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Joel Solkoff

High-tech housing for the poor, disabled and elderly

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Pennsylvania

On chanting Isaiah 61:10 to 63:9

September 12, 2019 by joel Leave a Comment

                                                                                                              […]

Navigating

August 8, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

This site has two central locations:

I. THEME: No shelter from the storm

II. DIGRESSIONS (not related directly to the theme; my daughters Joanna and Amelia [ “You regard your family as a diversion?), stories, career, and whimsy.

++++

Navigating NO SHELTER FROM THE STORM

Where do I want to go?

To a neighborhood which must be developed: A global model of independent living for elderly and disabled individuals consisting of:

a) An experimental residence for an individual or a family. For example, Blueroof’s Experimental Cottage in McKeesport, PA–a one story residence on inexpensive land in a burned out section of a Rust Belt town where a community could be developed.

b) Low-cost factory housing (mobile home) residences where sensors and other off-the-shelf technology are embedded in the walls.

c) Technology includes: +Security system. +Motion detectors to monitor falls, especially high risk areas such as the shower.+Computer voice simulation combined with wireless communications so the walls of the building call family or emergency services for help.

d) Research facility at a major university, e.g. Penn State’s Immersive Construction (ICon) lab where a virtual reality (animated 3-D) model of the real experimental residence helps prospective residents, the architectural, engineering, and construction community, caregivers, et al. change design before additional construction takes place.

e) An inter-generational accessible community.

How a 10 cent increase in the minimum wage put me on page one of the Centre Daily Times

September 9, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

Note: Sunday, September 9, 2012, State College, PA 5:57 PM, EDT.  My friend Philip Moery is fond of quoting William Faulkner’s observation, “The past is never dead.  It’s not even the past.” This observation became trenchant yesterday when I received a post from Scott W., who, like me, is a member of a lively discussion group […]

Report by former FBI director Louis Freeh’s on the scandal at Penn State

July 12, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

Beaver Stadium where Penn State plays football at home The following Executive Summary, Findings and Recommendations are six pages from the downloadable 267 page: Report of the Special Investigative Counsel Regarding the Actions of  The Pennsylvania State University Related to the Child Sexual Abuse committed by Gerald A. Sandusky [Note: The Board of Trustees of Penn State hired former FBI […]

Today is Bloomsday

June 16, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

State College, PA, June 16, 2012, across Beaver Avenue from Webster’s Bookstore and Café where next year [not in Jerusalem, but at Webster’s] Bloomsday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsday will be celebrated properly]: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” This is the first […]

Celebration of the Use of Virtual Reality to Improve Housing for the Elderly and Disabled

February 29, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

University Park, PA.  On Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 10a.m. Penn State’s Department of Architectural Engineering and its Smart Spaces Center for Adaptive Aging in Community celebrated progress made in a coordinated effort to reduce the cost of housing for Pennsylvania’s elderly and disabled residents today and in the future. The celebration took place at […]

Saving Medicare billions: Trying too hard can get in the way

February 26, 2012 by joel Leave a Comment

Today is Sunday, February 26, 2012.  I took the photograph above last week. My apartment is within an eight-story building housing 90 low-income elderly and disabled individuals, an ambulance parks outside my window at least once a week. Sometimes my neighbors and I return. Sometimes, not. The cost for Medicare, Medicaid, and other services to […]

How the Rust Belt became rusty

February 25, 2012 by joel 1 Comment

“In 1900, Pennsylvania was the nation’s second largest state [now, sixth largest]….Pennsylvania steel began its decline four decades ago, when management decided not to keep up with new technology”….–Almanac of American Politics 2012 by Michael Barone and Chuck McCutcheon  

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Current

Five Hours a Day in the Saddle: The Pacific Coast School of Horsemanship ( written for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1972; never published; now at age 73 the article I wrote when I was 22)

June 5, 2021 By joel

Remembering Jean and Marvin Staiman and their love of Israel

June 2, 2021 By joel

Laugh and weep: NURSING HOMES BY JOHN OLIVER

April 17, 2021 By joel

1971 birthday letter to my father

December 20, 2020 By joel

If by Rudyard Kipling

December 20, 2020 By joel

Grandfather (that’s me) relocating to NYC to save my life at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

December 2, 2020 By joel

Recent

  • LSD Goddess Joanna Harcourt-Smith
  • Ani Ma’Amin: This is what I believe
  • Why I relate ending hunger in US America to writing about my cancer survival for The New York Times
  • My love hate relationship with The New York Times 2018
  • Radio hate monger of the 1930s Father Coughlin returns to Fox News
  • A fine romance with no kisses
  • The US Needs a New Capitol City: Covid Agenda Item
  • We who are about to die…or architecture
  • Disability bathroom design
  • Covid 19 has accelerated the need for a new utilitarian architecture: Architecture for the vulnerable ( like me)
  • Covid-19 Architects: “We Who Are About to Die Salute You”
  • Covid 19 impasse: Why architects need to know how a member of the US Congress must be expelled by the end of the month and how that relates to building emergency housing at a time when its absence is deadly and dangerous
  • Rain: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Theo van Gogh’s The Interview
  • March March from The Chicks: My Personal Anthem
  • 建筑师注意:美国新冠状病毒死亡人数将会激增;你们必须为穷人建造住房
  • I am now a card carrying member of the National Organization for Women
  • God is not on President Trump’s Side; God is on my side
  • The late great James Baldwin on racism in America
  • COVID-19 Updated Information
  • Sensuous Françoise Hardy, Sixties icon, is now 76 years old
  • Mandarin Chinese numbers 1 to 10

Links

Blogroll
  • 1. PHOENIX REHAB1. PHOENIX REHAB With the help of the gifted Alicia Spence, I begin to walk.

  • 2. SMART SPACES FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING2. SMART SPACES FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING "The demographics of baby boomer aging over the next decade foreshadow great economic, political and cultural changes that could overwhelm many developed countries," said Richard Behr, founding director of the Center.

  • 3. IMMERSIVE CONSTRUCTION (ICon) LAB3. IMMERSIVE CONSTRUCTION (ICon) LAB My home in virtual reality, the ICon lab shows 3D and 4D (the fourth dimension is Time) models on 3 eight-foot hight screens; when the lights go off, put on the 3-D glasses.

  • 4. AMIGO MOBILITY4. AMIGO MOBILITY CEO Al Thieme created the first Power Operated Vehicle (POV) scooter. Most manufacturers separate their battery chargers from the scooter. You can plug an Amigo right into an electric socket .

  • 5. T & B MEDICAL5. T & B MEDICAL "Travis and Barb Barr, the 'T' and 'B' behind T & B Medical, Inc. have one goal in mind...to attend to every client's individual" mobility and durable equipment needs. I am a continual customer and recommend T&B highly--HIGHLY.

  • 6. INVACARE6. INVACARE Invacare is the world's leading manufacturer of wheelchairs, bariatric equipment, disability scooters, respiratory products and other homecare products.

  • ACCESSIBILITY FROM APPLEACCESSIBILITY FROM APPLE For the disability community, computer technology creates the ability to engage in computer design of aging-in-place housing.

  • CAREGIVER VILLAGECAREGIVER VILLAGE Using a virtual reality world, Caregiver Village improve the lives of family caregivers. Second Life, eat your heart out.

  • EMAIL MEEMAIL ME I once had a boss who loved focus groups. One afternoon at a shopping mall, readers of my newsletter told me EXACTLY what they thought, not knowing I was behind the one-way mirror. Please do the same.

  • HME NEWSHME NEWS HME News is the monthly business newspaper for 17,000 home medical equipment providers.

  • McKEESPORTMcKEESPORT "The decrease in the population since the 1940s is attributable to the general economic malaise that descended upon the region when the steelmaking industry moved elsewhere. The major employer WAS the National Tube Works, a manufacturer of steel pipes.

  • MONONGAHELA RIVERMONONGAHELA RIVER George Washington crossed the Monongahela into McKeesport to bring rum to the his friend, Queen Alliquippa, a Seneca Indian ruler. This was during the French and Indian Wars, Remember them?

  • NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

  • PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF REHABILITATION FACILITIES (PARF)PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF REHABILITATION FACILITIES (PARF) PARF represents the Commonwealth's premier facilities serving individuals with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. Traditionally, the highlight of the disability community is the annual conference at the Nittany Lion Inn at the Penn State campus

  • YOUGHIOGHENY RIVERYOUGHIOGHENY RIVER McKeesport is where the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers meet. Fresh fish like the Walleye are back at the Youghiogheny, now that factories that created jobs are no longer polluting the river.

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  • Architecture, Political Power & Money
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  • Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments
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  • Black Power, a poem by Joel Solkoff (1968)
  • LSD Goddess Joanna Harcourt-Smith
  • Rethinking Jabotinsky who helped create the State of Israel
  • If you are a grandparent, you have to read Andy Slavitt’s book PREVENTABLE
  • Yair Lapid, architect of the new Israeli government

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