Cows

Posted on 27th February 2009

I’m often asked about cow manure and I always have to admit I don’t know enough about it to comment on it. I still don’t, but I know a little more at least after reading this, about one farm turning cow shit into CowPots. Biodegradable seed-fertilizing containers made of dried manure fibres. I bet they grow damn good flowers. The Freund family of farmers were cool enough already, being one of the few US farms to take methane from cow manure and heat their home and farm with it. Biogas and CowPots. Forza!

[to comments]

Bath Literature Festival

[27th February 2009]

I should have posted this sooner but neglected to. I'll be in conversation with the Observer's science editor Robin McKie at the Bath Literature Festival on Sunday ...

[read full post]

Spills

[27th February 2009]

And, as if by magic (a catchphrase that will only mean something to someone who grew up in Britain in the 1970s and watched the marvellous children's show ...

[read full post]

Yellow is the new green: An op-ed

[27th February 2009]

In the far reaches of Shaanxi Province in northern China, in an apple-producing village named Ganquanfang, I recently visited a house belonging to two cheery primary-school teachers, Zhang ...

[read full post]

Yellow is the new green

[27th February 2009]

An op-ed piece on the merits of urine separation toilets, and the power of pee, is published in today's New York Times.

Ryanair

[27th February 2009]

Usually, my position on fee-paying toilets is that neither toilet facilities, nor attendants, nor the wastewater treatment system are free, so a little fee is not unreasonable. Also, ...

[read full post]

NYT

[26th February 2009]

One of the reasons I love the New York Times is because, in careful sober tones, it tells you things like the fact that all the toilets at ...

[read full post]