Work time

At work, tuli panda miti Cypress kidogo na Slyvanos: I've been transplanting Cypress trees that the rain has oppkortunely brought up. I've been doing some research in town on some optimal trees and other vegetation for wetland areas, because there's dams and ditches in this future forest that need wetland trees. There's another little program I'm somewhat working on, where the petrol station will provide access to seedlings and agroforestry advice to people starting up nurseries or forests or other revegetation projects. But most worth mentioning has been my new job processing mala and cheese at the dairy.
Mala (Maziwa lala, or overnight milk) is a simple and basic traditional drink of fermented milk. All you need to do make it in small quanities is boil a gallon or so of milk, let it cool to room temperature, then have it sit out at room temperature in a closed container for 14 hours, then refrigerate. Add honey or sugar to taste, and its similar to a yogurt drink. It tastes creamy, a bit similar to a mix of a blended up yogurt drink and milk. What's best about mala is it's ok for the lactose-intolerant to drink daily. They fermentation produces a bacteria called lacto bacillus that does t same thing as acidopholous in yogurt, breaking down the lactose. I've been able to drink it everyday, which isn't possible for fresh milk. I've also been watching the Gouda cheese process and have had the steps converted down to household processes, so when I know the steps and the enzymes by heart I'll post how to make cheese, as well as yogurt. The best thing is I wear a white lab coat and repeat the word lactobacillus throughout the day, so of course I feel very important.

A Law, Not a Fact.

Trent had a post on the main page about the relative merits of gravity versus evolution, but since it's now so far down thread, I'm posting what I've found to be the appropriate counterpoint to his post here:

"Let's get something straight: gravity is a law, not a fact. And bad laws are meant to be broken. Yet some in the educational and scientific community are brainwashing our youth into believing they will naturally fall to the ground, attract to each other, stop acceleration, and other aspects of a European elitist's three hundred year-old rubbish.
In my child's science book, it says that the natural tendency of all bodies is to fall to the ground. But it also says that stars and planets constantly stay orbiting above the earth. So which one is it? It is hard not to seriously question the credibility of scientists, teachers and other secular humanists when they can't even keep their story straight.
Furthermore, the oldest came home today and told me that he had learned about terminal velocity in school. Now he thinks that falling bodies often have a maximum acceleration. Though we tell them they can achieve anything they set their minds to, physics teachers tell our children, once again, that having moved to achieve success, they can speed up no more.
What most appalls me is the idea that force is merely the product of mass and a gravitational constant. Force is not just mass times gravity. Force is how we protect the American way of life.
Now I'm a reasonable person: Sometimes things do land on the ground. But instead of saying that objects are willed to float down to the ground in an orderly manner, it's said that things fall down to the ground, and if you go down too fast you will be crushed, not spread.
Finally, they tell us that all bodies have a constant attraction to each other. First biologists tell us that our children are naturally inclined to have sex, and now the physics teachers join in. Is there any end to this assault on our values?
Luckily, we can take our schools back. With help from concerned citizens, Austin and Texas can vote to keep our kids from being peddled lies or at least put disclaimer stickers on them. And while it seems that no one would argue against science through democracy, teachers and scientists even object to this small demand. They argue that their elitist theories stand supreme to any notion of the popular will.
To explain why, we must understand where many famous scientists have come from. Albert Einstein came from fascist Germany. Anders Celsius came from Sweden, a currently socialist country. The scientists who worked on the Sputnik satellite didn't even try to hide their bias by leaving, but stayed in the Soviet Union. Sadly, scientists hate democracy: Some of them come from communist countries. They're still communists.
Just remember: These are the same people who think that everything eventually decays into more disorder. Everything: children, our president, the American flag that symbolizes our freedom, and the bald eagle that ripples in front of it.
Thanks for listening to my message. As Austin's local demagogue, I will not rest until we achieve the objective of science through popular referendum. Then I'll see what's happening in English class. "

University Weekend

I came to MOI University last weekend, ostensibly for Review Boards but unofficially because my liver had been getting a free ride so my stomach was getting jealous. I mainly asked the financial aspects questions, both to the regular SNs and potential participants in an AIDS awareness program in Hong Kong. It lasted about four hours, partially 'cause there were 15 SNs and partially 'cause none of us have a shut the fuck up valve. Angie would fake cough to indicate the expiration of time and the guy in charge would say "thanks very much for coming and one last question what makes you tick" or "tell us about your aspirations" or "can you think of some more open-ended questions we could end with?" or "we've been keeping the next guy waiting for the next three hours so let's wrap up by having youcompare and contrast the variances and distribution of the socioeconomic impact of the EU's potential political integration with China's emerging economic clout, taking care to note the potential subjunctions at which the two might affect each other and also Johnny has asthma."
I aspire to be like Gosha, the new Polish trainee 'cause she assessed the situation her second day here and now pays little attention to time, even though she and Poland are apparently very punctual. But they made good decisions on the candidates in the end.
Then we saw some movies. They think I'm an alcoholic becasue I, becoming a master of good spacing, consumed close to a liter of brandy on Friday without really getting drunk, and the next day, I forced myself onto the brat diet (bananas, applesauce, rice, toast) for the sake of my stomach but then Gosha, being the upstanding Polish citizen that the is, brought several more bottles with which to watch Ocean's Twelve. Back home, Bob and Kippee laughed at us for not being culturally acquainted when Gosia and I mentioned that an organizing committe had been formed to take Gosia from the University to the farm. They repeated in their best Kenyan MPs accent, "we shall form a committee of inquiry, to form a committee of inquiry that will form a committee of inquiry..."

Mombasa

I went to the coast at Mombasa a couple weeks ago for some general fun with economic studnets from the University. It was about a 24 hour trip with stops-some roads are smooth, but the texture of the rest is similar to what a cloud looks like from above-smooth for a cloud but not for a road. But from sitting in the "cool kids" back section of the bus in high school, I've learned to roll with the weight. I understand this is an essential Kenyan cultural experience.
We traveled through the Rift Valley that's got mountains on either side and jagged stab wounds in the earth, papered over by palm trees and thatched huts. It's magical and enchanting in that if you situate yourself in the right zone the energy from your camera batteries will mysteriously disappear. We got to Mombasa, which looks like a mix of Kenya and Egypt and Miami, Florida (Grand Theft Auto Vice City edition). The beach there is calm like a lake, and has peddlers selling Fanta, renting swimsuits, camel rides, and selling cassava chips and salted peanuts. It was relaxing and up to the reputation. Tired of the street peddlers and women of ill repute hassling, I fight fire with fire. They scheme and strategize over ways to lure me in Swahili, so for the rest of the trip I speak in Spanish and some halting, broken English. Surprisingly, they've got nothing for this. The beaches, like most beaches, have the ability to hurdle our minds past concepts of time and place (or at least appreciation of their significance) which was needed because of part of the rest of the Mombasa expereience. Apparently all the headmasters from Kenya reserved all the places in Mombasa back in February for some conference. Luckily Felix had been homesick for Lou food, so see found a restaurant and chatted up the friendly owner, who let us stay there the next few days. Others weren't as lucky: as couple of other people slept in a pub, an d another group of students stayed at the place we kept our bags at: a dingy hostel tucked ilnto an alley in the center of town. You walk upstairs, dodge the shirtless owner doing pullups from the entrance door frame, past the burning coals&herbs outside the medicine man's doorway and, through the crowd of nicely dressed women, they probably just like to dress up like that and loiter for fun, and into the room. There's no running water, just some jugs of water and two rooms, one has a hole in the center of the floor and is the toilet, the other a smaller hole in the corner and is the bathroom. Some of the women in burkas here, we found out as we walk the streets, are by the tone of their catcalls some of the least discrete prostitutes here, as they figure they have the best cover. Driving back we stop frequently on the side of the road to get cassava and a big coconut style thing that you whack the top of with a machete and drink water out of (ten shillings) and plenty of the much sweeter coastal mangoes, which you can eat there as ducks swarm around to nibble on the rinds. As a duck brushes up against me I suspect it's merely a cover: it's just a baby duck costume and I'll seen be asked if I want to have a good time. We're back. After the fun but whacky and exhausting trip, Eldoret begins to feel like home. I've felt constantly fine here ever since.