Foam

PHILADELPHIA -- Plastic foam might seem an unlikely material for building the exterior walls of houses, but for a number of years it has been used that way, with varying success.John S. Giuliani, of the Philadelphia suburb of Trappe, thinks a Canadian foam system called Nascor has special promise. He has become the first U.S. dealer.Mr. Giuliani, in turn, has gained a firm believer in carpenter/contractor Tom McDonough, who is using Nascor in a Bensalem, Pa., house he is building for himself and his family.

This is one of those products Gear Girl wishes she did not have to test. But although she is very careful outdoors, she sometimes misses the warning signs ("Leaves of three ... "). The lack of vigilance leads to little red bumps, a rash and the insatiable desire to scratch 24/7 - the calling card of poison ivy. The American Academy of Dermatology estimates that 85 percent of us will develop an allergic reaction if we touch poison ivy, oak or sumac, so finding relief ranks high on the adventure must-have list.

Clouds of smoky steam billowed yesterday from the stump fire in western Baltimore County as firefighters sprayed a foam solution expected to eventually put out the blaze, which has spread to the entire 7-acre dump.A Missouri expert hired to put out the fire at the Patapsco Valley Tree Farm in the 8700 block of Dogwood Road said extinguishing the blaze would take longer than the 10 days he had originally estimated.However, he remained confident that the foam would work faster than tearing apart the smoldering rubble and dousing it with water, as firefighters have been doing for nearly two weeks with little success.

Beer and body parts were the topics of some lively exchanges recently on my blog, Kasper On Tap. We started off with a discussion of a deodorant from Tom's of Maine that used hops to help kill odor and make guys smell good. Most commenters were "agin" the hoppy deodorant, either because they were allergic to it or because it clashed with their philosophic view that hops should appear only in beer. We then moved onto a look at beer-friendly apparel. I compared the Beerbelly, a new vestlike vessel that you can fill up with beer and wear under your shirt, to beer helmets, hard hats that hold two cans of beer.

The wind shifts, clearing a view through the smoke of burning tree stumps to reveal a tall, gray-bearded man of 300 pounds dressed in a black jacket, jeans secured by a saucer-sized belt buckle and a cap emblazoned with a Kodiak bear.Rich McCann, 39, known to friends as "The Bear," is from Team Kodiak, Foam Fire Control Inc., of Springfield, Mo., a company that specializes in putting out unusual fires with a foam spray that he compares with dishwashing liquid.McCann drove from Missouri to southwestern Baltimore County in his foam-mixing truck to begin work yesterday on the tree stump fire that has raged underground and spewed smoke for almost two weeks at Patapsco Valley Farms in Granite.

The back of a van isn't the ideal performance venue for many aspiring musicians. Just don't tell that to the four young chaps who make up the local band Foam, purveyors of alterna-metal guitar crunch from Hagerstown. After a show one night, frontman Jason Teach and lead guitarist Scott Fisher courted Epic Records general manager David Massey with some new material in the back of the group's van. He was so taken with their impromptu, unplugged performance that he made them an offer right then and there.

Getting out of bed isn't always easy. For some, it helps to visualize a mug of coffee topped with clouds of hot foam. In the past, the only way to get that kind of froth was by driving to your favorite barista or by investing in an espresso machine with a gizmo for steaming milk. But stand-alone milk frothers have been gaining in popularity. I tested several. I considered the quality and volume of foam they produced, speed, design, ease of use and ease of assembly and cleaning. I used nonfat milk in all the tests.

Firefighters decided yesterday to let the mountain of stumps near Granite burn freely for now -- acknowledging that the foam brought in by a Missouri fire expert wasn't doing any good and that it may be a year before the fire is out.Battalion Chief Tom Bowling of the Baltimore County Fire Department said the foam sprayed for the past week on burning debris at the Patapsco Valley Tree Farm was shut off shortly after 4 p.m. yesterday because it wasn't working.The...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A new photographic analysis of Columbia's launch shows that foam debris falling off the external tank slammed into the orbiter's vulnerable leading edge, rather than the underside of the wing as NASA earlier had believed, investigators said yesterday. Although such an impact was under examination, the analysis is the strongest evidence to date that the shuttle burned up on re-entry because of a breach in some part of its leading edge that allowed super-heated gas into the wing.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board is preparing to recommend as early as this week that NASA fix foam insulation problems linked to the shuttle tragedy before resuming space flights, an official close to the investigation said. The recommendation might put a chill on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's plans. Space agency officials have vowed to fly again by early next year, even though they have not figured out how to fix all the problems related to the foam debris.

The shuttle Discovery rocketed into space yesterday, carrying a crew of seven on a challenging two-week mission to continue construction of the International Space Station. The flight includes five spacewalks, the largest number of any shuttle mission. Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 11:38 a.m. on an eight-minute jump to space that carried the shuttle from a standing start to a speed of more than 17,000 mph. Discovery's engines guzzled fuel equivalent to emptying a backyard swimming pool every 23 seconds.

Getting out of bed isn't always easy. For some, it helps to visualize a mug of coffee topped with clouds of hot foam. In the past, the only way to get that kind of froth was by driving to your favorite barista or by investing in an espresso machine with a gizmo for steaming milk. But stand-alone milk frothers have been gaining in popularity. I tested several. I considered the quality and volume of foam they produced, speed, design, ease of use and ease of assembly and cleaning. I used nonfat milk in all the tests.

Children scurried with plastic wands in their hands, unleashing ribbons of bubbles and leaving trails of foam in front of the Maryland Science Center. For an event called Bubble Days, the center put pans of soap solution and plastic bubble wands in front of its entrance for children and whimsy-seeking adults to create their own bubbles this past weekend. "From the elderly to infants, everyone just loves it," said Ruth Brancato, who watched as her 2-year-old granddaughter, Reed Marie Wilson, chased bubbles with two pink plastic wands in her hand.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA has delayed space shuttle Atlantis' planned March 15 launch until at least late April to fix hail damage to the ship's external fuel tank. A ferocious thunderstorm packing 62-mph gusts pelted Launch Pad 39A with golf-ball-size hailstones Monday, carving an estimated 7,000 divots in the foam insulation that covers the giant tank. Engineers must repair hundreds of the worst gouges and minor damage to about 27 heat-resistant tiles on Atlantis' left wing before the shuttle is allowed to fly. "This constitutes, in our evaluation, the worst damage that we have ever seen from hail on the external-tank foam," said Wayne Hale, NASA's space shuttle program manager.

BEIJING -- In a dusty field on the outskirts of China's capital, Fan Zhi has built the American dream. The two-bedroom cottage comes with a front porch. The rocking chair is not included. By capturing the attention of Americans weary of high heating bills and soaring construction costs, Fan hopes to turn this prefab home into the McBungalow of the homebuilding world. He claims his energy-efficient product, which can be assembled in less than three hours, can withstand hurricane-strength winds and wildfires.

How much is a good night's sleep worth? How about $4,500? Michael Zippelli, chief executive officer of Jessup mattress maker Dormia Inc., is betting on it. He believes people would be willing to pay more for his beds, which are made from viscoelastic memory foam rather than coils or springs, if they gave them a try. "If you get a good night's sleep, you'll have a good day," he said. The Jessup manufacturer's business is growing, thanks to increasing interest in high-end bedding, whether it be traditional innerspring mattresses or "specialty bedding" made from foam or latex.

HOUSTON - The NASA official who ran shuttle management meetings during the fatal Columbia mission said yesterday that she did not hear the continuing worries of engineers about debris that had struck the shuttle. In her first public statement, Linda Ham, chairwoman of the mission management team, defended NASA and its staff with passion, and at times with tears. But her account also depicted a space agency in which internal communications broke down, whether because of a failure of process or of courage.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Discovery's astronauts will inspect much of their ship's heat shielding for signs of damage today after a Fourth of July liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, the first shuttle flight in almost a year. Mission managers expressed confidence that the inspections will confirm indications from launch photography that the shuttle's fuel tank did not shed dangerous pieces of foam insulation as happened on three of the past four flights. Footage from a video camera mounted on the tank showed several small objects breaking off at five different times during Discovery's 8 1/2 -minute climb to orbit, en route to the International Space Station.

Standing outside a warehouse in Glen Burnie last week, Ron Furman was sculpting down a piece of foam. It was a little more than one week before Red Bull Flugtag would come to Baltimore, and Furman, engineer Dan Hayes and the other members of this team were working on deadline. If all went as planned, the foam, along with some other framework, a large propeller, four wheels and one pilot, would form a giant crab-mobile. This Saturday, it will become airborne -- for more than a few seconds, they hope.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The second space shuttle launch of 2006 is on track for Aug. 27 if NASA resolves a pair of technical issues as expected. Shuttle managers wrapped up a two-day flight readiness review yesterday with a decision to proceed with Atlantis' 11-day construction flight to the International Space Station. However, engineers continue to examine two issues. One involves bolts that secure an antenna to Atlantis. The other is a malfunctioning heater on another orbiter's hydraulics unit.