The Historic District Commission met on Nov. 17, with another meeting set for Nov. 19, to clear an agenda that dates back six months.

On Nov. 17, the HDC denied in a 4-3 vote the petition of Kevin Rinaldi-Young, 5 Russo Court, to elevate his house off the foundation and onto a new foundation to provide a garage at grade and a variety of changes to the structure.

Several neighborhood residents opposed the house being elevated above the rooflines of other historic houses along the street. However, there were several letters of support, including resident Erin Mulry, who spoke of the applicants regard for historic districts in the plan.

The HDC approved the following petitions:

. George Oliver, 29 Greenough Place, to demolish a garage and rebuild with new foundation walls and footings, to remove an exterior stairway to the third floor, a shed dormer and a kitchen addition, and to repair and replace rotted wood trim where necessary;

. Jeffrey Lipshires, 45 Kay St., to make various changes to the secondary structure;

. Elijah Duckworth-Schachter, 6 Greenough Place, to add a firstfloor deck;

. Earl and Nancy Powell, 1 Highland Place, to construct a two-story accessory structure;

. Zalo One LLC, 16 Barney St., to replace the siding, roof and chimney, to remove rear decks, to repair the stone foundation and to reconfigure the rear elevation;

. John and Jeanie Shufelt, 1 Cliff Ave., to construct an exterior elevator shaft and remove an historic window;

. Helen Hadley Johnstone, 13 Mount Vernon St., to replace wooden stairs and a handrail with stone stairs and an iron handrail;

. William and Kathleen S. Wallace, 86 Beacon Hill Road, to extend a dormer east to accommodate an elevator;

. Deborah Cloaniger, 11 Harrison Ave., to install a dryer vent in an exterior masonry wall;

. Eoin Howlett, 16 Poplar St., to replace aluminum windows with double hung insert windows, to restore two original wood windows on the front elevation, and other repairs.

A dozen petitions were continued to Nov. 19 and to December.

Read more from the original source:
HDC Holds Two Meetings to Hear Petitions - Newport This Week

Microsoft is creating a new security chip thats designed to protect future Windows PCs. Microsoft Pluton is a security processor that is built directly into future CPUs and will replace the existing Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a chip thats currently used to secure hardware and cryptographic keys. Pluton is based on the same security technologies used to protect Xbox consoles, and Microsoft is working with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm to combine it into future CPUs.

This new chip is designed to block new and emerging attack vectors that are being used to compromise PCs, including CPU security flaws like Spectre and Meltdown. Intel revealed back in 2018 that it was redesigning its processors to protect against future attacks, and Pluton is an even bigger step in securing CPUs and Windows PCs in general.

Existing TPMs are separated from CPUs, and attackers have also been developing methods to steal the data and information that flows between a TPM and CPU when they have physical access to a device. Just like you cant easily hack into an Xbox One to run pirated games, the hope is that it will be a lot more difficult to physically hack into a Windows PC in the future by integrating Pluton into the CPU.

We shipped the Xbox which has this physical attack protection, so people cant just hack it for games etc, explains David Weston, director of enterprise and OS security at Microsoft. We learned principles of effective engineering strategies from that, and so were taking those learnings and partnering with Intel to build something for the PC that will stand up to that emerging attack vector.

A number of firms sell kits, or 0-day vulnerabilities, that let attackers gain access to machines and literally crack open PCs to steal critical data that can unlock other ways to get into company systems or access personal information. Our dream for the future is thats just not possible on the PC platform, says Weston.

Pluton is essentially the evolution of the TPM, baked directly into a CPU. This is a better, stronger, faster, more consistent TPM, explains Weston. We provide the same APIs as TPM today, so the idea is that anything that can use a TPM could use this. That means features like BitLocker encryption or Windows Hello authentication will transition over to using Pluton in the future.

Microsofts work with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm also means that Pluton will be updated from the cloud. Updates will be issued monthly on the same Patch Tuesday that regular Windows fixes arrive. The hope is that this should improve system firmware updates for both consumers and businesses that run Windows PCs.

Its not clear when PCs with Pluton chips will start shipping, but Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm are all committing to build this functionality into their future CPUs. Youll still be able to build custom PCs with Pluton chips embedded inside, and there should even be support for Linux in the future, too.

This is a future thing were going to build in, says Mike Nordquist, director of strategic planning and architecture at Intel. The idea is that you dont have to look for a motherboard with a TPM chip... so you just get it. Nordquist says Intel also supports choice for operating systems, and that it doesnt want to start doing different things for a bunch of different OS vendors. There are no firm details on Linux support just yet, but Microsoft already uses Linux with Pluton in its Azure Sphere devices, so its likely to be available whenever these chips ship.

New chips and security do mean new fears about DRM, and the fact that processors will now call back to Microsofts cloud infrastructure for updates. This is about security, its not about DRM, explains Weston. The reality is well create an API where people can leverage it, its definitely possible for folks to use that for protection of content, but this is really about mainstream security and protecting identify and encryption keys.

Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm all clearly believe that processors that are continually updated with security built into them is the future for Windows PCs. Spectre and Meltdown were a wake up call for the entire industry, and Pluton is a significant response to the complex security threats that modern PCs now face.

Read this article:
Microsoft Pluton is a new processor with Xbox-like security for Windows PCs - The Verge

"What's one thing that most everyone is most thankful for? It's their family," Colleen O'Connell said.Pictures through windows will be the memories O'Connell and her sisters make with their dad, Danny, this Thanksgiving."They will have two assistants with my dad on the other side of the window. We'll do the wave thing," O'Connell said.Next week, O'Connell and her son will drive from their Northern Kentucky home to Iowa. They'll enjoy a holiday meal with her two sisters. But everyone's heart will be heavy, knowing Danny O'Connell will spend his 87th Thanksgiving battling dementia and diabetes in a room by himself in a Cedar Rapids nursing home."You can't celebrate what could very well potentially be the last Thanksgiving that he will be here on earth," O'Connell said."It really is a difficult time," Steve Slayton said.Slayton is executive director of The Kenwood by Senior Star, a retirement community in Madisonville. He plans to do all he can to help families stay connected during fall's biggest holiday."Zoom calls, FaceTime. We have, probably, 15 iPads at the community that my staff is really well-versed in using," Slayton said. "They'll go up to the resident's apartment and, you know, Zoom in with the family when they're doing dinner or something like that so they can feel engaged."Slayton knows technology can't replace human interaction, but he said the fear of spreading the coronavirus requires caution.That's something O'Connell, who WLWT investigator Todd Dykes talked to when her dad survived a case of COVID-19 in April, has come to appreciate, just as she's learned to appreciate senior care workers more than ever."Every year my sisters and I have given the people that are closest to my father a Christmas gift," she said. "This year we're giving them a Thanksgiving gift because we are thankful for them."Families who want to connect with loved ones living in nursing homes need to start crafting a plan now, because the last thing senior care facilities need is for people to simply show up on Thanksgiving Day without knowing the latest COVID-19 protocols.Also, people who have loved ones in a nursing home can stay connected by sending a card. Slayton said he watches the faces of residents light up when they get mail. Plus, he said a card makes a great keepsake.

"What's one thing that most everyone is most thankful for? It's their family," Colleen O'Connell said.

Pictures through windows will be the memories O'Connell and her sisters make with their dad, Danny, this Thanksgiving.

"They will have two assistants with my dad on the other side of the window. We'll do the wave thing," O'Connell said.

Next week, O'Connell and her son will drive from their Northern Kentucky home to Iowa. They'll enjoy a holiday meal with her two sisters. But everyone's heart will be heavy, knowing Danny O'Connell will spend his 87th Thanksgiving battling dementia and diabetes in a room by himself in a Cedar Rapids nursing home.

"You can't celebrate what could very well potentially be the last Thanksgiving that he will be here on earth," O'Connell said.

"It really is a difficult time," Steve Slayton said.

Slayton is executive director of The Kenwood by Senior Star, a retirement community in Madisonville. He plans to do all he can to help families stay connected during fall's biggest holiday.

"Zoom calls, FaceTime. We have, probably, 15 iPads at the community that my staff is really well-versed in using," Slayton said. "They'll go up to the resident's apartment and, you know, Zoom in with the family when they're doing dinner or something like that so they can feel engaged."

Slayton knows technology can't replace human interaction, but he said the fear of spreading the coronavirus requires caution.

That's something O'Connell, who WLWT investigator Todd Dykes talked to when her dad survived a case of COVID-19 in April, has come to appreciate, just as she's learned to appreciate senior care workers more than ever.

"Every year my sisters and I have given the people that are closest to my father a Christmas gift," she said. "This year we're giving them a Thanksgiving gift because we are thankful for them."

Families who want to connect with loved ones living in nursing homes need to start crafting a plan now, because the last thing senior care facilities need is for people to simply show up on Thanksgiving Day without knowing the latest COVID-19 protocols.

Also, people who have loved ones in a nursing home can stay connected by sending a card. Slayton said he watches the faces of residents light up when they get mail. Plus, he said a card makes a great keepsake.

Read more:
Cincinnati families worry about loved ones in nursing homes during Thanksgiving holiday - WLWT Cincinnati

Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has vowed to come back stronger than ever after being ruled out for a significant chunk of the season.

Gomez was forced to undergo knee surgery after rupturing his patella tendon during England training earlier this week.

Getty Images - Getty

With Virgil van Dijk also out for months with a knee problem, the Reds were counting on Gomez and his injury could not have come at a worse time.

However, it is not the first time the 23-year-old has suffered a serious setback, and Gomez insists he knows what it takes to come back better.

The road to recovery has already begun, Gomez wrote onTwitter. Ive been here before, I know what it takes and Ill be back better and stronger than ever.

Im obviously gutted, but this is a part of Gods plan and I believe everything happens for a reason.

Id like to thank everyone for their well wishes and messages of support.

Im focussed on my recovery and supporting my team mates in every way I can. See you soon.

Meanwhile, Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson told talkSPORT he expects the Reds to sign a new centre-back in the January transfer window.

Joe is a very, very important player, he told talkSPORT 2. Obviously with Virgil van Dijk out, it would be Joe Gomez and another.

AFP or Licensors

The thing with Joe Gomez is hes had his operation straight away and theyre already saying hell miss most of the season, but that sounds to me really that he might just make it back towards the end.

And Matip is a decent player but hes like a willow tree; he occasionally gets blown over and hes not fit for two or three weeks, so hes another worry.

Some of the younger players have come in and theyve done absolutely fine, but I think youre looking at Matip, if fit, with the likes of Fabinho or maybe even Henderson [playing in defence] at some stage.

But I would think it will force the managers hand in the January transfer window.

Hes going to have to go out and buy somebody, and it wont be a difficult conversation with the owners. Theyll realise whats going on; the great thing about them is theyve got this sporting franchise in America and they know people lose form and get injured, so its case of who hes going to bring in.

Were all going to play the game now going into January who are Liverpool going to sign?

Read more from the original source:
Liverpool defender Joe Gomez breaks silence on knee injury as Reds urged to buy replacement in January - talkSPORT.com

Macys and ournew reality

To me, the recent boarding up of Macys 34th Street, in anticipation of possible post-election violence, symbolizes our countrys new reality.

As a young Jewish girl, I longed for a Christmas tree. No amount of cajoling or arguing could persuade my parents to allow me to have one. But I vividly remember being entranced by the famous Christmas-themed windows at Macys, and what it meant to me. Viewing those windows were part of my familys annual ritual of visiting the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and attending the annual Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall.

Those glorious windows were special to me; there were simply so many of them, and they ignited the imagination (or at least my imagination). They literally sparkled, beckoning to all sightseers, no matter what their religion. And for a brief moment, I could fully participate in a holiday that I could only otherwise observe as an outsider.

Those sweet days are long gone but were replaced, years later, with another ritual: cutting through that same Macys on my way to and from Penn Station, as I commuted to my office, one block away from the store. It provided brief shelter and respite from rain and snow, chilling cold and sweltering heat. It was always bustling and welcoming. Tourists, speaking many languages and bearing large shopping bags, were a large presence. It gave the store a rather festive, international air. I liked that.

A high point of spring, for me, was always the Macys flower show, with its windows bedecked with multicolored blossoms. In the weeks before the flower show officially opened, despite the harsh March winds, I knew that spring was coming. I followed the progress as the windows and street floor began to be decorated with elaborate floral arrangements.

Macys also taught me a lesson about human nature.

During those dark days after 9/11, immediately after New York opened up again, I took one of the first DeCamp express buses out of Montclair. It was about half full. Usually, passengers were buried in their newspapers and electrical devices. But in that bus, at that time, we all had the need to talk and connect. We spoke of shock, confusion and fear. None of us felt comfortable going into Manhattan, but we each for our own reasons felt we had no choice. My story was that Im a psychotherapist; I had patients. End of story.

When I arrived in the city, I did not cut through Macys as I usually did. I was sure it would be the next target. While the Empire State building, on the other end of the block where my office was located, had become a virtual fortress, there was no visible security presence at any of the stores entrances.

Suddenly those interesting tourists with large shopping bags now seemed potentially menacing. And the landmark status of the building seemed downright dangerous.

But then, later that afternoon, I got a very noticeable run in my stockings (in those days I cared about such things). Feeling I had no choice, I nervously dashed into Macys for a replacement. It was virtually empty, but I still vividly remember all the salespeople standing behind counters in an empty store, determinedly smiling.

I hurriedly grabbed a pair of stockings and, as I checked out, I asked the salesperson if she was frightened being there. Of course she said yes, then hurriedly added, But this is my job. To me, those sales clerks at Macys symbolized the quiet courage and determination of New Yorkers during that terrible time a time that seemed to bring out the best in so many of us.

Now, suddenly, in a very different time, the Macys that had always been so welcoming to so many of us was boarded up. Has there ever been an American election thats brought forth such fear?

Happily, at this point in time, instead of violence there is dancing in the streets and the joyous honking of car horns. Soon, the boards covering Macys windows will undoubtedly be removed.

Will that be a harbinger of renewed hope for our divided country?

Janice Cohn

Montclair

Montclair Local is providing true public service through its in-depth reporting on Lackawanna. The issues are significant and many, and should concern all citizens. To clarify one crucial point: The members of A Better Lackawanna LLC should not be painted with one brush as being preservationists our 200+ members joined for any number of reasons, which align with the points in our lawsuit.

In one survey we did of members motivations, 80 percent said they were greatly concerned about the 400-car parking shortage and the traffic impact at what is perhaps the busiest intersection in all of Montclair. Only 20 percent said historic preservation was important to them.

At its heart, our appeal is about good government and the publics protected right to question and comment. All residents should be outraged at the taking of the public easement on Grove Street, without disclosure or input by the public. This project needs to return to the drawing board a full remand, in legalese a drawing board based on the survey map that was missing throughout the original approval process.

Priscilla Eshelman

A Better Lackawanna

See more here:
Letters to the editor: Nov. 12 - Montclair Local

A mum was left distraught after her car windows were smashed and her purse stolen overnight.

Eleanor Walters, 21, had left her flat in Newport city centre with her one-year-old daughter when she noticed the passenger window of her Citroen C3 had been smashed and her purse taken.

Eleanor said: "My daughter and I left the flat at around 8.45am in the rain to find the window smashed, the car soaked and her car seat destroyed.

"The damage to the car itself is complete loss of the passenger window and, due to the type of seats, the glass is hard to shift and will either need replacing or professional cleaning."

Eleanor said: "It's become very stressful and draining. Multiple phone calls to cancel and re-start cards and accounts moved, and when the new bank account is sorted it's a matter of moving all bills over to new accounts which proves very difficult for someone like me, who struggles with phone calls and socialising with unknown people."

Eleanor said she and her family are now considering moving home as they do not feel safe in the area.

"The reason car insurance is so high here is because of people doing stuff like this and how common it is.

"I could have claimed on my insurance, making me lose my no claims bonus and possibly making the insurance for next year just too much to justify paying, or put ourselves out of pocket now to get it fixed," she said.

"For someone like myself with severe mental health problems my car is my safety blanket. Knowing I can get away or find my way to someone for help if I need it."

Eleanor said: "The car seat will need replacing and that is not cheap either. I now also have to replace the purse and all of the contents. The beautiful picture of my baby in the purse window will be wasting away somewhere. It hurts that it's had no effect to them but a huge one for me and my family."

A spokesperson for Gwent Police said: "We were called at approximately 9.15am on November 18, reporting that a Citreon C3 parked on Rodney Road in Newport had been broken into sometime between midnight and 9am.

"Cash, bank and store cards were stolen. Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting 2000419646."

View post:
Car covered in glass after windows smashed overnight in Newport - Wales Online

Topline

President Donald Trump insisted Thursday night during the final presidential debate that Democratic opponent Joe Biden is pining to knock down buildings and shrink their windows, a bizarre and inaccurate riff on Bidens climate plan that has quickly turned into one of Trumps go-to attack lines.

President Donald Trump answers a question during the second and final presidential debate at Belmont ... [+] University on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee.

In an exchange on climate policy, Trump claimed Bidens platform involves forcing buildings to replace their existing windows with smaller ones, or ideally no windows at all, in the name of energy efficiency.

Trump has repeated this allegation for months, insisting Bidens plan to rapidly reduce carbon emissions would require buildings to eliminate their windows.

Bidens platform does not mention windows anywhere, nor does the Green New Deal, a climate proposal endorsed by many Democrats but not Biden.

Some researchers have suggested old buildings replace their windows with more energy efficient ones, but no climate activists seem to support eliminating them altogether.

They want to take buildings down because they want to make bigger windows into smaller windows, Trump said Thursday night. As far as theyre concerned, if you had no window, it would be a lovely thing.

Trump has frequently attempted to tie Biden to the Green New Deal, a wide-ranging proposal involving renewable energy projects, infrastructure upgrades and economic stimulus. In its current form, the Green New Deal is a nonbinding statement rather than a concrete policy, so its difficult to assess its fiscal or economic impact, but Bidens plan tends to be far narrower than most of the ideas floated by Green New Deal supporters. Either way, windows are probably safe from Biden and congressional Democrats wrath.

Trump also claimed Bidens climate plan would cost $100 trillion. This figure appears to be lifted from a conservative think tanks estimate for the cost of the Green New Deal, though supporters of the Green New Deal have disputed that figure. Biden says his plan would cost far less.

Trump Keeps Talking About Tiny Windows, And No One Knows What He Means (Curbed)

Trump no windows comment draws fire (EnergyNow)

See the rest here:
Why Does Trump Think Biden Wants To Shrink Everybodys Windows? - Forbes

This article is part of our latest Fine Arts & Exhibits special report, which focuses on how art endures and inspires, even in the darkest of times.

For centuries, artists and poets have escaped the world of people by choice, opting out to find clarity or to see from a different perspective. The earliest drawings known to have been made by humans have been found in the deep, dark recesses of caves, spaces since supplanted by the modern studio.

But many artists have very social sides to their lives and practices as well exhibiting work, lecturing, attending openings that have largely stopped as they, and everyone else, have been forced into involuntary isolation by the pandemic.

For some, along with that separation has come a kind of acceptance of a new set of limits, among them the inability to travel freely and a change in how they interact with people, places and objects.

My work is all about context, about place, the artist Mark Dion said recently. I go someplace, and I listen to the site and I start to research its ecological history, its architecture, its material culture, its social history. All of those elements tell me what to do.

Mr. Dion, who is based in Copake, N.Y., is known for his cabinet-of-curiosity type installations that often pull from institutional collections as well as junk shops high and low conspiring to make arresting amalgams of human detritus.

But I am an artist, which means Im inherently resilient, he said. Artists are nothing if not adaptable, and in the end, I dont necessarily need airplanes and research and a different location and a budget; all I need is a pencil and paper.

When Mr. Dions show at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth shut down two months early, he realized the importance of his works being represented in other media. The book and film associated with the show became critical if only because the public could not experience his work in person. (The exhibition was extended for a few weeks, when the museum reopened.)

During the virus, many artists have been returning to the basics, working alone without assistants, slowing down and taking a closer look at their immediate surroundings, spending more time in nature. But as they have turned inward, there has also been a renaissance of communication, of sharing ideas through digital media.

On March 17, Phong Bui, an artist and publisher, and his team at the publication he co-founded, The Brooklyn Rail, started a series of daily lunchtime conversations, called the New Social Environment, through Zoom.

Social Environment was a direct counter to social distancing, Mr. Bui told me. The conversations there have been more than 150 so far, archived online are a nod to the artist Joseph Beuyss concept of Social Sculpture, where artmaking is not considered to be so precious, but is democratized, a part of our lives.

As the daily conversations progressed bringing together both well-known and emerging artists, musicians, poets, curators, and museum directors the staff and participants noticed a magic to this new medium, with everyone in their individual Zoom box, a slice of their homes or studios visible behind them.

I didnt expect people to feel so incredibly compassionate, sympathetic and honest, Mr. Bui said. What we learned is that the need to connect to other human beings was amplified.

Zoom and other technologies existed before the virus, but we werent being forced to use them. For Joseph Grigely, who is deaf, this shift has been a boon.

Pre-Covid, people might pick up the phone, email or meet in person, Mr. Grigely told me via Zoom, using the chat feature to type, and with his wife, the artist Amy Vogel, signing for him. Post-Covid, were meeting all over the globe via Zoom, we are seeing and hearing people, we are seeing and having conversations that are embodied the face, the facial expressions.

Mr. Grigely, an artist and a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has been deaf since he was 10, shocked into a kind of involuntary isolation brought on by an accident. He deals with such a situation, like the coronavirus, through what he calls intercoming, rather than overcoming.

At the moment you cant really beat the virus, you have to work with the circumstances that we have, he said.

Mr. Grigelys work is largely about communication, about living as a deaf person in the world of the hearing. He has held many conversations by passing notes back and forth with others, and he displays these notes as large wall installations. These are ordinary conversations you would not ever bother to document or display, he said, but there is a kind of revelation about their everyday ordinariness that is captivating when you see them together.

I see in Covid a lot of people are doing something like that; they are looking at whats on their desks, whats on their bookshelves. This kind of slow-life process, its something thats between the still life and life. Were all in that slow mode now, it seems.

At the very beginning of lockdown, Mr. Grigely encouraged his students to embrace new technologies, seeing these media as a way to stay optimistic through a challenging time. The way the students are disseminating work on Instagram or exhibitions that are posted online, to me it seems to supplement a body of work, not replace it. They create multiple entry points to it; you look into it through these different angles.

At the same time, he noted, they have come at the expense of how many lives? Its very painful to look at whats happening in that context.

As an artist, I, too, know the isolation of the virus. An exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery that I worked on for over two years closed in mid-March, three weeks after it began. It reopened last month, and then was temporarily closed again, with plans to reopen and continue its run through February.

Isolation for me, in my studio in Easton, Conn., has above all emphasized a heightened relationship to nature, and the continued relevance of the elemental, primitive materials of my craft wood-handled brushes with animal hair bristles, pigments ground from minerals, charcoal, graphite. I marvel at how efficiently, even in the face of new technologies, these ancient tools still enable us to manifest thoughts, to get something out of our heads and onto a surface.

My own paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations have always been fundamentally about the interface of the real and the imagined, the actual and the imitation, and the interconnectedness between our thoughts and ourselves.

Isolation has made me look more closely at the nature of representation, a theme of the Yale show, and a theme of many of the conversations I had with artists: why humans bothered to depict things in nature, and how once we were able to do so, these representations helped us survive.

We cannot lament the virtual world; that would not serve us. As Mr. Grigely noted, these new forms of representation dont detract from the actual, but augment it. Its possible that when the first human drew a bison on a cave wall, someone was there thinking: Thats a neat bit of artifice, but I much prefer the real thing.

But the representation gave us the beginning of a secondary nature, one that complements the real one, and helps us navigate it, like a map. It also helped expand our minds in an imaginary world.

As we fully return to seeing art in person, I hope that our experiences in isolation will allow us to pay more attention to what is around us when we look up from our screens.

See the original post:
Artists in Isolation Make a New Window on the World - The New York Times

The Beacon Hill Architectural Commission unanimously approved the requested installation of an EV (Electric Vehicle) charging station at the street-level as part of an application for 6 Louisburg Square during its most-recent monthly public hearing, which took place virtually on Oct. 15.

The commission unanimously approved installing the outlet, with caveats that it be flush with the sidewalk, and that the applicant provide a letter of assent from the other resident owners of Louisburg Square, who collectively own the cobblestones, sidewalk light fixtures and everything else located between the edges of their personal residences and the street.

Staff recommends approving the EV since were in the middle of climate crisis, and it could help us achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, added Nick Armata, senior preservation planner for the city.

Rob Whitney, chair of the Beacon Hill Civic Association board of directors, who first suggested to the applicant that the charger could be built flush with the sidewalk instead of as a traditional granite charging-block as was originally proposed, said, Were not opposing [the charger] on the contrary, were saying, how do we bring it into the historic fabric of the neighborhood?

They could be made to resemble similar outlets for water and gas found in the neighborhood, Whitney said, while the chargers could be waterproofed in a simple way.

But really the issue is precedent, Whitney added, because street furniture is prohibited [in the neighborhoods historic district] except under certain circumstances.

As part of the same application, the commission approved requests to replace the front door (which it deemed may also be painted Rembrandt red) and the frame, with the caveat that the sidelights be restored; to replace all front windows on the front faade; to replace the garden-level door but without a recess; and to replace the existing skylights and install HVAC units on the roof, which are not visible from a public way.

The commission also unanimously approved as submitted a new businesss application for storefront signage and window decals at 99 Charles St.

The new business, Gus & Ruby Letterpress, a custom design and print studio with other locations in Portsmouth, N.H., and Portland, Maine, intend to install a double-sided wood sign, measuring 36 inches in diameter, with raised aluminum lettering attached to the storefront, as well as a decal listing its hours of operation in the entry-door window.

In another matter, the commission approved an application for proposed work at 62 Chestnut St. that architect Frank McGuire described as replacing existing windows in the building with new, compliant, wood, true divided-light windows at the front and rear facades; this came with the caveat that the applicant provide two letters from restoration specialists, such as Olde Bostonian of Dorchester, verifying that the windows are indeed beyond repair.

The commission also approved an application for 33 Branch St. to replace front door hardware, as well as to repaint the front faade, trim, shutters and doors, with the caveat that the faade and lintels remain painted gray (and that the shade be approved by staff).

Meanwhile, three applicants who were scheduled to appear before the commission were no-shows, including one for the proposed reconstruction of a chimney at 30 Chestnut St. which was deferred from the September hearing because of pending violations including removal of historic windows without a certificate of appropriateness; another to replace the front door and hardware at 24 Garden St.; and a third to rebuild a chimney at 55 Pinckney St., respectively. Work at these locations is not allowed to proceed without the applicants first attending a future public hearing of the BHAC and getting approval from the commission.

View original post here:
BHAC Approves EV Charging Station With Caveats - Beacon Hill Times

Ferrari has reportedly issued a recall order for around 1,063 units of its 812 Superfast in the United States. These models were made between 2018 and 2020 and are suspected to have a rear window which could come off at relatively high speeds due to the chances these weren't fixed properly.

As the name itself suggests, the 812 Superfast is the most powerful and fastest road-going Ferrari ever built. With a 6.5-litre, V12 engine at its heart and the ability to sprint to 100 kmph in just 2.9 seconds, the 812 Superfast is indeed super fast. At such speeds, or speeds even significantly lower though, one won't want the rear window to come flying off. And yet, that is a possibility which the company is now hoping to address.

(Also read: Porsche and Ferrari face $59,000 tax on gas guzzlers in France)

It is reported that the glitch with how the rear window was assembled was first reported in March of 2020 in Germany, followed by two more such complaints here. This prompted Ferrari to start investigating these and it was eventually decided that a recall was the only way forward.

US media outlets report that Ferrari will replace the rear window on any affected car and that dealers and owners in the country will begin getting notifications from December onwards.

The Ferrari 812 Superfast has a pedestal of its own in the company's product portfolio and was first introduced to the world at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. Its aero design, electric power steering and sheer power capabilities made it stand out in the world of super cars. And while Ferrari continues to fend off any need to go electric in current times, the 812 Superfast remains an ode to speed, as long as it can keep its rear window from falling off.

Read more here:
Ferrari issues recall orders for its most powerful supercar. Here's why - Hindustan Times Auto News