Geb’s World

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.

This video shows the sky-blue ancient sea ice being revealed as an ice shelf 5 times the size of Manhattan collapses into the sea, caused by the 3 degree rise in average temperatures in the Antarctic. Beautiful stuff, but sad when you think about the dramatic climate changes this portends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_k2Vbhza9o

The New York Times reports that rich people live longer, on average, than poor people (79.2 versus 74.7 years). Research suggests the following reasons:

• Doctors can detect and treat many forms of cancer and heart disease because of advances in medical science and technology. People who are affluent and better educated are more likely to take advantage of these discoveries.
• Smoking has declined more rapidly among people with greater education and income.
• Lower-income people are more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods, to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior and to eat unhealthy food.
• Lower-income people are less likely to have health insurance, so they are less likely to receive checkups, screenings, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs and other types of care.

The wealthy in the US do just a touch better than the average life expectancy in France and Greece (78.8 and 78.4, respectively) and about equal to Iceland (79.4), while the poor are in the range of South Korea and Kuwait (74.4 and 74.5, respectively) [source, 2000 data]. Long-lived countries are led by Japan and Andorra (80.7 and 83.5 years, respectively). Short-lived countries are led by Mozambique and Zambia (37.5 and 37.2 years, respectively).

That just doesn’t seem fair.

I am impressed by the level of seriousness and decorum our representatives are able to bring to important matters of war oversight while they eat chips (funneling crumbs from the bag into their mouths) and slurp their sodas.

A great victory for pastafarians everywhere.

“May you be touched by his noodly appendage.” Ramen.