hookah pt deuce: shisha packing

SO, here's a topic that has parallels in espresso-brewing, steam-powered engines, pipe smoking, and all other varieties of tobacciana (is that the word?). Really, any filtering or combustion engineering problem is relevant here, and probably other areas. That's one of the many reasons why I have no idea what I'm doing.
For problems like these, it's impossible to control all of the variables involved, and that's the main problem with optimizing hookahing. Not to mention, if I smoked enough to really have sufficient statistical power, I'd have emphysema next week. Anyway, so I've been trying to keep the heat, distance from heat, water level, temporal puffing consistency, etc. constant and changing the type of packing.
I've got one useful finding so far: optimizing for past the shisha is ineffectual.
I dipped a nail in some vegetable oil to create holes in the shisha straight through to the holes in the bowl. This left direct paths for the heated air to pass the tobacco and ideally heat it enough to create tobacco steam. This failed miserably. The puffs were tiny and weak. The shisha burned through, but it was useless. I'm not sure how this is possible, (that the shisha burned but did not produce smoke). Anyway, I've ruled out that extreme.
I'm also pretty sure from my memory that when people pack as much shisha as possible, air does not pass and smoking is very difficult. Pulling as hard as possible only leads to burning and overall discomfort.
So, not surprisingly, the ideal is somewhere between these two.
I'm trying to quantify this somewhat by using about the same amount of tobacco each time, then looking through the bowl towards a light and counting the holes in the bowl through which the light passes substantially... Anyway, the last time I saw 3 of 5 holes. It burned, but otherwise seemed good. This time, there are only 2 holes, but the smoke was thin. So, I'm guessing the post-smoke analysis of the tobacco is inadequate.
In sum, I think if there was a continuum between most possible air-flow and complete blockage, the optimal packing lies on the blockage end. So, I'm going to try, with my standard shisha mass (which is pretty small for the bowl size) to pack it as tightly as possible without exposing any holes next time.
Anyone have any input?

C

sweeping generalization. please post comments.

Ok, since I know only two, maybe three other people read this blog (and I'm not even sure about Matt), you're both required to answer with depth, breadth, insightfulness, sagacity, and at least two supratrisyllabic or otherwise obscure words.
We at my lab are in continuing dialogue with the people who develop our brain-looking-at software, and I’ve come to the obvious conclusion that increasing the flexibility of user interface is an unconditional positive. We have a program for viewing, editing, and doing all kinds of crazy shit with brain pictures, and the interface is a very important aspect considering the end users will spend half of their careers using this program to draw shit and look at shit. Thus, the developers have wisely recruited us, the über end users, to help design the interface. There are certain things that they are willing to personalize, e.g. window size, preferred zoom level, intensity gradients, etc., but every time I suggest that simple Editing tools such as “apply” and “draw” and “left” and “right” be customizable, retorting that this could only lead to incompatibility between end users. They are correct that it would be slightly harder for me to teach a new user to use the Default buttons when I have changed all of mine to a completely different configuration, but consider the possibilities! With the right tools, I could use a joystick, a tablet PC, or even a Wii to outline different cortices, measure hippocampal volumes, and set seed points for tractography (i.e. draw shit on brain pictures), and these would be far superior to using a mouse as if it were Microsoft Paint or Photoshop. Even without these pipe dreams, what if I realize that the bulk of my work consists of moving my hand between the updownleftright arrows and, say, the “1” key. If I were able to re-designate “E,D,S,F” instead of “Up,Down,Left,Right,” I could increase my efficiency by quite a significant margin! It is absolutely true that a logical, powerful, and user-friendly default interface be created, and this is one of our developers’ most important jobs, but if it is possible to make the interface more flexible, how can this possibly be denied?
So, now that I’ve ranted, here’s the question:
Is increasing personalization of the user interface an unconditional good or do you know (or can you think) of any reasons/examples to restrain the end user’s personalization capacity?

eat it Florida

Vandy over #1 Florida, 83/70. bitches.

>> 2007-02-27
>> I like Kentucky, and I like some people who like Kentucky, so I won't be so harsh.
>> cram it up your earhole, Kentucky.
>> 67/65, Vandy overcomes.

the hookah. etc.

So, I've been going back and forth about trying to start a hookah blog. I'm very serious about trying to engineer the uber-hookah, and I also want to be able to manufacture my own parts and tobacco.
I think there must be something out there already, and if I were actually to come up with some good ideas, I would prefer to hoard them and eventually sell them to the world at a premium.
Well, I guess that's not quite true. If I could build my own, I would be happy to share anything I learned with others, and I would certainly be happy to hear other people's advice. Anyway, if anyone knows of any resources, please tell me.
Here's the best I've found for making shisha, which is kind of sad:
http://www.snarkdreams.com/hookah/recipesearch.html. I also have no idea where to buy glycerine...
As for home-made hookahs, this site has some nice ideas:
http://www.blurofinsanity.com/bongdesignpage.htm
I haven't really been able to find much useful information about really improving on the old hookah setup and method. Of course connections should be tight, of course if it's burning you should create more space between the heat source and the tobacco, etc. etc. However, I've still to learn why alcohol in the water makes the smoke thicker... I know that crazy pot-head and engineering types have gotten their paws on hookahs and melded them towards perfection, but I guess they're mostly too lazy to publish anything that I could find using Google. Anyway, I'll write a little bit about my discoveries during the past 6 months here, and if anyone knows of any useful sites or any information, I would appreciate comments or posts.

From BOS_webalbum

I'll start with the coal issue. These olive-wood coals are by far my favorites. As the package says, they're all natural, scentless, odorless, and relatively long lasting. I've tried Golden coals, Three Kings, and some others, but these all seemed inferior. There is of course a hitch. You have to break some of the coals up yourself,

From BOS_webalbum

and coal dust gets all over your hands. You also have to

From BOS_webalbum

light them on the stove, which takes a little longer than the 'quick-lighting' type. In the end, however, I think these probably put off the least toxins, require the least effort, and burn at the best temperature.

From BOS_webalbum

They're a little hot for a full bowl (at least in my hookah), so I tend to lift them up one layer or only pack small bowls.
I haven't exactly done thorough research on the topic. I don't doubt the possibility that self-lighting coals could last longer and burn more evenly at a better temperature - this is a distinct possibility, but in a small apartment like mine, the awful smell of the self-lighting stuff is too much. Maybe the ideal would be a coal shaped like the self-lighting type made of similar stuff but without the gunpowder or whatever on the outside.
I do know one thing for sure, these coals

From BOS_webalbum

suck. You can see that the sketchy box makes it look authentic, and I'm pretty sure the hookah bar next to Sitar in Nashville uses these coals, but these coals are awful. Firstly, you can see that the trashcan in the picture also contains a hack-saw box, a ruined sponge, an empty paper towel roll, and a beer can. All of these things were required for me to get any use out of this unwieldy box of coals. After hacking through all of the massive chunks in the box, I burned a couple smaller chunks and, to my dismay, they stunk up the house with a similar-to but less-appealing-than barbecue coal smell. The roomies were not ok with this. I prompty ordered three bags of olive wood, so I guess I'll be using that for a while. The hack saw is also useful for these, but I can also usually break them by hand.
One last note on shisha

From BOS_webalbum

Here you see Havana Menthol on top. I sprung for this ($17 or so at the local tobacco store) on a whim, and I do really like it. It's superior t0 cheaper mints that I've tried because the mint isn't painfully strong and it tastes good even when it's gotten a little dry and even a little burn-y. The rasberry, peach, and mango all came in a cheaper online package. The mango is great. All of these Havana fruit flavors are very sweet and fruity, but not offensively so. The peach has made me feel weird on multiple occasions, so I only smoke small portions in combination now, but the flavor is pretty nice. The mango is great, and tastes remarkably like real mango. The rasberry is a little dissapointing - it's very cough syrupy, but I guess I should have seen that coming. So, of these four, I highly suggest Havana mint and mango, but not peach or rasberry.
So I guess that's it for now.