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For the Week of
10/22/08 |
Assignment 8
World Agriculture Tech, Nitrogen Fixation, Chemical or
Alchemical BOOM!
Project presenters for this
week:
Wednesday the 22nd–
Erik Solan
Thursday the 23rd –
Preethi Moorthy, Dante Smiriglio
Coming attractions: (Week of
10/29)
Amaro Hudson & Robert Ertz
and Kyle Lazzaro
Legumes
with nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots.
Read in Leigh PDF: pp.
6-7, 10-13 [technical details], 17-19 and pp. 23-53 (skip 45-50) -33pp.
Leigh_WorldsG-estFix-Chs1-2-8.2MB.pdf [High resolution version]
or
Leigh_WorldsG-estFix-Chs1-2-100dpi-4.5MB.pdf [Low resolution version]
Read about early gun
powder in Bown pp. 1-49. [This
books reads really fast. DonÕt let the length of the assigned reading
intimidate you.] You should own this book.
Write about 1.5 single
spaced pages on a topic having to do with the readings. Feel free to use some of the optional
things below to spice things up.
Bown, Stephen R. A Most Damnable Invention : Dynamite,
Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World. 1st ed. New York: T. Dunne
Books, 2005. This book is a bit
shaky on some of the older history, but it is easy to read and has lots of fun
details of interest. It really
hits its stride in the 19th-century parts, which we will probably
read later in the term.
Leigh, G. J. The World's Greatest Fix: A History of
Nitrogen and Agriculture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. This book is probably the best history
book of this reading set. As a result
it is slightly dryer, but its information is pretty solid except for some of
the early alchemical observations.
optionalÉ
Dowsing and Water Witches
McKinkey-On
Parched Farms, Intuition Used to Help Find Water- NY Times - 10.8.08
Science? If science wonÕt tell
you what you want to hearÉ. try, try again.
How Does Dowsing Work? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYwn0c-euYE
This is an excellent short
documentary on how using big words and associating yourself with
quantum entanglement will make
you credible to anyone desperate enough to want to believe.
Why DeBroglie waves are not
metioned is a mystery to me. They
would be perfect for their purposes.
The nuclear blast in the eyeball
near the end of this video is particularly weird.
Disclaimer: IÕm very biased.
We Report, You DecideÉ then we
decide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8BxmXHRaBI
Notice how the dowser reaches
into the dirt and pulls out the coin.
I kept expecting him to pull a
coin out of somebodyÕs ear.
The question is: Do you want to
believe?
Super high tech special science
presents Dowsing for dummys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8f3xDjvLZo
- Why donÕt we get to see Paul
SmithÕs face? Is it top secret?
Your tax dollars in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO3wUtD0rro
A couple of old water witches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDsY-uNsIg
Even these guys canÕt help but
mention David Hawkins [sic], a Òfamous psychiatrist.Ó
I looked him up, thinking that
they meant Steven Hawking, but, to their credit, there is a David Hawkins out
there.
James Randi (The Amazing Randi)
on Dowsing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsCnX-TKIY
Back to Syllabus [HoST Fall 2008]
Me – hostf08@mifami.org
Here is a link to a
place that sells corn meal that actually has flavor, ground from corn grown
from seeds that are old genetic strains, not the new Òcorn,Ó invented in a lab
and grown by most American farmers. http://www.ansonmills.com/
I use their flour
regularly and it is well worth the expense.
Full disclosure: I
know the owner. But I swear by the
product.
In the NewsÉ
Sources for some of my
powerpoint images and descriptions on Black Powder:
lrich Bretscher's Black
Powder Page [HeÕs a Swiss chemical engineer who likes black powder.]
Posted: 12/5/08 1:55 PM
Review materials for Final Exam:
and
Agriculture-Nitrogen-review-2.7MB.pdf
These two review sheets are the
same ones that I posted on the Ass7 page.