clusterflock » biology

DIY, Growing Food in Winter

Carole Corlew — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:41:24 +0000

These are lettuce and pea seeds I put in last week. They are growing in my back yard, in a plastic container that held spinach. Yes, it is cold. And it freezes and sleets and ices up, still. But this is winter gardening and people do it even in colder climates than northern Virginia.

You just wash a plastic container that has a lid, punch some holes in the top and bottom, put in some soil (I use a seeding mix) and sprinkle in seeds. Water, close the container, label it with a permanent marker. Place it outside in a sunny area. Now you have a greenhouse environment for your seeds to grow. I may need to transplant these into a larger container before it gets warm enough to plant in the garden.

I also have some flowers and pampas grass sprouting.

Your seeds really want to grow, even in harsh conditions. Like us, they are animated by the life force.

ur-sound

Andrew Simone — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:22:05 +0000

I suspect, even without knowing the context, the sound would be deeply unsettling.

via Suzanne Fischer

Metta World Peace thanks Jesus Christ that he still has his teeth

Luke Neff — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:46:11 +0000

So not only did he build the world in seven days and seven nights, but he also said, “OK, let them lose their teeth early, rather than late.”

Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America

India — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:16:25 +0000

My same friend Susan who brought us the critically acclaimed Omega Institute in Your Pants, 2010 edition today supplied the following list, from the book Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, Dale F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan, and Richard C. Reardon:

Sordid Snout
The Herald
Feeble Grass Moth
Dead-wood Borer
The Betrothed
The Little Wife
Serene Underwing
The Consort
Dejected Underwing
Inconsolable Underwing
Tearful Underwing
Sad Underwing
The Penitent
Sappho Underwing
Youthful Underwing
Darling Underwing
The Sweetheart
Joined Underwing
Semirelict Underwing
Once-Married Underwing
Girlfriend Underwing
Connubial Underwing
Delilah Underwing
Steely Underwing
Wonderful Underwing
Sweet Underwing
Indomitable Melipotis
Merry Melipotis
False Heather Drasteria
Confused Zale
Once-charred Punkie
Blurry-patched Nola
Beautiful Looper
Sandstorm Tumbler
Tricolored Angel
The Laugher
Fingered Dagger
Fragile Dagger
Splendid Dagger
Afflicted Dagger
Hesitant Dagger
Night-Wandering Dagger
The Hebrew
Cadbury’s Mystique
Cherry Agate
Overlooked Paint
Asteroid Paint
Scribbled Sallow
Turbulent Phosphila
Boreal Sprawler
Shivering Pinion
Sloping Sallow
Roadside Sallow
Straw-eyed Tentmaker
Tawny Tentmaker
Smoky Tentmaker
Adorable Sallow
Subdued Quaker
Cunning Woodling
Stormy Arches
Explicit Groundcat
Disparaged Groundcat
Cynical Groundcat

The Dust Library

Sheila Ryan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:58:58 +0000

So what can this unusual library tell us? First, there is the simple parts list. The most common component was organic material, present in 40 of the 63 particles – exactly what is unclear, but it could be anything from pollen to sloughed-off bits of researcher. Quartz, found in 34 particles, came next, followed by carbonates (17 particles) and gypsum (14). “The minerals blow in,” says Coe. “They come from all over the world.” Other ingredients included air pollutants and fertiliser chemicals.

Anyone counting will also have noticed that there are already more components than particles. That is because most specks of dust are conglomerates, which means they may take an infinite variety of forms, much like snowflakes. The next obvious step was to find out what individual conglomerates looked like, but pinpointing exactly which speck corresponded to which spectrum wasn’t going to be easy. So Coe launched a competition. The first person to capture an electron microscope image of a particle that had already been analysed with infrared light would get to name it. And, if that was not enough, there was a free dinner on offer too. What student could fail to rise to that challenge?

Trust me, don’t read this

Joel Bernstein — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:15:57 +0000

And definitely don’t click on any of the image links

from my voicemail

Jonathan McNicol — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:05:17 +0000

Uh, yes, my name is ————. My telephone number is ————. The purpose of my call is I’m listening to public radio, and, uh, they’re talking about, uh, viral, uh, strains of, uh, birds. Uhhh, I was parked at Walmart, and a woman was feeding birds, and I said, “Ma’am, don’t do that,” I says, “Ya know, they they they know how to live on their own.” And, uh, the guy from Walmart came out, the manager of the store, and says, “Oh, you’re gonna have to leave here because, uh, the, uh, asphalt’s too weak for an RV.” And he was, it was pouring rain out; he was really acting like an idiot. I did call for the Centers for Disease Control, and they don’t seem to care what one way or another that people feed birds. And I just can’t imagine why, since birds spread diseases more than anything else, uh, why, uh, these people just aren’t taking it seriously. But. I’m sixty-six years old; I’ll be dead in a few years. So what difference does it make to me, ya know? It just it irritates me how ignorant we are, ya know? Umm, just don’t feed the birds, ya know? It’s crazy. They can fend, they know how to forage for themselves. And I love birds. I learned how to fly. I’ve been a pilot all my life. And, uh, airlines and corporate. And, uh, but, uh, you just don’t feed birds. That’s that’s craziness. Ya know, and I, but, uh, if more people, if they, uh, really know about it, then, uh, maybe they might do something about it. But, uh, there’s the other people that’s just gonna say, “Oh, hooey, I’ll feed birds whenever I feel like. It’s my right to do whatever I want to do, so.” Well. I guess that’s the case, ya know? Anyways. Take care. Bye.

Also: The related episode of WHYY’s Fresh Air.

You’re built like a car (You got a hubcap diamond-star halo)

Sheila Ryan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:54:39 +0000

Europeans have all the fun: lower drinking ages, funner beaches, easier lifestyles and . . . dinosaur skeletons having sex in their museums. This exhibit, which clearly shows two T-Rexes “mating”, is located in the Jurassic Museum of Asturias in Spain.

Via @leatherarchives.

Our bodies, our flock: Parthenogenesis.

Dave Vogt — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:28:15 +0000

I’m sorry to have neglected “Our Bodies, Our Flock” for so long (previously), but I’m lazy. Here’s a new one for you, on parthenogenesis!

Humans, like all mammals, are incapable of performing parthenogenesis.

Did Dropping Acid Make Steve Jobs More Creative?

Josh Weichhand — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:28:39 +0000

Slate Magazine is discussing the question, citing several experiments during the 50′s and 60′s that seem to point to LSD as a catalyst for innovation and creative thinking:

Taken as a whole, the studies suggested that people who are creative to begin with may experience a slight increase in inspiration or insight during and after an acid trip. That’s not true for non-artistic types, although psychologists did find that most participants thought they got more creative on LSD, regardless of what the tests actually showed…

Despite the relative paucity of rigorous scientific data, Steve Jobs—who once suggested that Microsoft products would be better if Bill Gates “had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger“—is far from alone in his belief. Francis Crick reportedly claimed to have envisioned the structure of DNA during an acid trip. John Lennon attributed the Beatles’ album Revolver to the group’s acid use.

Connecting the dots, the author doesn’t seem convinced by the studies, but it’s still a fascinating idea. Jobs was obviously a visionary, predicting technologies years or sometimes decades before they would be fully realized by Apple (this 1996 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air seems to include prediction for both the iPad and Apple TV). That’s either serendipitous prescience or the product of some very constructive acid trips (or more probably, a combination of both). Either way, it reminded me of something Deron once shared (or maybe a book he was reading) that discussed the proposition that human culture evolved through the use of hallucinogens. Humans have had the same DNA for something like 250,000 years, yet only developed complex societies and culture in the last 15,000 or so – Steve Jobs just took it all a massive step further.