There’s a new blog already generating a lot of discussion among wine aficionados. The not-so-subtly named “Biodynamics is a hoax” discusses all things related to Rudolph Steiner and his philosophies, including the pseudoscience of biodynamics.
Category: Be a skeptic
Permaculture – my final thoughts
We’ve had some good, vigorous discussion about permaculture, specifically around the book Gaia’s Garden. I’ve pointed out some problems with the author’s understanding of relevant plant and soil sciences and will wrap up this week with a look at the glossary and bibliography.
Glossary
The glossary contains a number of scientific-sounding words and phrases with unscientific definitions; for example:
“Buffer plants: Plants placed between guilds or between allelopathic species. They should be compatible with the trees in each guild and should have a positive effect on one or both of the guilds to be linked.”… Continue reading this article “Permaculture – my final thoughts”
Do Organophosphates cause ADHD?
Ever since Monday’s post I’ve been preoccupied thinking about that article which was mentioned in the comments section by Daniel http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/17/pesticides.adhd/index.html?iref=allsearch . This article basically summarized a study that seemed to show that ADHD in children was related to exposure to organophosphate insecticides.
Articles like this appear all of the time in mainstream media and they scare the bejezus out of us because, after reading them, we end up thinking “Holy crap! We’re killing ourselves and ruining our society with these insane chemicals!”… Continue reading this article “Do Organophosphates cause ADHD?”
Permaculture – more concerns
One of the gardening topics I’ve researched extensively is the use of landscape mulches. (You can read a literature review I did a few years ago here.) So I was more than a little frustrated to see one of the worst mulching techniques – sheet mulching – extolled in the book Gaia’s Garden (pp. 85-90).
Sheet mulches, like newspaper and cardboard, can be used successfully as a temporary weed control measure (i.e. a few weeks before planting a vegetable garden). … Continue reading this article “Permaculture – more concerns”
Permaculture – the discussion continues
We’ve started a robust discussion on the topic of permaculture, especially as applied to home gardens. Let’s continue looking at some of the advice provided in Gaia’s Garden targeted towards home gardeners.
The book contains several lists of plants suggested for specific functions. For brevity’s sake, I’ll just mention two:
“Host plants for Beneficial Insects” (pp. 157-159)
This list is prefaced in the text with “many of these florae are very attractive and can (and should!)… Continue reading this article “Permaculture – the discussion continues”
Thieves purr
Today I found a cool website – it’s an anagram generator (http://wordsmith.org/anagram/). The title of today’s post is the first of the 553 anagrams generated from the word SUPERthrive.
I’ve been getting free samples of SUPERthrive for a long, long time. For those of you living on a remote desert island, SUPERthrive is a product invented and sold by “Dr. John A. A. Thomson (in 27 different title Who’s Who Directories),” according to one of the promotional flyers. … Continue reading this article “Thieves purr”
Water droplets and burned leaves, continued
A few weeks ago (January 20 – “Help, help, the sky is falling”) I started a discussion about an article appearing in the peer-reviewed journal New Phytologist. That posting focused on the methodology and results in the paper. Today let’s take a look at the authors’ underlying arguments (their introduction to the study) and their conclusions.
1) The authors’ premise is that “laymen and professionals alike commonly believe water drops on plants after rain or watering can cause leaf burn in sunshine.” … Continue reading this article “Water droplets and burned leaves, continued”
Science rant coming up later today…
I’ve got a good post for today…but have a seminar to give this morning and the blog has to wait. If you have time, go onto the web and look for “water drops burn leaves” or something like that. You’ll find reference to an article in New Phytologist that has the gardening world all a-twitter. I’ll be dissecting the paper – and the surrounding hype – later today.
Help! Help! The Sky is Falling!!!
You all remember the story of Chicken Little, right? Chicken Little thought she’d been hit on the head by a piece of the sky and ran around alarming the rest of the barnyard animals, who assumed Chicken Little knew what she was talking about. Had they not all been eaten by Foxy Loxy, I’m sure they would have felt foolish discovering that an acorn, not a piece of the sky, had bopped Chicken Little on the noggin.… Continue reading this article “Help! Help! The Sky is Falling!!!”