Wayne, here's the headline...Crystal power Palmtop Nuclear Fusion Device Invented By Michael Schirber LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 27 April 2005 01:00 pm ET The nuclear reaction that powers the Sun has been reproduced in a pocket-sized device, scientists announced today. Researchers have for years tried to harness nuclear fusion to power the world. But its cousin, nuclear fission -- the breaking apart of atoms -- is the only method so far commercially viable. The latest invention is not in the same league as efforts to build complex commercial reactors. The new device creates a relatively small number of reactions, and requires more energy to operate than it produces. The Real Deal (AP) - Previous claims of tabletop fusion have been met with skepticism and even derision by physicists. In one of the most notable cases, Dr. B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University in England shocked the world in 1989 when they announced that they had achieved so-called cold fusion at room temperature. Their work was discredited after repeated attempts to reproduce it failed. Fusion experts noted that the new UCLA experiment is credible because, unlike the 1989 work, it did not violate basic principles of physics. "This doesn't have any controversy in it because they're using a tried and true method,'' said David Ruzic, professor of nuclear and plasma engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "There's no mystery in terms of the physics.'' -- Associated Press But the configuration is so small and simple that its creators think it may inspire unforeseen applications. "I certainly find it interesting that you can heat a cubic centimeter crystal in your hand, then plunge it in cold water and it will cause nuclear fusion," Seth Putterman from the University of California Los Angeles told LiveScience. Putterman's lay description greatly oversimplifies how the compact apparatus works. Specifically, Putterman and collaborators heat a pyroelectric crystal, lithium tantalite, from minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit to plus 45 in a matter of minutes. This generates an electrical charge -- 100,000 volts -- across the tiny crystal, which is housed in a chamber filled with deuterium gas, a heavy form of hydrogen. The high voltage is focused onto a needle-thin tip, which strips electrons from nearby deuterium nuclei and then accelerates them at a solid target containing deuterium. When two deuterium nuclei collide together at high speed, they fuse to form helium. The Sun also fuses atoms in thermonuclear reactions that create light and heat. The byproduct of the newly discovered lab reaction is a particle called the neutron. The scientists detect about 1,000 neutrons per second. Because neutrons are so penetrating, Putterman said that a hand-held neutron source might one-day be used to do geologic surveys or to look into cargo containers for nuclear devices. "Current neutron generators are extremely cumbersome," Putterman said. "They are about as big as a dentists X-ray machine, so you canÂt carry them into the field." Pyroelectric crystals could also provide a beam of ions for use as a microthruster in a miniature spacecraft. The research is described in the April 28 issue of the journal Nature.

Fortunately, I don't live where weather is a factor....like freezing or snow. I just make sure the vehicle has a good spare, and the belts and hoses are in good shape and it has a recent oil change. I just got back from going to Mississippi to pick up a horse and the only extra item I took was a pillow. I would just bet your dad was smart enough to not take any extra chances when the weather was bad. I am often floored by the people who are driving around in almost blizzard conditions....get off on the wrong road and get lost. Just heard a bout a family whose SUV fell off of a road and they were lost for a few days. All survived. We don't evacuate for hurricanes. More people die from the heat trapped in traffic than from hurricanes. Not saying you shouldn't evacuate if you live in a dangerous area, but I would never get caught in that kind of traffic. I would leave earlier or later or, in our case, if we leave, we don't go any farther than a few miles. We need to be able to get right back in to see about animals and boats. People panic and often those who don't need to evacuate do, and the traffic is tied up to the extent that it creeps along, and I think something like 100 people died in an evacuation about 7 or 8 years ago. Also lots of animals...horses, dogs, parrots. The hurricane didn't even hit here. Get out in that mess.... No. That is truly dangerous!

Electrical fence is out a priori, since I don't have electricity out there. For the last several months, I've been working on my fence re-inforcement: making a sort of "apron" all around the base of the original fence,using a rather robust type of rabbit fencing,but he still keeps on finding places where he can dig under the part "on or just under the surface" I can't bury it very deeply, since in many areas the soil is not deep;i.e.,you arrive at bedrock right near the surface.. Anchoring it with short-ish, not-too-big-around logs of wood (and nailing the fencing to these) MIGHT be helping, but things are at a point where I'm obliged to spend most of the time I have available for working out there on cleaning up the messes he makes and trying to save plants he's dug up. (This is why I got the friggin' trap: desperation!) Eventually I hope to establish robust,weedy-type plants all around the periphery, inside and out,to help on the anchoring, but all this takes time,which I don't have,and things will be worse once it gets hot and I have to concentrate on watering (and don't have running water out there, either, so have to bring it in myself). I think I may try moving the compost. He's gotten very spoiled and lazy,messing around in my garden with it's mulch and softer soil,and I think he DOES eat the kitchen scraps. This way, even if I don't trap him, maybe I can wheedle him into changing his perspective on what consists of "his" territory,convincing him that the un-fenced-in composter is more fruitful and interesting and easy to access than is my fenced -in garden. Even if he does dig up a compost heap and fool around with a plastic composter, this would be far, far better than having him weaken,kill, and mutilate plants in which I've invested a lot of time, patience, care and money with his careless,greedy bumbling.

Hazel, Yes he is very much a typical coyote in appearance. His coat might be slightly more golden than what I usually see, so I think there is a slim chance he has some domestic dog DNA in his heritage, but he is not at all the sort of coyote-domestic dog hybrid we sometimes see here, so if he has domestic dog DNA, it is a small amount. I had to deal with a coyote one year that was a clear coyote/golden retriever mix. About the only part of him that looked like a coyote was his head and his tail. He had no fear of humans and would try to walk right up to you, which is extremely dangerous and cannot be tolerated. I ran into that one occasionally while walking my dogs and he would try to walk along with us, not in a menacing way, but because I knew he was a coyote, I always reversed course and headed straight back home. If a car came along, he'd run right off. Otherwise he'd pace us from about 20 yards away. This one is not like that, but he also doesn't exhibit much fear and he certainly doesn't slink off with his tail between his legs like coyotes often do. He is probably 2 or 3 years old---a young, muscular healthy one that is eating very well, not looking at all like the lean, skinny half-starved ones we often see in drought years. Clearly he roams our neighborhood a great deal and is used to humans and the noises we make because he does not startle easily and he also has taken to standing his ground a bit and staring back at me instead of just turning and running off. We probably should have shot and killed him long ago, but the longer you live with wild things, the more you know that all of them have an important role to fill in the ecosystem and the more you understand that it is better to divert them, to try to prevent them from becoming habituated to your presence/your habitat, etc., instead of killing them. And, truthfully, killing a coyote or a bobcat doesn't really protect your animals because another predator moves right into the available territory as soon as you kill one. I have studied his trail and no matter which wildlife trail he uses to enter/exit the woods near our house, it appears that once he gets deeper in the woodland he is utlizing a fallen log that rests across the creek bank about 10' above the waterline as a bridge to cross the creek. So, also on our list of things to do must be for us to go into the woods (ugh, in snake season already) with the chain saw and cut that log into several pieces so it no longer serves as a bridge. It is a very large tree trunk, possibly a walnut that the idiot beavers chewed/girdled but couldn't bring down due to its huge size about a decade ago. I've only seen it from the road's bridge over the creek, but tomorrow I think Tim and I will put on our leather workboots and such and venture into the woodland to check it out. With free-range chickens, you expect to lose one to predators here and there, but it really doesn't happen that often here. Except in the past year it has happened too often. I worry more about the coyote getting one of our cats than our chickens. Still, when a coyote is coming into your yard while you're outside working in the garden and not that far away, you do have to take action, if only to establish that you're a threat and that the coyote needs to stay away. So, that's where we are now. I left all the poultry inside their individual chicken coops/runs today, and they are not happy even though their fenced runs are large and fully covered with fencing so they are safe. Once poultry is used to free-ranging, they're never really happy confined. I don't care if they're happy today, because at least they are safe. Our chickens would rather be free than be safe, but their vote didn't count today. Only mine did. I kept the cats in, and the dogs are in their fenced dog run with the 8' tall fence to keep the coyotes out. So, I am not worried about the dogs, but I do always bring them indoors from the run if I have to leave the property. Kim, The thought of the blood doesn't bother me. We use blood meal and bone meal, after all, as organic fertilizers. I'm glad you and your little man are having so much fun together. See there---he'll be like me---growing up gardening and having it in his blood, which is a wonderful way to grow up. When kids understand where their food comes from and how it is grown, they automatically understand concepts that non-gardening children (and adults!) do not. Amy, I think Tim would have a stroke if I suggested he bring home some Zoo Doo (lots of zoos do sell it!). He told me yesterday he'll take care of the coyote himself. I love my husband, but I rolled my eyes. When I was having cougar encounters in the yard and was terrified and just trying to make it back to the house alive and in one piece, where was he then? Sitting on his butt watching TV and not paying any attention to any noise outside, not answering his phone (which he conveniently leaves in another room so the noise will not interrupt his TV viewing of some stupid movie he has watched 10,000 times before) and completely clueless, even though after the first cougar encounter he KNEW I was terrified and wanted him to keep his phone with him at all times. If I ever kill him it will be because he walks into his office, closes the door and tunes out the whole world including me and any predator that might be out in the yard with me. If I do not specifically tell him "I am going outdoors, there is a coyote lurking around, keep your phone right beside you", he won't have his phone handy. It makes me nuts. The odds of the coyote coming into the yard when Tim is home on the weekend are between slim and none. In the last year, that coyote has killed dozens of Chris' chickens (he built his coop too close to the woods and knew better and wouldn't listen to us, so what do you do?) and comes into the yard all the time when I am outside and when Chris is working on his house on weekdays, but never on weekends. That could be because we have a weekend neighbor whose property, which sits between us and the river, is not here during the week but often is here on the weekend, so it might be his presence that keeps the coyote from coming up through the river bottoms, crossing through his land and coming onto our land. I have thought about ordering cougar urine though and using it there on that edge of the woodland. Nancy, We have long had dogs---anywhere from 3 at one point up to 8 (a stray dog adopted us and then had puppies) and now we are down to 2 very old, grey-haired, more mellow ones and two hyper-excited ones that I guess are about 3 years old now. It is the easily excitable younger, smaller dogs who sound the DefCon 5 Coyote alert. They are ferocious barkers when a coyote is near. I believe all our dogs have prevented us from being burglarized on several occasions. Once, the word got back to me through a third party that a less-than-honorable person was prowling around our property looking for stuff to steal and our then young and healthy dog named Biscuit (who was a big softy but had a very ferocious attitude towards strangers) went ballistic over his presence. Supposedly this idiot fled and then told all his friends and acquaintances to stay away from our place because "they have a dog that will tear you up". Biscuit crossed over the rainbow bridge several years ago and we miss him so very much. After Biscuit, Duke was our main protector. He died last year. He was a Rottweiler-terrier mix and looked mean. He could act mean and just his appearance terrified people, but he also was just a big wussy. Luckily, no one but us knew what a wussy he was. His brother, Jet, is my big protector now and he has become extra-protective since Duke died. He even barks at Tim and Chris and doesn't really want them coming too close to me, which just makes me laugh, but it makes them highly irritated. I tell Tim it is his fault, When he leaves for work, he tells Jet "you take care of Mom today" , and Jet does just that. The problem is that Jet doesn't really turn off his protective instincts when Tim and Chris come home from work. It is easier to have 4 dogs than 8, and when our two older ones cross over the Rainbow bridge, I don't intend to replace them. We'll still have the two younger ones, and they think they are tougher than they probably are so they bark at anything. I mean if a car comes up our driveway, they have a full and total conniption fit. It is hard for anyone to sneak up on us with all these dogs, and that is a good thing. Amy. I'm so sorry about your dog. It is so hard when we have to let our furry companions leave us. My garden still is too muddy to do much, which is frustrating. I am going to try to weed today and then add some mulch to the just-weeded areas. Baabaamilker, I was going to say dianthus (specifically Sweet William, which is Dianthus barbatus) and bachelor buttons, but I see you already have it all figured out. Kim, How odd that the lettuce seeds did not sprout. Are the seeds fresh? Hazel, You can grow lettuce and pretty much all greens indoors under lights in the summer, preferably in an air conditioned room that stays below 80 degrees. Both heat and lack of water make lettuce taste bitter, and I think it really is a moisture issue more than a heat issue, at least until the lettuce begins to bolt. You will have the best success with leaf lettuce or with summercrisp lettuce varieties, not iceberg. Iceberg types are nice and crunchy but take too long to head up here and hit that wall of heat pretty early. Tim likes the crunch of iceberg, but leaf lettuce is more acceptable to me and I like the crispness of summercrisp ones. I really don't think it is a variety problem---I think it is our heat and lack of abundant moisture. Every lettuce variety I've ever grown has done well as long as it is well-watered and as long as it has shade from noon onward in the hot months. Eventually even well-watered, well-shaded lettuce will bolt though, and growing more indoors is one way to work around that. Amy, I'm sorry you're disappointed with the work done in your bathroom. That's why I like for us to do it ourselves, even if it take us 100 years to finish one project. Katie, I hope you're enjoying the chickens and hope the weather stabilizes soon so you can get plants in the ground. I have almost everything in the ground now but I am very far south and have been having awesome warm weather for a long time. I also have frost blankets if the cold nights come back, as they are sort of threatening to do late next week. Your lettuce looks fabulous! Dawn