extended-range drivetrain. The new tech center will be responsible for final product development leading to the car's launch. Exactly when that will be is a bit up in the air, likely late 2014 or early 2015 as Fisker sorts out its financial situation.
Related posts:
- Fisker Karmas Gather En Masse
- Fisker Karma Plug-In Hybrid Headed to China
- Fisker Atlantic Specs and Sale Date Leaked
- McLaren GT's New Engineering Center
- Fisker's California Consolidation


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Infinite Energy: Rethinking Nuclear Power
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A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
A startup says it's begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate
Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023
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Weirdly, any recent work on The Line doesn't show up on Google Maps. But we got the images anyway.
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European Commission Approves PREZISTA® (darunavir) 800 mg Tablet Once a Day Reducing the Number of Pills Taken by People Living With HIV
Jan 16, 2013, 03:00 ET
Janssen R&D Ireland announced today that the European Commission (EC) has approved a new PREZISTA® (darunavir) 800mg tablet allowing people living with HIV to take one darunavir tablet once a day. Darunavir is indicated in combination with other antiretrovirals for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection in treatment-experienced and treatment-naïve patients with no darunavir resistance-associated mutations[i].[1] Darunavir is always taken in combination with ritonavir and other HIV medicines together with food. This new tablet strength has been developed to allow patients taking darunavir once daily to reduce the number of darunavir tablets by half.
The approval is based on study C176[2] which evaluated the 400 mg tablet formulation versus the 800 mg formulation. One hundred and twenty eight healthy volunteers, were included in this study and received treatment under fasting (n=83) or under fed conditions (n=45). The results of this study show that the rate and extent of absorption were similar between intake of a single 800 mg dose of darunavir formulated as one 800 mg tablet or two 400 mg tablets.[2]
"Strict adherence to treatment regimens is crucial to prevent virological failure and the development of drug resistance when treating HIV," said Brian Woodfall, Vice President, Medical Affairs, Janssen EMEA. "This single 800 mg tablet formulation is a direct reflection of the ongoing commitment of Janssen to further develop treatment options for people living with HIV. With this approval we are providing an alternative solution and a reduced pill burden which should make it easier for patients to manage their treatment on a day-by-day basis and keep their HIV at undetectable levels."
i. ART-experienced adults with no darunavir resistance associated mutations (DRV-RAMs) and who have plasma HIV-1 RNA < 100,000 copies/ml and CD4+ cell count ≥ 100 cells x 106/l.
It is estimated that currently there are 34.5 million people living with HIV globally, with 2.5 million people becoming newly infected each year.[3]Thanks to significant advances in treatment for HIV over the past 30 years a diagnosis for these people is no longer a death sentence. Yet, data shows that after 8 months of treatment only 65% of patients will achieve 100% compliance.[4] Missing doses can allow drug levels in the blood to fall which could allow viral replication to occur and greatly increase the risk of resistance emerging.[5]
About PREZISTA® (darunavir)
Darunavir co-administered with low dose ritonavir is indicated in combination with other antiretroviral medicinal products for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection in adult patients as well as antiretroviral therapy (ART) experienced paediatric patients from the age of 3 years and at least 15 kg body weight.
Since its initial approval in 2007, darunavir has also been indicated for use in HIV-1 infected treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced adult patients, including those who have been highly pre-treated, in combination with ritonavir and other ARTs. For treatment-experienced adult patients, the licensed dosing for darunavir (DVR) is 600 mg taken with 100 mg ritonavir twice daily with food or 800 mg taken with 100 mg ritonavir once daily with food for patients with no DRV Resistance Associated Mutations (RAMs)[ii] and who have plasma HIV-1 RNA <100,000 copies/mL and CD4+ cell count ≥ 100 cells x 106/L. For treatment-naive adult patients, the licensed dosing for darunavir is 800 mg taken with 100 mg ritonavir once daily with food.
ii. V11I, V32I, L33F, I47V, I50V, I54L/M, T74P, L76V, I84V, L89V
Important Safety Information
In the registrational studies, darunavir was generally well tolerated. The majority of the adverse reactions reported in patients who initiated therapy with darunavir co-administered with 100 mg ritonavir were mild to moderate in severity. The most frequent adverse reactions reported in clinical trials and as spontaneous reports are diarrhoea, immune reconstitution syndrome, nausea, pyrexia and rash. The most frequent serious reactions are diarrhoea, hepatitis, immune reconstitution syndrome, pyrexia and rash. Please see the Summary of Product Characteristics for a complete list of all possible side effects.
Before taking darunavir, patients should tell their doctor if they have any medical conditions, including liver problems, including hepatitis B or C, diabetes, symptoms of infections, change in body fat, haemophilia, musculoskeletal problems, or allergy to sulfa medicines and should tell their doctor if they are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, or are nursing.
Darunavir should not be used in patients allergic (hypersensitive) to it or ritonavir or with severe liver problems.
Due to potential drug interactions, patients should talk to their healthcare provider about all the medicines they are taking or plan to take, including prescription and non-prescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
Darunavir does not cure HIV infection or AIDS, and does not prevent passing HIV to others. Please see full Summary of Product Characteristics for more details.
About Janssen in HIV - Commitment to Innovative Research & Development
Over the last five years, Janssen has launched three therapies for people living with HIV. Janssen has a long heritage in HIV and is committed to innovation in HIV therapies. Janssen is constantly striving for improvements in efficacy, safety and dosing simplification and is committed to evaluating HIV treatments for a broad range of patients-from treatment-naïve to treatment-experienced-with the goal of helping all patients achieve an undetectable viral load and a better quality of life.
More information about Janssen can be found at http://www.janssen-emea.com
- PREZISTA 800 mg. Summary of Product Characteristics, 2012.
- Janssen data on file.
- World Health Organization. Global summary of the AIDS epidemic. Available at URL: http://www.who.int/hiv/data/2012_epi_core_en.png . Last accessed December 3, 2012.
- Mannheimer S, Friedland G, Matts J, et al. The consistency of adherence to antiretroviral therapy predicts biologic outcomes for human immunodeficiency virus-infected persons in clinical trials. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2002; 34:1115-1121.
- Aids Map. Adherence. Available at URL: http://www.aidsmap.com/Adherence/page/1730785/. Last accessed December 3, 2012.
SOURCE Janssen R&D Ireland


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Sports-Related Knee Injuries in Children Have Increased
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Published on in CHOP News
October 25, 2011 — Knee injuries in children with tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus have increased dramatically over the past 12 years, say orthopaedic surgeons from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who presented their findings today at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting in Boston.
"Many people in sports medicine have assumed that these knee injuries have increased in recent years among children," said J. Todd Lawrence, MD, PhD, orthopedic surgeon at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and primary investigator of this study. "Our study confirmed our hypothesis that, at least at our large academic pediatric hospital, knee injuries are an ever-growing problem for children and adolescents involved in sports."
Lawrence added that people have suggested that greater participation in sports, increased clinician awareness of the signs and symptoms of ACL and meniscus tears, and advances in imaging technology may account for this increase.
The study team performed a retrospective review of records for all patients under 18 with ACL and meniscus tears treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from January 1999 through January 2011, and compared them to patients that sustained tibial spine fractures during that same time period.
A total of 155 tibial spine fractures, 914 ACL tears and 996 meniscus tears were identified.
Tibial spine fractures increased by only 1 per year, whereas ACL tears increased by more than 11 per year and meniscus tears increased by almost 14 per year.
"Since tibial spine fractures were once thought to be the pediatric equivalent of an ACL tear," said Lawrence, "this continued rise in ACL tears in children suggests that injury patterns are changing and that the true incidence of these injuries is increasing."
Theodore J. Ganley, MD, one of the study's co-authors and the director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at Children's Hospital, noted that he hopes this research will call to light the importance of ongoing research efforts to identify pediatric and adolescent athletes who may be at risk for ACL and meniscus injuries and also encourage coaches, parents and athletes to consider incorporating injury prevention programs into their workouts.
The Center has developed a sports injury prevention program called Ready, Set, Prevent which is designed to be performed on the field or the court in place of or as part of the traditional warm-up.
View the free Ready Set Prevent video .
Visit the Center for Sports Medicine and Performance.
Joey McCool, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 267-426-6070 or email@example.com


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Bicyclist Knocks Nicole Kidman to the Ground
NEW YORK | Nicole Kidman says she was shaken up after being knocked down by a bicyclist on a city sidewalk.
Kidman appeared on the red carpet Thursday night celebrating Francisco Costa's 10th anniversary as the women's creative director of the Calvin Klein Collection.
Earlier, the 46-year-old actress was outside a hotel when she was hit by a bicyclist. She was knocked to the ground, but in an interview with The Associated Press at the Calvin Klein event, she said she was OK.
Kidman added: "I'm up, I'm walking around, but I was shaken."
The New York Police Department says a 19-year-old bicyclist was issued three summonses for riding a bike on the sidewalk, riding a bike with no helmet and reckless endangerment.


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BODUM's classic ASSAM tea press utilizes the same brewing system as the French Press to allow for full control of the tea steeping process. The silicone plunger locks tea leaves into the bottom of the filter once brewing is complete, cutting off access of water to the tea leaves. Allows tea to be recycled for multiple uses.
|Product description
Made in Europe, Perfect for use with any loose leaf tea or tea bags, Silicone rim secures filter firmly into the teapot for precision pouring, Stays cool to the touch for safe removal
1.0 L, 34 oz


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Find out the secret of Trend Minimalist Home Photo Gallery 2022 that we present here so you can apply the Trend Minimalist House Photo Gallery to beautify your home. Full size of the picture: 640 × 421 px
Here we present some home decorating ideas to help you realize your dream home. You can use home decorating ideas that we present here as a reference to enhance your home. Decorating ideas including minimalist design, modern, classical, and more can you get here.
In addition, we also present some examples of images to add your insight so that you have an idea of how your home will be decorated. Get Plan Ideas that fit with your home and its occupants so that your home into a comfortable place to live.


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Blue Devils grind out win over Huskies
SAULT STE. MARIE — Down to just 14 players and trading their band-box Pullar Stadium rink for the big ice of Big Bear Arena's Olympic sheet, the Sault High Blue Devils ground out a 2-1 win over Port Huron Northern to open the Lynn Auto Parts Showcase on Thursday.
Chris Skinner scored a power-play goal 3 minutes, 55 seconds into the third period to give the No. 3 Blue Devils (14-4) the win. The No. 7 Huskies (5-10) threatened, but a penalty with 1:37 remaining put a damper on the comeback effort.
The suspensions to Kyle TenEyck, Eric Hillock and Noah Talentino end now and all three are expected to play tonight against defending Division 3 champion Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett at 10 p.m. But defenseman CJ Wilkins is out indefinately with a concussion.
"It's cluster coaching, like you're piecing together lines every shift," Blue Devils coach John Ferroni said. "The guys are out there getting tired. They'll give you 15-20 good seconds on the power play and then they're just getting through the 2 minutes."
The Huskies' record doesn't reflect their ranking because they play in the toughest conference in the state with the likes of Brother Rice, Cranbrook and Detroit Catholic Central.
"We see potential, and we have a really young team," Huskies coach Daryel McCarrel. "We're learning under fire, and most games we have a 2-3 minute lapse somewhere in there."
Bryce VanHorn gave the Huskies the lead 1:17 into the second period, and Will Gauthier tied the game at the 4:16 mark.
With so many players out of the lineup, everybody played on special teams and many players double-shifted.
"You have Ryan Dalsky out there doing double duty, on D and then up at forward," Ferroni said. "Kolbe Peller had a a great game, Abby Roque has been on the power play the last few games, and Aaron Lasecki is giving us some good minutes."
Nick McKenzie stopped 30 shots, including multiple breakaway attempts and a sprawling glove save in the second period during a penalty kill.
"Their goalie played outstanding," McCarrel said. "If we could've banged home a couple of shots earlier in the game, it would have been different. The longer it went on, the more desperate we became."
Northern faces Canton tonight at 8 with Sault High and Liggett after at 10. Northern faces Liggett Saturday at noon with Sault High vs. Canton to follow.


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Ruse Women's Designer Solid Plain Poppy Tee
- Description
- Additional Information
Fine Single Jersey Apparel made with 100% fine Single Jersey Cotton super-combed and bio-washed for softness and comfort. Select a design from our marketplace or customize it to make it uniquely yours! Ethically sourced, our t-shirts are Slim fit, but if that's not your thing, order a size up. Our Tanks are loose and comfy.
Additional Information
Wash Care: Wash with Like Colors, Use Detergent for Colors, Do not Bleach, Do not Tumble Dry, Do not Iron Artwork and Flat Dry in Shade.


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VT Services Group is a veteran-owned company with more than 35 years of experience.
Our founders are looking to minimize the guns and ammunition searches by providing personalized services to our customers, finding the right gun at the lowest price possible.
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Under The 'Nuclear Shadow' Of Colorado's Rocky Flats
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Our guest, Kristen Iversen, spent years in Europe looking for things to write about before realizing that the biggest story she'd ever cover was in her own backyard, or more accurately the one she'd grown up in.
Iversen spent her childhood in Colorado, near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Factory, playing in fields and swimming in lakes and streams it now appears were contaminated with plutonium. Later as a single mother, Iversen worked at the plant and knew little of its environmental and health risks until she saw a feature on "Nightline."
Iversen's new book is in part a memoir about her troubled family life and also an investigation into the decades-long environmental scandal involving nuclear contamination in and around Rocky Flats. Weapons production ended there after FBI agents raided the plant in 1989, and its operators pled guilty to criminal violations of environmental law.
Kristen Iversen is director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Memphis and editor-in-chief of the literary journal The Pinch. She's the author of an earlier book, "Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth." Her new book is called "Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." She spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies.
Kristen Iversen, welcome to FRESH AIR. When you were growing up in Colorado, how close were you and your family to the Rocky Flats facility?
KRISTEN IVERSEN: Well, we had two houses in Arvada. When I was a very small child, we had a house that was about seven miles out from the plant. And then when I was about eight years old, we moved, we had a new house out in Bridledale, one of the new subdivisions out by Rocky Flats, and we were about two and a half miles from the plant itself.
DAVIES: And you were in a neighborhood, although I gather it was what me might think of as a suburban development, that was a lot of open country, and you kind of had a country life, didn't you in a way?
IVERSEN: I did, we did, we loved it out there. My parents thought that they were raising their four children in the perfect environment, and in many ways it was the perfect environment. We had a big house and horses and dogs and cats and turtles and rabbits and tropical fish and all sorts of pets and lots of room to roam around and play.
We were near a lake, Stanley Lake, so we rode our horses in the fields and swam in the lake. And there was an irrigation ditch that I later found out came right off Rocky Flats that ran right behind our house, and we spent a lot of time floating on inner tubes down the river and that sort of thing.
DAVIES: Now, Rocky Flats was there. What did you and your family and the neighbors think was going on there?
IVERSEN: Well, we had no idea what was going on at Rocky Flats. It was all cloaked in secrecy. We knew it was there. We could see the water tower. We could see the lights at night. There were lots of rumors in the neighborhood. It was operated by Dow Chemical, and the rumor in the neighborhood was that they were making household cleaning supplies. My mother thought they were making Scrubbing Bubbles.
DAVIES: And nobody was particularly worried about anything that they might be doing?
IVERSEN: We didn't have any reason, really, to worry. We had been assured by the government, when my parents bought their house out there, they were made aware of the fact that Rocky Flats was there but that whatever was going on there was safe, and we had no reason to worry.
The other thing is that a lot of people in the neighborhood, parents of my friends, worked at Rocky Flats, and they were under an oath of secrecy to not talk about what they did, the kind of work they did. And so there was just very little information, no information and certainly no information about any kind of environmental contamination or anything like that.
DAVIES: Right, now you have since, of course, researched and reconstructed the story of this facility. You now know much more about what was going on at the time. Tell us about the origins of Rocky Flats, what its role was in the country's nuclear weapons program.
IVERSEN: Well, Rocky Flats produced plutonium pits, or triggers as they were called, for nuclear bombs for nuclear weapons. They produced the heart of every nuclear weapon in the United States. It was part of a network of 13 nuclear weapons facilities around the country, but Rocky Flats was really the main production center, the brains Los Alamos and then the pits, the triggers were actually produced at Rocky Flats.
And over the course of about 40 years, they produced 70,000 plutonium pits for nuclear bombs. The plutonium came from Hanford in Washington, and it was machined and shaped at Rocky Flats and then sent to the Pantex facility in Texas, where the triggers, the pits, were encased in conventional explosives and actually became bombs.
DAVIES: All right, so we have lots of people, like 3,500 employees there at various points, taking plutonium, which sounds awfully scary, I mean, we know it's a serious substance. Talk a little bit about the process, I mean, these glove boxes, how the employees actually made these plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.
IVERSEN: Glove boxes were in the plutonium production buildings, Building 771 at Rocky Flats, and the glove boxes were linked, stainless steel boxes, and workers shaped the plutonium by putting their hands into lead-lined gloves, and that's how they would work with the plutonium.
And it was a very dangerous process. They had to be very careful because plutonium is highly flammable. It catches fire very easily. So that was always a concern, and fires happened quite often within the glove boxes and in other places around the plant.
DAVIES: When they were manipulating this plutonium through these lead-lined gloves that they would stick into these boxes. What was the plutonium like? Was it the consistency of chalk, of Jell-O? I mean, what's it like?
IVERSEN: Well, the plutonium pits themselves are shaped from what are called plutonium buttons, and they're about the size of a half-grapefruit, slightly flattened, kind of gray in color. And they were shaped and machined. There was a foundry where the plutonium was melted, and then they were shaped and machined within these glove boxes.
And the shaping itself created a lot of dust and shavings and that sort of thing. So that was always a problem. But when a worker was finished with that particular part of the process, the plutonium pit was moved up to a conveyor line, and then it went down to the next glove box for the next stage, and it would move - it was literally an assembly line for plutonium pits.
DAVIES: Right, and when we say pits, we're not talking about like an opened container area, we're talking about a little slab of plutonium kind of milled and shaped in exactly the precise dimensions, right?
IVERSEN: Yes, exactly, and I think there were many euphemisms at Rocky Flats, but even the word pit or triggers is a bit of a euphemism. There are enough breathable particles of plutonium in each particular plutonium pit to kill every person on Earth. They're very, very dangerous, and they're an essential part of the bomb in the sense that it's not really a trigger or a starting mechanism.
There's a two-part process that happens almost simultaneously with a nuclear weapon, and the plutonium trigger creates the fission process that leads to the greater fusion process of a hydrogen bomb, and it happens almost simultaneously.
So to call a plutonium button or pit or trigger, to call it a trigger or a pit is a little bit of a euphemism. It really is, in and of itself, quite dangerous, and it creates a nuclear chain reaction.
DAVIES: Now, you said the plutonium is flammable, and I'm going to get to the consequences of that in a moment, but one of the issues that emerged over the years was that it appeared plutonium may have been lost or trapped or, you know, just remained in various places in the plant. Do you want to just talk a little bit about that? Why would there be missing or unaccounted-for plutonium in this process?
IVERSEN: Well, this is one of the most remarkable things that I discovered in my research is that the Department of Energy has admitted to more than 3,000 pounds of missing plutonium. And it has kind of a funny acronym. It's called MUF, M-U-F, which stands for missing, unaccounted-for plutonium.
Well, where did that plutonium? And 3,000 pounds is a lot when you think about the fact that one-millionth of a gram of plutonium can cause cancer or cause a health effect. So where was it? Well, for one thing, in 1990 they revealed that 62 pounds of plutonium had been trapped in the vents, in the piping between the buildings. So that's enough for six or seven bombs right there.
The Department of Energy has claimed that much of the plutonium that is missing, it was due to administrative errors, or they put it somewhere and meant to put it somewhere else, something like that. It's just plutonium that has somehow been lost in the system within the different buildings, in the tubes and piping and all the sorts of things that ran between the buildings.
Or it could be administrative errors for part of it. I think some of it ended up in my backyard, frankly. A lot of it went out into the Denver metro area.
DAVIES: Well, let's talk about that in a moment. But in what ways is plutonium dangerous to humans? I mean, is it - does it get inhaled? Does it get ingested?
IVERSEN: Well, plutonium emits alpha radiation, and that is particularly dangerous if it's ingested into the body or inhaled into the body. So if you have an open wound or any sort of cut on the skin, it can enter the body that way, and that can be very dangerous.
But the most dangerous plutonium that if it is inhaled into the lungs - and very, very tiny particles can be inhaled into the lungs - it can lodge in lung tissue, and it creates a constant and ongoing source of radiation. And so that's where we see lung cancer and various other health effects.
DAVIES: Now, you mentioned that plutonium is flammable, and you describe a horrific fire that occurred there in 1969. It wasn't the first one. But do you want to just talk about that event in 1969? What happened?
IVERSEN: The 1969 fire happened in a line of glove boxes. It was a devastating fire. It sent a radioactive cloud over the Denver metro area as we were having Sunday brunch, and I think one of the most important things about that fire that we didn't know about is that it burned out all of the filters, and it burned out the measuring equipment. So we still don't know how much plutonium and other toxic and radioactive material was released into the environment.
But the really dramatic part is that the building got so hot, and they couldn't control the fire, that it literally almost melted the roof. The roof began to rise like a marshmallow bubble, and if that roof had actually been breached and broken, we would have had an accident of catastrophic effect, something along the lines of Chernobyl, in the Denver area and beyond.
And the only reason that we did not have that happen was due to the number of very brave firefighters, a couple of which I talk about in my book, Stan Skinger(ph) and Bill Dennison(ph), who literally risked their lives to go into that building and then other firefighters who went up on the roof and used water to cool the roof down so that it didn't actually break, although it came very, very close.
And the thing about plutonium is that you can't use water on a plutonium fire because you run the risk of creating a criticality or a nuclear chain reaction. So it was a very, very touchy thing.
DAVIES: This fire began in one of these glove boxes, where these employees manipulate plutonium through these lead-lined gloves. And there was some little thing that caused a spark, the plutonium went up, and one of the things you write about was the risk of a blue flash. What is that?
IVERSEN: That is a criticality, and what would happen with that sort of event is that everyone within the most immediate area would be probably killed, and then there could be consequences beyond that immediate area, depending upon how things happened there. But when Bill Dennison and Stan Skinger were in the building fighting the fire, they had to go down into what they called sheep dips.
There was a little tunnel under each glove box that would contain water or any other things coming out of that area, and when they used water on the fire, the water collected in these shallow areas, these little tunneled areas under each glove box. And they had to wade down into that water to get to the other side, to where the foundry line was, where the fire was really happening.
And so it was very dangerous for them to do that, and they were very worried about what was in the water and if some of the plutonium pits or triggers or buttons had actually fallen down into the water, in which case there would be a blue flash, and that would be it.
DAVIES: So there was this horrific fire in 1969. And even though there wasn't this catastrophic event of a criticality and, you know, huge amounts of plutonium floating over Denver, it was not without environmental impact, right?
IVERSEN: Absolutely, and there environmental consequences throughout the Denver metro area, most particularly in the areas near Rocky Flats: Arvada in particular. Plutonium particles were found at an elementary school 12 miles away. There was plutonium and toxic - radioactive and toxic contamination of various levels throughout the Denver metro area.
One of things that Dr. John Cobb(ph), who was a professor at the University of Colorado Medical School, who was under contract with the EPA later to do research on the effects of plutonium on human tissue, he studied 450 bodies of people who had lived around Rocky Flats, and he found plutonium in their lung and liver tissue.
And this is a rather inflammatory statement, but this is what he said: To rid the Denver metro area of detectable amounts of plutonium from these fires and leaking oil barrels in particular, to rid the Denver metro area of detectable amounts of plutonium in the soil would mean taking up all the soil and buildings in Denver.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Kristen Iversen. Her new book is "Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." We'll talk more after a short break; this is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: If you're just joining us, our guest is writer Kristen Iversen. She's written a book about her experiences growing up near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility. It's called "Full Body Burden."
Now, you weren't worried about Rocky Flats as a kid, but you did have a lot of concerns about your family. You had a brother and two sisters, right? There were four of you, is that right?
IVERSEN: Right, that's right.
DAVIES: And your mom and your dad. And your dad's behavior troubled you. Do you want to just talk about what his relationship was with the family?
IVERSEN: You know, my father is I think a very smart and complicated man. He was an attorney. He had graduated at the top of his law class and started his own law practice. One of the things that happened that was very difficult for him, he eventually became an alcoholic with really devastating consequences for his law practice and for the family, particularly for the family.
And I grew up in a Scandinavian family, my mother is of Norwegian descent, and my father is Danish, and I think it's true for Scandinavian families but perhaps true for all families, particularly during this point in time, that you don't talk about problems. If anything is wrong or troubling, you don't say anything. You're expected to look the other way, and were not supposed to talk about it, we were not supposed to notice it.
DAVIES: And over time, I mean, there were real incidents. I mean, he would be involved in car accidents, there were some DUI arrests, and then there was the time he was driving with all of you, pulling the horse trailer. Do you want to describe that moment?
IVERSEN: Yeah, that was a very difficult time. My sister Carmen(ph) and I in particular were really involved in horse shows and gymkhanas and that sort of thing. I was a barrel racer. We would spend Saturdays going to these gymkhanas. And it was a Saturday morning. We got the horses ready, Tonka(ph) and Comanche(ph) and loaded them up into the horse trailer, and the plan was that my father would drive us to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for the gymkhana and then drop us off, and he would go in to work, as he usually did on Saturdays, or Saturday mornings.
And it wasn't apparent to us that we think he probably had been drinking, and what happened with the horse trailer and the truck, we came up over a little rise and came down, and the car swerved, and there was an accident. The truck and the horse trailer rolled over several times, and the Blazer in which we were riding, the roof was crushed.
So I guess we were very lucky that none of us were killed or seriously hurt. The horses were knocked unconscious, and we were able to get them out with the help of a passerby. My father was injured. His back was injured, and my sister and I were injured as well, although we didn't know it at the time. We weren't taken to the hospital or anything like that at the time.
And it wasn't until years later, after I had struggled for a long time with headaches and pain in my neck, which I thought came from reading so many books and studying so much and that sort of thing, but actually it turned out that I had a double fracture in my neck. I'd had a broken neck for years and didn't know about it.
So I have to say writing about this incident and bringing it up in the book, it was interesting because in my family, we had all suppressed that incident so profoundly that it was a real moment of awakening to say hey, look, did this really happen? What happened? And how are we going to talk about it? How are we going to deal with it as a family?
DAVIES: Right, you have your neck broken, and you don't go to the hospital, and nobody talks about it.
IVERSEN: Right.
DAVIES: Have you talked with your dad about it since?
IVERSEN: Yes, I think one of the - you know, this book really is a book of my own sense of awakening in terms of what happened at Rocky Flats and also what happened, you know, with my family and my relationship with my father. He's still alive, and we're in contact, and I think we have a better relationship now than we have had in years. We're certainly in more communication.
And there's a moment at the end of the book where I do bring up what happened, and my father and my sister Carmen and I are having pizza, and, you know, I said: Do you remember what happened here? And we're able to talk about it. And there's a moment of understanding and acknowledgement there that I think certainly was very profound for me.
DAVIES: You know, it's - I guess it's obvious, but I have to note the parallel between you have this situation in your family where people are, you know, hurt and damaged in some ways, but the issues aren't talked about, they're minimized. People don't - they remain silent about them, not unlike what's going on in the community, where people are being damaged and endangered by this nuclear facility, And its operators in the government don't talk about it.
IVERSEN: Well, I think one of the things that I wanted to write about was the cost of secrecy and denial and suppression and how important it is to be able to talk about things and have open disclosure at the level of family, at the level of community and even at the level of government.
We ideally should have been able to talk about these things in my family when I was young, when we all were young. I think it would have made a profound difference for all of us if we had been able to face these issues more directly, and certainly with respect to Rocky Flats and everything that was happening with the Department of Energy and all that, everything was cloaked behind a veil of secrecy because of the Cold War, because of national defense but also long after that point.
And we had no idea, and I think people, in a democracy, people deserve the right to know if their health is being put at risk in some way.
GROSS: Kristen Iversen will talk more with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies in the second half of the show. Her new book is called "Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the conversation FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies recorded with Kristen Iversen, author of the new book "Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." She grew up in the '60s, near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory in Colorado. She later learned that areas in and around Rocky Flats were contaminated with plutonium. Her book is, in part, about the investigation into the decades-long environmental scandal involving nuclear contamination in and around Rocky Flats.
DAVIES: Well, in the '50s and '60s, I mean, you know, the United States was preoccupied with the Cold War, and people didn't question the government quite so much. And so the events at Rocky Flats didn't get a lot of scrutiny. That changed in the 1970s.
And there were some studies. There were public concerns raised about the health impacts of the plant and protests outside the plant. People were arrested. There were sit-ins. This is a fascinating story, and there isn't time for us to go (technical difficulties). Maybe you could mention a couple of the studies, a couple of the events that are more troubling that were - that emerged about the environmental and health impacts of what was going on at Rocky Flats - the barrels, perhaps, the barrels, leaking barrels.
IVERSEN: Well, one of the more shocking aspects of the story about Rocky Flats is after the 1969 fire, you know, people started to pay attention to what was happening out there, and that's when you start to see some of the protests which really come to a head in the late 1970s. It takes a while for people to really get enough information and react to the situation. But after the 1969 fire, it was proven that there was plutonium and radioactive contamination off-site and, in fact, as far as 30 miles away from Rocky Flats.
And so scientists said: Why? You know, where is this coming from? Is it from the 1969 fire? And the Department of Energy was put in a rather extraordinary position of saying - of admitting, well, yes. There is contamination off-site, but it's not from the 1969 fire. It's from the 1957 five. We don't know how much contamination escaped during that fire, and so also from these barrels on what's been called the 903 pad.
There were 5,000 barrels filled with radioactive material, liquid and solid waste, primarily plutonium, and they stood out in the open for 11 years, from 1959 to 1970. And there are photos - you can see the photos of these barrels. The bottoms of the barrels literally rusted out, and all of that stuff got down into the water table into Walnut Creek and Woman Creek, and it entered the local water supply. And so that's a really devastating source of contamination.
And to give you an idea, the state standard for plutonium in Colorado is two disintegrations per minute, per gram of soil. Under those barrels, they measured 30 million disintegrations per minute, or 15 million times higher than the state standard. So it was really stunning, and they stood out there for 11 years.
DAVIES: One of the remarkable parts of the story is the FBI raiding, essentially, a federally-run installation. Two critical guys here are an FBI agent named Jon Lipsky and in EPA investigator named William Smith. What were they interested in? What got this to the point of a criminal investigation?
IVERSEN: Well, there was - for one thing, there was a worker named Jim Stone who's very important to the story. He had worked at Rocky Flats in the very beginning and seen some of the things that happened. For one thing, the site was located in the wrong place. The engineering criteria stated that it should be located far from a metro area or a large population, and there was a mistake in the engineering report. They read the wind patterns at Stapleton Airport instead out at Rocky Flats, where the Chinook winds come off the mountains and sweep right across the Rocky Flats site in Arvada and into the Denver metro area.
So Jim Stone was aware of the problems right from the very beginning. He was the first informant - a whistleblower, really - and talked to Jon Lipsky and the FBI and the EPA about some of the problems at Rocky Flats, and, of course, many people have started to become concerned.
DAVIES: A critical piece of this was an incinerator, right, on the Rocky Flats facility, at which plutonium waste might have been burning, right? So it wasn't supposed to be operating. Is that right?
IVERSEN: Yes. That incinerator was built in 1958, and it operated for decades. They burned Plutonium-contaminated waste and other contaminants, and that smoke went right up into the air and around the Denver metro area. And Jon Lipsky, the FBI and the EPA suspected that this was going on, and so they flew an airplane over the site to take infrared photography to see if they could determine if there was indeed airborne contamination going out into the environment.
And based on the photography that they shot from that airplane three times over the site, they found that they thought that that was very likely. And so then that initiated the process for the raid. The raid happened on June 6th, 1989, and I believe it was the first and only time in this country that two government agencies have raided another. The EPA and the FBI raided the Department of Energy.
DAVIES: So there's this extraordinary event in June of 1989, when a swarm of FBI agents enter this plant and start carting out documents despite the protestations of the folks at - I guess it's Rockwell that was running the plant then.
IVERSEN: Yes.
DAVIES: They take this material to a grand jury and they present it before this panel of citizens, who sit for, I guess, more than a year, hearing all of this evidence that there was contamination, that there were doctoring of records, et cetera, et cetera. What, in the end, did the grand jury do?
IVERSEN: Well, the grand jury had met for 21 months and listened to hundreds of witnesses and a great amount of material, and they recommended indictments of Department of Energy officials and Rockwell. And they wanted the plant to be called to task, and most importantly, they wanted local residents to be aware of what was - what had happened at the plant and what was ongoing at the plant, particularly this incinerator that didn't have a permit, was inappropriately permitted and was putting out all of this radiation and toxic material into the environment.
But what happened was that a deal was cut with Rockwell. There were no indictments, and the grand jurors, after having met for 21 months and hearing all of this evidence, they were infuriated that there were no indictments and there was not really going to be any responsibility taken here or any transparency with respect to what was actually happening.
So the grand jurors decided to write their own grand jury report, which they did, and the judge refused to accept it, refused to have it released to the public. And so that grand jury report still, to the present day, is sealed, and that information is not available, has not been available to the public or even for the cleanup at Rocky Flats. That information and all the boxes related to the grand jury investigation are sealed, still sealed to the present day.
DAVIES: All right, now, just to be clear here, I mean, it's often the case in a criminal investigation that once a grand jury has heard evidence, that a defendant and his attorney, or the company's attorney, will make a - reach an arrangement with the government to avoid the expense of a trial and plead guilty to certain things. And that happened here. I mean, Rockwell pled guilty to five felony and five misdemeanor criminal violations of federal environmental law, agreed to pay an $18.5 million fine. So it wasn't as if they suffered no consequences. So what did the FBI agent, Agent Lipsky and the grand jurors find so troubling? Why was that not enough?
IVERSEN: Well, I think, for one thing, the fine - although it was a substantial fine at the time, I think it's important to realize that it was also almost exactly the same as the bonus that Rockwell received for that particular year for meeting production quotas. And I...
DAVIES: The bonus from the federal government for manufacturing the weapons.
IVERSEN: Yes.
DAVIES: Yeah.
IVERSEN: Exactly. And at Rocky Flats, production was always the highest priority, and safety of workers and certainly of local residents in their surrounding communities always took second place to that. Production was the most important thing.
And so I think the grand jurors were very troubled by that, and the fact that people didn't - that people weren't aware of that, and most of all that it was ongoing, and that there was a culture of secrecy and complicity in the sense that part of the reason why there were no indictments was that it was argued that these were officials with the Department of Energy and with Rockwell who were operating within instructions from the Department of Energy, from the higher-ups.
That is, that these environmental violations are sort of OK. We're going to look the other way. We're going to allow them to happen, because what is most important is the production of plutonium pits. And so the jurors were very upset about that, that residents and workers had been put at risk in terms of their health and safety for production, and people didn't know.
DAVIES: So the grand jury report that the jurors insisted on writing was not released by the judge. It remained sealed. All of the exhibits remain sealed. But some of the material did - was leaked to the media, right?
IVERSEN: Right. Some of the jurors - a majority of them, in fact - were so outraged. Parts of it, they did appear on television and radio, to a certain extent, although they were very limited in what they could say, or else they could be thrown in jail because it was, again, a grand jury investigation. So everything is supposed to remain secret. So they were put in a very difficult position in terms of how to deal with this.
But there was some information leaked to the press on both sides of that case, actually. And the grand jury report itself, parts of it appeared in a couple of newspapers, a local paper called Westword, in particular. There were excerpts in Harpers and other national magazines. And then eventually, many years later, Judge Sherman Finesilver did release a report that was very heavily edited. I think that people can actually see this on the Internet, but there was a lot of things blacked out on that report. It's very heavily edited, with commentary by the Justice Department. So even to the present day, the full report is not available.
DAVIES: Now, what was the impact of the investigation on the operation of Rocky Flats?
IVERSEN: Well, what happened was by 1990, Rocky Flats ended, or it halted pit production. It was considered to be sort of a temporary stoppage. In fact, even when I worked out at Rocky Flats in 1994 and 1995, there was talk about, well, maybe eventually we'll get things going again.
But the problem for the nuclear weapons facilities around the country and for national defense, Rocky Flats was the only facility that produced plutonium pits for nuclear bombs, and we had lots them. I'm not sure how many more we needed. But that all kind of came to a halt in 1990, and the plant moved into a kind of a modified cleanup mode, which was what was going on when I was working out at the plant. And then it did eventually close, for a number of reasons: a change in our focus in terms of national defense, and also I think citizen action and the activists and all of the awareness brought to Rocky Flats and all the environmental and cultural problems it represented. I think citizen activism really made a difference with the closing of the plant.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Kristen Iversen. Her new book is "Full Body Burden: Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: If you're just joining us, our guest is writer Kristen Iversen. She's written a book about her experiences growing up near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. It's called "Full Body Burden."
So what's become of the site today?
IVERSEN: Well, the site is currently closed, but it is slated to open as a wildlife refuge and public recreation area. There was a very controversial cleanup. In 1995, the Department of Energy estimated that it would take 70 years and $36 billion to do this cleanup. And then that was adjusted in 1995, when I was working out at the plant, and the company Kaiser Hill came in and said, we can do this cleanup by 2006, in 10 years, less than 10 years, for only $7 billion - a much-reduced cost.
And even of that $7 billion, only 7 percent of that total went for soil and water cleanup. But the cleanup levels are very controversial. Cleanup levels were based not on what would be safe for people to live or work on at the site, but what would be relatively safe for a seasonal wildlife refuge worker. And they're based on what's called RSAL, Radionuclide Soil Action Level levels for plutonium, and they're very high at Rocky Flats.
Risk Assessment Corporation had recommended no more than 35 picocuries per gram. What the cleanup stands at now is that at the top, for the top three feet of soil, there's 50 picocuries per gram of soil. From three to six feet, 3,000 to 7,000 picocuries per gram, and no limit below six feet, despite the fact that many of the lower floors of the buildings and basements and pipes, you know, a lot of that stuff still remains.
DAVIES: Just to clarify here, because the numbers can be confusing.
IVERSEN: Yes.
DAVIES: There's a lot of contamination deep within the soil.
IVERSEN: There's a lot of contamination deep within the soil. Thirteen hundred acres of the site are so profoundly contaminated that they can never open for human habitation or no human access. And that has been sealed off. The rest of the site is slated to open for public recreation and hiking, biking, and possibly even hunting.
Even though studies have shown that deer out at the site have plutonium in their bodies and there's plutonium uptake in the grass. And then of course I think the most dangerous thing out there and the thing that people really need to know about is that there are breathable particles of plutonium out there in various hot spots and areas.
And people need to know the kind of risk that they're going to take if they decide to (technical difficulty) at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge or if they're going to allow their, you know, kindergartner or first grader to go on a school field trip out to Rocky Flats. People need to know the story and people need to know what remains.
DAVIES: You and your brother and sisters have had health symptoms that you've never quite figured out the cause of, too, right?
IVERSEN: Yeah. We've had some scares with cancer. I had a scare with lymphoma. My sister, Karma, has had a couple of cancer scares. Not anything like some of the families in our neighborhood and some of the families that I profile in the book who have had really profound problems with cancers, brain tumors, thyroid cancer, various things.
But the interesting thing is that we've had ongoing kind of chronic symptoms, kind of like chronic fatigue, immune system issues, rheumatoid arthritis. My brother deals with that although he's too young really that he should have to be dealing with something like that.
And I think that's very common for people in that area. There are repeated studies that shown higher rates of leukemia and various types of cancers, including lung cancer in particular, brain tumors, that sort of thing. And leukemia. After the 1957 fire there was a big jump in leukemia in children after that fire in particular.
So there have been ongoing problems. But then there's this kind of, you know, you can't really pin it down - a kind of chronic problem that my family has dealt with and I know other people in the surrounding area have dealt with that as well.
DAVIES: Before I let you go I want you to tell the story about your brother taking his dogs to the lake; recent story.
IVERSEN: Uh-huh. Well, I have family who, until very recently, actually still lived out by Rocky Flats and I would say it's our home; we loved that land. It's beautiful, a beautiful part of the country. And Standley Lake is a very pretty lake and my brother Kurt was out walking with his wife Cindy and their lab, their big yellow lab. And they like to let their dogs swim in the lake.
We used to swim in the lake with our horses when we were kids and our dogs. They let the dog swim in the lake and a boat came around - a patrol boat came around and a guy with a megaphone said get your dog out of the water. And Kurt laughed. I have a very funny family. I'm not sure that comes through the book. But he laughed and he said what are you talking about? You know, he said, well, it provides water for the surrounding community; we can't have dogs in the lake. And Kurt just laughed. He said, the dog hair is going to affect the water supply? Well, it turned out that there is plutonium in the sediment at Standley Lake to the present day and you're not supposed to get in there and churn it up in any way because it brings the plutonium particles up into the water.
So they don't like people, you know, swimming right near the edge where they can churn things up, or dogs, you know, that kind of dig in the mud a little bit. They don't want all of that plutonium churned up into the water. But it's there, and there's no signs. There are no signs or any sort of indication to people who swim or go water skiing at that lake that there's plutonium in the sediment.
DAVIES: So Standley Lake is used as a water source but it's considered safe because the plutonium is in the sediment? Is that your understanding?
IVERSEN: Yes. That's correct. The plutonium is expected to stay in the sediment.
DAVIES: Well, Kristen Iversen, thanks so much for speaking with us.
IVERSEN: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure to be here.
GROSS: Kristen Iversen spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies. Iversen's new book is called "Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats." You can read an excerpt on our website, freshair.npr.org. Coming up, Kevin Whitehead reviews a new album by a jazz harpist who Kevin says can make you rethink what the instrument can do. This is FRESH AIR.
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