Note: to see all the posts in this series, go here.
It’s time to transplant the plants, which means that the experiment has ended. After almost three months, there is no appreciable difference between the plants which received kettle-boiled water and those that received microwaved water. So, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that there most probably is nothing that microwaves do to water that is likely to be any more harmful to living organisms than is any other method of heating water.
Some years ago, I came up with a line that achieved some notoriety among atheists online: “People who don’t like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn’t have such funny beliefs.” It’s most often attributed to Anonymous but it’s mine.
It occurs to me that this is just as valid, if not more so: “If you don’t like your beliefs being despised, you shouldn’t have such despicable beliefs.” If you believe that your “holy book” is literally and completely true, especially if you adhere to one of the abrahamic faiths, then I’m looking at you.
Took the dog for a walk this evening at 10:30. It was still so light out that, despite the clear skies, I could only locate four stars, not because of urban light pollution but because nature is compensating us for the darkness of winter.
Sunset was at 9:28 but, at this time of year and at these latitudes, the sun doesn’t dip as far below the horizon as it does for those closer to the equator. So, we get this extended dusk with residual daylight that lingers longer and longer until it never quite goes away by the time we get to the last week of June.
The light during these times of not-day and not-night seems extraordinarily beautiful to me. It’s crap for star gazing, of course, but we get plenty of time for that in winter.
This stuff happens a lot. Sometimes I just ignore it; sometimes it pisses me off.
There’s a Facebook group called Atheism United and, sometimes, it’s a target for people who hold to the silly position that the Bible, as they’ve been taught to understand it, is literally true and, possibly for reasons that have to do with not wanting anyone to go to Hell if it can be avoided, or, equally possibly, because they think they gain some kind of reward or status, in this world or the “next”, by “witnessing” to unbelievers, they seem to be compelled to try to push their belief onto those who don’t already share it. And where better to find unbelievers than a group called Atheism United?
The one thing I personally found valuable about the churches in which I grew up, apart from the very few friendships that have lasted since then, isn’t part of any church I’ve visited in the last thirty years. They used to have hymnals in which the music to the songs was written out in proper notation, in four part harmony. Most people who grew up in that tradition absorbed by “osmosis”, if not by study, the concept of harmony and gained some idea of what is signified by those funny marks that aren’t letters of the alphabet. In many cases, there was intricacy and beauty to the music. The singing of such hymns could sound glorious if the choir or congregation was motivated to put some oomph into it.
I’m a grampa and I enjoy it but I cleverly managed to get there without procreating. Let’s hear it for having grandchildren without going through all the muss and fuss of raising kids! I don’t desire offspring, for reasons that are both rational and selfish, and, frankly, I have a hard time understanding those who do want to burden the planet with their spawn.
I accidentally left the plants outdoors too long one night last week and they took a bit of frost damage. Each one has some dying branches (see the first photo below) but also new growth at the top (see the second photo below, from the same plant). Plants in each group appear to have received similar damage and are recovering similarly.
April 9, 2012
The weather has improved enough to put the plants outdoors during the afternoon and early evening. I’ll keep them in the shade for at least the first week or two, though, as they’ve not been exposed to unfiltered direct sunlight before (photo below).
For the past several months, we’ve been looking at adopting a dog from North West Animal Shelter. Yesterday, Meeka finally came home to live with us. She had been rescued from a bad situation and was generously being fostered by Cheryl at Dog Digs kennels.
From time to time, I post comments on news articles on The Globe and Mail news site. The G&M lets people rate comments with a simple “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”. My comments generally tend not to be rated very highly but, for some reason, I recently got the most highly-rated comment on a particular story. The article is titled, “Islamophobia: We need to accept the ‘other’“.
The comment I posted is as follows:
