Thu, 26 Feb 2004

Plato vs Aristotle
A few ways in which Plato and Aristotle differed.
A summary of Aristotle’s philosophy. Looks like he did believe in the blank slate idea, after all.

posted at: 15:40 | path: /work | link

WWOOF! WWOOF!
The organic volunteers site reminded me about Willing Workers on Organic Farms. I came across these folks a while ago and I really love the idea. I’m not sure if I’ll ever volunteer, but you never know!

Right now I’m trying to find enough time to concentrate on my own ‘balcony garden’ plans. We had some promising results from a tomato plant Colin’s mom gave us last year, even though we sometimes left it to languish. This year I’m looking forward to having a few more out there, but I need to make that go!

posted at: 15:04 | path: /living | link

Hints of Canadian Permaculture
Every once in a while I go searching online for any new developments or movements towards Canadian Permaculture. Today I found the following in a discussion group:
“Sustainable living books is run by an awesome permaculture teacher in Canada. Email them to find out about any permaculture sites in Canada. http://www.sustainablelivingbooks.com/”

I went to The sustainable living books site but their online store is still under construction.

The discussion group itself was on a neat Organic Volunteers website

posted at: 15:00 | path: /living | link

Mon, 23 Feb 2004

People of Ideas
It’s nice to know there were people of ideas during the European enlightenment.

posted at: 00:49 | path: /work | link

Sun, 22 Feb 2004

Logical Positivism Who’s Who
I’m still getting a historical feel for all of the more recent philosophy of science philsophers. This site has some useful info about the positivism and post positivism folks.

posted at: 22:59 | path: /work | link

Fri, 13 Feb 2004

Math Ka-POW
Here’s a math problem of the week. That might get me into shape.

posted at: 00:05 | path: /work | link

Math Functions
I like to flirt with math. But I’m not into math puzzles. I’m into math literacy, which is why sites like the Wolfram functions site appeal to me.
At the moment I’m also thinking about adding math tutor to my list of ‘possible things I could do to make money’. Thus the work categorization.

posted at: 00:01 | path: /work | link

Thu, 12 Feb 2004

Coordinated motion
I’m always looking for new terms to describe the swarming/flocking/schooling behaviour I’m interested in. This site features a new term- ‘coordinated motion’.

posted at: 13:10 | path: /school | link

Wed, 11 Feb 2004

Fortunate Enlightenment
I received this from the fortune login program today:
“I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.” — Gotama Buddha
I enjoy the conundrums of Enlightenment.

posted at: 12:48 | path: /living | link

Astronaut Pictures of the Earth
I was just doing some maintenance and minor updating of my website. In the process I re-visited this fascinating site of pictures that astronauts have taken of the earth. We have an amazing planet.

posted at: 12:17 | path: /living | link

Tue, 10 Feb 2004

Cool New Blog!
I have another cool blog to add to my list of blogs- Keltie’s Blog. It rocks! Hi Keltie :)
Keltie’s blog has also led me think about the fate of picky eaters and not so picky eaters. Really, food just seems to be one of those daily landmine issues. Colin and I have had huge discussions about what counts as a ‘picky eater’ and what counts as a ‘choosy eater’. Maybe he will put an entry in his blog about it.

posted at: 20:19 | path: /living | link

Thu, 05 Feb 2004

Processed food weird… er… goodness
I was reading The Well-Fed Backpacker when I came across the author’s reference to Butter Buds. That reminded me that everytime I come across them in her book, I mean to look them up. So I did.
Wow- this is one of those products like powdered milk. There seems to be nothing wrong with it from a nutritional point of view, but it still seems very… weird. Truly a product of the modern age. Go spray-dry machine, go!

posted at: 18:22 | path: /living | link

Wed, 04 Feb 2004

Go go gadget… Running!
I have this real… thing… with running. Intellectually, it seems like a great idea, since it requires very little equipment and you can do it anywhere, anytime. And yet, I can’t seem to motivate myself to do it.
I did have one positive running experience within the last year- I was late meeting Colin at the Jazz Festival, so I ran five blocks, wearing a big backpack and tivas. It felt great! I didn’t feel winded and crappy like I usually do after about half a block. I felt like I could just keep running and running…
So, sometimes I think about that experience and wonder, if I just had the right setup, and the right way of thinking, maybe running could be good.
All of which has inspired me to re-find this page on barefoot running that I came across a while ago. For some reason I find it very inspiring.

posted at: 14:47 | path: /living | link

Tue, 03 Feb 2004

More On What Galileo Actually Did
Information on what Galileo actually did, and on what thought experiments he actually carried out, and in what order these happened is a bit murky. This report on the contents of an unpublished book, De Motu, does shed some light on the issue.
Aristotle also wrote a book- Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences - that had some information about his activities in this area. I’ll continue to investigate.

posted at: 18:17 | path: /work | link

The Legend of Galileo
This site talks about what Galileo may have done and not done.

posted at: 17:52 | path: /work | link

Galileo and Thought Experiments
Galileo was known for introducing new methods to science. Here’s an interesting discussion on thought experiments that talks about some of his contributions, along with the issues of using thought experiments in science.

posted at: 17:48 | path: /work | link

Principles of Permaculture
I found this nice word document containing some Principles and Ethics of Permaculture.
I found reading it helpful because sometimes reading a list like that can get you thinking and remind you of ideas. It also gives you a checklist, to make sure you aren’t overlooking anything.

posted at: 16:45 | path: /living | link

Mon, 02 Feb 2004

The Ungulates
I’m having a hard time finding a list of ungulates that are indigenous to Canada. In the mean time, here’s a list of ungulates that has information about where each type lives.

posted at: 16:46 | path: /living | link

Spruce Grouse
Here’s some more detailed info on the Spruce Grouse. It seems pretty promising.

posted at: 16:37 | path: /living | link

Back to Permaculture
I’ve been away from my permaculture research for a while. I thought I would get back into it by investigating what cold weather birds might have potential for domestication.
The Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter has a nice list of birds indigenous to North America.
The grouse looks somewhat promising…

posted at: 16:31 | path: /living | link

Sun, 01 Feb 2004

Repairing Microwave Ovens
I wasn’t even sure if it were possible to repair micro-wave ovens. The door on Colin’s old one busted the other day and we’ve decided to buy a new one. However, I hate buying things that can’t be repaired. It seems like bad design, and wasteful.
Hopefully this site will have some useful info.

posted at: 14:46 | path: /living | link

Brand New Blog
Okay- not the end of pirate mode, exactly- I’ve just moved it here.
Also, I’ve added a calendar at the bottom of the page so old entries are accessible by month. And fixed a few of my broken links- like the one to my parent’s cottage.

posted at: 13:31 | path: /living | link

Getting serious about Blosxom
I’ve been putting off learning about Blosxom, the software that is running this blog. But now, too many of my entires have fallen off the bottom, so I need to do something about it! Could this be the end of pirate mode…?

posted at: 12:01 | path: /living | link

Seitan Experiment
Today I tried making seitan- a meat substitute made out of gluten. It was easier than I expected. I was using high gluten flour, specially processed for making seitan, so all I had to do was add water and knead a bit.

I made two batches, and experimented with adding more or less water and doing more or less kneading. One of the batches turned out well, texture wise. Tastewise it was bland, with a bit of a soggy bread flavour. Not surprisingly, every website I encountered assumed that flavourings would be added somewhere in the process. I tried boiling the cooked seitan in a broth of soy sauce and onions. This had a very positive effect- the wheatie taste was completely concealed and it ended up tasting bland but pleasantly neutral.

posted at: 00:35 | path: /living | link

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