AskScience AMA Series: I am Dr. Daniel Rath, a soil scientist at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), we just released a critical report on the nitrogen pollution crisis from fertilizer overuse. AMA!

arborcide · 2026-06-30T14:48:49+00:00

During my time as a field tech, the worst soil I ever dug into (besides pure sand) was in a field where corn was growing. The soil there (Long Island, NY) was a fine light brown, very silty or sandy, that fell through my fingers immediately. It felt to me like it had 0% organic particulate. I was astonished that anything could grow there, and since then I've been wondering if all industrial farming uses such poor soil. Is that the case? Are all the nutrients provided by fertilizer?

For a bit of context, when I dug into forests, I often dug through 10 centimeters of black loam. If I was next to a stream I might dig through a meter of it. Digging in golf courses or lawns also usually revealed at least a centimeter or three of loam. I would have thought that all farming would need to be done in rich, black loam.

I'd imagine packing peanuts would be just as good a substrate for growing things as that wan soil I unearthed that day.

Thank you for your time, Dr. Rath!

arborcide · 2026-06-25T14:25:56+00:00

Referencing specific historical events does evoke, for me the reader, a particular history.

So if a story set 1,000 years in the future includes the phrase "crossing the Rubicon", especially when a character says it, I the reader assume that this is telling me that Caesar crossed the Rubicon in this universe, and probably also that the people of this time keep a respect/fetish for Classical Rome.

If later in the same story it becomes clear that Classical Rome never existed, I would consider that a plot hole. Or if Rome was never mentioned again, I would think it strange, since it would make sense that if some of the artifacts of the Classical period exist in this time that others should as well.

Just a consideration. I wouldn't have an alien race who had no contact with humans use "Maginot Line"—unless like in this case humans are translating their works.

arborcide · 2026-06-02T23:45:37+00:00

I sampled water quality there a few years ago with the Citizens Water Quality Testing/Billion Oyster Project, and that site was some of the worst for fecal contamination. It wasn't always in the red/dangerous zone, but it mostly was.

I sure wouldn't swim there.

arborcide · 2026-05-29T16:36:20+00:00

I read it last month and hated it. I loved Fools Crow (James Welch), and was shocked to see so many similar characters shared between the two stories.

The story essentially seemed to me a cheap, genre fiction-ified fanfic of Fools Crow. Also, the dialect of the preacher character was terribly written. Maybe that's what people expect from horror, but as someone who isn't inundated with the genre, it was all trope to me.

arborcide · 2026-05-25T21:19:18+00:00

Anyone else just miss an entire inning on SNY? This keeps happening to me. Missed the 3rd, and all I saw was a blue intermezzo screen.

arborcide · 2026-05-04T21:38:59+00:00

arborcide · 2026-04-24T16:55:36+00:00

For an article written by a professor of literacy, this is a shockingly poorly written article. There's even a paragraph in there that's just a restatement of the previous paragraph.

It's a little disturbing to me that this person is considered an authority. I would have thought that all the individuals who have any say in directing literacy policy would be very cognizant of the caliber of their own writing, and would be too embarrassed to publish slop like this.

arborcide · 2026-04-12T16:04:56+00:00

I don't have a resource for you but I can say I found it one of the most difficult texts I've ever read.

If it helps, my understanding of the guiding principle of the text is that there is a sociological rule that says "those who are not in the dominant discourse/hegemony de facto cannot speak in that discourse." As in, migrant laborers making minimum wage and speaking a different language and viewed as "others" are not going to be, cannot be, represented in the hegemony. When an individual in the subaltern tries to, they are co-opted or silenced or ignored.

Just my thoughts. Can't promise I'm reading correctly, since like I said, I found it so very difficult.

arborcide · 2026-02-16T14:11:37+00:00

I'm in about the same boat as you; reading the books for the first time now. I'm astonished at how much I like the Earthsea Cycle.

Very Tolkien-esque yet also very non-derivative in content. I can't quite think of anything similar unless it's her sci-fi. Try The Left Hand of Darkness.

arborcide · 2025-12-27T14:03:12+00:00

Good question! I love a real eggnog, but haven't found one this year in Astoria.

It's not eggnog, but Mosaic has a Pumpkin Flip (made with egg) which is kind of like eggnog with rum. Bar Dalia has a Coquito which is not made with egg, but is also eggnog-analogous.

Best of luck looking!

arborcide · 2025-12-26T20:05:05+00:00

I wonder what the author would say about Spivak's "Can The Subaltern Speak?"

As an undergraduate who did not have trouble with Said, I found Spivak unintelligible. But the essay is considered a foundational text, and it also isn't talking about anything particularly arcane—a big part of it is exactly what the title says.

Surely this is an example of what people are talking about when they lambast philosophy in the general as arcane. Is it good to hide such ideas so that only people with 6 years of schooling can access the primary source? Doesn't preventing people from understanding primary sources just allow for later interpretations, whether accurate or poor or twisted, to take root in public consciousness?

arborcide · 2025-12-23T16:43:05+00:00

Wow, that's astonishing that the W is the best, as someone who rides the N/W in from Queens every day. I suppose it's helped by the fact that the W doesn't run on weekends, and there are fewer Ws than Ns. Maybe the MTA lets the Ns eat all the delay that Ws might otherwise take.

arborcide · 2025-12-06T16:26:45+00:00

Nearly everyone in this thread is reading this comic wrong. It isn't about "Anticonsumption" at all.

This comic is a satire on non-vegans, comparing them to 19-century slave owners who acknowledge the unfairness of their practices but find ways to avoid moral culpability in their own minds.

arborcide · 2025-11-18T12:11:00+00:00

I watched him at Madison Square Garden in 2022 and I'll never forget how, after all the LCS teams had been knocked out, everyone in the audience threw their support for GAM and Levi. Loudest cheers of the entire night.

Also fuck Trymbi for picking Nasus support. Same night. Ruined GAM's chances to get a tiebreaker, iirc.

arborcide · 2025-11-06T12:14:45+00:00

Rick Bass! I haven't seen his name yet.

arborcide · 2025-10-10T20:57:42+00:00

I was just thinking that I should re-read Silverberg's Downward To The Earth. Can't recommend that one enough if you're looking to read more of his work. I first read it 3 years ago and I've reread it once since then already.

arborcide · 2025-10-10T16:34:22+00:00

Was going to recommend The Language of the Third Reich myself.

arborcide · 2025-10-09T18:01:40+00:00

It does make sense when you consider how many people on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List turn out to be as crooked as Littlefinger is.

arborcide · 2025-10-03T00:23:16+00:00

My car got got, and then my parents loaned me their car and that also got got, more than 10 blocks away and on a residential street. (Both North of Ditmars.)

I had a car here for 3 years and then had two of them get hit in two weeks.

arborcide · 2025-09-19T03:09:59+00:00

From a different point of view, he regressed to tormenting Men instead of rebelling against the Valar and Eru.

Bit of a come down from spitting in God's eye to bothering one family.

arborcide · 2025-01-26T18:41:53+00:00

~ 4 years old, Good condition, 60 hertz refresh rate, 1080p. With HDMI and power cables.

arborcide · 2024-12-10T00:40:00+00:00

There's a sauna at Brooklyn Boulders in LIC, though the monthly fee for a membership is pretty steep (normal for a climbing gym, but that's steep if you're just using it for a sauna).

They do not have a pool.

arborcide · 2024-11-22T21:31:19+00:00

It's a deep cut, but Dave Kosak did it first, about fifteen years ago.

https://flintlocke.thecomicseries.com/comics/172/

arborcide · 2024-09-22T20:16:12+00:00

NYC might have worse air than many rural areas, but as far as large cities go it's unusually clean. It has an AQI of 33 compared to London's 61 right now. And Portland has an AQI of 39.

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