Greg In The Desert

• Homegrown Evolution: Self Irrigating Planter Resources – Homegrown Evolution is up in San Francisco this weekend to do a talk about the world of self-irrigating planters (also known as SIPs or self-watering planters or a couple of other variations on that general verbiage). In our opinion SIPs are the food growing tool of the aspiring urban agriculturalist. Make or buy one of these things and vegetable container gardening is a breeze. No need to water your pots three times a day during the summer! For those who can't make our talk, and as a resource for those who can, we thought we would put all the Internet resources in one place in this here blog post.
• Cool Tools: Littlbug Stove – The Littlbug is a well-made, elegantly-efficient wood-burning stove that's a great alternative to the propane stoves often relied upon during Scouting trips. The energy put towards producing, transporting and disposing propane stove canisters is a growing problem for those who spend time outdoors. A high-efficiency wood-burning stove makes practical, ethical sense — no need to haul around canisters, dispose of them, or put the burden on parks to go around collecting empties.
• One man’s quest to honor America’s Saturn V rocket – Rocketry Planet – On April 25, 2009, history will be made. At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor.
• News : Students fare well at New Mexico Science fair – Rio Rancho Observer – Eleven Rio Rancho High School students fared well at the annual New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.
• KOB.com – Rio Rancho police nab serial tagger – Rio Rancho police busted a serial tagger they say is responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damage.
  It was an attentive patrol officer that broke the case. The cop stopped 21-year-old Eric Perea for a traffic violation when he noticed a lot of cans of spray paint in the car.
• New Way To Split Water Into Hydrogen And Oxygen Developed – The design of efficient systems for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, driven by sunlight is among the most important challenges facing science today, underpinning the long term potential of hydrogen as a clean, sustainable fuel. But man-made systems that exist today are very inefficient and often require additional use of sacrificial chemical agents. In this context, it is important to establish new mechanisms by which water splitting can take place.
• The expanding invasion of the naked body scanners. – By William Saletan – Slate Magazine – When we first checked in on them two years ago, the scanners, which see through clothing, were being deployed at a single airport. A few months later, they were upgraded to millimeter-wave technology, which delivered similar images with even less radiation—"10,000 times less than a cell phone transmission," according to the Transportation Security Administration. At the time, TSA assured us that the scanners would be used only as a "voluntary alternative" to "a more invasive physical pat-down during secondary screening." Only a few passengers, the ones selected for extra scrutiny, would face the scanners. The rest of us could walk through the metal detectors and board our planes.
• Albuquerque Lunch Restaurants Examiner: Wecks breakfast for lunch a winner – What I love about Weck’s is being able to get breakfast anytime. The other thing I love is when you ask for crispy hash browns that is exactly what you get. Unlike other places that when you ask you have a slight chance they will actually follow through.
• The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM – View Construction Progress – As construction takes place on the Hewlett-Packard (HP) facility located in the city's downtown City Center, a new photo will be added to this Web page each week which will show progress that has been made.
• Yard Sale Treasure Map – A Yard Sale Planning Tool –

No no, this is not out of control. Clearly robots are running things, because one would think humans would use common sense.

But Beaman says she couldn’t find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she might have lost or misplaced it during the trip.

On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it was a mistake.

“You’ve committed a felony,” Beaman says a security screener announced. “And you’re considered a terrorist.

“Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

“I’m a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids,” she told them. “I’m not gonna commit a terrorist act.” Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure.

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the photograph of the knife.

“They said ‘no’ and they said it’s a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said ‘not at this point … you don’t have any’.”

I couldn’t agree more with Alton Brown when he says (June 10th, BTW).

“I?m just saying that people with authority should have to play by a set of rules…published rules. If as a nation we?re going to have to tolerate being probed, scanned, profiled and frisked before we can get on an airplane, so be it. But it seems to me that we deserve a little consistency. Otherwise we open ourselves up to a whole new brand of bully…bullies with badges…not to mention really nice omelet pans.”

(TSA = Transportation Security Administration)

In the year before September 11th, 2001 I was working away from home in California. I flew back and forth for 9 months and got quite familiar with the airport system. I was luck that my assignment was over just before those planes crashed into the towers. At the time I thought it a good idea to turn over security to the feds. I mean, they should be doing for the safety of the citizens instead of for the money (not that “for the money” is a bad thing). Having been through security since then I can think that it is nothing more than a joke. They have random searches of peoples shoes? Give me a break.