Via Vanessa

Documentaries

Forbidden Zone

Champignons

Thought & Sight




Random Links

Huh?

Harry had been right, it did look like a hawk. Sort of. Except that it was a thousand feet tall and it had no wings. It might have had feathers, I couldn't tell because the light wasn't very good. I didn't know where I was. I wasn't sure I was anywhere. The hawk was feasting on people who were very small compared to the hawk. Many, many people were filing past, dwarfed to insignificance, being taken in to the hawk's beak like little kernels of corn. I realized I was the same size they were, and that I was filing past the hawk too. I didn't want to get eaten like a kernel of corn. So I played a little tune.

He awoke, or became aware, while walking down a sidewalk in a place he could not place. He was surrounded by people. It made him a little enochlophobic. What's worse, he couldn't remember how he got here. Worse than that, nobody was noticing him. Worse than that, when he went to ask a random passing male where he was, it was as if the person could not see him. And worst of all, when he patted the man on the shoulder, he felt a weird lack of resistance to the shoulder, kind of in between being there and not being there. The man made no indication of having felt his touch. I must be dreaming, he thought. He had always hoped that when he thought this he would go directly into a lucid dream. But try though he might, he was never able to enter into a lucid dream. He then felt, rather than remembered, that he had been in a real dream, a dream from which he awoke into this place. He could remember the dream, which was unusual for him. He never remembered his dreams.

The cat likes the desert. She can go outside anytime she pleases. Not at night, of course. Don't feed the animals.

"Trut', mon. De trut' unfol'. " Mowata spoke, leaning over my shoulder to peer into the display. "I 'n' I, we see t'is t'ing mon" Softly in the background was playing Jamaica Ska by the Dragonaires. Mowata's head bobbed to the rhythm. "Jelani, mine bret'ren, com' see t'is t'ing we be seein'." Jelani was tending equipment across the room, but he flashed a dazzling grin as he looked our way. "Naturally, I have my own display over here," he said, and then lapsed into the accent. "Jah, and I see wha' we be seein', good as you. An' please stan' back from t'e woman, mon, one might t'ink you 'as getting' too familia'." "I been accuse' o' worse," Mowata replied a with shake of his abundant dreadlocks.

How to Test Soil for pH


Alkaline Test (Vinegar): Place soil in a cup, add vinegar.

Fizzing/bubbles = Alkaline soil (pH > 7).
Acidic Test (Baking Soda): If vinegar didn't fizz, add water to soil, then baking soda.

Fizzing/bubbles = Acidic soil (pH < 7).

Neutral: No reaction to either test = Neutral soil.

Coffee grounds lower pH.

Wood ash increases pH.

Archive

Tech? No!

Consider the musical movement known as "techno". This is a style that was considered to be the next commercial success, and in a way it was. While it spawned hundreds of artists, traditional commercial success was limited. Advertisers, on the other hand, embraced it to an extent that was almost frightening. Now we hear this style in virtually every automobile commercial and in so many other media that the style itself is beginning to work it's way into our collective imagination. Techno is the embodiment of the revolution in electronic music-making machines coupled to the strongest elements of previous forms. Part of the appeal of the style is its ability to fuse the hypnotic, the trance-like, and the emotional with the sterile landscape of the obviously synthesized sound. Now that inroads have been made, a circle can be completed.

Just as techno imitated previous forms, now non-electronic sounds can imitate techno. Combined with performance art, a viable medium is at hand.

Keep in mind that the sounds techno depends on can be reproduced mechanically. The most obvious hurdle is the need for precise rhythm. The glory of the machine is its ability to keep precise time. The glory of the human performer is the performer's ability to keep almost perfect time. The sounds available mechanically will dictate the compositions. Intrinsically rhythmic sounds will be virtually effortless. Melodic and harmonic sounds must be accomplished with imagination. Natural harmonic scales can be accomplished with spinning tubing. "Sculptures" can be created that will emit music when spun through the air. Other melodic elements will depend on the talents of experienced percussionists and wind players. I propose that the troupe be artfully disguised in a manner similar to, but much more elaborate than, the "Residents". Advantage can be taken of the fact that no electricity will be required for performances.