Uniform Plumbing Code :

Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems as a means of promoting the public’s health, safety and welfare.

The UPC is developed using the American National Standard Institute’s consensus development procedures. This process brings together volunteers representing a variety of viewpoints and interests to achieve consensus on plumbing practices.

The UPC is designed to provide consumers with safe and sanitary plumbing systems while, at the same time, allowing latitude for innovation and new technologies. The public at large is encouraged and invited to participate in IAPMO’s open consensus code development process. This code is updated every three years. A code development timeline and other relevant information are available at IAPMO’s Website.

History :

In 1926, a group of Los Angeles plumbing inspectors recognized that there were no uniform requirements for the installation and maintenance of plumbing systems, and at that point in time disease was rampant, a lot of it spread through improper sanitation. Disorder in the industry was the result of widely divergent plumbing practices and the use of many different, often conflicting, plumbing codes by local jurisdictions.

It was these plumbing inspectors that understood the necessity of developing a model code that could be uniformly applied across jurisdictions.

In 1928, the city adopted the first incarnation of a uniform plumbing code developed by the Los Angeles City Plumbing Inspectors Association (LACPIA) and based on the input from a committee of plumbing inspectors, master and journeyman plumbers, and sanitary and mechanical engineers, assisted by public utility companies and the plumbing industry.

The product of this effort, the first edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) was officially adopted by the Western Plumbing Officials Association in 1945, which later changed its name to IAPMO in 1966 when the scope of the association’s work increased. The widespread use of this code over the past five decades by jurisdictions throughout the United States and internationally is testament to its merit.

With the publication of the 2003 Edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code, another significant milestone was reached. For the first time in the history of the United States, a plumbing code was developed through a true consensus process. The 2009 edition represents the most current approaches in the plumbing field and is the third edition developed under the ANSI consensus process. Contributions to the content of the code were made by every segment of the built industry, including such diverse interests as consumers, enforcing authorities, installers/maintainers, insurance, labor, manufacturers, research/standards/testing laboratories, special experts and users.

The 2009 Uniform Plumbing Code is supported by the American Society of Sanitary Engineering (ASSE), the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors National Association (PHCC-NA), the United Association (UA) and the World Plumbing Council (WPC). These associations support IAPMO’s open consensus process being used to develop IAPMO’s codes and standards.

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Lee Valley Ice Centre :

The Lee Valley Ice Centre is situated in the Lee Valley Park in East London, England. Figure Skating, ice hockey and public skating sessions are all available at Lee Valley Ice Centre.

Ice hockey :

he Lee Valley Ice Centre is home to the Lee Valley Lions, an amateur side competing in the English National Ice Hockey League. It used to also be home to the London Racers, who competed in the top-level British Elite Ice Hockey League. The London Racers controversially withdrew from the British Elite Ice Hockey League after the club decided that the rink was not safe enough for “elite” level ice hockey. This was not backed up by any official report and was highly disputed by the park authority. It is thought the the safety “problem” was used as a smokescreen to mask the team’s financial problems. The Lee Valley Lions and the Junior programme continue to the current day.

Lee Valley Park :

The Lee Valley Park is a 26 miles (42 km) long area, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of London, Essex and Hertfordshire from the River Thames to Ware in Hertfordshire, England through areas such as Hackney, Tottenham, Enfield,Stratford,Tower Hamlets,Walthamstow, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon.

The park follows the course of the River Lea (Lee) along the Lee Valley and is managed by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. It is made up of a mix of countryside areas, urban green spaces, heritage sites, country parks, nature reserves and lake and riverside trails, as well as sports and recreation centres covering an area of over 10,000 acres (40 km2). It is crossed by a number of roads and railways. There are a number of major reservoirs within it, and multiple water courses, both to carry the river flow, and also to provide navigation waterways and flood relief channels.

Much of the southern half of the park will be developed to form the Olympic Park for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Notable parts of the park are: Temple Mills, Hackney Marshes, Walthamstow Marshes, Tottenham Marshes, River Lee Country Park, Bow Creek Ecology Park and Lee Valley Reservoir Chain.

London :

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major city for two millennia, and its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, then named Londinium. London’s core, the ancient City of London, the ’square mile’, retains its medieval boundaries. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the name “London” has also referred to the whole metropolis that has developed around it. Today, the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, with its own elected mayor and assembly.

London is a major global city and one of the world’s largest financial centres. Central London is home to the headquarters of more than half of the UK’s top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest. London’s influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, the arts and culture in general contributes to its global position. It is a major tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors. London hosted the 1908 and 1948 Summer Olympics and will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; the historic settlement of Greenwich; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s Church.

London has a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries. In July 2007, it had an official population of 7,556,900 within the boundaries of Greater London, making it the most populous municipality in the European Union. The Greater London Urban Area (the second largest in the EU) has a population of 8,278,251. while the metropolitan area (the largest in the EU) has an estimated total population of between 12 million and 14 million. The public transport network, administered by Transport for London, is the most extensive in the world, London Heathrow Airport is the world’s busiest airport by number of international passengers[23] and the airspace is the busiest of any urban centre in the world.

England :

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental Europe. The mainland of England consists of the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic, but England also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country’s parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming the country into the world’s first industrialised nation, and its Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.

Most of England is lowland, but there are upland regions in the north (for example, the Lake District, Pennines and Yorkshire Moors) and in the south and south west (for example, Dartmoor, the Cotswolds, and the North and South Downs). London, England’s capital, is the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures.[note 1] England’s population is about 51 million, around 84% of the population of the United Kingdom, and is largely concentrated in London, the South East and conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East and Yorkshire, which developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century.

The Kingdom of England—which included Wales—was a sovereign state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1800, Great Britain was united with Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State was established as a separate dominion, but the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act in 1927 reincorporated into the kingdom six Irish counties to officially create the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Background :

The station is in the San Rafael Swell of Utah and about 11 kilometres (7 miles) from Hanksville, Utah. It is the second such research station to be built, after the completion of the Arctic station (FMARS) on Devon Island in 2000. Stations to be built in Europe (Euro MARS) and Australia (MARS Oz) are currently in the planning stages. The Mars Society launched the Mars Analog Research Station (MARS) Project in order to develop key knowledge needed to prepare for the human exploration of Mars. The project’s goals are to develop field tactics based on environmental constraints (ie, being required to work in spacesuits), to test habitat design features and tools, and to assess crew selection protocols. While much warmer than Mars, the desert location is optimal because of its Mars-like terrain and appearance.

From the moment they arrive at MDRS, crews enter a Mars simulation. Crew members must wear a space suit when completing tasks outside the Habitat (Hab) to protect them from the harsh Martian environment. Complete suits include a helmet, jumpsuit, boots, gators, gloves, an air recycling pack, Platypus water pack, and a radio. Walkie-talkie radios are used to communicate with Habitat communication (Hab-com) and with fellow astronauts on the same EVA. For safety reasons, there is always one crew member in the Hab to act as Hab-com in case anything goes wrong on the extra-vehicular activity (EVA). In the event that the ATV’s break down or one of the crew-members gets injured in the field, being able to communicate with the Hab is crucial to protect the safety of the mission.

Destinations for EVA’s can be chosen from an established waypoint database and traveled to either on foot or by ATV.

MDRS is owned and funded by the Mars Society, which selects the crews and handles most of the administrative tasks. The Mars Society is an international, non-profit organization that is dedicated to convincing governments and the public of the benefits of Mars exploration. They accomplish this goal through various projects such as MARS, the Mars Analogue Pressurized Rover Competition, and the ARCHIMEDES Mars balloon mission. Students interested in participating in the project receive a $500 travel stipend from the Spaceward Bound Program run out of NASA Ames Research Center. The Spaceward Bound Program aims to train the next generation of space explorers by allowing students and teachers to participate in projects in extreme environments that can serve and simulations for the moon or Mars. By providing students and teachers the opportunity get involved in projects like MDRS, Spaceward Bound gives participants valuable first-hand scientific experience.

Local residents are hired to take care of some of the maintenance tasks. Brigham Young University (BYU), the closest university to the MDRS, and the BYU Mars Research Group take care of many of the MDRS operational tasks. In exchange, the group has been allocated approximately half of the Greenhab space for its own projects.

Mars :

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the “Red Planet” because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface.

Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It is the site of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon. Furthermore, in June 2008 three articles published in Nature presented evidence of an enormous impact crater in Mars’s northern hemisphere, 10,600 km long by 8,500 km wide, or roughly four times larger than the largest impact crater yet discovered, the South Pole-Aitken basin. In addition to its geographical features, Mars’ rotational period and seasonal cycles are likewise similar to those of Earth.

Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, many speculated that there might be liquid water on the planet’s surface. This was based on observations of periodic variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the polar latitudes, which looked like seas and continents, while long, dark striations were interpreted by some observers as irrigation channels for liquid water. These straight line features were later proven not to exist and were instead explained as optical illusions. Still, of all the planets in the Solar System other than Earth, Mars is the most likely to harbor liquid water, and perhaps life. Radar data from Mars Express and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed the presence of large quantities of water ice both at the poles (July 2005) and at mid-latitudes (November 2008). The Phoenix Mars Lander directly sampled water ice in shallow martian soil on July 31, 2008.

Mars is currently host to three functional orbiting spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. With the exception of Earth, this is more than any planet in the Solar System. The surface is also home to the two Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and several inert landers and rovers, both successful and unsuccessful. The Phoenix lander recently completed its mission on the surface. Geological evidence gathered by these and preceding missions suggests that Mars previously had large-scale water coverage, while observations also indicate that small geyser-like water flows have occurred during the past decade. Observations by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show evidence that parts of the southern polar ice cap have been receding.

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Martian Trojan asteroid. Mars can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. Its apparent magnitude reaches −2.9, a brightness surpassed only by Venus, the Moon, and the Sun, although most of the time Jupiter will appear brighter to the naked eye than Mars. Mars has an average opposition distance of 78 million km but can come as close as 55.7 million km during a close approach, such as occurred in 2003.

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In recent years, concerns over dwindling reserves of groundwater and overloaded or costly sewage treatment plants have generated much interest in the reuse or recycling of greywater, both domestically and for use in commercial irrigation. However, concerns over potential health and environmental risks mean that many jurisdictions demand such intensive treatment systems for legal reuse of greywater that the commercial cost is higher than for fresh water. Despite these obstacles, greywater is often reused for irrigation, illegally or not. In droughtzones or areas hit by hose pipe bans (irrigation restrictions), greywater can be harvested informally by manual bucketing. In the third world, reuse of greywater is often unregulated and is common. At present, the recycling of greywater is poorly understood compared with elimination.

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