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074_GHP_SoireePortraits_2019.jpg -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
331_GHP_PetroChem_3Mar20 - Greater Houston Partnership State of Houston’s Petrochemical Industry with Bob Patel, CEO, LyondellBasell Industries; Ojas Wadivkar, Accenture; Bob Harvey, President and CEO, Greater Houston Partnership at the Hilton Americas March 3, 2020. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
121_GHP_Airports_5Oct22 - Greater Houston Partnership State of the Airports with Mario C. Diaz, Director of Aviation, Houston Airports held at the Marriott Marquis October 5, 2022. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
Attendees can participate in live demonstrations of newly-released products at WTS19, including this demonstration of NTEA’s Vehicle Center of Gravity & Axle Weight Calculator and the TruckScience cloud-based calculator (offers enhanced features for advanced applications).
Learn more at www.worktruckshow.com.
Salvador Prieto, wife Martha Romero and daughter Nadya Prieto park their red quad and green six-wheeled utility vehicles and stand in a line where there will be rows of windbreak trees that will help protect their Hass avocado and Meyer lemon orchards, in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
—
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
040_SoireeWall_11Nov21 - Greater Houston Partnership Soirée annual gala celebrating Houston as a truly global city at Hotel ZaZa chaired by Margaret and Thad Hill November 11, 2021. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
Salvador Prieto uses his tractor to get mulch, while daughter Nadya Prieto enjoys driving a six-wheeled utility vehicle along the family farm roads between rows of Hass avocados and Meyer lemons, with mother Martha Romero, in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
ww.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
Salvador Prieto, wife Martha Romero and daughter Nadya Prieto park their red quad and green six-wheeled utility vehicles and stand in a line where there will be rows of windbreak trees that will help protect their Hass avocado and Meyer lemon orchards, in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
—
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
019_GHP_Diversity_25Oct22 - The Greater Houston Partnership Houston DiverseCity Summit, an inspiring one-day convening to advance equity and inclusion in the greater Houston region held at the Marriott Marquis October 25, 2022. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
318_GHP_Diversity_25Oct22 - The Greater Houston Partnership Houston DiverseCity Summit, an inspiring one-day convening to advance equity and inclusion in the greater Houston region held at the Marriott Marquis October 25, 2022. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
444_GHP_SoireeCandids_2019.JPG -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
***DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS***
Download full resolution individual photos/videos by clicking the "down-facing arrow" below the preview image on the right hand side of the page. You will then be prompted to select a destination for the photo on your local computer.
This cloud based gallery will be available for three months in order to enable you to download all of the photos to your computer for safe long term storage. While the gallery may be in the cloud for longer than this time you should endeavor to file and secure the photos for future use in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
Salvador Prieto, wife Martha Romero and daughter Nadya Prieto park their red quad and green six-wheeled utility vehicles and stand in a line where there will be rows of windbreak trees that will help protect their Hass avocado and Meyer lemon orchards, in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
—
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
Chronicles of PBY-5A Buno 2459; The top-scoring allied antisubmarine aircraft of WW.II
On November 15th 1941 PBY-5A Catalina Buno 2459 (c/n 300) rolls of the production line. It is one of a series of 33 for the U.S. Navy ordered in December 1939. Who would have thought at that time this Catalina would sink three submarines, damage one more, fight fires in Chilli and Canada and doing roundflights with passengers in the Netherlands, would still be flying almost 69 years later! The story of this Catalina truly is remarkable.
Buno. 2459’s first mentioning in the war diary of VP-73 is on December 23rd 1941. Three planes drawn from VP-83 are test flown at NAS Norfolk, Virginia and put on board seaplane tender USS Albemarle (AV-5) at NOB Norfolk for shipment to Iceland that day. One of these planes was Buno 2459 (73-P-9). The USS Albemarle departed on the 28th and transported one division of VP-73 (Second Division). Commanding officer was David W. Shafer. While on route to Iceland via Quonset Point, Rhode Island and Argentia, Newfoundland it picked two more Catalina’s of VP-83 at Quonset Point making a total of five Catalinas. After arriving at Hvalfjord, Iceland the five Catalina’s were flown to Fleet Air Base at Reykjavik between the 12th and the 16th of January.
The five PBY-5A Catalina’s replaced the PBY-5 of VP-73's Iceland division. This was done because winter operations at Iceland and Argentia were considered "extremely hazardous" as concluded in a study made by the Bureau of Aeronautics. On the 15th of January three PBY-5's of VP-73 at anchor in Skerjafjördur (seaplane anchorage adjacent to Reykjavik airfield) were lost during a storm with wind of 90 kts, gusting to 120 kts. The four PBY-5As that were already at the airfield were tied down but it took all hands and all available lines and weights to secure the planes.
Coastal Command
In January flight operations were curtailed because of the bad weather and familiarisation flights to check out pilots commenced not until the 21th. On February 1st Buno. 2459 starts an operational life common to many a Catalina: hours of boredom with a few moments of sheer terror. During February and March Buno 2459 made 20 operational flights. Six were on escort flights, two on ice-reconnaissance flights, one on antisubmarine patrol and eleven on the socalled “Hvalfjord Sweeps”, antisubmarine sweeps of the approaches to the naval anchorage at Hvalfjord. The ice-reconnaissance flights to Greenland (of which Buno 2459 flew its first on March 9th) were flown regularly by Iceland-based aircraft to establish the position of ice on the Denmark Strait, the stretch of ocean between Iceland and Greenland. A vast number of ships sailed through the Strait to reach the North Russian ports, including the infamous PQ/QP convoys bringing much needed war supplies to the hard-pressed Russians.
Although flight operations were badly affected by the bad weather in April, Buno 2459 was forced back twice because of zero visibility and icing, Buno 2459 made fifteen operational flights. During May a new duty was included into the operations of VP-73. The North Atlantic ferry route was inaugurated to handle the massive flow of air traffic from the United States to the European war theatre. Reykjavik was one of the sagging posts on this route and from this month on VP-73 would provide planes on stand-by for rescue operations. Also eight PBY-5As of VP-73's First Division arrived in Iceland.
During an ice-reconnaissance flight to Jan Mayen island on the 23rd of June, a flight of close to twelve hours, Buno 2459 sighted a German Heinkel He 111 north of Iceland. The enemy was not engaged with gunfire.
In July 1942 The Germans renewed their campaign against the transatlantic convoys and VP73 was to become heavily engaged in many of the ensuing battles. During the month of August the PBYs of VP-73 made nine attacks on U-boats. Buno 2459 attacked twice and sank its first. On August 9, shortly before noon, Lt.(jg) Henry C. Colee, Jr. took off in Buno 2459 to conduct an A/S sweep South West of Iceland. At 1706 hrs a U-boat was sighted three miles dead ahead. The U-boat's conning tower was all that was visible and it submerged immediately. Lt.(jg) Colee started Buno 2459's first attack and arrived one minute after the U-boat had disappeared and dropped six depth charges set to explode at a depth of 50 feet, in a stick 68 seconds after the U-boat submerged. All the bombs exploded but it was estimated that they caused no damage as the U-boat would have reached a safe depth. This was VP-73's fifth U-boat attack and Lt.(jg) Colee's second.
The British Task Force SN-73 passed Iceland 250 miles to the Southeast on the 20 August. Lt.(jg) Robert B. Hopgood took off in Buno 2459 from Reykjavik a few minutes before 3 a.m. to cover the Task Force. Shortly before dawn while flying in low visibility under a low cloud base at 500 feet he happened upon U464. U464 (commanded by Kapitänleutnant Harms) was a valuable type XIV Milchkuh Utanker. A type XIV Milchkuh could carry enough fuel-oil to replenish twelve type VIIC boats for four weeks. U464 had departed Kiel on 4 August and was on its maiden voyage to replenish U-boats in the Atlantic.
At first tbe fully surfaced U-boat was believed to be one of the task force's destroyers and a recognition signal was fired from the plane's blisters.
The initial sighted was made at a range of one and a half miles dead ahead. But when the plane came in closer the object was recognised as being a U-boat. Lt.(jg) Hopgood went straight for an attack, releasing five 250lb. depth charges directly across the U-boat's beam in what appears to have been a perfect straddle. The plane carried six depth charges but one failed to release. The explosion lifted the U-boat almost clear of the water and it was evidently badly damaged.
Following the attack Hopgood made several strafing runs firing his .30 and .50-caliber machine guns to which the enemy replied with accurate antiaircraft gunfire forcing the plane to withdraw to safe distance (after the plane returned to base 25 small shrapnel holes were discovered in its wings). For the next forty-five minutes Hopgood circled the disabled U-boat, but lost sight of it when a rain squall closed in on the area. He started searching for the convoy with which he remained until 0715 hrs. While searching for U464 again Hopgood first came across an oil-slick and then sighted an Icelandic fishing vessel (Skaftfellingur) with U464 alongside. The U-boat was heavily listing to one side and its crew were in process of boarding the fishing vessel. The plane made a low pass and was fired upon by the U-boat's crew. In fear of hitting the fishing vessel the gunfire was not returned. Hopgood returned to the convoy he'd been assigned to and summoned one of its destroyers (HMS Castletown) to the scene. While flying back and forth between the destroyer and the U-boat directing the destroyer to the scene he found the U-boat gone, presumably scuttled by its crew. Shortly afterwards the destroyer arrived and took 52 German prisoners on board (two German sailors were killed).
A rather interesting angle to this victory came later when the squadron learned from the British that the depth charge inflicting the mortal wound to U464 was one that had fallen harmlessly on the deck end was held in place by the deck grating. Apparently a 'green' seaman simply rolled the deadly bomb over the side. When it reached the depth for which its hydrostatic fuses were set to detonate the explosion it went off causing lethal damage to boat. Every submariner should have known that the only way to save the boat would have been to roll the bomb onto a raft or lifeboat and set it adrift.
Another interesting sideline to Hopgood's attack on U464 gave birth to a since-famous U.S. Navy phrase: "Sank sub, open club'. The Fleet Air Base and air detachment in Iceland were commanded by Captain (later Rear Admiral) Daniel V. Gallery, jr., a tough and uncompromising naval officer. Gallery was utterly distressed with VP-73's failure to sink U boats. The squadron had delivered some seven attacks on U-boats over the past few weeks, all of which were “muffed” in his opinion. He possibly felt that the poor performance of his crews was caused by too many late nights spent in the Officers Club, so he ordered the club closed until the squadron sank a U-boat. Captain Gallery also pointed out the requirements for obtaining confirmation of the sinking of the U-boat. "What it amounts to", he told the crews, "is that in order to obtain confirmation of the sinking of a German U-boat, you fellows have to bring in the sub skippers pants as proof. Following Hopgood's attack all ears at Coastal Command headquarters were glued to the radio listening to Hopgood's reports of the dramatic development taking place out at sea. The reports were all framed in very officies language and coded, of course. Then at the end when the destroyer had taken the Germans off the Icelandic fishing vessel, Hopgood's final report came in to Gallery in plain English, no code, saying: “Sank sub, open club”. And they sure did, they damn near blew the roof of the joint. Hopgood further requested that as soon as the U-boat skipper was given dry cloths, his pants be forwarded to Captain Gallery. The salt-encrusted trousers served as a valance over the mirror in VP-73s officers club bar for the remainder of the squadron's tour.
Two months after Buno 2459's successful attack VP-84 took over the tasks of VP-73. About half of squadron VP-73 was already en route to the United States when orders were received to return to Iceland and then on to North-Africa. Some of VP-73's planes were probably quite battered and in need for overhaul so seven of these were exchanged for newer planes of VP-84. One of the planes passed to VP-84 was Buno 2459 which became 84-P-7. During its last operational flight for VP-73 on 5 October Buno 2459 came to battle U582 a type VIIC U-boat. Its assignment that day was to cover convoy HX-209 400 miles south of Iceland. The convoy was being pursued by a 'Wolf Pack' of seventeen U-boats. With the 'Wolf Pack' tactics, which the Germans started in August of 1942, one submarine would locate a convoy and call in others to attack the convoy en masse.
Fifteen minutes after reaching the convoy in the morning of 5 October, the crew of Buno 2459, with Chief Aviation Pilot M. Luke in command, sighted a fully surfaced U-boat ten miles away end about fifteen miles ahead of the convoy's starboard column. Diving from 2000 to 75 feet Luke dropped four 650lb. depth charges on the still visible U-boat in a perfect straddle: two bombs failing on each side of the U-boats hull. Following the explosions the U-boat sank from sight and the only evidence of damage was a patch of oil seen on the water after the attack.
There was every reason to believe that this attack resulted in the destruction of the U-boat. But for some reason this was overlooked when U-boat attacks were assessed after the war. The credit for sinking U582 was given to a Hudson of 269 squadron of the RAF. Research by Ragnar Ragnarsson shows that the mentioned Hudson sank.
Another U-boat on the same day in the same area (U619). In Robert L. Carlisto's book "Cats over the Atlantic: VPB-73 In World War II" the sinking of U582 is credited to another VP-73 plane: 73-P-12 (Buno 02974) flown by Ensign William R. Huey. Again Ragnar Ragnarsson's research shows this to be incorrect. Buno 02974 attacked U257 which is confirmed by war diary of the U-boat. The U-boat narrowly escaped with heavy damage.
As a result of the strong air coverage by RAF Liberators and the aforementioned Hudsons and Catalinas the 'Wolf Pack' was driven off and ordered to break off at first light the next moming. The rest of her voyage HX-209 sailed unmolested having lost only one tanker to the enemy. To Admiral Dönitz, C-in-C of the U bootwaffe, the operation against HX-209 was a total failure. Only one ship sunk for the price of two destroyed U-boats and a third heavily damaged. When VP-73 left Iceland the squadron's planes had made thirty attacks on U-boats. Two submarines were sunk, both by Buno 2459.
After heavy storms and few operational flights during the winter period of 1942-1943 the weather improved in April 1943. By then the U-boats had adopted so-called 'fight-back' tactic. With this tactic, instead of diving when an aircraft was sighted, a U-boat would stay surfaced and fight back when it was not possible to reach a depth of 80 meters before the plane reached the U-boat. Because standard Catalinas are unsuited for this type of warfare some Catalinas were fitted with a fixed .30 calibre gun in the bow. The barrel of the gun protruded through the air thermometer hole. Later experiments were even made with a 20 mm canon obtained from a P-38 squadron. Two planes were fitted with the experimental installation, one being Buno 2459. As we will see later on the canon was only fired once before it jammed.
The effectiveness of the .30 calibre gun was demonstrated several times but its use produced a serious snag: it upset the bomb aim when used during the final stage of the run. On several occasions when the pilot's attention was focused on firing the gun rather than on the bomb run, the plane drifted from its target upsetting the bomb aim. Another problem was the Catalina's high angle of incidence which caused the gunfire to fail short when the plane dove towards its target. On April 28 Lieutenant (jg) William A. Shevlin flew Buno 2459 to cover convoys ONS5 and SC127 when a U-boat was sighted by Shevlin's copitot Ensign Albert M. Slingluff. This was probably the 1100 ton type IXC/40 long-range U528. The U-boat's lookouts apparently spotted the plane before they were sighted themselves. The boat disappeared thirty-five seconds before the plane arrived over it's swirl. Wisely, Shevlin withheld his bombs but only this time. Because, later when he returned to the spot he sighted a fully surfaced U-boat was seen off the port bow at a range of three and a half miles. Visibility was poor and the U-boat's lookouts supposedly did not notice the approaching plane until it was only a mile away. As the enemy crash-dived Shevlin dove in. He crossed the boat from port quarter to starboard bow, raking it with 200 rounds from the .30-caliber fixed bow gun. The U-boat was still only half submerged when Shevlin released the four depth charges, aiming them to strike the water just ahead of the conning tower. But, because he had been pointing the Catalina's nose at the U-boat while firing his fixed bow gun, the depth charges dropped slightiy farther ahead than intended. Nevertheless, they hit the water close by the U-boat's bow and it is difficult to imagine that the boat had escaped unscatherd. Still, evidence of the damage being all-important, this well executed attack was officially judged as a near-miss due to "insufficient evidence of damage." Before long, however, the result of Shevlin's attack became known. On 11 May 1943 U528 (Oberleutnant zur See von Rabenau), one of the boats operating against ONS5, was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by British air and naval forces. Interrogation of the boat's survivors revealed that on 28 April the boat was attacked from the air with four depth charges that exploded close by its bow. Three torpedo tubes were damaged and the boat was unable to launch its warheads. Furthermore, several air bottles were put out of action and the boat was leaking fuel. After determining the extent of damage, von Rabenau decided U528 was unfit for further operations and headed back to port for repairs.
A “simple” Air Sea Rescue (ASR) flight nearly ended Bu 2459's career on 14 June 1943. Lieutenant (jg) 'Roy' Neff took off to search for the crew of a missing PBY-5A of VP-84. He had all disposable items be removed of the aircraft to be as light as possible for a possible open sea landing. The fixed .30-caliber nose gun was left in place though.
While circling a Faeroes fishing schooner the schooner, probably thinking it was under attack by a German reconnaissance aircraft, fored its ingenieus defence mechanism - a parachute cable. This parachute cabine consisted of a steel cabine with canisters at each end containing a small parachute. When fired in the flight path of an aircraft the cable wrapped around the wing of its target and the chutes discharged from the canisters. The drag thus created was designed to yank the plane to one side with such force that it would plunge to sea out of control. Although Buno 2459 suddenly jolted violently to one side, by a stroke of good fortune one of the canisters became embedded in the starboard aileron and did not discharge its chute. It did jam the aileron and the other chute trailed beside the tailplane, its chute fully open. With full opposite rudder Lieutenant Neff kept the PBY under control despite the hard starboard pull. But something had to be done fast. Ordnanceman A.B. Grant rushed to the bow and quickly dismantled the fixed .30-caliber gun from its mount and brought it to the starboard blister. He took aim and with superb marksmanship shot the chute canisters from both ends of the cabine with a few short bursts. After a landing at the emergency landing field Höfn on Iceland's Southeast coast, where the cabine was removed, Buno 2459 returned to base.
Only ten days after the almost fatal incident, 24 June 1943, while flying south of Iceland Lieutenant (jg) Joseph W. Beach's copilot Lieutenant (jg) Albert M. Slingluff sighted a fully surfaced U-boat six miles slightly off the port bow. The Catalina was armed with three depth charges and a homing torpedo familiarly referred to by its users as “Fidol”. The U-boat spotted was U194 (Kapitänleutnant Hermann Hess); the first of the type IXD2 very long range Oberseekuh Ucruisers to put out of poil for an operation in the Indian Ocean. Lieutenant Beach went straight for his quarry, diving from 1600 feet. After initially not showing any reaction the U-boat suddenly brought its stem to point at the attacking plane. At the same time puffs of black smoke were seen at the conning tower, the Catalina was under fire. Beach aimed the Catalina's nose at the U-boat and pressed the firing button of the 20-mm fixed bow gun now fitted on the aircraft. As mentioned before, one round was fired before a gas jet broke. Afterwards the failure was attributed to the crew's lack of knowledge in the gun's operatie Beach unhesitatingly pressed home his attack while the U-boat's deck and conning tower were kept by the remaining .30-caliber gun. At an attitude of only 65 feet Beach crossed the U-boat stern to bow but the three depth charges failed to release. Pulling away from the attack Beach made a climbing left turn. The U-boat turned with him, keeping its stern pointed at the plane to bring the full force of its antiaircraft guns to bear. Beach circled his quarry at a distance while trying to manoeuvre the Catalina for abeam attack, but to no avail. The enemy always managed to keep his stem pointed in the plane’s direction. A remarkable feat considering that manoeuvrability was not a strong point of these large long-range boats. The second run was started from a mile and a half in face of heavy gunfire. As the Catalina passed over the U-boat stem, to bow the two starboard depth charges were released manually. Both fell short and exploded some 50 feet astern the boat. Beach came in almost immediately for the third time hoping the remaining depth charge would release. But the bomb release failed again. Kapitänleutnant Schoner had clearly had his fill and crash-dived. it was his last dive, for Beach dropped his 'Fidol' in the enemy's wake. Fifty seconds later the crew watched as the torpedo's shock wave caused a mushroom-like upheaval on the surface. The missile had found its target, but lacking the all-important visible evidence of damage the destruction of U194 could only be confirmed untit after the war.
Buno 2459 finished the war with three U-boats (U464, U582, and U194) sunk, and a fourth (U528) severely damaged.
During its operational assignment to VP-73 and VP-84, Buno 2459 flew a total of 195 operational missions, 92 with VP-73 and 103 with VP-84. The highest monthly tally was in May 1942 when it carried out 18 sorties for VP-73, closely followed by 17 with VP-84 in May 1943, the month the German U-boats were run out of the North Atlantic. It finished the war with three U-boats (U464, U582 and U194) sunk, and a fourth (U528) severely damaged. It is believed to be the highest score achieved by a single allied antisubmarine aircraft of any type in WW.II
Prior to its departure from Iceland on 1 September 1943, Buno 2459 transferred to FAW 7’s Hedron, where it remained until January 1944 when it was assigned to a unit named Atlanta Test 39. Buno 2459 was flown out of lceland to Quonset Point, R.I. by Lt. G.S. Smith on 1 September 1943, via BW-l, Greenland and Goose Bay,Labrador, arriving at Quonset Point on 3 September 1943. The total flying time from Reykjavik to Quonset Point was 20 hrs. 25 min.
The following September it was briefly assigned to the resident Operational Unit at NAS Anacostia, Washington, DC, before passing to the Naval Air Navigation Radio School at Gainsville, Georgia, in October. Towards the end of 1944, Buno 2459 spent a month or so with Assembly & Repair at Pensacola, presumably for maintenance, before transferring to the US Coast Guard in December 1944, and assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, were it was taken on charge by the station's Operational Unit. It was still at Elizabeth City when stricken from the Navy's inventory on 31 October 1945.
By: Prudent Staal
Father and daughter, Salvador Prieto and Nadya Prieto use a six-wheeled utility vehicle to check the irrigation system in the family?s Hass avocado and Meyer lemon orchards in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
ww.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
Metrosideros polymorpha (Ohia, lehua, ohia lehua)
Habit with sun mist and clouds at Base of Halemauu, Maui, Hawaii.
September 16, 2010
194_GHP_Board_EOreception_4dec18.JPG - Greater Houston Partnership Board reception for elected officials at Partnership headquarters December 4, 2018. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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Near freezing air currents of just 1 mph perform differently here ... nearer the camera the current is lifting thin vapour upwards over the lip, whereas the further denser vapour is curling over the lip due to it's being nearer saturation point and thus heavier.
With tongue somewhat in cheek I quote the physics ...
The lifted condensation level or lifting condensation level (LCL) is formally defined as the height at which the relative humidity (RH) of an air parcel will reach 100% when it is cooled by dry adiabatic lifting. The RH of air increases when it is cooled, since the amount of water vapor in the air (i.e., its specific humidity) remains constant, while the saturation vapor pressure decreases almost exponentially with decreasing temperature. If the air parcel is lifting further beyond the LCL, water vapor in the air parcel will begin condensing, forming cloud droplets. (In the real atmosphere, it is usually necessary for air to be slightly supersaturated, normally by around 0.5%, before condensation occurs; this translates into about 10 meters or so of additional lifting above the LCL.) The LCL is a good approximation of the height of the cloud base which will be observed on days when air is lifted mechanically from the surface to the cloud base (e.g., due to convergence of airmasses).
Have a nice day ... !
453_GHP_SoireePortraits_2019.jpg -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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Training engineers watch at one station while Commercial Crew astronauts Eric Boe and Suni Williams practice docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
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Training engineers watch at one station while Commercial Crew astronauts Eric Boe and Suni Williams practice docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
260_SoireeWall_11Nov21 - Greater Houston Partnership Soirée annual gala celebrating Houston as a truly global city at Hotel ZaZa chaired by Margaret and Thad Hill November 11, 2021. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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Commercial Crew astronaut Suni Williams practices docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a simulator known as a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and astronaut Suni Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
305_SoireeWall_11Nov21 - Greater Houston Partnership Soirée annual gala celebrating Houston as a truly global city at Hotel ZaZa chaired by Margaret and Thad Hill November 11, 2021. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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503_GHP_Golf_18Nov22 - Greater Houston Partnership 27th annual Golf Classic at Memorial Park golf course November 18, 2022. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/cover-stories/on-the-pul...
On the pulse
By Michael Barnett
In developed countries, populations are ageing and individuals are living with medical conditions for longer. This trend is creating a market for new kinds of healthcare services.
Many consumer and business brands are moving into the healthcare sector to take advantage of the opportunities. Some are adapting their existing technology and expertise to meet demand for innovations in health; others are seeking to change the way healthcare is delivered.
Companies better known for selling anything from cars to mobile phone contracts are now seeking to become known as providers of medical services and products. Ford, for example, is bringing health technology to its cars with the development of an electrocardiogram (ECG) seat that measures the heart rate of the driver without the need to wear any additional monitoring equipment.
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Pim van der Jagt, managing director of the Ford Research Centre in Aachen, Germany, says this innovation was a strategic business decision made on the basis of substantial market research. “Health and wellness is the new area where people will spend a lot of money and have a lot of interest,” he says (see Q&A, below).
Van der Jagt notes that consumers’ lives are becoming busier, while Ford’s customers are getting older. The ECG seat aims to meet a very real demand for a product that would constantly check the health of the driver without taking time out of the person’s day to visit a doctor.
“A very large percentage of our customers are going to be above 65. Data shows that among people above 65 there is a significant percentage with some form of heart problem. These people want to monitor their heart rate and check they are in good condition,” says van der Jagt.
The seat is not yet on production lines, but should it be approved for installation in Ford’s cars, data would be collected by the vehicles using the car’s Sync entertainment system and transmitted wirelessly over the internet to a third-party organisation.
Exactly what would then be done with the information is a matter still under consideration, along with other technical details that still need to be worked out. Van der Jagt says Ford is unlikely to provide real-time feedback to the driver. “If he is going full speed on the autobahn, you do not want to tell him he should go to the nearest hospital,” he says.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect motion capture gaming device, usually part of a family’s video game entertainment system, is being used by surgeons at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. The motion sensor technology allows doctors to use physical gestures to switch between medical images on a screen without leaving the sterile area of the operating room and scrub in again.
The American Optometric Association has also suggested that Nintendo’s 3DS portable games console and other 3D viewing technology could help to diagnose problems in the vision of young people.
As well as creating new products or repurposing existing ones with new medical applications, some consumer brands are repositioning themselves as providers of comprehensive health services.
O2 last year launched O2 Health (see case study, below), while Virgin paid £4m for a 75% stake in Assura Medical in March 2010, 18 months after pulling out of plans to open its own primary care centre in Swindon. Both companies work in partnership with the NHS to deliver care services and products both to the industry and directly to patients.
According to Gaurav Batra, corporate development director of Virgin Management, which determines the business strategy of Virgin Group, the new opportunities for consumer-driven brands exist because patients have new priorities in what they seek from their healthcare providers. The current political climate, which aims to decentralise NHS healthcare, also supports this.
Batra says: “In terms of policy and how we as a society are evolving, people want to take greater control over their healthcare. That means they want more information about it. It means they want to exercise greater choice about what their treatment is, who is going to treat them, where, how and when.”
He adds that companies such as Virgin can bring experience in customer service into the NHS, an organisation that he claims has been poor at providing this. The general aims of Virgin’s involvement in health are to ensure this customer-centric ethos improves patient care, shortens waiting times, brings care closer to home and saves taxpayers money.
Healthcare professionals may need convincing of this, if the opposition of some medical associations to the government’s NHS reforms is any indication. But O2 Health managing director Keith Nurcombe expects the splitting up of some NHS services to pick up pace, allowing more private companies and consumer brands to position themselves as healthcare providers.
As with Virgin’s Assura business, all of O2 Health’s marketing is currently targeted at medical professionals. In the second half of 2011, however, it will launch its first consumer-facing campaign to accompany the introduction of a new mobile alternative to the panic buttons given to frail people in their homes.
Private companies have been involved in delivering services within the UK health industry for many years, but this could mark the beginning of their rise to prominence as recognisable consumer brands.
Virgin, which already has a health incentives business in the US called Virgin Health Miles, is building its profile among medical professionals in the UK and Batra says that “over a period of time we will see a greater role for a brand director at the patient interface”, although no decision has yet been taken to rebrand Assura Medical under the Virgin banner.
He explains: “I think the time will come when the Virgin brand means as much as the Assura brand does today to those various groups. That will be the right time to go.”
While Virgin’s Batra and O2 Health’s Nurcombe are clear on the motives for stretching their brands into new areas, it might take longer for British consumers to grasp the concept. Both would have to overcome the unfamiliarity in healthcare of consumer brands better known for telecoms or transatlantic flights.
Technology company HP, which is the largest IT provider in the healthcare sector worldwide according to director of global health Paul Ellingstad, prefers not to draw patients’ attention to its branding. “We are not displacing providers today. We are working with and enabling the healthcare providers,” he says.
HP’s marketing is directed towards communicating its use of technology in order to solve medical problems. Indeed, prior technological expertise is an area common to nearly all of the brands newly exploring health and wellness. It is also one where there is perhaps a natural basis for marketing healthcare brand extensions to consumers.
Van der Jagt says Ford, for example, already employs medical doctors for research to aid its ergonomic design, making sure its cars are comfortable and easy to use. So the expertise already exists in the company to explore other health-related applications for its technology. The ECG seat is just one of many developments to come about in this way, he says.
Similarly, O2 Health makes significant use of the mother brand’s telecoms experience. It has recently tested a system in the Western Isles of Scotland that allows patients to have remote consultations with a GP rather than a hospital, which might be a boat or plane journey away.
Called Side by Side, the video-link system allows the consultant to show the patient information such as MRI scans, X-rays, blood tests and whiteboard diagrams that can be drawn on the screen. O2 Health’s Nurcombe says: “It is obviously a much better service for the patient because they do not have to travel so far. It is much more efficient for the NHS because the consultant’s time is better used. Ultimately, it delivers a significantly lower cost of care.”
Using technology to cut the costs of delivering healthcare is a growing area. Forty-two per cent of chief information officers in hospitals across North America, Europe and Australia expect to spend more on IT this year than last, compared with only 17% who expect a drop, according to consultancy Ovum.
Brands can also get involved in this world by helping consumers or organisations take more control of their health-related data through technology. One new company started for this purpose is Massive Health. The San Francisco start-up raised $2.25m (£1.35m) from venture capital in February, and intends to launch mobile apps that update consumers’ health data in real time. The model can be compared to the Nike+ iPhone app, which records data associated with joggers’ running routes, and Google Health, which acts as an online health record for users in the US.
Massive Health co-founder Aza Raskin, previously a developer for Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, says he wants the company to be “the Apple of healthcare”. Its apps will enable diabetics, for example, to monitor their condition with feedback on data entered. As a result, Raskin says, they will provide information to help patients live healthily, infrastructure for which is currently lacking in the medical profession.
“If you are going to your doctor once every six months or every year, it does not really tell you about a problem you are having that was caused by what you had for lunch three days ago. The real problem with health is not that you do not care, it is that your body does not give you the kind of feedback that you need to make decisions. Technology can start adding a feedback loop, so you see the effect immediately,” says Raskin.
While technology at the leading edge is opening up markets in the developed world, comparatively low-tech products are furthering healthcare in poorer countries. Simply establishing an internet connection in areas that have never had one before can have profound impacts on doctors’ ability to save lives. Brands are participating in this both through charities and their own business initiatives.
British charity Computer Aid takes old IT equipment from businesses and puts it to use in telehealth applications in remote parts of Africa. One product, the ZubaBox, consists of an old shipping container filled with monitors and an internet-enabled computer powered by solar panels. Corporate sponsors can put their name on the side, pick the destination from a list of projects and send volunteers (see Q&A, below).
One of the three ZubaBoxes so far sent out was received by Macha Works, a development organisation in the isolated and rural area of Macha in Zambia. According to chief executive Fred Mweetwa, there have been economic and social benefits to the connection with larger towns that the region’s health professionals now enjoy. For one thing, more doctors are encouraged to stay.
“Since the introduction of the internet in Macha and the surrounding areas in Zambia, a lot of lives have been saved. Communication has been a lot easier between and among health experts,” says Mweetwa.
HP has undertaken similar telehealth initiatives in Africa, not just as a charitable cause but as part of its social innovation division, which director of global health Paul Ellingstad says marries its social and business objectives. For example, HP’s Palm Pre 2 smartphones are being used by Botswana’s Ministry of Health to collect geographically tagged data on malaria outbreaks. Coupled with cloud-based analytical tools, the government can now respond to patterns of infection in hours rather than weeks, as was the case when paper-based notes were taken. After an initial one-year pilot, HP plans to develop a cloud-based health services package for consumers in Botswana.
Ellingstad says: “There are clearly commercial opportunities for HP and other companies in driving this tech transformation in the sector. But at the same time, by virtue of where the global health sector stands, and the use or lack of use of technology, there is also an enormous opportunity from the social impact side to see significant improvement in health outcomes by doing very fundamental tech implementation.”
In both the developed and developing world, new business models in health and wellness are coming into existence at an increasing rate. While the move by consumer brands into unfamiliar areas might initially seem unlikely, the technology and customer-centric ethos of these companies could shake up the global healthcare market.
While many companies might never have considered how their brands could help keep people well, it might be time to start doing so. The strategy could have extreme health benefits for their bottom line.
105_GHP_TMC_20Sept22 —Greater Houston Partnership State of the Texas Medical Center at the Hilton Americas September 20, 2022. (photo by Richard Carson)
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These appear to be Asperitas Clouds, as described by the International Cloud Atlas:
"Well-defined, wave-like structures in the underside of the cloud; more chaotic and with less horizontal organization than the variety undulatus. Asperitas is characterized by localized waves in the cloud base, either smooth or dappled with smaller features, sometimes descending into sharp points, as if viewing a roughened sea surface from below. Varying levels of illumination and thickness of the cloud can lead to dramatic visual effects. Occurs mostly with Stratocumulus and Altocumulus."
References
- International Cloud Atlas: cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/clouds-supplementary-features-asper...
- Astrum--Earth's Rarest Cloud Type (YouTube) youtu.be/EX_uwZAgfOg
That "rarest cloud type" is perhaps an exaggeration, but they were formally described as a separate type of cloud only in 2009.
These photos were taken 15 January 2016 in Durham NC (USA). Checking weather records, weather was mild, about 52 F with a light wind, with some showers that evening. Two days later, there was a big temperature drop down to low 20's (F), quite cold for this area.
046_GHP_SoireePortraits_2019.jpg -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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006_GHP_SoireeCandids_2019.JPG -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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Madonna and Child
FILIPINO
17th Century
Solid Ivory with traces of gilding and polychromy.
Head of Virgin replaced.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Porfirio J. and Mrs. Socorro Rodriguez Callo
Purchased from Likhâ Antiques.
A solid ivory figure of the Madonna and Child carved during the 17th century. The Madonna stands on an "Ensaymada" (brioche) cloud base typical of early renditions of the Mother and Child. On the base of the image is carved a small angel head with outspread wings. Horns of crescent moon now missing although large holes at the sides of the image indicates where these were originally included as part of the iconography. Tuck or "suksuk" present in the back. The Virgin stands on a black integral base.
The Virgin's gown crosses her body laterally at the waist, folds gracefully backwards and falls in soft, agitated folds at her feet. The Virgin is shown clasping the foot of the child typical of Philippine images of the Virgin and Child carved during the period. This feature shows the influence of the Spanish sculptor Juan Martinez Montanes.
The slight hint of knee, the toes peeping out of the Madonna's voluminous gown and the "suksuk" present in the back are clear indications of this image's Philippine provenance.
Numerous cracks and signs of wear indicative of this image's great age.
Many similar renditions of the Madonna and Child made during the 17th century are published in: Jose, R. T. (1990). Images of faith: Religious ivory carvings from the Philippines. Pacific Asia Museum: Pasadena, CA, pp 65 - 70, 114 - 115.
At the risk of getting trench foot and in heavy rain I secured this shot of South African Railway class NGG16 No.87 climbing the gradient from Pont Croesor towards the Aberglaslyn Pass at milepost 19 on the Welsh Highland Railway with the 11.00 Porthmadog Harbour to Caernarfon. The cloud base had descended to little more than 100ft and it was more like December than late September so photography further up the line was out of the question as Beddgelert was in the clouds.
This Garrett type locomotive which is a 2-6-2+2-6-2 was built Cockerill in Belgium for use in South Africa and dates from 1936.
164_GHP_EcoOutlook_5dec19— Greater Houston Partnership's Annual Houston Region Economic Outlook event featuring a keynote presentation by Helen Currie, Chief Economist with ConocoPhillips December 5, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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This is one from the archive; I chose to post it today because the reason I didn't shoot something new today is I am busy geeking out playing with Amazon EC2 (cloud based servers) and moving my blog and the rest of my domains over to it.
I am a geek, or at least I like to pretend to be one :). And, this stuff is a lot of fun for me. EC2 is about the coolest thing I have played with tech wise in some time :) See ya all tomorrow.
Needs to bee seen on black really...
112_GHP_SoireeCandids_2019.JPG -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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048_SoireeWall_11Nov21 - Greater Houston Partnership Soirée annual gala celebrating Houston as a truly global city at Hotel ZaZa chaired by Margaret and Thad Hill November 11, 2021. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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372_GHP_SoireePortraits_2019.jpg -- Greater Houston Partnership “Emerald City” Soiree 2019 with photography sponsored by Conoco Phillips at Hotel ZaZa August 24, 2019. (Photo by Richard Carson)
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A training engineer watches at one station while Commercial Crew astronaut Suni Williams practices docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and astronaut Suni Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
LLNL's fall 2022 hackathon featured an Amazon Web Services DeepRacer machine learning competition, in which participants used a cloud-based racing simulator to train an autonomous race car with reinforcement learning algorithms.
Commercial Crew astronaut Eric Boe practices docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and astronaut Suni Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
Virtual Panorama of Reiter Berry Farms, in Watsonville, CA, on Thursday, August 27, 2015, are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to improve on the 30% water savings they already achieve with precision micro subsurface irrigation. The use of a Wireless Irrigation Monitoring Network (WIN) to collects data from wireless solar powered soil tensiometers, and weather field stations positioned throughout farms in three counties enable them to track soil, temperature, and humidity conditions with a cloud-based irrigation management system, to better manage watering and soil conservation efforts in more than 700 acres. They actively share their data, methods, and experiences with other producers. Better management by producers using a currently dwindling supply and quality of ground water (wells) in this county will help recharge the aquifer and prevent the migration of nearby Pacific Ocean salt water into the ground water they use. This is one of the ways growers are extending the water supply. Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC) has been involved with family farming since 1868; is a leading fresh, multi-berry producer in the world; and a leading supplier of fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in North America.
Wireless soil tensiometer are buried at multiple specific distances and depths from the subsurface water emitters and the root balls. The tensiometer measures how strongly the soil absorbs water. The tensiometer’s porous probe is buried into the soil and a pump pulls some air out, creating a vacuum. Water and moisture from the surrounding soil enters the probe. Low amounts of water entering the tensiometer indicate plants (and evaporation) are pulling water from the soil and may need to be watered. High levels of water entering the tensiometer indicate the plants have enough water. This information is then transmitted to a company’s cloud-based irrigation management system that makes the data available on customer’s mobile device in the field. If this data is combined with historical data and other information, it can help determine when, how long and how fast watering needs to be for best efficiency, soil health and electrical economy to improve a business’s yield and profitability. These measurements helps ensure ideal watering and for soil conservation. The farms have been using the tensiometers for 5 years. USDA Photo Illustration by Lance Cheung.
Commercial Crew astronaut Eric Boe practices docking operations for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner using a part-task trainer designed to mimic the controls and behavior of the spacecraft. They are part of a suite of cloud-based and hands-on trainers that Boeing has built to prepare astronauts and mission controllers. The trainers will be shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this year so astronauts can use them daily to practice numerous situations from normal operations to unlikely emergencies. The Starliner is one of two spacecraft in development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program that will enable astronauts to fly to the International Space Station on a new generation of spacecraft made in America and launching from Florida's Space Coast. Working at Boeing's St. Louis facility, Boe and astronaut Suni Williams ran through numerous mission phases to assess the simulators before they are shipped to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis