Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz Developed by Leonard Charles, Jim Dodge, Lynn Milliman, and Victoria Stockley. Originally published in Coevolution Quarterly 32 (Winter 1981): 1.
1. Trace the water you drink from precipiation to tap.
2. How many days til the moon is full? (Slack of 2 days allowed.)
3. What soil series are you standing on?
4. What was the total rainfall in your area last year (July-June)? (Slack: 1 inch for every 20 inches.)
5. When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
6. What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
7. Name 5 edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability. 8. From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
9. Where does your garbage go?
10. How long is the growing season where you live?
11. On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
12. When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
13. Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
14. Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
15. What is the land use history of where you live?
16. What primary ecological event/process influenced the land form where you live? (Bonus special: what’s the evidence?)
17. What species have become extinct in your area?
18. What are the major plant associations in your region?
19. From where you’re reading this, point north.
20. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?
Scoring
• 0-3 You have your head up your ***.
• 4-7 It’s hard to be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all.
• 8-12 A firm grasp of the obvious.
• 13-16 You’re paying attention.
• 17-19 You know where you’re at.
• 20 You not only know where you’re at, you know where it’s at.
Passing this quiz cold isn’t the point, snarky scoring commentary notwithstanding. Instead, use it to learn the realities of where you live and incorporate them into your relationship with the land where you dwell. Your local anthropologists, botanical gardens, county extension agencies, historians, libraries, meteorologists, natural museums, community waste disposal programs, and Wikipedia can help you find the answers to these questions. You’ll discover a wealth of more information about where you live in the process.
I certainly have goals and what I want. And I’ve certainly met and exceeded those goals, but I have no expectations. I try not to limit myself with any expectations. I’m certainly blessed, and thankful for all the opportunities I’ve gotten. I’ve made things I’m very proud of, at least my part of it.” – Jeremy Renner
I was initially hesitant to call this Beorn’s Honey Cake at first; because, as you can see, I baked it in a loaf pan. And then when I was re-reading the recipe preparing to post it, I saw that this is, in fact, meant to be baked in a cake pan, not a loaf pan.
Luckily it has still turned out great everytime.
This is actually the dessert I baked last September 21st, for Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday. It is soooo yummy. I like it with butter, and it’s even delicious with extra honey on top.
P.S. Hi new followers! (waves dramatically) I love you already.
Beorn’s Honey Cake
Ingredients
6 tablespoons / 90 g butter 6 tablespoons / 90 mL honey ½ teaspoon / 2.5 mL vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 cup / 120 g flour 1 tsp / 4 g baking powder 2 tbs / 30 mL warm milk ¼ tsp / 1 g salt ¼ tsp / 1 g nutmeg
Directions
Cream the butter and honey together. Add vanilla. Beat in the eggs. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Fold in the warm milk. Pour into a greased and lined pan (use a bread pan or a round cake pan; line with foil or parchment paper). Smooth the top.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Let sit for 10 minutes, then loosen and turn out onto serving plate. Brush with 1 tablespoon warm honey. Serve warm or cooled.
So this response to the post I did on the physical issues that Bucky Barnes probably has as a result from his time with HYDRA (strictly from a massage therapist’s POV) got me wondering: how much WOULD the metal arm weigh?
But that’s comic books. What about in the movie perspective? Well, let’s look at it.
In CA: TWS, the arm is shown to deflect bullets from a handgun fired at close range with no apparent damage and when Bucky punches Steve’s shield neither is damaged. From this I think it’s safe to say that at least the outer surface of Bucky’s arm is made of vibranium.
From that we can also extrapolate that the outer vibranium plates, which were shown shifting around a lot in TWS, must be about the same thickness as Steve’s shield.
There aren’t any measurements or calculators for the weight of imaginary vibranium, but in CA: TFA, Howard Stark mentions that vibranium is one-third the weight of steel. That means that, if the shield were made out of carbon steel, it’d be 36lbs (12 x 3 = 36).
A circle of steel that’s 30" across and 36lbs would be about .18" in thickness.
Thus, Steve’s shield is .18" in thickness.
And so are the outer vibranium plates of Bucky’s arm.
That steel weight calculator doesn’t have a cylindrical option, but this one does.
Circumference of a human arm is a little difficult to figure–obviously personal fitness causes the size of one’s arm muscles to vary quite a bit. Various sites that I’ve looked at indicate that a highly-fit man could expect his biceps to be 17" in circumference at their widest and his forearms to be about 13" at their widest. (For reference, I’m a not-fit woman and my biceps are 13.5" and my forearms are 11".) Obviously that’s at their widest points, so I’m going to knock 2" off both of these measurements to make it more equal across the length of the limb.
Varioussites helped me figure out that for a 5’11" man, a normal forearm length would be about 10" and upper-arm length would be about 15". (My forearm is 9" and my upper arm is 12".)
Thus: assuming that Bucky’s forearm is 11" around (which is a conservative estimate) and 10" long, the metal plating covering that area, at a .18" thickness, would weigh in steel about 9lbs. Divide by 3 and in vibranium that’d be 3lbs.
Assuming that Bucky’s upper arm is 15" around (again, conservative) and 15" long, the metal plating covering that area, at a .18" thickness, would weigh in steel about 18lbs. Divide by 3 and in vibranium that’d be 6 lbs.
6 + 3 = 9lbs. The outer vibranium plating on Bucky’s forearm and upper arm weighs about 9lbs. (Based on conservative estimates of arm circumference.)
That’s just the outer plating on his forearm and upper arm. That doesn’t count his hand.
Looking at body segment percentage weights, we see that in terms of typical body percentages, a hand usually weighs .65% of the total body weight compared to 1.87% for the forearm. Thus, the hand usually weighs about 1/3rd of the forearm.
Assuming that holds true for the metal hand, then the vibranium plating on the hand would be about 1lb.
6 + 3 + 1 = 10lbs. The outer vibranium plating on Bucky’s whole arm weighs 10lbs.
If we bump Bucky’s height up to 5’11" (actor Sebastian Stan’s height), the ideal body weight for a 5’11" man with a large build tops out at 184lbs. Looking at the body percentage index again, we see that typically, a whole human arm is about 5.7% of a person’s bodyweight. So for a 5’11" guy with a large build at 184lbs, that’s about 10.5lbs.
The outer plating on Bucky’s whole arm already weighs about as much as his regular flesh-and-bone arm, assuming that a) it’s made of vibranium, a very light metal, b) the plating is the narrowest possible width that can deflect bullets, and c) the circumference of the arm isn’t very big. All of which would make the plating a lot heavier than what I’ve calculated.
VIKING LORE HELD THAT BOTH WEAVING AND SORCERY WERE WOMEN’S WORK, DITTO THE ORDERING OF THE HOUSE ACCOUNTS. MANY CULTURES HAVE HISTORICALLY LEFT ACCOUNTANCY TO WOMEN! MANY SOCIETIES HAVE ALSO LEFT FIBERCRAFT TO WOMEN BECAUSE IT IS TEDIOUS AND REPETITIVE BUT ALSO VERY NECESSARY. SEE ALSO: COOKING, CLEANING, BUDGETING, EMOTIONAL LABOR.
ANYWAY FIBERCRAFT, AS I HAVE DISCOVERED VIA LEARNING TO DO A WHOLE LOT OF IT, IS ALMOST ENTIRELY APPLIED MATHEMATICS EXCEPT FOR THE PART THAT’S ENGINEERING (WHICH IS ALSO MATHEMATICS). ONCE YOU LEARN EVEN THE BASICS OF KNITTING, SEWING, AND WEAVING, IT BECOMES ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE TO REALIZE MEN THINK WOMEN ARE BY VIRTUE OF THEIR SEX (these are of course sexist gender-essentialist men who are not cool with trans people) ILL-EQUIPPED TO DO MATH SOMEHOW. HOLY SHIT, HAVE YOU SEEN HEIRLOOM KNITTING PATTERNS? HAVE YOU SEEN THE FORETHOUGHT THAT GOES INTO WORKING A HARNESS LOOM? OH MY GOD.
THIS IS, THEN, WHERE PROGRAMMING (AND SORCERY) COMES IN. A PROGRAM IS “CODED INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE OF A PARTICULAR TASK”. WEAVING IS OFTEN A BINARY PATTERN: OVER/UNDER. PUNCH CARDS ON ADVANCED LOOMS CAN SET WHETHER THREADS GO OVER OR UNDER, AND SWITCHING THE CARDS AROUND YIELDS DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF CLOTH. A DUDE NAMED JAQUARD DEVELOPED EXTREMELY COMPLEX PUNCH CARDS THAT STARTED TO ENCODE HIGH VOLUMES OF INFORMATION FOR INCREASINGLY AUTOMATED LOOMS. A HUNDRED YEARS LATER WOMEN ARE USED AGAIN FOR THE ‘TEDIOUS BUT NECESSARY’ BUSINESS OF USING BINARY ON/OFF CARDS TO WRITE PROGRAMS FOR EARLY COMPUTERS.
WHERE SORCERY FITS INTO ALL THIS IS HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A WOMAN USE A CARD LOOM REALLY FAST? IT’S THE MOST INTIMIDATING SKILLSET OUTSIDE OF A RODEO. SHE 100% LOOKS LIKE SHE COULD MAKE YOUR BUTT FALL OFF IF YOU CROSSED HER. APPLIED MATHEMATICS / ENGINEERING IS BAFFLING TO WATCH FROM THE OUTSIDE, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO FIBERCRAFT. YOU CAN MANIFEST WITH YOUR MIND AND HANDS THIS HIGHER AND TRUER ARCANE PLANE OF EXISTENCE INTO A NICE SCARF AND KEEP YOUR HUSBAND ALIVE FOR THE WINTER. MAYBE IF HE CROSSES YOU YOU CAN ALSO MAKE HIS BUTT FALL OFF.
I TOTALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MEN DO FIBERCRAFT TOO BUT THIS WAS SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN WOMEN, MATH, FIBERCRAFT, AND MAGIC, SO THERE YOU GO.
You may have known this already, but the Apollo guidance computer’s core memory was literally woven strands of copper, and it was all done by hand, by a bunch of women. Because who else knows how to weave things?
*SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE* WOMEN’S WORK SENT MEN TO THE FUCKING MOON HOW IS THAT NOT MAGIC AS HELL
Oh oh oh oh this is my subject on Viking reenactment gigs, I’m the group’s Vala and I also fill in for the weavers and spinners because IT’S THE SAME SHIT let me tell you about it 😀 😀 😀
SPINNING with a drop spindle, none of your fancy high-tech spinning wheels here my friend, SPINNING OMG is literally taking undifferentiated fluff and turning it into the most useful and life-essential item in your whole civilisation with little more than a click of your fingers–without thread you have no sails, no clothes, no blankets, it’s literally power of life-or-death shit here, it is magic AS FUCK. That’s without doubt why the Norns were spinners and weavers.
There was laws about not saying people’s names or talking about people when you’re spinning, because you’re basically bringing something into being out of nothing, and with that kind of power you could just as easily bring events into being. So folks probably look the other way when you’re spinning thread for your son’s shirt and you want him to be victorious and honourable, but if you’re spinning away and bitching out about that ho Ingvar (see below) and how she stole your man and deserves the same to happen to her, that’s a crime. You’d be in better legal standing if you just punched her, because enchantment against a person was seen as sneaky and underhanded, with all connotations of forethought and antisocial intention, while punching someone could be an understandable lapse of self-control.
It was also forbidden to spin “against the sun” (ie: counterclockwise) because ok we also know there’s a mechanical aspect to that as well, it’s very useful to have the twist going in the same direction at all times so it doesn’t cancel itself out, but it was believed that an item made from backwards-spun thread could literally kill a person, there’s an account of a Vala spinning a shirt to murder a priest and it’s inferred that it was spun backwards. Because like, the sun is the source of all life, and to go against the sun goes against life, and much as the anti-twist cancels out the twist, it cancels out life. Brutal.
And you couldn’t talk about people when weaving, either, because weaving is an extension of the whole something-from-nothing power, but presumably people did anyway because there’s an actual find of a weaving tablet with a curse carved on it “Sigvor’s Ingvar shall have
my misfortune” so basically every time the card was turned, it would strengthen the curse, and literally spin and weave it into being. HOW FUCKING AWESOME IS THAT. There’s also a find of a weaving sword with a “love poem” carved on it, note the quotemarks because this “poem” goes “Think of me, I think of you; Love me, I love you” THAT AIN’T NO POEM FAM THAT A SPELL. She probably making him (or her) a shirt.
And that’s three times I’ve mentioned shirts, so I should tell you that making a shirt for someone was a Big Deal, in a way it was sort of the period equivalent of the boyfriend sweater, with the sheer amount of labour that goes into making a shirt you have to really give a whole lot of shits about that person. There’s an account of a woman making a shirt for her brother-in-law while her husband was away, and it’s OMG DRAMA BOMB. The Vala I mentioned above really gave a lot of shits about murdering that priest. Hence, the most-likely-a-woman who owned the inscribed weaving sword could very well have been making a shirt for her crush, who may OR MAY NOT have been her husband. You know, she could’ve been like “hope my nice hubby thinks about me while he’s away” or she could’ve been like “damn, brother-in-law too hot” or she could’ve been like “damn, Ingvar too hot” (wlw aren’t attested at all but you gotta assume it happened because humans) but in any event she knew what was up. And making a shirt for someone wasn’t thought of as *overtly* magical, mostly, but there’s kind of a subtext to it that presupposes any shirt could be enchanted and probably was to some extent.
And this is just scratching the surface of the academically well established stuff, with none of my own hypotheses and observations. I can go on for hours.
I have talked about knitting and fiber arts with many different women of all sorts of religion and non religion, and the vast majority of them say that when they make special items, they put some kind of intentions into the garment.
Pasta is great. It’s like hey, let me take delicious things like butter,or meat, or tomatoes or basil and then let me just fuckin mix whatever the fuck i want in and combine it with some random ass noodles.
That’s basically pasta.
BUT, there’s a big difference between “basically pasta” and “holy shit food of the gods” pasta, and that is that the latter has some rules that must be followed.
10 PASTA COMMANDMENTS COMIN UP:
Always boil pasta in boiling SALTED water. Ever had a dish where you forgot to salt it before cooking it, and no matter how much seasoning you did post saute/sear, it still sort of tasted bland on the inside? Same goes for pasta. Your sauce could be fuckin on point, but if you don’t salt dat pasta water, ya fugged, bruh.
Always have your sauce ready BEFORE the pasta. Pestos, emulsified butter sauces, bolognese sauces, they should be in their respective sauce pans, heated and ready to go (unless we’re takin pesto or carbonarashit, as those go bad with heat). The worst thing you could do is fuck up and overcook your delicious pasta bc you were too busy making or finishing up your sauce.
Always TASTE your pasta. I don’t care if the package says it’s ready in 1 minute or an hour, taste your pasta from the boiling water at least 2 minutes in, and every 2 minutes after that. Al dente’s usually the way to go, but you’ll never know when to take it out if you’re not constantly tasting.
DO NOT strain your pasta, wasting your pasta water and allowing your pasta to cool. Use tongs to take pasta straight up form the boiling water (don’t dry it, nerds) and throw it in your sauce. A little pasta water gets in? no probs, and I’ll tell you why.
If your sauce is reducing too much, or it’s too tight, add pasta water. It’s salted and hot and ready to go, it won’t dilute the flavor at all, you’re golden duude. golden.
Finish your pasta in the sauce, allow it to become homogenous, let the sauce stick to the pasta, BECOME ONE WITH THE PASTA BRUH.
Add cheese last, because cheese get’s weird and fucked up in hot pans, so it’s best to throw that on right before you’re ready to eat that shit up.
4 oz is a normal serving size for pasta. If you don’t have a scale, that’s basically like the first pic above. If you hold the pasta like such, and the width of the bunch is a little smaller than an american quarter, then ur good 2 go bruh.
Dry pastas are not better/worse than fresh pasta. They’re legit just made with different flours using different procedures. One isn’t ‘fancier’ than the other u pretentious buttrockets.
PASTA IS NOT SCARY, IT’S DELICIOUS. These rules look tough, but honestly it’s not that bad bruh. I believe in u.
and now, onto the recipe I used for my pasta. It’s a restaurant favorite, we always make it on the line because it’s simple, delicious and super filling.
~
Caciopepe Pasta serves: 1 (lol like id share this with ppl lolol)
–
Ingredients-
salt water for boiling (just salt some water, don’t fuckin travel to the beach in hopes of created the most bomb pasta ever)
1 bunch of pasta
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
cold butter (approximately 2/3 cups cut into small pads
parmesan cheese to taste
a shit ton of black pepper to taste
–
Procedure-
Throw some pasta into some boiling water and do that thing where you constantly taste test the pasta to see if it’s ready. In the meantime, make ur sauce u lazy bumbum.
Add a little boiling pasta water to a saute pan over low heat, and whisk/mix in the butter quickly till it’s creamy and emulsified. If it’s too thick, just whisk in a teeny bit of pasta water. Add 2 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme for aroma, remove when pasta’s ready.
Once the pasta’s ready to rock and roll, use tongs to scoop it up and place it in the sauce. Flip and mix using tongs. Add cheese and crack a lot of pepper. Add salt if it needs seasoning, add more pasta water if the sauce tightens.
and bam, ya ready to roll.
~
I promise u if you use these pasta techniques, people will think ur literally a GOD. ur welcs.
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