POWER TALK

HAPPENINGS

Shiver me timbers, it’s treasure-hunting time at Pirate Days of The Colony, a swashbuckling adventure for buccaneers of all ages.

Set for October 17-18, this festival is born of a fanciful fable: Modern-day pirates in Galveston found a treasure chest full of gold buried by legendary pirate Jean Laffite. But the disoriented pirates, with their map turned upside down, got lost and went north—way north, above Dallas—winding up in The Colony on the southeastern shore of Lake Lewisville.

As far-fetched as that tale is, there is real treasure to be found here, starting with the festival’s high-tech scavenger hunt in which wannabe pirates equipped with GPS devices search for hidden souvenirs. Meanwhile, there’s enough entertainment to keep anyone from walking the plank: Actors re-enact pirate history, dogs and humans compete in pirate costume contests, and in pirate school, children learn to walk and talk like a pirate. Yarr! For more information, call (972) 625-8027 or go to www.piratedays.org.

BALL AND SPANISH MOSS ARE HARMLESS HITCHHIKERS

“The propensity for both of these bromeliads to thrive on the dead or dying branches of living trees gives the mistaken impression that they are responsible for the tree’s demise. Actually, naturally dying branches simply provide good habitat for the bromeliads, because they are bare and generally offer the best conditions of light and relative humidity.”

—Matt Warnock Turner, Remarkable Plants of Texas: Uncommon Accounts of Our Common Natives, University of Texas Press, 2009

FUTURE TALK

Apollo Diamonds is growing diamonds synthetically for future use in computer chips, other small electronics and—ta-da—the electric grid. We learned something about it on the June 30 installment of PBS’ “Nova Science Now.”

The diamond is an excellent insulator of electricity. And blue diamonds could serve as conductors because they contain the chemical element boron. A cubic centimeter of diamond could withstand 10 million volts of electricity. Electric grids using diamonds could speed power across lines and with much less hardware than the current copper-based systems.

WHO KNEW?

As detailed in the book Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (1984, Texas Monthly Press), the Rio Grande has had many imaginative names throughout the history of mapmaking. Early Spanish explorers were responsible for many of them, including: Rio de la Concepción, Rio de las Palmas (River of the Palms), Rio de Nuestra Señora (River of Our Lady), Rio de San Buena­ventura del Norte (River of Good Fortune of the North) and Rio Guadalquivir (Great River).

GLOSSARY

Fuel Adjustment clause—A correction or modification on a consumer’s monthly electric bill caused by an increase or decrease in the cost of an electric utility’s fuel supply. It also is called a power cost adjustment.