Neighbors help neighbors clear their driveways and walkways in Columbia on Thursday after nearly a foot of snow blanketed the area. (Thomas Harrelson/Baltimore Sun Media Group video)

Howard County officials said Thursday that three county men died after suffering heart attacks while outside their homes during the snowstorm, and that two were shoveling snow when they collapsed.

The first incident occurred just after 9:30 a.m., when a witness called an ambulance after seeing a man collapse while shoveling. The man, 56-year-old Richard Tucker of the 1600 block of Woodstock Road in Woodstock, was transported to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to county fire department spokesman Marc Fisher.

The second incident happened just after 10:30 a.m., in the 9700 block of Owen Brown Road in Columbia. According to emergency officials, James Wells, 57, collapsed outside his home. Wells' family and several bystanders called 911, but rescuers were unable to resuscitate him at the scene, officials said.

According to Fisher, the third incident, and the second officials confirmed was related to shoveling, involved Kenneth Frame, 61, in the 5000 block of Southern Star Terrace in Columbia. A witness called 911 after seeing Frame collapse. Frame was taken to Howard County General Hospital shortly after noon, where he was pronounced dead.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman urged county residents to be careful.

"This is deep, heavy snow, and I implore everyone to take it easy," he said. "Please don't over-exert yourself. Clear a little at a time. Or ask a neighbor to help. We need to pitch in as a community during times like these. If you know of a neighbor who could use assistance, please offer to do a little shoveling. We can't prevent all emergencies, but we can take smart steps to be safe and help others."

Dr. Eric Aldrich, the vice president for medical affairs at Howard County General Hospital, offered tips on how to shovel safely.

"In general, there's two kinds of problems that doctors worry our patients can have [while shoveling]," he said. "One has to do with neck and back issues and the other is cardiac. On the cardiac side, if you have any history of cardiac disease, and especially if you are over 40, you shouldn't be doing any sort of physical exertion, shoveling or otherwsie, without consulting a physician."

People who have a history of shortness of breath or discomfort after walking up a flight of stairs should also get checked out, he said. And people with a family history of heart disease and stroke before the age of 60 should have a checkup, even if they feel healthy.

View post:
Three Howard men shoveling snow die from suspected heart attacks, officials say

Braford Pear Tree Removal

By: Michael Mills

Continued here:
Braford Pear Tree Removal - Video

Monroe NY Stump Grinding Service Tommy Trees NY Tree Services 845 590 9255 stump removal
Stump grinding service Monroe NY 10950. We offer affordable stump grinding services to residential and commercial property owners in Monroe NY and throughout...

By: Tommy Trees NY

Continued here:
Monroe NY Stump Grinding Service Tommy Trees NY Tree Services 845 590 9255 stump removal - Video

Stump grinding Warwick NY by Tommy Trees Tree Services Tree Removal Tree Care 845 590 9255
http://bit.ly/1dMdUJw Tommy Trees offers affordable stump grinding services to residential and commercial property owners in Warwick NY and throughout Orange...

By: Tommy Trees NY

Follow this link:
Stump grinding Warwick NY by Tommy Trees Tree Services Tree Removal Tree Care 845 590 9255 - Video

Colleen Schmidt, CTV Calgary Published Friday, February 14, 2014 4:41PM MST Last Updated Friday, February 14, 2014 6:44PM MST

A Calgary woman put in a request to have the tree in front of her home pruned and was surprised to come home and see nothing but a stump and pile of saw dust.

Last summer, Mandy Wong emailed the city to have a large green ash tree on the edge of her property pruned because the branches were dying.

Wong says the mature trees are one of the reasons she settled in the community of Killarney in the first place.

We live in this area because its a mature neighbourhood all the big trees here, said Wong.

Wong says the city never responded to her email, the pruning was never done and instead the whole tree was removed sometime this week.

I came home from work looked outside all I see is debris and dirt. Where is my tree? They took down my tree without telling me, said Wong. This is outrageous at first I thought who would do such a thing? I'm like is it the city, we were trying to put the pieces together.

On Tuesday, construction crews that were working next door saw a tree removal company stop by.

"They brought their big truck here and then they put up this thing with their chainsaws and started cutting everything down, said Paul Basra.

The city says contractors were sent out to do the job.

Read the rest here:
Absent ash stumps homeowner

New Construction Tile work
Backsplash and Tile Flooring going in on this Chateaux Builders new home.

By: Chateaux Builders

Read the original:
New Construction Tile work - Video

Construction crews are making major headway on the Washington School Districts new Early Learning Center.

Located on the Washington West Elementary campus off West Highway 100, the 25,000-square-foot center will open in August.

The center will combine three programs under one roof early childhood special education, Parents as Teachers and all of the in-town preschools.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Brendan Mahon said exterior brickwork should be completed by early next week, and metal siding has already been installed.

Two sides of the building are brick, with metal siding on the other sides.

We are totally under roof and 90 percent complete on the exterior all good news, Mahon told The Missourian Thursday.

We had hoped to get asphalt parking lots completed in November, but weather did not permit, he said. This will not impact the overall schedule. We simply moved it to the spring.

Mahon said crews are hard at work on the interior of the building.

Interior framing is complete, and the drywall in the classroom areas has been taped and sanded and will be finished next week, he reported.

Crews are just now beginning to lay the tile in the classroom restrooms, he noted.

Go here to see the original:
Work Continues On New Early Learning Center

The documentary "Tim's Vermeer" explores the work of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman filed the following report.

"Tim's Vermeer" is an exquisitely fun documentary that hits on a profound aesthetic question, one first posed in 2001 by David Hockney: Did the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer use optical devices to achieve his visual poetics of light? Tim Jenison, a San Antonio video engineer, goes obsessed with knowing the answer. And so, in Penn and Teller's sly magic act of a movie - Penn narrates it, and Teller directed - Jenison attempts to re-create Vermeer's 1662 masterpiece "The Music Lesson," even though hes no more of a trained artist than you or I.

By hand, Jenison builds almost every object in the painting - the floor tile, the carved harpsichord. And that's before he gets to the Herculean task of using a homemade camera obscura and mirror to fill in what is basically the ultimate paint-by-numbers diagram. How insanely meticulous is the work? Jenison paints the stitching of the tablecloth. And damned if, by the end of the film, he hasnt painted his very own extraordinarily authentic-looking Vermeer.

"Tims Vermeer" is a uniquely suspenseful and fascinating movie, but does it really prove the theory that Vermeer painted with optical devices? I think it comes close. Yet the real richness of the film is the question behind the question: If this, more or less, is how Vermeer created his paintings, does that render his art inferior to what we thought it was? Only if you believe that technology and art are somehow enemies. The proof, after all, is in the pudding, or maybe I should say the painting. In "Tims Vermeer," unmasking art history's greatest trick only adds to its mystery.

Original post:
Documentary "Tim's Vermeer" explores work of Dutch painter

Havana Colorful, crumbling and controversial, Cuba is caught between then and now, between communism and capitalism and the challenge of two currencies.

Thanks to a loosening of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans by President Obama, Cubans are beginning to get a taste of the benefits of free enterprise. All manner of merchandise has begun showing up in the country, including massive flat-screen TVs, bikes, clothes and microwaves.

It was the proverbial dark and stormy night when our charter plane finally touched down after an eight-hour delay in Miami. Once we were through customs, the glass doors slid open to reveal a crowd of people three deep waiting to greet family members pushing carts piled high with goods.

This welcome is all for you, joked in-country guide Vivian Quintero Triana. She assisted Joe Scarpaci of the Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and Economy as he led the group from the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

If you think cigars, rum and classic cars when you envision Cuba, you wont be disappointed. Even in the dark, cars from the 1950s and 60s were obvious in the parking lot just beyond the greeters.

There are so many still running that its like a vintage car show all the time. Weaving among them on the city roads are Soviet-era models, bicycle taxis and, in Old Havana, horses and buggies. Murals and billboards celebrating the 55-year-old revolution and its heroes add a surreal quality to the country, especially in combination with the old vehicles. Its like a movie is being filmed and you are an extra.

The impact of the U.S. trade embargo initiated in 1960 and the loss of Soviet support in the late 1980s have taken their toll. Buildings that would be declared uninhabitable in the United States are bursting at their disintegrating seams with inhabitants.

The two biggest issues facing Cubans are food and housing, said Scarpaci.

President Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, has introduced some reforms and the people are slowly shaking off the shackles of a 100 percent state-run economy. With state-issued permits, residents are allowed to operate businesses from their homes and buy and sell their own houses. You often see people holding homemade signs advertising for buyers or sellers.

Another reform is the permission to buy a car. A new Chinese-made car can cost up to $240,000, a ridiculous amount in any country. In Cuba, it would take the average person more than 1,000 years to pay it off, according to Scarpacis calculations. Those with beautifully restored relics offer rides around Havana and along the Malecon, the famous road and seawall built by the United States before the revolution.

See the rest here:
Visit to Cuba Is a Trip Back in Time

Fire Sprinkler Cooling System for Bed Bug Heat Treatments - GreenTech Heat Solutions
http://www.greentechheat.com Tom explains the new fire sprinkler cooling system which keeps building fire sprinklers from popping open and flooding the treat...

By: Micah Coy

Read more here:
Fire Sprinkler Cooling System for Bed Bug Heat Treatments - GreenTech Heat Solutions - Video