Geb’s World

An amazing finding in Scientific American today.  An analysis of 234 banknotes from 18 cities found cocaine on 90% of the tested bills.  The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that Americans consume 457 metric tons of cocaine in a year.

Scientific America is reporting that a plant native to Sardinia, hemlock water dropwort (oenanthe crocata), may cause the facial muscles to contract upon death.  Apparently the Sardinians gave this potion to old people and thieves sentenced to death resulting in what Homer called a “sardonic smile.”

I haven’t posted here in a while (been working on the farming blog), but thought I should store this oddity — time lapse, long exposure images of a bugs under a streetlight at night.

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

CNN reports new research which suggests that dogs feel stress and become less enthused about offering their paw for a shake if another dog is being rewarded for the trick and they aren’t. 

A patagonian tree fungus converts cellulose to long-chain hydrocarbons, which can be used as fuel.  Cellulose is a common waste product in modern farming.  Talk about green energy!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done much physics, but Gray sent along this CERN rap video to help me get up to speed.

It’s great.

Very nice motors with complete specs for a new electric bike I’m thinking of designing.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done much physics, but Gray sent along this CERN rap video to help me get up to speed.

It’s great.

I was glad to see some detailed numbers on vegetable farming costs. Most of these are calculated for a 100′x4′ row. Since there are 43,560 square feet/acre, and these calculations are for 400 square feet, they can be multiplied by 109 to find the costs/profits per acre. However, the extension document says that there are 70 such plots per acre. Perhaps this includes access paths and roads.

Here are the bottom lines, for the 100′x4′ rows and per acre from the Iowa Extension service.

1. Basil $164.19 $11,493.30
2. Specialty Green Beans $140.27 $9,818.90
3. Red Raspberries $131.50 $9,205.00
4. Salad Greens $102.90 $7,203.00
5. Eggplant $85.02 $5,951.40
6. Potatoes $61.65 $4,315.50
7. Snow peas $58.45 $4,091.50
8. Strawberries $3,881.97
9. Carrots $54.02 $3,781.40
10. Garlic $43.89 $3,072.30
11. Asparagus $35.47 $2,482.90
12. Sweet Potatoes $27.48 $1,923.60

As I understand it, one of the main challenges for growing these crops is covering the seasonal manual labor, which is costed at $10/hr. Different crops require different amounts of labor.

Basil doesn’t involve much labor, roughly 2 hours/year-bed.
Specialty green beans, however, is dominated by labor, 15 hours/year-bed.
Garlic requires about 3 hours/year-bed.
Snow peas requires 4.
Raspeberries requires 2-5 depending on the year. Figuring 70 beds per acre, $10/hour and 15 hours/year-bed for green beans. That means another $10,500 for green beans.

After a hiatus for the summer, I’m back to blogging.

I’m going to try to focus more on design and construction of ideas and a little less on the purely academic, with the hope that my practical efforts will yield something more practical to work on.

I’m also thinking that I should begin to transition away from space research and towards food production without petrochemicals, as this seems to be the direction in which the greatest needs are likely to be manifest.