Grist (”a blogful of leafy green commentary“) has a post entitled “More farmers, less market”, by Tom Laskawy. The subtitle of his piece is:
“Farmers markets need rules if we want them to help the food system” [emph. added]
He is concerned that Chambers of Commerce are often involved in setting up farmers markets, implying that their role is unseemly & unconstructive - we should assume they’re up to no good.
He is even more worried that Farmers Markets are or might be under the sway of ‘market forces’. He summarizes & concludes:
“And I’m not arguing that farmers markets should be one thing or another, but when “the market” is in charge, the result will naturally be a place where space goes to the highest bidder. If the goal is to maximize profit, that’s great. But if the goals are different — and are meant to align food distribution in the public, rather than the private, interests — then we’ll have to put the chamber back in charge of glossy marketing materials and let food policy experts design some more appropriate incentives for our farmers markets.” [emph. added]
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This patent, filed in 1973, talks about how to combine C02 (carbon dioxide gas) with H2 (hydrogen gas) to make liquid hydrocarbons - specifically to make a synthetic gasoline. Note the Fisher-Tropsch comparison/distinction.
There are no drawings for this patent.
The authors are: “Masaru Ichikawa, Tokorozawa, Shuichi Naito, Toshihiko Kondo, and Kohei Kawase, Sagamihara, and Kenzi Tamaru, Kamakura, Japan”
The patent is assigned to: “Sagami Chemical Research Center, Tokyo, Japan”
Following is the main descriptive text. Forthcoming will also be the 2 detailed production-examples, which complete the patent.
“Abstract of the Disclosure
Catalyst capable of converting carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing hydrocarbons is disclosed said catalyst comprises at least one alkali metal belonging to Group IA of the Periodic Table, graphite and at least one halide of the transition metal selected from the group consisting of Groups VIB and VIII of the Periodic Table. (more…)
Devil's Club clumb with seed-head
This photo is of a clump of Devil’s Club that has sprawl down a wet slope with a highly-organic surface-layer (on top of some glacial till and then clayey-shaley bedrock.
At the toe of the slope the cane-like stems have emerged from the deeper shade up-slope, gaining filtered sunlight at the edge of open clearing. The clearing, at the foot of a small north-facing creek canyon slope and its tall, dense timber, is still a fairly strong shade-hole, although it has clear sky above.
This represents one of the 3 more-common forms one will see Devil’s Club adopt. Under continuous canopy and on full-timbered creek canyon slopes, the stems reach high, become stronger & thicker over the years, and are spaced further apart. The leaves are largest, on shaded specimens.
The other form occurs in full sunlight. The stems are shorter, stay upright & compact better, and the leaves are perhaps about 1 foot across - half the usual size. Usually, shading trees have been removed leaving the Devil’s Club exposed to full sun. Clumps persist in this form, but I’m not sure how well wild seedlings would become established under fully-open conditions.
Devil's Club seed-head
The seed-head in this photo is bit over 1 foot long (the base in not visible). It’s the same one as in the first picture.
Devil’s Club is a fairly close cousin of Ginseng, and this is most readily appearant in the flowers & seed-stem architecture.
The Complete Guide to Chain
From the website:
The Complete Guide to Chain provides a comprehensive reference for chains used in power transmission and conveyance applications. Everything from the basics of chain, through to specific industrial applications of its use are detailed.
The Complete Guide to Chain website is an online version of the book by the same name. It was originally published by the Tsubakimoto Chain Co. in 1995, and over the years has become a reference for industrial professionals.
This has been going on for awhile now. First it was alcohol: a modest ration supposed to be shown as more healthful than none. Resveratrol, from the skins of wine grapes, was touted as a wonder-substance (never mind the alcohol). Lycopene in tomatoes elevated crude ketchup to the status of health-food. Now, watermelons are on tap to put a scare in the makers of Viagra.
see “Watermelon May Have Viagra-Effect
Secrets of Phyto-nutrients Are Being Unraveled”
You know, several of us have eaten a slice or 4 of watermelon on occasion. Did we ever whisper to each other about a marked effect on the erectile tissues? Not that I remember. Urinate a few extra times to get rid of the surplus water (they do call it watermelon, hmm?) - that’s about it.
But that’s the story today - watermelon contains vitamins & nutrients that act like Viagra in the body - and it’s science, so it must be true! And it all seems really quite convenient, coming just a couple days before 4th of July, the traditional American watermelon feast-day.
However, I will convey this related anecdote: My burly & earthy step-father would exclaim upon eating or merely seeing esp. the first delicious strawberries of spring, “Those’ll make yer neck swell!”. I always assumed the reference was to the neck of a bull, which is supposed to enlarge during times of breeding-interest. The phenomenon may also occur with the first flush of spring forage. Stepdad would also make the comment occasionally about other especially-good fruit. It’s also possible I was wrong and the intended reference was to another ‘neck’ …
So, it is perhaps not impossible that researchers at Texas A & M are actually on to a bit of something here … nor is it impossible that they lifted the idea or hint from existing informal cultural lore (Texas esp. valuing the burly & earthy..)
The results of several years archaeological excavations at the 113 acre Ferry Farm of General and President Washington’s family were announced today. The actual location of the house that he grew up in had previously been unknown, but the newly-discovered foundations and rock-lined cellars yielded abundant clues to his domestic condition.
see “Washington’s boyhood home found, but no hatchet”
” “We see a county-level gentry home,” [Muraca] said. Washington’s father “was wealthy within the county … not on the colonial level but locally important, and we see a home befitting that status.” The house measured about 53-feet by 37-feet, with a central hallway and two rooms on each side of the hallway.”
“… after digging through layers of dirt the archaeologists found two chimney bases and stone-lined cellars and root cellars.
The cellars held a large number of artifacts including pieces of the house’s ceilings and painted walls, fragments of 18th century pottery and other ceramics, glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone.”
The press announcement was made by “David Muraca, director of archaeology for The George Washington Foundation”, along with “Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, [who] found evidence that the house was a one-and-a-half-story residence perched on a bluff overlooking the river.”
For more details and images, see House Site Announcement, and additional information on the Ferry Farm webpage.
Most gardeners do not picture themselves sitting down to a nice, steaming bowl of oatmeal they grew & harvest & processed themselves. Instead, they see themselves scattering their own luscious, homegrown strawberries on top of cereal they bought at the store. Likewise, very few envision baking bread from homegrown wheat - they may want a home grinder to make fresh flour from a purchased supply of whole wheat grain, but they generally do not aim to grow the wheat at home. Rarest of all are those who grow their own vegetable-spread, salad-dressing, and cooking oil. Yet all of these are quite feasible in the home garden.
As a rule, gardeners grow anything & everything, except the most basic and most important crops - the staples. The grains & dried beans and oil-seeds that form the foundations of nutrition are among the most unusual of gardening-subjects. (more…)
Galena is a high-function remote Native village on the Yukon River in west-central Alaska. About 2004, the major Japanese corporation of Toshiba approached the village council with a proposal to site a small, sealed-unit nuclear reactor power plant in their community. This story has been an on-going minor cause célèbre with nuclear power proponents, the technically-minded, and with Alaskans in general ever since.
A good compendium of the facts is available in the Wikipedia Galena Nuclear Power Plant article.
Much of the interest in this story, though, is not so much the facts, but the intangibles. Is this for-real? Why Galena? Can Toshiba and Japan really do this? What are the motivations & possibilities in this affair? (more…)
The case of Joe Horn, who was cleared today at grand jury in the shooting deaths of two burglars, has motivated gun opponents to disparage the general idea of ‘Castle Doctrine’. They hope to spin it as some archaic holdover from the Wild West.
For a good overview of the concept, see the Wikipedia ‘Castle Doctrine’ article, which also covers the related notion of ’stand your ground’.
Missing from many of the articles and commentary about the Joe Horn shootings and the Texas castle doctrine law, is mention of last Thursday’s historic Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court repeatedly emphasizes that DC’s gun-ban is unlawful, because it prevents citizens from defending their own homes. Perhaps indirectly and unintentionally, the text of the majority opinion provides strong support for the increasing array of State laws enacting Castle Doctine.
‘Stand your ground’ differs in that it provides similar legal protection for responses to threats outside the home. The Wikipedia article above quotes a 1905 case precedent, in which the Judge noted that it is impractical to “retreat” from a firearm. Over a hundred years ago, the Supreme Court noticed that retreat from a gun-assailant (the most common kind) is ineffective. One might run from a knife or baseball bat (allowing the dubious assumption that one is (and essentially ’should’ be)the superior athlete), but not a bullet.
The advent of firearms thus extended much of the inherent wisdom in defending one’s home, to maintaining control & defense of one’s immediate situation, wherever she goes, with deadly force.
A grand jury in Harris County, Texas decided not to indict Joe Horn of Pasadena for shooting and killing two men caught burglarizing his neighbor’s house on November 4, 2007.
see “Texas man cleared of shooting suspected burglars”
Several important issues arise in this case, but the one that attracts my attention is that the 911 emergency operator whom Horn spoke with pleaded with him not to go outside and confront the offenders. On the one hand, it’s true that confronting criminals can be risky, but on the other hand if we are expected to remain passive as a matter of blanket policy, then we have adopted the posture of the victim. (more…)
