Augmented Water Hacking An Instructable

For anyone reading this blog who is not familiar with the positive meaning of the word hacking, it can be used to mean improving on an existing item, whether thats a computer program or a real-world piece of hardware, like a water flow meter system.

Tonight I saw an Instructables project called Augmented Water. Im not sure why they called it augmented, although it might be intended to mean the water faucet has something extra added to it (in this case to encourage using less water). This project adds to a water faucet an extension
consisting mainly of a flowmeter, an Arduino and a strip of LEDs (light emitting diodes).

The concept is to visually let the person who opens the faucet know when theyve used a certain amount of water, with the expectation that the LEDs lighting up or changing color will prompt the person to close the faucet more quickly than if they didnt realize how much water they were using. According to the Instructables article, the code is written to turn the LEDs red after one liter is used.

In the comments on the project webpage, one reader suggests using "an ATiny85 or an Arduino micro to shrinkify things." The project post author replied by saying, "Id love to see an energy harvesting mod, e.g. inside an LED shower head."

So what Im proposing is that between now and the next meeting of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group (on June 26), the group members, and other people who read the blog and are interested in the idea, should hack the design shown in this Instructables post and come up with ways to improve it. Design it with a smaller microcontroller, like the one reader suggested. Come up with a different type of lighting that you think would be more effective at conserving water, such as different colors to signal different amounts of water, or an appropriate limit or target for the volumes of water for different uses. Maybe develop an interesting looking 3D-printed housing for the Augmented Water unit. Improve the code in some way. There are lots of ways to hack the concept of an MCU-controlled water flowmeter with LED volume indicators to promote conservation of water.

One hack I think would be cool is along the lines of what the post author suggested. Im not sure what they mean by "an LED shower head," but it would be interesting to modify or create a shower head that had LEDs that generated soothing happy light when it starts running, but after a certain flow the LEDs start giving off a less happy light to encourage you to end your shower shortly. If you dont shut the water off after a second usage level that youve programmed in, the LEDs are changed so they give off downright annoying and unpleasant light. (Now I have to Google to see if someone already sells a shower head like that.)

What are your hacks for this? Who knows -- if you come up with some good ideas, maybe people will want to buy them from you, or you might have an Instructables post written about the hack youve built. Bring both your ideas and any physical models you build to the June 26 meeting or email the ideas or pictures to me (arcatabob [att] gmail [dot] com) if youre not going to be at the meeting.

**********

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Was this a Nuclear Explosion or an exploding Nuclear Power Plant

Further to my report last night about the massive explosion in Tianjin China, reports are now flooding in asking the same question:  Was this nuclear?

http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.com/2015/08/breaking-news-massive-explosion-in.html


New Video footage in the South China Post News show other views of the explosion from different vantage points.  But the most telling was a picture posted on social media that made me go searching for more information about Tianjin City this morning.  The picture was of a Nuclear power plant In Tianjin.... a very large nuclear power plant:



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-21/latest-china-revolution-seeks-great-leap-for-clean-energy

Nuclear Desalination

(Updated August 2015)

• Potable water is in short supply in many parts of the world. Lack of it is set to become a constraint on development in some areas.
• Nuclear energy is already being used for desalination, and has the potential for much greater use.
• Nuclear desalination is generally very cost-competitive with using fossil fuels. "Only nuclear reactors are capable of delivering the copious quantities of energy required for large-scale desalination projects" in the future (IAEA 2015).

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Non-Power-Nuclear-Applications/Industry/Nuclear-Desalination/



.....In March 2013 the National Development and Reform Commission announced new plans for seawater desalination, including for the cities of Shenzhen and Zhoushan, Luxixiang Island in Zhejiang Province, Binhai New Area in Tianjin, Bohai New Area in Hebei, and several industrial parks and companies. The cost is likely to be some CNY 21 billion ($3.35 billion). China aims to produce 2.2 million m3/day of desal water by 2015, more than three times the 2011 level. More than half of the freshwater channelled to islands and more than 15% of water delivered to coastal factories will come from the sea by 2015, according to the plan.

So what do we know?  We know that the purported explosion too place in Tianjin China, in the Binhai New Area.  We know that the videos show what looks like a nuclear blast.  We now know that there are several Nuclear powered plants in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin China.  We have seen the pictures of devastation from the explosion....


What do we know?  What do we suspect?   I know what I strongly suspect...


d

‘Is this a nuclear bomb?’: drone captures apocalyptic scenes in Tianjin, China, after industrial explosions

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 13 August, 2015, 12:02pm

Taking on the look of a war zone or apocalyptic film, the gutted remains of an industrial area in Tianjin, China. Photo: Beijing Youth Daily

In the aftermath of deadly explosions at a chemicals warehouse, parts of Tianjin city in China looked like scenes from an apocalyptic film or a war zone, with destroyed buildings and homes, torched cars and pillars of thick smoke.

Testament to the devastation, eyewitnesses compared the strength of the blasts to military bombs. “Our building is shaking. Is this an atomic bomb?” a frenzied voice is heard saying in amateur footage posted on YouTube from what appeared to be an apartment building some distance away from the Binhai New Area, the epicentre.

The clip showed fire shooting into the night sky from the initial blast when the second, much bigger, explosion rocked the area, sending a huge fireball into the air. Seconds later, the apartment building is seen violently shaking.

In another amateur video which appears to be shot closer to the scene, people scream from inside a car as the shockwave hits from the second blast, rocking their vehicle.

A photographer from the Beijing Youth Daily captured the chilling aftermath at ground zero, with a cluster of industrial buildings in Binhai reduced to ashes and piles of smoking debris. The blasts were powerful enough to crumple shipping containers and flatten nearby warehouses into twisted pieces of sheet metal.

Shell-shocked residents posted photos of their homes, with unhinged doors and collapsed ceilings.

Watch videos and continue reading HERE:  http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1849157/nuclear-bomb-apocalyptic-scenes-tianjin-china-after-industrial

China shuts down space supercomputer damaged by shockwaves of deadly Tianjin blasts

The Tianhe-1, the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2010, still remains operational, but has been switched off over safety concerns, Xinhua report

China has shut down one of its fastest supercomputers used in the nation’s space programme after it was damaged in Wednesday night’s deadly blasts in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin .

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1849200/china-shuts-down-space-supercomputer-damaged-shockwaves-deadly

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TI Tiva C Connected LaunchPad

Allow me to introduce the shiny new Texas Instruments (TI) Tiva-C Connected LaunchPad!

Lots of pins, two 40-pin BoosterPack headers, two buttons, four LEDs, a USB host/slave port and an Ethernet port! All for $20 with free shipping.

That last bit is why I bought one the moment I read about it. Then I started hoping that Energia supported it. Luckily for me, Energia seems to have started working with TI directly and already had support for this board. Energia is even linked on TIs product page and mentioned in the user manual / datasheet.

If you arent familiar with Energia, its a port of the Arduino IDE to work with TI LaunchPads. It supports most of the LaunchPads, and more are being added fairly regularly. Energia also has a decent pile of libraries for the various LaunchPads, including the basic i2c, SPI, and so on, as well as Ethernet and WiFi. This makes getting your LaunchPad connected to the outside world just as easy as with an Arduino.

That double row of 0.1" spaced holes along the bottom of the board are a complete breakout of all the pins. The manual / datasheet gives header part numbers you can buy from your favorite parts house and instructions to install them. Once you do, you can plug the entire board into the middle of a solderless breadboard. Its a fairly interesting feature, and one that I hadnt seen before.

The most attractive part of this board to me is the cost. At $20 it costs less than an Arduino ($25) or an Ethernet Shield ($31 for a genuine Arduino), let alone both. It even comes with a USB cable for programming it as well as an extendable/retractable Ethernet cable. To any annoyed Arduino fans out there, know that I too am an Arduino fan and use them often.

On the bottom of the Tiva-C Connected LaunchPad (thats enough of the official name, Im going to call it the TM4C1294 LaunchPad from here on out; the core chip is a TM4C1294) we find female headers as well as pin designations:

The white stickers have your boards serial number and MAC (media access control) number, though you can set the MAC in software to be anything youd like.

Beyond Ethernet, there are plenty more communication methods and channels at the TM4C1294s disposal.

• 7 TTL Serial ports.
• 3 I2C ports.
• 6 SPI ports.
• USB Host / Device port.
• At least two CAN bus ports.

Is that enough for you?

Before you start worrying about having enough RAM for all this, let me assure you: You do. You get 256KB (thats kilobytes, no funny business with kilobits) of RAM, 6KB of EEPROM storage arranged in 32bit cells, and a full megabyte of flash storage for programs. Oh, and dont forget the 120MHz ARM Cortex A4 CPU with hardware floating point abilities.

For input / output you get 20 analog inputs spread between two 2 million samples per second 12bit ADCs, tons (>70) digital inputs/outputs, >20 PWM outputs, two pushbuttons and four LEDs, plus a RESET button and a WakeUp button. For a full rundown on the pins available in Energia, heres a pinmap.

So weve got tons of everything, what do we do with it?

Anything?

Beyond the snarky answer, I have no idea what you want to do with it. Heres something cool though! Texas Instruments bought a chunk of Exosite.com for people to use with LaunchPads, or any other device.

Exosite is a cloud storage and delivery platform, among other things. Using TIs section of it you can create a free account and start uploading your data, whatever it might be. Once its there you can do all sorts of interesting things with it. Ive been having it chart the light level in my living room for the last 18 hours or so. Heres the chart ti.exosite.com generates for me:

It can do far more than just graph data, as well. Ill go into more detail on how to get your TM4C1294 LaunchPad, Arduino Ethernet, Raspberry Pi, desktop computer, or anything else that can speak basic HTTP, connected to TIs slice of Exosite in a future blog post.

Alternatively, you have enough RAM storage and CPU power to use the TM4C1294 as a web host itself. If youre only going to use your data (whatever it might be) on a single network, there is no reason to bring the cloud into things at all. Writing webpages inside programs is time consuming, but certainly doable. The first thing I did was make a webpage hosted on the TM4C1294 that allowed me to turn the onboard LEDs on and off.

In conclusion, if youre looking to dig into the much vaunted Internet of Things, this might be a good place to start.

-Ed Smith

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How to make an easy as worm barrel farm for lawn clippings garden scraps

It really cant get more simple that this barrel farm.. I call it a dump & walk barrel as that is how I feed it.. A catcher or 2 or lawn clippings get dumped into the barrels & I walk away, its as easy as that.. The prunings & old plants from the veggie bed in the patch go in whole if they are small enough or get the once over with the lawnmower to chop them up a bit if they are to large..

A great type of farm to have under a fruit tree as any nutrients that leach out will feed the tree.. One like this will be added to a new bed we are making out the front soon..

For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our Bits Out the Back Facebook page..
Have a great one All...
R?b..

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Time for an aquaponic system update the first fish harvest

Did another backyard aquaponic system update last week.. Its all travelling along rather nicely at the moment & am happy to report there have been no dramas as of late..  **knocks on wood**
Plant growth is still coming along nicely even though the temperatures have been dropping a bit.. Thinking we are still right to plant out a few more seeds though..

Should have the site for the mini fish farm all sorted by the next update hopefully..

Have taken the first 4 perch from the system to share at a bit of a family get together over the weekend.. 3 were not the largest but wasnt expecting too much.. Might pull a few more over Winter but not sure yet, shall see how we go..

Information on the iki jime method of despatching fish can be found here
http://www.ikijime.com/
& is well worth the look I think.

For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our "Bits Out the Back" Facebook page..
Have a great one All...
Rob..

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Obama the Troll an Oily Economy and the Ships that Didnt

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!!!

Obamas State of the Union Address: "Anyone who says that the economy is declining is Lying"

really?   Really?   REALLY?!?!

Well.... lets just take a look at that, shall we?  My notes in Blue, as usual.

d

International Shipping Shuts Down; Baltic Dry Index Freefalling

January 20, 2016 eClinik Learning 3 Comments

International cargo vessels today are all docked and anchored in most seaports all over the world, and the last trips they may have had were for the December holidays shopping spree.
As of yesterday, the most prominent global indicator for international shipment of physical goods, the London-based Baltic Dry Index, is in free fall.

For the last six months or so, most cargo container ships were already sailing with less than their full capacity.
The physical economy is crashing and all the warnings that’s been relayed to you for the last four years should have prepared you for what’s to come in the interim.
There may be a short disruption on the supply of critical goods and services especially on areas that are fully industrialized.

“Today, Monday, January 18 2016, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 4 points, reaching 369 points.

Baltic Dry Index is compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange and covers prices for transported cargo such as coal, grain and iron ore. The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on Monday, January 18 2016, when the index dropped to 369 points.”

Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide....

......This unfolding event in the physical economy is reminiscent of the event back in the early part of 2012 when CEOs of global banking resigned en masse.

• Massive Resignations Have Started

This is one more proof that the plan to end the Great Con Game perpetrated by the Khazarian Mafia for centuries will be terminated this year as much as possible.
Earlier, China had instructed its banks to stop buying US dollar and instead gradually unload its dollar reserves. The Chinese Central Bank also demanded that the Yuan will be the only currency they will accept and honor from hereon, with the exception only where sovereign currency swap agreements are in effect. This means that those countries which don’t have such similar arrangement with China will suffer financially unless their currencies are proven to be backed up with hard assets.....

.....It’s no coincidence that China is struggling desperately to contain a stock implosion.  Reportedly, banks have been told they are forbidden to buy US dollars and numerous Chinese billionaires have gone missing.  And the markets have just opened on Monday and are again deeply in the red.
Here at The Dollar Vigilante we’ve specialized in explaining the reality of the global faux-economy and why it’s important that you not believe mainstream media lies.
In the meantime, keep your eye on this shipping story!  If it is true and worldwide shipping is disastrously foundering, it’ll only be a matter of days before grocery store shelves will reflect that with increasingly bare shelves.
Are people upset now? Just wait. Interruptions in goods and services, most critically food, almost happened in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis.  For three days worldwide shipping was stranded due to shipping companies not knowing whether or not the receiver’s bank credit was good.....

.....To confirm reports on the internet of a shipping freeze, this writer called NYK lines, a major international shipping firm, and was told “we cannot speak for the whole world but, as far as our company is concerned, with current shipping prices we will lose money every time we send a ship so we have stopped.” Chinese government sources told this newsletter shipping companies are now demanding to be paid in Chinese yuan and not dollars and that is a major reason for the freeze in shipping worldwide. If this continues, it will lead to empty super-market shelves and social unrest, especially in the US. The announcement last week by Walmart that it is closing 269 stores is just the beginning.”

To read the Entire Article:  http://geopolitics.co/2016/01/20/international-shipping-shuts-down-baltic-dry-index-freefalling/

The North Dakota Crude Oil Thats Worth Almost Nothing

... actually, LESS than nothing to be exact.  N Dakota sour crude hit -$0.50 a barrel two days ago.  Yes, thats exactly what it means:  they are now having to PAY people to take their oil fifty cents a barrel!!!

The Oil Crash Of 2016 Has The Big Banks Running Scared

"Since the start of 2015, 42 North American oil companies have filed for bankruptcy, 130,000 good paying energy jobs have been lost in the United States, and at this point 50 percent of all energy junk bonds are “distressed” according to Standard & Poor’s.  As you will see below, some of the big banks have a tremendous amount of loan exposure to the energy industry, and now they are bracing for big losses.  And the longer the price of oil stays this low, the worse the carnage is going to get......

Iran has been carefully planning for its return from the economic penalty box by hoarding tons of oil in tankers at sea.
Now that the U.S. and European Union have lifted some sanctions on Iran, the OPEC country can begin selling its massive stockpile of oil.
The sale of this seaborne oil will allow Iran to get an immediate financial boost before it ramps up production. The onslaught of Iranian oil is coming at a terrible time for the global oil markets, which are already drowning in an epic supply glut.

If you cant blame China, you can now Blame Iran!!!!!   Of course the fact that almost every country around the world and most of the heavy hitters in the financial realms have been hoarding every ship tanker, railroad tanker, truck tanker they can find with OIL for the past year ..... no, just ignore that and point a finger at Iran.   And of course, the fact that just two weeks before the International sanctions against Iran were lifted, Obama lifted a 40 year ban on US oil Exports..... no just ignore that glaring addition to the glut of oil on and already swamped international market.....

?US lifts 40-year ban on oil exports

Just to really hammer the oil issue home......

Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling.

Now that the oil glut has caused prices to crash below $30 a barrel, turmoil is rippling through the energy industry and souring many of those loans. Dozens of oil companies have gone bankrupt and the ones that havent are feeling enough financial stress to slash spending and cut tens of thousands of jobs.
Three of Americas biggest banks warned last week that oil prices will continue to create headaches on Wall Street -- especially if doomsday scenarios of $20 or even $10 oil play out.

A Glimpse Of Things To Come: Bankrupt Shale Producers "Cant Give Their Assets Away"

So in short: the bankruptcies are piling up and the assets securing the sectors financing are essentially worthless now that crude is basically free.

Got it.

But banks and lenders neednt be concerned. After all, Americas long list of cash flow negative producers are "only" sitting on $325 billion in debt.

Iran sanctions: Middle East stock crash wipes £27bn off markets as Tehran enters oil war

Prospect of the Islamic Republic pumping an additional 500,000 barrels a day sends stock markets in Dubai and Saudi Arabia into tailspin 

Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than £27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply

 .... and just in case you didnt see this coming:

Is it time to bail out the U.S. oil industry?

.... that would be "Notice" by the way.

Federal Reserve Instructs Banks To Peddle Fiction: Derivatives Imploding!

And heres a little reminder of what we talked about back in December 2015... oh so long ago...

Financial Armageddon Approaches: U.S. Banks Have 247 Trillion Dollars Of Exposure To Derivatives

Citigroup

Total Assets: $1,808,356,000,000 (more than 1.8 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $53,042,993,000,000 (more than 53 trillion dollars)

JPMorgan Chase

Total Assets: $2,417,121,000,000 (about 2.4 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $51,352,846,000,000 (more than 51 trillion dollars)

Goldman Sachs

Total Assets: $880,607,000,000 (less than a trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $51,148,095,000,000 (more than 51 trillion dollars)

Bank Of America

Total Assets: $2,154,342,000,000 (a little bit more than 2.1 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $45,243,755,000,000 (more than 45 trillion dollars)

Morgan Stanley

Total Assets: $834,113,000,000 (less than a trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $31,054,323,000,000 (more than 31 trillion dollars)

Wells Fargo

Total Assets: $1,751,265,000,000 (more than 1.7 trillion dollars)

Total Exposure To Derivatives: $6,074,262,000,000 (more than 6 trillion dollars)

... and yet, it has been quite difficult to nail any of these Big Banks down to a precise figure of exactly HOW MUCH of those derivatives are in the Energy Sector and about to implode with the price of oil..... 


And finally, along with the collapse of the oil industry and oil driven economies (ie: all of them), we have the collapse of a huge amount of global currencies.  The demise of Canadas Loonie has been hot on everyones lips, with multiple articles and news stories about sky rocketing food prices in the land of the Canuck....but the vast majority of the American based articles keep tsk tsk tsking and pointing up north with heavy sighs of "OH what a shame", yet they are seemingly missing the writing on their own wall.  Think that $8 Cauliflowers are just a Canadian problem?  Think that $53.00 for 10kg of flour is just a weird Canadian price anomaly?   Yea..... Think again.

With global shipping all but at a stand still, with a raging drought in California- the USs number one winter produce state- and a Baltex Dry Index that is in free fall (meaning that international shipping has radically dropped and is continuing to drop day after day), and major retail outlets closing left right and center, its only a matter of time before $8 Cauliflowers are going to be slapping the US consumer right in the pocket as well.

You know, theres an old adage, that when you have a problem with 50 other people.... then YOU are the problem.

When over a hundred and fifty countries are having massive economic problems due to their currencies "collapsing" in comparison to the US dollar.... then the problem is with the US Dollar.


.... What remains to be seen now, is just how long it will be before the other countries realize (Publicly) where the problem exists. .....

... Oh wait!  Would THAT be what we are seeing at the moment?  Countries NOT selling to the US?  Countries NOT using the US Dollar for international trade?
  

OH!  One final article:

Federal Government Hires Internet TROLLS to Monitor and "Correct" Online Discussions

....and my last question:

Does this make Obama the highest paid internet troll on the planet?

Just sayin

d

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Building an aquaponic vermiponic system for a middle school in the Bronx

Demonstrating CPR at the Bronx Writing Accademy for students
A preview of  the engagement of the students next semester

This is exiting !  Citizen Schools, a non profit dedicated to extend learning hours in low income schools,  will allow me to create a 11 week apprenticeship centred on hydro-ponics! Even better, we were able to get a 500$ grant from Green Thumb for the apprenticeship!

I am looking for a couple of volunteers to help out. If anyone is interested in volunteering, please contact me though my google+ account or through the comment section.

The idea of the apprenticeship came up because of one of the students during this semesters apprenticeship at the Bronx Writing Academy ( the apprenticeship is called "Future Physicians" and we are preparing the students to present clinical cases for several cardiac diseases as if they would be MDs). The day the idea was born, we were talking about how food and environment can influence cardiac diseases using the NYC community survey maps. One of these maps shows that some places in NYC, including the Bronx, have much lower access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Since we were talking about food, we also pointed out how a lot of fruit and veggies are not "as good" as we think, because they were coming from sometimes very far like Florida, California or Mexico. I also mentioned that in NYC there are people who are trying to grow food in the city. One of the students said "Ho! we should do that!". Thats how the idea was born. We then visited Taqwa Community Gardens in Bronx, where one of the person there told us bout the Earth Savers Club and Green Thumb.

Because of the grant we will be able to build 2 "  "ponics, compare the growth, and present the system and results to the community at the end of the 11 weeks. On system will be an hydroponic system, the second will be a "teaponics" system - hence my experimenting at home. We will build the system out of 5 gallons pails collected from a local restaurant that will be used as grow beds and water reservoir. This pails will only be food safe pails (soy sauce, pickles and other). We plan on using shredded water bottles (PE - not polycarbonate) and milk bottles (as they also are food safe) for grow-media. Since the pieces of bottles will float, we plan on using another re-purposed material : pillow/comforter polyester fluff as a netting to keep the media in place. Additionally, since we got the 500$ grant, we may get a couple of commercially available grow towers, for comparison.

We will try to understand the basic physics, chemistry and biology behind a "  "ponic system. We will also introduce the notions of sustainability - in the particular case of food- and try to understand the balance between the cost of growing food locally and far away (in my neighborhood groceries store the very large majority of the fruits and veggies are coming from Mexico all year round). For the students who are more inclined to arts I want to encourage them to write poem, short stories or songs, or drawing painting to show at the WOW!

The program will culminate with the presentation of the system to the community around the school to show as many people in the neighborhood as possible what hydroponics look like and explain how it can be started for a low cost. We hope to get the authorization from the school to do that in front of the school in the little lawn with the flag-post so passer buy can be engaged.

""By the 6th grade, students from underserved communities still average 6,000 fewer hours of learning time than their middle-income peers. You can level the playing field by teaching an apprenticeship this spring. Teach a new and improved version of your last apprenticeship or try something entirely different. Sign up here."" From a citizen school communication

Cant wait to start building it and see how it grows!

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