FRAGANCE AND AROMAS WHEN ISRAEL WAS AN EMPIRE

I have never been fond of bibles or their equivalent in other religions, faiths. They limit reason, leaving it in a straight jacket. I know, having lost me family to an avaricious sister and vegetarian Adventist cult. Beyond personal issues, if one check the BBC news, it seems that every cult is at each other throats.*

 Here an an excerpt

pages 221-222

taken from  

The Bible as History

by Werner Kelly

WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY INC.

New York

1981   

Sweet smelling perfumes have always been highly prized;

aromatic resins were not only primarily esteemed as incense in the ritual of the temple, but they had also their place in everyday life, in the home, in clothing, on the hair and in divans and beds. 

"I have decked my beds with coverings of tapestry...of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinamon" (Prov. 7 16) runs the warning against the artful wiles of the adulteress.  "All my garments smell of myrrh, and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad" is the song of praise in Ps. 458.

Botanists have investigated these stories that often sound like fairy tales, and have hunted up the ingredients of perfumes and the suppliers of dyes.  They found them among delicate flowers and herbs, in the sap of shrubs and blossoms. Many came from foreign lands, but many still grow in Palestine today.

From India came cassia, Cinnamomun Cassia, a tree with a cinnamon like bark, and calamus, Andropogon aromaticus, also called ginger grass.  They came across the Indian Ocean in the course of foreign trade to the packing stations for spices in South Arabia and made their way from there by caravan to the Mediterranean countries.

Cinnamon had a world tour behind it.  Originally it came from  China, then on to Persia, thence to India, where it became indigenous and was exported to Arabia.

Incense was obtained from the Boswellia bush.  Its home is in Arabia and Somaliland, like the Commiphora myrrha, the myrrh tree. The cradle of the aloe is the island of Socotra at the lower end of the Red Sea, whence come its name Aloe soccotrina.

There was many a dispute about the origin of balsam. The Bible seemed to be really in error, the botanists know very well that the balsam bush, Commiphora opobalsamum, grows only in Arabia.  How could Ezequiel (27 17), claim that Judah and Israel had sent to Tyre "wax, honey and balsam" (Moffatt)?

The botanists and Ezekiel were both right. The botanists had merely forgotten to look up Josephus, the great Jewish historian, where he tells us that there has been balsam in Palestine since the time of Solomon. The bushes were cultivated principally in the neighbourhood of Jericho.  Josephus also answers the question as to how they got there. They were reared from seeds which had been found among the spices which the queen of Sheba brought as gifts.

That seems a daring assertion.

But there is a further bit of evidence. When the Romans entered Palestine, they actually found balsam plantations in the plain of Jericho.  The conqurerors prized the rare shrub so highly that they sent twigs of it to Rome as a sign of their victory over the Jews.  I A.D. 70 Titus Vespasian put an imperial guard in charge of the plantings to protect them from destruction. A thousand years later the Crusaders found no trace of the precious bushes. The turks had neglected them and allowed them to die.

 If you find this subject interesting go ahead and research. The book is amusing, but there are strange things impossible to believe. One example, in page 28:

For 2,000 years farms and plantations, as big as any large modern concern, had been exporting corn, vegetables and choice fruits from the artificially irrigated valleys of the Nile, the Euphrates and Tigris.....

Now, if anyjuan research the botanical for corn, Zea mays, it seems that its origin is among Olmecs and Mayans between 1250 and 1700 BCE...in America, how could this statement be true?   That would make any reader doubt any other statements, parts or wholes.  I leave it there. 

that is that 

 * The creation of Pakistan, Bangladesh and their irrational hatred towards India is a great example. When I think of those countries of the Christian Muslim and Jewish persuasion it makes no difference to yours truly if some attempt to differentiate between church and dogma, hierarchy, theory and practice.

The result everywhere is the same: war, intolerance and hate.

Dario apaga la luh. 

 

 

TWO FOR THE ROAD

Once upon a time probably five years ago, some made the failed attempt to start an endemic patriotic horticultural movement among the populace.

Your humble servant argued that endemic birds, insects and you name it would not go to inquire to the vegetation that offer food, shade and shelter if they are endemic or exotic.

Here is the evidence. One of four or five hummingbirds that visit the north and south garden daily libating from a Calliandra Haemathocephalla,  originally from Australia.

The pigeon by the window, also endemic, is munching on seeds from Phoenix, Arizona.  Finches have arrived lately to hang out and feed in me garden. They were pets at one time, like the green iguana recently featured here.  Now these  penguin looking, cute birds are part of the environment. In brief, what is important is real. Inane theories, movements, become water and salt.

The quality of the pictures? Well they will not get me a Pulitzer, but illustrate the point. 

That is that.

 

WHAT IT IS

Thirty six months ago when we moved amidst what time has confirmed over and over as half wits my only interest was to improve the surroundings with flora and fauna in mind.

Before I got rid of all the crappy hedges and stupid plants in the wrong places in our property, I had to clean the house in the pictures since the half wits next door would not. However, when they walk or drive in front of it, they always turn to look making sure no one has stolen a piece of concrete from the property.

I spent about seven hours initially, cleaning the organic and inorganic rubbish the half wits allowed to accumulate during the last decade this property has been is some inheritance dispute. 


No thanks, not even a beer as gratitude. Noise and  constant squeaky hollering from the turtle female and pasty looking husband in return.


In terms of flora, the grapes and grapevine are relevant since the deceased planted it 10/15 years ago and it is still producing fruit without any care or pruning except when tree butchers for hire come to clean the property once in a blue moon, leaving it bare, destroying the crop right before one has a chance to enjoy this rare fruit in the concrete/asphalt context of Puerto Rico, USA.  In my opinion, it is not different from watching a mango tree growing in St Nicholas or Broadway avenue in NY.

After two years of  cleaning the front and side of the property on and off, I got tired of it. Now, I only remove inorganic trash once in a while.

Nature has taken over.  There are trees, vines, ground covers, bushes coming along fine, transforming the sterile space into some tropical cottage atmosphere where everyjuan benefits: spiders, lizards, bees, hummingbirds, spindalis and....Farrukito's stray cats...hiding under the vegetation to stay cool and hunt.

Which brings your humble servant to this point...If people were more inclined to action rather that silly repetitious mantras about the environment, any one could enjoy the pleasure of transforming their surroundings with very little effort and no money.   

However, one thing has to be clear, crystal cliche clear, any positive action for the environment, will be reciprocated with destruction, not a little, but in wholes. From dominant half wits in the asphalt/concrete political/economical/social scene around yours truly and the society in general.

Nature is totally alien for the average citizen. If you do not believe it, think momentarily about yourself, reader...How many plants, birds, insects, could you identify in your urban or rural environment? What the hell have you planted recently? 

that is that

CAPILLARITY AND TRIMMING IN THE SOUTH POST

ONE of the most difficult subjects for the certificate in the New York Botanical Garden, was Soil Science and Management. All you need to know, as much as any agronomist, is found in the book by the same title, by Edward J. Plaster by Delmar Publishers.,

Capillarity. Soil water exists in small spaces in soil as a film around soil particles. The small pores can act as capillaries.  A capillary is a very thin tube in which a liquid can move against the force of gravity.  Capillary action, the additive effect of adhesion and cohesion, holds soil water in small pores against the force of gravity.  The fact that soil water can move in directions other than straight down is also due to capillary action. The smaller the pores, the greater that movement can be.
Page 58 of the above mentioned. 

That being written.. if you look at the round dish with the planted agave photo at left, it has no drain holes.  It was recycled from one of those corny ponds people buy and installed in their gardens believing they are cute.

Having read many years ago about irrigating plants when you go on vacation with this system, I used it back wards. Look again. There is a rag hanging in the left side of the dish.  That is how I keep the dish empty on rainy days. The excess water drips down, collected and  later used for irrigation.


Capillary action is the principle used in towel papers for your kitchen. In soil, it is one of those really amazing topics not many, or nojuan ever mentions in gardening blogs.


As you know, trimming/pruning are not among my favorite chores in me trendy garden. They are done when necessary, most of the time for correction rather than aesthetics. That is why I detest hedges.


The south garden is taking that cottage/prairie look that I do enjoy. However when the vegetation grows over the border, hanging on the concrete, it becomes a damn stopping water and organic matter to flow naturally. 


That is why I spent half an hour in the process. Here the before and after. 

That is that

THE WILD HORSES OF MONGOLIA

Excerpt from

THE DEVIL'S HORSEMEN

page 57-56

The wild horses of Mongolia, now known as the Przevalsky horses, are the ones that most closely resemble horses in prehistoric cave paintings, and the domestic horses which the Mongol army first rode were not unlike these. They were thickset and strong with broad foreheads and short legs and were prized throughout the east for their courage and stamina.  After the fall of Khwarizm they were often cross-bred with the larger, pure blooded Arab horses of Islam, but they were never as small as has often been assumed.  Recent excavations have shown that they were on average between thirteen and fourteen hands high, at least a hand higher than the average Mongolian domestic horse today, ans some of them were as much as sixteen hands, which is big by any standards.

For the first two years of their lives the horses were broken and ridden hard, then they were put out to grass for three years and after that they were ridden again and some were trained for battle. 

Their herd instincts were fostered and developed so that large numbers could be led rather than driven - by riding a mare a man could be sure her foal and stallion would trail behind, by riding a lead stallion he could lead a large herd - and in this way the Mongol horses were trained from birth to follow each other.

Because they were broken young they were quiet and gentle.  In the races that were run over long distances to test their stamina they were always ridden by young children so that the disparate weight and skill of experienced riders would not influence the result of the race.  On the march each tumen would lead its own herd of remounts and each soldier would have at least three horses following behind him like dogs so that by regularly changing mount he would ride at speed for days on end, eating in the saddle or pausing briefly to slit a leg on his weakest horse and drink its blood.

Whenever possible Mongols preferred to ride mares, since their milk as well as their blood, and in the last resort their flesh, provided them with everything they needed to survive.  Weak horses were often killed for food and the mounts of messengers were sometimes ridden to death, but this was out of necessity and not indifference.   Mongol horses were better cared for than the horses of any other army, even in Islam, and Chingis Khan had laid down strict rules according to which it was forbidden to lead a horse with a bit on his mouth.  In spite of their new wealth, the Mongol nomads still valued their horses far above all other possessions.  Horses played their part in traditional ceremonies and folk lore and there was a whole period in Chinese art when all the statues and paintings were of horses, since the Mongol patrons desired nothing else.

War horses were treated with the same sentimental respect as any other comrade in arms.  Their harness and saddles were richly decorated with silver and the shoulders, chests and heads of the mounts of heavy cavalry were protected by armour.  A horse that had been ridden in battle was never killed for food and when it became old or lame it was put to grass, although when a soldier died his favorite horse was killed and buried with him so that their spirits would ride together. Admired for their colour, an above average proportion of the Mongol horses were piebald and it was by colour that herds were selected and divided.  Each unit of the Imperial Guard rode horses of a different colour and white horses were considered sacred and fit only for princes.

So what  you may  wonder. Well, on this isle most people treat their  domestic, or animals of company as if they were things, furniture, accessories.  I mean ALL kinds of animals, but in essence cats and dogs.  The numbers of stray dogs and cats is over 300,000. Those kept in ill  spaces, out doors and abused at home could be two times that.

Many children are not treated differently, believe it or not, in my not so humble opinion. 

that is that

Tumen, Mongol division of ten thousand men

TREATMENT AND ABUSE TO ANIMALS PAST AND PRESENT PART ONE

Thirty days ago, the next door riff raff started the cleaning of the concrete space where Tuki i Tiki would be abandoned, jailed right by our north garden. The act from these callous scumbags was confusing since two dogs have been killed in 36 months,  left outdoors, with the mailmen motto: neither snow, sleigh, rainstorm and heat. If you could  you kindly check: http://youtu.be/KMGofgvwMIQ
you will get a better picture,

Yesterday, the high yellow woman, sister of the Rottweiler, as the people kindly refer to the owner,  arrived in mid morning creating some racket, yours truly was wondering, what the hell was she doing here so early.

The pictures show the self serve red and blue food and water dispenser for them dogs.
The high yellow woman, tired of feeding the animals everyday around five thirty in the afternoon solved the feeding matter this way.

Let the record show this is by no means an exception, it is the rule. In Puerto Rico the indifference and cruelty to animals of all kinds is something else.

Not to get into the real cruelty. Dogs are not cows, chickens, geese to be left outdoors day and night no matter weather conditions. Dogs, like cats,  children,  require attention and some affection. Screw them riff raff here and everywhere.

Puerto Rico Rum Capital of the world, without sugar cane, Enchanted Island as jerks/jerkettes claim is a real hell of concrete and asphalt.

I changed me mind. I will leave another aspect for the next episode from: 

The Devil's Horsemen

The Mongol Invasion of Europe

by

James Chambers

Atheneum, New York

1980

As an introduction, I would state that if you think Alexander the great, Hitler, Napoleon and else were great...Chingis Khan kicked their butts by a mile and a couple of continents.

As a token from this magnificent book let me share this...When beating the crap out of them Muslims, the defeated perceived Chingis Khan, as a barbarian, infidel being Taoist...he responded: Why do you go on pilgrimage to Mecca if GOD is everywhere?

If you follow cults or religions

that is food for thought, or words with electricity, enlightening and wisdom or not? 

dario apaga la luz   

     

http://youtu.be/KMGofgvwMIQ

TWISTED MINDS IN ACTION

One of the positive things about a blog, a few blogs, is the exposition of different, weird, out of the wall ideas, worries and thoughts. Not that mine is necessarily one of them, besides the practice of the key board, which bai di guai, forced me to avoid chat rooms since nine out of ten fools write looking at the keyboard. That allowed you humble one to write whole paragraphs while the adversary finished a phrase.

I have been pondering about pundits in agriculture, fuels, mechanics,  technology, and transportation. How many readers remember that epidemic that infected the whole world with the possibility of making biofuels 36 months ago?

Sugar cane, corn and Jathropha seeds were some agricultural products mentioned/used for OUR salvation. Every imaginable fool fell for this type of fuel.  Speculators, governments, tree hugers, environmentalists, politicians and unidentifiable jerks jumped into the biofuels bandwagon.   

In Puerto Rico, some recently graduated engineer jerkette wrote a whole page article describing with her twisted mind the virtues of biofuel  'saving our souls', the thousand of jobs it would create. The Final Solution to our ills.


But yours truly knew different. If any biofuel needs 3 gallons of water to create 1 of itself, we are doomed. Not to mention the amount of electricity to refine the mix. Or that oil would have to reach 4/5/6 dollars a gallon to make it competitive, since biofuels are cost intensive.


That is why nojuan talks/metions it anymore, they feel like the imbeciles they were/are.  This will bring us in the third person for a change of pace to the next concept, hybrid automobiles.


Have you noticed how every car ad follows the same rule: Demonstrate how fast, cool the design is in some country road with lots of green, or a desert,  wet muddy jungle if  all terrain or alone in some immaculate street, highway devoid of cars and people?


Hybrid cars may give you a million miles a gallon one of this days, however the 24/7 traffic jams will force drivers to spend that miraculous, wonderful, intelligent miles per gallon in a damned never ending rush hour jam!


Now think of Puerto Rico, USA, with a car for every 2 of the four million inhabitants, China or India. What good are these stupid hybrids? To spend clean energy while not moving at All?

that is that

PUERTO RICO, USA A GREECE IN THE CARIBBEAN

When I listen to the local pundits describing as only they can, the island economical and political issues,
me anger reaches the boiling point after five minutes, having to go on surfing with the remote as fast as possible..

The international airport, the plastered  concrete toll highways, both money making state properties have been leased to some multinationals for 3 or 4 billions. More quick money to patch and pray, a traditional way to solve problems in the long run.

Puerto Rico has NO sugar cane, but advertises to the world as the Rum Capital. It does not have a wine industry, but next door in the abandoned house, Concord grapes refuse to pass away year after year. 

Even after the construction industry received a shot of grace from the avaricious banks, developers, speculators in the whole world, the jerks in the government talk about development, hotels and such crap. 

One of the candidates for our 40 million bucks,  democratic games talks about hiring more government employees after the one in charge now, fired thirty thousand. 

The exile of native islanders is described as negative, instead of a positive issue. However, the invasion from islands near by and other territories is ignored. It most be the hospitality, buajaha bilingual laugh.

Puerto Rico is bankrupt. In metallic and brain wise. The  owners of  the printed media, television and radio lack will, guts, to put things in perspective. One hand washing the other. 

Meanwhile, one segment of the political scheme,  the sovereign wing, still whines about oppression, unequal treatment from USA. The maladies of Puerto Rico, USA, seems to be their responsibility, not our incompetent, ass holes in politics, economics, teaching, law, construction, architecture and engineering to name a few.

The more I look at this USA territory scene, the more Hellenic it seems.  However, there is no EU, to throw billions and billions to people incapable to administer money and imagination to create some in return.

One thing is the responsibility of the financial world debacle, another, what local governments have done during the last five decades without any drive and imagination.

that is that.

The future is now, and it looks like crap. 

NEW MEMBER 100 CLUB Stigmaphyllon flroribundum

This woody vine, collected in Guanica City, south of Puerto Rico,  our 'desert' like zone,  has been in the collection since 2008. It was not identified until yesterday, while pruning all vines which had reached the roof. It is the first time  its flowers  have bloomed, or noticed.

It belongs to the exclusive VIV Club, 

(very important vegetation)

in the collection:

Bixa orellana

Guaicum officinale

Malpighia coccigera

Passiflora foetida

Passiflora pallida L.

Calathea loeseneri

Pedilantus tuberose
Ipomoea aegyptia

These are the rarest.  If lucky,
you could buy one or two.


That is that.

. 

ON BARIATRICS

B eside noise, crowds, loud people, chit chat, pendejismo paisajista and endemismo trasnochado I have no use for the morbid obese. I do not mind smoking and/or the use of drugs/alcohol with responsibility.

Bariatric surgery is a complicated proedure for compulsive fat eaters. It requires previous approval from different health experts including a sychiatrist*. They judge patients to determine an adequate clean bill of health. Thirty days before surgery a strict diet is determined to lose a significant amount of fat to facilitate the procedure. 


One is open surgery, painful and somewhat scary. The other recommended for diabetics, less fat people is not as intrusive since it is done with cameras and such.


The recovery in the open surgery is difficult and requires 24/7 assistance for two or three weeks. Either way, if you have family and children, better plan carefully before doing it.

Medical plans, some of them, will cover this type of operation, Otherwise be willing to pay least five thousand dollars. So far, all this information is about mechanics and physical recovery.

What is significant once your stomach has been reduced to one third of its size is that your food intake will be only 3 ounces of food in the beginning and 4 ounces after a while, six times  a day.  


That means that once a week you will have to prepare ALL the food you will be eating the following days, pack and refrigerate it.  Be sure to get a microwave. Week after week, the rest of your life.


Since the stomach ability to produce, refine  nutrients absorbed is limited, you will need to take supplements and vitamins. That means organizing the pills weekly/daily to take with you.
Carbohydrates and all junk food  have to be eliminated or drastically reduced.


However, what most people with bariatric surgery fail to do is to exercise, at least walking to stay in shape.  


My observations, since I have a close friend who has kept the discipline, a good health demands, showing the necessary will and character, exercising,  after the procedure, is that probably 7 our of 10 people who went successfully through the surgery regain a lot of  weight and in too many cases becoming as fat as they were during the first year.


Why? Fat people are compulsive eaters, they eat too much, too often the wrong type of foods. I believe  it is a problem  of a sychological* nature with an aggravating sedentary life.


Unfortunately, many people without introspection see the procedure as a band aid.  It is a pathetic reality. The amount of people unable to comprehend the implications of the surgery before and after.  They lack  a commitment, character and will.

that is that

EDITORS NOTE

* I know there is a p in those words,

but I find them unnecessary, they serve no purpose.

If interested, research..Wikipedia is a good start.

dario apaga la luh.

GRACIOUS NEIGHBOURLY ACTS

Perhaps for you, it would not be significant or that important, however, for the imperfect misanthropist,  acts creating situations in which human kindness and good heart shows, it is worthy of comment.

On the early morning of Tuesday, Miosotys, gave me a holler from the street.  I moved quickly to see who the hell it was, and there she was with a Capsicum chilense* in a plastic pot for your humble servant. This woman, a still solid wise single mother of 3, often stops by to chat about the garden. She had
offered it some time ago.

Since 9 out of ten bipeds often say, talk, offer to do this or that, I did not give much thought to it. In me intimate world, words, giving one's word has lots of weight. Harsh and unforgiven as I am, It is something I really value.  That was a rare way to start any day!


In terms of botany, it is also significant since Habaneros are probably the hottest substance one could ingest.  In my domain, the Caribbean, Spanish speaking that is, AJI (pronounced ahi), is hot (picante) or sweet (dulce).  In other countries they are called chiles. If you want to research this wide and interesting subject go ahead.

Your home work assignment? Mexico, China, Thailand and India seem to have the wildest gastronomical offerings in terms of hot/picante possibilities. Find out which type of plants and how they are prepared, powder, paste, liquid,  to make their foods hot. Which is more palatable for you ?


For twenty bonus points: Check this out. In USA where the more the merrier, they have gastronomical contests to measure hot intensity. Also in terms of manufacturing, mild, hot, hottest sauces. In many Caribbean countries of the English and French persuasion hot sauces are also relevant. Find out which and what is their recipe.


To make things even stranger, four hours later, another neighborly act took place. Fausto Cabrera,  a new neighbor proprietor of the house across yours truly, hollered something.
I go out and there he was with a bunch of lemons.

He introduced himself, exchanging the pleasantries for the occasion, leaving me wondering if the world is going crazy at least in this street with all this good will.


Bai di guai, in USA what we call lemons are limes. What we call limes, check for the botanicals if interested, are round and somewhat insipid.  It is one of those interesting language issues in every culture, that  some times  becomes a pain in the arse.


Let the record show I feel fortunate. Not many declared misanthropists receive this kindness. Before Miosotys and Fausto, Don Miguel, the one living five houses up the street gave me some Phalaenopsis and more recently the other one accros the street Tito Collazo,  Josefinas.

This has been a rarely seen post.

All this good will has been unusual and refreshing...

Now is back to reality...

that is that.



*Not added to the inventory yet. It it survives
for thirty days, it will. 

SOIL LAND DIRT II

THE SORTING ACTON OF WATER

A very important action of water is the sorting of the materials it handles.  The boulders are left near their place of origin.  From the rest of the mass carried, the gravel, the different grades of sand, the flour like silt and finally the fine plastic clay are sorted each in its turn, and laid down each with its kind.   Whether these different materials form successive layers of broad, deep areas depends on the size, velocity, and permanency of the flow.

Fitful streams form soils of varied texture such as are seen in the small creek bottoms that drain higher hills.  Every rain makes of the stream a raging torrent that over reaches its banks and leaves only gravel and stone in its main course.  The result is a changeable soil.

But in the broad, flat river bottom where the current never flows more than 2 or 3 miles an hour and gradually slows down to perhaps still water in back pools, no coarse material is found, only fine sand, silt, and clay. The broad delta of the lower Mississippi River is one of the best examples of this latter process.

The article goes on regarding lakes, oceans and ice. However, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes also affect and change soil through time.

When I look around the little soil around is covered with asphalt and concrete.  As a result flooding is an almost everyday occurrence in these down here pastures, as a figure of speech.

Gardening is many things to the many initiated. For your humbleness is a matter of keeping things in perspective. A little bit of this and little bit of that.

Dario apaga la luh.

SOIL LAND DIRT POST

Perhaps you have an inquisitive mind that never rests. As soon as I wake up these ramblings begin to spin. I can not help it.

The Industrial Revolution for example. All the theoretical benefits attributed to it,  in essence came from dirt/soil minerals in the land. Steel, bronze, copper, oil, everything. Not to get into the uranium, nuclear energy, the clean safe energy without CO2, but you may remember that sumami in Japan.  

At any rate, here from Farm Knowledge some info  rarely mentioned and/or acknowledged in gardening blogs. Here the first installment. It may be long but worthy.

Viewed as a world--wide material, the soil is merely a part of the waste, the scrap, the splinters and shavings  of earth's change and progress.  The earth is a globe of stone solidified only in its outer shell.  This stone shell which everywhere underlies the blanket, of pulverized rock material of which the upper part is the soil, is undergoing constant but very slow change.

The forces of nature -pressure, heat, frost, water, ice, and wind-as well as the processes of plants and animals-are continually at work on the rock shell,
breaking up its surface, changing its composition and moving its materials about.  The soil is the latest waste of that process.


Observe a rushing mountain rill or a flooded river after a heavy rain and note the mass of fine rock material that is carried and rolled along by the current, and you have a good illustration of one of the ways in which rocks are ground up and their chips or waste carried to a new resting place.

Along every brook, creek and river bed is spread a ribbon of this rock flour laid down as "mud", sand , gravel or stone, according to th speed of flow of the water.  Rapid flowing water carries material of all sizes, even up to boulders, and deposits or leaves behind only the coarsest. As the stream reaches lower levels and runs less swiftly it drops more of its load--always the coarsest material--until on the broad flat river plain only the finest sediments remain to be deposited.  These form the fine uniform river and creek bottoms that make so much of the most fertile farm land in the world.


The Nile Valley, the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris--perhaps the Garden of Eden of the Bible, the valleys of the Rhine, the Danube, and the Seine in Europe, and of our own American Mississippi River system with all its large tributaries, all these are notable examples of soils carried and deposited by the flow of water from the higher lands to the lower areas. Rocks are cut away by these flowing waters which, more than any other force, are responsible for the intricate pattern of valleys that form most of our landscape.


Every exposed surface of rock gives up its toll of material to the passing stream.  Millions upon millions of tons of rock material are moved by every rain storm.  Rock material once carried a little force of the current is reduced; and as it is moved, so also is it rubbed and worn down constantly smaller and smaller. 

On our next chapter:

The sorting action of water

 a few words for thought

PUERTO RICO PARADIGM PARADISE OF 'BETTER FUTURES' PART ONE

When I think of it, I am not sad, but angry at this situation.  The people, most of them, seem to have lost the ability or virtue to discern.  Their inferiority complex, perhaps result of the 'unfair' relationship with USA, have left the riffraff, upper classes and pundits unable to see parts and wholes about what is real.

One token will do.  A former ball player decides to practice a facet of my vocation, horticulture.  He plants over 200 Cannabis sativa in some apartment.  The FBI arrest him. A yellowish newspaper headlines?  A HEROE HAS FALLEN!

The guy is not maimed, just depressed for many mistaken decisions after retiring from ball playing.  To plant marihuana in apartments is always a risky business for the intense smell of THC in leaves/seeds.  The high electricity bills for ventilation, humidity controls and illumination.  I know because I know better.  Horticulture covers many courts.

In California, Oregon and other states, people are more sophisticated. They are planting Cannabis sativa in public parks and forests. The canopy hides them marihuana bushes. If the FBI destroys them, you start again. It is simple.

But I am not going to get into this, except that is good money if you are wise, do not get caught. If Piculin had read my blog, inquired about the subject, he would not be in jail.

My topic today is the murder of aesthetics. Readers in New Zealand or Reunion Island to name two geographical points may wonder If have exaggerated or pulling your leg about how ugly, noisy and dirty is the urban context in Puerto Rico. Well check the videos, then compare juat you see with me garden pictures at left or in flickr and YOU be the judge.

The 'better futures' will appear in part two. These posts will be like those old series in black and white (my favorite? The Phantom) from fifty years ago.  Please check the clip: PENDEJISMO PAISAJISTA COOKIE MOLD TYPE.

that is that

PENDEJISMO PAISJIISTA COOKIE MOLD KIND

NUTIRITION DIET AND HEALTH POST

Yesterday,  was Borders night at Plaza. As I have reiterated there are no libraries worthy a grain of salt over here. The most important the Carnegiee is fallen in pieces. You can see the sky through the roof, as I have demonstrated in flickr. 

The amount of noisy, stupid children with parents was remarkable. I did not find anything new in the garden topic, but in Art Forum there were some of my favorites Pollock, Kandinsky and Rothko, "The Irascibles", juat a wonderful name.

The numbers of fat, ugly people  in Plaza, was probably one half of the total. Gross if you ask me. They walk with difficulty, making me think, imagine tinglares, killing whales and manatees.

These fat people are a product of television, junk food, anxiety and most important, lack of exercise. These scumbags are often the ones taking the elevator one floor up or down.

They are ruining most medical plans and public health services in many countries, since these morbid obese also carry diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and others  you may research on your own. 


I will solve, reduce, ameliorate this problem in the following manner. Place a conveyor belt in every junk food joint to move people toward  the order/cash register station while weighing them simultanously. Have a scanner to measure their height measuring the fat levels, allowing X or Y calories only per order.


Make and enforce laws making it illegal for minors of 15 to order or buy, eat these killing foods without the company of some idiot parent/and or adult.


Do not allow fat people to eat inside any building, after all looking at them is not fun, nice. Treat them as smokers are treated, pariahs or as if having leprosy. Maybe they will get the message.

The actual discrimination fat/obese people complain about is not enough to make behavioral changes. After all, no juan is force feeding them as geese for pate.


Meanwhile, smokers can not find a spot to smoke. They have to get wet if raining, freeze to death if cold, sweat bullets if hot. Why not treating these obese tinglares, orcas and manatees,  as smokers  do? Create public television/radio messages, similar to Corona. Place a  tinglar moving towards to some french fries, pepsi and one pound hamburger in the sand.

 Diseases are costly to society, it does not matter if lung cancer from smoking or diabetes, high blood pleasure for eating junk food like a hog.  Make them pigs aware just as smokers .Treat them like crap, worthless, useless, in brief repugnant. Their excuses and justifications water and salt.


Advertisements could  also be worthy a try.  Place in bags of potato chips, candy, soft drinks, photos of fat repugnant people in wheel chairs, beds unable to move. Take the approach used against smokers in some and former British territories.. Placing disgusting photos of lung diseases connected to vicious smoking, a lung with tar in the cigarette box...May that help?

BAN fat obese and ugly people from churches, airplanes, movie theaters, restaurants and public beaches. Where available, a scale and a track field. Make them exercise, walking around the track or tread mill the amount of calories to be ingested, each time they order. 


Antigonum practices what he preaches. At 6'2", 6 decades old, and 226, is eating smaller proportions and burns 600 calories every other day exercising.  Is not what you eat, but the amounts.  Sitting like an arse watching la tele will not help you to be handsome, wise and or set trends.  The practice of horticulture will help with those 3 or HWST.

Let the record show these blog is EOM. 

Or equal opportunity misanthropic.

that is that

japi 4 of July.

ME WET GARDEN MUCH MORE FUN THAN ANY WET TEE SHIRT

SOME may post even when nothing is there to say/write. Since it has been raining for the last twelve hours, enjoy the wet garden. The darkness changes somewhat the whole..

that is that