Dining Etiquette

Tonight I went to a CAFNR Dining Etiquette session and was served a four course meal. Every one was wearing business professional outfits as we were taught how to act in a formal dinner setting. 

Over the years I have been to many dinner etiquette sessions but I always learn something new at each one. For the first time I learned how a host in a formal dining experience should act, which was really nice because no one has ever discussed that with me before and I feel that is something I will use in the future. 

For our Southwestern themed four courses we started with a thick soup that was delicious and had a hint of taco seasoning, although I am sure they didn't use spices out of a packet. Our second course, a salad served with a corner of taco shell included small diced, seasoned tomatoes, spiced corn and black beans. For the main course we were served a scoop of purple tinted mashed potatoes with slices of steak on top of the potatoes forming a teepee shape and topped with long green beans with a steak seasoning sauce on the bottom. Our final course was a dessert; a small apple dumpling served with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream. 

The event was sponsored by Helena Chemical Company so I was able to save $10 on my meal and only had to pay $12.50, which fit into my budget quite nicely!

The night was fun because or main speaker, Chef Jett, was full of great tips and random stories. Chef Jett had a lot of great stories to tell when it came to serving military officials all over the world while he served in the Navy. About six or seven of the tips we learned were accompanied with tales of losing his bread plate to a higher ranking officer and serving a tissue to a Korean officer on a plate, among others. He also had the occasional fact about skunks: did you know a skunk can spray with accuracy up to 10 feet? It can spray up to 16 feet but only in a general direction! (He claimed he had some time in the dessert and Wikipedia became a great way to kill time.) 

Chef Jett had a great sense of humor and has been all around the world, with it all starting on the dairy farm where he grew up, in the middle of nowhere. I have been to several dinner etiquette sessions over the years but this was by far one of the most entertaining. I also think that always smiling or laughing and the fun side stories will help me to remember some of the information he gave our group. 

One final fun fact learned from Chef Jett: Tips (what you leave a server after paying for the meal) stands for: To Insure Prompt Service. There is still a debate between the French and English who created the tradition, but it started when someone had extra coins and left them on the small plate their tea sat on, the waiter came to understand that money was for him or her and would fill their drink more promptly than the other guests. That was a fun fact of the day!

A little action for my blog :)

It has been a hectic semester to say the least! I thought things would slow down when September ended; I can't believe I lied to myself like that. While things just now are looking like they might ease up a bit, I now know to have my doubts. 

I haven't had much of a chance to blog since the beginning of the semester so I went ahead and put up a few papers I have done for some of my classes. 

The Science article is from attending Saturday Morning Science for extra credit in my BioChemistry class. It is supposed to be one page on what you found interesting and what was confusing. 

The other two pieces are articles I wrote for my Agriculture Journalism Field Experience class. We went to Northwest Missouri for a weekend and toured a coal plant, ethanol plant, wind farm, CRP farmland, a 100-year family farm and edible white corn farm among other locations. We turned in our final papers Tuesday and had a "Overly Mellow Dramatic" awards ceremony. Award ranged anywhere from a rubber chicken to Cheetos. I received the best gift of everyone- duck tape! Let's just say when in is the firs destination of the morning and you won't be getting back to the hotel until late that evening and you have an unexpected rip, it never hurts to have a little duck tape! It made me smile, especially the part where it was party used- that made it even better! :)

As preparation for the trip we learned to write science based stories that could be very complicated and put them in easy to understand newspaper format. It was a great learn-to-do-by-doing experience and I learned a lot from it. The electricity path and switchgrass articles were both done before we went on our big three day trip, 6am Friday - 8pm Sunday. I did my final story on CRP and will have that posted in the next few weeks. I am really happy with how the paper turned out and excited about adding it to my portfolio. 

Hope you enjoy me stories. Have Fun!

Crouching Tiger Beetles, Hidden Dragon Flies: Reflections on How Insects Use Color, Tom Schultz, Denison University

After listening to Mr. Tom Schultz talk about how we see color and how certain use colors to their advantage, I found many things to be interesting. One of my favorites would be the limitation of our ability to see color. While some organisms can only see whether there is light or no light, others can see shades of gray, humans can see an array of colors, and some insects and most birds can see an even greater range of colors than humans. The fact that birds can see ultra violet rays is interesting and not something I would have ever thought about. It was neat learning that damselfly dragonfly have iridescent wings that to us look white but other damselfly dragonflies see ultra violet colors.

I found the concept of wavelength to be a bit confusing, but it kind of cleared up as he went along. The concept that light produces different colors at different wavelengths was hard for me to wrap my head around- the fact that lighting and cell thickness can determine the color of a plant or insect only makes so much sense. I think I am getting confused because I keep trying to relate the idea of wavelength and thickness to other things such as my shirt and I am not sure if the idea transfers over to non-organisms.

Grass in Gas Tanks

A waist high sea of switchgrass, Indian grass, bluegrass, forages and legumes with small yellow flowers in full bloom ripples like waves from the cool breeze with colors jumping out from the bright sun; a great day to be outdoors at the University of Missouri Bradford Farm looking at future biofuels.

            Tim Reinbott, superintendent of the MU Bradford Research and Extension Center, is spearheading a research project on the long-term effects growing various plants for biofuels has on soil quality and content. Reinbott is comparing monocultures plots with only one plant species, like corn, to diverse cultured plots that have three, ten or 18 different legumes, forages and grasses. The idea for this project arose when talk of cellulosic ethanol started to spread. Cellulosic ethanol is made from the dry matter of plants such as switchgrass, Indian grass, bluegrass, forages, legumes and wood.

            The popularity of using these warm season grasses is because they are native to the Midwest and easy to grow. Switchgrass is popular because it establishes quickest, one year, and needs less help, while Indian grass produces more dry matter and therefore more ethanol.

“That’s a really good legume,” Reinbott noted as he picked the yellow flowering plant from the ground and inspected its nitrogen producing knolled roots. By not having to add nitrogen to the soil this lowers production costs and also makes the process “more carbon friendly” because fertilizers are made from petroleum. “When looking at the whole carbon footprint that’s tremendous. We don’t want to design anything with more carbon than before.”

“If you wait until after October to harvest [switchgrass] you won’t lose as many nutrients,” said Reinbott.  When switchgrass dies for the winter, all if its nutrients go to the soil through the roots, which have a large underground system. Corn ethanol is going in the other direction. Ethanol plants are starting to make ethanol out of corn stover including the stalk and leaves, which is that much less nutrients being returned to the soil.

Miscanthus, an ornamental hybrid cross grass, is similar to switchgrass in that its nutrients go to its roots for winter. It has greater growth and therefore biomass potential and would require 1/3 less land than switchgrass. Switchgrass produces four tons of dry mass per acre while Miscanthus produces twelve tons per acre. The downside, being grown in a monoculture miscanthus is not as wildlife friendly as switchgrass. 

“After three years we hope to see a difference in soil properties” said Reinbott, who expects to see a difference in the soil every year afterwards. The time is now. Reinbott’s three-year-old plot will be harvested for the first time this October, giving him data to compare the different types of crops for fuels like ethanol and biofuels and the impact on soil properties over time

“The seeds are just ideal,” said Reinbott as he picks a foxtail from a highly diverse plot. “We’re on the up and front on this wild life aspect. By looking at wildlife we’re staying ahead of the game. We don’t want that to blow up in our face.” Reinbott is working closely with the MU Conservation Department to see which types of plots attract which types and how much wild life. The Conservation Department is concerned about the monoculture plots, which often don’t provide wildlife with the food or shelter they need to thrive.  “Ideally we want to produce as much biofuels as possible but with a more favorable base for wildlife.” By predicting and fixing problems before they occur, Reinbott hopes to have a smooth transition in biomass production for Cellulosic ethanol.

“It’s going to be very intense,” said Reinbott who sees the future of biofuels in the technology rather than new plant sources. Reinbott believes power analysis, which uses a system of heat and pressure to break down biomass to its basic elements, is going to be break through technology in the next five years. Currently, scientists are able to produce 70 gallons of ethanol for every ton of switchgrass, nowhere close to the theoretical 200 gallons per ton.

Another issue researchers are working on is storage. Forages are fluffier than corn and take up more space to store. Reinbott’s next research question, “In October what happens if fuel is stored in the field?” If storage isn’t an issue and little biomass is lost while in the field then farmers can take harvested biomass straight to the ethanol plant. 

Electricity: From the Power Plant to the House

From the power plant or wind turbines to the kitchen light bulb, is the path electricity takes as easy as going from point A to point B? Matt Lucas, a technician at Boone Electric Cooperative, explains the process is a little more complicated.

The electricity used in Missouri either starts in a power plant, wind farm or water dam. Missouri’s two power plants create electricity by burning coal, which heats water to steam. The steam turns turbines and magnets to create electricity. On wind farms the turbines are turned by the wind to produce electricity. Similarly, hydroelectric dams release water that flows through turbines.

            Once the electricity is created it goes to a step-up substation. Missouri has one located in Springfield, which also serves parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas. Here, transformers take the energy, or voltage, and sends it long distances through high voltage transmitters, which can handle the 500,000 volts. Large insulators are used, preventing energy from going to the ground or structure. “They have helicopters and people hanging from ropes maintaining these [high voltage insulters],” said Lucas.

            Energy is lost as electricity flows through the large high voltage poles on their way to a transmission sub-station. At the station, lines from the large poles drop into the transformers where voltage is reduced to 34,500 to 115,000 volts, making it suitable for local use. The voltage is sent out on local use poles. This process will repeat at another transmission sub-station where energy will be reduced to 7,200 to 13,200 volts.

            The next step is residential electric delivery. The electricity reaches a transformer on a pole, ground box, or side of the house. At this local consumer level the meter measures kilowatts per hour used by the house.

“We have to pay for amount of energy we will possibly use,” explains Lucas. Once a year the electric company will project and provide the power plant with their ‘power potential,’ the amount of energy the electric company may possible need. The power plants run non stop and produce the amount of energy outlined in the contract. The electric company is being charged for the electricity that is being produced and on the lines, even if it the electricity not being used.

Missouri currently has three commercial wind farms, all located in Northwest part of the state. Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm, located in Gentry County, has 27 turbines on 10,000 acres. On average, the farm produces 2.1 megawatts per turbine. Three of those turbines could produce enough energy for 45,000 houses or half the size of Columbia.

The Cow Branch Wind Energy Project, in Atchison County, has 24 turbines covering 7,000 acres with 35 landowners. Each landowner receives supplemental cash, equaling $5,000 per turbine on their property.

Nodaway County’s Conception Wind Energy Project, financed by John Deere Wind Energy, consists of 24 turbines on 7,000 acre with 28 landowners.

There is currently an energy scare among the electric companies. Demand for electricity has increased but sources for energy hasn’t. Electric providers are trying to get consumers to cut back and be more conservative with electric use since there is an energy scare in the state. While they are in the business to make money, they are also wary of the possible energy threat.

“We’ll have to cut back or create new energy because usage is going through the roof,” said Lucas who compared the current energy situation to balancing a checkbook. We either need cut back on our spending (usage) or find a new source of income (energy). In preparation for the possible future energy shortage in Missouri a new cal-burning power plant is being planned for Southern Missouri. A coal plant is being discussed because we have the technology for that. Right now, wind energy is a good idea, according to Lucas, but the technology to lower prices has yet to occur. “When technology catches up, prices drop.” Until that technology is able to catch up with the energy demand in Missouri, coal-burning plants will continue to produce a majority of our electricity. 

I'm Back! :)

It's great to be back in the land of the free. Classes are going great and I am having a wonderful fall semester so far. I hope to publish more posts later on all the great things I have been involved in- needless to say television is a treat and even then it is usually to watch a movie for a class. But I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything- I love staying busy. I have surprised myself how much I can get done in an hour these days! I hope everyone had a great summer and more to come later on Fall 2008. 

Pessimistic or Realistic?

A good friend sent me this article knowing my view of the United States' eventual title loss as the top global power. I want to pass this along to others who may be interested. I have received similar lectures in a few lectures on Political Science and it's going to be quite the roller coaster ride over the next few decades. So tighten your seat belt and let the globalization game begin. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090903302.html?wpisrc=newsletter