Get a headstart on your garden with plastic mulching. Suppress weeds, conserve water, and boost crop production with this wonderful gardening solution. Plastic Mulching: Save Garden From Weeds & Boost Harvest Spring comes without fail every year, it is some many of us enjoy and can hardly wait for it to arrive. Spring is the…Continue Reading
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Tag: fall
Why Prescription Drugs Cost So Much More in America
The US spends more per capita on medication than anywhere else in the world. It’s a key electoral issue. From a report on Financial Times (paywalled): All over the world, drugmakers are granted time-limited monopolies — in the form of patents — to encourage innovation. But America is one of the only countries that does not combine this carrot with the…
How to see the Great Square of Pegasus
It’s easy! The Great Square of Pegasus consists of 4 stars of nearly equal brightness in a large square pattern. Once you find it, you can star-hop to other well-known sights in the sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/great-square-of-pegasus-wings-in-sept-equinox…
Are Saturn’s rings young or old?
Cassini data suggested that Saturn’s rings were only 10 to 100 million years old. A new study suggests that a “ring rain” onto Saturn makes the rings look younger than they really are, and that in fact Saturn’s rings date back billions of years. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/saturn-rings-eject-material-young-or-old…
All you need to know: September equinox
We have an equinox coming up on September 23. Happy autumn, Northern Hemisphere. Happy spring, Southern Hemisphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-september-equinox…
Inspired By Harry Potter, 150 Colleges Now Have Quidditch Teams
A reporter for SFGate describes what happened when he tried out for the quidditch team at the University of California at Berkeley: The person throwing me what’s called a “quaffle” (actually a slightly deflated volleyball) looked at me to make sure I’m ready. I gave them a head nod and grip my “broom” (a PVC pipe), ready to run. “GO!” I…
Milky Way’s black hole appears to be getting hungrier
“We have never seen anything like this in the 24 years we have studied the supermassive black hole. It’s usually a pretty quiet, wimpy black hole on a diet. We don’t know what is driving this big feast.” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/milky-ways-black-hole-appears-to-be-getting-hungrier…
Huawei CEO Offers To License 5G Tech To American Companies In Peace Offer To Trump
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Huawei’s chief executive has proposed selling its current 5G know-how to a Western firm as a way to address security concerns voiced by the U.S. and others about its business. Ren Zhengfei said the buyer would be free to “change the software code.” That would allow any flaws or supposed backdoors to…
Drivers? Never Heard of Them, Says Uber
California lawmakers passed a landmark bill on Wednesday that threatens to reshape how companies like Uber and Lyft do business. The legislation, known as Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), was passed in the state Assembly and now heads to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. From a report: Uber and Lyft maintain that AB5 won’t immediately change independent contractors into employees. Tony…
Harvest Moon on Friday the 13th
For the Northern Hemisphere, the September 2019 full moon is the closest full moon to the September autumn equinox, so it counts as the Northern Hemisphere’s full Harvest Moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/harvest-moon-on-friday-the-13th…