Re: Horsetail/Equisetum Arvense
Daniel - Thanks for that! It's hard to see how my often waterlogged, heavy clay soil could contain excess nitrate, but there's no harm in trying... Tony N-S.
Re: Horsetail/Equisetum Arvense
Steve - Pulling horsetail shoots damages the plant? I should be so lucky! I approve of this plant in the right place, but not overwhelming my veg patch. I've dug down three feet into my subsoil (solid glacial clay) without coming to the end of its stolons - I've read that they can extend downwards for several yards. Every spring I pull each shoot as it appears, and appears, and appears; after a decade or more, they are as vigorous as ever. Of course, if I'd _wanted_ them there Naturally, I dry the best leafy shoots for tea making. Tony N-S.
City folk ( was Re: Indoor Mildew/Standing Water Remedy?)
The BBC Radio 4 'Today' news programme is currently getting excited about purple carrots. Anchorman John Humphreys discovered that it's only the outer skin which is purple, but is still flabbergasted by this novelty. Has he never seen the top of a turnip or swede (rutabaga)? Tony N-S.
Re: Shredders for composting
I find a small shredder (bought, not home-made!) invaluable for making shrub trimmings up to about 3/4 diam, and often several feet long, suitable for inclusion in compost. I can't see how else these could be processed? Tony N-S.
Re: seed soaking
At an Emerson College course in 1996 I was given a table copied from Applied Biodynamics no 7 (Spring 1994) with the following information: Place prep in a glass container with one litre of rainwater, stir for 5 mins, immerse seeds for one hour and then sow out. 500 for chard, spinach 502 for grasses and rye 503 for alfalfa, linseed, clover, beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, peas, radish and turnip 504 for barley 505 for lettuce 507 for wheat, maize, beets, carrots, celery, celeriac, chicory, cucumbers, leek, melons (cantaloupe), onions, peppers, pumpkins, scallions and tomatoes; perhaps also aubergines, garlic, squash and watermelon. Barrel Compost for sunflowers BC/water/whole milk (1:4:5), (? stir 5 mins), let stand 24 hours, stir another 5 mins before use, as an alternative for beets and carrots. Haven't tried it myself, hope it helps. Tony N-S.
Re: Just saying hello
Merla - I have illustrations of various flowforms (as I'm sure many others also do) which I'd be glad to scan to you, if you'd quote your e-mail address (as Allan doesn't approve of attachments). Tony N-S.
Re: Flow forms and compost tea
Steve - I don't want to nit-pick, but I wonder how the vortices in my flowform cascade are not peripheral ? The flowforms are thin plastic shells and, inside each one, the liquid flows around the outer edge in twin vortices before joining in chaotic discharge into the next flowform beneath. That seems to be about as peripheral as in a bucket ? Thanks for your suggestion that I should double the time to 20 mins. Tony N-S.
Re: A Neo-agrarian culture
Thanks, Christy, for the notes on Wes Jackson's talk. On a minor point, I picked up on the '1 nuclear accident every 10 years' estimate. As a coastal marine ecologist, I figured out that (around the NW European coastline) we have averaged one severe winter and one serious oil-spill every ten years. Is there something special about this period ? I seem to remember that the sunspot cycleruns over11 years (near enough ?). Tony N-S.
Re: Flow forms and compost tea
Instead of stirring, I run water plus prep (for spraying or compost heap, not to make tea) through a cascade of flowforms for about 10 mins. Do I win both ways or get the booby prize ? Tony N-S.
Re: [biotech_activists] Intl Campaign Touts High-Yield (biotech) Farming
Yeah, it's a good story; but I remember the suggestions during the 'Green Revolution' that new high-yielding rice varieties would enable peasant farmers to produce more and thus become more prosperous. What reportedly happened was that they planted less to get the same crop and became more relaxed. Tony N-S.
Off: Badger cull (was Re: You CWD)
Wherever there's a problem, kill the obvious suspect without considering the consequences ! Those overseas from the UK might be interested to know that the 'experimental' badger cull re-started yesterday. Badgers and cows both suffer from tuberculosis. Farmers and the Agriculture Department interpret this as indicating that the badgers are spreading it to the cows, and are carrying out a massive 'experiment' during which tens of thousands of badgers will be killed over a period of 5 years. It is claimed that the TB situation at the end of that time will prove that badgers are the problem. Wildlife enthusiasts point out that TB can be passed from cow to cow and conditions during which cows were cooped up together during the foot-and-mouth epidemic would be ideal for this klind of infection. Now thatre-stocking is permitted, potentially infected cows can bemoved over considerable distances and TB is showing up where it never previously occurred. TB testing should be required before such movements and vaccination is possible, but both are 'too expensive'. As always, we'll find out much too late that the alternatives are even more expensive (but someone else pays ?). Tony N-S.
OFF: Crap and political opinions
I'm not sure whether I'm one of the purveyors of 'leftist crap' or not, but it might be worth mentioning that, some years ago, I would without hesitation have described everything covered by this forum as crap. BDNow didn't convert me from this view, - I reached it with help from my wife, reading and a shortcourse at Emerson College - but it has filled out my understanding of many issues enormously. I'm reassuredthat the majority who have commented on 'political postings' have found them interesting and don't want them abolished. My views on the situation in Israel/Palestine are coloured by the fact that I've been to numerous Middle Eastern countries and have supervised the work of many Arab postgrads (although I've known and liked many Jewish people, not necessarily Zionists, however). To take an extreme example, Saddam Hussein is nowrepresented to us as a monster (let's remember that he was a valued ally only a few years ago); but one of my Iraqi students came from a peasant family. Thanks to the Ba'athist regime, he was well educated, got a degree at a local university, was funded to come to Britain for his doctorate and now holds a good position in a research institution back in Iraq (as a marine biologist, not a developer of weapons). His opinion of Saddam might be slightly different from ours. If the excerpt from Will Hutton's new book 'The World We're In' (quoted in my Sunday newspaper) is to be believed, it would not now be possible for an equivalent US American to achieve this. What might my Iraqi conclude from this comparison ? Tony N-S.
Re: Drought Redux
Here in south-west Wales, we thoughtlessly complain at our frequent days of persistent drizzle or worse, not really appreciating how much of the rest of the world would be delighted by it! My good intentions on reading advice about putting a brick in the loo cistern, never brushing teeth under a running tap and so on are rather soured by a knowledge of the wasteful use of water in many industries, often manufacturing worthless objects anyway - but at least I have the benefit of a year-round source of spring-water, so I can water the plants with a clear conscience. On this line of thought, I remember awhile back, when Britain was suffering a fuel crisis, the government asked us to make the greatest effort to save on electricity. The following day, my newspaper printed a photograph of the Energy Minister's house after dark: every single window was brightly lit. Does anyone know how the great and the good are conserving water? Tony N-S.
Elementals (was Re: Dandelions)
Interesting. Recently, I keep having the sense of catching a glimpse of movement or some out-of-place object just out of my line of vision. Some while ago, I related to this forum the story of my new neighbour seeing the ghost of a former owner of our property, believing it to be my wife. I had thought that I was now not-quite-seeing her, but maybe our elementals are beginning to show up? My vision is not deteriorating but I believe that I'm still developing spiritually.Tony N-S.
OFF Re: religion vs ethnicity ( Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel)
I doubt that Allen will support this discussion for much longer, as it's so off-message; but I think it's pushing things too far to regard 'Muslim states' as being united by religion rather than ethnicity. These states may be overwhelmingly Muslim, observing Sharia law, but they are still occupied almost entirely by people of defined, local ethnic origin(s). I'm not aware that any foreigner professing Islam has a specified 'right' to consider himself (say) a Saudi or Afghan citizen. There may be a tenuous ethnic link between all people born into an orthodox Jewish family (which discounts those who have married out, converted etc), but there will surely still be enormous cultural differences between those from (say) the US east coast and Ethiopia. My main quibble is with the 'Right of Return' (about as misleading an expression as 'reclaiming' land from the sea?): it inevitably gives rise to pressure to colonise Palestinian land, an unpleasant reminder of Hitler's 'Lebensraum'. Tony N-S.
Re: Oak leaves
Tony - is vit B12 really that thermally stable? Tony N-S.
Re: ReOFF/ : Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel
Michael - There's a whole lot of history here, and theology too. It's pretty convenient to be able to say, God gave me this land ! The first thing that Joshua did when entering that land was to smash Jericho (early blueprint for Jenin?). I agree that it was stupid of the Balfour government to cede Palestine to both the Zionists and the Arabs - but then, the Brits don't have the monopoly of stupid foreign-policy decisions. I honestly don't know how many Jewish refugees were let into Britain (or turned away) during the war, but don't forget that Jews had been entering Britain from other European countries since the time of William the First - and, yes, at times dispossessed or massacred here, too. It just seems sad that the Jews who left Nazi oppression for Israel should so quickly have put on the jackboot. Tony N-S.
Re: Berry: The Prejudice Against Country People
In Britain, there is a loud and potentially powerful backlash by a group calling itself The Countryside Alliance. It campaigns against the closure of rural post-offices and banks, poor public transport and other problems of countryfolk but, unfortunately, it is a Trojan horse: it was set up by foxhunting interests to oppose the threatened ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs, using other complaints as a smokescreen. They organised a large march on London last year, then quoted the numbers attending as indicating massive rejection of the proposed ban (in fact, polls of specifically rural populations show support for such a ban running from 50% to over 70% - many of those on the march thought that they were supporting the 'smokescreen' complaints). US hunters please note that the activity in question is the traditional 'greetings-card' mounted hunt with a pack of hounds, fancy uniforms and arcane jargon, not two men and a dog out in the woods! Tony N-S.
Re: Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel
It's encouraging to learn that some 'ordinary' US Americans are at least criticising Sharon's Israel, if not offering much support to the Palestinians. The Brits (and probably a majority in much of Europe generally) are much more supportive of the Palestinians: we deplore the bombing of civilians, but at least understand the desperation of the people behind it. TV news a couple of days ago interviewed a group of Russian jews who had arrived in Israel six weeks previously. An elderly man proclaimed that, if he could, he would join the army to protect 'his' land - from Arabs who were born there, but are now herded into a refugee camp. By this measure, the French resistance fighters during WW2 were 'terrorists'? Tony N-S.
Universe in synch (was Astrological portents)
Hugh (in particular) - did you ever come across the
news that two Japanese astrophysicists had detected the 'music of the spheres'
? I read it in 'New Scientist' a couple of years ago and have now
lost that issue but, in essence, these two were analysing the vibrations of
planet Earth. They gradually eliminated individual frequencies as they
assigned sources to each and eventually found that there remained one frequency
which apparently had no detectable source. They concluded that this is the
natural frequency of the planet, and that each celestial body has its own
characteristic frequency. This, to me, seems one of the most fundamental
validations for astrology - certainly worth quoting at those scoffers who
conveniently assume that the only influence such a body could have is by its
gravity, and thus 'demolish' astrology byshowing that a passing vehicle
has a stronger local gravitational effect than the nearest planet.
It ties in with an assertion by
Dr Percy Seymour,a very brave professional astronomer who supports
astrology ('The scientific basis of astrology', Quantum Books, 1997),
thata foetus recognisestheset of frequencies which define its
character and chooses to be born when external frequencies fit this - rather
than being defined by whichever set of frequencies happen to be vibrating at the
time of its birth. Makes one wonder what damage is being done by medical
intervention in the birth process
?
Tony N-S.
Knapweed
Is Merla's knapweed the same as ours in Britain -
Centaurea scabiosa or C. nigra (also known as Hardheads ? I have it
occasionally in a rough lawn on an old cinder patch but don't find it at all
invasive (it can easily be mown out). It is,
indeed,attractiveand valuable as the major food-plant
ofcinnabar moth larvae ('football jersey'
caterpillars). Tony
N-S.
Chemtrails and shellfish poisoning
Thanks, Nancy and Michael. Seems like we've not experienced them here yet, then. We do have our own local mystery, tho' - for the last couple of months, the cockle fishery in our estuary has been closed because of Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning. Poisoning of shellfish is usually due to a bloom of micro-algae, but only this estuary (the Burry Inlet/Loughor Estuary) seems to be affected. Three other rivers enter Carmarthen Bay and surely micro-algae would have gone up their estuaries, too: but cockles are still collected at Ferryside on the Tywi. There's talk of a mysterious toxin which no-one seems able (or willing ?) to identify - but then, it would have to be some outfall into the Loughor because, obviously, components of a chemtrail would fall over an even wider area. Tony N-S,
Re: [globalnews] Chemtrails - Barium, Aluminum, Titanium CONFIRMED In Rainwater
As I commented in a huffy OFF message earlier, I live under the 'Green' channel taken by transatlantic flights as they cross SW Britain - consequently, I often see large numbers of contrails in the sky. How can I distinguish such normal condensation trails from these chemtrails ? Tony N-S.
Re: How about $100 fees for permits for ALL seeds and plants moving interstate
Gil - Gandhi was once asked what he thought about Western civilisation; he replied that, yes, it would be a good thing. Tony N-S.
Re: Merla and the Weed Board
Merla - Of course, to us the preps are significantly processed/treated; but, to your legalistic regulators, surely you're just using unprocessed manure and vegetable wastes on one bit of ground and, later, digging them up and using them on another bit of ground? If it would be acceptable first time round, it has to be so on the second time round also - otherwise you'd be breaching the regulations every time you transplanted a shrub! At least, that's what you could tell your tormentor. Tony N-S.
Re: The Wide World and Testing Preps
Allan and Steve - why not avoid altogether the controversy between 'tedious' hand stirring and contentious mechanical stirring by using a flowform cascade? Tony N-S.
OFF - Re: Charging for use of commons...
Thanks, Jane, for posting this interesting concept. As I've labelled this an OFF posting, maybe you folks will permit me to let off a little personal steam re aviation? As a young man, I was keen on aircraft (Air Scouts and compulsory service in the RAF). Now, I'm furious that I pay an enormous tax on diesel for my car, which I regard as essential as I live in the sticks, while overhead on the 'Green' air channel for transatlantic flights I can sometimes see a dozen contrails in as many minutes from 747s carrying holidaymakers to or from Orlando (essential journey?) and burning tax-free kerosene. Similarly, amateur Biggleses and parachutists' planes fly low over my garden from the nearby airfield, making a racket audible across a wide swathe of 'peaceful' countryside for which I would immediately be pulled over if it emanated from my car. As for microlights... ! Am I just thinking like a whingeing wrinkly ? What opinions from elsewhere ? Tony N-S.
Re: Gardening Shed Advice (?)
If you're pouring a concrete floor, simple advice is to make sure which way the gradient runs. It seems obvious, but whoever laid the floor of my garage/workshop helpfully had it sloping to the back and sides so that, when I garage my car on rainy days, all the runoff drains into the area where I could best stack timber... Tony N-S.
Re: Happy Spring (Tomorrow) !! fWd from Troy Bogdan
Troy (via Allen?) - thanks for your inspiring note about Earth Day but, just to nitpick, not 'England' please but Britain ! We in Wales, together with our compatriots in Scotland and Ireland, share (indeed, were the originators of) the culture of the largely newcomer invaders who inhabit England. In my stroppier moments, I imagine referring to the whole of the USA as Texas, just to annoy those who post me mail addressed to '...Wales, England'! However, in peace, Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
Gil - Apologies to any participating Kiwis; I took your recent reference to the 'land of the long white cloud' to indicate that you live there. Yes, I live quite near Llanrhidian. Milford Haven is quite similar to the Fal estuary - of which, incidentally, I've also done an ecological survey. I love the Cornish coast, but then so do too many other people! The Pembrokeshire coast is comparable and not quite so heavily touristic - if you manage to visit Wales, I'd suggest that you base yourself somewhere on that south-western corner. Thanks, Thomas, for the endorsement - I'm sure that the Wales Tourist Board would be most grateful. Iechyd da! Tony N-S.
Re: Radioactivity
Deborah - Sorry, I was just using the subject line of the original message: not an expert on caesium, but surely Ce would be cerium ? Confusion or mis-type - 137 could be an isotope of either ?Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
Gil - nothing so grand as 'farming', I just have 2-3 acres of roughish land, a little of which I use to grow veg for household use, a little more as relatively tame garden, the rest as wet paddock or wettish spinney. It's on the north side of the Gower peninsula in SW Wales, west of Swansea or opposite Llanelli if you look on a small-scale map. On the topic of place-names, I did my PhD on the ecology of Milford Haven (a deep estuary in Pembrokeshire) and so was fascinated to find so many local names transposed to Milford Sound in your South Island. Tony N-S.
The old ways are best! (was ... Cesium Rod?)
Herb - I took my degree (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry) in 1959/60 and enjoyed the primitive wet methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis; I also remember simple wet-chemistry methods for determining nutrient deficiencies in a leaf (can't remember after whom these leaf tests were named - can any other old hand help ?). Now it seems that not a thing can be done without an atomic-absorption spectrophotometer and gas-liquid column chromatography (or, preferably, GC-MS) setting the lab back tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros. Where did we go wrong ? Merla - I'm very familiar with the radiation warning sign because, as lab safety representative, I had endless struggles with our paranoid microbiologist who used to mark practically all his glassware with it to stop others 'borrowing' it. On the other hand, we had to balance carefully the safety requirement to label genuine hazards, however small, against the refusal of the garbage men to handle anything bearing a label which they thought might mean danger. Tony N-S.
Re: Gathering Chi (was re: agrisynthesis...)
Chris - Yes, I get your point about taking over a tree to act as a broadcaster. My main thought, as a rather junior practictioner of T'ai Chi - Chi Gung, was that the Chi has to come from somewhere and I'm not really harming the natural environment as a whole in my practice by drawing it in, especially as at least a large proportion of it is quickly released. There must be a limit to the amount that can be stored - and can one be said to destroy it by using it ?Tony N-S.
Re: Presidential elections
Stephen - I had it in mind that Bush is, himself, a president who got elected only by disenfranchising the opposition...It would be a bit rich if he now gets all pious about it, even though Mugabe went about it a little more vigorously. Tony N-S.
Re: Gathering Chi (was re: agrisynthesis...)
Chris - surely the whole point about Chi is that you cannot retain it: you may 'gather' it, but it's only passing through. Thus it can scarcely be 'parasitic' to obtain it from natural surroundings - it returns to them soon enough ! Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
It's probably not relevant to you but I have a stream fed by an old mining adit which provides typical iron-waste water (deposits of soft, sticky orange-coloured sediment). In the stream-bed, I grow the most luscious, tangy watercress I've ever tasted. I occasionally water other crops with it (although I admit I mostly use the public water supply, which is good) and it seems to do no harm; I also dredge the iron-rich mud from the stream-bed and have used it, mixed with garden compost and discarded peat, to build up growing beds which have been quite productive. I leave the spiritual implications of a high iron content to our BDNow gurus, though ! Tony N-S.
Re: ants and 'balance' (was companion planting)
Dear Wayne Sharon - I don't want you to think I'm decrying your insights into plants and their needs, which I find both instructive and humbling (since I don't receive such insights) but I'm a bit confused by your proposal that this rose-bed must have something wrong with it because leaf-cutter ants are 'attacking' the roses, which we are told seem to be their favourite crop. Much though the rose-grower may dislike the damage they are doing, surely that activity is quite natural ? They are utilising this material just as we utilise plant materials (cotton, hemp, bamboo, timber etc) or food plants. How is it that their gathering such material reveals some imbalance ? Certainly, plants have evolved methods of deterring grazing animals, but the animals then evolve ways around this deterrence; otherwise there wouldn't still be leaf-cutting ants. Are you proposing that, with proper balance restored, these particular rose plants would so strengthen their defences that the ants would be defeated and go elsewhere ? That said, I'm all for preventing ant damage on a local scale, using methods which don't greatly injure the ants. Tony N-S.
Re: Dreamtime--previous lives
As Hugh commented, it used to be very fashionable to 'remember' a past life as a famous historical character (Cleopatra and Napoleon must have had a massive number of multiple personalities). I have no personal insights, but I attended a very interesting session during which a hypno-medium revealed the most recent past life of many of those present - all very humble (common soldier, seaman, agricultural worker, maidservant... ). Several of these accounted for previously unexplained phobias, preferences or recurring dreams. As to the main point of Hugh's message - sorry, can't help with funding Moen Creek. Tony N-S.
Re: Weather Weapons
Can anyone tell me, if the US has the power to unleash hurricanes artificially, couldn't 'natural' ones be tamed ? Tony N-S.
Re: Clinton not Bush (as reluctant bomber)
Allan - I'm not entirely sure that bombing the Muslim world, by whatever instigation, is necessarily the best indicator of a good President... Tony N-S.
Re: Clinton not Bush
Y'know, there are times when the rest of the world feels that US Americans (present company excepted, natch) _deserve_ the bum Presidents which they elect... Pity that we have to suffer from their activities, too, though ! Tony N-S.
Democracy (was Richard K. ... )
Richard K. criticises democracy and, of course, he's right - but which other realistic system ispreferable ? Winston Churchill commented (roughly) that democracyseems the worst possible way to run a country, until you look at the alternatives. The 'democracy' of the Greeks and, later, the Founding Fathers was certainly restricted to an elite but, hopefully, we've come on a bit since then. I've briefly visited (for example) Iraq and Saudi Arabia and I'd certainly sooner live inthe constitutional monarchy of GB, or even under the non-democratic presidency of George W ! Tony N-S.
Re: Alien life forms (was Spraying in airplanes etc )
Sorry, Markess - I was extending thecomment on the problem ofintroductions of alien plants and animals, which clearly refers to material damage rather than spiritual implications. I wrote as anenvironmental biologist and intended a seriousprofessional (not PC) meaning behind a seemingly flip comment. Previous postings at the time of anti-globalisation demonstrations in various cities were plainly on the 'them vs us' theme, which appeared to be acceptable to most contributors. I like and respect rats as animals, recognising them as fellow-mammals and equally entitled to a place on Earth; but, in my time, I have both used them in (non-harmful) experimentation and attempted by various means to drive them out of my kitchen - a 'them and us' situation which I regarded as necessary. However, I'll cogitate on your point of view, for which my thanks. Tony N-S.
Re: Alien life forms (was Spraying in airplanes etc )
Seems to me that the most damaging life form introduced into New World countries (in the widest sense) has been European humans - subscribers to BDNow excepted, of course! Tony N-S.
OFF longish: eliminating mind-chatter
Thanks, folks, for helpful comments on how to get rid of irrelevant thoughts when trying to meditate, both recently and when I last brought up this topic. Suggestions seem to fall into three categories - 1. Accept them calmly, briefly register them and then let them go; 2. Expel them from the mind as soon as they appear. A recent comment (sorry, I've lost the name of its author) proposed visualising them being flushed away as though down the toilet. As I probably mentioned before, my favourite visualisation is toimagine my mantra (with a sibilant and then a hard, forceful sound - resembling "SSSay your MANtra" - as the sound of oars feathering back and then pulling: I'm sitting in the stern of a small boat, being rowed by a hooded, shadowy figure (I couldn't be rowing myself, as I'm fully relaxed; the figure is vague so I don't give any thought to its features). The boat is moving down a dark, still canal towards a distant brilliantly illuminated region which I enter when (hopefully) I attainthe alpha state. In this scenario, I try to push any extraneous thought up onto a bridge which carries it away overhead. 3. Block them from entering the mind at all. In a similar scenario, the boat is being rowed through a cave or tunnel with rough rocky walls; on its prow is a torch with a guttering flame (which also helps to keep the rower in deep shadow)whose light plays on the walls and the slightly choppy water. If I concentrate on this flickering pattern, it seems to shatter the details of anyextraneous thoughts before they fully register. The only problem with this is that a visualisation is, in itself, necessarily a thought. Is developing a visualisation in fact obstructing the objective of meditation rather than helping to achieve it ? Tony N-S.
Re: Spraying in airplanes etc (was Why do the potentized preps work)
Hugh (or anyone else) - what became of the couple who were taking capsules of DDT daily, to prove that it was harmless to humans ? So far as I could tell, they were eccentric, otherwise ordinary citizens, not conspicuously sponsored by any chemical company. Can't remember any details, other than that they lived in the US. Tony N-S.
Re: Spraying in airplanes etc (was Why do the potentized preps work)
Allan - You were lucky that they sprayed after disembarking passengers! Some years ago I was on a flight (can't remember the destination, possibly Jordan) when, immediately after landing, the cabin attendants came through with small aerosol cans and sprayed the passengers. It wasn't at all thorough, so I imagine they were just making a gesture, but we got most of it at head level. I was also in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) about 15 years ago when the entire city was sprayed from twin-engined aircraft flying at low level. I was told it happened around 3pm daily and that the material sprayed was DDT. Nobody bothered to get off the streets or close windows etc. Good reason for women veiling up, perhaps? Tony N-S.
Re: SFW: Straining Compost
I've made and repaired plankton nets from an appropriate grade of nylon bolting cloth - sorry, can't remember the nomenclature of mesh-sizes and the name of a British supplier wouldn't be much use to you, but you could try a biological supplies house or a supplier to the flour-milling or similar trades. I've used a large nylon flour-sieve for a number of purposes, from netting macroplankton in shore pools to rough-filtering spring water, but maybe the pore size is too large for your needs.Tony N-S.
Re: The Golden Rule
Thank you, Jane. At the other end of the scale, don't the Chinese point out that nothing is quite so satisfying as seeing your neighbour fall from his (presumably single storey) roof ? Tony N-S.
OFF: 'Visions' while meditating
Several subscribers made helpful comments when I last mentioned meditation problems, awhile ago, so I'm not too apologetic to come back for more... Often, after relaxing into meditation mode, I can see behind my closed eyelids a duller version of the effect oneexperiences when pressure is applied to the eyeballs: a series of indefinite shapes in either a greenish pale purple or a dull orange against the dark, purplish black background. These either swirl away in a spiral or expand from the lower edge of my vision in a semicircle, like a ripple in a pond. Their movement doesn't closely match any movements which my eyeballs might make, nor do they pulse to match my heartbeat. I believe that I might be in alpha mode by the time they appear. Can anyone suggest how these 'visions' arise? I often have problems suppressing extraneous thoughts (what my t'ai chi master calls 'your mind out shopping') but these 'visions' either appear when my mind is fairly blank or, perhaps, even override such thoughts. I'm still pretty much a novice so far as productive meditation is concerned, so I'd be grateful for comments from such masters of the art who, I'm sure, are out there somewhere! Tony N-S.
