I wrote a long post about the current lack of nutrition in today's food. As part of that I said that crops were not being nourished because of the prevalent use of chemical fertilizers instead of manure.
The NPR program Radiolab did a 20 minutes segment on water treatment in New York City. One part of it considered what to do with the poop -- uh, biosolids -- that is left over after treatment. At one time it was shipped to Colorado, by what were called poop trains. It was spread on fields to great effect. Alas, other disposal methods were slightly cheaper. Wouldn't it be worth the extra expense (and it wasn't much per person) to revitalize our food?
For most of the 1960s and 70s the minimum wage was enough to keep a two-person family above the poverty line and in 1968 was enough for a three-person family to stay out of poverty. Since the early 80s a worker can earn minimum wage and still be poor. It is good to hear Obama calling attention to the working poor and to know Sen. Tom Harkin is proposing a raise in the minimum wage -- this time indexed to inflation.
A really cool work of art has been created to honor Nelson Mandela.
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