Sometimes I read articles and books or watch documentaries and I always wonder what is the best way to translate what I'm learning. I find most of anything in nature and natural sciences (if you care to split those--I don't, but I understand that they sometimes elicit two different concepts) fascinating beyond measure, like concurrent … Continue reading Introduction to Soil Science: The Best Way to Put It
You watch your favorite TV show. The characters discuss a conflict over the dinner table and by the time the argument resolves or exasperates the characters retire to the kitchen. They shovel the left overs of the meal into the trash bin. Perfectly good food. It had the potential to be tomorrow's lunch. Even the … Continue reading Beauty of Composting and the Soil Nutrient Cycle
I'm not sure what possesses me to search some of the things that I search for on the internet, but one is an exciting discovery and applicable to a studious effort toward the United Nation's International Year of Soils. Cornell Transnational Learning: a YouTube channel offering full lectures of semester courses, symposiums, and forums from Cornell … Continue reading Free Cornell Lectures at a Computer Near You
Caution: this considers the North American education systems as I am yet to have enough perspective to write on behalf of another part of the world on this topic. Often I have asked myself why formal education requires the classes that they do from first grade to twelfth grade. Why the precise combination of English, … Continue reading Soil Science in the Education System
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery of the University of Washington was simply a book on a library shelf among four other soil tomes. That was all the library had to offer for my self-education effort for the UN’s International Year of Soils. Fine. The “erosion of civilizations” part suggested something epic. The … Continue reading Book Reflection: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery (Part I)
(Featured image courtesy of Gilles San Martin, Flickr user.) We always attribute On the Origin of Species as Charles Darwin’s profound accomplishment and stride in advancing scientific thought—to include biology in the context of evolution, specifically. However, the guy kept busy after his most controversial book. He watched dirt form. I began to read a … Continue reading Charles Darwin’s Affair with Earth Worms
My backyard is a jungle. A Vinca minor and Vinca major jungle. All these periwinkles create a pedestrian hazard where if you shuffle your feet just slightly you will likely lodge your toe under the grounded vines and potentially fall on a prickly rose vine, because I have those too—though “vine” may be a misnomer … Continue reading The Value of the Earth
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