Skip to main content

Purely personally partisan: I find DSU in the darndest places....

If you are a regular reader, you know that I am--besides being a Libertarian and historian--something of a science geek.

Last weekend, passing through the Phoenix AZ airport (the nation's "Friendliest airport" if you didn't know), I picked up the latest copy of Scientific American because I want to read the article on the direct of time's arrow (why do we perceive time as only moving forward, when in all equations it seems to work perfectly well either forward or backward). Actually, I wanted to read the summary, so that I could determine whether or not I'd actually be able to comprehend the article.

I'm still working on it.

But I always start with all the short (easily understandable) articles in the front of the magazine.

It was there that I found this:

In the heart of the Amazon River basin 1,500 years ago, tribes mixed soil with charcoal derived from animal bone and tree bark to boost their crop yields. Now scientists conclude that such burned, dead matter fertilizes better than compost and animal manure, helping to transform the soil into the richest earth in the world. The "biochar" also profoundly enhances soil's natural ability to seize carbon, thereby trapping greenhouse gases. Delaware State University researchers presented their findings April 10 at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society.


No matter where you go, there you are.

Congratulations to Professor Mingxin Guo and his colleagues. You can read more about this here.

Maybe next time we'll get your name in the magazine, too.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Biochar is the common form of slash and burn agricultural found throughout the south pacific, and Native America. It is a fantastic way to fertilize, and you find it still in use across area of polynesia to make portions of the region fertile. It is good to know we still have people working on scietific inquiry in Delaware, and agronomy especially! We need it.
June 18, 2008 at 8:59 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?
1 comment
Read more

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici...
Post a Comment
Read more

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...
70 comments
Read more