Organic Hydroponics
I’ve now discovered that there is also such a thing as ‘organic
hydroponics’. The idea behind this is that you do hydroponics, but you
create the nutrient mixture using ‘natural stuff’ like compost. You use
the compost to make compost tea, and that’s the nutrient mix. Now this is
starting to get good! Here’s
an old but still good article on organic hydroponics from mother earth
news.
Here’s
a follow up article.
posted at: 15:59 |
path: /living |
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Feeding Plants in a Hydroponic system
I like the idea of hydroponics because you can get away with no dirt- and
that’s good if your only source of dirt comes from bags at the hardware
store, which is produced in highly dubious ways, from an environmental
perspective. However, the nutrient solution aspect has always outweighed
the advantages of that option for me- it seems like too much of a pain in the neck,
especially when dirt basically comes ‘custom made’ with all of the right
things already in it. However, I have been looking for simple options and
have found a few.
Here’s
one of them. There is also this interesting
semi-hydroponic method.
posted at: 14:54 |
path: /living |
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Inside Plants Live
I was thinking about our house plants and their light requirements, since
we have just re-arranged our living room. I know that indoor light is
extremely low, and I’m always worrying about them getting enough light. To
give you an idea, typical indoor light is about 50 candles. Typical
outdoor light is about 5000 candles. There’s a bit of a difference there.
That’s why I was really happy to stumble upon Inside Plants Live, a website
devoted to growing indoor plants. It has lots of useful information and
ideas.
posted at: 13:22 |
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Non-Parametric Statistics
I’m trying to learn more about statistics. I came across a reference to
non-parametric statistics in a paper I was reading.
Here’s a
general description of nonparametric statistics. I have also figured out
that I am mostly interested in
descriptive statistics, since what I usually want to do is take some
data and create a model of the way that data is behaving, rather than use
the data to test a particular hypothesis.
posted at: 14:36 |
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Field of view
I was reading the thesis of the animator who created an animated fish, and
came across a term that I’ve been looking for. The term is
field of view.
I knew there had to be a term that described the perceptual field of
different perceptions but I could never figure out what it was. Now I
know.
posted at: 12:28 |
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Principia Cybernetica Project Website
According to the main page,
Principia Cybernetica
Project” aims to develop a complete philosophy or “world-view”, based
on the principles of evolutionary cybernetics, and supported by
collaborative computer technologies.”
posted at: 17:28 |
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Colds and non-prescription products
Here’s an interesting
report on an FDA study on the efficacy of non-prescription cold
products.
posted at: 21:42 |
path: /living |
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Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
I came across the Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance website while looking for information on the
winter solstice. I think it’s an interesting website.
posted at: 16:15 |
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Winter Solstice
I’m not a religious person, although I try to be tolerant and respectful
of religious beliefs. Since I’m not religious sometimes I think it might
be fun to have a non-religious celebration added to the mix in this
‘holiday season’. The best one I can think of is the Winter Solstice. To
me this is a very practical and straightforward time for a holiday,
because it is marked by something easily measurable- the shortest day of
the year. Also, it is something that is relevant to people. We notice the
days getting shorter and darker, and we’re pretty happy when they get
longer again.
Of course, even though, to me, Winter Solstice is not a religious holiday,
to many people past and present it has been part of a religious event or
observance.
Here’s
some information on religious observances during winter solistice and
other religious observances during the month of December.
posted at: 15:51 |
path: /living |
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Hot Toddies
I have a bad cold, which has brought on a fairly bad case of laryngitis.
While reading about laryngitis, I came across a number of references to
hot toddies. I enjoyed
this
site- not just for the recipe but for all of the many comments and
testimonials below it- some very sincere and others… not so sincere.
posted at: 14:01 |
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Potentially Disgusting Food Post
Okay- now that I’ve talked about how much I love food, let’s talk about
disgusting food parasites. There’s a lot of confusing information out
there on how much you have to cook pork. A lot of government sites are
trying to play it safe and say that you should cook your pork to 170
degrees. A lot of cooking sites and meat sellers are saying you can cook
it to 137 degrees, and you’ll be fine. Who is right?
Well, I finally found some hard data on the agriculture canada website.
First of all, it must be noted that cases of trichinosis infestation in
canadian pork is extremely rare. For example, in 1997, none were found.
However, with respect to the original question,
The
Canadian Food Inspection Agency- Meat Hygiene Manual of Procedures,
Section 4.10.2 provides a useful chart. According to this chart, both
the play it safe government sites and the cooks and meat sellers are wrong, although the cooks and meat sellers only marginally. To ensure
destruction of Trichinella, meat must be heated to a temperature of 137
degrees for at least three minutes. So cooking to 135 and letting it reach
a temperature of 137 probably isn’t so good. However, by the time you get
to 145.5 degrees fahrenheit (63 degrees celsius), Trichinella is killed
instantly. So there you have it- cook pork to 146 degrees fahrenheit and you
should be fine.
posted at: 22:27 |
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Trashy Eats
As people who know me know, I am in love with food. Not just eating it,
but also with what it is, and recipes and attitudes about it. And not just
‘good’ food. I love bad food and weird food too. So you can imagine my
delight when I came across the Trashy Eats
live journal community. When I read the title I wondered what exactly
‘trashy eats’ were. As soon as I read a few posts I understood. Definitely
a true sub-category of North American Cooking.
posted at: 19:40 |
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Lumpers, Vaseline and Persimmons
I have a number of outstanding blog questions. The first is- what is a
lumper. According to
the free dictionary,
a lumper is: “a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port
dock worker, dock-walloper, docker, dockhand, loader, longshoreman,
stevedorelaborer, labourer, manual laborer, jack - someone who works with their
hands; someone engaged in manual labor”.
The next question is: Is vaseline hazardous to your health? After doing some research on the internet there are conflicting results. Which is to be expected, since it is the internet. The claim against vaseline seems to involve problems with impurities that are carcinogens, not that the vaseline is itself a carcinogen. The European Union banned its usage in cosmetics, unless specially refined, in 2004, according to this and a number of other websites.
Lastly- where are persimmons from? The answer? Persimmons
originated in the mountains of central china.
posted at: 15:26 |
path: /living |
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Three Letter Words
There are
a lot of three letter words in the English language, at least according to
the Scrabble rules. I think some of them are a bit doubtful, though.
posted at: 15:25 |
path: /living |
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Latte Art
I’m really intrigued by the human propensity for art and design. It’s very
important to us. Even in cases where it would be cheaper and faster to
avoid it, like in highway barrier construction, a little bit of effort is
put in to add patterns to the barrier. I think that latte
art is another great example of this.
posted at: 12:53 |
path: /living |
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more on medieval dyes
Right here.
There does seem to be a debate about the bright colour thing going on. I
have a suspicion some people really want to wear bright colours…
posted at: 12:26 |
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medieval dyes
What the heck did those crazy medievals dye their clothes with?
Check it out.
posted at: 12:25 |
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Medieval clothing
What the heck did those crazy ‘medievals’ wear? Check it
out.
posted at: 12:24 |
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Learn About Your Shadow Self
Who knows?
The shadow
knows.
posted at: 23:05 |
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All material copyrighted by Jen Schellinck. All rights reserved.