Thursday, February 23, 2012

Solid Buckyballs in Space



Q: What happens when an interstellar space craft or inner solar system space craft collides with a relatively small solid buckyball cluster?

A: A dent in the hull and minor deflection from course.

"Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in gas form in the cosmos."
- NASA's Spitzer Finds Solid Buckyballs in Space

Friday, February 17, 2012

World Freshwater: Real vs Virtual



The NYTimes article Tracking How the World Guzzles Water
By JOANNA M. FOSTER
interests me because I have two half sections that are dry land farmed near Grant, Nebraska.


View Larger Map

The circles on the map show intense pivot irrigation agricultural practice.


T-L Center Pivot Irrigation System


The sprayers under the pivot boom are positioned above the final crop head height. These sprayers are a recent innovation delivering moisture closer the ground. The pivot irrigation practice in western Nebraska requires significant amounts of water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer that is nominally threatened by the Keystone XL Pipeline.