A house built for a new museum exhibit shows how walls more than a foot thick, big triple-pane windows, doors like bank vaults and clever engineering can cut heating and cooling costs -- and pollution -- by 90 percent. The house keeps a comfortable temperature year-round. No need for heavy sweaters, no drafts, no noise. Thousands of furnace-free homes in Germany have been built to this cutting-edge efficiency standard, but in the U.S. there are only 15 buildings certified to the same level of extremely low energy use. Until now, none has been open to the public. The people in Cleveland who made the exhibit happen are enthusiastic about the idea, known as a "passive house." It costs more than conventional housing does, to be sure, as much as about 20 percent. If the special equipment the house needs becomes locally available, and energy prices rise, the economics improve. In the meantime, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History decided to give its visitors a peek at this possible future. The house was intended as a can-do complement to a traveling exhibit on climate change that will open here in July. What makes the two-story house special is an insulation system with a sealed air barrier in the walls that makes it work like a thermos. A German-made ventilator transfers heat from the stale, outgoing air to the fresh air coming in, so very little heat is lost. Two ductless air-source heat pumps, which look like white rectangular boxes on the wall, one upstairs and one down, supply all the heating and cooling needed. They run on the energy equivalent of two hair dryers. Because the house is so well insulated, it can hold heat from sunshine, body heat, lights and appliances. Amory Lovins, the author of an upcoming book about new ways to get and use energy, "Reinventing Fire," built a highly efficient house warmed mostly with these heat sources in Colorado in the early 1980s, an early inspiration for passive houses. It's wrapped around what Lovins calls the jungle, a 900-square-foot indoor garden where bananas, mangos and other tropical fruit grows when temperatures outside are 30 below. Wolfgang Feist, who founded the movement in Germany, came to visit and discussed the economics before he built his first house, Lovins said. The Cleveland house, built to Feist's specifications, has huge south-facing windows in the living room and an open floor plan on the first level. http://www.startribune.com/business/124026364.html

In Adam Bateman's world books are the structural foundation. Whether he is building walls, spheres or stacks the book is his cornerstone. See pictures of his biblio universe at: http://www.bookpatrol.net/2011/05/biblio-universe-of-adam-bateman.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BookPatrol+%28Book+Patrol%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Book ‘em! Georgia's Morgan County County Library opens an old jail While strains of "Jailhouse Rock" played on a boom box outside, the Morgan County Library threw open the doors of the old detention center Sunday afternoon in an effort to nab new patrons and encourage current card holders to return. Library workers and a host of volunteers, including Friends of the Morgan County Library and library board members, were on guard in the afternoon during an open house of the library's new, but temporary, home. During the two-hour event, traffic was steady as residents visited the facility on Athens Highway, which, until a year ago, was the site of the county jail. Library board members gave tours of the site while refreshments were served as well as new book titles and library cards. http://www.morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node/17692
lignify (LIG-nuh-fy) verb tr.: To convert into wood. verb intr.: To become wood or woody
From Latin lignum (wood). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg- (to collect), which is also the source of lexicon, legal, dialogue, lecture, logic, legend, logarithm, intelligent, diligent, sacrilege, elect, and loyal. Earliest documented use: 1828.
obtest (ob-TEST) verb tr. 1. To invoke as a witness. 2. To implore or beseech. verb intr. 3. To protest. 4. To plead.
From Latin obtestari (to implore, affirm, protest), from ob- (on, over), from testari (to bear witness or to make a will), from testis (witness). Ultimately from the Indo-European root trei- (three), which is also the source of three, sitar, trivia (from trivium, place where three roads meet), trivial, troika, trivet, testimony, testament, attest, testify (to be the third person: to bear witness), triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13), tercel (the male of a hawk), and trammel (restraint, shackle, net). Earliest documented use: 1548.
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

FDA unveils new global strategy to help ensure safety and quality of imported products Strategy calls for coalitions of international regulators, increased data sharing The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on June 20 unveiled a new strategy to meet the challenges posed by rapidly rising imports of FDA-regulated products and a complex global supply chain in a report called the "Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality." “Global production of FDA-regulated goods has exploded over the past ten years. In addition to an increase in imported finished products, manufacturers increasingly use imported materials and ingredients in their U.S. production facilities, making the distinction between domestic and imported products obsolete,” said Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. "There has been a perfect storm - more products, more manufacturers, more countries and more access. A dramatic change in strategy must be implemented." The FDA report calls for the agency to transform the way it conducts business and to act globally in order to promote and protect the health of U.S. consumers. Highlights of the report include four key elements needed to make the change:
1. The FDA will partner with its counterparts worldwide to create global coalitions of regulators focused on ensuring and improving global product safety and quality.
2. The coalitions of regulators will develop international data information systems and networks and increase the regular and proactive sharing of data and regulatory resources across world markets.
3. The FDA will build in additional information gathering and analysis capabilities with an increased focus on risk analytics and information technology.
4. The FDA increasingly will leverage the efforts of public and private third parties and industry and allocate FDA resources based on risk. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm259848.htm

The Board of Directors of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet’s Domain Name System. During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to allow an increase in the number of Internet address endings - called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) - from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net. “ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Virtually every organization with an online presence could be affected in some way. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways. http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-20jun11-en.pdf

READER CORRECTION Domaine La Veronique, where we stayed in the Languedoc during our recent trip to France, is an inn rather than a bed and breakfast. Three complete meals are provided plus transportation and a guide to historic spots.

I've just seen the new film Midnight in Paris, a romantic comedy written and directed by Woody Allen. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/ I was reminded how much I love Cole Porter's music of the 1920s, particularly Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love, which was introduced in Paris in 1928. Two scenes were set in the garden of the Rodin Museum, one of my favorite places in Paris.