Toasted pine nuts

Ah, the diabolical pre-diabetic dimensions of yuletide sugar consumption. How it irks me and yet how I love it so.
The weather back on the island is clear and sunny - perfect for staying inside and lurking in the damp recesses of catacombs and the like. I've been battling with the water tank on our roof since the buoyancy of the regulator has gone on a bus tour of every conceivable level of hell. I managed to slow down the problem using an ancient handball, a ball of string, 4 planks of wood, a bouncy squeak toy the cats play with, and 50 square (or rather hypercubic considering what I had to do to it) centimeters of bubble wrap. Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're doing will grace our rooftop after the holidays.
Visited the cliffs on the western coast of the island on Saturday with camera in hand. Sadly, I left my USB cable of righteous transversion back at uni, so acquisition must occur before I can upload.
Went over to a set of adjacent-in-laws yesterday and witnessed the singing (howling) of Christmas carols ( Mogul battle cries) to celebrate (profane) the birth in the manger. But it was nice. Very warming after a few bowls of punch.
Today's been quiet. Checked my pseudoregulator on the roof which has transformed itself into some form of communication device which mysteriously beeps now and then like the musical tie I got for the Christmas party. As long as it helps the situation I'm not touching it.
Anyhow, I have a date with a pot of salt and a calf skull.
Adieu readers...

Multiply

Multiply - looked good so I set up a site, check it out and join the network if you're into this sort of thing, the interface is rather user friendly and it gives a high degree of case by case control over what is public and what isn't .

Check it out: http://multiply.com/

And my site: http://thebooje.multiply.com/

Enjoy!

Told you so....

hehe, neural upgrades anyone?
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/dn8317

How to Change Guitar Strings

http://wiki.ehow.com/Change-Guitar-Strings

In case you ever wondered....

Printers to produce life-saving organs

Now isn't this just sweet. Running out of ink would be a serious bummer though: http://www.physorg.com/news8960.html

A team of American scientists is studying the potential of printers being developed to produce life-saving organs, reports Wired.com. They believe that any organ, a skin graft, a new trachea or a heart patch for example, can be created using special printers. The team has already discovered the required ink and paper for the project.

Demons of Christmas

Easily one of the scariest damnable phenomena lurking in Bremen this demonic giant Santa Claus (the biggest in Europe apparently, like we really needed 3 stories of hohohoing monstrosity) was something that lit up my Christmas explorations in the city. The thing had glowing eyes for crying out loud - stick that to a deep, satanic voice and gnarled hands that brought back images of trolls ripping apart livestock for fun.
They really know how to make it special for kids here. To top it off they lit it with GREEN - the effect was less than jingle bells shall we say.
::
I've recently been picking up my explorations of the sleep-wake barrier and have discovered some odd things about this and that take on reality. Yes it does get funky and not there are no psychedelics involved. In one session not too long ago I was taught how to change a tyre on a large rig in the fog by a gnomish mechanic, figured out that if you look at the wrong thing in the right light conditions the GAPING holes in reality become all too apparent (which gives one a new appreciation for how unknowingly brave everyone really is), and also that monks get slightly irritated and start forbidding seeing the relics of buddhas when you astrally invade the cracks in monastery floorboards. There was more but words don't really make it.
Anyhow back to exams...oh sweet reprieve how I long for thee!

 

BBC NEWS | Americas | Amazon nun's killers are jailed

And the follow up...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4517868.stm

BBC NEWS | Americas | Brazil nun 'shot in self-defence'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4513874.stm

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Biodiversity: The sixth great wave

Just a short reminder on how undeniably screwed we are. Extinction of species is sad, I know, but not all that unnatural. Human exploitation of the biosphere is accelerating this process greatly and naturally that produces some sectors of our population who want to save this or that...but mostly its the wrong thing they want to save.
As Lord May says in this article:

Most conservation effort goes into birds and mammals - creatures like the panda, a dim, dead-end animal that was probably on the way out anyway...Yet arguably it's the little things that run the world, things like soil microbes. They're the least-known species of all.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3667300.stm

Microwaves

It's been a while eh? Well, the end of the semester rush is beginning with all the assignments, exams, and other forms of torture that are supposed to make us better
human beings (or societal fodder, whichever way you want to look at it).
On November 18th the Buddhist club (officially run by me, in reality we just sort of sit around without running) hosted Tibetan Buddhist chantmaster Ani Choying Drolma (see picture) in the campus Interfaith House. It was a cool concert and we managed to raise a chunk of funds for the charity foundation she represents.
Remembering the skill of chanting, yesterday I vocally resonated with the microwave in our floor kitchen while heating up some hot chocolate. The syncronization and delocalization of sound has a rather interesting effect of expanding the awareness of self and gives the potential for tripped out dissolution. Very cool, thought I. And so transcendental mind surfing finds no enemy in modern conveniences, fear not your microwaves! 

Petition

In two days Libya will be announcing the verdict on 5 nurses and 1 doctor that it accuses of infecting children in their care with AIDS. The allegations are likely to be false and a death sentence is in the pipeline. Here's a link to the story in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/libya/story/0,14139,1476234,00.html

And here is a link to a site where you can put a bit of pressure on the case. It's in French, but the story is right there under Action Urgente.
Click on "Signez l'Appel" and follow through

http://www.abolition.fr/ecpm/index.php

Maybe with enough pressure there'll be a trial with procedure approximating fair.

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

A peek at what MIT does in its spare time...
Here's the abstract - it's a conspiracy I say!


Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
 

Science Musings Blog

Just for fun...

"If your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life."

http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/2005/11/prie-dieu.html

But there is hope! WIne!

Funny how these things happen together, someone somewhere is up to something...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000581B2-EE9B-136B-AE9B83414B7F0000&ref=nature

An antioxidant found in high concentrations in red wine is thought to boost the effectiveness of our protein degradation machinery. So if any of those nasty aggregates appears, the grapejuice will sort some of it out. A liter a day is all.... 

Prions suspected in milk - that's like BSE in your cereal

Oy vey! Those nasty prions that form those beta-aggregates and spongify your brain are now suspected of reaching milk products!

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051031/full/051031-7.html

Now don't we regret those cornflakes?
Back to fried breakfasts! With beer!

Comic relief - literally!

Here's an interesting finding for the neuroscience people out there:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9961170/

Pizarro reserve safe

Ecoactivists in jaguar costumes and Maradona, just doesn't get better::

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/victory-argentina-333

Earthquake excavations :: Iran

The earthquake that devastated Iran some months back exposed some interesting archaeological finds:
http://www.paleoshilling.nl/whatsnew.html

Interesting site, worth a look to keep an eye on the region after the news providers are no longer thrilled by it. 

Meat Science: Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you ever wanted to know about meat, thanks to them texans... http://savell-j.tamu.edu/faqs.html

The FAQ covers
* What is "dark cutting beef?"
* What causes the shiny, rainbow appearance on some cured meats?
* Why is the center of ground beef sometimes brown in color?
* Why does ground meat sometimes stay pink when it has been cooked to an adequate temperature?
* What is electrical stimulation?
* What is HACCP?
* Why is thorough cooking so important for ground products such as hamburger?
* What is aging?
* What is the per capita consumption of meat?
* Is Listeria a problem in ground beef?
* Why does jerky sometimes have a white film on it?

Delightful Reflections: The genetics of autism

And something else...http://delightfulreflections.blogspot.com/2004/09/genetics-of-autism.html

Genetics and Public Health Blog: All about genetics and public health.

Here's an interesting feed i found... http://www.aboutweblogs.com/genetics/item/2293

Fireworks

Pyrotechnic wonder in your very own living room. In fact, pyrotechnic nets are the only effective way to trap mushroom people. Fleeting as they are, they provide sufficient energy and shazoom to stun the critters and stabilize their dimensional pogo stick field long enough for an alternate containment device (classically the polished skull of a unicorn worm) to be organised. The method is still new and mistrust is rife amongst the more traditional critter hunters with their silver skeins which inevitably injure the capture candidates. It's efficiency is undoubted, however, the shazoom factor which has been years in research and development is even thought to draw critters through the icosahedral dimensional rifts that they wander around. My collection is growing exponentially ever since I've switched to the pyrotechnic nets and one can feel sure that no critters are unduly wounded during the extraction proceedure. Soon my results will be presented to the 2kth Symposium of Grull Hunters in Vermont. Hopefully, this more humane and efficient way will take our art into the next trillbafloon. 

Yes, whatever dims eventually enters utter darkness if no salt water taffy machines are spinning their happy way nearby. Oh sweet nexus of light and cavities! It's not a bad thing really, your average afternoon walk can become a wonderful night lurk and the bizarre creatures that live in the labs and sing arias have more time to peer out longingly from the windows at passers by (or potential nutrition as they see it).
Ode to the Namibian upwelling system! Its microbial methanogens float islands on methane by choking out everything else. Maybe a smaller version of that is operating here, a sort of fizzy energy cokebottleneck that degrades all our glistening enamel into the mushy goo that the researches harvest from the drainage system and incorporate into the evil marshmellows they make in their lab ovens and sell to the unsuspecting inhabitants of the outside world. Spooky eh?
Don't be fooled by the smushy filling of schmores around the campfire - those were someones molars! Beware, Beware!!
 

The Dimming

The shadows grow long, and 8am feels like 5. This is the part of the semester when you start to feel you’re going to night classes. As a side effect, the dream/reality overlap becomes annoyingly strong and, for the first few hours of each day, being sure which is which is an ordeal. This entry was already posted about 2 hours ago from the office of some Russian secret service headquarters where I was packing for a day trip to Hannover. Go figure. I’m tempted to turn this into a dream log…it’s getting too dark here to see anything in normal lux anymore. I could start a bioluminescence farm, raising glow worms and fireflies, keeping a few glowing jelly fish in high pressure vats, possibly even coating my walls with glowing bacteria. The things we do… 

Phage!

Oh, and if you've ever wondered what a bacterial lawn riddled with bacteriophage virus plaques looks like, here you go.... 

Freid

Ah yes, in line photos without any html. Beauty. The Bremen Freimarkt opened yesterday and I might drop by to see what it's all about. On thursday, while in the city for my visual analysis course, several stalls that look like the transylvanian version of gingerbread houses were set up in all their glory. This year the weather has been amazing up until now - these freshmen are lucky - this time last year I was trying to recall what the sky looked like. Works for me, with the midterms slowly marching by, sky counts. Anyway, the I Ching smiles upon the mushroom people so it must be a good thing in the making. 

The producer - saturated with sake

To void yellboxes

Greetings everyone, in the right hand column (wonderfully enough the only column other than the text field) of this page there is a yellbox - a chat window looking thing - where I very politely and optimistically invited comment. Alas, now that that sphere of persona has withered away I have used a whole entry to draw attention to it.
::
Ok, not a whole entry, since that's rather sad. I'm working on biochemistry homework right now. The ugly part is over, now comes the tedious part. What joy. There's a chinese fair at the local mall - I treated myself to a string of Buddhist prayer beads which I think are rather cool - I'm sure I was ripped off, but the merchant only spoke chinese and verbal abuse was in vain. Anyhow, I obtained a picture of him (he apparently is advertising his calligraphy skills) which is now stuck to the outside of our room door, much to Nikita's bewilderment (until he reads this).
We had a buddhist club meeting a few hours ago - I taught a fusion of advanced yogic meditation and zazen shikantaza which I find works wonders for qi control. Post in my yellbox and I might say more...ehehehe.

the capture procedure...

working hard...

Robert, Robert Goulet

sacrificial corporation

Extract from the past...

Right now I'm standing in the lab, waiting for my E. Coli innoculated growth medium to finally give me the results I've been waiting the last 6 hours for. It's only four more minutes of inhaling this acetone enriched atmosphere before I can reach in and see if they've stopped doubling.
Ah well, At least I now know my own mystery strain that Larry's friends' web has given me is Gram positive. The mucoid little diplococci flagellates will have to face the PCR next week, so I won't be too harsh on them. But the E. Coli will receive no mercy.
::
Well, I just took the OD measurement and yet again the freaking E. Coli have grown, which means I have to wait here for another 20 minutes. Hurrah.
Temptation calls me to pour a healthy aliquot of ethanol into their container while snickering disturbedly. Or perhaps I'll introduce a competitive species in their flask to kill devour them, One of my colleagues perhaps. Yes, that will do, that will do....
::
Sadly it's not in line with German law to do that. what a shame
::
Sigh, 7 minutes to go. I might as well tell you about the university Olympics. Our block, with the utmost style, grace, and sportsmanship lost all but one of the games we were destined by the gods to play. The gods I say. That one game was the ancient and noble sport of dodgeball in which we kick peptidoglycan. But hey, it was a good Saturday - and we fought hard, which was the main thing...or so I keep telling myself. 4 minutes to go once again. Ah, the aforementioned gods had the honour of having me offered to them as a sacrifice. Steve the God of Bread was annoyed with the noise produced by the students studying on his turf. Long story, lots of filming, which basically ends with me being duct-taped to a chair on stage for about 90 minutes during the Olympix opening ceremony. Evidently I was not sacrificed since the people planted in the audience who I hired voted for the games to go on instead.
So now I'm here - and it's measurement time...
::
They're still growing.
After a quick word with the supervisor it seems that I only need one more reading in about 10 minutes. I could kiss her, that is if she didn't work with quite so much bacteria on a daily basis.
Where was I? oh yes, taped to a chair on stage. It went fairly well all in all - good publicity.
2 minutes left...easily one of the longest lab sessions I've ever had. It's bearable, much better than error calculation in 1st year physics labs which I strongly dissuade any life scientist with a right brain from taking. 34 seconds...
::

Victims of Optics

Opera disintegrates

Bacteria, thousands of them. Happily going about their flagellated lives, dividing, forming little growths on the new paradise they've found on the bountiful petri dish but all the time....being watched.
For the next few weeks in the lab, a strain of paired cocci-like, motile bacteria that I isolated from a spider web in honour of Larry the Existentialist will be put through a series of delightfully invasive testing. For now the unknowing millions are simply growing in LB medium and, like and Hänsel and Gretel before them, are getting all fed up before being fed into various biochemical broths of evil and woe.
This is the first project based lab work I've encountered so far and so far my sadism towards prokaryotes is more than satisfied. No, seriously, I love the critters - bags of proteomic joy they are - filling up every environmental niche out there with life and replication. It's thanks to them ecologists can produce pages of unsterile publications doomed to the compost heap of cellulose based literature.
What joy, what joy...

The Fluff himself

encore, encore

Madame Loretta and her final song

Larry the existentialist

Wildlife and ice cream

Back in Bremen for a warm welcome by the local fauna. The inhabitants of our new room were less than happy to see us. It was only with the aid of a plastic lunchbox that we were able to set most of them free (well out the window) to breed future generations of insects and arachnids bent on our destruction. Sadly Madame Loretta was unable to withstand the extraction procedure from my arm a week or so ago. Her probiscus is still comfortably implanted and festering. My leukocytes will win not to worry.
Surprisingly there were no infestations in my basement locker, nor any large fungi saprotrophically melting my clothes into nutritional supplements which gave me endless joy. Such happiness called for an attempt at cuisine by myself and Nikita. How did it go you say? well, there will be other foodstuffs bound to be buried in the near future. Until it's time comes it is in the deep freeze of the floor kitchen.
Such is life when cake and ice cream don't mean what they used to and the fridge light burns out

St. Paul's Bay

bastions in grand harbour

chilling in the park

freedom and flags

Graduation, pollution, and old stones

But first I have to mention this year’s graduation ceremony. Unlike ours last year, there was no rain to force us into the gym. The birds were singing, the sun giving the whole scene a warm radiance, coastal observation helicopters whirled overhead, and the memories of last year came rushing back. I got all choked up. I was admittedly a bit jealous of the conditions, but the class of ’05 deserved it. A bunch of other class of ’04 people were there. A warm fuzzy feeling indeed. I’ve seen the ceremony from pretty much all sides know; as an elementary, middle school, and high school student waiting to be part of it; as a graduating student exhibited in front of the spooky audience; and now, on the other side. The only roles left to play are as a teacher, the principal, and a guest speaker – not a worst case scenario, but getting uncomfortably close to it. Anyhow, I did get to see my first and third grade teachers there and come to terms with my own ancientness. The doleful strains from Fiddler on the Roof (Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the years…) waft through the breeze as I vanish to neutralize whatever’s eating my skin with pure malt vinegar…

The bastions

the streets of stone

Today I discovered, upon diving into the med for the first time this year, that the salt concentration has reached alarming levels. Last year the salt deposited on a typical swimmer was hardly enough to compliment a fillet of cod in a light garlic marinade with chives on the side, but now there’s enough to coat eight platters of french fries, a side of microwaved beef, nine aubergines, and a gallon of lemon juice. And not only that! There is something very sinister about this salt. As the mosquitos patrolling my hallway head towards my blood vessels, some component of the deposits make them shudder and speed away at right angles. In fact I think I better deal with it before the keratin is completely eaten away.

city gate

Summer has come! The day before the solstice the air became balmy, the temperature metamorphed from mere numbers inhabiting the object dock docklet in the lower right hand side of my screen into that special shade of the season that causes chromatin remodeling complexes to scream with horror.

Mdina, my favourite medieval city-haunt on the island, is finally being restored by handkerchief capped construction dudes which reach their annual population peak around June. Before or after that time they either enter a chrysalis stage or retreat underground where they hold ridiculously lavish parties with giant sea dwelling wood lice looking things (these suckers really exist and if anyone has a spare one, drop me a line). Anyway, the city feels like it can finally breathe again and winding through the narrow streets looking as tourist-like as possible is a great thing to do.

Grand harbour

stormy weather brewing

sittin on the dock of the bay

cliffs off marsascala

arts festival

Miscellanea

The effects of the sub-desktopian gum having dissipated, I am once more coherent enough to reenter the blogosphere. June 19^th sees the birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi. She turns 60 this Sunday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4096618.stm check that out for details of what she and many others face in Burma.

--

Methylethyamine – a very useful liquid when it comes to reducing global warming, or so the Microsoft office assistant in the lower left-hand side of the screen tells me. The liquid absorbs carbon dioxide voraciously but heat it, and the gas is released once more. Transporting the gas to sub-ocean storage sites (where the natural muds and clays lock it in) then becomes a possibility. So the atmosphere might be spared a little. It doesn’t sound like a long term solution, but it’s out there.

--

So what’s been going on, well I’ve been practicing on my didgeridoo, sleep being no barrier, paying homage to the ancient aboriginal tribes of the past and whatnot. Lurking around the island, lurking around Verdala, lurking in general. The arts festival being history and the Gaiafest joining it I have now acquired embryonic skills in the arts of extrasomatic mind control and tibetan relaxation techniques which I am developing to recruit masses of lamas to star in my future broadway musical “Dharma meets the Javanese Motorcycle Hairstylists” An ambitious project I know, but it’s worth a shot. Speaking of musicals, I’m happy to say that IUB’s next musical is in development. The producer (I think he’s the producer at least) and I are modifying the script and designing the sets. Let’s just hope that this year’s musical “Hair” didn’t deplete all the funding in the city state of Bremen. We’ll see, we’ll see.

?

The gum under the desktop

Greetings readers and other forms of journal metabolizers! Once again I’m in my hallway of wonder and delight listening to the birdcalls from our neighbours aviary drift through the kitchen, knock stuff over via a cat or two, and do strange things to the disk defragmenter I have running. Today I dropped into my mother’s elementary ESL class as a visitor. Cruel woman that she is, she made her students introduce themselves in the same way I had to at that age. The psychological tremors that generated are only now being felt ~ I strive not to free my soft toys from storage, arm them with machetes and chain guns, train them in various fatal ninjitsu techniques, and let them loose upon the elementary school administrations of the world!!! Anyway, I gave them an abstract science lesson and I think I taught one how to integrate. Three of the little daemons were paying attention, two of those to my disjointed ramblings and the other to make sure he wouldn’t miss when he decided to bite my hand. Rabid little orangutan. Next time I’ll be armed with chloroform and a jetpack for a quick getaway. But it was fun. oooooooooooo! look at this! i didn't know you could do this! woohoo! ahem, sorry.

The picture doesn’t really have an explanation, since I can’t remember the circumstances surrounding it. I don’t think it had anything to do with the cheese we committed to moulder in its grave, but it could. Perhaps the duck that decided to build a nest and lay eggs outside Nikita’s window had something to do with it. It hissed at me when I tried to feed it, which it shouldn’t since I’m all nature friendly and whatnot. I think ducks now can somehow detect maltese genomes. Or maybe the collective dreams about Chupacabras and Yetis and Yerens et cetera took there toll all at once. Who knows, but it’s there anyway…damn, now I’m upset. I’ll post later maybe.

Interstellar Cheesiplicity IV

There was but one eye witness (I suppose you count too, but here I’m less worried, you didn’t actually see the thing) which we are in the process of psionically silencing. Then all shall be well. You can thank us later. Flowers are nice, money is preferred, but reaved and shrieking souls are the best way to say thanks. Until next time….

Entombed

Interstellar Cheesiplicity III

Yes, cheese. This specimen was acquired by my suitemate back in IUB about a week ago. Poor victims of insufficient aristocratic knowledge of cheese that we are, we just assumed it looked and felt enough like mozzarella to be one with that fine, stretchy marriage of bacteria and bovines. Tsk, tsk.

People take for granted how profoundly and fundamentally the human sense of smell can dictate our existence. The olfactory bulb in the brain is disturbingly close to the region where emotions are comfortably seated amidst a sea of glial cells. And emotional distress can lead to various uncomfortable situations ranging from temporary confusion (usually ending in trying to swallow with your ear canal or something like that) to all out war (look at Troy, or the intergalactic struggle of the 42^nd Prima Valeoris cluster just off the Pleiades). Yes indeed sportsfans it stunk something awful. The tear wrenching power of this thing’s ‘aroma’ was beyond every threshold known to Nikita or myself. As the great Valeorian poet Yqillern the Tribblooned said in his epic Squoonlint Twilighters:

“Methinks it stinketh ~ we must kill the Primarch before we are but squelch”

We decided it best to corroborate our opinions. To our vast surprise a few volunteers we convinced to encounter the cheese, henceforth referred to as the squelch, didn’t seem to mind it all that much. It was clearly the terrifying consciousness of the evil entity we unleashed by opening the squelch packaging that was working on the feeble minds of these squelch-sniffers. Before any more fell to its whims we decided to save the world and bury it. Yes bury it. Alive.

The squelch unsheathed

Interstellar Cheesiplicity II

I sat in a park (Baluta Bay) near the sea for a while, reading, when I met a Libyan taxi driver who came to Malta to learn English (not always the best choice, but not bad either). We struck up a conversation and for his 2 months of studying his English was great. He leaves for home tomorrow, to his 4 brothers and 3 sisters. It’s strange here, many Maltese (not most, but many) have a brain-dead racism ingrained into whatever lump of tissue they use for what can be considered thought. It’s one of the things that will go through a painful change, for everyone, here in the near future. Lodged at home, stopping at some stores to look for something of the desert for someone special (Sting’s Desert Rose is playing through cool coincidence), another tale of oddness shall now be told. Say cheese….

Baluta Bay