April 10, 2008
March 5, 2008
beans and carrots on the White House Lawn
Which candidate will pledge to be the Gardening President? Who will be the one to take the lead in teaching food self-sufficiency and good nutrition to the American public? What a fine example it would set if the food miles traveled by presidential produce added up to zero.
March 3, 2008
geeKyoto2008
February 16, 2008
suffering is optional
It’s obvious we are not going to finish with pain in this lifetime. The Buddha said, “Everything dear to us causes pain.”…Those of us who have chosen relational life have made the choice that the pain is worth it.
February 6, 2008
modern primitive parenting
You want. You want. You want cookie. You say, ‘Cookie, now. Cookie now.’
Just in time for the baby boom, there’s a new Dr. Spock in town who will have parents 2.0 everywhere speaking Bamm-Bamm to their babies.
October 15, 2007
BLDGBLOG: Greater Los Angeles
No matter what you do in L.A., your behavior is appropriate for the city. Los Angeles has no assumed correct mode of use. You can have fake breasts and drive a Ford Mustang — or you can grow a beard, weigh 300 pounds, and read Christian science fiction novels. Either way, you’re fine: that’s just how it works. You can watch Cops all day or you can be a porn star or you can be a Caltech physicist. You can listen to Carcass — or you can listen to Pat Robertson. Or both.
That’s how we dooz it.
September 3, 2007
Jessamyn is important
As I get older, there are fewer and fewer situations where I need to suck it up to do anything or accomplish anything. I’ve sort of created my life this way and overall I’m pleased with that.
August 17, 2007
components
July 27, 2007
reduce distraction
These tips for keeping distracting people out of your office appeal to the productive misanthrope in me.
You see some trash, pick it up
A lot of people who are down on the river a lot, they know who I am. They’re like, “Hey that’s the trash man.” And people come up to you, and they are like: “That’s so great that you’re picking up trash. How can I get involved?” And I’m like, “You see some trash, pick it up.”
First Person Singular: Ezra Duong-Van, Volunteer with Potomac Riverkeeper - washingtonpost.com
July 26, 2007
I did a recipe in “Red, White and Greens” for Pasta Poma Sarde al Mare: Pasta With Sardines at Sea. It’s a concept that I love. It means they’re in the sea — and not in the dish, which is vegetarian.
Sometimes the Best Ingredient Is the One That Isn’t There - washingtonpost.com
October 23, 2006
the iPod on Mt. Everest: a Zen teaching
Van Halen on Everest — If I had been there, your iPod would not have worked because I would have ripped it off your skull and thrown it over the north face and said Wake up! You are alive!
My favorite comment in response to an absurd essay in the Washington Post panning the iPod for failing under extremes of temperature and altitude. Presumably published in service of the chocolate-and-vanilla-swirl school of “objectivity” so popular among poor journalists today.
October 21, 2006
obake
Obake, the ultimate transformers, point up the folly of our human security in the unchanging status of things, and obliterate our proud sense of understanding the structure of the world.
via whiskey river, one of my favorite blogs
September 29, 2006
because this is a mr. rogers fansite
September 28, 2006
Cultivating a Dynamic Landscape
When you’re making a garden you’re making art. Art is about one’s own experience, and the one experience that is universal is change, so when I choose a plant for the garden, it has to change.
the loose informality of a trip to Brewcraft
I answered the phone the other day — and I really was ecstatic about this — I answered the phone and I couldn’t think of what my name was. If I could have totally forgotten about it for a longer than I did, I would have said I’d have made it. I was that close. But it came to me.
Larry Gallagher profiles Griz, proprietor of San Francisco Brewcraft, where you “[can’t] get out the door without having a significant human interaction.”
September 21, 2006
reduce, street use, recycle
This site features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology. Herein a collection of personal modifications, folk innovations, street customization, ad hoc alterations, wear-patterns, home-made versions and indigenous ingenuity. In short — stuff as it is actually used, and not how its creators planned on it being used. As William Gibson said, “The street finds its own uses for things.”
I welcome suggestions of links, and contributions from others to include in this compendium.
— KK
Thanks to Rebecca’s Pocket for leading me to Kevin Kelley’s latest project.
September 15, 2006
Tips for a healthy home from Judith Lewis.
September 1, 2006
Everyone is out to help me
Mutual Improvement promises to be “even more ambitious and wild” than its previous incarnation, Radical Mutual-Improvement.
July 30, 2006
salad recipe
Oh..... this was an incredible salad
- Shaved zucchini
- lemon zest
- fresh basil
- chopped sundried tomato
- lemon juice
- flax seed oil
- hemp seeds
- pepper and sea salt
- fig balsamic vinegar
Mix it all around and let it marinate for about 1 hr!!!
From Eating Healthy.
July 28, 2006
traditional parenting
Here is the big idea that is at the core of the book and maybe at the core of our uncertainty as parents today. Liedloff feels that every species, including us, has developed time-proven & highly adaptive methods of raising the young. Our problem, she feels, is that when we became "civilized", and so gave our intellect the upper hand, we have lost touch with how humans raise children in the traditional way. So in only the last 3,000 years, we threw away the experience of millions of years. The one set of theories that we tend not to value are the practices of traditional people.
Robert Paterson discusses Jean Liedloff's In Search of Happiness Lost.
July 18, 2006
how to read a lot of books in a short time
Matt’s Idea Blog: How to read a lot of books in a short time
The most useful technique comes from Jason Womack, and synthesizes nicely the most common ideas. In a nutshell, he says he reads the book four times.
- Table of contents, glossary, index.
- Anything in bold, titles, and subtitles.
- First line of every paragraph.
- Entire book
Here’s the twist: Steps 1-3 should only take about 10 minutes.
June 7, 2006
On Kenneth Koch and our world
I am such a dumb modern American, living in my suburb, driving my car to work and back, in a constructed environment that exists mainly to serve the exigencies of human lives as they have manifested in just the past 50 years or so. Much of it is shit. No, shit is too good a word for it. At least shit is real, stinky and animal. These buildings that lack character, these ugly roads, this language debased into commerce, I don't know what to call it that can communicate my distaste for it.
like a gentle old cop making a soft arrest
How can you pilot a spacecraft if you can't find your way around your own apartment? It's just like retaking a movie shot until you get it right. And you will begin to feel yourself in a film moving with ease and speed. But don't try for speed at first. Try for relaxed smoothness taking as much time as you need to perform an action. If you drop an object, break and object, spill anything, knock painfully against anything, galvanically clutch an object, pay particular attention to the retake. You may find out why and forestall a repeat performance.
May 5, 2006
exercises for lost souls
March 28, 2006
Like the sole IT guy at a very busy company
I shuffle aimlessly about my living room (a central location for the missions I am called upon to perform), always within earshot of my family, at the ready to handle any crisis, like Superman hovering over Metropolis waiting for a cry of help.
Washington Post: This Dad Is Rerunning in Circles
March 13, 2006
seize the means of design
I think the DIY phenomenon is simply one of the most important things happening in the world right now, in every field. Design is just one of them. It's affecting how people invest in the stock market, how they get their medical information, how they do just about anything.
Washington Post: Making It on Your Own
January 19, 2006
Sewage overflows threaten London Olympics
Sewage overflows threaten London Olympics:
The Olympics site is close to the biggest sewage overflow pumping station in London. The tideway group warned last November that there was currently a 100% chance of sewage overflows in the area between May and October.To cope with the problem the tideway group recommended that the government build a £1.7bn "super sewer" under the Thames, stretching 22 miles from Hammersmith to Barking.
But the water regulator Ofwat has urged ministers to look at other options, because building a super sewer would add £45 to the annual water bills of Londoners. A separate study, commissioned by Ofwat, warned that the super sewer would be a risky construction project.
You had me at "super sewer."
December 13, 2005
John Perry Barlow in Tripping
It was obvious to me that all of the separateness I ordinarily perceived was, in fact, an artifact of cultural conditioning, and was indeed less "real" than what I was supposedly hallucinating. At that moment, I knew that I was, for the first time, experiencing things as they are, utterly continuous. There is no discontinuity. There is not one thing and another thing. It is all the same thing, The Holy Thing.
December 1, 2005
I want cheese
I had a dream where Mr. Squirrel ate a huge cake.
I had a dream where a chicken was washing dishes.
I had a dream about a beach . . . Never mind, it’s a secret!
Statements from the repertoire of a talking doll for sale in Japan, marketed as a "healing partner" for the elderly.
November 26, 2005
How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later
In my writing I got so interested in fakes that I finally came up with the concept of fake fakes. For example, in Disneyland there are fake birds worked by electric motors which emit caws and shrieks as you pass by them. Suppose some night all of us sneaked into the park with real birds and substituted them for the artificial ones. Imagine the horror the Disneyland officials would feel when they discovered the cruel hoax. Real birds! And perhaps someday even real hippos and lions. Consternation. The park being cunningly transmuted from the unreal to the real, by sinister forces. For instance, suppose the Matterhorn turned into a genuine snow-covered mountain? What if the entire place, by a miracle of God's power and wisdom, was changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, into something incorruptible? They would have to close down.
How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later by Philip K. Dick.
November 18, 2005
flickr: get a pro account
flickr ad on Rocketboom today (17 November)
November 17, 2005
guess who's coming to dinner?
Most vegetarians prefer not to have their food or utensils touching meat or other animal-derived foods. This preference is similar in concept to keeping kosher. In practical terms, some individuals who have “kept vegetarian” for years may endure significant intestinal distress if they ingest meat or grease. When you’re cooking for your vegetarian guest, please keep utensils separate (for instance, do not use the same spoon for deglazing the roasting pan and then serving plain steamed vegetables) and do not label a food “vegetarian” if it includes chicken, beef, or veal broth.
This article about hosting a vegetarian guest for Thanksgiving includes recipes and delves into some etiquette and lifestyle concerns that I’ve not seen discussed before.
November 8, 2005
National Podcast Radio
George Hotelling nails exactly what's so great about NPR's most interesting podcast.
August 10, 2005
Blog Depression
a nonist public service pamphlet
what we turn our attention to now, however, is the more insidious, prolonged strain of dissatisfaction which stays with a blogger, right below the surface, throughout a blog’s lifetime. the diligent and self aware blogger can resist this destructive undercurrent, make changes, adapt, rationalize, but for many, untreated, it can cause much needless suffering in the form of full fledged blog depression.
[link via This Woman's Work]
May 5, 2005
raymi rocks
Raymi's blog is among the best. Somehow it reminds me of Lynda Barry (is she working on another book?). Tell me about the others that are as good.
turns out i can play the drums afterall and our band is called the jamaican beef patties and we are amazing and sometimes we wear masks when we play, you know the one from SCREAM, yes, that one. and we only take breaks to watch the dogs hump each other. two big and black and hairy cavemen who can't speak. but then i get bored of playing the same beat over and over again so i try and do something else and i get yelled at 'cos it was finally the "bridge" and i turned into a selfish drum nazi.
April 23, 2005
hugs?
Among the guilty pleasures I may one day have to account for, I admit to being a regular reader of "Hints From Heloise." But the April 17 column in the Comics section reached a low-water mark. "Mark in Philadelphia" suggested that readers use pencils to fill in crossword puzzles. That way, Mark triumphantly declared, you can erase your answers without messing up the puzzle.
I can accept a certain amount of folksiness, some backwoods simplicity and a fair degree of low-tech common sense from Heloise. But this "hint" is a large step in the direction of devolution of the human species. It's on a par with suggesting that we use spoons rather than forks to eat our soup.
-- Donald Evans
Washington
Seen in the Washington Post.
April 10, 2005
man dates
Simply defined a man date is two heterosexual men socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is two guys meeting for the kind of outing a straight man might reasonably arrange with a woman. Dining together across a table without the aid of a television is a man date; eating at a bar is not. Taking a walk in the park together is a man date; going for a jog is not. Attending the movie "Friday Night Lights" is a man date, but going to see the Jets play is definitely not.
New York Times: "The Man Date," by the colorfully named Jennifer 8. Lee. I was surprised this article did not mention the ultimate man date: My Dinner With Andre.
March 30, 2005
unconfirmed rumors
That black vein in shrimp is poo!
March 29, 2005
What in the world is stopping you from doing it?
I really would like to stop working forever--never work again, never do anything like the kind of work I'm doing now--and do nothing but write poetry and have leisure to spend the day outdoors and go to museums and see friends. And I'd like to keep living with someone -- maybe even a man -- and explore relationships that way. And cultivate my perceptions, cultivate the visionary thing in me. Just a literary and quiet city-hermit existence.
Ginsberg in the 50s (a brief excerpt from David Burner's Making Peace with the Sixties).
March 1, 2005
green thumb
The Duchess of Northumberland's controversial poison garden has been officially opened.
February 19, 2005
meditation how-to
February 12, 2005
postsecret
PostSecret features secrets written on postcards and mailed to the website's proprietor. "I wet the bed well into junior high." "I'm secretly fed up with irony."
February 11, 2005
I feel the same way
Flatpack farrago
There has been much talk about consumer greed in the wake of the Ikea riot, about the depravity of people crushing one another for a £45 sofa. But there is less talk about Ikea's greed, and in particular about the way in which this giant of a corporation manipulates its customer's emotions, sending them into ever more hysterical cycles of rage and frustration.I've always thought the IKEA shopping experience was built to disorient shoppers. The sharp corners between sectons, broken line of vision and the "light room" at the end of the "path" all seem built to break the concentration of the consumer. I have a good six hours of true IKEA stories, including a destroyed relationship and a run-in with the Staten Island mob.
January 26, 2005
nothing adventurous please
4. The manager for Stryper once prayed for me over the phone. It was so awesome. Definitely one of the most moving interview moments yet. She asked me if it was OK if she just started praying for me, and I was like, Let It Rock. She busted out a passionate, heartfelt plea to the Lord on my behalf, and it was so real and so forceful I actually felt something happen in my heart. Something got warm and light inside me. I had never talked to her about my love life, but she told me, Kate, there is a dark figure standing next to you, smothering your little light and trying to smother you. Dear Lord, protect beautiful Kate and let her light shine into the world. She has an important gift to bring to the world!
Kate Sullivan runs down the love advice she's gotten from rock stars.
Is randomWalks hibernating? Should we delete randomWalks and make flux randomWalks? Should we turn our clothes inside-out? Because the failure of randomWalks is owned by each and all of us. Let's make love to the failure. Help each other rip down our Ministries of the Interior. Read Rilke out loud to each other in the nude. Learn to homebrew. Make giant paper-mache skulls and wear them while stabbing each other in the snowy parks with Nerf Fencing epees. Write collaborative poems again and make newspaper hats. Where's the bridge? Has anyone seen the bridge?
January 1, 2005
dr. love
Listen up, you grain-fed honky dickweeds - not just you, WW, but every fucking honky out there needs to hear this. We're not alive for very long. Have you noticed this, dickcheeses? We do not have all the fucking time in the world to draw up cost-benefit analyses on potential long-term pairings. If you're not swept the fuck away by your lady, move the fuck on. If you're not gritting your teeth and biting the palm of your hand like goddamn Squiggy every time she walks by, get over it. If you're not having the best sex of your life - and this is when you do that, dummies, in your mid-fucking-thirties, this is your big fucking shot at great sex, or at least this is where it starts - if you're not blown away, freaking out, breaking out, thrilled, shivery, talking a lot, sending stupid fucking emails to each other, rolling around, sighing, bragging, buying dumb little gifts - then how do you think you'll feel in a few years when you're fucking old and creaky and you have three little doo-doo factories in residence? You fucking dumbass honky-ass losers.
This is how you find the man/woman of your dreams, stupids: You refuse to waste time on the man/woman of your loneliness-fueled spreadsheets. And if you can't get worked up over anyone... well, Jesus, what is wrong with you? Can you get worked up over anything at all? Here in LA, lots of people wax romantic about movies, but when it comes to their real lives, they're fucking numb and alienated and don't see the raw thrill, the breathtaking drama of every little minute. Blahblahblah boringcakes, motherfuckers! The girl who made you your coffee this morning has beautiful green eyes, and she paints weird portraits of her customers and keeps chocolate and rope stashed in her nightstand and she reads books about gardening and she knows what she wants. You could spend the next two months in bed, honkwinders, getting tied up and eating chocolate and watching old movies in the middle of the night. You could be swooning and sighing and feeling like the world is opening up like a flower. So why are you watching "Survivor" with that guy who bores the shit out of you, and pisses you off, and doesn't give a flying fuck about how you feel, ever, and mostly just wants you to get to the point and stop crying? Why are you heating up canned soup and wondering about the long-term viability of negotiating a reasonably satisfying coexistence with someone 3,000 miles away?
get cookin'
December 14, 2004
poker
We're in a hot market that has just found mainstream acceptance. If poker can support TV programming on five networks, we know it can support a couple of magazine titles.
A new poker magazine hits the stands Dec. 21, reports USA Today.
December 9, 2004
E-nough Is E-nough
Sloane Crosley has written an essay for the Village Voice: "With bad manners just a 'send' button away, we need some rules. Call it technetiquette." I'll leave the odd coinage of technetiquette aside. (Google actually shows a Michael Finley using the term in 1997.) Instead, I'm happy to focus on her number one complaint: Evite.
Ah, the Starbucks of the Internet. The illusion of choice, made to order. Since I've never known anyone who has wholesomely selected a "Girl's Night In" or "Super Bowl" template (perhaps I simply need new friends), Evite as I know it has always been a bit of a nuisance. The following guidelines might get me dropped from the guest lists of future soirees, but if it means no more clip-art martini glasses, I'll take the risk....
Because Evite is a public forum in a private space, I am still working on reminding myself I don't actually have to read the responses. There's nothing more irritating than a private joke played out among a small segment of the invitees.
Tina: "I'll be there . . . as long as I can touch Bob's pineapple."
Jeff: "Happy birthday man, even though we all know your pineapple has been canned since Atlantic City."
I can take or leave the rest of this article, but it makes me very happy to know that others find Evite as deeply irritating as I do. Sloane even recommends using the Hide Guests ability if people insist on using it! This and her other complaints echo the small rant I have been giving about Evite for a few months now. The phrase "Evite is a public forum in a private space" pretty much cuts to the heart of the problem with the tool. It unnecessarily mixes up private and public spheres and like the worst of the so-called "social software" blurs and solidifies social relationships in awkward ways. Telling a friend you are coming to their party should not be a public performance. Read the entire article.
yeah, fuck titles
During the siege of Richmond, some soldiers who cracked the hardtack open to find it teeming with worms were disgusted and threw the crackers into the bottom of the earthen trenches they occupied. An officer of the day yelled at the men, asking whether they hadn't been told repeatedly not to throw the hardtack into the trenches.
Back came the reply, "We've thrown it out two or three times, sir, but it crawls back."
The Washington Post's Civil War columnist (yes, they have one) makes hardtack. A bad sign: not even her dogs will eat it.
December 6, 2004
i heard it on npr
A new cookbook offers 50 variations on the grilled cheese sandwich and was featured on NPR. The author said cumin smells like "a desert at midnight." Also on NPR: Amos Oz, declaiming in his rumbly voice on Israel, his childhood and why he's a chauvinist for Hebrew.
September 12, 2004
Joel on Software - Work
Joel on Software - Work space quality references
This post is a summary of and collection of links to information about the quality of workspace provided to software developers. Perhaps it can be useful to other software developers in a position to influence managers or may someday be in a position to make decisions about workspace design themselves.
August 25, 2004
bodhi
In a study conducted October 24, 2002, I endeavored to determine the relative popularity in America of the homonymic dog names Bodhi and Bodie -- and that of the deriviative or similar names I found during the course of the study, Bodhisattva, Bodee and Bodi.
July 8, 2004
Cool Tools
Reviewer: Stewart Brand
Subject: Better than Whole Earth Catalog...
...because 1) it's current, 2) it focuses on real tools rather than books, 3) it's completely Web-active.Compulsive reading, eager shopping for real value, better living as a result.
June 28, 2004
storing beans
Watch Your Garden Grow - Beans
Fresh pole beans and bush beans can be stored, unwashed in plastic bags in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Do not wash them before storing. Wet beans will develop black spots and decay quickly. Wash beans just before preparation.
Green beans can be frozen, dried or canned. Immature beans retain more color and undergo less texture and flavor loss during freezing. All vegetables must be blanched before freezing. Unblanched vegetables quickly become tough and suffer huge nutrient and color loss. Vegetables naturally contain an active enzyme that causes deterioration of plant cells, even during freezing. Blanching before freezing retards the enzyme activity.
Freezing does not improve the quality of any vegetable. Freezing actually can magnify undesirable characteristics. For instance, woodiness in stalks become more noticeable upon thawing. Select vegetables grown under favorable conditions and prepare for freezing as soon after picking as possible. Vegetables at peak quality for eating will produce best results in the freezer.
June 22, 2004
and then I shut my eyes
The main thing I realised was the unbearable lightness of addiction. The ball and chain had floated off, light as a feather. It was as simple as the flick of a switch. You just put 'No' where 'Yes' used to be.
The Observer | Magazine | Trip of a lifetime — an account of an addict's ibogaine experience. That's about what quitting smoking was like for me.
June 13, 2004
turning trash into soil
If Life Hands You Lemons, Make Compost (washingtonpost.com)
He declares himself still a hippie, but then modifies the description to a "guerrilla capitalist." Like the compost itself, he has mellowed with time. He has, after all, come a long way from difficult beginnings. He dropped out of high school, worked as a racetrack blacksmith and descended into drugs and alcohol. When he picked himself up, sober, he bought a chain saw at a yard sale and went door to door looking for tree work. This later blossomed into a bona fide tree company that continues today, along with the nursery in Olney. He operates under a number of enterprises, including Pogo Organic Tree Products (www.pogoscompost.com).
June 10, 2004
chipotle
History of Chipotle. Also, ChipotleLovers.com, where I learned that a Wendy's subsidiary owns Baja Fresh. This is making me realize it's been months since I last ate at Chipotle.
June 8, 2004
Greatest. Mayor. Ever.
Bloomberg Seeks to Toughen Code for Noise in City
The legislation contains 45 pages of painstaking detail about sound and its resulting fury, with many areas singled out for enforcement, including these:Barking dogs would have 5 minutes to cease yapping at night, and 10 minutes during the day. (Currently there is no time limit.)
Roaring air conditioning units, now mostly exempt from noise laws when in clusters, would be subject to stricter standards.
Construction projects would most likely be curtailed on weekends and at night, and the industry would be asked to use equipment to reduce sound, like noise jackets for jackhammers.
Ice cream trucks, accustomed to inching down city streets bleating out-of-tune childhood ditties, would have to lose their soundtracks by 2006, replacing them with the little bells of yore. (Taco trucks would meet the same fate.)
June 1, 2004
countless dejected pregnant women and young children
We recommend that humans, especially pregnant women and young children, limit the amount of cicadas they eat as a result of these preliminary findings. We do not believe that eating a small number of these insects will result in irreparable harm, but mercury exposure may harm an unborn baby or young child's developing nervous system.
May 20, 2004
self-sowing flowers
Many annuals and perennials drop their seeds after they bloom, then those seeds grow and flower the following season, creating unexpected, intriguing new partnerships with other plants in the garden. These self-seeding flowers are also useful because they sprout up and fill open areas of the landscape that would otherwise be prone to colonization by weeds. And, because self-seeders emerge where conditions suit them best, they perform as well, or better, than painstakingly nurtured plants.
I'm thinking about gardening as a radical political act.
May 19, 2004
digging dandelions
When the whole head has matured, all the florets close up again within the green sheathing bracts that lie beneath, and the bloom returns very much to the appearance it had in the bud. Its shape being then somewhat reminiscent of the snout of a pig, it is termed in some districts 'Swine's Snout.'
The withered, yellow petals are, however soon pushed off in a bunch, as the seeds, crowned with their tufts of hair, mature, and one day, under the influence of sun and wind the 'Swine's Snout' becomes a large gossamer ball, from its silky whiteness a very noticeable feature. It is made up of myriads of plumed seeds or pappus, ready to be blown off when quite ripe by the slightest breeze, and forms the 'clock' of the children, who by blowing at it till all the seeds are released, love to tell themselves the time of day by the number of puffs necessary to disperse every seed.
When all the seeds have flown, the receptacle or disc on which they were placed remains bare, white, speckled and surrounded by merely the drooping remnants of the sheathing bracts, and we can see why the plant received another of its popular names, 'Priest's Crown,' common in the Middle Ages, when a priest's shorn head was a familiar object.
botanical.com: Dandelion - Herb Profile and Information
The role that mighty taproot plays is to bring up minerals and other nutrients from various soil layers, making them available first to the dandelion itself, and then to whatever fortunate creature eats it. That's why the Chinese call it the "earth nail."
It supplies hefty amounts of beta-carotene, potassium, sodium, phosphorous and iron and also contains, zinc, magnesium, Vitamin C, Vitamin D and B vitamins.
Dandelions, in Such Good Taste (washingtonpost.com)
Luckily there are people in Durango who celebrate these misunderstood weeds. The Dand-elion Duet, consisting of Katrina Blair and Brian Carter, led a dandelion flute-playing workshop this weekend. Carter showed the crowd of 20 how to find the stoutest stems possible and, with the small scissors on a Swiss army knife, cut little diamond shaped holes along the stem, after cutting off the flower head.
"If it’s flimsy you can only get a couple of holes; if it’s real strong you can get a whole octave."
May 10, 2004
organic farming
"The story in this country is that wealth concentrates," he says. "That's unstable. We need smaller operations, local processors, more evenly spread out capitalism."
May 6, 2004
you can't live your life in a bubble
I had never experienced such a thing. I thought I was living out a scene from The Birds or something. I got that clear plastic umbrella and carried it with me day and night. People laughed at me, but then they'd say, 'That's a really good idea.'
April 24, 2004
experience the old-school games
"The Atari Paddle TV Games controller looks, feels, and plays just like the original Atari paddle. Games featured in the device include: Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Casino, Circus Atari,Demons to Diamonds, Night Driver, Steeplechase, Street Racer, Super Breakout, Warlords, Warlords Arcade, Video Olympics, Arcade Pong and Pong. There will be two types of Atari Paddle TV Games units released this summer: single player and two player. The Atari Paddle TV Games will ship for approximately $20 this summer."
Too bad there's not a four player version. Four player Warlords was the most fun four kids hopped up on pizza and coca-cola taking a break from Dungeons & Dragons should know how to have.
April 22, 2004
bringing earth day home
Bringing Earth Day Home (washingtonpost.com): "Although it is unlikely many of us will spend the day saving a rain forest or preventing the drift of coal-fired power plant emissions, we can make a positive contribution closer to home." The Washington Post offers 10 "simple" actions to reduce your home's environmental impact. More info is available from the EPA. (It's a great concept, but I'm not sure that number 2, "Eliminate lead-based paint," qualifies as simple.)
April 21, 2004
animals like to get high
FT Reviews: Animals & Psychedelics
If even an ant can tell the difference between being straight and high, in this instance by sucking secretions from the abdomen of a lomechusa beetle, what does this tell us about the consciousness of something like a mandrill, which munches the intensely potent iboga root, then waits up to two hours for the effects to kick in before engaging in territorial battle with another mandrill? Equally fascinating is the fact that many animals appear to use psychedelics recreationally — and that not all individuals of a particular species will indulge, just as some humans are more partial to tripping out than others. One in the eye for the stark behaviourists, it would seem.
April 17, 2004
gardner's almanac
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange April/May 2004: April is so exciting in the garden.
April 7, 2004
weaponizing the ipod
Leif's friend, Alex Payne, said the mugger was lucky Leif wasn't armed with the 40-Gbyte iPod, which is a lot bulkier than the mini.
"Phil's the last guy in the world I'd imagine getting into a fight, but it figures that it would involve a slickly-designed gadget in some way," said Payne.
Weapon of Choice: iPod Mini. This wasn't posted April 1.
March 18, 2004
flexitarianism
Whether you make a commitment to eating strictly vegetarian or not, cutting back your dependence on meat is something most people acknowledge they know they should do.
Flexitarians--near-vegetarians who eat some meat--are changing the market for veggie foods and recipes, says this AP article. I knew the girl in the lead of the story in college. Also, I love Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, but where are these "happy" but edible chickens?
March 14, 2004
rocks in the garden
Rocks Can Help Create a Natural, Low-Maintenance Garden (washingtonpost.com)
This is the perfect time to design and place landscape stones. Plants are just breaking out of dormancy, so you can see the bones of the landscape. Early bulbs are just appearing, so you can arrange rocks around them.