We have smartphones, smart televisions, and smart thermostats, so why not smart lights?
As it turns out, we soon will. Last week, Silver Spring Networks announced it will build the largest-ever project to connect streetlights to a smart grid in the United States. The company plans to work with its client Florida Power & Light to build 75,000 smart lights in the Miami-Dade County area.
Not only will this be the biggest such undertaking yet, but it will be the first to connect streetlights to a network used for smart metering. Each lamp will serve as a node that collects information about the grid. Workers will be able to control the lights, monitor outages, and figure out how to fix problems remotely. Because the streetlights will be connected to the same grid as houses and businesses, the additional information they provide will help the company diagnose and fix outages more quickly and pinpoint where the problem is originating. “To them, a street light is just another sensor on the network,” Sterling Hughes, Silver Spring’s senior director of advanced technology told Jeff St. John of GreenTech Media. “The lighting serves as a perfect canopy to strengthen the network.”
Silver Spring has previously worked on smart grid streetlight programs in Paris and Copenhagen. Hopefully this smart idea will prove to be a useful model here in the States as well.
MORE: How All These Snowstorms Could Make for Better Roads and Cities
Tag: the South
This Restaurant Is Looking to Hire a Few Good Vets
What’s better than enjoying a plate of delicious seafood while looking out onto the ocean? Not much, actually. But if you can enjoy that meal and help Americans veterans at the same time, then all the better.
At the Cast-N-Cage restaurant on Bradenton Beach Pier in Florida, patrons can do just that. That’s because the eatery’s owners, Tammy Kemper-Pena and her husband Roland Pena, are veterans who want to hire other former service members. “We want to give veterans a place to work and feel comfortable where they can relate with other veterans and be able to share their stories and help them with any issues they may have,” Kemper-Pena told Randi Nissenbaum of Bay News 9.
Opening the restaurant marks a comeback in more ways than one. During her military service, Kemper-Pena suffered a back injury and two brain injuries, and Pena broke his back while serving in Iraq. Additionally, a year and a half ago, Tropical Storm Debby damaged the historic pier on which the Cast-N-Cage now sits in Sarasota Bay. The pier was closed for repairs until recently, when a bait shop opened and the Cast-N-Cage held its grand opening on March 1.
The Cast-N-Cage offers a ten percent discount to veterans and those who are on active military duty. They’ve already hired 10 veterans, and are looking to employ more. Navy veteran Glenn Schneider told Bay News 9, “It almost makes me cry. It’s touching that someone out there is helping other veterans.”
Judging from the photos on the restaurant’s Facebook page, there doesn’t look like any better place for a newly-returned veteran to recuperate than at this restaurant on the ocean filled with food, music, and camaraderie.
MORE: These Veterans Rallied to Save a Fellow Vet from the Cold
This Former Teacher Brings Technology Directly to Low-Income Preschoolers
Give a two-year-old an iPad and chances are, she’ll know how to use it. But that probably won’t be the case with a child from a low-income family.
That’s because, in 2013, the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that 46 percent of families with annual incomes under $30,000 lack Internet access. As a result, the kids in these families are left behind when it comes to knowledge about technology before they even start kindergarten.
So Florida native Estella Pyfrom had a bright idea. The retired teacher and guidance counselor devoted a chunk of her pension money to renovating a bus to make it a mobile technology center for low-income preschoolers. Packed with 17 computers, The Brilliant Bus makes stops throughout Palm Beach county, including a weekly visit to the low-income Head Start preschool Village Academy in Delray Beach, Florida. There, three-year-olds there are so happy to learn about math and ABCs through computer games, their principal Guarn Sims said, “They don’t want to get off.”
Pyfrom, the daughter of a migrant worker with a fourth-grade education, knows how important helping under-privileged kids can be. “Many underserved communities don’t have access to computers at home or internet,” she told Attiyya Anthony of the Sun Sentinel. “I’m excited that together we’re addressing that problem in a more aggressive way.”
Pyfrom has big plans to expand the program, offering it to four-year olds, and third and fourth graders. She’s also working on a plan to take 100 students to New Orleans this summer for education on computer programming and how to design apps as well.
MORE: This Innovative Idea Brings Produce Directly to Low-Income Communities
Meet the Georgians Putting Energy-Efficient Roofs Over Injured Vets’ Heads
Hardwood floors appeal to many homeowners. They’re attractive, durable, and easy to clean. But for wounded veterans, hardwood floors are often a necessity.
That’s because the smooth surface of hardwood floors makes getting around in a wheelchair less cumbersome. So in Calhoun, Georgia, an army of handymen is providing its services free of charge to injured veterans. Nine thousand employees of Mohawk Flooring in northern Georgia will work — free of charge — on homes that Building for America’s Bravest is custom designing for wounded veterans.
Building for America’s Bravest is a project sponsored by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a non-profit formed after 9-11 to honor Siller, a 34-year-old firefighter and father of five who died trying to save people in the World Trade Center. Its goal: To build 50 custom “Smart Homes” for servicemen and women across the country who are severely disabled and to do it in an energy-efficient way — all while making use of the latest adaptive technologies, such as automated lighting, wider doors to accommodate wheelchairs, and iPad-controllable heating systems.
One recipient of a smart home is Corporal Todd Love, whose house is now under construction in Georgia. Love lost three limbs (both legs and one arm) when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan in 2010. He’s appreciative of the work that the volunteers are putting into building his house: “You can provide a great service for your country without being in the military of being a firefighter or police officer,” he told Kimberly Barbour of WRCB. “[I’m] Looking forward to getting a home and one that’s accessible and hopefully I’ll have it for the rest of my life.”
MORE: This Documentarian is Filming Incredible Vets and Helping Them at the Same Time
When Veterans Leave the Service, This College Helps Them Process Their Experience
Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C. knows all too well how difficult the transition from military to civilian life can be. So last year Dina Greenberg, a teaching assistant at the school, started StoryForce, a writing group for veterans, along with some fellow teachers. And the college has enrolled more than 900 military veterans over the past year alone.
Thomas Rhodes was one of the StoryForce’s early, eager recruits. The Gulf War veteran has been devouring stories and books since he was a kid, but hadn’t considered writing about his war experiences until he joined the group. For the first time he wrote about how his friend Clarence Cash was killed in action 1991. Rhodes wrote about Cash in the story, “Me, Johnny Cash and the Gulf War,” recording memories he’d been suppressing for twenty years. The story concludes with Rhodes’ “Poem for the Fallen Soldier”:
Today I gave my life for a cause
No hesitation, no pause
Today was a good day.
Greenberg has researched the effects of PTSD, and thought writing would be therapeutic for the veterans. “We created a space where people felt comfortable enough to open up and share,” she told Pressley Baird of the Jacksonville Daily News. “It’s low-key. It’s not about course credit; it’s not about feeling like you’ve got an assignment and something that’s due next week. This is a place for you to feel safe. This is a place for you to feel that people are listening.”
MORE: Writing Helps Veterans Go From Victims to Victors
This Florida Jail Is Giving Vets a Second Chance
The rough return to civilian life after military service too often puts faltering veterans on the wrong side of the law. But many believe those who have served their country should have another chance to turn their lives around. That’s why the Pasco County Jail in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., has created a separate pod to house 32 veteran inmates together and offer them therapy, substance abuse help, job training, and housing assistance so that when they get out, they can land on their feet.
Sheriff Chris Nocco told Eddie Daniels of the Tampa Tribune, “They served their country; they have proven to us as a nation that they can do the right thing. This is about an opportunity for them to lift themselves up, back on their feet again, and be productive members of society.”
Several other communities are trying to help veterans who’ve landed in trouble with the law. Law enforcement officials have established special courts just for military veterans in Philadelphia, Buffalo, N.Y., San Diego and elsewhere.
Brian Anderson of Pasco County Veterans Services told Daniels, “They actually sacrificed part of themselves for the better cause of America. … Some of the issues they’re facing that lands them in predicaments like this are probably attributed to the service they gave.”
MORE: This Judge Figured Out How To Keep People Out of Prison By Treating Them Like His Own Children
One Community’s Special Valentine’s Day Treat for Its Female Vets
Army veteran Watha Alston-Hooper, of Augusta, Ga., thought female vets deserved a special treat for Valentine’s Day. So, as the commander of the Women’s Veterans Club of the CSRA (Central Savannah River Area), a group that helps women transition back into civilian life, she organized a spa day for fellow female vets.
This month, women gathered at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 649 to receive massages, facials, sweet treats and makeup tips from volunteers. Just as important as the beauty treatments was the chance for the veterans to bond with other women who could relate to their military experience, a goal the Women’s Veterans Club of the CSRA takes as its mission.
Army veteran Mary Smith Tyler, who doesn’t usually wear makeup but was happy to try it on at the event, told Nicole Snyder of WJBF, “We should be appreciated. There are so few woman and so many men in the military, so to have a day that’s about me—I’m honored. I’m glad. It is a male dominated field, so I do feel like women do get forgotten about a lot in this field, but today we are not… and I love it.”
MORE: This Paralyzed Veteran Can Hunt and Fish Again, Thanks to the Generosity of His Community
The Big Easy’s Big Literacy Challenge
New Orleans has a big goal for its 300th birthday in 2018: Leaders want to make New Orleans the most literate city in America through a program called Turn the Page. The initiative kicked off January 22 with an effort to break the Guinness world record for the largest read-aloud event. About 500 kids attended to hear some of the city’s finest musicians play, including Grammy-winning bandleader Irvin Mayfield, one of the major forces behind the literacy campaign, and New Orleans actor Wendell Pierce, known for his work on “The Wire” and “Treme,” who read aloud from “The Bourbon Street Band is Back.”
The Turn The Page program unites 11 library systems and many media organizations throughout southern Louisiana in a simultaneous effort to improve school readiness among preschoolers, reading ability among school-age kids, digital literacy, and literacy among adults. Last month’s kickoff began a blitz of 30 literacy-encouraging events in 30 days, such as the “Super Bowl of Reading,” through which people vote for their favorite author to be featured at area libraries, individual computer classes to help people get online, and a pajama story time for kids. The Turn the Page website will make literacy tools available.
Central Connecticut State University conducts an annual literacy survey of in cities across America, measuring such factors as educational attainment, the number of booksellers, and the availability of library resources, and ranks cities. Last year New Orleans ranked 25th out of 75. Given all the efforts the people of New Orleans are making to improve literacy, 2013’s number one city, Washington D.C., is going to have to hit the books to hold off New Orleans’ challenge.
MORE: What Looks Like A Birdhouse And Promotes Literacy?
This Charity Went Above and Beyond to Help Veterans in Need
Habitat for Humanity is known for building homes for needy people, but a new program in Tuscaloosa, Ala. will focus on veterans with dilapidated houses and no money to fix them up. Habitat for Humanity has teamed up with Federal Home Loan Bank and is inviting veterans to apply for up to $15,000 in assistance. Meredith Armstrong of Alabama’s 13 spoke to Rosalyn Boston, the widow of an Army veteran who has been unable to repair her home since it was damaged by a tornado hit the area in April of 2011. Boston said, “I just want my floors done, you know my bathroom done right, and the water to stop going up under my house so that I can live like I want to live.” And with help from Habitat for Humanity, she and other veterans and their families should be able to live comfortably in their homes for years to come.
MORE: This Air Force Veteran Couldn’t Fix His Roof, But He Still Had A Reason To Smile
How Florida’s Gambling Crackdown Led to a Boon for Veterans
An April 2013 law cracking down on illegal betting in Florida shut down hundreds of Internet cafes and arcades, and sent the state’s gamblers looking for a new fix, which many of them found in bingo halls. Unexpectedly, that trend has helped Florida veterans organizations to the tune of $90,000.
Bingoland in Bradenton, Fla. has long welcomed volunteers from veterans organizations to staff their bingo halls, and in turn these organizations receive donations. In the past, the donations have amounted to about $300 a month, Pete Killingsworth, president of Bingoland told Vin Mannix of the Bradenton Herald. But because so many people are playing bingo these days, the figures have shot up: In January Bingoland divided $90,000 between three different veterans’ organizations: $15,000 to Korean War Veterans, $45,000 to Palmetto VFW Post 2488, and $30,000 to Bradenton VFW 10140.
Mike Clinesmith, Quartermaster of VFW Post 10140, told Mannix, “We’ll put it in our relief fund, which goes to help veterans of Manatee County. We’ve got a bunch coming back now with disabilities, homeless veterans, and we have a certain amount we can give to each one. This will go a long way to helping them.” Sounds like a winning wager to us.
MORE: One Glimpse of a Wounded Vet Changed This Racehorse Owner’s Outlook on Life