construction | construction
Oct.09.2010
Toll road built on pulped fiction
By Nick Britten
The M6 toll road has been built on two and a half million copies of old Mills & Boon novels to prevent it from cracking.
Unsold copies of the books were shredded into a paste and added to a mixture of asphalt and Tarmac. It helps to bind the...
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May.01.2010
Bill Murray, the Great Interupter of Building SitesSo you've hired an architect, spent months planning, followed by contractor hires and them bringing in their crews to start the labored process of getting a new building built. Despite all the stress, everything is going along just fine,...
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Nov.16.2009
Looking for an unusual business opportunity? I've posted another chapter from my work-in-progress, "Kitchen Sink Confidential." 4,000 years of plumbing, from the qanats to you anxiously awaiting the arrival of your plumber as water drips through the ceiling. I pull back a few curtains,...
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Nov.02.2009
I've posted yet another chapter from my book on the history of plumbing, and everything else, at http://ithoughtso.net/id15.htmll
This is a work in progress and comments or questions are welcome.
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Aug.27.2009
Rumor has it that construction projects can lead an entire family down the road to ruin. Couples fight about the mess, the money, the aggravation. Cramped and packed into small portions of the house while the kitchen is being demolished, the family scrabbles around the makeshift hotplate and...
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Jul.27.2009
I had never seen a kayak fisherman. At first, approaching the beached, bright yellow plastic boat with all its rigging, and the blond fisherman himself in his hefty gaiters, with an official-looking document swinging like a press pass around his neck, I thought I'd stumbled across a researcher. But...
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May.29.2009
Yesterday, I had the privilege to tour the new Giants Stadium being built in the Meadowlands. Of course, we were required to wear safety shoes on the project and, of course, I forgot to bring mine home from work, so I had to dig through my garage. I managed to find a pair of safety boots from a few...
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May.25.2009
THE BROAD STREET REVIEW has published another of my growing-up-in-West-Philly pieces. It's the summer of 1959 and our protagonist, the young Nick Adams, I mean the adolescent me, gets hired to tote barges, lift bales, and end up too exhausted to sip an illegal beer.
http://www.broadstreetreview....
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Mar.24.2009
This appeals to me, though I'm not sure why. It is exactly the opposite of my 'parse until you drop' attitude to writing. But then - perhaps that the reason.
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Growing Sentences with David Foster WallaceA Primer for Kicking AssBeing the Result of One...
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Dec.09.2008
All right, all right, I know I’ve spent the past six months urging friends and frequently blogging that he’s going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread (whole wheat, to be perfectly PC: pigmentally correct).
I know I’ve said his historic election will change the world. And, yes, I know he’s...
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