Slashdot Mirror
My Compost Bin And I
John writes "There they were, staring at me with a last glimmer of hope. I tried to turn to avoid the cries of help they echoed, but they were too much for me to bare. Minutes later, with an insight of knowledge, I quickly devised a plan to rescue these dying souls. And out of the bitter remains I found around my place of refuge, I constructed a home for them - somewhere where they could be in peace - a compost bin. The vegetable scraps rejoiced! Their time of suffering was no longer, for my divine plan had taken effect. "
Eh... why exactly does this qualify for a slashdot article (frontpage)? Granted it looks more advanced than my grandma's compost pile of three sticks and some chicken wire, but in the end a compost pike is still just a pile of crap!
I don't get it. Why all the work on the tiles on top, why would you want to keep rain out of your compost heap? Doesn't the moisture help with the decomposition? Could someone enlighten me on this before i ask four questions in a row?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Story on neutron stars - 2 comments, 1 of which is FP
Story on a pile of crap - 30 comments
I am currently taking a class on Sustainable Resource Sciences. Last week we had a lecture on composting. I can't believe that people pay the city to take their yard waste away, and then pay someone else money to buy soil amendments for their garden.
Here are some other links my professor provided:
http://compostingcouncil.org/
http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/
Or here is the lecture in pdf format
Oh yeah, standard designs all have drainage, and most are made to work indoors (low/no stink, if done properly). Just check out a link or two.
Building a compost heap is an annoying piece of work; and you have to tend the thing, stirring it up. They make a rolling composter that, instead of having to dig and churn all that smelly stuff, you just roll the bin around to mix it.
Slashdotted already. :-)
Glad the guy is composting, but--for whatever a gardening discussion is worth on a tech site--I don't think he's got enough air circulation going on.
The holes look too small. He also doesn't discuss how he's going to turn the pile, which is real important in closed compost bins.No oxygen equals stinky sludge. Mmmm...nummy!
The simplest (and one of the most effective) compost heap is just a big ole pile laying directly on the ground. Put a bit of carpet remnant on the top to hold moisture, and you're golden. Piles can be made neater with a bit of chicken wire and some supports. Real low-tech stuff.
Here's a link to all things rotten:
http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/
Twinkies don't compost, by the way. Something my kids discovered.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
A poem by Walt Whitman, innocently entitled "This Compost" (http://www.riles.org/compost.htm), reveals all there is to know about compost. On the earth beneath our feet he asks where all the rotting corpses have gone and how such sweet things like blackberries and apples can grow "out of such corruptions". But read it for yourself and behold the awe and mystery of the grand design. When looked at it this way, each of us becomes fodder for something else!
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" -- Dr. Strangelove
Not just one, but one of many!
Years ago I embarked upon an organic garden (which you can really get into) in my back yard. Learning about the ins and outs of soil, composting, sympathetic planting, etc. much of it through USENET gardening groups before there were even web browsers. Hacking an organic garden can be no less rewarding or involved than any coding project. Including the internet (as it was at the time) and assistance from several gardening buffs who know how to get to USENET (and a few university extension offices (Ohio State, Michigan State to name a couple)) made it all the more cool. Too bad I now live in a townhouse, with no garden option. :-(
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Bleh. While this excursion was interesting--and it's true that it's funny that a geek went outside--but I myself think that composting is a worthwhile project.
n ic s/organics.asp
Look at it. While it doesn't involve computers it does involve a little bit of a construction project, and there is a bit of science to it. In fact there are multiple types of composting. I found a good site (below) that lists through them.
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=lib&a=orga
I especially like the picture for Vermiculture (eew worms.)
Mill Avenue Vexations
Welcome to the club.
2002-09-01 22:46:39 Greek Government Bans *All* Video Games (yro,censorship) (rejected)
2002-09-02 02:10:17 MLB Wants to Shut Down Fan Web Sites (yro,censorship) (rejected)
2002-09-03 15:37:59 N'Sync Star Replaced With Cargo on Soyuz Mission (articles,humor) (rejected)
2002-09-04 23:30:12 "Smart" Furniture (articles,tech) (rejected)
2002-09-05 08:17:26 First Commercial Moon Trip OKed (science,space) (rejected)
2002-09-06 17:02:22 RIAA Shuts Down Aimster (yro,censorship) (rejected)
2002-09-08 09:50:52 Japan to Test Space Shuttle Technology (articles,space) (rejected)
2002-09-10 23:43:26 Man Jailed For Playing Tetris On Airplane (articles,humor) (rejected)
2002-09-11 08:30:34 How to Cook With Lava (articles,humor)
2002-09-16 09:12:31 Saturn V Space Junk Could Strike Moon (articles,space) (rejected)
2002-10-19 06:00:31 Jesse Helms Freezes Bill, Saves Small Webcasters (articles,news) (rejected)
2002-10-21 03:04:41 Windows NT 6 (Longhorn) Screenshots Revealed (articles,microsoft) (rejected)
2002-10-27 16:34:33 World's Smallest Computer (articles,tech) (rejected)
2002-11-05 16:49:13 Self-Healing Battle Tanks (articles,tech) (rejected)
2002-11-06 01:38:02 Google's 'Compute' takes on Distributed Computing (articles,security) (rejected)
An interesting story is that a good 4 or 5 of those stories were posted A WEEK or more LATER. Note the one about cooking with lava is still 'pending.' Hemos might post that one; it's evident from this story that he's a tree-hugger. =)
For those in apartments, you may want to check out Mary Appelhof's worm compost info.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Lets not forget the beneficial nematodes, insect warfare and the green manures. There is definitely some sort of strange parallel to the computer code/networking worlds in this. I think it may have to to with the infinite intricate relationships that coexist in a certain space.
I do agree with you, I was not making light of someone composting, but rather that this isn't something new, and not really news for nerds. There are a myriad of websites out there that provide information for this sort of thing.
:)
I'll grant that it is nice to see the occasional submission that doesn't relate to computers, but the only correlation I can see between this story and slashdot is that gardeners are frequently referred to as having a "green thumb", and slashdot is occasionally referred to as having an ugly "green theme".
It grew well..nice sticky buds... and somehow it just seemed to make sense...mother earth's weed grown in mother earth's compost. Oh, those were the days!
a Good Thing to grind up food scraps in the garbage disposal. This way, it ends up back in the biosphere
Many years ago Asimov wrote an essay about phosphorus, calling it "life's bottleneck". I can't find the essay online but here's a brief piece that discusses it.
Disposals might not be such a good idea after all.