This week, we all need to get ourselves to the Sheraton College Park Hotel in Beltsville, Maryland, where they're having the "National Carcass Disposal Symposium", organised by the University of Maine's School of Compost.
It's 4 days of rivetting discussion about what do do with all those animal carcasses we have lying around in our garages.
I want to be there just after lunch on Wednesday for Road Kill Composting in Montana - a Seasonal Rotation Approach.
Really. It's all true... America, this is where your tax dollars go. Go HERE.
And while we're on disposal issues, you've just gotta love professors Al-Houty and Al-Musalam of Kuwait University for a paper published in the so-rivetting-I-can't-put-it-down Journal Of Arid Environments (Vol 35 #3).
Here's the abstract...
Adult dung beetles, Scarabaeus cristatus , consume the fluid components of dung and bury whole dung as food for their larvae. When dung from three herbivorous animals, horse, camel and sheep, was offered, the beetles preferred the more fluid horse dung to the others. Sheep dung was preferred to the camel dung. The dungs of two carnivores, dog and fox, were also accepted but to a lesser extent than the herbivore dung.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
If you'd like the full text, you can buy it on line for the bargain price of US$58.93 (+ tax). Really. Go HERE, though I think I'll wait for the National Geographic doco.
Oh God. I really need to get out more.
6 comments:
LOL. I love this post.
Hey, Chester - you are using Beta Blogger I see. Are you loving it? Is it better than the old blogger?? I haven't made the switch yet. Am not convinced it's going to be any gooder than what we already have ...
I just know now that I have made incorrect career choices. Now I REALLY know what I want to be when I grow up...
I want to be the 'Dean of the School of Compost'. I want a business card that says
Chester T Bear
Dean, School of Compost
I think that would be a life achievement, and then, when my friends said "Chester, you're full of shit", I'd be able to smile in quiet agreement.
As for Bloggerthingmy II, it's got some good bits and some bad bits.
Good bits include a more robust editor.
Bad bit is that comments are entered in https (secure mode), which means every time you enter the comments page, you get "Warning, Some of the items on this page are not secure", which is a pain in the arse.
Oh yes, I've already sworn many times at the https secure comment whatsitsname. Not sure if I'll graduate to the bigger beta.
Methinking about it but not enuff to actually do it, u know?
I LOVE the idea of you being head of the Compost Faculty. It is an idea with great merit.
Could you apply for a govt grant to set up such an offshoot of a worthy university?
Or perhaps you could set up a private learning community - called the Graduate School of Compost. Students can only enrol if they've completed a BA of BS. LOL
I think you'd need a BS as a prequalification, then earn an FoS.
LOL. FoS tee hee.
I looked over the carcass disposal symposium. I think you may have stumbled across a lucrative business opportunity for an aggressive and adventurous entrepreneur. As noted on the website, recent world events necessitate expert knowledge of the removal and subsequent disposal of carcasses from mass casualties (avian flu etc.).
How much would it take to become the foremost world expert? Perhaps, to become the Red Adair (http://www.redadair.com/bio.html) of carcass disposal? Sadly, I do not think I could bear to see the reality…but someone out there must.
Thank you for your visits.
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