Daily Archives: September 16, 2013

Cooking, Garden, GeekWorld, Woolly Mammoths

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Lughnasa                                                                  Harvest Moon

Woolly meeting tonight.  Kate baked a ground cherry pie and a raspberry pie.  Big hits.  “All hail, Kate!”  There was applause near the end for the desert.  Yin served her wonderful variations on Chinese originals, tonight a noodle and pork and vegetable dish.

Scott introduced the topic of the Singularity and we talked about technology and change for the rest of the evening.  Mark Odegard brought up a good point about advances in technology contributing to a digital divide with digital haves and digital have nots.  This divide will tend to reinforce class and racial divisions.  He said this in reaction to me saying I wasn’t particularly worried about the Singularity.  His point was that the rapid advances in technology can and will have unintended social consequences.  He’s right.

In this argument I find myself on the conservative side, that is, I believe there are so many fundamental activities that make us human from painting to poetry, music to novels, athletics and theatre.  They are not reducible to code nor products artificial intelligence can reasonably be expected to create. There are also the incredible complexities of life itself, human relationships, the intricate interlocking webs of ecology systems that will always, I believe, outstrip any technological advance.

And I love technology, gadgets, the new.  Just don’t see them hanging out with me at a Woolly meeting as full participants.  Ever.

 

Asia, Bees, Garden, Woolly Mammoths

Tea Making, Merchandising

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Lughnasa                                                              Harvest Moon

I set the timer for the Zojirushi water boiler for 6 hours last night.  When I came downstairs this morning, it had heated the water to boiling and allowed the temperature to descend to the holding temperature I selected, 175 degrees.  This allows me to take water from it at that temperature all day, filling my pitcher, my teapot as many times as I wish.

Earlier this morning I made a pot of Yunnan White Jasmine Tea and am now on my second pot.  Each pot brews about 8 ounces which I drink from a tiny Chinese style teacup my sister purchased for me as part of a set.  I use the pitcher and water table from that set, too.  I can make 4 more pots of tea before I have to switch tea leaves.

Did a spray of brixblaster this morning (reproductive plants):  raspberries, tomatoes, IMAG0876ground cherries, broccoli and carrots.  The vegetative plants left are leeks, beets and greens, but not enough to mix up a batch of qualify.  After the spraying, I picked ground cherries.  They will fill out the amount Kate needs for the pie she’s baking for the Woollies tonight.  She’s also making a raspberry pie.

Tonight I’m taking as well a box of Artemis Honey for sale.  The first time I’ve actively marketed our honey.  I feel strange doing it since I have an almost Confucian attitude toward merchants, but I’m trying to learn to honor my labor.  Marketing Missing is the next, similar, activity.