Masonry Magazine October 2003 Page. 48
MCAA News
The benefit is in being wireless," Liu said. "When you remove the tether a lot of good things can happen."
Current work on the smart brick project is focused on making the unit more rugged and miniaturized. Liu and Engel are also developing software, systems and communication protocols so the technology can be commercialized. Liu said they hope to roll out the finished product in about half a year. For more information on the smart bricks and sensor technology, go to mass.micro.uiuc.edu.
Reprinted with permission by Consulting Specifying Engineer (www.csemag.com), copyright Reed Business Information.
Local, State and Regional
# California
Reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, "Bay Area News Roundup." August 19, 2003:
A San Jose eighth-grader is one of 14 California middle school students who have been named a semi-finalist in the 2003 Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.
Bernal Intermediate School student Terik Daly was announced as a semi-finalist last week for his project "Shake, Rattle and Roll: The Effect of Shape on Unreinforced Masonry Building's Structural Integrity in an Earthquake."
Daly is one of 400 semi-finalists from 45 states. The competition is in its fifth year and is designed to make science fun for fifth through eighth graders...
Forty finalists will be chosen from the 400 semi-finalists. The competition finals will be held in Washington, D.C., in October.
# Florida
Reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "Workers' comp exemptions harder to get." August 16, 2003:
Small contractors built a strong enough case against a workers' compensation rule enacted in 2002 that state lawmakers struck down the rule a year later.
Last month, the Florida Legislature repealed the requirement that contractors buy workers' comp if they work on commercial projects valued at more than $250,000.
At the same time, however, the Legislature tightened requirements governing how many officers in a company are eligible to file for workers' comp exemptions. It also authorized the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to hire 65 additional fraud prevention officers to visit construction sites and make sure that contractors play by the rules.
Starting in January, anyone wanting a workers' comp exemption for him or herself and up to two other corporate officers will have to form a corporation and prove that each of the exempt officers owns at least 10 percent of it. The owners will have to purchase workers' comp for any other employees.
"They have to have stock certificates and that makes it much tougher to claim exemptions," said Jerry.
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46 Masonry
October 2003
www.masoncontractors.com