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Wayne Rooney spends 10,000 pounds on underfloor heating for his dogs
650 days
London, Aug 7 : British footballer Wayne Rooney has splashed out 10,000 pounds on getting underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can set up in the kennels for his dogs.
Rooney, 24, and his wife Coleen have just built a luxury doggy-block at their 4.5million pounds mansion, and they insisted on having the latest hi-tech hidden warmth for their pets.
“Wealthy footballers in the North-West went through a phase of having underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can throughout their homes,” the Sun quoted a source as saying.
“Then there was a craze for installing it in their driveways to avoid snow in winter. Now Wayne has taken it one further.
“It’s cost him as much as it would to do an average family home. Coleen insisted on it. But Wayne’s a softie with dogs so he agreed,” the source added.
–ANI
Underpaw heating for Roo’s dogs
651 days
FOOTBALLER WAYNE ROONEY has splashed out 10,000 on underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can – in
kennels for his pampered dogs.
The Man United striker and wife COLEEN have just built a luxury
doggy-block at their 4.5million mansion.
And they insisted on the latest hi-tech hidden warmth for Bichon Friss Daisy
and Bella, pet chow Fizz and Wayne’s 1,500 French mastiff.
A source said: “Wealthy footballers in the North-West went through a phase of
having underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can throughout their homes.
“Then there was a craze for installing it in their driveways to avoid snow in
winter. Now Wayne has taken it one further.
“It’s cost him as much as it would to do an average family home.” The source
added: “Coleen insisted on it. But Wayne’s a softie with dogs so he agreed.”
The couple, both 24, hired a trainer this year after Daisy kept pooing inside
their home in Prestbury, Cheshire.
And Wayne’s been in the doghouse himself recently after his boss SIR
ALEX FERGUSON saw our pictures of him smoking and partying all night.
Hoy christens Olympic Velodrome as London 2012 takes shape
657 days
At first, he rode hesitantly, wobbling slightly, but as he became used to the bike he began to pedal more confidently, easing around the temporary circuit. The crowd of builders in their hard hats and fluorescent waistcoats roared their approval. “Boris, Boris.”
“Oh no. He’s on the bike,” said one of Boris Johnson’s advisors with the resigned tone of a man who had been waiting for something like this to happen. And so the Mayor of London became the second person ever to ride in the Olympic Velodrome. Minutes earlier, Sir Chris Hoy had christened an arena that is now roofed and well on the way to becoming a 6,000-capacity state-of-the-art facility, representing ?100m of the more than ?7bn being spent on creating modern sporting temples in place of crumbling warehouses, industrial decay and, generations earlier, marshland.
“It will look as if it is floating in the air,” remarked John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body charged with building the site in east London, as he surveyed the velodrome.
One of the features of the London Olympics ? five years down, two to go ? has been the attention to detail. It is a rigorously efficient set-up, from its dealings with the media to painstakingly fitting 32,000 different pieces of wood that can each go into only one place in the roof of the Aquatics Centre, to installing underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can in the velodrome so competitors can remain warmed up between events. This is precision management.
The events to celebrate ? and there was an air of celebration around the Park yesterday ? two years until opening night were similarly well- defined. But that was without taking into account the ‘Boris factor’.
The day had begun with the opening of the first London 2012 shop in St Pancras station ? ?25 and Wenlock the mascot is yours ? and as Boris began speaking, a call to board the 10.25 train to Paris all but drowned him out.
It was Paris that London beat to the right to host the Games. With Britain’s embarrassing record of sporting construction ? Picketts Lock and Wembley to the fore ? there were obvious fears for what lay ahead. In 2005, I stood in the square in front of Stratford Station, watching on a large screen as Jacques Rogge uttered one word: “London”. The square erupted. A few months later, I drove around what was earmarked as the Olympic Park and tried to work out if a particularly dusty bit of land on an island created by dark, sluggish canals was where the stadium was to be built.
Yesterday, standing in the middle of the stadium, it would have taken a cold heart not to have felt a pang of excitement about what lies two years down the line. “Amazing,” said Andrew Willis, a 19-year-old swimmer and Olympic hopeful. “It gives you all the motivation you need ? the chance to be back here.” He gestured up at the empty stands, waiting for most of the 80,000 seats to be fitted. “It is impressive,” said Mark Foster, a veteran of five Olympics.
Other seasoned Olympians reckoned it was as intimate ? if a venue of this size can be intimate ? as any they have seen. The rows of seats slide right down to the edge of the playing area and, although the stands do not appear as steep as at many football grounds, the distance from the centre of the field to the back of the stands is less than at Wembley.
Entering the stadium, at this stage of its gestation, for the first time, stirs a realisation of what is going to happen here and in the other venues around the Park. This is going to be, as everyone from builders to athletes to administrators repeatedly points out, a once-in-a-lifetime thing, albeit one that has been expensively acquired.
We journeyed around the site, meandering between copses of cranes, with Armitt pointing out the different venues. Here is the athletes village, in walking distance of all the Park venues, a novel feature at a Games; here is the River Lea, where a double-sided giant screen will float on the water so people can sprawl on the grassy banks and watch medals being won.
Michael Johnson struck a rare note of caution amid a sea of evangelistic optimism. First, he took part in the debut race in the stadium, on a temporary track against a group of schoolchildren. It was won by Monique, taking a little slice of history all for herself. “She’s fast and she’s 10,” said Dylan Brown, another of the racers. “I’m only nine.”
Johnson, multi-Olympic gold medallist, knows the unique pressures of competing in a home Games. He ran in Atlanta ? successfully ? and spoke of how testing it was to have that immense expectation riding on your shoulders. He had little time, he explained, to enjoy Atlanta ? few, as Olympic legend has it, did anyway.
But did he think the London Games would be a success?
“You cannot know that until the fans walk away at the end,” Johnson said. “Until then, there is no other way of knowing.”
With the build ahead of schedule and the budget, for the time being at least, under control, what does he see as the biggest challenge still to overcome? “It will be how they deal with the unexpected because something will happen between now and the start.”
The budget may yet face further paring come the government spending review in autumn. Johnson ? the mayor, not the runner ? issued thinly veiled warnings to his Tory colleagues across the river from his offices on the south bank of the Thames to keep their hands off, while Hugh Robertson, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, offered reassurances that all would be all right for opening night.
The opening ceremony has to follow in the multiple footsteps of Beijing, and its chances of matching, let alone bettering, that one-party state spectacular are slim. But yesterday was a time to believe. “Sure, we can better Beijing,” Foster said. “Why not?”
It was in Beijing that Johnson, then a newly arrived Mayor of London, introduced himself to the world. There is a possibility that, come London 2012, he will be confined to the stands. In May that year, he will stand for re-election ? a race he must win if he is to stand in the middle of the Olympic Stadium on the evening of 27 July 2012 and welcome the world to, as he put it yesterday, “the greatest party on Earth in the greatest city on Earth.”
Whether the opening ceremony will then feature Boris on a bike in some sort of Tebbit sketch remains to be seen, but Hoy, barring injury, will be there.
“The last time I was here,” he said as he stood in the velodrome, “it was a hole in the ground.” Hoy is among the athletes who have been consulted in the building of the venues. “The focus has been from the athlete’s point of view. Everything has been addressed ? even the toilets are only a 15-second walk away for the competitors. We never usually get looked after like that. “It’s that attention to detail again, a detail that is promising so much in two years’ time.”
It started to rain as we walked over the main bridge, past the Aquatic Centre and into the stadium. The 70 athletes from Team 2012 snapped pictures of each other and, perhaps, dared to dream.
“Doing this, you get a sense of what it’s going to be like,” Hoy said. “It really gets the enthusiasm going. Two years to go ? I can’t wait.”
‘);
} else {
document.write(‘
Home where rustic meets industrial
657 days
Conservatory Land to Extend Product Range Beyond DIY Conservatories With New Selection of Conservatory Accessories
657 days
MANSFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwire – 07/13/10) – DIY Conservatory manufacturer ConservatoryLand, is to extend their product range with a selection of accessories which their customers can order at the same time as their conservatories or after taking delivery.
The company has struck deals with selected suppliers of conservatory blinds, furniture, floor coverings, underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can systems and other relevant products.
David Bingham, Director of ConservatoryLand says “When a customer takes delivery of a conservatory, it doesn’t end there. They typically purchase blinds, furniture and floor tiles as well as installing some kind of heating system to enable them to use their DIY conservatories all year round”.
ConservatoryLand describe their new business model as a ‘one-stop shop’ where their customers can purchase everything they need, all from one place and all at the same time to turn their conservatory in to a usable and comfortable living space.
With the recent introduction of their ConservaBase steel base system, the company is now able to provide the complete DIY conservatory solution from the ground up, including quality conservatories, a quick and easy method of creating firm foundations, and a range of essential accessories to kit out the interior, all in one go.
David Bingham continues “We will only sell high quality products and the deals that we have agreed with our suppliers mean that we can now supply much of our conservatory furniture and accessories at hugely discounted prices and often at a far lower cost than our customers can purchase similar items elsewhere”.
The company also states that many of their range of accessories are delivered direct from the manufacturers and can be scheduled for delivery to their customer’s homes at a time that is convenient for them, normally after their conservatory has been erected which alleviates any potential storage problems.
ConservatoryLand intend launching their new range of conservatory accessories in the Autumn of 2010 and plan to make them available to purchase online before the end of the year.
For more information about the Conservatory Land range of accessories, contact:
? David Bingham Conservatory LandOld Mill ParkMansfield WoodhouseNottinghamshireNG19 9BG
Newsmaker: Alain de Botton
657 days
By Lamar Clarkson
?Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design,? writes pop philosopher Alain de Botton in his heartfelt case for good building, 2006?s The Architecture of Happiness. Having grown up amid Switzerland?s clean modernism and luxuries such as underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can, the now London-based author observes that in the United Kingdom, most people associate modern building with hastily constructed postwar tower blocks. By contrast, the crumbling country cottage?loaded with both history and suspect plumbing?enjoys a powerful grip on the British psyche, a condition that, he argues, has led to a lot of bad design.
After The Architecture of Happiness came out, de Botton decided that building would prove more effective than books. To promote the value of modernism to an often-skeptical British populace?and bring high design beyond of the realm of the rich?he formed the UK-based nonprofit Living Architecture, which launched in May. (De Botton serves as creative director.) With a mission to give the public a way to live and sleep in exceptionally designed spaces, the project commissions top-notch architects to build modern vacation homes and rents them to the public.
Of the five initial designs, one of the first?opening in October?is the Balancing Barn, a cantilevered house by the Dutch firm MVRDV that appears to hover atop a Suffolk hill. On another hilltop, in Devon, the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is mounting the not-yet-completed Secular Retreat, a calm-inducing sort of mini-monastery in rammed concrete. And on the North Norfolk coast, Sir Michael and Lady Patty Hopkins are blending old-fashioned craft with the latest technology in their sand-colored Long House. With prices that begin at ?20 per person per night and a plan to add one new house a year, bit by bit de Botton hopes to send a nation of vacationers to architectural rehab.
The Balancing Barn, MVRDV. 
Lamar Clarkson: What exactly is the hold that quaint old architecture has on the British imagination?
Alain de Botton: It has a pretty strong hold, paradoxically because Britain is so modern. It industrialized very quickly, uprooting millions of people from their traditional ways of life, and it created an immense nostalgia that is expressed in part through architecture?a nostalgia for a rural, class-based society, where things were settled, where there were not so many outsiders.
LC: How do you see the public’s current relationship to modern architecture?
AdB: It’s divided. Twenty years ago one could generalize and say it was almost uniformly hostile. Modern architecture was seen as a foreign growth that had taken root in the UK. That situation has changed partly, but it is still a relatively metropolitan experience. It’s very centered around London and a certain socioeconomic class, and when you look at [the nostalgia-heavy housing] the big property developers are building, it remains tragicomic, as if modernism never happened.
LC: What is it about living in a modern building that you hope will change people’s minds, in a way that just looking at one has failed?
AdB: It’s partly to do with how much time you can spend in a space. Time is often a neglected dimension in our understanding of architecture and indeed of art. Generally we have a very intellectual approach to aesthetics in the modern Western world. We imagine that you can get what there is to understand quite quickly so you don’t need to hang around. You go to a museum you look at the picture 10 minutes max, and then you’ve got it. Some of these aesthetic experiences need to be taken in bit by bit over a longer period. This is not like a book that you need to read; it’s a full sensory experience, and as with many sensory experiences you need repetition and time.
[In the houses] air and light and touch and sound will be quite different?little things but important things. An overwhelming proportion of people in the UK are still living in houses that are older than the Second World War. Since then, floors and windows have been revolutionized. Windows use different sizes of glass; there are different acoustic properties; they let in different amounts of light and air. Also think of plumbing. Plumbing was a very backward business in the UK for a long time. Things that you might take completely for granted are still the level of the extraordinary here.
All the houses are relatively playful in their plans. The roof shapes are not exactly what one might expect. The floorplans are a little bit different. Things don’t have to be done in a completely standard way?there are other ways of organizing spaces, and that should be a relaxing, life-enhancing idea.
LC: What about the designs is different from what we’re used to?
AdB: One of the houses, by the Norwegian firm Jarmund/Vigsn?s Architects (JVA), has four bedrooms designed almost as individual houses, which gives a sense of privacy and coziness for each occupant, and they then come down to a very large, open space, a living-dining area. I’m interested there in the feeling of enclosure contrasted with a more communal space.
We’ve got one house by a young Scottish practice called NORD which is on a bizarre landscape, a giant shingled beach in the shadow of a nuclear power station. What we were trying to do was to challenge the idea of the kind of pastoral English countryside and say you can actually holiday in quite a different area and see that as beautiful. It’s the modern sublime rather than the traditional beauty.?????????
LC: One of your ideas for a vacation house is a conjoined home for a divorced family. How does that work? Is it on the way?
AdB: An architect came to us and was thinking about it with us, and we’re very taken with the idea. It’s just one of the needs of the 21st century: how do divorced couples with children holiday? We?re not at a concrete stage, but it?s an idea that intrigues us and that we see as typical of how we might go in the future?stretching the boundaries of who?s holidaying and how.
LC: Do you think something like Living Architecture could work in the US?
AdB: It depends on the part of the US you’re talking about. On the West Coast or down in some of the southern states, there’s a kind of routine acceptance of modern architecture. That said, there does remain the point that, on the whole, good domestic architecture is for the very few. Staying in a Frank Gehry house is the privilege that belongs to one or two movie moguls.
Plastics are contender in London 2012 Olympics
657 days
UK-based plastics companies are contributing to the sustainability effort across the sites playing host to the London 2012 Olympics.
The British Plastics Federation has had feedback from several of its member companies which have secured contracts to supply Olympic venues with items based on HDPE, PVC and masterbatch products among others.
Philip Law, BPF’s public and industrial affairs director, said: “London 2012 lays down rigorous requirements for materials and the extensive use of plastics is an endorsement that they can offer sustainable solutions in construction such as, durability, recyclability, energy savings and safety.”
BPF member company Polypipe Terrain is supplying Terrain Fuze (HDPE), Terrain PVC soil and waste systems, and Rainstream rainwater harvesting and underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can to all the major Olympic Park venues, particularly the Athletes Village, the Olympic stadium and the Velodrome.
Adam Turk, Polypipe Terrain’s sales and marketing director, said: ?We ensured that our PVC system met all of the Olympic Delivery Authority requirements, and progressed other sustainability benefits generally in order to be in a stronger position to compete for the Olympic work. This included achieving the Carbon Trust standard last September.”
Another BPF member company supplying PVC products to the Olympic Games is Hunter Plastics which will be supplying goods such as Multikwik WC Connectors and Multiwik traps for the temporary buildings.
Innovation in plastics is further reinforced as a headline theme for the London 2012 Olympics as the 2008 BPF’s Horners’ Award winner, The Durakerb Group, has confirmed that it will be supplying both the North and the South Park with its recycled plastic kerbing system. Durakerb is made from recycled PP and HDPE and a recent study has indicated a near 20% carbon reduction using Durakerb compared to traditional precast concrete kerbs.
The BPF said it also understands that PVC will be used in some iconic stadia at the Games such as a PVC wrap on the two temporary seating wings in the Aquatics Centre where up to 17,500 sq metres will be needed.
This follows the publication by the London 2012 organisers last May of a strategy document covering the use of PVC in the Games. This laid down various criteria such as the requirement for PVC to be manufactured in accordance with the ECVM Industry Charter for the Production of VCM and PVC.
The use of plastics in the London 2012 Olympic Games extends to other areas than construction. Hornby, the models and collectibles group, has also secured a licence to provide official London 2012 merchandise across its Corgi, Hornby, Scalextric and Airfix brands, which rely heavily on the use of plastics in their designs.
[ Back ]
Llangammarch community saves hall
657 days
An eight-year fight to save a dilapidated chapel hall for a Mid Wales community has finally borne fruit.
Alexandra Hall in Llangammarch Wells fell into disrepair during the 1990s and was put up for sale on the open market in 2002.
But locals raised enough money to buy the hall for community use in 2005.
And five years later, a ?250,000 Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) grant has enabled a complete renovation of the Victorian building.
It will be officially opened by Kirsty Williams AM, and Roger Williams, MP on Saturday, 7 August.
Alexandra Hall is a typical late 19th century chapel hall standing in the centre of the village.
Nazareth
For a century it provided a meeting place and a venue for events including wedding receptions, auctions, eisteddfodau, theatre performances, public meetings and children’s parties.
In the 1990s it fell into disrepair and was shut down by its then owners, Nazareth Chapel, before being put onto the open market.
But locals decided to form the Alexandra Hall Action Group to try and buy the building for continued community use rather than let it go into private hands for redevelopment.
Over the next three years more than ?16,000 was raised in local donations and on 7 April 2005 the group became the owners of Alexandra Hall.
Grant
Angela Ower, chair of the hall’s management committee, said: “We then had to set about getting funds to do it up.
“We had small grants from here and there to do minor things to it and some money to employ a part-time project worker to help get it back on its feet.
“We went through a process of trying to get a Lottery grant but were turned down!
“We were gutted but kept going and were eventually told to try WAG for a grant.
“A lot of credit must go to Simon Fraser who did the form filling and worked diligently to secure the support of the public.
“We couldn’t believe it when we got accepted for money from the WAG’s Communities Fund.”
The renovation work includes the installation of PV cells to reduce running costs and underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can using a system that takes in outside air.
Other additions include a new fitted kitchen, an upstairs meeting room, an office and broadband facility.
Mrs Ower said: “We, the committee have given up so much of our time to devote to this project and we are proud of it.
“It was quite an undertaking for such a small group but what an achievement and legacy we will leave the next generation of Llangammarch Wells.”
Ban would improve prison safety – guard
657 days
The safety benefits from banning lighters in prisons would far outweigh “empty” threats of violence from inmates angry at the Government’s planned smoking ban, a prison guard says.
The Government announced this week that cigarettes would be banned from prisons in 12 months, sparking warnings that guards could face violence from angry inmates.
But one prison guard, who called into nzherald.co.nz on condition of anonymity, said “the bash” was just a routine threat used by inmates to get what they wanted.
An inmate would demand panadol at 2am then torch his room if delivery was not immediate because he knew 10 officers would come rushing in to move him to a new room with new blankets – and bring him his two tablets, the officer said.
Some inmates would hoard 30 lighters and make a bomb; others would melt a razor into plastic cutlery to produce a weapon, he said.
“The inmates have talked about fights and so forth. So what? They’re going to fight anyway.
”In my view, that’s an excuse and an empty threat to basically get what they want.
”Fights were a realistic concern before this was around. That’s life in prison. That can happen over a piece of toast. It can happen over clothes. It’s a concern, but that’s life in prison.
”I don’t regard their threats as too much of a problem. Not at all. The fact that people are listening to it is an issue. I used to get threats every day.”
A bad phone call could cause an inmate to hurl a chair across the room and start a brawl, he said.
”Smoking is very, very minor. But taking away lighters is a step in the right direction.
”I’m not a mean dude but, at the end of the day, they get a cell with underfloor heating (Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control primarily through thermal conduction and thermal radiation rather than convection (forced or natural air movement). Heat can, a full supply of bedding, three meals a day, free healthcare and free courses.
”The inmates get whatever they want, whenever they want, and there are no consequences. We shouldn’t treat them like princes.”
Cigarettes were currency, and inmates would put pressure on their families to bring them packets so they could repay their debts, he said.
”They shouldn’t have them. It would create less problems. Of course they will be pissed off, but so what?”
The officer said he did not have safety equipment beyond his shirt, and if he had had an incident with an inmate the night before, he would avoid being the one to unlock the inmate’s cell in the morning.
”It just depends on how you manage it,” he said.
He enjoyed his job except for “all the goddamn paperwork”, the officer said.
Making prisons smoke-free was no different to them already being alcohol-free, he said.
New prisoners would often get shakes and withdrawal symptoms because they could not drink, and giving up cigarettes was the same, he said.
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657 days
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