The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.
It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn't a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped
by Jack Prelutsky
October 31, 2002
The Invaluable Common Sense I Learned in a Farm Country Upbringing
Over the years I told many people I owed much of my success working in industry to the common sense I learned from my Oklahoma farm country upbringing: having farmer friends, working weekends on farms - shocking oats, loading bales of hay, picking cotton, helping to build a pig feeder, safely driving a tractor; work hard - "put in a day's work for a day's pay"; be trustworthy - "do what you say you will do, and do it on time if humanly possible"; show respect for the "boss" and for fellow workers; have pride in work; etc.
I got "book learning" at Weatherford High School and then the University of Oklahoma and Rutgers University - all wonderful schools for education in my chosen field of science. And my science education was essential for my success. But the common sense from my upbringing in farm country also led to success in science in ways too numerous to count.
In the magazine Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land I find an article that is so reminiscent of the "down home" gift of common sense I owe to farm people and farm knowledge. There is a "ring" of the Scientific Method to the subject of collecting and using data to optimize farm production - and to the resourcefulness needed to gain knowledge from research and data handling with minimum effort (think cost.) A summary of the article is included with this post.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
The call of the wild data
Article in Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land by Katie Thompson
@agriculture online
2002-10-18 19:39:28.0
http://www.agriculture.com/default.sph/agNotebook.class?FNC=ArticleList__Aarticle_html___8249___800
Yours for the taking:
Data
It takes time to start using your data, and it should.
Step One: Look
"I always recommend to start with yield maps," says Robert [Pierre Robert, professor of precision agriculture at the University of Minnesota]. Get to know your fields. "Some may have more variability than others."
Step Two: Triage
Select 'management zones'. The best targets for improvement will be the fields with the most variability.
"Within the field, when he has several years of data, then he may start defining zones," says Robert. You have to narrow down your targets for a good reason: Money.
"Grid sampling is expensive," says Robert.
Step Three: Get more data
Grid sampling is soil testing done at intervals over an entire field, so that each 2.5 acres (or so) is tested separately. Soil testing can also be done on smaller areas -- management zones of a few acres, for example. The tests look at nutrients and pH of the soil.
"I would always look at pH," says Robert. Why? Because pH can have a big impact on plant growth.
Step Four: Use the data
Now you can do precision application of nutrients or precision liming, for example.
"Liming is always a good candidate for variable application for benefits," says Robert. "We have many examples where that works."
And beyond
The next step might be variable planting, where the planter automatically plants more or less seeds, depending on the quality of the soil at each position in the field.
"But that really requires some experiments," says Robert. It may not be the best solution for all fields.
Over the years I told many people I owed much of my success working in industry to the common sense I learned from my Oklahoma farm country upbringing: having farmer friends, working weekends on farms - shocking oats, loading bales of hay, picking cotton, helping to build a pig feeder, safely driving a tractor; work hard - "put in a day's work for a day's pay"; be trustworthy - "do what you say you will do, and do it on time if humanly possible"; show respect for the "boss" and for fellow workers; have pride in work; etc.
I got "book learning" at Weatherford High School and then the University of Oklahoma and Rutgers University - all wonderful schools for education in my chosen field of science. And my science education was essential for my success. But the common sense from my upbringing in farm country also led to success in science in ways too numerous to count.
In the magazine Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land I find an article that is so reminiscent of the "down home" gift of common sense I owe to farm people and farm knowledge. There is a "ring" of the Scientific Method to the subject of collecting and using data to optimize farm production - and to the resourcefulness needed to gain knowledge from research and data handling with minimum effort (think cost.) A summary of the article is included with this post.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
The call of the wild data
Article in Successful Farming - Voice of the people on the land by Katie Thompson
@agriculture online
2002-10-18 19:39:28.0
http://www.agriculture.com/default.sph/agNotebook.class?FNC=ArticleList__Aarticle_html___8249___800
Yours for the taking:
Data
It takes time to start using your data, and it should.
Step One: Look
"I always recommend to start with yield maps," says Robert [Pierre Robert, professor of precision agriculture at the University of Minnesota]. Get to know your fields. "Some may have more variability than others."
Step Two: Triage
Select 'management zones'. The best targets for improvement will be the fields with the most variability.
"Within the field, when he has several years of data, then he may start defining zones," says Robert. You have to narrow down your targets for a good reason: Money.
"Grid sampling is expensive," says Robert.
Step Three: Get more data
Grid sampling is soil testing done at intervals over an entire field, so that each 2.5 acres (or so) is tested separately. Soil testing can also be done on smaller areas -- management zones of a few acres, for example. The tests look at nutrients and pH of the soil.
"I would always look at pH," says Robert. Why? Because pH can have a big impact on plant growth.
Step Four: Use the data
Now you can do precision application of nutrients or precision liming, for example.
"Liming is always a good candidate for variable application for benefits," says Robert. "We have many examples where that works."
And beyond
The next step might be variable planting, where the planter automatically plants more or less seeds, depending on the quality of the soil at each position in the field.
"But that really requires some experiments," says Robert. It may not be the best solution for all fields.
October 30, 2002
Video of A VERY BIG Electrical Discharge :-)
Natural History online (September 2002) offers a free videotape of a humongous "electrical flash phenomena."
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/
Since I was a kid I am fascinated by things like the movie props used in Frankenstein movies, serious scientific apparatus such as Tesla coils, etc., with dramatic display of electrical discharges.
So WOW! The online video from Natural History showing an electrical discharge "that stretches from the tops of thunderclouds (about ten miles above Earth) to the bottom of the ionosphere (about forty miles up) just about "knocks my socks off."
The electrical flash phenomena was videotaped for the first time by researchers working at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. (Video courtesy of Victor P. Pasko, Mark A. Stanley, John D. Mathews, Umran S. Inan, and Troy G. Wood.)
Note: In order to view the video clip, software that supports the MP3 file format such as the RealPlayer is needed. A link is given to install RealPlayer free at the RealNetworks website.
http://www.real.com/realone/index.html?src=player_redct
(Additional Note: Unless wanted, a "for-pay" subscription for "RealOne RadioPass" need not be turned in.)
Natural History online (September 2002) offers a free videotape of a humongous "electrical flash phenomena."
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/
Since I was a kid I am fascinated by things like the movie props used in Frankenstein movies, serious scientific apparatus such as Tesla coils, etc., with dramatic display of electrical discharges.
So WOW! The online video from Natural History showing an electrical discharge "that stretches from the tops of thunderclouds (about ten miles above Earth) to the bottom of the ionosphere (about forty miles up) just about "knocks my socks off."
The electrical flash phenomena was videotaped for the first time by researchers working at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. (Video courtesy of Victor P. Pasko, Mark A. Stanley, John D. Mathews, Umran S. Inan, and Troy G. Wood.)
Note: In order to view the video clip, software that supports the MP3 file format such as the RealPlayer is needed. A link is given to install RealPlayer free at the RealNetworks website.
http://www.real.com/realone/index.html?src=player_redct
(Additional Note: Unless wanted, a "for-pay" subscription for "RealOne RadioPass" need not be turned in.)
October 29, 2002
QUOTE OF THE WEEK --------
"A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result."
-- Gisela Richter
(in www.DiabetesinControl.com newsletter)
"A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result."
-- Gisela Richter
(in www.DiabetesinControl.com newsletter)
October 27, 2002
Hypotheses of the Origin of Life
One of the exciting moments of my early scientific career in chemistry was reading the monograph "The Origin of Life on the Earth" published in 1957 by the Russian biochemist Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin (known only to me at the time as A.I. Oparin) 1894-1980. This was my first exposure to the hypothesis that chemicals with the potential to form replicative life, including amino acids, proteins, DNA, etc., can form in nature under conditions of the primordial earth.
So I am excited again like I was as a young man to read recent scientific research supportive of Oparin's ideas. News about the research appears in an article "Trapping DNA Through Thermophoresis" in the American Institute of Physics Physics News Update Number 610 #1, October 22, 2002 by Phil Schewe, James Riordon, and Ben Stein.
In experiments conducted by Dieter Braun and Albert Libchaber, fluorescent-tagged DNA molecules in a water media are repelled by a laser-generated hot spot and then "come back." Close observation showed a convection cell pattern about 20 microns across and with the DNA concentration enhanced by a factor of 1000.
These findings are especially interesting for me because the theory and application of non-equilibrium processes, including convection cell formation, are concepts commonly used in chemical engineering - and during my career I had the good fortune of working both in research chemistry and later in chemical engineering. Boy, that was enjoyable!
In summarizing the research, the authors of the Physics News Update article state: "Demonstrating a mechanism for confining early metabolic and replicative life forms in a far-from-equilibrium environment such as localized heat sources (e.g., hydrothermal vents) immersed in a cold ocean, should be of interest to biologists who ponder the advent of life."
One of the exciting moments of my early scientific career in chemistry was reading the monograph "The Origin of Life on the Earth" published in 1957 by the Russian biochemist Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin (known only to me at the time as A.I. Oparin) 1894-1980. This was my first exposure to the hypothesis that chemicals with the potential to form replicative life, including amino acids, proteins, DNA, etc., can form in nature under conditions of the primordial earth.
So I am excited again like I was as a young man to read recent scientific research supportive of Oparin's ideas. News about the research appears in an article "Trapping DNA Through Thermophoresis" in the American Institute of Physics Physics News Update Number 610 #1, October 22, 2002 by Phil Schewe, James Riordon, and Ben Stein.
In experiments conducted by Dieter Braun and Albert Libchaber, fluorescent-tagged DNA molecules in a water media are repelled by a laser-generated hot spot and then "come back." Close observation showed a convection cell pattern about 20 microns across and with the DNA concentration enhanced by a factor of 1000.
These findings are especially interesting for me because the theory and application of non-equilibrium processes, including convection cell formation, are concepts commonly used in chemical engineering - and during my career I had the good fortune of working both in research chemistry and later in chemical engineering. Boy, that was enjoyable!
In summarizing the research, the authors of the Physics News Update article state: "Demonstrating a mechanism for confining early metabolic and replicative life forms in a far-from-equilibrium environment such as localized heat sources (e.g., hydrothermal vents) immersed in a cold ocean, should be of interest to biologists who ponder the advent of life."
Dining in Baku, Azerbaijan
My blog readers know I sometimes take interest in cuisine that is off the "beaten track." An example is my post [9/4/2002 8:20:32 PM] about cherryburgers made with 10% minced tart cherries mixed with lean burger meat. Unfortunately, fresh cherries are currently out of season in Oklahoma. But, not to be a "quitter", I got the idea of making cherryburgers with canned cherry pie filling. Bad idea! :-) I managed to make a "muckburger" that was barely edible.
Now my interest is perked by a "Tales From the Caucasus" column in the October 22 Moscow Times entitled "You Can't Beat the Taste: This Tomato's for Real" by Chloe Arnold in Baku, Azerbaijan. For example, my taste buds are whetted for Azeri cuisine by learning: "If you ask for a salad, the waiter will bring you a plate with two tomatoes, two cucumbers and a fistful of fresh herbs torn straight from the garden. Sometimes they're still clinging to clods of earth with perhaps a worm or two struggling to get away."
Continuing the description: "Because they taste so good, there's no need to char-grill them or roast them or smother them in fancy dressings. Azeris just sprinkle on a little salt and a dried herb called sumakh, which looks like fine red tobacco."
From the article, it sounds as if the real dining fun starts on leaving the capital Baku for the countryside. Evidently the basic menu choices are mutton, mutton and barbecued mutton served in the ubiquitous kebab style. :-) But there is a mutton delicacy for special occasions called khash that is worth reading about. Suffice it to say - "Tradition has it that the khash must be eaten before sunrise -- and accompanied by jugfuls of vodka." Hmmm. Now that sounds daring to try. ;-)
My blog readers know I sometimes take interest in cuisine that is off the "beaten track." An example is my post [9/4/2002 8:20:32 PM] about cherryburgers made with 10% minced tart cherries mixed with lean burger meat. Unfortunately, fresh cherries are currently out of season in Oklahoma. But, not to be a "quitter", I got the idea of making cherryburgers with canned cherry pie filling. Bad idea! :-) I managed to make a "muckburger"
Now my interest is perked by a "Tales From the Caucasus" column in the October 22 Moscow Times entitled "You Can't Beat the Taste: This Tomato's for Real" by Chloe Arnold in Baku, Azerbaijan. For example, my taste buds are whetted for Azeri cuisine by learning: "If you ask for a salad, the waiter will bring you a plate with two tomatoes, two cucumbers and a fistful of fresh herbs torn straight from the garden. Sometimes they're still clinging to clods of earth with perhaps a worm or two struggling to get away."
Continuing the description: "Because they taste so good, there's no need to char-grill them or roast them or smother them in fancy dressings. Azeris just sprinkle on a little salt and a dried herb called sumakh, which looks like fine red tobacco."
From the article, it sounds as if the real dining fun starts on leaving the capital Baku for the countryside. Evidently the basic menu choices are mutton, mutton and barbecued mutton served in the ubiquitous kebab style. :-) But there is a mutton delicacy for special occasions called khash that is worth reading about. Suffice it to say - "Tradition has it that the khash must be eaten before sunrise -- and accompanied by jugfuls of vodka." Hmmm. Now that sounds daring to try. ;-)