Con Edison takes five weeks to repair steam pipe; historic church organ damaged

From “Church Sues Con Ed Over Damage to Pipe Organ,” The New York Times, June 13, 2007 (Associated Press Dispatch).

 A historic church has sued Consolidated Edison for $1 million, claiming that its 89-year-old pipe organ, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere, was damaged by steam escaping from beneath the adjacent street and sidewalk.

In court papers filed Monday in State Supreme Court, the church, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, says that it told the utility on June 30, 2004, about an “extraordinary amount of steam” coming from Park Avenue into the church. But, the papers say, the utility did not take any action until five weeks later, when it repaired components that were causing steam to enter the church, which is on Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets.

The church’s lawsuit claims that soon after the initial complaint, the pipe organ, an Aeolian-Skinner, began to malfunction. The problems were caused by moisture being drawn into the organ’s pipe system through its blowers and pumps in the church basement, the court papers say.

“The moist, humid and damp air,” the papers say, caused “a general, overall breakdown of the organ system.”

A Con Ed spokesman, Chris Olert, said yesterday that the utility would not comment on pending litigation.

The church’s pipe organ, as described on its Web site, was built in 1918 by the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, has 12,422 pipes and uses temperature-controlled air pressure.

It was once played by Leopold Stokowski, who came from England in 1905 to be St. Bartholomew’s organist and choirmaster and later became a world-renowned conductor.

What can we learn from this?

1. At least some of Con Edison’s steam pipes fail some of the time.

2. Even if it’s damaging a well-connected landmark church (you don’t need to be Episcopalian in New York to know where St. Bart’s is – or to have visited – it’s a stunning building, and they have had (and may still have) wonderful music programs,  Con Edison is either

(A) unconcerned about powerful institutions and bad publicity

(B) So overwhelmed with even more serious repairs and problems that it couldn’t get to this for five weeks

Or so badly managed they didn’t promptly route the information internally and make a decision.

via Gothamist.  

Rice pressures Iran on Iranian-Americans wrongly held; Iran continues to deny knowledge of Levinson whereabouts

 From Nasser Karimi of the Associated Press, dated June 10th:

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the detentions of the Iranian-Americans were unwarranted but would not stop the United States from trying to engage Iran on other matters, including its disputed nuclear program and alleged support of insurgents in Iraq.

“We take seriously the holding of any American anywhere in the world where they are being wrongly held and where they are being accused of things that clearly are untrue,” Rice said. “It just shows again what kind of regime this is.”

– snip –

The U.S. also has expressed concern about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who the United States says has been missing since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.

[Mohammad Ali]  Hosseini [the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry]  reiterated Sunday that Iran has no information about Levinson.

Via Washington Post. 

Blast-resistant coating mitigates explosion risk – can be retrofitted, added to existing structure

Paxcon , according to its website, is a polymer coating which can be added to wood, metal, brick, mortar – most building materials. Paxcon

remains flexible from -40º to 160ºC, is abrasion-resistant, chemical-resistant, fire retardant, and meets all EPA emission levels for V.O.C’s. Tests performed by the company using 200 pounds of TNT detonated at a 30-foot distance were shown to substantially reduce disintegration of building materials. In a separate test, a wall coated with the LINE-X industrial product remained intact up to a detonation equivalent of 1,000 pounds of TNT.

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Illustration by Brian Basher for Popular Mechanics. 

Here’s a photograph showing a wall subjected to an explosion with and without the coating:

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This is intended to minimize fragmentation – the cause of much of the morbidity and mortality associated with explosions – and might, because of that effect, delay building collapse. In circumstances under which an extra minute or two can make a life-or-death difference, that’s no small benefit.

The company which makes Paxcon, Line-X, is apparently a well-known brand name among pickup truck aficionados – they make pickup truck bed liners – and this technology is an outgrowth of that. They’ve got some impressive video clips here.  The Defense Department is already buying and using it.

 Via Popular Mechanics. 

Former mining town, thoroughly polluted, also at risk of cave-in; entire town offered federal buyout

In January,  BLDG Blog   (“Building Blog”) reported on Matthew C. Wright’s Washington Post coverage of the situation in Picher, Oklahoma. Picher had lead and zinc mines operated until the 1970’s, and it’s been on the Superfund List – part of the Tar Creek SuperFund Site.

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Map via United States Geological Survey.

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Infochart: recent macro trend in terrorist incidents

The Point-by-Point blog has this interesting chart:

global-terrorism.gif

Alice at Point-by-Point, in an update, notes that the hypothesis of Abu Ghraib knowledge as causal event is vulnerable. We agree that it can’t be proved – but anecdotal evidence suggests that the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo (and “black site”) disclosures have strengthened the rhetorical positions of terrorist cheerleaders and recruiters.

Ask Umbra: a new source for advice about solar

has a new feature – “Ask Umbra” – in Q&A format giving advice about how to get solar working. From today’s post – in which a reader from Long Island, New York. Here’s Umbra’s response to “Rick”:

Don’t thank me until you’ve tried my recommendations in the marketplace.

Solar trailer

Solar power to the people. Photo credit: iStockphoto

 

Your county’s rating for solar is “good,” according to Findsolar.com, a private/public collaborative website that has various worksheets helping you figure out what solar can do in your area, what size array you might need, how much it will cost, etc.

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National Guard General to Congress: Guard short on equipment critical in domestic emergencies

From an Armed Forced Press Service article by Fred W. Baker III, published on the National Guard website,

Congress must either fund equipment for the National Guard or accept the risks of an under-equipped strategic reserve, the Guard’s top officer said today.

The Guard has only about half of the equipment it needs, Army National Guard Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security’s subcommittee on management, investigations and oversight.

Flanked by three states’ adjutants general, Blum told committee members that having the nation’s only strategic reserve equipped at 50 percent sends a message “that could be miscalculated by our adversaries overseas.”

“It’s really now the job of the Congress to fund the equipment or accept the risk,” Blum said.

The Defense Department has proposed spending $22 billion for National Guard equipment purchases over the next five years, Blum said.

Even so, that would equip the Guard to only 75 percent, its level before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Blum questioned whether that is enough.

“We are in a post-9/11 world, and I am not certain that those levels still apply,” Blum said.

Air National Guard Maj. Gen. Roger P. Lempke, the adjutant general of Nebraska and president of the Adjutants General Association, told committee members that there needs to be better accounting at the Defense Department level for states’ equipping needs.

Currently, equipping the Army and Air National Guard is managed by the respective services, and levels are based on units’ wartime missions. This causes problems when states respond to multiple requirements — state and federal — forcing them to cross-level equipment, or take it from one unit to give to another. In addition, much Guard equipment deployed overseas has not returned.

Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Robert P. French, deputy adjutant general for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, said that leaves his state falling short. “What happens today because of the war effort … leaves us with substitute equipment at home or no equipment at home,” he said.

Blum conceded that the Guard does not need full equipping of its lethal systems, such as tanks and artillery systems. Units need only enough of those for training. But, he outlined an “essential 10” categories that list 342 dual-service items needed both to respond to U.S. disasters and tovsupport units’ wartime missions. The categories include maintenance, aviation, medical and power generation. States need more equipment such as trucks, helicopters and communications equipment, Blum said.

Link to article here.

Via War is Boring.

This makes us all the more curious about the status of pre-positioned FEMA caches – and concerned about local and regional government and NGO stockpiles of critical materiel.

Red Cross/Crescent helps Indonesians build emergency shelters from local materials

Subtopia reports on effective Red Cross/Red Crescent efforts to provide shelter to earthquake victims in Indonesia. Subtopia’s account is based on this report from Reliefweb:

“As part of the International Federation’s early recovery programme, more than 4,000 bamboo shelters have already been completed in the areas of Gantiwarno and Dlingo, and the programme is expanding into other districts, where up to 6,000 of the homes are expected to soon be built.”
After consulting survivors and enabling them to take direct responsibility for the distribution of funds and reconstruction materials, the program has resulted in a coordinated community activism to help survivors build shelters themselves out of local materials. [emphasis supplied]

And the shelters cost about $150 USD each.

The Albany Project

We’ve just learned about The Albany Project , a blog which “seeks to return New York State Government to its rightful owners – the people.” Its very existence implicitly makes the point that we can’t write off state politics as a lost cause. And the Albany Project looks like a useful resource for understanding what’s happening up there.

We’ve read – but haven’t yet posted about – New York’s new emergency response bill – but we’re hoping to do so soon, along with a backlog of other posts that have been simmering. There’s a lot that needs to happen in this state to make us reasonably ready to address emergency preparedness and public health. State government can make it easier, or harder. In the end, of course, it’s up to the population – citizens and non-citizens alike – to address preparedness issues. With or without government help.

Graywater Guerrillas

So it turns out that the average American household consumes 70 gallons of water per person per day, which seems problematic and unsustainable even for those of us living on big islands still soggy

from spring. (Calculate just how much water you waste with your thoughtless ablutions here. Now for the last time, would you please turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth?)

That’s the bad news. The good news is that populist logisticians are at work on the problem. There’s an article in the NYTimes today about “the Greywater Guerrillas, a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water–the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines–to flush toilets or irrigate gardens.”

Interested? Get your hows and whys here.

DIY Solar – Gary Reysa’s “Build it Solar” site

Tracking back the links to the Don Dunklee scooter plans -we found Gary Reysa’s BuilditSolar.com

site. This site has many descriptions of links to, and explanations of, DIY solar systems. Most seem plausibly built by competent DIYers – even without Reysa’s background as a retired aviation engineer. This is a great reference site for renewable energy projects; even if you’re not going to do it yourself – it’ll demystify some of the concepts.

We live in a 36-unit apartment building – and have just added a second compost bin; in New York City, we think that puts us towards the high end of the composting curve. Because of BuilditSolar.com, now I have some idea of how we could extract heat from the compost (metal coil that is inserted in the bin). Not sure yet how we could easily make use of the heat – but Reysa’s explanations are first-rate.

We

Michigan man hacks scooter to run on PV panels; makes 20-mile round trip regularly

Don Dunklee of Davison, Michigan has tricked out his scooter so it runs on PV panels.  Looks like   – unfolded – the scooter takes up a space about as wide as a typical automobile parking space.

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Apparently his children – three, late teens and early twenties – are embarassed to be seen with him.  We wonder if they’re also embarassed to take gas money from him.

 Via Wired Blog.      Here’s Dunklee’s how-to.

Wowser. How apropos.

What is that thing that addicts do when they feel their addiction being challenged? Oh yeah, they go berserk. Check out this press release from Union of Concerned Scientists about the auto industry’s latest hijinks–or, if you really want a little blood pressure rush, skip right down to one of the two sample ads at the bottom:

AUTOMAKERS SUMMER PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICAN DRIVERS:
HIGHER GAS PRICES, MORE POLLUTION

INDUSTRY KICKS OFF MILLION DOLLAR-PLUS MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO
SCUTTLE STRONGER FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS, INCREASE U.S. OIL ADDICTION

WASHINGTON (May 24, 2007) – To kick off the summer driving season this
Memorial Day weekend, the auto industry has a message for drivers facing
record-high gasoline prices: Pay up!

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