Plants @ MindSay

Please, never try to pin me down on political affiliation or religious belief, or anything like that. I honestly believe that my views are unique, but I really don't try to make them so, I just let them be what they are. One minute you'll find me endorsing solar energy, and another, you'll see me pushing for fossil fuels over ethanol; you'll see me disagreeing with a war, but giving the thumbs up to new military technologies.

I was thumbing through one of my older issues of Popular Science from a few months back, and I came across an article that I'd forgotten about - the Brits possibly building a fleet of modular robotic battleships. The same country who used to be a world superpower due to the absolute power of their navy, the one that lost that power steadily after the Napoleonic Wars, may be getting that strength back with a new potency and versatility.

These ships are specially made to operate on a crew that's less than 2% the size of what is currently necessary, with no decrease in ability from the older models. What's more is that these ships are going to be taking advantage of a new technological trend - modularity. Essentially, four to five models of ship are going to be constructed, but with the ability to have all of their weaponry and special equipment switched out at a moments notice to be re-tasked to a radically new job.

Now onto one of my favorite innovations that's come about recently: Vertical Farming. The concept is based on building spiral-shaped towers in urban areas that use hydroponics and nutrioponics (suspending the plants in a jelly substance made of nutrients and reprocessed plants) to grow plants in a very controlled environment. These towers, too, would be modular and able to be stacked and added to later - as well as utilizing solar power to maintain all of the systems.

Locating these tower in urban areas allows for a number of unique advantages over old methods of farming that use land inefficiently and consume massive amounts of fossil fuel to maintain. The increase of jobs, coupled with the CO2 processing abilities of plants and the vicinity to the places the food is to be sold allows an overall increase in economic and environmental health.

Ah. Cloudboats. Wonderful little inventions, they are. Essentially, they break down to being oversized, satellite-controlled catamarans that charge themselves using solar power and use the air around them and ocean under them to help regenerate the atmosphere. They would move about freely, keeping themselves free of shipping lanes and allowing themselves to be lent to a number of other uses (floating wi-fi anyone?).

I'm going to rest for a bit. I might get back to this fun stuff later.

~Mr. Mobius

good thing I woke early and hit the front yard as it's now raining again. I managed to eliminate one large half dead shrub, take down a small rock wall that was buried under years of dirt and reposition them around the "water" aka mud. It will take a few days for all the mud so sink and let me clear it out so it looks more black or maybe even green... especially the water fall.. hahahaha... well not quite.


But the redwood against the violets looks great and my columbines are blooming as is the jack in the pulpit hidden within the maidenhair ferns. and now jim is building a raised bed within part of the redwood walkway and i will plant gypsophylia from seed. always good to have and such a heavenly scent. My paltry little peony has not died .......yet. I will be amazed if next year it really takes over. Now i just have to finish hiding the black rubber that lines the muddy hole, get my stone pagoda, do something to hide the electricity post, and plant the remaining ajuga along the water's edges. Yahoo !!!

The other great thing is the full bath off the garden room. once again I came into the house literally covered in mud.... stripped down to bare skin, jumped in the shower and wrapped in a towel. tossed the muddy gardening clothes into the washer and came upstairs all clean and ready for warm clothing. The weather predictions which are REALLY laughable out here is for weather in the 80's later in the week so Jim and I will head straight for cannon beach  or tillamook. anyone want some cheese?

I pretty much lost my mind last night. Threw a vase..which broke of course. It missed the window but hit the edge of the sill and broke a piece of wood off. The vase had a lot of little marble like glass decorations in it which went everywhere of course. It also had some old flower petals and shells. It made a huge mess. While trying to clean that up I got more frustrated and irritated and knocked over the little shelf that had my little pots of plants started in them. And some candle holders and a few other knickknacks. Most of the things were fine except for one candle holder top that broke. The plants went everywhere:( some had dirt on their roots still but some didn't. At that point I realized I was totally nuts. And just stopped for a few minutes and went and got R to help. The plants are now back in their pots and hopefully will recover. They are all mixed up now and I have no idea which is which. Thats not a problem if they keep growing cause it will show eventually. The rest of the mess is almost cleaned up now.

I talked to a friend of mine who has always had a temper problem. He told me that when I start getting frustrated or irritated or downright angry to sit down and write it out. Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully I will remember when I need to.

I totally don't get it.  The African violet that my mother warned me was 'not easy' has new leaves on it.  However, the little vine-y thing she gave me (theoretically easy) has died a slow painful death.

I don't get it.