And the winner is . . .
First I'll run through the posts I thought merited comments:
northsiderap #5: I like the DIY angle, that's a big part of my philosophy. Even if you can afford to buy stuff, being able to fabricate or customize means that your studio fits you like a glove.
northsiderap #11: This was the single best instance of writing:
Just to flux the gauss - to floss the flux between iron poles - the goals to toss into the fluxed, gaussed, pole-flossed foil. The source transformed & transformer formed, from motor reposed and dormant, then excited to harmonic norms, taking the forms of source (with some loss.) The source is deformed, but awesome.
Too many people seemed to forget it was an essay contest, which means that quality of writing counts too. Nicely done there.
Having said that, I didn't think much of your subsequent efforts
upfiddler #18: Clever, but I don't think the rules allowed binary, since Babelfish doesn't translate it.
To all the "poetic" entries: guys, have you ever read an actual poem that was written, say, after 1900?
rsolinski #54: Good, other than the stray apostrophe.
notbradsohner #56: Of all the begging posts, this might have been the best.
Marik #72: Tempting. Very, very, very, very tempting. But in good conscience, I'm not sure I can turn a donation into a transaction, even if it benefits all of mic-dom.
LeeRosario #134: I like how the pictures start out semi-related and rapidly degenerate into non sequitor.
Two significant events occurred shortly after the colonist's arrival: two "friendly" Indians were baptized and a child was born. Virginia Dare, as the baby was named, became the first child born to English-speaking parents in the new world.
And I bet you didn't know that I live in Dare County, where two towns are named after those Indians, Manteo and Wanchese

But ultimately I can't reward plagiarism.
OK then, the finalists will be northsiderap #11, rsolinski #54, notbradsohner #56.
Everybody who has previously posted on this thread, and who is not one of those three, may argue about who you liked best, and I will consider your comments in choosing the winner.
In the meantime, I'm going to post some pics and spectral analysis, for posterity
