All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

Harvard’s “Housing America’s Older Adults 2019” Study Highlights Increasing Housing Cost Burdens For The 65+

From a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report:

As both the number and share of older households in the United States increase to unprecedented levels, inequalities are becoming more evident. Within the 65-and-over age group, most recent income gains have gone to the highest earners, and the number of households with housing cost burdens has reached an all-time high. Ensuring that middle- and lower-income households in this age range have the means to live affordably and safely in their current homes or move to other suitable housing will be a growing challenge.

Over the Next 20 Years, Households in Their 80s Will Be the Fastest-Growing Age Group Harvard

Meanwhile, many households in the 50–64 year-old age group have not recovered from the Great Recession, leaving them with lower incomes and homeownership rates than their predecessors at similar ages. For the nearly 10 million households in this age group that are cost burdened, ensuring financial and housing security in retirement will be a struggle.

 

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Housing_Americas_Older_Adults_2019.pdf

Future Of Housing: Autonomous Off-The-Grid Prefabricated Smart Homes From Haus.me

From a Dwell.com online review:

Autonomous off the grid smart houses from Haus.meHaus.me is aimed at the luxury market, with pricing starting at $199,999 for the grid-connected base model, which can be customized to include off-grid technologies and other add-ons and finishes.

“We have plans to make it more affordable, but right now the key point is that we use high-quality finishes, natural wood, expensive electronics, built-in furniture, smart appliances, and more,” says Gerbut. “It’s a luxury dwelling and vacation home that you can install anywhere in the world.”

After years of research and prototyping, haus.me is now officially accepting sales—and last month they completed their first delivery: a fully autonomous 400-square-foot mOne unit in Ukraine that runs entirely on solar power.

Autonomous off the grid smart houses from Haus.me

What makes the haus.me product different is how it’s built, says Gerbut. “When someone starts building a house, they usually start with the frame and then go to insulation, but we did it the opposite way. We developed a patented composite polymer insulation that can also be 3D printed into a construction material for building walls.”

Website: https://haus.me/

To read more: https://www.dwell.com/article/hauseme-3d-printed-off-grid-prefab-house-1c2afec7?utm_medium=email&utm_source=postup&utm_campaign=&list=1

Top Science Podcasts: Child Mortality Rates, Evolving New Genes & Vaping Deaths (Nature)

Nature PodcastListen to the latest from the world of science, with Benjamin Thompson and Shamini Bundell. This week, investigating child mortality rates at a local level, and building genes from non-coding DNA.

In this episode:

00:43 A regional view of childhood mortality

Researchers map countries’ progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Developmental Goals. Research Article: Burstein et al.World View: Data on child deaths are a call for justiceEditorial: Protect the census

07:22 Research Highlights

Astronomers identify a second visitor from beyond the solar system, and extreme snowfall stifles animal breeding in Greenland. Research Highlight: The comet that came in from interstellar spaceResearch Highlight: Extreme winter leads to an Arctic reproductive collapse

09:22 Evolving genes from the ground up

Natural selection’s creative way to evolve new genes. News Feature: How evolution builds genes from scratch

15:43 News Chat

A spate of vaping-related deaths in the US, and Japan’s import of the Ebola virus. News: Scientists chase cause of mysterious vaping illness as death toll risesNews: Why Japan imported Ebola ahead of the 2020 Olympics

New Destination Hotels: Le Grand Contrôle At The Château de Versailles Opens In Spring 2020

From a Curbed.com online article:

Le Grand Contrôle Hotel Versailles FrancePart of the luxury hotel chain Les Airelles, Le Grand Contrôle is named for the building it will occupy—a 17th-century structure once used as the finance hub of the palace. The hotel will have 14 rooms, some of them apartments, as well as a wellness center, indoor swimming pool, and an Alain Ducase restaurant.

Its views include the ornate gardens outside of the Orangery, a building custom built for housing the palace’s array of tropical trees during winter.

Though the hotel is keeping mum about the details on the interior, The Spaces reports that Parisian designer Christophe Tollemer will render the hotel in classic 18th-century style, gold, glass, and molding. There’s no word on rates yet, but we’ll go ahead and guess they’ll be as haute as the hotel itself.

To read more: https://www.curbed.com/2019/10/16/20916473/versailles-france-hotel-le-grand-controle

Boomer Profiles: 60-Year Old Midwestern Lake Surfer Erik Wilkie In “A Surfer’s Search” (2019)

Director: KEVIN STEEN
Producer: ALEXANDRA BYER
Cast: ERIK WILKIE, YVONNE WILKIE, JAKE BOYCE, JAMIE LEDUC, AND CHRISTIAN DALBEC
Cinematographer: SHABIER KIRCHNER

A Surfer's Search Short Film on Lake Surfer Erik Wilkie Directed by KEVIN STEEN 2019

An intimate portrait of midwestern lake surfer Erik Wilkie. Presented by CARHARTT AND HURLEY.

A Surfer's Search Short Film on Lake Surfer Erik Wilkie Directed by KEVIN STEEN 2019

Website: https://rathausfilms.com

Health Care: Greater Use Of “Biosimilars” Could Save System $7 Billion

From a Health Care Finance News online article:

HealthCare Finance NewsBut greater use of biosimilars could create significantly more savings. If biosimilars obtained a 75 percent market share, less than the share of these medicines in many European Union nations, the resulting annual savings for the U.S. healthcare system could be nearly $7 billion, based on Winegarden’s analysis.

Not all drugs are created the same. Take generics and biologics: The former is a chemical-based medicine whose manufacture is easily replicated, while the latter is created using biological processes.

But there’s another key difference between those two classes of drugs, and it pertains to the financial state of the healthcare industry and to U.S. taxpayer dollars. Stated plainly, biosimilars have the opportunity to bring significant savings to state Medicaid programs and consumers with commercial insurance. That gives them a leg up over their chemical-based counterparts.

To read more: https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/expanding-biosimilars-market-holds-potential-significant-savings-state-medicaid-programs?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTTJGbU1qTXpOVFpqTm1WbCIsInQiOiJrU3puNU4xNVB2eTBBVkpwQ3FGaWhYdDJwZEV0M1dlcFRBakNpOFZ5YVYyanpSSk9HeVZCQTBHbjY4ZktFXC82cm9JeWE3S2dUWm5HMXByYTVoOVB6SG9FaWRIWnRta2ZzZUNvN1g2WHVneVNtVEFpT1ZlZjEwWk1KbmFaXC9qN3N2In0%3D

Remembering Legendary New Yorker Cartoonist Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

From a New Yorker online posting:

New Yorker Cartoonist Dana FradonFradon’s elaborate drawings were generous masterpieces of compressed fun. One carefully detailed illustration, published in 1987, depicts a chauffeured convertible making its way up a manicured, tree-lined drive, toward an extravagant hilltop mansion. The self-satisfied owner, seated in the rear seat, says to his companion, “It’s my one indulgence.”

Dana Fradon, a New Yorker cartoonist who died on October 3rd, at the age of ninety-seven, was the last of the magazine’s legendary artists who were brought to its pages by Harold Ross. Fradon, starting in 1948, contributed almost fourteen hundred finely honed drawings of mirth and satire. The surprising stories and frozen moments in his work entertained and delighted readers for decades.

To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-timeless-cartoons-of-dana-fradon

Video Profiles: Architect Roger Zogolovitch Tours His “HouseBoat” Home In Southern England (2019)

From a The Modern House online article:

Away from the city, Roger escapes to his home near Poole, Dorset for what he calls an ‘analogue retreat’. To hear Roger talk about the inspirations behind the building, which resembles an up-turned boat and which is both eccentric and serene, fun and functional…

For the final instalment in this batch of our Masters of Design series, we’re paying a visit to architect Roger Zogolovitch’s boat-inspired house near Poole, Dorset – the recipient of two RIBA awards and a paragon in split-level living. Watch the film here.

Roger Zogolovitch The Houseboat Southern England Interior

 

Roger is the founder and creative director of Solidspace, an independent developer focused on unearthing the potential of backland gap sites rarely noticed by mainstream housebuilders. By skillfully utilising overlooked sites in the urban environment – adjacent to railroads or between and above office buildings, for instance – Roger proposes intelligent design solutions to the challenges of providing enough homes for a growing population.

Roger Zogolovitch The Houseboat Southern England 2019

To read more: https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/boat-inspired-house-roger-zogolovitch/?prm_name=homepage_featured_link&prm_id=journal_article&prm_position=1&prm_creative=cta_button

Books Worth Reading: “A Booklover’s Guide To New York” By Cleo Le-Tan (2019)

From a New Criterion online article:

Cleo Le-Tan Knows Where All the Bookstores Are in New YorkA Booklover’s Guide to New York, by Cleo Le-Tan, with drawings by Pierre Le-Tan (Rizzoli): As Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons, some New Yorkers measure theirs in departed bookstores. I weep most for Crawford Doyle, which in 2017 closed after twenty-one years in stately residence on Madison Avenue at Eighty-first Street. But there have been compensations among the heartaches. In 2014, Albertine opened at the French Embassy, on Fifth Avenue and Seventy-ninth Street. The gorgeous store cheekily asserts on billboards that “The best bookstore in France is in New York City.” And Rizzoli, which lost its lease in its double-front townhouse on Fifty-seventh Street in 2014, later reopened on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street, in a space nearly as grand as the original. Cleo Le-Tan’s A Booklover’s Guide to New York is expressly made for those who view the city’s bookstores as integral to its being. Documenting the shops, sellers, libraries, and bibliophiles of the city, the illustrated book is a worthy addition to any personal collection.

To read more: https://newcriterion.com/

 

Top New Travel Videos: “Redwoods” Directed By Rudy Wilms (2019)

Filmed and Directed by: Rudy Wilms

Redwoods Nature Film by Rudy Wilms (2019)

There is no other forest in the world then this one with it largest tree in the world. The redwoods are the tallest, among the oldest,and one of the most massive tree species on Earth.I am so grateful for the work of the Save the Redwoods League, that was founded in 1918 to preserve remaining old-growth nearly 90% of the original redwood trees had been logged. It was our biggest challenge to capture the true beauty and greatness of these giants this is definitely a park you need to see with your own eyes we have visited many different national park but this one is so magical I truly believe it should be on one of the wonders of the world list.No wonder Jurassic Park and one of the Star wars was filmed here this forest feel so ancient when we saw fern canyon I could easily imagine the dinosaur passing us when we walked in the canyon.

Redwoods Nature Film by Rudy Wilms (2019)

Website: http://www.rudywilms.com/