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Having researched this myself extensively, I have to say that the actual base frequency of A (440, 432, 415, 422.2222222, 456,789 or whatever) doesn't really "mean" anything. A way to think of it, is that it doesn't really matter what shade of green you use to paint your trees with (light green, dark green, forest green, emerald green - it depends on the amount of light on the tree - no single color of paint is more natural than the other) - it matters if the ratios of greens in the painting are harmonious (the highlights of a dark pine tree generally don't look very good if they're vomit green - whereas if the pine tree is backlit in bright sun, then it's appropriate to use vomit green). It's not a very good analogy to use colors, but it's gets across the message that the base frequency doesn't mean anything. Secondly (lol), nature doesn't care about what a second is - a second does not exist in nature, so 432 "seconds" is not more meaningful or more natural than 430.2578 on the merit that the former is an integer number of seconds. Thirdly, if there are vocals in music, then you're slowing them down - so you're no longer hearing the real voice, but an artificially slowed down one that the real vocalist couldn't even sing back to. This video shows about the ratios used in music. The common system in use literally almost everywhere that Western music (including all popular music from probably every country) (orchestral musicians are probably the only people who play differently (more in tune) in the West) use is called 12-tone Equal Temperament, and I can practically guarantee that unless you search otherwise, you won't have heard anything different. Whether or not the base frequency of A is 432 or 440 - if it's using Equal Temperament (which unless it's orchestral, it will be), it's out of tune anyway. This video is scientifically accurate, and shows and plays some music so you can hear the tuning I'm talking about. https://www.youtube....h?v=BhZpvGSPx6w Those curves are called Lissajous curves, and are made by two sine waves (the two you're hearing) - one controlling how far the dot is left or right, and one how far up or down (each can move the dot along this way, but no other direction - if there exists a rational (i.e. integer divided by integer, like 3/2) ratio between the frequencies, then the dot trace will line up each time it goes around. The dot traces out the curve). Almost ALL modern music uses equal temperament - it's a compromise so that you can play music in any of the 12 keys, on a keyboard. Equal temperament uses the 12th root of two (2 ^ 1/12, or alternatively stated - if X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X = 2, then what is X? ) to make a scale. You get 1, 2^1/12, 2^2/12, 2^3/12.... 2^12/12 (==2). These numbers are multiplied by your base frequency to make a chromatic scale from that base frequency. These numbers approximate very well the integer ratios, but are off. Instead of getting the ratio 3/2 (1.5), you get 1.48 for the perfect fifth. The minor third sounds more dissonant than it's supposed to, but we've gotten used to it. The octave (the frequency ratio of 2 to 1) is the only non-disturbed ratio in Equal temperament. Just temperaments (there's not just one way) uses integer ratios, such as 5/4, 4/3, 3/2 to make the scale. Unfortunately this means you can only play in like 1-7 keys (depending on how in-tune you make your primary key), and the rest just sound too disharmonic to play in - So for example, your Just instrument could beautifully play something in the key of C, but be completely horrible in the key of C#. Each key would sound different, as the ratios are different. With Equal Temperament, every key sounds identical, except raised or lowered in pitch. Each key in Just-tunings had it's own mood almost, like some keys sounded majestic, others peaceful, others restless - so much of our musical heritage, isn't being being played the way it was created. There are literally millions of other tuning systems - some very subtle, some hugely different - and almost all of modern Western music uses just that one tuning system. Unfortunately, you won't generally off the bat enjoy these other systems, as your brain has been told to think that only Equal Temperament is correct, because you likely would never have heard anything else (except in nature, such as birds). But luckily, it only takes an open-mind and a curious attitude to enjoy all the other musical tunings in some way.

I assumed (incorrectly), that the cuttings could be rooted in water - even if it was just difficult. It seems that all advice says to root them in growing media, with a rooting hormone. I took the cuttings out of water, treated with rooting hormone, put into a sandy container (very small amount of nutrients), and put into a humidity chamber. Probably too late, but I'll get further cuttings, and perhaps some seedpods later if I find any.

I took this photo a couple of days ago, and just remembered to upload it now. It shows my compost heap (the walls are made to be easy to remove, so the wood is just staked, and the bricks just stacked), and my outdoor Salvia Divinorum [legal in NZ] - and my sick, sick Piper Auritum at the back. EDIT: I also was at the beach, and collected a couple of seed-pods of Calystegia soldanella (if anyone desperately wants some seed - I can provide). I wonder, if you could hybridize this plant (it grows in straight sand just about), with HBWR - for frost resistance or something? http://web.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/science/about/departments/sbs/newzealandplants/seed-plants-flowering/find-by-north-&-south-islands/convolvulaceae-morning-glory-family.cfm

I'm a hybrid typist. I use 4 fingers on my left hand, but only one on my right hand. This was my best one of 3 attempts. Usually I make too many mistakes to be more accurate. I should practice more often.

Welcome and greetings kuychi! :D I think you will fit right in here, have a great time, learn a lot, teach a lot, etc. Just feel welcome, and that's all you need to do.

Oh cool idea for a thread. So lately I've been watching my Piper Auritum get wastified by the sun, and despite watering it often, and giving it heaps of seasol, liquid ferts, solid ferts - nothing seems to be able to get it growing healthy again - a leaf popped out, and dried out almost instantly. It's almost at a stand-still. Today, I'd had enough of that. So I chose a spot that while being almost right there, is under more trees and nearer the fence - this should still lessen the amount of sun it gets by at least an hour a day, possibly more. I dug a fairly big hole in the clay there, enough so that I felt it wouldn't drown, but would still have water for days down there (I read that it is never supposed to get dry feet). The clay was so hard, and so orange. But anyway, I got that finished. Then I dug out the Auritum. It still had roots, but most of them weren't in great nick. It seems my mistake was to not break the rootball up properly last time -_-, as there was a dry pocket of old potting mix under the roots, and I didn't dig a big enough hole for it (it wasn't sending roots upwards to the soil mound). I washed the roots under the tap. Then I made a new mixture, a fair amount of compost, some potting mix, ferts, coarse sand and pumice - similar to a cactus mix, but more bark and organics. I put the plant in the hole, gave it a big splash of seasol - and then put more of a sandy mix layer on top (to allow the liquid to drain straight into the hole in the ground, and to stop it drying out), and crossed my fingers. A bit of a verbose post, but it does the dual purpose of being like a diary for what I did, so I can know what I did to make things work.

The 4 Macadamia trees in question had already been chopped down by the previous home owners about 5 years ago, and they had sprouted something like 10-20 times each from the old stumps. Probably the thickest trunks is around the size of the old NZ 50c coin - but I don't know if it's very good wood for carving. It seems quite flakey and breaks easily (I just pulled some of the branches down and they snapped off easily), it seemed much softer than radiata pine when sawing too. I'll take a photo for you bog if you haven't been put off yet haha. Edit: I haven't dug the stumps out yet, but I think I could possibly get a few choice bits of the old stumps. It wasn't my choice to chop them down, and I did protest heavily (initially), but I was biased once I heard I got the whole area (and they will pay for soil and rocks! ) for cacti. It's probably about 3m x 3m square, but I think I can "expand" that some more. I also have found that the soil there is really good compared to everywhere else on the property - a dark loam that goes fairly deep (still haven't hit the clay). I feel really guilty now though, as there are about 30 small birds who come to those trees to roost at night (because the macadamia trees have really spiky leaves, so nothing can climb up and get them), and there were all flying around, swooping into where the trees would have been - upset and confused that their trees were gone. Luckily there are about 50 tall trees 5 metres away, as well as 5 macadamias that are still left further back.

So I didn't "do" it yet, but my parents want their Macadamia trees gone (I was livid when I heard this), but in exchange, they said I can use the area for a cacti rock garden - quickly, I changed tune, and have already sawed down a Macadamia tree. :D

Would also love a pack, PMd

The botanic gardens nearby have a ginormous collection of Camellia Sinensis plants, and I tasted whichever ones I thought looked interesting. I got a couple of nice cuttings of special named cultivars. I think that the young tender leaves (the same ones used for tea), are certainly the highest in actives. I'm really crap at rooting these cuttings though, so probably won't have plants for a few years. haha

Looks a bit like a Prickly poppy (normally the petals overlap more), but it's not a Datura. Argemone ochroleuca Edit: lol at the 3 replies so close together, haha. Also, I didn't know there were multiple species called Prickly poppy, but there are. ;o

I had problems with my succulent mixes as well (was using the same thing I gave my Trichocereus), but I think I found that they simply prefer a really sandy mix, that has very little organics in it. I'm not very good with succulents (yet), so I'm not even sure which plants preferred it.

I got through Metropolis, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I enjoyed the soundtrack, I enjoyed the scenes and setting - I just can't believe Rotwang (who has a hand made of metal) lost a fistfight... Today I fed my compost heap another wheelbarrow of leaves, and the soil is actually improving noticeably. I just wish I had more pots and plant labels. ;o

Can you see any chunks of zeolite left in the mixture after a year or so, or does it dissolve? If it dissolves, then it might be doing the same job that a clayey loam would do, maybe

/\ I just tried it by holding my nose and raising the pressure in my nasal cavity, but sadly my eyes did not fart. Rented this old-skool sci-fi film from the video shop today: http://en.wikipedia....olis_%28film%29 It's from 1927, no-words, and I hope it's awesome! :D

Really amazing work there man - so many possible excuses, but you didn't take any of them. Well done for that, and the end result! I just started composting about 5-6 weeks ago, in a shaded area that gets 2-3 hours of sun a day. I turned the pile today, and I found very few worms - so the information on the worms preferred pH was useful.

Great idea, and I can't wait to see it finished.

Without doing any modelling, I think the Earth is fine* - but humans are going to have to pull many miracles in a row to not end up extinct. *HOWEVER - I think that without humans, the planet may also be doomed*, as we need to move to other planets and life-systems as soon as we can do so to avoid becoming space-impact debris. *HOWEVEREVER - the timescales that give a large probability of the Earth being struck by a large-enough space object could also be long enough to almost ensure that another dominant intelligence could rise, so maybe it will be ants that end up saving all of Earth's lifekind from extinction and bridging the gap to far-away galaxies. I for one, welcome our new ant overlords.

I don't know if you can fuel a car with body fat, but I know you can fuel a bicycle.

@Pinion: I haven't taken any detailed photos of my seedlings yet, but I will be sure to, as some of them are starting to look really cool even though they're still not taller than a finger is long.

While a very weak sentiment indeed... once I do finally have enough spare money to begin adding to my library again, I was planning on buying some of your books. It is a real shame that people are not willing to pay for quality books that are not extortionately priced in anyway. I think you're a bit of a casualty of the commercial publishers and their war on consumer's brains and pockets - people have had enough of paying these corporations (media multinational middlemen in general) more than the GDPs of small nations, and most respect for publishers and what they do (benevolent or not) seems to have evaporated. In terms of books, I definitely prefer paper books, as they're silent - unlike my ramjet of a computer, and the image quality and "smoothness" is just millions of times better than an ebook. I like to have both actually though, as it's much easier searching an ebook for keywords than using an index (which may have omissions of minor mentions).

So kind of you and Getafix. I just want to say that whoever ends up with the Psycho0 x Pachanoi seedlings could be very lucky, I have 4, and 2 of them look like they're going to be absolute stunners, while the other 2 are just awesome.