Green thumb

Tip: Mark Bulbs

Spring-flowering bulbs that didn't flower should be marked with colorful ribbons for transplanting later. Once the foliage has yellowed dig and replant bulbs into a sunny, well drained site amended with compost.

This is timely because I am dealing with daffodils which have not bloomed and grape hyacinth which have disappeared.

Challenge

Think of nefarious use of this development and then try to think of a benevolent application.

Boeing Awarded DARPA Contract to Develop Ultra-Long-Endurance Aircraft Technologies

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has been awarded a $3.8 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for Phase 1 of the Vulture air vehicle program, an effort to create a new category of ultra-long-endurance aircraft.

DARPA's Vulture program calls for developing technologies and ultimately a vehicle that can deliver and maintain an airborne payload on station for an uninterrupted period of more than five years using a fixed-wing aircraft. Boeing is teaming with United Kingdom-based QinetiQ Ltd. for the program.

The yearlong Phase 1 covers conceptual system definition, and formal reliability and mission success analysis, concluding with a System Requirements Review. It also requires conceptual designs for sub- and full-scale demonstrators.

"Boeing has worked closely with DARPA on a number of innovative programs in the past and we welcome this important opportunity to again team with them to define a new air vehicle system with unprecedented reliability and endurance that significantly extends current aircraft and spacecraft capabilities," said Pat O'Neil, program manager, Boeing High Altitude Long Endurance Systems. "We will combine our strengths in highly reliable aerospace systems development with the unique capabilities of our teammates, QinetiQ, Versa Power Systems and Draper Laboratory."

QinetiQ is currently flying and testing a solar-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system for the U.K. Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense under the Zephyr Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration. QinetiQ's role will be to leverage the technologies developed and demonstrated in Zephyr for the DARPA Vulture program.

The Vulture vehicle's goal is to be capable of carrying a 1,000-pound, 5-kilowatt payload and have a 99 percent probability of maintaining its on-station position.

Link

Getting to the root

Ever wonder, as I do, how some of our language came into usage? This link offers some answers.

Idioms

It isn’t always the nonnative speaker’s accent (which may be perfect) that enables people to recognize instantly an outsider who is learning their language—it’s the odd mistakes that no native speaker would make. The idiomatic use of words such as to, for, and with varies from language to language. Just as each person has a unique, characteristic signature, each language has unique idioms. In fact, the word idiom comes from the Greek root idio, meaning a unique signature. Thus, each language contains expressions that make no sense when translated literally into another tongue. The humorist Art Buchwald wrote a famous column, often reprinted, in which he translated some of our Thanksgiving (Mercidonnant) terms into literal French, with comic results. If a German or Spaniard or Italian literally translated birthday suit and get down to brass tacks, the terms would make no sense, or the wrong sense. Even a native speaker of English who is not used to hearing literate idioms such as fits and starts, cock-and-bull story, hue and cry, and touch and go will not be able to make sense of them. Our purpose in defining these idioms is to let the cat out of the bag for those who haven’t heard them often enough to catch their meanings.

Other idioms are really allusions or foreign-language terms that make no sense unless you know what the allusions or terms mean. Carry coals to Newcastle translates adequately into any language, but it makes no sense to a person who doesn’t know that Newcastle is a coal-mining city. Knowing the literal meaning of idioms won’t enable you to understand them unless you also know what they allude to. Such ignorance is an Achilles’ heel and an albatross around one’s neck. Moreover, just knowing a baker’s dozen of them is not enough; you have to know them en masse. Educators who complain about the illiteracy of the young but pay no attention to teaching idioms are just weeping crocodile tears. We have therefore decided to cut the Gordian knot by systematically defining some of the most widely used idioms in American literate culture.

Link

Trend

One would hope we will start making smart decisions about our energy sources.

Coal Boom to Bust? New Power Plants Face Challenges

When Duke Energy asked North Carolina air quality regulators permission to build a new coal-fired power plant unit west of Charlotte, the company got a green light only after agreeing to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

But to the north, just across the border in the heart of Virginia coal-country, state regulators are moving closer to giving Dominion Virginia Power the go-ahead to build a new coal-facility without limitations on the release of the climate changing gas.

Over the last several years, power companies have pushed to build more than 150 new coal-fired power plants. But with Congress poised to restrict carbon dioxide emissions some analysts say that the boom may be coming to an end.

For now, though, the different tact on carbon at two plants separated by a three hour drive across a state line highlights the country’s patchwork, state-by-state approach to forestalling climate change.

As the likelihood of national carbon regulation has grown, Wall Street and the federal government have suddenly grown skittish about funding new coal plants. And state regulators in many parts of the country have in recent months blocked proposed coal plants on global warming grounds, even in states with no carbon restrictions on the books.

Link

Words, words, words

geoponic (jee-uh-PON-ik) adjective

Of or relating to agriculture
Simple... the opposite of hydroponic

endogamy (en-DOG-uh-mee) noun

The practice of marriage within a specific social group

noctilucent (nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt) adjective

Shining at night.

Wise words

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst: Aristotle

Great thought from the world's smartest man

We all would benefit from having a vision and goal for the future. Considering who is saying this, I think the idea merits serious consideration.

Stephen Hawking urges new era of space conquest
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking called Monday for a new era of space conquest akin to Christopher Columbus' discovery of the new world, in a speech on the 50th anniversary of NASA space agency.

"In a way, the situation is like Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase," the British scientist said at Georgetown Washington University.

"Yet the discovery of the new world made profound difference to the old. Just think, we would not have a Big Mac or KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)," he added referring to the ubiquitous US fast food outlets.

"Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all," added the 66-year-old theoretical physicist, who is known for his works in cosmology and quantum gravity.

Hawking envisions a long-term space exploration project that would include building an experimental base on the moon within 30 years, and devising a new propulsion system to take us on a planetary hunt outside our solar system in 200-500 years.

"It will not solve any of our immediate problems on planet earth," he said, "but it will give us a new perspective on them and ... Hopefully, it will unite us to face a common challenge."

"Going into space will not be cheap, but it will take only a small portion of world resources," he added.

Hawking has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative motor neurone disorder, since he was 20. It has left him almost completely paralyzed, and he can only speak through a voice synthesizer.

A year ago, however, he was able to step off his wheelchair and float about in a state of zero gravity aboard a special plane.

He hopes to repeat the experience in space, above the atmosphere, aboard the maiden, suborbital flight of the Virgin Galactic of British billionaire Richard Branson's venture company Virgin Group, whose first flight is planned for next year.

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