rain in the desert

We have had lots of rain (well, over an inch spread over three days). The rain barrel is overflowing, as are assorted vessels Dan stacked about. And, most suprisingly we have developed a pond. Wonder *exactly* how long it will last?

Most of the seeds I planted 2 weeks ago haven't sprouted yet. I think it may have been a bit chilly for them? I have hopes they will still sprout, if not I will be replanting. Its sort of spotty the way they've come up or not. Three or four corn plants have come up while most haven't. Two of six cucumbers. No beans, but watermelons up.

However, the tomatoes are growing happily. They found the miracle gro to be inspirational. The winds are dying down now, and that helps too.

Garden Stuff

My garden is all in - and I am slinking from window to window trying to see if the gazillion rabbits that surround it are making headway. I saw one rabbit hop around the house with two brown thrashers and a scaled quail in tow. It looked like something out of a Disney movie. The rabbit didn't try to get in my garden though!

Bit worried about the ..... chipmunks? I see them tooling around and no way is my rabbit fence going to keep them out. Maybe they don't like mulch.






The garden doesn't look like too much yet. It's my attempt at a waffle garden. If you look at it (or well, a well formed one) from the top it looks like a waffle. The idea is to catch each bit of moisture possible. So far I have planted six Early Girl Tomatoes, two Sweet 100 tomatoes, six Sandia Peppers, and three Poblano Peppers. These are all seedlings. The other holes contain: sweet corn, pumpkins, watermelons, scallop squash, zucchini squash, yellow squash, onions, cucumbers and green beans. Those are all seed - or in the onions case, bulbs. I went back and put mulch on the seedlings.



Meanwhile, I have my eye on this cactus and two of it's friends. I am planning to liberate them from their desolate location and rehome them in my yard. They are quite wide!

Link to Thinking Anglicans post

http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/002044.html

Monday, 27 November 2006

animal ethics

Another item from the BBC Sunday radio programme:

New think tank for animal rights opens
What rights, if any, do animals have? What’s described as the world’s first academy, to enhance the ethical status of animals, opens in Britain tomorrow. The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics will act as an international think tank with its own online course, research initiatives and publications. It’s focusing in particular on the relationship between animal abuse and human violence. More than 100 academics from ten countries have agreed to become advisers in an attempt to put animals on the intellectual agenda. But, with many conflicting views on such issues as experimentation and organic farming, how effective will the centre be? Mike Ford reports from Oxfordshire.
Listen (6m 9s)

BBC Religion & Ethics - Animal ethics

The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics

Evening Standard Think tank aims to spark animal ethics debate
There is also a Church Times report about this which I will link when it becomes public.

Posted by Simon Sarmiento on Monday, 27 November 2006 at 1:46pm GMT | TrackBack
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Categorised as: News

I wonder....

You know those wealthy people who spend many thousands of dollars cloning their beloved pets?

I wonder if they are disappointed?

A cloned pet might look exactly like their old pet, but it would have a different personality. Personality and reactions are built by experiences in life. You can't clone a personality.

It seems like it would be a sad thing to have a pet that looked exactly like Rover but acted nothing like Rover.

The Ongoing Melton Circus

A grand jury has now indicted Mayor Frank Melton on 5 felony charges. I expect they could have found more things to charge him with, had they added the incident at the bar into their investigations.

In one notable incident, the mayor appears to have directed a bunch of "youths" who travel with him to attack the house of a man who had been arrested on charges of drug paraphernalia. The destroyed the front of the rented duplex (its literally gone), broke things inside, broke out windows, etc. Neighbors agree this is what happened. Melton when asked about it did not deny it.

Outside his Jackson home the mayor was asked it he felt sorry for the destruction of Evans Welch's homes.

"No," said Melton. "Not if they are selling drugs out of it. And if we find some more people who are selling drugs out of their house there is no telling what will happen."

I find Mayor Melton's remarks to be rather chilling. No telling what will happen? The man thinks he is judge, jury, and executioner - and we need to get him in hand.

Now, don't get me wrong. This guy who was arrested - the one whose rented home was destroyed is no angel. He has a long rap sheet, and 20 or 30 arrests. However, that is not the point. Do we want the mayor to be able to decide, on his own, who is guilty of what, and what the punishment needs to be? Do we want him running around with a large group of men in their teens and early 20's - most if not all also have rap sheets. The group as a whole reminds me eerily of the sort of groups that participated in Germany's "Kristallnacht". If you don't know what that is, google it. People should know.

Many, Councilman Stokes is an example, defend the mayor, saying that he is doing what needs to be done to clean up drugs and crime. But I say it is NOT right to clean up crime by becoming a criminal. It is NOT right to use the police force as your own personal security team. It is NOT right to encourage minors to commit felonies. And it is NOT right to run the city with a campaign of fear and intimidation. And if you think it *is* right, you had better hope that the mayor doesn't get the idea that you are a problem. Right or wrong, no telling what might happen.

Hymn 661 in The Hymnal 1982

"They cast their nets in Galilee,
just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk,
before the Lord came down.

Contented, peaceful fishermen,
before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts brimful,
and broke them too.

Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
head-down was crucified.

The peace of God, it is no peace,
but strife closed in the sod;
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing --
the marvelous peace of God."
William Alexander Percy, 1924

The 2,996 Project

The 2,996 project's site exceeded bandwidth and got shut down (today of all days!). The site is being mirrored here. What a shame that the main site would go down today, when people need to be able to access it.