A reflecting pool for the Catalan Gherkin.

4.5 million people are attacked by a variety of dog breeds in the US each year, with 20% requiring medical attention. It’s a sensitive and controversial issue to address but important in urban environments where people do not consent to being in close proximity to a potentially dangerous animal.

Idothethinking@idothethinking.bsky.social · yesterday

The issue of dog maulings in SF and Oakland is due to assholes buying big attack dogs and not training them. Growing up in East Oakland, asshole neighbors let their pits run around and maul people. My family had a rifle ready just for that occasion, and my dad put one down that attacked my sister.

While plumbing with single stacks was being installed throughout Europe, Miami was attempting to do the same in the 1990s but instead with proprietary products that begin gaining a reputation for flooding condos with sewage.

I was just sent these photos of a Philadelphia single stack. Missing is the typical web of vent piping that you see in American and Canadian residential buildings.

The Barbican still looks amazing but can’t say the same for the Parthenon once the columns are swapped out with vinyl ones from Home Depot.

I knew getting to and from the train station was going to be annoying but the infrequent bus service made it even worse than I imagined, in addition to weird station locations and no card payments.

Zaragoza, once a 1st century Roman colony under Cesar Augustus, has some nice 2000 year old bathhouse and sewer ruins.

I replaced the galvanized iron piping in my house with PEX, introduced to North America in 1984. My water is no longer rust-colored, doesn't taste terrible, and flows much better. It was significantly less work to install the PEX as it was to rip out the old galvanized

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app · 6d ago

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

إن قدرة الأشخاص على التواصل فيما بينهم بسهولة، بأي لغة وفي أي بلد، أمرٌ رائعٌ للغاية.

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app · 6d ago

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

The U.S. Department of Commerce published a report in 1951 to support an effort to create a harmonized code for all 50 states. In 1955, ASME published the A40.8 National Standard Plumbing Code as an American Standard Association (predecessor to ANSI) publication.

I’m getting PHP errors that read like an RFK bat signal from Rock Creek.

YIMBY=veSÍno NIMBY=veciNO

These are the factory jobs Americans actually want. In addition to helping solve a critical housing shortage, removing the expectation of working outside in the elements would also open the construction trades up to people that never otherwise considered it.

John Lansing@pipedreaming.bsky.social · last wk.

This mini-doc from DW on modular residential construction talks a bit about the recent industry failures in the US and pinpoints inconsistent building codes as one of the major barriers. Interestingly, this issue was also highlighted by HUD’s Operation Breakthrough in the 1960s and 1970s.

This mini-doc from DW on modular residential construction talks a bit about the recent industry failures in the US and pinpoints inconsistent building codes as one of the major barriers. Interestingly, this issue was also highlighted by HUD’s Operation Breakthrough in the 1960s and 1970s.

These buildings are ugly. But the idea was genius.

YouTube video by DW Planet A

youtube.com

I would suggest that this is actually the same story, reported from three different perspectives.

Joshua Foust 🪖🎮@joshuafoust.com · last wk.

I would suggest that this is actually the same story, reported from two different perspectives.

Go to your photos, search “boat”, and post one you like

Mac the squirrel :)@macsquirelera.bsky.social · 2w ago

Go to your photos, search “boat”, and post one you like

Walking around London looking like a guy who lost his F-150 in the Home Depot parking lot, trying to make the case that it’s everyone else that doesn’t belong there.

The person in the middle seat gets both arm rests. People by the window and aisle get one. That’s the rule (for the record, I always choose aisle or window seats).

Patrick Windrose@patrickwindrose.bsky.social · 2w ago

If she is in the middle, she gets the arm rest. It's settled law. You get the aisle, she gets both middle arm rests, and the window guy gets the window. Whats so fucking difficult about that?

That’s nothing. Here’s a gas service main to a 7 story apartment building. RIP everyone on this block.

DJ Crimson@djcrimson.bsky.social · 2w ago

I thought this was an urban myth when I first heard about it, but nope, it’s real. timesofsandiego.com/community/20...

I’d buy an abandoned apartment building and fill it with plumbing systems designed in accordance with German or Dutch building standards (highly illegal in the US) and run experiments to demonstrate superior performance. I’d pay for flights/hotels to bring every inspector in the country to see it.

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social · 2w ago

question for the audience: if you were ultra rich (let’s say $25M), what completely frivolous thing are you buying?

The 2027 IBC has been officially published, and it allows single-stair apartment buildings up to four stories! See the new section 1006.3.3.2 codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2...

It’s an East/West divide between the pedestal and squating WC that persists today. Squatting WCs were produced in France in the mid 19th century when plumbing was still a rare luxury and predates the siphonic WC now ubiquitous in the US. They worked well and are the only early WC still common today.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

deep thoughts with Katie Zacharia: "I remember thinking, 'How is China the next country on the horizon? They don't even have proper toilets!'"

I wonder what this map would look like if we had more rational plumbing codes that didn’t represent such a cost barrier. Another part of this story is the cost of traditional wastewater disposal methods for non-sewered sanitation (i.e. septic tanks), which are also unviable in many areas.

Lacking complete plumbing in the US · 2024 American Community Survey

Percentage of occupied housing units lacking complete plumbing facilities. Interactive 2024 American Community Survey map by neighborhood.

uscensusmaps.org

This is also more cost-effective from a plumbing standpoint because it keeps the fixtures closer together (less piping). It gives users more privacy while directly addressing the wait-time gender disparity at congested restrooms. The Victorian separation of (bathroom) spheres has run its course.

Razzball@razzball.bsky.social · 3w ago

INSANE: (Bathroom layout that is in a lot high-end restaurants)

The insistence on using SI over AI is a clear attempt to obfuscate another war the US has been waging and losing for over century against the Système international d'unités, costing Americans between $1.603 billion to $2.506 billion per year.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago

Trump: "The White House considers anyone that uses the term, 'Artificial Intelligence,' as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, 'Super Intelligence,' THE ENEMY! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

“The sewer gas does not come pouring into everyone’s homes in Philadelphia nor does it happen in Paris.” The single stack isn’t experimental or even radical. It’s in the homes of hundreds of millions of people worldwide and doesn’t result in failed traps, as the model codes in the US still suggest.

Michael Andersen@andersem.bsky.social · 3w ago

I look pretty intense in this screencap but feel like I did OK on the podcast. Thanks to Marty, Bre, and Ed for the invitation! www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbBH...

Single stack (much cheaper plumbing) is as old as germ theory but still illegal almost everywhere in the U.S.

John Lansing@pipedreaming.bsky.social · 3w ago

The goal was to determine if requiring a vent for each trap was really necessary to prevent siphonage. Karsten reiterated that the new germ theory proved that trap vent piping was not needed for cleaning the air in the drains and that the system could be eliminated if siphonage was prevented.

In Denmark, all sanitary drainage stacks are single stacks. In fact, there is no Danish technical term to differentiate the single stack from stacks with individually vented fixtures because it’s been standard practice for over 100 years. It’s just called a “stack” (stående ledninger).

The left, whether it’s in Spain, Canada, the UK or elsewhere, needs a set of policies to increase housing supply with measurable results if it wants to fend off the far-right and stop the erosion of liberal democracy.

Live Updates: Spain Calls Early Election After Housing Crisis Roils Government

nytimes.com

Just wrapped up a canvass for @mitchgreen.bsky.social in the little slice of mixed-use, mixed-income, mixed-politics heaven between NW 21st & 23rd. Here’s to all the @portlandneighborswelcome.org endorsed candidates supporting the right of neighborhoods to evolve in this direction when they need to