The farm, located on 28-acres in the heart of the community, will be a combination of small-plot gardening for family consumption, larger commercial plots focused on providing food for local restaurants and grocery stores in New Orleans, and a livestock area for raising chickens and goats in the traditional Vietnamese way. The proposed market on the site will provide a location for the individual farmers to supplement their income as well as serve as a central meeting space for the larger Vietnamese community along the Gulf Coast.

Pruned notes one oddity in the conceptual drawings: no one is actually working the farm.

America seems to have decided that a “smart grid” is what we need to solve the problems of our electric power system. But, what exactly is a “smart grid”?

The answer is that it is many different things. Some of the things that get talked about are relatively inexpensive and can go a long way toward solving key problems. Others will likely be very expensive, and at this stage may better be left to the realm of research.

Carnegie Mellon University offers a five-page document explaining the concept. Download it here.

Links from Eat Me Daily

In other news:

Those are the highlights. There’s plenty more to read in this week’s print edition.

OK, so I’m not suggesting you read the text of this article, but I am urging you to look at the photos. Don’t stop early. Make sure to gander at the short-headed rain frog. Maybe you’ll find the need to read.

Sarah quitting - I’ve seen some references to Sarah Palin’s quitting speech that conclude she really gave no reason for stepping down. I thought it was very clear from the video. As a lame duck governor, she said she would waste millions of dollars traveling here and there and not really accomplish anything. Apparently lacking the discipline to stick with the job, she said she didn’t want to waste Alaskan’s money so was quitting early.

Street Farmer - From Elizabeth Royte in the NYT, a story of an urban farmer in Milwaukee. [Free registration is required]

local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project.

Much ado about… Newsweek digs into the report of an EPA employee who was allegedly muffled over his views as a climate change denier:

Neither scientists nor administration officials are swayed much by Carlin’s or Inhofe’s claims. For one — and the EPA is quick to point out — Carlin isn’t an environmental researcher, he’s an economist.

Fastest ever - The Smithsonian has an article on the SR-71, the ultimate spy plane. Here’s a link to a tale of one disastrous test flight:

Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. I learned later the time from event onset to catastrophic departure from controlled flight was only 2-3 sec. Still trying to communicate with Jim, I blacked out,
succumbing to extremely high g-forces. The SR-71 then literally
disintegrated around us.

Volcano - If you’re a geology nut like some of those associated with this blog, you’ll want to check out this encounter with a volcano:

Afar is a wild and remote region in the northern part of Ethiopia and an area with some of the most intense seismic and volcanic activity in the world, a result of the Earth’s crust being ripped apart by the movement of tectonic plates. However, most of the magma that forces its way upwards into the crust never reaches the surface, so we don’t want to miss this rare chance to study an eruption as it happens.

Downing snail - Before dinner, please take a look at this video demonstrating how to eat the massive African land snail.

Reporting on Iraq - The emphasis is on Afghanistan and Pakistan these days, with Iraq moving to the background, other than the recent reporting on U.S. troops leaving the cities. An interview with a couple reporters asks this question from Roy Greenslade: How can we have sovereignty without electricity and water?

What a cheater. I’ll have to check later to see if it’s actually dead.

I took photos with my expensive equipment, then decided to try a much less expensive camera that we have at the Disturber office. The reporter’s camera (Coolpix 4300). A good little thing, but without the capabilities of the SLR.

I’d never messed around much with that camera and never tried out the macro function. For sharpness, it’s better than the “good” camera. Overall, there are some weaknesses. But I might go with this one anyway because it shows the hairs on the bee better. Whether or not they’ll even show up on newsprint is a different matter.

If I remember correctly, the building was a dental office (Dr. Adgate?) and then became the library. I thought I would find that information in the Local History section - the old Bicentennial blue book - but I don’t see anything.

I still remember seeing Hazel Moore at the checkout desk with the dirty book such as Peyton Place shelved behind her.