The End of California Citrus?

...on process. This is an approach that mimics one of the fundamental laws of evolution: survival of the fittest. True, there is often a trade off between the flavor and yield of a fruit and strength of its natural defenses. Oranges are juicier and easier to peal than the spiny and seed filled fruit of the prickly pear cactus. But the long term odds of having a reliable supply of prickly pear fruit are a lot higher than a steady flow of orange juice....

Read…

Saturday Tweets: Your Own Personal Disney Castle

...the 210th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Here’s his theory of evolution in pictoral form: pic.twitter.com/IWfL36bf2A — Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) February 12, 2019 Westminster Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, built in 1887 and demolished in 1960. An excellent example of a mid-rise Victorian building, which one could just as easily imagine as an apartment building. I can't imagine too many complaints if new apartment buildings look...

Read…

Meet the Amazing Sierra Newt

...imes, though, they get stepped on or run over in busy campgrounds, because evolution did not factor in hiking boots, distracted campers and Subaru Outbacks when designing the defensive systems of the newt. When they decide it is time to meet a special friend and lay some eggs together, the newt returns to the pool from which they hatched–or tries to, since it might be difficult with all the pools in the Sierras drying up–but my guy found his way t...

Read…

Make a Rain Barrel

...fitting. A few more PVC parts from the sprinkler section of your hardware store, a brass hose fitting with a valve, and you’ll have this: Glue that up with some PVC cement, wrap the threads with teflon tape, and you’re almost ready to collect rainwater. But first, turn the barrel upside down, drill a hole for the down spout another hole to insert an overflow pipe made out of a threaded 3″ waste pipe fitting: The last step is to prop the barrel up...

Read…

Of Gnomes and Peak Oil

...of canned tomatoes. At any given moment, there may be a dozen cases in the store, but that inventory is constantly being replenished with the money the customers pay for the cans they remove, and the more tomatoes that customers buy, the bigger an inventory the store will carry. Paracelsus uses a more poetic metaphor. Instead of ordering shipments of tomatoes, it’s our task to command gnomes, The earth is filled by gnomes even to its center, creat...

Read…