Greg In The Desert

• News : Master Gardeners win national honor – Rio Rancho Observer – The garden has received the International Master Gardener Search for Excellence Award, which is a cooperative effort of the Sandoval County Master Gardeners through New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension program and several City of Rio Rancho departments, partnering with the Rio Grande Basin Initiative, local businesses and community volunteers.

  The award was presented on March 23 to Master Gardener Linda Poe, project coordinator, at the International Master Gardener Conference in Las Vegas, Nev.

• The Consumerist Hive Helps You Buy A Diamond [Jewelry] – What are the things you should know when going diamond shopping? Our reader Justin needs to buy one.
• Realtors: Existing-home sales in West up 19% in March from last year – New Mexico Business Weekly: – The West, including New Mexico, was the only part of the country to see sales of existing homes increase in March from the same month of 2008, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.
• Electronista | EU steps toward fining Intel in antitrust case – The European Union has prepared a draft decision in an ongoing antitrust case against Intel that appears to be approaching completion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Unnamed sources familiar with the matter claim the EU will seek a fine against the company, although the draft can be modified as it continues through the process.
• Thirteen year-old revealed as winner of Apple’s billion app contest | Software | Macworld – Apple on Friday revealed the name of the winner of its billion app countdown contest. It’s Connor Mulcahey, a 13 year-old who hails from Weston, Conn.
• The Simple Dollar » Thoughts on Work, Personal Life, and Frugality – If you hate your job, today’s the day to start going frugal. Don’t go home tonight and follow the same old routine. Your future doesn’t have to be like this. Here are 100 ways to get started. Most important: when you’re tempted to spend on something unnecessary, think twice about it. Make the choice not to spend until it becomes familiar and comfortable – then use that money you’re saving to get out of debt and build yourself a future you can be happy with.
• The GOP: divorced from reality – Los Angeles Times – By Bill Maher

  If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.

• Advanced Composite Structures: Flying high – New Mexico Business Weekly: – The Rio Rancho company, which makes thermoplastic air cargo boxes, reorganized operations through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the past two years.

  Now, it has emerged from the process with $16 million in new capital from a New York-based investment firm and a $6 million contract with Northwest Airlines.

• Spider "Resurrections" Take Scientists by Surprise – rs in a lab twitched back to life hours after "drowning"—and the scientists were as surprised as anyone.

  The bugs, it seems, enter comas to survive for hours underwater, according to a new study.

• Chrysler unveils new electric minivan for U.S. Postal Service duty – Chrysler is celebrating Earth Day today by unveiling the first four of what will be a fleet of 250 battery powered minivans for the US Postal Service. The U.S.P.S. will be using the vans for variety of duties at locations around the country – including daily home delivery.

This weeks Photo Friday is “Futuristic“. This is a 1964 Chrysler Turbine car. In the 1960’s, a few hundred lucky people were given the privilege of beta testing this vehicle. From what I can tell, the turbine turned a driveshaft, so it wasn’t pushed along by a jet engine. Still I would drive one, I guess these cars were ahead of their time.

This picture was taken at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit when I visited there in September of 2006.

You might think, what’s the big deal, their just windshield wipers? Except the true story is that this man invented them and all the car makers use something that’s very similar to what he invented. Doesn’t he deserve credit and compensation for that? The car companies did’t think so.

Robert Kerns died on February 9th. His life wasn’t an easy one with considerable effort being put into suing the car companies. He won suits against Ford and Chrysler but that lasted years. By the time he got through with the rest of the companies his patents had expired.

Update 9/23/08: The movie “Flash of Genius” will be in Theaters October 3rd. You can read more about the movie at Wikipedia or watch the trailer on iTunes. Also read about the Flash of Genius Doctrine or Flash of Genius Test, which was the criteria used to judge patent cases.

Chrysler is coming out with the Charger again in 2006, Autoweek has the scoop. The Charger is the same one use in the Dukes Of Hazzard. Shown here is a 1968 Dodge Charger.

You can see they tried to copy some of the lines of the original Charger, along the back over the rear wheels and somewhat over the hood. But it looks a lot more like the 300 than the original. Still the effect is not bad, especially when compared to the same attempt Chevy did with the first reincarnation of the Malibu.