Green Sparks [Microwave Bytes]

It´s strange how words can have a colloquial meaning that changes over different eras. Take “green,” for example. Green, of course, is primarily a color and, of course, has the ultimate accolade of being the color selected for the cover of our Transactions. But over the decades it has had different colloquial connotations, suggesting different things. The oldest of these I associate with seasickness; to say someone looked “green” was actually a euphemism for the raw truth that they looked like they were about to throw up at any moment. More recently being “green” was used as a faintly derisory term used for an inexperienced person, someone who was new to the game and as such could be temporarily excused for their obvious ineptitudes. Within the last decade, however, “Green” has certainly earned itself uppercase status as the defining word that represents the cleaner environment movement. It defines a large, if woolly, area, taking in things like alternative energy sources for sure, but stretching more dubiously out to “organic” farming and idyllic visions of Utopian self-sufficient living.