What Are the Hidden Properties of Spacetime in Cosmology?

[wolram]

Wow, 90 degrees (F) in Warwickshire? Better watch out for tornados! (Actually I have a story about that)

oops i get mixed up with Cs and Fs, i still convert decimal currency into pounds
shillings and pence, it was a sad day when the uk went metric , Yes the
thermometer in our outside loo reads 91 F, and everything seems to have
a different odour, and we are bombarded with flys of all descriptions, and the
DIY ers are STILL going strong, a tornado might be welcome, i am about to
refresh my glass as i have no peace, a tale would be welcome.

 

[wolram]

By Nighcleaner
There were some kind of large grasses growing there also, and they had flower heads still wrapped inside of leaves. I like to eat the tender shoots of grasses, and was tempted to try the flower heads also. They had a little soft center that tasted like fresh corn on the cob, but the little prickles on the florets made the back of my mouth itch. I guess I won't try them again. I was hoping for the flower spikes of cattails, a delicious treat, but they aren't ready yet. You can eat the roots and shoots of cattails also, very mild and tasty, but the one I picked was full of ants feasting on the rich sweet sticky sap. I have not gotten into eating ants yet, and their feverish excitement at being disturbed spoiled my taste for cattail shoots.

The joys of nature, but it is amazing how much edible food stuff we pass by,
my gran used to make nettle soup, though i can't remember the taste, black
berry pie, delicious, wild mushrooms can not be beaten for taste, puff balls
aren't bad but not nice, dandelion roots are edible but I am not keen, the leaf
makes a potent brew, the recipe known only to the older generation, those
tender sweet grass shoots, the ones that slide from the main stem when pulled, are what i chew on when dog walking.

 

[nightcleaner]

Hi Wolram
I was just reading somewhere about people in Mexico eating insects. Some people are willing to pay $40.00 U.S. for a plate of a dozen roasted Maguay worms, the kind of larvae found at the bottom of some kinds of Tequila. Worms and beetles are also eaten, as well as ants, locusts, grasshoppers.

I remember seeing a Nature program about a lake in Africa where a kind of fly hatch sends thick clouds of them into the air above the lake. The villiagers catch them in muslin nets and crush them into a thick paste which they make into cakes. A boy of about seven was shown eating such a cake with evident enthusiasm.

I was wondering about your outside loo. Most people here have indoor plumbing, and either live in town where the toilets flush into a sewer which takes the effluent to a treatment plant, or in the country where the common practice is to run the waste into a large septic container buried deep in the ground, or covered over with a mound of gravel topped with dirt and grass. My friends use the old fashioned outhouse, which is a hole dug in the ground with a small wooden building perched over.

When the septic gets full, you call for a pump truck to come suck it out. This is usually an odiferous process, but only has to be done maybe once a year, or even less often. When an outhouse hole gets full, you have two options. Either move the outhouse to a new hole and cover the old one up, or dig the stuff out of there and compost it for use as fertilizer on trees and shrubs.

There are also other options, such as a biolet which is designed for composting so you don't have to do all that unpleasent digging, and some people even have systems that lead to their own incinerator. No fuss there, but rather spendy. As a biologist, I prefer methods that involve composting, but am rather horrified at what sometimes takes place. You definitely do not want to get on the wrong end of that shovel. And most people seem to have no idea of vectors, that is insects and other small creatures that are fond of our product, and also fond of flying into the kitchen to crawl about on plates and fruit bowls. I havn't had much luck telling people they need to keep their compost piles tightly covered.

So my question is, what happens when the outside loo gets full? Or, is it connected to a sewer? In terms of space and time, of course.

Thanks,

Richard

 

[wolram]

Hi nightcleaner,
You are taking me back to my youth, when staying at grandads house ,a
two up two down cottage ,with no indoor plumbing, if you couldn't wait till
morning, one had to take a torch and go the " out house", little more than
a shed, full of creepie crawlies, I forget how often the," Night soil man", came
to empty the bucket, i was only eight to twelve years old, but it dint arf wiff.
Grandad always encouraged us lads to pee outside around his vegies, to keep
the rabbits away, "he had a huge garden", with black current , goose berry
bushes, apple and pear trees, you name it he grew it.
He worked at the cement quarry, a mile up the road from where i live, looking
after all the equipment, i think he was the first man, around here anyway to
splice steel ropes. the quarry is closed down now, and is scheduled for development.
Our out side loo is connected to the main sewer, the council houses around
here were built with two loos one inside other out.
By the by the temp reach 95f here today, we had to stop work at mid day
as our cream room couldn't be kept at 10c, the cooling units not being able
to cope, the factory makes fresh potted desserts.
I have always fancied trying one of them whitchity? grubs, found in oz, they
look tasty, i will try anything, "once".
all the best good bud.

 

[nightcleaner]

Hi wolram

We have witchetty grubs around here, they get into damp logs and make a clicking noise when they chew. I once cut down an aspen tree and a huge grub came out and sat on the stump. It was enormous, the size of my fist anyway. I never saw such a grub before or since. I have no idea what it was. I ran to call my freinds to see it, but when I got back just seconds later, it was gone, no sign of it at all. That one would have made a nice snack.

I am glad the loos have sewers now. I was worried about all the flies you had last week. But of course good old England wouldn't let conditions get that bad. We sometimes have hourdes of biting flies around here, too, all different sizes. The big ones, horse flies, we call them, are pretty slow and stupid and easy to swat, but there are also little ones, almost invisible, called midges or blackflies. They swarm and their bites are awful, much worse than mosquitoes. It is not uncommon to hear campers in the cafe telling how they were driven out of the woods by the flies. They crawl up your sleeves and pant legs and make a terrible rash on ankles and wrists.

I have to say though that the insects in general for the past many years now have been down. I recall summers when dad had to stop to scrape them off the windscreen to be able to see to drive. There would be a thick paste of them on the bumper and grill. I never see that any more. And there seem to be fewer birds, fewer frogs, I don't know. Things are changeing.

We have lots of dragon flies this year. They eat lots of mosquitoes and midges, so they are a welcome sight. I don't know if you call them dragon flies in England. They look like little helicopters. Some are very beautiful, green and blue and all iridescent. They like to hover in open places, darting this way and that to scoop up a fly or mosquito. I drive slow when I see them. They can get out of my way if I keep it under thirty mph.

Today looks like another beauty. We had a thunderstorm this morning early, but the air is cool and not too humid. We don't get many 90 degree days, maybe for a week or so in the summer. And it is always cooler by the lake. The water stays near 50 F all the time, so you can always go to the beach and get chilled. One of the main reasons I chose to live here is because I do not do well in heat. Only a couple hundred miles south of here, in farm country, where I grew up, summers are hot and humid. I prefer to stay in the woods.

Be well, and thanks for the lingo. "Dint arf wiff," a classic! I think Robbie Burns would have liked that one.

Richard