CAPTIONS

Discovery Cove at SeaWorld Orlando Guests interact with dolphins at SeaWorld Orlando's Discovery Cove. (JOE BURBANK, ORLANDO SENTINEL /October 24, 2005)

The Discovery Cove horticulture team will do a front-yard makeover for a Central Florida contest winner.

The "Landscape Your Yard" contest requires participants, living within a 50-mile radius of Discovery Cove, to submit a photo of their front lawn with a description of why they should win the prize. Descriptions must be less than 500 words. Submissions must be made via the Discovery Face Facebook page by March 10.

On March 12, Discovery Cove Facebook fans will vote for the yard that needs the attention the most. The top vote-getter will be announced March 19.

On April 22 -- that's Earth Day -- the Discovery Cove horticulture team will overhaul the homeowner's lawn.

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Discovery Cove: Contest winner will get front-yard makeover from horticulture team

Several students had the chance to express their opinions Wednesday night about a possible alternative to the current University Master Plan for Centennial Campus.

Stanford Barnes, a masters student in landscape architecture, is working on his version of what the 1,200-acre landscape could look like 10 years from now for his design project. Wednesdays meeting served as his first public forum to gauge the reaction of current students.

I want to create something important and special for Centennial Campus, Barnes said. We are here to talk about legacy and talk about what you [students] would like to see for both us and for future generations.

Much of Barnes plan involves changes to the Wolf Ridge apartment complex and future Town Center, a mixed-use facility that will eventually be constructed near Lake Raleigh. It also addresses the lack of parking and housing, especially for graduate students.

N.C. State is not going to stop growing, and as more people head here to grad school, accommodations will have to increase, Barnes said. Id love to see Ph.D. students living here with their families, and right now we dont have many locations to accommodate that.

Additionally, Barnes said he envisions a Scholars Walk series of winding trails that connects the Centennial community, starting at the Oval and ending at the Alumni Center. These trails will be lined with items that boast N.C. State history, including paintings created by College of Design students.

Everyone takes a different pathway through education, which is why there are so many winding pathways in my plan, Barnes said.

After explaining his plan, Barnes shifted the discussion to student input. Audience members consistently highlighted the convenience of living on Centennial Campus and the beautiful landscape as positive elements of the plan.

One of the greatest features about Centennial Campus is the natural environment, Barnes said. I mean, we have a lake.

Many students said their ideal living location was similar to Raleigh -- not too urban and not too rural. Many students said while they appreciated the wide open spaces on Centennial, they wanted to see nook-and-cranny spaces installed as well, similar to the space behind the Burlington Labs on Main Campus. These would help give Centennial a homier feel, students said.

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Students discuss the future, landscape of Centennial Campus

There's nothing conventional in the management of the Marshall family's farm at Reidsdale, NSW, and nothing conventional about the results, either.

Willows, poplars, chestnuts, oaks and bamboo are used as fodder and to regenerate farm soils and streams, running against the official preference for native speciesand yet by any measure of health, the landscape is flourishing.

Soils are friable and well-structured, ensuring that any moisture that falls on the farm stays there.

Streams flow permanently, in contrast to when Peter and Kate Marshall and their children Keith, Gus and Rita, bought the former dairy farm 'Woodford Lagoon' in 1990.

At the time, the farmnow 250 hectareswas "ruined", Mr Marshall said, with no permanent water; compacted, acidic soil with no 'A' horizon, and dozens of hectares infested with broom bush.

In one spot, water penetrated only about two centimetres deep during a 10 hour immersion under a flood.

For much of the property, the first step toward health has been a Yeomans plow towed behind a low-ground pressure Antonio Carraro 4WD tractor. With a seven-tonne break-out on the tynes, the plow rips to 700 millimetres deep, shattering compaction and opening up the soil volume available to plant roots.

"We've got some areas where we excluded the stock 20 years ago and the soil still hasn't loosened up," Mr Marshall said. "But the minute we've passed a Yeoman's through it, everything comes to life."

Only sheep and goats are allowed back on the uncompacted soil, because the Marshalls have found that cattle hooves apply enough pressure to cause the farm's soils to "plastically fail", or compact beyond a point where natural processes can undo the damage.

Goats have been an essential tool in the farm's regeneration. Killing the broom with chemical wasnt an option, Mr Marshall said, because it encourages the seeds scattered beneath the bush to germinate, requiring another dose of chemicalan ongoing vicious cycle.

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Marshall plan for farming regenerates the landscape

Photo: iStockphoto

Each week, Grub Street surveys the entire restaurant landscape of New York, crunches the numbers, and comes up with this: A list of the most-talked-about, must-visit places in the city. They might be new, or they could be older places that have gotten a recent jolt of buzz. No matter what, these are the restaurants where you should make a point to eat sooner rather than later.

1. Narcissa (Last week: 3) The major critics still have to weigh in, but at the moment, it seems John Fraser's five-week-old downtown restaurant is a major hit, thanks at least in part to those truly excellent carrot fries.

2. Mission Cantina (1) Danny Bowien's menu has been constantly evolving since Cantina officially opened back in November, and this week's bringing the biggest changes yet. If you have not yet been, this is just one more reason to get in on it.

3. Ivan Ramen's Slurp Shop (6) The star attraction at Gotham West Market is Ivan Orkin's superlative ramen spot, and as Pete Wells's ramen roundup this week made clear, it is a true standout among all of the city's top ramen destinations, too.

4. The Cleveland (4) The Soho-Nolita restaurant got a welcome jolt of buzz recently thanks to the announcement that Max Sussman is the new chef. And reports back indicate the chef's work lives up to the hype. Sussman's daily changing menus look very impressive, too.

5. French Louie (14) The cozy, L-shaped dining room at this Atlantic Avenue spot has been more or less full-up since French Louie opened last week. The welcoming vibe and the just-tweaked-enough bistro food look as though they have the potential to make this place a neighborhood favorite for the long haul.

6. Dover (2) Speaking of neighborhood spots, Dover's spare, unfussy storefront dining room belies the level of polish on the food that's coming out of chefs Walker Stern and Joe Ogrodnek's kitchen. Of note: The much-praised lamb-rib dish served here is the kind of entre you can't stop thinking about, even days after your meal.

7. The Clam (5) Turns out the straightforward Market Table approach to cooking works very well when applied to seafood-shack classics just one reason why people continue to crowd into Mike Price's charming new Hudson Street spot.

8. Contra (11) Much has been made of this LES restaurant's $55 tasting menu's value, but don't overlook the hospitable service and truly outstanding wine list, either.

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Grub Streets Restaurant Power Rankings: Where to Eat While You Wait for Spring

With smog in Beijing so bad it's forced pilots to land blind and officials to shut down the airport, China has unveiled a new plan to test drones that spray smog-clearing chemicals around airports. How will it work?

Trials for these new parafoil dronesessentially a drones with parachuteswill begin later this month at airports around China, according to the South China Morning Post. A drone like this can carry some 1,500 pounds of smog-clearing chemicals to clear a 3 mile radius around the airports. And it's easy enough to control and land, which is important given all the air traffic.

Parafoil soft-wing drones have some considerable advantages over planes or fixed-wing drones. For one, they're heck of a lot cheaper, with operating costs at just 1/10 of those for fixed-wing drones. They can also carry three times as much weight, which means more smog-busting chemicals per drone.

The new drone plan doesn't specify what chemicals will be used, but in the past, China has sprayed silver iodide to seed clouds during drought, and they've proposed the same for smog. In theory, falling rain or snow would bring the pollution down to earth. There's another, more nascent proposal to freeze pollutants solid in the air with liquid nitrogen.

The obvious problem with both, however, is that the toxic pollutants in the air simply end up on the ground, where they are still toxic pollutants. China does seem to be getting serious about combatting pollution, but these smog-clearing strategies fight the symptom rather than the root cause of pollution. But sometimes you just have to do what you can. [South China Morning Post]

Top image: Smog in Beijing in February 2014. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

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China Is Deploying Smog-Busting Drones So Its Airports Can Stay Open

Interior Designer Riston Foo of Whiz Concepts transform HDB into Urban Jungle (year 2002)
Featured in Arts Central year 2002.

By: Whiz Concepts

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Interior Designer Riston Foo of Whiz Concepts transform HDB into Urban Jungle (year 2002) - Video

Interior Designer Pleasanton CA Carole Frances I.D.S. Interior Design LLC
For over 35 years, I have invested my passion and experience as a professional interior designer to create unique spaces for my clients, with their particula...

By: Interior Designer Pleasanton CA

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Interior Designer Pleasanton CA Carole Frances I.D.S. Interior Design LLC - Video

DIY declutter with interior designer Cesar Chavez

By: designedby.CesarChavez

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DIY declutter with interior designer Cesar Chavez - Video

DesignTV With Steven G. Episode - 7
Miami interior designer Steven G. talks about the hottest new trend in premium interior design....porcelain. Get more premium interior design tips at: http:/...

By: Lisa Ricci

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DesignTV With Steven G. Episode - 7 - Video

A weekend fire that heavily damaged a Sussex County funeral home was caused by an electrical malfunction, state fire officials said Wednesday.

The fire began at 1:25 p.m. Saturday at the Bennie Smith Funeral Home, a former residence built in the late 1800s in the 200 block of S. Washington St. in Millsboro.

Crews from the Millsboro Volunteer Fire Co. arrived to find heavy smoke showing from the second floor and attic, as the fire traveled throughout the structure.

Millsboro crews and six other fire companies worked for several hours to put out the blaze, Fire Chief Matthew Warrington said Wednesday.

The resident of an apartment in the three-story building escaped without injury, said Harry R. Miller, chief deputy state fire marshal.

Were just grateful that no one was injured, said Terrence Nichols, chief operations officer with Bennie Smith. Thats whats most important.

No human remains were damaged and no services were under way at the time of the fire, Miller and Nichols said. Damage was estimated at $350,000.

The funeral home management does not yet know whether it will be able to rebuild. At this point, were still talking with the insurance company, Nichols said.

The fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in branch-circuit wiring, where power comes out of the panel box, Miller said.

The house that burned was one of several locations for the business, which has its main office in Dover.

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Wiring fault caused Millsboro funeral home fire