Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Houses Get Small (Sort Of) In Response to Recession

Wall Street Journal Is it just the economy or is there a real change going on? Michael Phillips writes in the Wall Street Journal about how builders are offering smaller houses than they have in years. The Scarlett O'Hara stairs and two storey halls are out, and the plans are simpler, square-er, and way more efficient. Some might say that it is simply a response to the economy; as one commenter said " In a down economy smaller houses sell, and in a good economy bigger houses sell. Unless we have all ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Witold Rybczynski On The Four Paradigms of American Cities

Bettina B. Cenerelli, Trudeau Foundation Witold Rybczynski could be described as a public intellectual, a prolific writer of accessible books about houses, cities and urban design. He opened the Trudeau Foundation's conference Cities and the Public Sphere: Rethinking the Urban Commons. with the remark that "one of the advantages of getting old is that you can look back in horror and dismay at some of the things that we did as architects and planners." He then proceeded to look back at the four parad... Read the full story on TreeHugger

World Toilet Day - Really? Yes...Really.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Image credit:flickr, recubejim's photostream World Toilet Day , which happens to be right now, is needed for good reason. Per the WTD website: "2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year;" and, "Because even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways." They ar... Read the full story on TreeHugger

World Deaf Information Resource Project Launches

A new initiative enables users to find deaf organizations and schools in 149 countries around the world. Launched by the Gallaudet University Center for International Programs and Services (CIPS) in October 2009, the World Deaf Information Resource Project provides contact information for hundreds of international-, national-, and local-level organizations and schools globally. http://cips.gallaudet.edu/wdi.xml

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY for Human Rights Projects by Disabled People Organizations (DPOs)

Disability Rights Fund Releases Second 2009 Request for Proposals, Extending Another Year of Grantmaking to Existing Target Countries and Opening Grantmaking to the Pacific July 15, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOSTON, MA – The Disability Rights [...]