Wednesday Links

By way of The Scientist Gardener, the NY Times had a great article on green washing -- by individuals. We're used to hearing corporations criticized for pretending to be green, but there is a wider trend of justifying excessive, and ecologically damaging, consumption in the name of being "green."

I admit I'm drawn to the next subject partly because it is sort of giggle inducing (in a sophmoric way), but it actually is an important thing to think about. So, I bring you the Garden Professors talking about urine as a fertilizer. Jeff emphasizes nitrogen, but this article from Slate focuses recapturing the nutrients in urine from the prospective of the potential future phosphorus shortage -- including a discussion of special urine separating toilets, which solve the whole "yes, but how do you do it PRACTICALLY" side of the matter.

I saw this link on Margaret Roach's blog and was very intrigued: Right here in Michigan, researchers are having a field day to distribute Japanese beetles! Show up and get your free baggy of the little vermin! Japanese beetles, that is, infected with Ovavesicula popilliae, a pathogen which it is hoped will suppress beetle populations to low levels once established, and won't infect any other organisms. I really want to go and get some, but... it is on a Wednesday morning, an hour from where I live. Who thought of that timing? I'd have to take the day off work to go! If it was on a weekend I would absolutely be there.

Mr. Subjunctive writes about plant theft and the odd fact that many people somehow feel it is okay to pocket cuttings and even whole plants without permission. My take -- not okay.

Diana of Gardening on the Edge has a cool post about a shrew apparently infected with toxoplasma -- which is one of my favorite pathogens. It is a little organism that changes the behavior of rodents in order to get into the stomach of cats -- the only place it can reproduce.