PSA Save the Fluffy Kitten

James Vandezande speaks out against callous violence against fluffy kittens occurring at AEC conferences world wide. Please do your part to stop this madness!

By the way, the movement to abolish the saying of "ATM Machine", whose leader Freddy Latherdon, is jealous of the ground swell of support that opponents of saying "BIM Model" are getting. They hope to get sympathy by using this image, suggesting that saying "ATM Machine" will cause the incoming soda to soak this poor girl.

Getting soaked by that soda will be awful for her but compared to harm coming to a fluffy kitten? Please...

Remember, just don't say "BIM Model", save a kitten.

On Twitter: #fluffykitten
Picture from @MeredithFrost (click the image to see her tweets)

Dept. of Off Topic - Introducing Pins Mastering in a Wrestling Match

In sports news this morning:

Despite the difference in their weight classes Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 managed to pin Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 in a brief battle lasting just 20 seconds. IARA said in a short interview after the match that, "it all comes down to diet and preparation". MARA was too shocked to reply to questions simply saying, "We'll be looking for a re-match".

The match began with IARA leaning into MARA innocently.

A few seconds later the crowd was stunned as MARA landed heavily and IARA maintained its control for the three count. IARA was declared the winner to a silent crowd that took a moment to regain its composure, then erupted into a victorious cheer for the underdog.

More on ESPN Book Wrestling highlights tonight at 6pm.

This blog post has been inspired by WWF and the clever MARA in the wild posts at Arch | Tech. IARA and MARA...a match made in... oh never mind, that's pushing it.

News at 9:48 - Revit Rock-n-Roller donates Hair

Steve Shell the "Rock-n-Roll" Architect, famous for not only his membership at AUGI but his rock-n-rolling ways as a guitar player in Shell Shock has decided to donate some of his "locks" to a deserving fellow Reviteer, Jim Balding (at right). Jim, who says he "lives up to his name" Balding was attending Autodesk University last year when Steve (at left) suggested that he could help with his "problem".


A schedule for the transplant has yet to be defined but Jim was quoted as saying he already plans to learn how to play the bass and join a band as soon as possible.

About the Author, Freddy Latherdon:
Revit OpEd's ace reporter, Freddy recently moved to Wapakoneta, Ohio to get away from the LA party scene. Brittany, Lindsay and the "others" were just too "out there" and he needed a break. He has a one bedroom studio apartment now that he shares with his three "Lavender" Retrievers, don't even try to tell him they are Labrador Retrievers...he'll get mad and punch you. The judge gave him one more chance to deal with his anger issues or he'll do some real time. Might account for why he's been so quiet as this is his first story in quite some time.

Investment Strategy - Beer Drinkers 401Keg Plan

Assume you purchased $1000.00 in stock from one of these companies just one year ago. The value of your investment would track like this:

Nortel - Now worth $49.00
Enron - Now worth $16.50
WorldCom - Now worth <$5.00
Delta Air Lines - Now worth 49.00
United Airlines - Now worth zero

However, IF you used the same $1000.00 to buy beer instead, assuming aluminum cans, one year ago, consumed all the beer, then recycled the cans you would have +/-$214.00.

Based on the above, the logical conclusion is to drink heavily AND recycle.

This was passed along to me by Ed, Thanks! I don't know who dreamt this up first but it might be a winning strategy as long as the fact that your investment is still a "loser" does not bring you down?

Disclaimer: No, I haven't checked the facts in this claim and even if I had you couldn't count on my math skills anyway. Your return on investment may very depending on the beer you drink. My recommendation...Bass


Cheers Mate!

Revit 2010

I had a chance to take a look at Revit 2010 last night. In a word, WOW! Each and every Wish List item I personally have is supplied. Curtain walls, stairs, railings, text and on and on.

I really like the new Schematic Design tool. You start the tool and supply overall building square footage, maximum height, floors, floor to floor elevations, overall target primary dimensions after choosing from a palette of basic floor plan schemes, minimum glazing requirements, desired window form and more. When you click finish, Revit builds a schematic model of generic components that meets your basic design input and creates all related initial views.

Then I woke up...nice dream sequence though...

Dept. of Scary Science - Beer Drinker Warning

[Surgeon General Warning: Politically incorrect humor follows which may cause increased beer drinking, see close of report]

Scientists have confirmed that men should be concerned about their beer consumption. Last month the National University of Lesotho scientists released the results of a recent study that examined the presence of female hormones in beer. Their theory suggests that because beer contains female hormones (hops contain phytoestrogens) that by drinking too much beer men will become women.

To test their theory, they had 100 men each drink 8 pints of beer within 1 hour.

They observed the following for 100% of their test subjects:

They argued over nothing.
They refused to apologize when obviously wrong.
They put on weight.
They talked excessively without making sense.
They became overly emotional.
They couldn't drive.
They failed to think rationally.
They had to sit down while using the bathroom.

They stated that since this proof is conclusive that no further testing is necessary.

Therefore please consider your beer intake.

Author unknown - shared with me by insensitive males that clearly need to get in touch with their feminine side. Interestingly another study suggests that excessive use of inappropriate sexist humor may cause men to drink more beer....

Using Google a search with the criteria "Hops and Phytoestrogen" yields this ARTICLE:

The female flowers of the hop plant are used as a preservative and as a flavoring agent in beer. However, a recurring suggestion has been that hops have a powerful estrogenic activity and that beer may also be estrogenic. In this study, sensitive and specific in vitro bioassays for estrogens were used for an activity-guided fractionation of hops via selective solvent extraction and appropriate HPLC separation. We have identified a potent phytoestrogen in hops, 8-prenylnaringenin, which has an activity greater than other established plant estrogens. The estrogenic activity of this compound was reflected in its relative binding affinity to estrogen receptors from rat uteri. The presence of 8-prenylnaringenin in hops may provide an explanation for the accounts of menstrual disturbances in female hop workers. This phytoestrogen can also be detected in beer, but the levels are low and should not pose any cause for concern.

Hostile Takeover - Google takes on Autodesk AND Bentley

Latherdon - 2008

In a surprise move, some say shocking, this morning Google announced its intent to take over Autodesk AND Bentley. Analysts say this is a strategic acquisition to take control of the "Information" in Building Information Modeling (BIM). No details were provided regarding how the combination of two major rivals for the computer aided design marketplace would be managed. Nor did the announcement discuss the likely lawsuit, from other cad vendors like Solid Works, ArchiCAD to name just two, claiming anti-trust violations. Google management stated that they intend to offer $12.50 per share for Autodesk shares and $6.50 per share for Bentley though Bentley remains a privately held company. Based on current market value this places the entire deal in the $2 gazillion range.

Attempts to reach competing software vendors for comment were not possible before releasing this news.

About the Author: Freddy Latherdon
Freddy has been on hiatus since undergoing knee surgery after a unexplained billards accident. He returned to work just in time to capture the essence of what will turn out the be the biggest BIM story yet, assuming the deal goes through.

Yes...this is nonsense...please don't panic...!!!

In separate announcement Google introduced its latest feature for Gmail, Custom Time. Now you can never be late with your response, you could even be early, earlier than the request in the first place!

Brand New Modelling Tool

My ace reporter Freddy Latherdon has been on hiatus in parts unknown for quite some time but he just sent me this story. He's managed to discover the next great thing for architectural design. Here is his story.

"Three Letter Architects to Use New Design Software"

During a recent interview, Architect Bucky Fullminster, divulged that his firm "TLA" has decided to pull back from all the clever software they've been using. When prodded for the reason he said that they needed something that fit the sort of design work they do better. That software is called "Balloon Architecture" made by Larry Moss, Inc.
No computer requirements because no computer is needed. You just need balloons. The software comes with blue and white balloons but hey, you could technically use any color you want. "Hey! THIS is going back to real design", said Bucky. "We just gave away our pc's to good-will, and they were glad to get em too!" Bucky said, "The staff is reinvigorated, no training sessions on hard to learn regular software, back to using their hands and touching the physical model. Conflict with ducts and steel, no kidding it's right there knucklhead, see??"

I was unable to get a comment from the leading software companies and for this reason I suspect that they aren't taking this come from nowhere competition seriously. Time will tell what inroads this new kid on the block will make in this tough and opinionated market!

Well...I must say I'm stunned! After all this time working with Revit to have this come out of nowhere. Guess I better get myself a helium bottle and balloon nipple? What are you going to do?

If you want to get your own copy of Balloon Architecture, check out Barnes and Noble and search for the title or Author Larry Moss...