Butter chicken in Jerusalem

Garden log 13.06.09

2009-06-14T00:08:00.000+03:00

My reputation as a gardener who never grows anything is taking a dent lately . Whether it is due to my dabbling is permaculture or the abundant water from our greywater system or the sligh amount of soap that manages to get through the filtration system or the early onset of summer or all the above , it cannot be denied that the garden is blooming . The zucchini is going great guns , huge blooms and a lot of flowers . Today we harvested the sixth zucchini . Though there is some white powdery stuff on the leaves that is a bit disturbing . The tomatoes give me no reason to complain but still a way to go , beans we manage to get a handful every second day and some basil and rocket . But the pride and joy is definitely the melons , a nice decent sized melon , a small one and a few on the way .
The greywater system is giving me a bit of worry though . The water is down to a trickle and needs to be coaxed through . I suspect the sand layer ,since it was not protected with a geotechnic cloth has managed to find its way to the gravel and is creating a sludge which is pretty difficult for the water to get through. I have a taken out a bit of this sludge and gravel but the solution might lie in a reed bed that actively breaks down the soap and aerates the water . Next stage .
For the moment though we are enjoying watching the garden grow . If I had my way , I would've taken a chair and watched it all day long .
All the phots were taken by Ben . Going over the photos I remembered the pomegranate .

Ben performing at the circus and Rohan at home

2009-06-14T00:05:00.001+03:00

Garden log 310509

2009-06-01T11:37:00.002+03:00

End of may and the garden is coming along nicely . The tomatoes , bean and zucchini doing very well though only the zucchini has any fruit , lots of flowers on tomatoes . Fruit trees are coming along as well . We have added a grape vine and passionflower to the garden .

Zucchini living up to its reputation of being a fast mover , giant blooms , took me my surprise . I harvested the first zucchini yesterday but for some reason it was a bit soft at the tip .

Another Jukebox

2009-04-30T16:40:00.001+03:00

www.Jango.com - Internet Radio

Photos from Sinai

2009-04-15T13:01:00.001+03:00

Planting log 090408

2009-04-10T00:08:00.001+03:00

Photos of the garden, everything looking very much not there but the tank for the greywater system is in place , there is tons of organic stuff in the beds , had to do a lot of digging to take out stones and concrete from the soil but from now on it is going to be a no dig garden with organic mulch .

The Pomegranate

The strawberries along with chickpea

Herbs

Lemon

Almonds

Beds with mulch and the greywater filter

The Plum tree hasn't shown any inclination to acknowledge it is spring.

Greywater system update

2009-04-04T00:54:00.000+03:00

The greywater system is up and running. The water goes to the first tank and once the water crosses a point , the pump kicks in and pumps up the water to the filter cum tank . We had a very water intensive day today with a few loads of washing and kids in the bath but from what it appears we might have more water than what we need !! Next stage is to connect the water to the drip system .
Visually the water seems ok , no turbidity , a bit of soap coming through , a few days more till the biological filter or schmutzdecke kicks in.

The removal of contaminants in slow sand filters occurs mainly in the colmation layer or schmutzdecke - a biologically active layer consisting of algae, bacteria, diatoms and zooplankton. A ripening period of 6 - 8 weeks is required for this layer to form, during which time filter performance is sub-optimal.

From here
The amount of water makes me think that maybe we are underutilising the greywater system and should have integrated it with the flush water . But maybe I will just earn some 'brownie points' by offering to water my neighbours patch .

Planting log 01.04.09

2009-04-01T17:09:00.000+03:00

Planting so far:
Trees planted on 15th Mar 09
Almond
Lemon
Plum
Pomegranate
The Pomegranate is reasonably big , can expect fruit next year.
Cost of trees 300 shekels
Herbs
Mint
Sage
Zatar
Zuta
Cost of herbs 20 shekels
Seeds
My first set of seeds were dug up by the cats , the nicely dug soil to hard to resist I guess .SO another planting session on 31.03.04
Cucumber
Capsicum
Chillies
Lettuce
Rokat
Melon
Watermelon
Zucchini
Parsley
Cost of seeds 40 shekels

Now I have to think of a nasty contraption to keep the cats out of my seedlings , something that gives them a vicious poke that scares the living daylight muha-ha-ha-ha..........

Food

2009-04-01T17:00:00.000+03:00

For the last couple of months I have been reading voraciously about food , organic , backyard , the ills of industrial monocultures , Fukuoka , Geoff Lawton , the broken nutrient cycles , Monsanto , the Future of food , Permaculture , Bill Mollison, Emilia Hazelip and more . It is quite clear that my mind is made up , industrial production of food is bad for me and my family and the environment . So time to take the plunge seriously into growing my own food or part of it and at the same time utilize wastes that we create in a manner that is not only non destructive but also adds to the immediate environment . Not that this is the first time I am trying to do so , I have at least two seasons of growing but not producing anything with my blessed black thumb but I believe I have reached a point where I have enough know how to do it better . We will be using greywater from our bath , composting all our kitchen and yard wastes and using a lot of mulch .

More Photos - Looking almost habitable

2009-02-18T14:12:00.002+02:00

Another embeddable player from seeqpod

2009-01-29T16:24:00.000+02:00

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Photos of the House - Stone and the kitchen cabinets

2009-01-29T15:36:00.000+02:00

Greywater system

2009-01-25T15:25:00.004+02:00

Today we finalised the greywater system that we are going to install . It is a very basic setup , greywater from the bath and the washing machine goes in a subterranean tank with a submersible pump which pumps it up to the terrace . The contractor is going to do the job of pumping up the terrace and I will make the rest of the filtration system which is essentially going to be a trench with gravel . The water will be released into a subsurface drip system . Schematically it is going to be like this .
If the water pump is 0.5 kw and takes even as much as half an hour everyday to pump up the water , the monthly consumption of electricity will be 15 Kwh which at 0.50 shekels/Kwh works out to 7.50 shekels a month or less than 2$ a month . The water saved will definitely offset the cost of running the pump .

Another great music site

2009-01-07T00:22:00.001+02:00

Try www.jango.com , very much like Pandora , for us unfortunates where Pandora doesn't work any longer . Contrary to Deezer.com which is a play on demand site here you choose the genre and then your likes and dislikes drive which way the music goes

Photos of the House- Walls are plastered and flooring comes up

2009-01-04T09:33:00.001+02:00

Photos of the House - The walls come up

2009-01-04T09:16:00.001+02:00

Blender test - Combining videos with the video sequncer

2008-12-24T13:52:00.000+02:00

And here is another one with a little IPO tweaking.

A bit of Mingus Ah-um

2008-12-21T11:53:00.001+02:00

Discover Charles Mingus!

Another test with a larger widget

2008-12-18T15:31:00.002+02:00

Discover Albert Ayler!

Test with the Deezer player

2008-12-18T15:27:00.005+02:00

My Coltrane radio at www.Deezer.com
Works like a charm .

Discover Albert Ayler!

Photos of the house - The existing minus the walls and flooring

2008-12-10T11:02:00.001+02:00

Photos of the house - Concrete without the formwork

2008-12-10T10:57:00.001+02:00

Photos of the house - Rebar and concrete

2008-11-30T10:24:00.001+02:00

Photos of the house - Formwork

2008-11-23T13:06:00.003+02:00

Photos of the house - The foundations

2008-11-23T13:06:00.002+02:00

Photos of the house under construction_The dig

2008-11-23T12:54:00.001+02:00

Making textures with GIMP

2008-09-21T11:20:00.000+03:00

Create a new image . Fill it with your favourite colour .

Add some noise , HSV, RGB whatever , depends on the kind of texture you are aiming for .

Add some bump and you are done

Play with the settings , Azimuth, elevation and depth , and create variations to the texture .

[URL=https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1174][IMG]http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9091/blog2109200842dr1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Some quick textures using this technique . Play with filters to get better results .

Would you give up on meat ?

2008-09-07T23:10:00.000+03:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Shun meat, says UN climate chief

It's very rare when the UN tries to influence what we eat but it seems we hav come to a juncture where even the UN which has takes a back seat on the worst possible tragedies also wakes up and feels it is important to make a statement .
A kilogram of meat ,from a cow or similar animal, requires approximately 8 kgs of feed , a kg of chicken requires about 3 kgs . Quite naturally this vegetable fees has to grow somewhere , so it either is grown in arable land or forest land that is cleared to make room for growing it . Every acre of forestland cleared amounts to a significant amount of carbon that was sequestered being released into the atmosphere . Also the gut of the livestock produces a high volume of methane , a greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide , so when they said that sheep farting in Australia caused the ozone hole , there was a lot of truth in it .
Besides there is a significant amount of hormones and other chemicals being pumped into the animals to produce more and produce fast and to remain disease free in cramped conditions that are conducive to disease .
And if anyone had any misconceptions that animals reared for slaughter have a great life , check up a local abattoir to see for yourself .

I eat meat and I would not tell anyone not to eat meat but for one's health , for the health of the planet and for the sake of the poor animals , it is best to consume lesser meat .

Soap nut

2008-09-06T23:54:00.000+03:00

My plans to reuse as much water as possible for secondary uses has always had an achilles heel when it came for water from the laundry and from the dishes . We have been using "Ecover" products for cleaning but somehow I never felt safe enough till yesterday . We did our first batch of laundry with the Soapnut or Reetha as it is known back home in India. The shell nut of the Sapindus Mukorossi has a natural surfactant which like in synthetic soap breaks down the grease that hold the dirt and cleans the laundry . My mother used Reetha as a natural shampoo . Now I learnt that it is an effective natural substitute for detergent leaving no harmful residue , just pop in a couple in a cloth bag with the laundry . I am told a kilogram of the stuff gives upto 400 washes and locally it costs about 120-140 shekels a kg . That is not too bad even economically , much cheaper than the Ecover detergent that costs nearly a shekel and half per wash . The laundry came out the way it should ; clean , soft with a very gentle clean smell , nothing like the olfactory attack that comes from a normal detergent . Friends of ours have been using it for cloth diapers for their kids and are happy with the results . Apparently one can brew soap out of it that can be used for all cleaning purposes .
Here are other things you can do with it .

Sweet naive smokers

2008-09-03T11:37:00.000+03:00

I am not a smoker and I don't condone smoking but there is something so sweet about Monk and Ron Carter . No wonder smoking was so chic at a certain time .

Bike share in Tel Aviv

2008-08-27T12:30:00.001+03:00

Came across a bike sharing program being launched in DC at [url=http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/dc-bike-sharing-smart-bikes.php]Treehugger[/url] . Besides the usual hitches of bikes being stolen , vandalized , do you carry a lock or do you have to take it a collection point somebody commented what happens in the case of mandatory helmet rule . Do you carry one with you for the whole day or do you get someone else's sweaty helmet ? With Tel Aviv soon to launch a bike sharing program that is another valid question to be addressed .
As per the tender here is something interesting

But failing to return it on time ...

A little harsh and I am sure enough to scare most people .
For someone keen on what is being asked for, here is a copy of the tender for the setup, rental and operation of the system in TA and Jaffa .

Now when are we going to have a similar operation in Jerusalem or are we going to live with dug up roads till the light rail comes in 2020 (?)

Sewage - an exercise in futility

2008-08-25T11:45:00.002+03:00

Every time you use the toilet you flush down from 10-15 liters of clean potable water which probably traveled many miles through a myriad network of holding tanks , pipes and what-not . And the act of flushing gets rid of the waste and all is forgotten to most of us . We all know that it goes down the sewage system but beyond that we don't care. I say we must because every pipe has two ends , flushing away your refuse just transfers it to the other end . So at the other end we create another system of settling tanks , aeration systems where this refuse is brought to a state where it is deemed harmless to be released into the waterways . The price is that the whole process is very energy and resource intensive . And it doesn't always work . Over time as the amount of sewage increases there is a need for more and more facilities or else as it happens all over the world , raw sewage is dumped into the waterways creating a serious health hazard . To illustrate

Take Delhi, as a typical instance. Yamuna is Delhi's main sewage drain. Yamuna enters Delhi at
Wazirabad - where the city draws its water supply - and after this an estimated 1,800 million
litres per day (mld) of untreated sewage flows through 18 drains into the river. In the last four
decades, the total sewage output has increased rapidly. Untreated sewage has grown even
faster. In 1999, the Central Pollution Control Board estimated that Delhi produces over 2,547
mld of sewage of which only 885 mld is collected through the sewage network for treatment
and the bulk - over 75 per cent flows into stormwater drains and then into the river. By late
2000, treated sewage had increased to 1,333 mld as had the quantity of sewage - still over 50
per cent of the city sewage was dumped into the river. By 2005, Delhi plans to triple its present
sewage treatment capacity at a cost of Rs 750 crore. But this will still be less than what is
needed. Paradoxical chase It is an ironic situation. Even if Delhi builds all the sewage treatment
plants, it will still not have the sewage to treat. Why? The city's sewage drains are choked and
silted. The government admits that the present capacity of the sewage treatment plants is not
being utilised and when it builds new treatment facilities, sewage never reaches these plants.
From Down to Earth

So we create a gargantuan system to get clean water , shit in it and then make an even larger system so that we get the shit out of it so that we can get clean water again . Sounds a bit crazy to me .

"Anyone starting out from scratch to plan a civilization would hardly have designed such a monster as our collective sewage system. Its existence gives additional point to the sometimes asked question, Is there any evidence of intelligent life on the planet Earth?"
G. R. Stewart

Wouldn't it be better to create a system where human refuse is handled at the source with minimal use of water , especially potable water when a really small fraction of the developing world has access to clean , potable water ? Wouldn't it be better to reuse the nutrients , give back the soil the nutrients that would otherwise be chemically synthesized ? I am talking Humanure but that is another story .

A case for urban gardening

2008-08-18T13:30:00.003+03:00

Ever wondered where how far your food traveled to get to your plate ? Ever wondered how did the food survive all that distance without getting spoiled ? Every wondered what chemicals were sprayed on your food so that it would grow to be blemish less and what percentage of the chemicals remained after a thorough scrub ? Ever wondered how much forest are we going to be left with after we make room for all the agricultural land we need ? All these questions would take reams and reams to talk about individually but as you can guess I am taking them all together to make a case for urban gardening , growing food at your doorstep .
Growing food close to where you live cuts down on all the food miles , cuts down on all the energy required to transport food from the other end of the globe , does away the need of having varieties that are chosen more for longer shelf life than for taste and food value . Growing your food ensures food that is fresh , untainted by chemicals and best of all chosen for taste and food value .
Urban areas have abundant land lying vacant between buildings , non-productive unecological lawns , balconies , terraces , paved areas of no consequence etc . All of these areas can be utilized for growing vegetables and fruit. Lawns and paved areas are an anathema to urban areas . Whilst the former are resource intensive and unproductive and serve no purpose other than giving you woes over the grass being greener over the fence no matter what you do , the latter creates surface runoff preventing water seeping down and urban heat island effect . So rip of the grass and the paving and plant vegetables and fruit . Make a compost , reduce the amount of organic waste you create and give it back to the land . They are doing the same in Royal Parks in UK if this article is to be believed .

Water saving

2008-08-17T14:02:00.003+03:00

Watering with a sprinkler, drip etc has a serious disadvantage , a lot of water gets lost by evaporation . So I always thought of using Olla for irrigation . The idea is that the earthen pot is dug into the earth next to the roots of the plant and water seeps out slowly right next to the roots . And then I had this inspiration what if I replace it with a plastic bottle with tiny little holes . Sadly even the tiniest holes makes the water gush out and in less than 10 minutes all the water is gone . Then it was suggested by the good people at Gardenstew that I should put some cotton yarn in these holes that will act as a wick and regulate the water . So I did exactly that and the system seems to work .Here is a little graphic to explain the idea . Needless to say I used Inkscape for the graphic.

Apparently this idea always existed and wasn't as original as I thought .
Silicon can also be used in conjunction with the cotton yarn to reduce the water oozing out of the holes .

This video will give you goosebumps

2008-08-04T16:01:00.001+03:00

Firefox 3 rocks

2008-08-03T10:28:00.000+03:00

Just installed the latest version of Firefox and I must say the improvement in the memory footprint is tremendous , when minimized the memory use drops to 5k which is great compared to what it was earlier . Haven't seen the rest of the goodies yet but it is promising.

Another Composter

2008-08-03T09:53:00.000+03:00

I believe I roped in a new composting initiate .

Shiny buttons in Inkscape

2008-07-31T13:41:00.004+03:00

Switch on the grid

Create a rectangle

Press F2 and grab the circle grip and drag to make it rounded

Make another rectangle , fill it with white and a gradient from white to transparent

Switch of the stroke

Copy the original rectangle and lower to bottom

Change it's color , switch of the stroke and add transparency

Add some text

Export as a png

You can change the color of the first rectangle and get a variety of colors.

The svg file can be downloaded here .

Complicated selections in GIMP

2008-07-31T13:41:00.000+03:00

Complicated selections can be achieved in GIMP by changing the mode of selection in the Tool Options of the selection . One can add, subtract or intersect , even change the selection tool .

Plotting from Autocad to Tif

2008-07-30T17:40:00.003+03:00

This is how to configure a plotter for plotting to a tif file from autocad .

In the last stage you choose the size of the plot in pixels as you would select a paper size .

Test for a header in nkscape

2008-07-30T17:13:00.001+03:00

Created in Inkscape and used directly with the alpha.

Cropped in Gimp and without alpha .

Chart for companion planting

2008-07-30T13:24:00.001+03:00

Adding bling to drawings with gimp

2008-07-29T15:50:00.003+03:00

Architectural drawings take a lot of work to make more presentable . I usually follow the method of plotting from autocad as a Tif file -> open in gimp -> erase the background -> save as an xcf file in gimp -> add a background colour -> add more colour to areas above the background but below the lines -> some shadows -> text . Then I save a copy as png . So at any moment I have the same filename with tif , xcf and png format . Keeping three different formats allows me to make changes as I go along .

Erase the background with choose by colour tool and colour to alpha . Add a layer call it base and drag it to the bottom . You can change the colour easily once everything is on different layers.

Create another layer for fills and move it above the base layer and below the linework . Select areas and fill colours . Select by colour tool again and drop shadows .

Add annotation and graphics. You are done when you think you are .

Calatrava bridge Jerusalem

2008-07-28T23:18:00.002+03:00

Once again crossed under the Calatrava bridge and wondered if this city needed this 'architectural masterpiece ' . To begin with there is no room for the bridge a the entrance to the city and for most of the views that you get the twenty times the cost of a regular bridge is not money well spent . For a fleeting instant when you cross underneath you get this feeling of awe .

Here is a render that I made for some work we did .

Animation in Sketchup

2008-07-28T23:00:00.002+03:00

This was created in Google Sketchup as individual frames , stitched with mencoder . Then for kicks I converted it to Flv format with ffmpeg .

Some animations in Blender

2008-07-28T22:54:00.002+03:00

Still waiting for your Butterchicken ?

2008-07-24T22:21:00.006+03:00

Butterchicken in Inkscape.

Figured out that blurs do not render well . so sticking to plain transparency.

Thanks where it is due

2008-07-24T16:31:00.001+03:00

I have been using imagebot for uploading photos to imageshack and photobucket and the biggest advantage is that it gives code for embedding images/ thumbnails to forums, blogs , webpages . Very handy , thank you guys .

Text on path

2008-07-24T16:10:00.001+03:00

COULN'T MANAGE TO DISPLAY TEXT ON A PATH ON FIREFOX SO HERE IS A PNG INSTEAD.

An armadillo spiral

2008-07-24T15:34:00.003+03:00

The armadillo comes from the open clipart library

The embed tag doesn't show up in Firefox 3 , so changed the tags to object .

So how does my compost smell

2008-07-23T14:36:00.001+03:00

Lately I have started inviting friends to smell my compost pile and the product . People have been quite sporting for the time being but clearly they do not share my enthusiasm for compost . There is a small danger of being left without friends if I keep up with it !!

For the hebrew challenged

2008-07-23T13:48:00.001+03:00

For the Hebrew challenged QTL very nice translation tool as an addon to firefox . Highlighting text in Hebrew brings up either the Babylon translation tool in a pop up or else you can choose the Quick mode that put the translation in the address bar. Very useful.

Test for GE plugin

2008-07-22T12:33:00.000+03:00

This did not work , probably some problem with the blogger code but to get an idea of what the plugin allows take a look here . Nice demonstration of how to make models available to people that don't have Google earth .

To shower or have a bath

2008-07-21T22:00:00.001+03:00

Today I figured that my two sons having a bath together used about 90 litres of water . A quick search on the internet put the average shower consumption for a gravity shower at 35 litres . It of course assumes an efficient shower head with water discharge of about 7l/min for a five minute shower. I was under the impression that baths take a lot more water but if two people take a bath together it is almost equal to a shower . The best part is that if you are using organic soaps you can even reuse the water . For collecting shower water you either need to have a separate system for your waste water or you have to stand in a bucket to have a shower . Now if all of us were to use the same water ..........

A test with svg

2008-07-20T10:32:00.016+03:00

With my recent love for Inkscape and scalable vector graphics , I have to do a little test with svg in html. This what is looks like with the embed tag

and this what is looks like with the object tag

Had a few hiccups , the height and width had to be explicitly stated otherwise there were scrollbars on bottom and side
Text came out as black boxes till I edited the text frames to text in inkscape . New problem , I changed the text to text along path and it did not show . Object to pattern also did not show . IE doesn't display the svg without the Adobe svg plugin , I should probably say Best viewed in Firefox or ask everyone to install the adobe svg plugin .

Waste and the broken natural cycles

2008-07-19T17:07:00.001+03:00

Waste as we know it does not exist in nature . Matter only changes its form, being useful to one organism in a certain state to being useful to another in another state . Take for instance human urine . Urine is the body discharging wastes in a state that it can no longer assimilate . It is rich in nitrates and salts . Flushed down into the sewer it just stinks , the nitrates getting converted to ammonia but if the urine is directed to the ground it can be a very good source of nitrogen ( the famous N in the NPK fertilisers ) for plants . So every time we flush we are flushing a good clean source of nitrogen down the drain . We even throw a good quantity of potable water along with it ( for most of us in the previliged worlds that we live in there is no distinction between water for drinking and for flushing our wastes ) . For a better idea of what we lose with every flush read this
.
I for my part have a litre bottle with it's top cut off and most of it goes into the garden , diluted with 10 parts of water . Digressing . .
So like this cycle of 'waste' nature has a way of taking all waste as long as we don't screw it up too much . Create something that doesn't exist naturally there is a very strong chance that nature has no mechanism in place to handle it . And so it comes back at us . Take plastic for instance , there is nothing that nature can do about it other than over a period of time break it into microscopic plastic particles that get into the groundwater , might be carried into the ocean or get back to us in out food . Maybe as I write my gut is getting lined with microscopic plastic particles that originated from plastic bags picked irreverently from the supermarket to bring more plastic home and in all were in use for 10 minutes till you got home .

Waste 2

2008-07-19T00:18:00.001+03:00

Composting organic waste has a number of advantages

The amount of garbage is thrown out reduces considerably . On an average my garbage sack is half to one-thirds of wht it used to be .
Lesser garbage means that the garbage trucks carry lesser garbage halfway across the country to a garbage dump . It could eventually reduce the number of pickups which can be a considerable saving in energy transporting and managing .
Most organic garbage does not fully decompose in a garbage dump as there is too much of it competing for too little fresh air . Garbage in plastic bags is known to remain in its original state packed in nylon bags in a high methane surrounding for years on end. Even after the organic stuff breaks down there is no way of putting it to useful use as it is full of inorganic stuff of unknown antecedants . So organic matter in the garbage is effectively lost .
Even if garbage is separated and taken to a composting facility it involves a lot of energy expended in separating and moving it .
Organic matter goes back to where it belongs , into the soil to rise again like a phoenix as organic matter again .

Blender

2008-07-17T15:34:00.001+03:00

A quick little test in Blender for a scene created in Sketchup and was rendered in 3D max initially .

And the original in 3dMax ..

The lighting needs a bit of work but overall the render is quite ok for out of the box settings.

Waste 1

2008-07-17T14:38:00.002+03:00

Many years ago in my Urban Design days in SPA Delhi , I heard one of the most fascinating lectures on waste management . I don't remember the name of the person but he sure did kindle something deep down about urban waste . It has been on a low backburner all of this time till some time back , nothing drastic bjt a more concerted effort to deal with the waste we create .
The easiest part of it all is the organic waste from the kitchen and garden . All little scraps and pieces and waste go to my compost pile in the no man's land between the houses . Initially I was worried about the neighbors getting worried but one year down the line it doesn't seem to bother anyone and I have a constant supply of organic compost . Even gave some to our neighbor who showed some interest but then it was too much of a bother for him to separate the organic waste and walk 10 m up to the pile. So I continue with my solo crusade . To dispel some misconceptions

Compost does not smell if you take proper care to turn it once in a while and strike a good balance between greens and browns.
It does not attract rodents and the likes if one takes care to separate non-veg and dairy waste.

Besides

we have cut down our waste to a third .
we get nice black compost to grow our vegetables in .
the garbage collectors say a silent thank you every time they cross our house ( they should if they don't )

More testing

2008-07-17T13:26:00.001+03:00

I am testing the option of storing swf/flv on photobucket as the youtube videos are quite low in quality for animations of buildings.

and here is the html code

The model was created in Sketchup with very basic rendering in Kerkythea . The output was stitched with ffmpeg .

Scribe fire test

2008-07-16T15:06:00.002+03:00

Today as I opened up firefox I was told that the Scribefire extension had an update . Since the blog has been languishing for quite some time I decided to fire Scribe fire and see what happens .
And apparently it worked

Mexico rebuffs Monsanto

2006-10-19T09:12:00.000+02:00

From a recent article here

MEXICO CITY - Mexico this week barred Monsanto Co. and other biotechnology companies from planting genetically engineered corn, rekindling fierce debate in that country over the technology.
Environmentalists said the government's decision will help prevent biotech corn from contaminating native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn and still a storehouse of genetically valuable native species.

But as expected

This is temporary, because there is so much pressure from the multinationals," said Gustavo Ampugnani of Greenpeace Mexico

We were surprised by this decision," said Eduardo Perez Pico, director of technological development at Monsanto's Mexico subsidiary, which had applied to start experimental fields in the northern states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Tamaulipas.

"These are not centers of origin or biodiversity of corn," Perez Pico said, referring to the areas where corn ancestor plants or primitive varieties grow naturally.

Under current law, such areas are off-limits to biotech planting, in part to protect the genetic traits of those ancestor varieties in case their traits are needed for hybridization efforts in the future.

To put things in perspective

Farmers in Mexico first bred corn some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The country is home to at least 59 species of maize, from the protein-rich variety used to make tortilla chips to a softer grain mashed for use in tamales.

Introduction of genetically modified (GM ) corn can wipe off this biodiversity and make the farmers dependant on GM seeds and pesticide like Roundup . From the article , the debate is far from over , this ruling just points out to a bigger fight . Multinationals in the business of GM food are in for a long haul with opinions being changed and data being conditioned

A study in the Sierra de Juarez region in the southern state of Oaxaca found evidence of transgenic corn contamination in 2000 from corn that was apparently imported for food use. The study was published and then retracted by the science journal Nature.

Another study by Mexican and U.S. researchers in 2004 found no trace of genetically altered corn in crops in the same area four years later.

Read about Monsanto in a previous post here .

Safdie Plan

2006-10-15T16:52:00.000+02:00

So decision is nearing over the controversial Safdie Plan for adding 20,000 dwelling units to the west of Jerusalem . Adding 20,000 units is not what ails the plan , the city does face a serious shortage of residential units which eventually leads to the young secular population of Jerusalem to drift away . The problem is that the plan takes up 26 sq. km of forests , green areas and archeological sites . Read the story about it in
haaretz .

According to a number of studies the city is capable of taking in the planned 20,000 units within the current municipal boundaries . In fact according to the study prepared by Sustainable Jerusalem , compiled by urban planners Uri Barsheshet and Yael Hammerman, the city is capable of absorbing 58,000 additional housing units . Urban densification can help the city in many ways .

Adding to the existing housing stock would offer more oppurtunities for the young population to buy/rent affordable housing

Densification would allow for a more efficient public transport system. The city at the moment is spread up making it difficult to have an efficient public transport .As a result the more and more people rely on private vehicles .

The municipality at the moment is quite iefficent in providing services to the city . Spreading the municipal limits would only spread their services thinner.

According to the Israel Union for Environmental Defence

Quality of life in Jerusalem has been deteriorating due the current municipality's failure to maintain cleanlines and to provide municipal services. Only focused investment in making Jerusalem a liveable, pleasant place to be will stop the tide of residents moving away to other towns. Construction of new neighborhoods to be run by the same municipality that is disappointing residents today will only exacerbate urban woes in Jerusalem.

But clearly there are vested interests in this plan . The municipality is interested inseeing the plan through as it increases its clout over areas not under it's jurisdiction at the moment . Ehud Olmert , the erstwhile Mayor of the city , sees he project as a major accomplishment of his tenure , no way is he going to be swayed out of his grandiose vision . A plan of such a magnitude means a tremendous amount of money changing handss , no wonder the construction industry is so much in favour of it . And last but not the least , there is nothing heroic or glamorous about densifiction , everyone wants a Haussman or a Corbusier who with a deft stroke of the brush can create a city out of nowhere . But before we do that we should take a look at Safdie's Modiin and think again if we want another housing project that pretends to be a city .

Indian Classical music in the Katamonim

2006-09-18T08:55:00.000+03:00

Surreal is how the man sitting behind us described it .The venue was Chanchal and Sigal's courtyard (see below) in the Katamonim neighbourhood in Jerusalem and the occassion was a classical Indian concert featuring Ustad Bahauddin Dagar on the Rudra Veena . To put things in perpective , Katamonim undeniably the cultural backwaters in Jerusalem , home to the Black Panther movement , doesn't exactly scream it's candidature for a cultural event featuring the Rudra Veena one of the more esoteric instruments from India .Sitting next to a playground and abutting a road , the venue isn't exactly built for performances . To have arguably the finest exponent of this instrument completed the surreal picture . For the uninitiated the Rudra Veena is kind of sitar with a fretboard and two sound boxes but in reality it's miles apart with a much deeper and resonant sound .

The performance began with gratification of the culinary senses , food , excellent samosas ,chai ,gajjar ka halwa and thali . And after a mandatory delay the music began . The first piece was Raga Yaman , a beautiful simple raga ,one of the first ragas that is taught . More description about the raga here . The music took some time to build up and one could see the audience getting a bit restless including my two boys but then the music picked up it's tempo and you could see heads swaying keeping pace with the music . Barring an insistent scooter with a noisy exhaust , some cats in the background and an overenthusiatic student, the venue held up well . The high point of the evening was Raga Chandrakaus, a late night raga, performed flawlessly by the maestro . It was a pity when the show ended and I cycled back home . But I went home with the assurance that there were more shows in the offing . It's unlikely that there would be an artist of such a stature in the near future but it doesn't harm hoping .

Listen to Ustad Bahauddin Dagar here.

Sigal and Chanchal have a nice little corner where they host guests on thursdays with Indian food and will soon host Chanchal's art gallery. For thursday evenings the places can be reserved at 02-6784172 052-8620251 .

I discovered YouTube today

2006-08-29T13:20:00.000+03:00

I vaguely knew about YouTube from all my coworkers looking for funny clips or clips about cats but today I discovered that it is also a place to showcase all sorts of talent , saw some great improvisations on Paganini's 24 Caprice , found some great jazz recordings and discovered that I can embelish a blog with video without sweating a bit , just click on the object embed link and presto , your blog comes alive . Here is a sampling . I added a video to the Bismillah Khan blog as well .

Free anti virus software

2006-08-28T21:55:00.000+03:00

This is good news for all users of free software. AOL is offering a free version of the Kaspersky anti-virus program for download. It's been re-branded as "AOL Anti Virus Shield" and it's available to everyone . Kaspersky AV is one of the best commercial AV programs available and a clearly superior product to other free AV scanners such as AVG and Avast!
The only nags are the license requires a valid email address which AOL may utilise to send promotional material and it installs toolbar in Internet Explorer . The last one you can get around by using Firefox. The software can be downloaded here

Dubai continues on it's Quixotic march

2006-08-28T12:34:00.000+03:00

Dubai continues to march ahead recklessly , irreverantly , exponentially creating shocking , startling , awe inspiring , Jesus Christ architecture . Of course a lot of is downright crap and a garish display of wealth but hey that always attracts people .

The World Bank reckons that the reconstruction of Iraq is going to cost $53bn. In Dubai, along the strip of sand that stretches 25 miles along the shores of the Persian Gulf, there is about $100bn worth of projects either underway or planned for the near future.

Source katodrytis.com

Apparently the Palm Islands , the world and a multitude of high rises were not enough to quell the real estate appetite and technological razzmatazz , Dubai now gives us the
Rotating city. The idea is that every floor in everybuilding rotates independantly of the other giving every flat a 360 degrees view .

Wah Ustad no more

2006-08-21T08:53:00.000+03:00

Ustad Bismillah Khan , shehnai maestro is no more .Read about it here, here and here .

It is sad to hear that somebody whose name was synonymous with shehnai would come to his end virtually penniless . At the same time there are rumours or at least Ustadji's apprehensions that he never played the shehnai due to his religion . It is indeed sad that in a secular state we haven't been able to dispel the fear that being in a minority would make one a less equal citizen .

Wah Ustad

2006-08-03T21:21:00.000+03:00

Ustad Bismillah Khan one of the finest exponents and a name synoonymous with shehnai I read a few months ago was living a life of penury . It is quite shameful that an artiste who was once the toast of numerous mehfils and represented the country in numerous forums to be in such a stat . So it was heartening that finally he recieved some sort of financial help from the govt. The story here
Read the maestro here and here

Megastructures: Dubai's Palm Island

2006-08-01T09:54:00.000+03:00

Palm Islands
Another in the series about Megastructures from National Geographic . The premise is that Dubai is seeing the end of the barrel as far as oil barrels are concerned , ie in a few years oil will be gone . In this eventuality Dubai needs to reinvent itself as a tourist destination . With its limited coastline there isn't a lot that can be done . So enter the artificial islands to increase the coastline and create more area for development .

The Palm Islands, also referred to as The Palm Dubai and The Palms, are the world's three largest man-made islands, which are being built on the coast of the emirate of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The project is being handled by Al Nakheel Properties (Nakheel Corporation), which will increase Dubai's shoreline by 120km (72 miles) and create a large number of residential, leisure, and entertainment areas. The idea was first announced in May 2002 and the two manmade freehold artificial palm tree-shaped resort islands are expected to maintain Dubai's position as a premium tourist destination. The Palm Islands has also been named 'The Eighth Wonder of the World'.

The two Dubai islands, The Palm Jumeirah and The Palm Jebel Ali, will be built in the shape of date palm trees and consist of a trunk; a crown with 17 fronds; and a surrounding crescent island - the back of which forms the breakwater. Collectively, the island will support more than 60 luxury hotels, 4,000 exclusive residential villas (sale), 1,000 unique water homes (sale), 5,000 shoreline apartments (sale), marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, health spas, cinemas and various dive sites.

Its Development
The project took four years of methodical planning and exhaustive feasibility studies in Dubai, ensuring that the islands would not disrupt the environment. The first stage of the development of The Palm Islands, includes the construction of the land foundations, which involves sand transfer and rock placement. Following this, the next stage will involve the building of infrastructure and services, as well as the 300 meter (990 feet) bridges linking the islands to the mainland. The final stage consists of the construction of homes, townhouses, and apartments.

What this doesn't mention what exactly this grandiose plan entails . The Sheikh who is the progenitor of this plan wanted the whole contruction to be as natural as possible . So the engineers devised method of rock and sand as opposed to a concrete structure to create the islands . It has been a feat in engineering of proportions probably unparalled in the world with technology being created on the fly . For instance how does one ascertain that the substructure is in place , obviously satellite imaging and extensive use of GPS on the ground .

But in this euphoria of man's success over nature one thing has been forgotten completely , the damage it does to the ecology .It doesn't really concern anyone that entire cliffs have been blasted to acquire the rock and sand has been siphoned up from the middle of the ocean to create this superstructure . It doesn't really take a lot of imaginination to come to the conclusion that immense swathes of marine life were probably siphoned off in the process. Widespread quarrying has repurcussions on the land ecology as well . There is an instance in the documentary where they mention that the new landmass is destroying the existing beaches , but no problem we can fix that . Everything fits in like a glove , if the film is to be believed , the new landforms are attracting new marne life , great coral reefs and everything is hunky dory . Well maybe it is and I am the skeptic . After all this image is quite seductive .

But on second thoughts who wants to live in suburb which replaces the roads with waterways , who wants to pay millions of bucks to be huddled next to their neighbour . Well maybe somebody does but then if you want and you can you can have your own island in the WORLD .

Useful Software for free

2006-07-31T13:02:00.000+03:00

Over the years I have collected a lot of free software , open source and freeware which I find very useful for work and play . I will let you explore the difference between the two forms of licensing and will get on with my list .

Audio/Video

Bsplayer
VLCplayer
Virtualdub
FFDshow
Foobar

Editing/Formatting

Abiword A lightweight Bi-directional editor , Open source .
Open Office An excellent office suite for general formatting, presentations, spreadsheets etc etc Can read all formats that MS Office creates. Needs a decent machine to run it though - Open source
Pfe32

Graphics

The Gimp The best graphics editor - Open source
Irfanview Excellent viewer for all image formats

Audio video tools

Ogg Vorbis

Musepack [GNU LGPL, BSD]

Audacity [GNU GPL]

LAME [GNU LGPL]:

Official site

Mp3splt [GNU GPL]

Mp3 Tag Tools [GNU GPL]

VirtualDub [GNU GPL]

VirtualDubmod [GNU GPL]

MP3Gain [GNU LGPL]

foobar2000 [Other/proprietary]

VideoLAN [GNU GPL]

Media Player Classic [GNU GPL]

MKVToolnix [GNU GPL]

QuEnc AVS->MPEG Encoder [GNU GPL]

ffdshow (DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX movies) [GNU GPL]

ffvfw (MPEG-4 Video for Windows codec) [GNU GPL]

AC3Filter [GNU GPL]

XviD [GNU GPL]

CAD/Graphics

BRL-CAD [BSD/GNU (L)GPL]

PythonCAD [GNU GPL]

The GIMP [GNU GPL]

Inkscape [GNU GPL]

POV-Ray [Other/Proprietary License]

OpenFX

Blender [GNU GPL or BL license]

AutoTrace [GNU GPL]

CopyRightLeft [GNU GPL]

Wings 3D [BSD]

Jahshaka [GNU GPL]

GRASS GIS [GNU GPL]

Databases

MySQL [GNU GPL]

OpenOfficeorg BASE [GNU GPL/LGPL and SISSL]

System Tools

Explore2fs [GNU GPL]

Compression/ZIP

7-Zip [GNU LGPL]

Zzip [GNU GPL]

Web Related -Mail & Internet

K-Meleon

Firefox

Lynx (text based!) [GNU GPL]

Nvu [MPL/LGPL/GPL]

Mozilla [NPL/MPL/LGPL/GPL]

HTML Tidy [W3C license]

wget [GNU GPL]

HTTrack [GNU GPL]

Getleft [GNU GPL]

Mozilla [NPL/MPL/LGPL/GPL]

Mozilla Thunderbird

Evolution

Mailfilter [GNU GPL]

Spamihilator [GNU GPL]

SpamBayes [Python Software Foundation]

Servers:

FileZilla server

XMail

Apache

Cycling , where now ?

2006-07-30T14:27:00.000+03:00

The recent mess with Floyd Landis testing positive for high levels of testosterone brings up some interesting questions .

Is cycling so deeply steeped in drugs/performance enhancing tactics as we recently start to feel it is or we are on witch hunt emanating from the animosity between WADA and UCI ?
Can the agencies concerned with the doping can say conclusively that the tests are to be relied on . After all after Tyler Hamilton was dtected with different blood strains there were a lot of possibilities such as Tyler is a chimera , the test used hasn't been tested enough to be 100% reliable . For instance is it not possible that Floyd Landis has an exceptionally high testosterone/epitestosterone ratio ? I would expect anyone to ride for three weeks over gruelling terrain with another 200 motivated super athletes to have a higher level of testosterone . The average testosterone/epitestosterone is taken as one , what with these guys ? Unlikely to believe that a guy pushing paper and them would have the physical traits .
A lot is made about Armstrong's exceptionally large heart , his lactate threshold , his VOX ratio putting him in a physically superior category . Maybe we are missig something here and there are more of these super beings around .

Of course it is equally likely that cycling is full of dirt and needs to flushed completely .

Monsanto and the axis of evil

2006-07-23T12:35:00.000+03:00

Saw an excellent documentary yesterday called the Future of food which provides an in depth look into genetically modified food and the nexus that big companies , specifically Monsanto in the film , have with the highest political levels.
Genetically modified food and Monsanto go hand in hand as Monsanto developed genetically modified food for the first time. Monsanto started as a chemicals industry with a number of patents to their name including saccharin and agent orange . Their foray into the food industry began with Roundup , a broad spectrum herbicide . Soon after Monsanto got into genetically engineered seeds which were engineered to withstand Roundup . So in principle if you sprayed a field of Monsanto cropp wtih Roundup , everything else but the crop would perish . In principle this sounds great , to a certain extent it works as well and then things start to get dirty . It begins with the patenting of GE (genetically engineered) seeds . Once Monsanto holds a patent on it if John Doe wants their product he has to pay for it . Traditionally farmers stored their own seed , ready for the next planting but the patent Monsanto holds makes them buy the seed everytime they plant .Replanting the seeds would lead to John Doe being sued . Then it gets dirtier . If a few seeds find their way to a field which doesn't plant Monsanto , Monsanto can come and claim that the the framer is using their seed illegally , whcih means fines , penalties etc . And's whats more , since the crop is indistinguishable from traditional strains even the seed for susequent years can be contaminated and hence it is not possible to keep your own seed .
All through this Monsanto is helped along in its goal by dubious judgements in the highest courts of law , the whole issue of testing the crop is circumvented by employing ex employees of Monsanto in the role of the wachdog . John Ashcroft , Donald Rumsfeld are a couple of names among many others that crop as being direct benefecieries of Monsano largesse , either in ways of election funds or being employees of Monsanto at a certain point in history .
Definately a must see .

Quote from Velonews

2006-07-19T17:27:00.000+03:00

If you ever want to dispell the illusion that cycling is an eco-friendly sport, you should see Rasmussen right now. We have on skinny little dude on a 14-pound bike and he's surrounded by about six cars, seven motorcycles and a helicopter....

I am starting a bike blog at the following address , feel free to have a look at it .
30 calories/km

Green Jerusalem

2006-07-17T22:45:00.000+03:00

Ok I finally did it , started my webpage from my homeserver . Its called Green Jerusalem and as the name suggests would concern itself to green issues . Environment , sustainability , bike commuting . I would also love to have a section dealing with development and planning issues , the accent of it again would be on the green side . The forum can be accesed from the homepage here and the link to the forum is this .

Doping hits cycling again !!!!!

2006-07-02T10:02:00.000+03:00

And I had all my hopes on Ulli this years . The cycling world received a big shock when a blood doping scandal was exposed in Spain , even bigger than the 1998 Festina affair . Read about it here . Hamilton in all likelihood will go down for life . In one stroke all the heros have been exposed as mere mortals . I am a bit angry that Armstrong got away !! No way he wasn't doping when all the biggest and cleanest names were all doping . More links
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t351117.html
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t351028.html

Tyler and Sevilla ..

Quoting from post in cyclingforums

Dear Jan,

What can I say? Words cannot express how I have been feeling these last few days. I feel as if I’ve been dumped with no explanation, no warning that it was coming.

You say you are innocent. I desperately want to believe you as I still can’t quite believe you could do such a thing. If you truly are innocent, why didn’t you act before now to clear your name? I really hope you are, I desperately want you to be, but what I am hearing and reading does not give me much hope. I knew there was a doping problem in cycling but call me naïve if you wish, but I thought you were above that. I’ve supported you for a long time, through all your ups and downs and I always stuck by you, even in 2002. When others cheered for Armstrong and called you fat I stuck up for you. I actually believed that you might have been cheated out of several Tour wins. Now I have to accept that you were probably no better. You have broken my heart. Months ago, as usual, I booked a trip to the Tour in the hope of seeing you win. This year, up until Friday morning, I really thought I would see you wear yellow in Paris again. I no longer want to go, I have no interest in this years Tour anymore. Never again will I let myself get so attached to a single cyclist as I have with you. I am completely gutted and there must be thousands more feeling just like me. Shame on you Jan Ullrich for making us feel this way.

Yours,

A disillusioned fan

So what exactly is Butter chicken

2006-06-28T23:30:00.000+03:00

The story goes that one day a small restaurant in post partition Delhi called Moti Mahal received a high standing patron after closing time . The kitchen was nearly closed for the night . So the intrepid chef took a tandoori chicken some tomato gravy , cooked the two together and at the finishing moments put dollops of butter in it . That day butter chicken was born . Of course it has nothing to do with Jerusalem , butter chicken is the very opposite of kosher . It in a way is a misfit here the way I am .
The name is borrowed from Pankaj Mishra's 'Butter Chicken in Ludhiana' , a travel book about small town India .
Disclaimer : I have no connection whatsoever to Pankaj Mishra or Penguin India but I wouldn't mind if they pay me for giving them free publicity :-)

Tandoori chicken ..

Musical Notes

2006-06-28T13:03:00.000+03:00

Any reference to music has to begin with a reference to Pandora Radio , one of the greatest things to happen in the online music world . In the field of suggested music , Pandora is the tops , it allows you to create your own music station , in fact a 100 of them , according to your taste and using the music genome research , suggests music similar to that . Very impressive , exposes a number of unknown artists .
Lastfm is another great option but somehow I feel it is too influenced by uninformed people. It works on a sytem of tags , so if everyone goes and tas Kenny G as jazz , your jazz listening experience is doomed .
So I stick to Pandora . There is a little bit of advertising , links to amazon.com ,itunes etc but nothing more agressive . Also you don't look at the ads as the music continues in the background even when you are on a different tab ( Naturally a tabbed browser like Firefox ) At the moment I am listening to my Albert Ayler station . The link will take you to the definitive Albert Ayler biography on the net .

Getting started with this blog thing

2006-06-28T10:10:00.000+03:00

Took me some time to get started . Was too busy with the DIY webserver . alongwith Pushpullbar forum also taking a lot of eyeball time . Add to it the peripherals of making a living and raising a family ...
Pushpull bar is an architectural forum dedicated to contemporary modern architecture .Sketchup is the design tool of choice and generates a lot of discussion on the boards . Sketchup was recently acquired by google and very soon a free version of sketchup was offered for anyone who wants to get his hands dirty with 3D modelling .
The other distraction I had was the the DIY webserver site . I am trying to put up a website for my wife which at the moment is called Architecture without architects aka Architecture for the Cattle class. At the moment the website is only an empty page but once it starts running it should have be a forum for people who are interested in architecture , not just for professionals. The beauty of it all , once it starts running , will be that the forum will be served from my homecomputer running open source software , Apache , PHP, MySql and SMF SMF is s wonderful piece of software that allows just anybody to start running a forum once he figures out the PHP Mysql part . If somebody does your hosting , you can rest easy and an not worry about the php, mysql part .
Somehow these two distractions will come together with the forum becoming an online class for sketchup I suspect :-) .

The proposed Calatrava bridge in Jerusalem modelled in Sketchup