In "Mathematically Challenged George"

I read MeFi every day, right after MoFi

In "Calling Curious Georges with green thumbs"

Hi Bluehorse You are very welcome. If your "bamboo" is not a real bamboo but a Dracaena (correct spelling), you should have no trouble at all. Dracaena are prolific growers, and they will strike roots from any stem stuck in water. They need less water than a real bamboo, and the reason that most people have little luck with growing theie "Lucky Bamboo" (Dracaena)in the long run is simply lack of nutrients. Like most other plants (floating water plants like the water hyacint ecepted) they need to grow in a well drained soil, and to be fertilized with a proprietory fertilizer once in a while - mainly in the growing season (which on the other hand might be all year round if kept indoor and under steady artificial light). The same goes for your Ficus - the pot seems a little small to me, and if it has not been repotted over the past few years, you really should consider doing so, and then start feeding it fertilizer about three months later when the nutrients in the new soil starts to deplete.

Bluehorse - I had not noticed your photo links before now. Your Ficus is a Ficus Benjamina weeping Fig, same as my 25-year old (which by the way is only 3o cm tall!) It is a nice plant - all it needs is smome judicious pruning. You can "lop it off" at the indicated spot. If you do, make the cut about 3 cm. from a branch. The remaining stump will later die back to the trunk and can then be removed. If you cut too close to the trunk, you could run into problems. Also, cut back the branches (or most of them) to about half of their present length. The more you prune, the more new and brnching growth the tree will respond with. Do not expect miracles in terms of getting your bare spots covered with new branches from the main trunk - most ficus are notoriously unwilling to sprout fron old wood. However, with the right amount of pruning you should be able to deveop a nice crown in a couple of years.

Ficus can be fickle, but most varieties are surprisingly tolerant of abuse. First of all: Ficus is not a single plant,but the family name of about 770 different species with very varied needs and caracteristica. Apart from the edible fig (Ficus Carica)which we eat at X-mas the well known "Rubberplant" is also a ficus - Ficus Elastica in latin. Ficus Microcarpa is a banyan-kind of tree with great, swollen roots, and is very popular as an indoor bonsai. Ficus Benjamina (Weeping Fig) and Ficus Retusa (Upright Fig) are the ones most often encountered as indoor trees, and I would be surprised if it is not one of these two you have. Ficus absolutely hate draft! Ficus absolutely hate to be moved from one place to naother. If you do, be prepared to watch your tree "sulk" and drop its leaves in protest! Take it easy - they will grow back. Another reason for leaf dropping can be the climate - if the light intensity goes below a certain level, the tree decides that it is winter, and some of them will shed about 2/3rd of their leaves in response. Again - they will grow back in spring. Most Ficus are tolerant of erratic watering, but they do prefer to be on the wet side, as long as the roots are not waterlogged all the time. If they are, they will promptly rot, and the tree will die. As for pruning - most Ficus responds well to pruning, and the smaller leaf varieties are favorite subjects for bonsai treatment. I own several Ficus bonsai, the oldest of wich I have had for 25 years - indoor all the time, although some of my younger trees go on vacation in my garden for the duration of our short scandinavian summer. Ficus are not - repeat not - hardy and will die if exposed to frost. Finally - most ficus varieties prefer lots of light, but not direct sunshine. Place your tree in a place with as much light as possible, preferably facing North, to avoid singing by direct sunlight. By the way - if you are in doubt if a woody plant or tree or just a branch or a twig on a tree is alive, just scratch the bark with your fingrnail. If a layer of green shows up beneath the brown bark, the tree is alive even though it may be completely devoid of leaves. I hope you will succeed in reviving your Ficus. Of Indoor bamboo I have no tips to share, other than most bamboos like water and that means both around the rootball and around the foliage. Try placing the pot on a tray with a lot of pebbles, and fill the tray with water so that the moisture will envelop the foliage as the water evaporizes.

In "You-Tubal Ligation"

I am in complete agreement with TUM - let us have all video links ckearly marked as such. My net connection is rather slow, to say the least, and loading even a small UT video takes oozes of time, so I always skip them, and it annoys me that I have to click an item to discover that I cannot (due to the time involved) see it anyway. So please mark all video links clearly for the benefit of us "snail-net" users. Thank you!

In "Chirp Chirp"

Flagpole: TUM is very probably right about hearing bats. Not all of the bats sounds are in the ultrasonic range - I have heard bats emit chirping noises many times´, not only here in Scandinavia, but also in Germany and in France. Maybe Continental bats are more noisy than the American varieties?? ;-) As for the sounds here in Copenhagen, they are the same as in most other Capitols - noise from trafic, drunken revellers, police sirens and so on. At the moment I have a construction site going on 25 meters outside my windows, so I thank the powers that be for my soundproofed windows. On the other hand - I can go out in my enclosed Atrium garden - on all sides protected by the block itself. There I can enjoy the song of blackbirds, bluebirds and finches as well as the somewhat less enjoyable hoarse cries of seagulls and machinegun like chatter of housejays. The hustle and bustle of Copenhagen is reduced to a faint hum, occationally marred by the racket of a passing helicopter.

In "Deleted Images"

The "Ardennes Winter Sun" photo could be an honest to God Turner painting. Some of these pictures are better than many produced by so-called photo Artists.

In "Bagdad Badgers, Bagdad Badgers, Bagdad Badgers, Bagdad Badgers, Bagdad Badgers, Bagdad Badgers, MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM!"

Maybe honey badgers do not attack humans unless cornered, but they must one of the most ferocious and cantankerous creatures in existence - in a TV documentary about these clever honey thieves, we watched a honey badger confront a fully grown leopard, making the cat make a detour for no other apparant reason than that the badger demanded exclusive rights to that particular path! They look kind of cute when not irritated, but personally I too would be very disinclined to dispute the badgers right of way. Talk about looking (and sounding) ferocious!!! Gosh!!

In "Daniel Greenberg taught a group of students of different ages six years' worth of arithmetic in 20 one-hour sessions."

When I was a kid I jumped classes from the 2nd grade to the 4th grade, which landed me smack bang in the middle of the dreaded discipline division, which I was supposed to have learned in the 3rd grade, which for obvious reasons I had not. That put me off numbers, figures (exept female ones!), calculus, maths, arithmetics and similar sundry disciplines for good, and I dearly LOVED it, when small pocket calculators made their apearence. What put me off the most was arithmetics! I could not for the life of me understand why we had to fiddle around wíth x´es and Y´s and square roots of this or that! No one told me what the stuff was good for or how it might be utilised in an everyday situation. Geometry, on the other hand, was another matter! I could clearly see, that if I wanted to build a birdhouse or a soapbox racer, I needed measurements, drawings and angles to come up with a decent end result, and for that reason I got good grades in geometry - a fact that was a mystery to my long suffering maths teacher. I guess that just goes to prove the old adage, that you can lead (or drag!) a horse to the water, but you can´t make him drink unless he wants to. In Tragicles link the "horses" wanted to drink, so it was just a question of showing them the water.

In "Curious George."

Bluehorse - Apart from random meterological factors influencing your goosebery crop, there could be another explanation. Like many other fruitbearing shrubs gooseberry bushes have to be "rejuvenated" once in a while - every 3rd year or so. The rejuvenation simply consists in removing the old branches in the center of the bush (its the very devil of a job - gooseberry bushes have thorns!) at ground level. When the old branches are removed, the bush will sprout new shoots that will be much more willing to bear fruit than the old wizened ones. As for uses for gooseberries: Simple! Let the geese eat them!

In "B.C. Legislature murals to come down."

While sympathetic to the sensbilities of the aboriginal peoples, the destruction, removal or alteration of works of art from a previous epoque for reasons of political correctness remains a form of falsification of history that will always raise my hackles. The times in which the murals were painted actually did have the views and sentiments depicted by the murals, and no amount of retouching or removal can change that, so why try to do so? Germany has cleansed almost all vestiges of the dreaded "Hakenkreuz" swastika from its territory, the Russians are busy removing the hammer-and-sickle and the red star from public buildings. Denial of history? Perhaps, but in this case the removal concerns official symbols of a hated and despised regime, not art. The russians are not removing all the heroic statues (most of which would be considered very bad art in the west) from the soviet era, simply because they are part of their history. Hitler, on the other hand, destroyed what the nazis considered inapropriate or politically incorrect art, the socalled "entartede Art". The artists he persecuted were among the very founders of modern art. Art should be respected for what it is: a mirror of the sentiments, ideals and ideas of the artist and of the period in history in which they were made. The murals may not be slated for destruction, but I will bet almost anything that when they come down, they will stay down, hidden away in some dusty warehouse or museum cellar. Political correctness be damned!

In "Salman Rushdie knighted, to chagrin of some."

rushmc: You are so right - that is a suitable and fitting answer to the notion that muslim countries should have the audacity to interfere with any honours bestowed on Salman Rushdie, quite irrespective of whether he merits the honours or not. I have not read any of Rushdies books, but as a staunch non-believer in any religion, I take strong exeption to religious meddling in mundane affairs.

In "We just need new dishes on the menu...."

Uhmmm,...the crisp, fresh saltyness of a Japanese jellyfish salad, the crunchy tangyness of charcoal roasted Egyptian locusts on the straw and the tender succulence of a danish X-mas hare! I have tried thenm all, and I like them! Actually, I do believe that it is only one or two specific species of jellyfish that are eaten in Japan - the ones I have tried were almost transperant with a bluish tinge and - strangely enough - they were not jellylike at all, but crisp in the same manner an apple is crisp. I do not think that the jellyfish have any nutritional value, whereas the locust are supposed to be rich in both carbohydrates and protein. Once you have discarded the legs, the head and the wings they make great snacks with cold Egyptian Stella beer.

In "Better dead than red?"

Middleclasstool: Thanks for the beer - wipes foam off beard! Fishtick: Some of the brighter varieties of storebought sushi ginger is undoubtably dyed with the leaves of the beefsteak plant (jap. Shiso), but that is mostly the sickly sweet ginger which in my oppinion is utterly unsuitable to accompany sushi. I make my own by pickling very thin slices of fresh ginger in lemon juice with a pinch of salt, resulting in a fresh, tart taste that I acquired while training martial arts in Japan. Try it for yourself - you will never go back to that nasty sweet stuff again.

Fishtick : The use of the term ginger for redheads may come from the fact that fresh ginger turns a reddish color when pickled in a salty vinegar. Think of the thin slices of ginger you get with sushi. Admitted, they are not bright red, but at least more reddish that the fresh or dried variety. Just to put in my five cents worth: Redheaded women are GORGEOUS! My first school crush, Vivi, had long,long red curls all the way down her back, and I was completely and utterly sold the moment I saw her! The affair lasted all of the first grade, after which she left me for a boy with a bicycle! She broke my heart!

In "The Sea Organ "

Letting the elements produce their own music by building them an instrument so that they may sound different from the way we usually hear them is such a poetic idea. Great link.

In "TV Turnoff"

Maybe off thread, but can anyone explain why the hell they call the most nefarious crap on TV for "reality shows"? I mean, where is the reality? Everything is planned, choreographed, engineered and scripted to such an extent that the outcome is sickeningly predictable. Everything in these so-called reality shows is about backstabbing,lying, cheating, buzz-saw elbows and me-me-me! Is that the reality we live in? Is that why they call them "reality shows"? I am so sick and tired of them, that I do not even see the first episode of a new series when it comes up - I dont need to! I know exactly what will transpire during the coming weeks! A bloody waste of time!

In ""For several years I haven't had a hair on my head, but since I started drinking my urine it's started growing again - it's extraordinary.""

"Urine sterile..." Urine from a healthy person is practically sterile. A US Army physician, Dr. Gene Lam, rapported using fresh urine extensively for washing wounds when incarcerated in a vietcong POW camp. It would seem that the urine was to be preffered to water of dubious sterility. As for drinking urine in a survival situation, it is a definite No-No! The high concentration of salts in the urine would play havoc with the salt/water balance in the body, actually shortening the timespan in which you would have been able to survive, had you not been drinking your urine. I am well aware that in several incidents survivors have told about drinkig their urine to alleviate their thirst, but it has defiitely not helped them survive their ordeal. As a former wilderness guide I am familiar with survival techniques - Hell, I even wrote a book about them - and no survival instructor that I am aware of would recommend drinking urine for ANY reason!

In ""The Dwarf Carried Other Worlds Too!""

The question is not if we could live there, but rather if anything at all could. Any indication of any type of extraterrestrial life would be world shattering news, possibly the biggest news in the history of mankind. Indictions of intelligent life on other planets would, of course, be even more earth shattering news, but insofar as we are not even really sure that intelligent life exists here on earth, I personnally wont get my hopes up yet.

In ""For several years I haven't had a hair on my head, but since I started drinking my urine it's started growing again - it's extraordinary.""

"Piss be onto you...!" In several chinese cities, zoo-keepers sell Rhino and Tiger urine for human conumption. It is supposed to bring the drinker the strength and stamina of the donor animals. I wonder how the hell the keepers make a Rhino or a Tiger pee in a bottle!

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