The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1368373
AREA HAPPENINGS Celebrate Recovery–Will meet every Monday at 6 p.m. at the River of Life Church, 342 E. CR 300 N., Petersburg. For more information, contact Pastor Jim at 812-354-8800. Pike County History Center—Will meet the fourth Monday of each month at the History Center, 1104 Main Street, Petersburg at 6:30 p.m. New members welcome. History Center hours Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. until further notice. DAR—Local chapter of the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution meet the second Monday of each month September through June at 6 p.m. at the History Center in Petersburg. Free Clothing Bank–Oak Grove Church in Oakland City offers a free clothing bank each Tuesday 9 -11 a.m. (Oakland City time) for everyone. They carry new and used clothing. Location is on Morton Street, just past Chuckles. Come to the gymnasium door located at the back of the church. Winslow Alcoholics Anonymous – will meet every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Call 812-789 -8535 for location of the meeting. Odd Fellows IOOF Pacific Lodge #175 meeting–the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. All area members are encouraged to attend. Otwell Ruritan–will have its monthly meetings the sec- ond Monday of each month at 7 p.m. Pike Lodge #121 F&AM regular stated meeting–the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. All area Masons are invited to attend. Jefferson Township Community Center of Otwell– will have its monthly meetings the first Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. All members are urged to attend. Perinatal Loss Support – Expectant parents who sud- denly lose their child often experience a wide range of emo- tions and grief. Memorial Hospital and Health Care Cen- ter offers support to assist those who have experienced the loss of a child (conception to one month of age) through the grieving process, and provide an atmosphere of confiden- tiality and comfort. For more information about Perinatal Loss Support, con- tact Theresa O'Bryan, Pastoral Care, at 812-996 -0219 or to- bryan@mhhcc.org.` Cover crops provide ben- efits for those that adopt the practice, but their manage- ment in the spring can be highly variable in southwest- ern Indiana. Generally, farm- ers can plant cash crops or cover crops. Cash crops like winter wheat, melons, corn, soybeans, cabbage and other crops have an end destination at an elevator or on a plate. They are harvested specifi- cally for selling. Cover crops, meanwhile, provide cover to the soil to prevent erosion or hold nutrients in place. Cov- er crops also play a vital role in sequestering carbon, a fact which makes them potential- ly lucrative in carbon markets. Cover crop species are highly variable depending on seed availability and farmer preference. Some cover crops are planted in the fall with the expectation that cold winter temperatures will kill them, reducing the need for an ad- ditional trip across the field in the spring. These species are most commonly daikon radish and spring oats in our area. The timing of winter kill can mean the soil is rath- er bare by the time of plant- ing in the spring. Some cov- er crops are planted in the fall and will overwinter, requiring additional management in the spring. Cereal ryegrass and winter wheat are two start- er species that are relative- ly inexpensive and common. These species can then be sprayed with an herbicide to provide a burn down of the crop prior to planting. The amount of time needed be- tween burn down and plant- ing is highly dependent on the type of herbicide used. Often, tillage is performed between burn down and planting, but this practice is not a necessi- ty, as some fields exhibit this year. Alternatively, grassy cov- er crops might be grown out and rolled or crimped prior to cash crop planting. The point of the crimping is to damage the base of the plant at a point in time where vegetative re- growth would not be expect- ed, essentially killing the cov- er crop. Although pesticides are avoided in this scenario, potential for escapes where the plant was not effective- ly killed is higher. Finally, one additional scenario ex- ists wherein the cover crop is planted, lives through the win- ter, is expected to naturally run its life cycle in the spring, and the cash crop is "plant- ed green" into the cover crop near the end of that life cy- cle. This gam- bit has the most risk associat- ed it, as careful planter settings and knowledge of both cash and cover crop agronomics is needed, but the practice also has the least amount of time without a living crop on the soil, which promotes biolog- ical soil activity and increas- es that carbon stock of soil or- ganic matter. In many cases, the life cycle of the cover crop can be artificially ended by a pesticide once the cash crop has emerged. The use of cover crops is an advancement in management and soil restoration. Howev- er, the observation of planted fields becomes increasingly difficult. A tilled and planted field with little ridges where planting has occurred can be observed from the road at 55 mph (where posted). A two- foot-tall grass, brown and ob- viously dead, is a little more difficult to pre- dict unless wheel tracks and plant- er knife activity is obvious. A planted green field usually recovers a bit from tractor activity and shows little sign of planting without physically scout- ing the field. Pro- viders of planting progress reports to the Na- tional Agricultural Statistics Service have a much more dif- ficult time giving accurate in- formation than a decade ago. Meanwhile, county tillage and cover crop surveys led by the Natural Resources Conserva- tion Service increase in im- portance and variability of in- formation reported. The vari- ety of management practices from farm to farm is increas- ing, and that allows neigh- bors to compare notes a little throughout the year and fur- ther adoption of those strate- gies that provide the best re- turns to field here in Indiana. For more information, con- tact Hans at hschmitz@pur- due.edu or 812-838 -1331. The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 5, 2021 A-7 An infrared camera shows how a sample of the whitest white paint (the dark purple square in the middle) actually cools the board below ambient temperature, something that not even commercial "heat rejecting" paints do. paint so white Two features give the paint its extreme whiteness. One is the paint's very high concentration of a chemi- cal compound called bari- um sulfate, cutline Curcu- sone D, the first synthesized BR AT-1 inhibitor, originally comes from the root of Jatro- pha curcas, a shrub native to the Americas. "We looked at various commercial products, basi- cally anything that's white," said Xiangyu Li, a postdoc- toral researcher at the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, who worked on this project as a Purdue Ph.D. student in Ruan's lab. "We found that using barium sulfate, you can theoretical- ly make things really, really reflective, which means that they're really, really white." The second feature is that the barium sulfate particles are all different sizes in the paint. How much each par- ticle scatters light depends on its size, so a wider range of particle sizes allows the paint to scatter more of the light spectrum from the sun. "A high concentration of particles that are also dif- ferent sizes gives the paint the broadest spectral scat- tering, which contributes to the highest reflectance," said Joseph Peoples, a Pur- due Ph.D. student in me- chanical engineering. There is a little bit of room to make the paint whiter, but not much without compro- mising the paint. "Although a higher par- ticle concentration is bet- ter for making something white, you can't increase the concentration too much. The higher the concentra- tion, the easier it is for the paint to break or peel off," Li said. How the whitest paint is al- so the coolest The paint's whiteness al- so means that the paint is the coolest on record. Using high-accuracy temperature reading equipment called thermocouples, the research- ers demonstrated outdoors that the paint can keep sur- faces 19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient sur- roundings at night. It can also cool surfaces 8 degrees Fahr- enheit below their surround- ings under strong sunlight during noon hours. The paint's solar reflec- tance is so effective, it even worked in the middle of win- ter. During an outdoor test with an ambient temperature of 43 degrees Fahrenheit, the paint still managed to lower the sample temperature by 18 degrees Fahrenheit. This white paint is the re- sult of six years of research building on attempts going back to the 1970s to develop radiative cooling paint as a fea- sible alternative to traditional air conditioners. Ruan's lab had considered over 100 different materials, narrowed them down to 10 and tested about 50 different formulations for each materi- al. Their previous ultra-white paint was a formulation made of calcium carbonate, an earth-abundant compound commonly found in rocks and seashells. The researchers showed in their study that like commer- cial paint, their barium sul- fate-based paint can poten- tially handle outdoor condi- tions. The technique that the researchers used to create the paint also is compatible with the commercial paint fabrica- tion process. Patent applications for this paint formulation have been filed through the Purdue Re- search Foundation Office of Technology Commercializa- tion. WHITE Continued from page 6 RIGHT TO LIFE SALUTES ALL MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS & GREAT-GRANDMOTHERS ON THIS 2021 MOTHER'S DAY We thank all mothers for bring- ing new life into the world! Thank you, Mom, for your many sacrifices and for the sake of all children & their families! Thanks for giving me life! I know it may have been easier if I had not been born and that I may have caused you many sleepless nights, but life could be a little lonesome without me! I may be that person to grow up and discover a cure for cancer or be instrumental in solving some other big problem the world may face. Or I could be just an ordinary human being that is loving and caring, and help you in your older days! Only God knows what my future will be, but you have played a part in God's plan for me! Mom, I love you because you gave me life when others may have been telling you I was not worth it. Thanks for giving me life! You're the best! Daviess & Pike County Right to Life Inc., P.O. Box 41, Washington, IN 47501 On the Square in Jasper • 812.482.3200 Mon.-Fri. 10am-5:30pm, Sat. 10am-4pm Follow us on JUST Fine Clothing and Shoes Unique Home Decor • Accessories • Gifts *Some restrictions apply OFF 25 % REGISTER TO WIN a R M BRACELET to be given away May 8 ($125 value) No purchase necessary All Jewelry & Gi ware rough MAY 8! On the Square in Jasper • 812.482.3200 Mon.-Fri. 10am-5:30pm, Sat. 10am-4pm R M All Jewelry & Gi ware All Jewelry & Gi ware M other' Day Special Mon, Tue, u & Fri: 9:30 - 5:30 | Wed: 9:30 - 7:00 | Sat: 9:30 - 3:00 Customizable Pendants in Sterling Silver! Starting at $99 FJ271P $149 FJ285P $130 Mother's Pendant or Ring with up to 5 birthstones $159.00 3770 N. Newton St. JASPER 812-482-4833 disinger.com Customizable Pendants Customizable Pendants Customizable Pendants Customizable Pendants Customizable Pendants Customizable Pendants Celebr e Mom Fr Spa Tre m t from Pause with Paula and a Mother's Day card with purchase of $149 or more. Down on the Farm By Hans Schmitz, Purdue Extension Educator Cover crops and planting