Here is a brief explanation on the importance of soil pH from the KSU horticulture specialist Chandler Day that I came across recently. This may help in understanding why so many of our trees, bushes and even grass turn yellow from iron chlorosis.

Have you ever applied fertilizer, but didn’t see any results? Soil pH might be the problem. Before we talk about why your plants can’t uptake essential nutrients, let’s talk about what pH is.  Soil pH stands for potential Hydrogen and is measured on a 1-14 scale where 1 is very acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is very alkaline.

“Building Soils for Better Crops” states that most agronomic crops prefer a soil pH ranging from 6 to 7.5, depending on the crop. Soil pH influences your plants’ ability to uptake nutrients. This is important because you might see symptoms of a nutrient deficiency, green veins and yellowing around the leaf, on your plant, but that doesn’t mean the nutrients are not in the soil.

For example, in Kansas the micronutrient iron is plentiful in soils, yet we see iron chlorosis in plants, especially oak trees. This is because iron is in a soluble form and is easily taken up by oak trees when the soil pH ranges from 5.0 to 6.5, but when the soil pH is above a 7 iron is no longer soluble and the tree can’t use this micronutrient.

Understanding soil pH when applying fertilizers, especially nitrogen, is important too because fertilizer has the potential raise or lower your soils pH.  One of the best, and most accurate, ways to determine your soils pH is to send a soil sample to the K-State soil testing lab. Follow this link for more information about soil testing. For more information about soil acidity and pH management, check out this video provided by the USDA and follow this link to Chapter 20 in “Building Soils for Better Crops” called Other Fertility Issues: Nutrients, CEC, Acidity, and Alkalinity.

Rip Winkel is the Horticulture agent in the Cottonwood District (Barton and Ellis Counties) for K-State Research and Extension. You can contact him by e-mail at [email protected] or calling either 785-682-9430, or 620-793-1910.

This week, executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google testified before Congress. Again. This was the third congressional hearing this year where the internet giants were grilled on their content policies, their privacy and security practices and their role in democracy.

It’s been a rough couple of years for social media platforms. They’ve come under fire for so many different things it can be hard to remember all of them. To recap: For enabling Russian propagandists to influence our presidential election and terrorist organizations to find new recruits. For allowing fake news stories to go viral. For exacerbating political polarization by trapping their users in “filter bubbles.” For giving hate mongers and conspiracy theorists a platform to reach a wider audience. For filtering or down-ranking conservative viewpoints. For collecting private user data and selling it to the highest bidder. For siphoning profits away from struggling local news organizations.

The social media platforms are taking various actions to mitigate these problems. But every potential solution seems to bring forth another unanticipated consequence. YouTube is currently trying to debunk conspiracy videos on its site by displaying links to more accurate information right alongside of them — but there’s concern that the presence of a link to an authoritative source will make a video seem more legitimate, even if the text and link directly contradict the video.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has expressed a desire to break up his users’ filter bubbles by injecting alternative viewpoints in their feeds. But new research suggests that exposing people to opposing political views may actually cause them to double down on their own — ironically, actually increasing political polarization. Facebook instituted a system for users to flag questionable news stories for review by their fact-checkers — but soon ran into the problem that users would falsely report stories as “fake news” if they disagreed with the premise of the story, or just wanted to target the specific publisher.

Some doubt the sincerity behind these efforts. As former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao says, “[S]ocial media companies and the leaders who run them are rewarded for focusing on reach and engagement, not for positive impact or for protecting subsets of users from harm.” In other words, what’s good for a company’s bottom line and what’s good for society as a whole are often at odds with each other.

It’s no wonder that the government is looking to step into the fray. If the numerous congressional hearings don’t make that clear, a proposed plan to regulate social media platforms that leaked from Senator Mark Warner’s office last month ought to. Just last week, President Trump announced that he wanted to take action against Google and Twitter for allegedly not displaying conservative media in his search results.

It’s unlikely that the president would be able to do much about that, just as it’s unlikely that Congress would be able to force Facebook to say, ban all fake news stories from its platform. Twitter, Facebook and Google are all private companies, and the First Amendment prohibits government officials from limiting or compelling speech by private actors.

So what can the government do? It can encourage (and, if necessary, regulate) these companies to be more transparent. It’s shocking how little we know about the algorithms, content moderation practices and internal policies that control what information we receive and how we communicate with one another. It’s reckless that we only become aware of these things when something catastrophic happens.

Lata Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. Contact her via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @LataNott.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

I looked into a human brain. Don’t worry, I wasn’t doing brain surgery. I was witnessing a demonstration of an incredible new, high-tech three-dimensional imaging system. This process is being pioneered by a team of entrepreneurs in the heart of Kansas.

Anjan Ghosh Hajra is the CEO of Immersion 3D Plus, the innovative company which developed this technology. Anjan’s father, Ashish Ghosh Hajra, came to the U.S. from India in 1971. After working back east, Ashish was transferred to a job in Salina where he enjoyed a long career with what is now Philips Lighting. He also worked on advanced degrees in chemical engineering at K-State.

“I fell in love with Kansas,” Ashish said. He also connected with Dr. Swapan Chakrabarti, a University of Kansas electrical engineering and computer science professor, who shared innovative ideas about 3D imaging.

Ashish started a company named Immersion 3D Plus, or I3DP, in Salina to commercialize these ideas. I3DP acquired the exclusive rights to the initial patents on Dr. Chakrabarti’s work from the University of Kansas and has since developed and filed additional provisional patents. Ashish also invested in Abilene where he is interested in expanding. Abilene is a rural community of 6,844 people. Now, that’s rural.

Ashish’s son Anjan studied at a medical school, in India, and at K-State before joining the business. “He has made a big difference,” Ashish said. Besides Anjan and Ashish, the company’s leadership team includes Dr. Chakrabarti as chief technology officer, K-State-Polytechnic engineering technology professor Dr. Raju Dandu as consultant, and research associate Alec Cork.

“We’ve developed a technology that allows you to see all sides of an image – and even what’s inside,” Anjan said. Using digital equipment, their process enables amazing volumetric visualization of what is inside people and things.

“We call it true 3D,” Anjan said. “This is more than a hologram or just wearing glasses in a movie theater,” he said. In fact, no 3D glasses are required.

The demonstration depicted the inside of a human brain and more. Thanks to this technology, we could see from all angles as well as through the brain itself.

Imagine the applications of this technology. Perhaps a doctor or specialist could more accurately see the inside of a human organ. Perhaps an engineer could see the inside of a building or a piece of equipment, or scan the earth for water or oil and gas. Perhaps a surgeon could conduct more precise operations using this technology.

There would also be applications for gaming, education and training.

Another innovation of this company is High Dynamic Range imaging. For example, a standard range has a measure of gradiant called 8 bits per color, while High Dynamic Range can depict up to 16 bits per color.

This produces more vivid, richer colorations in movies, photos, or other images, for example. It’s like Technicolor with depth.

In October 2017, I3DP presented the Immersion 3D Plus concept at a special event called Encountering Innovation, hosted by the Kansas Small Business Development Center. It was an opportunity for innovative small businesses to present their concepts to representatives of potential federal customers, primarily the Department of Defense. “The DoD is the largest customer on earth,” said Alan Badgley of the Kansas SBDCs. “They need innovation and technology, and we can be a match-maker to connect them with innovative Midwestern small businesses,” he said.

Another round of Encountering Innovation will be held in October 2018 in Johnson County. For information on that session, see www.encounteringinnovation.com.

“It was a real confidence boost to see their interest in our technology,” Anjan said. Imagine high-tech in the middle of the country. “What Silicon Valley has done in California, why can’t we do that here with Kansas kids?” Ashish said. For more information, see www.i3dplus.com.

I looked into a human brain. Immersive, 3D imaging enabled us to see inside and through the brain and other organs. We commend Anjan and Ashish Ghosh Hajra and all those involved with Immersion 3D Plus for making a difference with their innovative technology. I could see this business has a lot of brain power – and a lot of heart.