chuck kottke

sands of time.. How is the weather on the beautiful Arabian Peninsula?:egypt::bandana::sunny:

:thinking::laugh3: I'm just trying to picture Radiohead having a "beautiful" song Briggins.. Creative, but beautiful??:P For me, I would choose an "oldie" like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or While My Guitar Gently Weeps.. or maybe Enya - Only Time.

Happy Days are here again! Happy Birthday Jenjie!!!:sombrero::angel::daisy::jester::hippy: party hardy!

Nice!! Glad you could join our merry band of rebels!:daisy::whip::sombrero::jester:

\ Yes, some day!! First I need to survive, make some money, save a little, and get things cleared up around the farm! When I get a little better situated, I'll go globe-trotting. So, does this part-time job involve samples??:p:p:p Moravian foods??:cool:

Glad to hear you're all better, Rick! :thumbsup: Flu's pretty wicked stuff to have!!:biker: Elegantine, is it the flu, or just needed a break??;)

I was at one time working on an alternative theory of how the universe works - just a thought experiment of sorts.

WELCOME TO THE SITE!!!:hat::hat::hat::hat::hat::hat::sunny:

:laugh3:Codes! I think it's all BS anyhow.. Just put your feet in the other person's shoes, that's all any of us really needs to understand.. Leave the shallow types, and go for real. And what is this "Bros before hos" business?? Have you been living in Compton??:P

Yes, it's one of those "finger in the lamp-socket" hairdos!:laugh3:

dealing with peacocks I think it's more a matter of lack of maturity on the part of both your friend and especially the "glamor chicks". It's all basically bullshit - they're acting like a bunch of peacocks at the zoo - and at about that level of mentality.:laugh3: I think you have every right to be pissed off, and need to explain why to your friend, so he understands what it is like to be in your shoes! In the long run, who wants to be with a bunch of bobble-headed bimbos?? I took Latin, and it definitely draws out some of the more superficial types (well, it's this "classy" language BS). Stick to getting a great education with real people - in the long run, they'll be there for you, and you'll be there for them. But what happens to the bimbos?? I think most of them wind up selling vacuum cleaners on the late-night TV sales shows or something..:laugh3: Just let it slide, and be yourself. Natural is the best way to be anyhow!

^^Ground Chick Peas, eh?:rolleyes: (Pretty good stuff!) Chocolate pudding cake:cool:

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Erin, Happy Birthday to you!! :elf::sunny: :daisy::daisy::daisy::sunny::hat: YEA!!!

Yea, I hear ya! But Coldplay are still young to me, and U2's evolved into this epic band, while Radiohead retains their creative edge.. Briggins, what's your band doing these days, BTW??:P

Yes, that's so true!! But I'll bet that must drive you nuts at times, Tracie! My ma's still like that somewhat - mostly out of a sense that she needs to worry about something.. and it's like a play - they're just so used to acting that way, it's hard to shift gears. But after a while, as they get much older, they start acting like little kids, and we've got to be more like parents to them (strange but true).. Then the butter-fly nets come out, and the people in white coats..:laugh3: (a recent visit to the nursing home in town here confirms this finding..)

Passive solar is a great way to build, I agree! And since the 70's, a great body of knowledge has been gained about what works, and what doesn't (like not over-doing the south facing windows, as some of the early homes became "solar ovens" in summer!). Newer skylights are available now that won't leak like the older ones, and some can operate as vents in summer (much as the older ones did, but with better mechanisms and seals)..

Oh yes, the wonderous ways we solve problems here! Corn is best used for food, I agree. And perhaps some by-products of corn (such as corn oil) could be used for some bio-fuels. But it's one of the most energy-intensive, fertilizer-intensive crops, and the rest of the world needs food! (& most Americans could use a little less food, in my 'umble opinion:laugh3:) I like biomass because it can be from any local resource - anything that grows can be used for fuel. As far as auto fuel, even there the future holds promise in the enzyme & catalyst science(s). But there again, we can double fuel efficiency with better engine designs (going from 25% to 50% in an internal combustion engine isn't all that hard with the Miller effect), and better aerodynamics should double that as well. Having the stores nearer the homes would reduce miles driven. But it all makes too much sense. Americans tend to resist common-sense things, in favor of techno-fixes, thinking we can simply scoop up, drill, or suck up some "new" deposit of something, and cook it enough to make a nice cheap fuel. Sure, we can do that - but is it smart?! You guys up in Canada know quite well about this - Canadian natural gas is consumed to cook oil shale now, and we're piping solvents up to the sites to thin the super-thick oil coming off the process.. And oil sands, too. Companies are itching to get at the layers of hydro-methane sitting on the ocean bottom, and lower grades of coal.. It's the usual insanity - given the intensity of consumption, one can only expect the madness to continue.. Or, maybe new office-holders with actually steer us away from fossils, and towards common sense ways - certainly there is a groundswell of support amongst the public like never before, so there is hope!

Oh, so you have family like that too?:o:laugh3: I'll bet your Mom is just trying to be helpful!! I have a certain sibling (name withheld) who has a tendency to try and do just that to me. It's an attention thing. And a power trip. This sibling (again, name withheld) still supports Bush. Need I say more?:rolleyes4:

Hey, there's a world of wall-flowers out there. :daisy::surprised: Window shoppers. It's like a parade route - they're just watching the passing scenery, and blend in with the greenery..:laugh3:

Hmmm.. What pisses me off the most? People who try and control others by going on fault-finding missions, and once they find a tiny mistake, use it as a battering ram to create a sense of guilt and disorder, and then they try and program their thoughts into your mind. Mind controllers piss me off.

Greece:artist:

Hmmm.. the tropics are somewhat a challenge, in another sense. If it rains a lot, and not much wind, what to do.. That's best solved perhaps with hydro-power, efficient turbines for lower wind speeds, and given sufficient biomass, gengas plants. As always, efficiency is just so easy by comparison, whether tropics or temperate, arctic or sub-arctic, it's the #1 fix to the problem. Dry tropics are another challenge - sun in the dry season, rain in the wet - so solar in the dry, and biomass in the wet?? What do you do in Jakarta??

The answer is right before us.. Right on, Briggins!;) I'll take my nuclear at 9 million miles away, filtered by the magnetic shield of earth and the atmosphere. Nuclear - Uranium - there's a lot of refining and mining involved, and the mess that makes. Plus, the machinery to make the pellets, the spent fuel, and the brittle, radioactive vessels.. It's just so much easier to make solar panels, wind turbines, and the like. We have tremendous gains to be made in efficiency, and with excellent results - warmer homes, smoother running engines in vehicles, and better industrial processes - that's the 90% of the equation. Personally, I think the world is nuts - well, the US especially - because we rush ahead without seeing the easy solutions to the problems. Enjoy a cool home in summer. Run some air-conditioning. Enjoy a warm home in winter. Enjoy the hot pizza and cold beer! (or, warm beer for the European tastes!:)). It's all in the insulation, ventilation, and circulation in the building. And the rest of the answer is in renewables, in my cheeky opinion!:laugh3: I'm leaning towards solar, wind, and biomass-fueled generator systems in winter - one big advantage of locally produced power is much less line loss, and you can always use the waste heat in the process (heat your home, business, greenhouse, hot tub, sauna, etc..). GE Jenbach in Austria has a good example plant for a community that's working quite well - way ahead of the curve compared to anything I know if in North America (the land mass of mass consumption).. When we ever learn.. It takes time to revamp the old structures, and that's where the easy "low-hanging" fruit are. Plus, the fuel for your home can be as local as your back yard. Pellet fueled biomass power systems are as simple as tree limb wastes from pruning street trees, lawn clippings, scrap lumber and building wastes, non-recyclable paper wastes, dry banana peels, etc. And we really only need the extra fuel in the depths of winter, when light is limited and heating/lighting demands high. For those in dry, equatorial regions, the sun is there much of the time, and it's usually a cooling issue. That's insulation & pure solar territory, and Saudi Arabia, Chile, & Equatorial Africa are ideal for solar to the max! Even Argentina, where it's dry wheat and ranching land, would be well suited for solar. In the Sub-arctic (most of Canada, N tier US, and Europe) we'll have to be flexible. Catch wind in the oceans and lakes, gather sun when the hay is being cut, and everything else in winter. So far, a start. Lots to go. Happy Earth Day!!;)

Yes, I remember the news that day when Lennon was shot - at first I thought it wasn't true, because I thought he simply couldn't have been shot - it just seemed surreal, and I had a hard time coming to grips with it at first.. I wasn't aware of the memorial - was it there before he was killed?

Hello Lore:) Maybe, in a small way, we're living John Lennon's dream that he sang of in Imagine.. One world at peace - a beautiful concept. And yes, that's a beautiful photo Angie!!