Lori Nix's bicycle

Bicycle by Lori Nix

I couldn't think of anything concrete to write about this photo, except that it moves me. Lori Nix has more surreal photography on her site at http://www.lorinix.net/.

Autumn

http://www.phirebrush.com/issues/issue13/submissions/
photography/mikehimself_autumn3.jpg

Autumn is my favourite season in eastern Canada. When I was working as a nature interpreter in Toronto last year, I would teach children about why leaves change coulour and fall from their trees. Here's a summary:

Leaf color comes from pigments, which are natural substances produced by leaf cells. The three main pigments in leaves are chlorophyll (green), carotenoid (yellow, orange, and brown), and anthocyanins (red). Chlorophyll and carotenoid are always in leaf cells during spring and summer. But chlorophyll masks carotenoid; this is why leaves are green during the growing season.

In Autumn, trees react to the decreasing amount of sunlight by producing less and less chlorophyll. Gradually, trees stop making chlorophyll. When this occurs, the carotenoid pigment becomes visible. At this point, leaves display their glorious tapestry of fall colours.

In some years, the red fall colors are more vivid than in other years. This is due to temperature and cloud cover vaiances. During the day, leaves produce a lot of sugar, but in the nighttime, low temperatures prevent the sugar sap from flowing through the leaf veins to the trunk and branches. In response, anthocyanins are made as a way to protect the tree by allowing it to save nutrients in the leaves before they fall off.

In winter, the leaves of deciduous trees (aka. trees with leaves instead of needles) will freeze. This is because they are made up of cells filled with water sap. To ensure their survival, trees seal off and shed all plant tissue that can't live through the winter. As sunlight decreases in the fall, the veins that carry sap back and forth through leaves gradually close. A layer of cells, called the separation layer, forms at the base of leaf stems. When this layer is complete, the leaves separate from the tissue that connects them to theif branches, and fall.

-A

sinking

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/

It's cold and rainy, and I'm feeling a bit like I would rather be living anyone else's life at the moment. So here are some Deep Thoughts from Saturday Night Live (remember when that show used to be funny?) to brighten my, and perhaps your, day...

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say."That's dynamite, baby."

I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system.

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

And here's one with Halloween in mind :)
Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.

Alright, now I'm going to go back to more important things. Like staring out the window of my office at cars driving by. And wet pavement. And ferns. mmm...

-A

toothpaste for dinner

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/ 

Above are some cartoons from one of my favourite websites, 'toothpaste for dinner' (http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/). I must admit, I have a big crush on the cartoonist, despite the fact that he's probably a huge nerd. Nerds are en vogue now anyways.

Spirituality

i lost the source...