Summerton S.C. Blog

30.1.18

Personalized ‘Smart Drones’ for Every Home

A couple of years ago the big news was that Amazon was preparing to test the use of drones to deliver their goods to your home – a service known as Amazon Prime Air. Sounded great, but the idea quickly ran into a myriad of technical, legal, and operational issues that will take many years to overcome. Thankfully, that has given us time to reimagine the whole process and come up with other alternatives.

As time has passed, a number of new features and capabilities of drones may have turned the proposed home delivery idea by Amazon on its head. Instead of each company developing a fleet of drones to deliver their products to your home, it now appears more feasible for every home to have its own drone that will do a wide range of things for the homeowner, from shopping to home security.

Think about it! During a typical week, people put together a shopping list of things to pick up sometime during the week from the local supermarket or drug store. Then you set aside an hour or two to get in your car and go buy and pick up the items on your list. Several times each week you might also go to the drive-in window of a fast food restaurant to pick up dinner.

Now, imagine sending your home drone to go do these tasks. Several times a week your personal ‘smart drone’ will be directed to check your shopping list, transmit the list to the local supermarket and/or drug store, then heads over to the ‘fly-in’ platform at the store to pick up your order, then deliver it back home. When the drone returns, it will land on its docking station where it will recharge and also check to see what other instructions you have sent to it.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now imagine some of the many other tasks your personal ‘smart drone’ can do for you around your home. It could be programmed to fly around your home at periodic intervals for surveillance purposes, e.g. Aire, Sunflower Labs. It could be used to check your roof for damage after storms. It could keep an eye on your children playing outside, and it could … So many possibilities.

Do we really need fleets of drones from every company trying to deliver products to your home? Your personal ‘smart drone’ knows where your home is, will receive its instructions from your home computer system, and will do your bidding based on your orders and daily schedule. It will be interesting to see which approach finally wins out. Learn more about current ‘delivery drones’.

Recent Articles

29.1.18

"Generations: An Exhibit of Local African American Artists of All Ages"

By Vicki Wilkerson, Local Author of The Summerbrook Novels

Portraits from students at Scott’s Branch High School and quilts from the Summerton Senior Quilters cover the walls at The Lake Marion Artisans Art Gallery in anticipation of an exhibition during Black History Month entitled “Generations: An Exhibit of Local African American Artists of All Ages.” The exhibition will encompass artistic creations from teens to seniors.

Mr. Tarlton Blackwell instructs Dae' Sha Green about her work.

Students from Mr. Tarleton Blackwell’s art classes have been working on portraits of famous African Americans who have impacted black history. Blackwell, who is a Manning native, a renowned artist who has shown work in over 350 exhibitions and who has personally contributed to African-American history with his innovative art, said, “I’ve encouraged my students to focus on local heroes, and some of my students are even related to some of the subjects in these portraits.” According to Blackwell, the young artists are using a “grid technique” to create their projects for the gallery exhibit. Blackwell also plans for his students to write accompanying essays to explain why they chose their individual art projects and the relevance of their subjects to history.

Ketrell Nelson works on shading his composition.

Students worked for weeks on their portraits. Ketrell Nelson said he found it challenging to complete the shading in his composition. Another student, Sarah Middleton, said, “I chose Thurgood Marshall because his work was integral in integrating schools.” Students selected young subjects, older subjects, historical subjects and a few contemporary subjects, all people who made a difference historically.
Blackwell was pleased that students were adding these projects to their portfolios and were getting the exposure at the Lake Marion Artisans Art Gallery. He said, “Many of my students receive scholarships to Columbia College, Claflin University and Benedict College, amongst others.”

Mahogany Mulky finishes her composition of Olivia Brown.

Bonnie Gardner, who spearheaded the exhibit for the gallery, explained that the Lake Marion Artisans involved the youth at the high school because they are the future of the gallery. Gardner said, “Mr. Blackwell was extremely supportive of the gallery’s proposal from the beginning and will be showing one of his own works of art.” Nancy Foster, another gallery member working on the exhibit, said that a secondary goal was, hopefully, to draw interest and support for the gallery from all the members of the community as an outreach to grow the gallery.
Geneva Bell, a spokesperson for the Summerton Senior Quilters, said that her group has been meeting every weekday in the Old Scott’s Branch High School, working on projects and will exhibit nine newly-created quilts, which will be for sale and will fund future quilting projects.

Colorful quilts, many from historic patterns, cover gallery walls.

“Generations: An Exhibit of Local African American Artists of All Ages” will run from February 1, 2018, until February 28, 2018, at The Lake Marion Artisans Art Gallery, a non-profit organization, at 108 Main Street, Summerton, South Carolina. A reception for the multi-generational artists will be held at the gallery at, on February 17, 2018, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The public is invited. The gallery’s normal hours of operation are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Any sales from the exhibit will go directly to the artists. For more information, contact the gallery at 803-460-2716 or email the gallery at lakemarionartisans@gmail.com.

24.1.18

Pink Dogwood Garden Club and Selected Links to Gardening News and Blogs

The following are links posted on Summerton’s Pink Dogwood Garden Club web site to selected news and blogs focused on Landscaping, Garden Design, Gardening...

Major Gardening News Site

Major Gardening Magazines

Quick Gardening Facts

Americans spend more than $3.5 billion each year on food gardening alone, and the numbers are increasing.
The number of home gardens has increased to over 37 million households, while community gardens have tripled to more than 3 million.
The $40 billion dollar Do-IT-Yourself (DIY) yard and garden industry is growing at a slow and steady rate, led by millennials.

Major Gardening 'Blogging' Sites

Other Local News Sites

Pink Dogwood Garden Club: Gardening Apps and Online Databases

There’s a brave new world of glistening gadgets out there, readily available for the tech-savvy gardener to embrace. Technology can’t completely turn you into an expert gardener, but it can increase the odds that your plants will survive and make your yard look at least a little bit better.

The following are links posted on the Pink Dogwood Garden Club web site to selected technologies, software, apps, databases, and other free or low cost tools for use in Landscaping, Garden Design, Gardening...

Software & Apps