R.I.P Robin Roberts + Other Window Cleaning News

MUSCATINE, Iowa (Window Washer Found Dead): Daniel See of Muscatine said it’s comforting to know his former neighbor, Robin Lee Roberts, likely spent his final moments in the sort of place he loved best. A hiker found Roberts’ body early Monday evening near Iowa Highway 22 and Forest Lane, approximately 4 miles east of Muscatine, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The body was removed from the scene and taken to the Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny for autopsy. On Wednesday afternoon, the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office said the body had been identified as Roberts through matching fingerprints. According to Sheriff’s Office officials, there was no immediate indication of foul play at the scene but an investigation is being conducted.
See and others who knew Roberts said they were not surprised that he was found with his bicycle and backpack. “He rode that bike all around,” said See. “And we know he loved nature. He did a lot of camping.” According to Sheriff’s Office reports, Roberts may have been dead for up to a month, but Sheriff’s Office Detective Michael Bailey said there wasn’t a missing person’s report out for Roberts in Iowa. However, there was one in Utah.
That’s where Roberts spent some of his final days camping in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Kanab, Utah, according to park ranger Michael Franklin. Franklin said he filed a missing person’s report for Roberts in late August, approximately two weeks after Roberts left all of his camping gear and his diabetic supplies, including insulin, at his campsite and left with his bicycle.
Roberts left the state park sometime after he was in a motor vehicle accident at Zion National Park, which is about 30 miles away from Coral Pink Sand Dunes, said Franklin. The wreck happened Aug. 18, according to a report Franklin obtained on the incident, and Roberts’ vehicle was towed to Kanab. “The tow truck driver let him, (Roberts) use his car to go back out to his camp site,” said Franklin. “He got his bike and left.” Franklin said he never met Roberts, but was concerned by the way he abandoned his campsite. “I listed him as a missing and endangered person because of the medical condition,” said Franklin. “There were needles and insulin in his personal effects and as a law person, you have to look at these things.”
Franklin said he filed the missing person report around Aug. 28. Roberts never returned to claim the vehicle and it has since been listed as abandoned, said Franklin. After learning on Wednesday of Roberts’ death, See recalled some of the last things he and Roberts discussed as Roberts moved out of the duplex at 111 E. Ninth St. in July. “He said he was going on a vacation for a few weeks,” said See, who still lives in the duplex. “We hadn’t seen him since.” See and Eddie Bravo, another resident at the duplex, said that Roberts sometimes had a difficult time getting his diabetes under control.
Both men said Roberts had come to them at different times when they were neighbors, when he seemed to be suffering from some type of diabetic complication. He would ask for help and Bravo and See said they would give him juice or whatever kind of food or drink Roberts needed to help stabilize his blood sugar. Another friend of Roberts, Amber Hines of Muscatine, said she worked with Roberts at the Button Factory restaurant in downtown Muscatine, and he told her he had been dealing with diabetes for some time. Hines, an advertising representative for the Muscatine Journal, said Roberts owned his own window washing business, Nu View of Muscatine, and she spoke with him when he came in to place ads in the paper. Hines said Roberts never mentioned having a wife or children but she recalled his brother, Michael Roberts, coming into the restaurant. Michael Roberts could not be reached by press time for comments.
See and Hines remember Robin Roberts best as a bicyclist and avid outdoorsman. “He loved that bike,” said See. “He’d ride it all across town.” Can you help? The investigation into Roberts’ death is ongoing, said Detective Mike Bailey. Anyone with information can contact the Sheriff’s Office at 263-6055.

Suhag Khemlani, Deputy Managing Director of Clean India Group (the first high-rise window cleaning company in India to hire female cleaners), says that companies offer incentives so they don't lose out on good employees who already understand the systems in place. She says: "It makes great sense to bring back good performers who understand the company rather than hiring new employees who have to be trained from scratch. And why should a woman have to forgo a family in order to get ahead while men don't?"

Far in the future, humankind has evacuated the Earth in order to preserve it. Humans now reside in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the Earth, thirty–five kilometers up in the sky. The society of the Ring is highly stratified: the higher the floor, the greater the status. Mitsu, the lowly son of a window washer, has just graduated junior high. When his father disappears and is assumed dead, Mitsu must take on his father’s occupation. As he struggles with the transition to working life, Mitsu’s job treats him to an outsider’s view into the various living–room dioramas of the Saturn Apartments.

Unemployed? Mike Rowe Says Consider a 'Dirty Job': Having a hard time finding a job? You may want to expand your search. Think toilet crusher, maggot farmer, elevator shaft cleaner, sheep castrator, skunk wrangler, owl vomit collector, spider venom extractor, bee-man—and the list goes on. Jobs such as those are dangerous but profitable, said Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s show, “Dirty Jobs.” “What I’ve seen with the jobs that we feature on this show, [they] seem to know something that the rest of us don’t,” he said. “I think it's a sense of completion. You’re looking at a window washer right now in Hawaii … You know when you’re done.” Conventional, office jobs, meanwhile, are deceptive, Rowe told CNBC: “You don’t know when to stop.”

Dean French, franchise owner of the Portland-area Fish Window Cleaning, has received the Franchisee of the Year Award during the recent Fish Window Cleaning Driven to Excel 2009 National Convention in St. Louis, Mo.

I have never fiddled my taxes, or even my expenses; I become apoplectic at the sight of litter, and live in dread of accidentally contravening some obscure sub-clause of the Highway Code. Whenever I walk past a policeman, I make a point of simpering ingratiatingly at him, so that he should know I am on his side. But when it comes to the current brouhaha over Baroness Scotland's dodgy housekeeper – well, pur-lease. Of course illegal immigration is a bad thing, and of course we should expect the highest standards of probity from the woman whose job it is to make the law. But still: what an absolute shower of hypocrisy. There can hardly be a middle-class adult in the land who has not found himself, if not quite in Baroness Scotland's shoes, then at least trying them on for size. Can you, with hand on heart, swear that you have never hired a cleaner of foreign extraction without first running her documents past the Home Office? Have you never called in a plumber, builder or window cleaner without demanding to see his passport and National Insurance number?
There are an estimated 600,000 illegal immigrants in Britain, the vast majority of whom work. Who is employing them, if not the likes of you and me? Even if you are scrupulous in your screening of domestic staff – and it isn't always easy, as Lady Scotland has discovered – you almost certainly have an illegal immigrant working for you indirectly: cleaning your office lavatory every night, delivering your Indian takeaway, picking the litter off your street. Furthermore, you may, like me, find it next to impossible to regard these hard-working souls with the appropriate moral outrage. There is no doubt that illegal immigration is a social ill, depriving the state of much-needed tax revenues, adding to the strain on housing and public services, and causing understandable resentment among legal immigrants and the indigenous population, who may be competing for the same jobs. Earlier this week, Lady Scotland was fined £5,000.

Herb Chamberlain knows the names of most of the students who walk through the hallways of The Intergrated Arts Academy of H. O. Wheeler Elementary School. In 27 years at the Burlington school, he’s seen hundreds of boys and girls study there. Chamberlain’s commitment to youth doesn’t end when the dismissal bell rings: He also works part-time as a janitor at Burlington’s Boys & Girls Club and frequently attends Parent Teacher Organization meetings. “He’s an outstanding employee,” said Joyce Irvine, H.O. Wheeler principal. “He’s passionate about his job and the people who work in the school. He makes a point of knowing the families here.” While working as a Burlington School District employee, Chamberlain also served in the Vermont National Guards for more than three decades, retiring in 2005 with the rank of Sgt. First Class. Although he’s currently out on medical leave until October following knee replacement surgery, Chamberlain is anticipating the day when he can return to polishing desks and cleaning window panes while chatting with a second-grader about the day.

Has your business prepared for the flu? "I act as mother hen when my employees are sick and give them individual advice as to whether they need to stay home, see the doctor, remember to drink fluids, etc.," says Jeannette Watling-Mills, owner of Bob's Window Cleaning and also chairwoman of SCORE Manasota, "Counselors to America's Small Business." "Since we've just had our third H1N1 death in Sarasota ... it is a hot topic," she says. "Large and small biz probably need a written plan -- especially if their biz is office based with a lot of people in close contact." The U.S. Small Business Administration agrees and is distributing a business preparedness guide from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It was created to minimize the disruption during flu season. In a statement, SBA warns that the H1N1 flu outbreaks are occurring across America. To make matters worse, it will likely coincide with the return of seasonal flu this fall and winter.

Burj Dubais exterior is now complete: The tower has accomplished a world record for the highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade. The total weight of aluminium used on Burj Dubai is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft and the total length of stainless steel bull nose fins is 293 times the height of Eiffel Tower in Paris. The last cladding panel numbered 24,348, weighing 750 kg and 1160mm x 6400mm in height was placed at a height of over 662 metres (2172 ft), thus accomplishing the mammoth task of cladding the world’s tallest building. Arabian Aluminium Company in association with Hong Kong based Far East Aluminium began exterior cladding of Burj Dubai in May 2007, and the vast project has involved more than 380 skilled engineers and on-site technicians.
A mixed-use tower featuring residences, corporate suites, and the world’s first Armani Hotel and Armani Residences, Burj Dubai is on course to be completed later this year with work on interiors progressing simultaneously. The total 103,000 sq m of glass used in the cladding panels can cover 14 standard football pitches and the 15,500 sq m of embossed stainless steel used can cover 34 National Basketball Association specified basketball courts. The total length of gaskets – 2,050,000 linear metres – if laid end to end is about the distance from Dubai to Damascus in Syria (2,052 km).
The cladding materials were specially made using advanced engineering techniques and include high-performance reflective glazing, aluminium mullions and textured steel spandrels with vertical stainless steel tubular fins. The cladding accentuates Burj Dubai’s height while lending it a shimmering slenderness. Panels of more than 18 different strength specifications and over 200 sizes have been used for Burj Dubai, all of them double-glazed and factory-sealed. The high wind speeds were a major challenge. At the highest altitudes engineering teams had to work in tightly controlled shifts to install panels safely and efficiently. To minimise the risks involved in working at such towering heights, curtain-walling for the spire was pre-installed on the ground and then lifted to the summit to be secured.
“The precise engineering of the custom-made design meant that the 24,348 cladding units used on the tower are of the highest quality and consistency,” said Mr. Kayali. The panels used on Burj Dubai have varying thicknesses, each featuring two glass pieces of about 8 mm to 12 mm thickness, buttressed by a 12 mm spacer for strength and resilience. The length and thickness of each panel was decided based on the heights and locations at which the panel was to be installed. Panels used at the highest altitudes were further strengthened with stainless steel in addition to aluminium.
Keeping the tower façade clean will be the next engineering challenge. To guarantee that every corner of Burj Dubai sparkles, 18 window-washing units are built into the tower including nine track-mounted telescopic cradles, each with an extendable jib arm for cleaning that reaches more than 20 metres. Currently standing at over 800 metres, Burj Dubai is at the centre of Downtown Burj Dubai, a 500-acre mega project described as the new heart of the city of Dubai. The final height of the tower will be revealed when Burj Dubai opens later this year. Also here.


What would the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, look like if it was plunked down in middle of Manhattan? Well, a big ugly too-tall building in the middle of Manhattan, actually. See above.

Let's Start From The Top: Cuci The Musical is going to be THE stage show to catch this year. Not only does it star some of the biggest names in the Malaysian entertainment industry but the songs in this Hans Isaac-propelled musical are chart-worthy. Lucky fans who take part in the window-cleaning competition could also win tickets to the musical.
The story is about four brothers who are window washers from Kuala Selangor who strive for something more in their lives. They find out the existence of a Window Washing Olympics with the Grand Prize a contract of washing the KLCC Building (the most tallest building in Malaysia) in Kuala Lumpur. As they fight through the Olympics along with other more organised and professional teams, they realize that nothing is more important than their brotherhood and friendship.

Window cleaning con in Uttlesford, UK: A rogue window cleaner has been attempting to trick people out of money by charging for work which he has not done, police have warned. The latest incident occurred at a house on Cambridge Road, Quendon, at 1.30pm last Thursday. After knocking on the door, the conman demanded money for work that he said his father had done the previous day. The man left empty handed and was seen heading in the direction of Rickling Green. Inspector Kevin Wakefield from Saffron Walden Police Station warned that there have been similar occurrences in Stansted Mountfitchet and Newport. "Unfortunately there have been several attempts at this scam, particularly in the south of the district, and on some occasions the victim has paid the money," said Insp Wakefield. "I would warn all members of the public to be on their guard and if they have someone call at their house and ask for money they should call the police straight away." The man has been described as Eastern European in appearance, middle aged, about 5ft 7ins tall, with short brown hair and wearing a blue t-shirt and navy tracksuit bottoms. He may have vehicle. Anyone with information should contact Saffron Walden Police Station on 0300 333 4444.