Strange Little Beer Owl

Since moving to the west coast, Sig and I haven't been able to brew beer. (All our equipment is in a basement in Hoboken.) Last week, though, we caved and decided to buy new stuff - our dreams of somehow shipping or driving a bunch of 5 gallon buckets/enormous pots cross country were, we decided, impractical.

We went to a local beer store called O'Sheas where a very helpful, and very manic salesman put a kit together for us. Meanwhile we perused their beer selection. I was immediately drawn to a bottle with a strange, little owl on it, and a mountain, and the words 'Hitachino Nest Beer'. (It's the Celebration Ale.)

I love this owl. It's just totally awesome looking. And the taste list for the Celebration Ale is - coriander, orange peel, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Lovely sweetness. Further updates when I actually taste it. Meanwhile, here is our star:

Kitten Personalities

Where do they come from? Why does Catsius Clay want to lay down on any paper you're reading? Why does he love to eat tomatoes (especially large, soft heirlooms)? Or to put his head under the faucet?

Why is Caterine the Great obsessed with my shawl from India? From whence her passion for pastries? (So far cherry scone is her favorite.)

Why does Chairman Meow want to chew off any exposed strings, ropes, or bunches of hair he can (including bathing suit strings, shoe laces, carpet fringe, my post-shower hair, and the kitten's whiskers)? Why is it that every morning around 10 he wanders the house yowling like he's going to die?

Why does Margaret Catcher like to get in the tub with me?

Synchronicity

Each person has a window of time during which events seem simultaneous. This window, incidentally, is not the same for all senses. Click-fusion, or experience of simultaneity in audible clicks, will happen for any two stimuli less than .005 seconds apart (for normal people.) Two flashes of light, on the other hand, will appear simultaneous as far as .03 seconds apart. These windows grow larger with age.

More bizarre still is that our brain will alter our experience of simultaneity to match a visual cue with it's accompanying sound only up to a certain distance, and then, suddenly, the two will seem out of sync.

And, here is the real kicker, the brain unconsciously compensates for imposed time lags on simultaneity between the senses until they are perceptually invisible. In studies where subjects move a computer mouse, but the clicker on the screen moves only after a delay, subjects report that after a short period they stop experiencing a delay between their movement and that of the clicker. When the mouse and clicker are synced up again, these subjects, for a brief while, will have the bizarre experience of seeing the clicker move before their hand does. Obviously it isn't, but they feel as if it is.

Heirloom Seeds

I just bought a ludicrously large cache of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a company recently profiled in the NY Times for their seed bank and selection of fantastic and strange heirlooms. (Also, it's run by a ridiculously cute young couple.)

Sig and I were thinking of getting some arugula, and maybe a nice kale or two. But the names of the plants and their descriptions were so fantastic that we couldn't stop. We bought Giant of Naples cauliflowers and Black from Tula tomatoes, Crane Melons and Emerald Gems, Alabama Red Okra and Crystal Apple Cucumber (white and the shape of a large egg).

Here is a sample description for the Cherokee Purple Tomato -

80 days. An old Cherokee Indian heirloom, pre-1890 variety; beautiful deep dusky purple-pink color, superb sweet flavor, and very large sized fruit. Try this one for real old-time tomato flavor. My favorite dark tomato!

They should arrive in 4-7 days. We can. not. wait.

Bobkittens

Sig and I just witnessed the late-night stroll of a bobcat and her two kittens!

We were coming back from In-N-Out Burger when he shushed me and pointed ahead at slinking momma going down the path by our apartment. I'd seen her once before and thought, "That is one wild looking cat. Oh, no, that's a bobcat." About five seconds after Sig saw mom, the following string of words issued uncontrollably from my mouth, "Kitten! Kitten, kitten! Look it's a kitten!"

We stalked them around the side of the building, and sure enough along came the cat with not one, but two, kits. The first kitten spotted us and came slinking curiously over. (At which point we retreated, not wanting to incite the ire of a wild 20-pounds of muscle and claw.)

They headed on quietly, mom with somewhere to go, babies rather intent on exploring, wandering, eating grass - occasionally jumping in surprise just like our kitten does.

I love these tenuous threads. I feel like I just brushed another world.

Julia Margaret Cameron

An early female photographer, Ms. Cameron was fond of posing romantic scenes of cherubic children and renaissancian young women.

I've always loved the ephermeral, elegiac quality of her images. In part, this is a direct result of the era she photographed in - silver nitrate on glass etc. But strangely the subjects of her images are perfectly matched to the emotions they evoke now.

And the Blind Can See

Here is a bit of trivia that is blowing my mind...

These things called Tactile Visual Substitution Systems (or TVSSes) were invented (in, like, the 60s) that essentially allow blind users to have visual experiences completely mediated by touch. Here is a quote from Andy Clark's Supersizing the Mind (a thumping good read, by the way, but rather technical) -

"...the earliest such systems were grids of blunt "nails" fitted to the backs of blind subjects and taking input from a head-mounted camera. In response to camera input, specific regions of the grid became active, gently stimulating the skin under the grid. At first, subjects report only a vague tingling sensation. But after wearing the grid while engaged in various kinds of goal-driven activity (walking, eating etc), the reports change dramatically. Subjects stop feeling the tingling on the back and start to report rough, quasi-visual experiences of looming objects and so forth. After awhile, a ball thrown at the head causes instinctive and appropriate ducking." (35)

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Ugh, the brain is so awesome.