I'm amused that anyone could be "grossed out" by someone using urine in their compost or directly applying it to ornamental's. My city's drinking water comes from a river. The water is filtered, chlorinated, and tested for 30-40 common pollutants. There are thousands of chemical compounds in use that are not tested for but commonly discarded into the waste stream plus human and animal urine. Then it is pumped to our houses for our use. We flush (discard) our wastes into the sewer. It gets filtered, chlorinated, and put back into the river for the next lucky recipient. By utilizing our urine we are actually making the downstream water somewhat cleaner plus using our homemade fertilizer where it will do some good. I hope anyone who is paranoid about urine in the garden is lucky enough to be at the headwaters of the aquifer their water is drawn from or have a great well far from any pollution sources. Seven billion people and industries without a conscience on this earth - truly clean water is a crap-shoot.

OK- here goes- I only made it once - it wasn't too bad but I liked Zuc. bread better. I think maybe the person who gave it to me just took their Zuc. bread recipe & used dahlias in their place. I used more cinnamon than was in the sample I had at a dahlia society meeting & the taste was much better. The tubers should be just dug so there's not a thick skin on them- & washed well- you can also peel them if you want but I didn't bother- just grated them up. Couldn't get the husband to even try it!! Dahlia Bread- Preheat oven to 350* 3 eggs 1 cup veg. oil 2 cups sugar 2 cups grated dahlia tuber 2 tsp vanilla 3 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. soda 2+ tsp cinnamon (I piled it up!) Beat eggs until light & foamy. Add oil, sugar, grated dahlia tuber & vanilla. Mix lightly but well. Sift dry ingred. together. Add to wet ingred. Mix only until blended. Put into greased loaf pans. Bake in 350* oven for 1 hour. Good luck! Do you suppose it'd make pink bread if you used tubers from a dahlia like Delta Red that has red tubers?? >:)

One of the problems with Zerzan is the generalization about hunter-gatherer subsistence. While his summaries of the Mbuti Bushmen and Kalahari San are accurate, they are only two examples. A broader reading of the ethnographic literature shows that hunter-gatherers were opportunistic and their economies varied depending on the ecological niche they occupied. The particular mix of subsistence patterns might have included hunting and fishing, as well as horticulture (although in some ethnographic typologies even limited ag would automatically exclude them from the hunter-gatherer club - see how it works?). Then what do you do with the Aleut (Eskimos) and their predecessors who lived virtually totally by hunting and fishing? Another problem with the ethnographic literature is that most of the examples are from non-temperate marginal ag areas (rainforest or desert) where hunting and gathering still survived although likely early civilizations occupied more temperate niches too before the advent of agriculture. In those areas, seasonal variations in food availability likely resulted in what is termed "seasonal rounds" where groups moved around to different locations to exploit seasonally available food sources such as fall seed and nut crops, spring fish runs, migrating deer and ducks, summer fruits, etc. They might even totally reorganize their society to more efficiently distribute themselves across the landscape - breaking into family groups part of the year and regrouping other times. This was typical of some North American Native groups. Humans were very resourceful

Hi Fellow Sensitive People, I've just moved into an apartment to escape another noisy apartment in which I lived for only three months. I was luckily able to re-assign that lease. My current Landlord was fair enough to allow me my first month before signing a one year lease. Before this month ends, I have to decide if I'm going to stay. The main problem in my last apartment was that it was in the basement of an older house. Therefore, every noise from the apartment above was as if it was in my apartment. It sounded like the only thing between me and the floor above was a piece of thin plywood. So, when the small but heavy footed woman above me walked, it created intolerable thumps and vibrations like a diving board. Not every day but on certain occasions, she had some unsavory characters over. These visits often resulted in foul language, shouting, threatening words and "Get Out" between them etc. I had to fork out over $150 a month more in rent to move into my current apartment. I'm in a triplex and the current landlord assured me that there is concrete and plaster between the floors and walls. Now, I don't have the thin floorboard above me. So, I can't hear the person walking. However, I think I hear cupboards closing and the water pipes clunk after the water is shut off. This is especially irritating in the morning when people are getting up and at night before they go to bed. Apparently, the vibrations and thumps from cupboards and furniture being dragged across the floor aren't muffled by the heavier materials. My floor is carpeted but not all of the other apartments are. I live near the stirs and those who like to run up them or walk heavily are quite audible as well. I could have taken a third floor apartment elsewhere but the area or condition of the building weren't as good. Besides, as others in this forum have mentioned, irritating sounds come from below as well. I hesitate to move again because this place is better than the last one. In addition, if a totally sound proof apartment does exist, it would be out of my price range. I think what we're all finding out here is that there is no "Bed of Roses." If you find it, enjoy it while it lasts because circumstances always change beyond our control. And, I think "Control" is the key word here. If we were all to form a club, it would be called the "Living Space Control Club." We are all nice people--I'm sure we've all heard that before. We're nice because we control our own behaviour to try not to offend or upset others. We're not wimps--if pushed too far, we'll unleash a world of hurt on the offender--but we'd rather avoid that, if possible. That being said, we often don't understand others who don't control their behaviour according to our standards. We tend to become resentful and interpret their "noise making" as an attack on our space. If we showed that lack of consideration to others, that would be our intention, right? So, we instinctively attribute such malice to others behaviour. Usually, they don't have a problem with us and no offence is intended. They just have different priorities to us. Here's the rub. Humans have very different priorities but we're all territorial to one degree or another. In my last apartment, I very politely confronted the noisy woman above me. I asked her if she could hear sounds from my apartment. She replied, "I can hear everything but I'm not a complainer." To that I replied, "Well, I have to do computer work down there." She was "getting drunk" because she just lost her job. So, she asked if we could talk about it the next day. I said that I just wanted to know if she could hear things from my apartment. Since she'd answered that, and was now aware of my situation, I saw no point in discussing it any further. Unfortunately, the situation did not improve. So, my point is that whether your neighbor reacts positively, negatively or indifferent, if they don't share your priorities, they'll think, "Who does he/she think they are?" "I pay rent here as well and I'm going to live according to my priorities." Based on the replies in this forum, there are more of us than I thought. In general society, I think we're in the minority. I have O.C.D, although I've kept it managable for years now. I suspect that I have A.D.D. as well. Someone else in this forum mentioned that he/she had A.D.D. These conditions along with many others are anxiety based. They would not have names or acronyms if everyone had them. Through my experience, I don't believe that there is any 100% cure for anxiety based conditions. However, through therapy, they can become manageable. I've had therapy for my O.C.D. and it helped. I will do a web search looking for suggestions to help me deal with my current sensitivity to noise. Perhaps, I'll follow up on the "nerve damage to ears" suggestion that another person made in this forum. I had many earaches as a kid. I've always found that the breathing exercises that I learned through behavioural modification helped. Maybe I'll try that as well. Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well. Take Care All!