Mycelial information networks:

When some plants are attacked by sap-sucking aphids, they emit volatile compounds into the air. These volatiles serve as a defense mechanism, and in more ways than one. First, they serve to repel the aphids attacking the plant. Second, they attract the aphids natural enemies, wasps. But there’s more to that: a team from the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute show that some plants use fungi to communicate the presence of aphids, allowing those plants to emit wasp-attracting and and aphid-repelling  volatiles even before they have been physically attacked.

object of the day du jour

Our friend Megan, who runs Marble Valley Farm, told us an interesting story the other day. Her tomato plants are infested with tomato hornworm. This has always been a very difficult infestation for her to deal with (she is totally organic, so can't just drop death spray on them.) But after much research she came across a brief mention on the internet of using a black light in order to find them. She consulted several of her farmer friends and all were skeptical of this technique since none had heard of it before. Still, out of desperation, she made a trip to Spencer Gifts at the local mall, bought a black light, and went out into the fields with it that night. Amazingly, the black light light up the bugs perfectly. She said it was like picking lights off a Christmas tree. In a few hours they picked over a thousand hornworms off the plants (over 10 pounds!) And thus the tomato crop was saved.

One of her hippie workers fried one up and ate it, claiming it was "not too bad". Lucas was unsure of this verdict.

Made a dr pepper/pickle juice ham yesterday. Approximately this recipe

single family home made country ham, a friend brought back from his hometown Wakefield Va. This is my new thing. Next one i do is a Calhoun ham from Culpepper Va.

Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.

Dutch light
“Human, All Too Human” is a three-hour BBC series from 1999, about the lives and work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The filmmakers focus heavily on politics and historical context — the Heidegger hour, for example, focuses almost exclusively on his troubling relationship with Nazism. / with links to other stuff too

just watched the first episode of broadchurch which is a season long murder mystery in the vein of the killing or top of the lake. certainly compelling enough to keep watching and the reviews seem to echo that. its about to run on bbc america but has already aired in britain. so....

diy cronuts

long shooting day for girls on orchard.

Orchard Street Hell Hole Consumes 2 Parking Cones and a Biker

Built-in bottle necks

texas in the 70s

John zurier
chillington tools
brisket town

bkln

record amberjack but the happy to sell fisherman failed to weigh

The formula didn’t come from a mad scientist. Instead it came from a screenplay guidebook, Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. In the book, author Blake Snyder, a successful spec screenwriter who became an influential screenplay guru, preaches a variant on the basic three-act structure that has dominated blockbuster filmmaking since the late 1970s.

fuck yeah, 66 & overcast. 

Range smart thermometer.

dont know if its underappreciated but its certainly a lesser known mel brooks movie, twelve chairs. just underway on tcm.

finally got around to watching deadwood. highly recommended for anyone that hasnt seen it yet. seemed unfortunate that it only got three seasons (the reason the run ended is shrouded in mystery) but maybe it was for the best as the characters and plot were bound to start returning to well trodden territory.