The Compost Bin of History

Forget About The Alamo (Part One): Cousin-F*ck Colonialism

To begin our series on the Battle of the Alamo, Jared and James uncover the rotten economics of colonialism in New Spain, exploring its incestuous roots in European aristocracy, racial hierarchies, and systems of trade and exploitation. We are also introduced to our first major player in the Alamo conflict itself, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The son of a merchant and an ever-rising political star, he bears some comparison to other well-known American political figures.

 

 

ANTI-ENV 101: Economics - Lying for Fun and Profit!

It's field trip day at Compost Bin of History University! Grab your signed parental permission slip and throw your meth pipe in the lunchbox, because we're heading to the Scrap Yard of Economics! 

How about that current financial situation!? You know, that one that is alternately wonderful/terrible, depending which side of the gilded fence you are standing on? Sure is funny how it has to be exactly that way!

In this episode, learn how the Modern Science of Economics continues to unlock the True Potential of Mankind! The philosophical discoveries of luminaries like Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill have paved the way for a world of Unlimited Market Potential! ONLY COMPOST BIN OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY can tell YOU how to get The Invisible Hand of the Market to fondle your profit-motive!

Also Included in this LIMITED ONE-TIME OFFER: Compost Investment Secrets of the Habsburgs, and our revolutionary, patented stock-predicting technology: Dio-nomics!

 

{Big Thanks to Kadoodles from the Purple Palette Podcast for their question which inspired this episode. The Purple Palette is a space for reflection, advice, and mental wellness for artists, Twitch streamers, and content creators. Check out their work here: https://thepurplepalette.podbean.com/ - James}

Forget About The Alamo (Prologue): Ozzy

The prologue to our next series - by special request - on the Battle of the Alamo.

We cover the rising star of Ozzy Osbourne, Prince of Darkness, from his troubled youth, time with Black Sabbath, and zenith in "Blizzard of Ozz"; building to the conflagration of a liquid byproduct of metabolism with a certain monument in San Antonio, Texas, which led to his arrest and being banned from the city.

Yes, this is relevant to the Battle of the Alamo - listen to find out why!

Someday Ozzy Osbourne and Rudy Giuliani will fistfight in hell, so let's cherish them while we can.

 

Links to sources:

Wiederhorn, John. "38 Years Ago: Ozzy Osbourne Arrested for Urinating on Alamo Cenotaph". Loudwire. 19 Feb 2020.

https://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-arrested-urinating-alamo-cenotaph-anniversary/

Stark Naked Bare-Ass Soils - Garden Variety Perverts

Welcome to our new meta-pod, Garden Variety Perverts - an attempt to sublimate our perverse love of plants into an otherwise normal podcast!

Have you heard? That Winter Is Coming? Is your garden barren and wanting of erosion and foul mis'ry!? Learn the tips to guard your fertile bed, and avoid the worst effects of climate change and ol' man winter double-teaming your veggie patch.

In this episode: Prepping your garden for winter; Freeze-thaw cycles; Rooting techniques for shrub cuttings; The inverse relationship of Home Owner's Associations and ecological value; and how Plants Love Slime.

Send your gardeny-type questions to CompostBinOfHistory@gmail.com 

Links to referenced material:

Darrell, Bruce / RED Gardens. "Dealing With Fertility Bombs in the Garden". YouTube. 16 March 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjo4BnhsPYg

Related and on the topic of citrus peels:

Dockrill, Peter. "How 12,000 Tonnes of Dumped Orange Peel Grew Into a Landscape Nobody Expected to Find". Science Alert. 30 Aug 2017.

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-12-000-tonnes-of-dumped-orange-peel-produced-something-nobody-imagined

Cam Sites are Burning for You - Colorado Wildfires 2020

After flaking and hesitating Jared and James decide it's time to poke ol' reality with a pitchfork and express themselves - pouring over the fresh trauma of northern Colorado's 2020 fire season. These recent disasters provide a case study for what has happened over much of the western U.S. this year, and serve as an omen of future fire in the region.

All the Big Ones are here in this scorcher of an episode: Pine Gulch, Lefthand Canyon, Mullen, Middle Fork, East Troublesome, and the Truckasaurus of Larimer County itself; the Cameron Peak Fire! Who will win the race to be the biggest, most destructive inferno of the Rocky Mountain State? How can we profit from unparalleled environmental collapse and compounding human misery!? Does it have to be cope or rope? Some of those questions are answered here!

 

{---With regards  to sources - I pulled from gads of articles and personal experiences in relation to this episode, but much of my technical information came directly from incident command (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964/) and accounts/experiences from the excellent local reporters at The Loveland Reporter-Herald (https://www.reporterherald.com/) and Fort Collins Coloradoan (https://www.coloradoan.com/) who did so much to keep their communities informed through these crazy times - thank you!  - james---}

Clean Water Act (Part 4): Wetlands v. United States

In the final part of our series on the Clean Water Act, we explore how the last three decades of lawyer-stuff have turned this important environmental legislation into the toothless beast we know today.

A cavalcade of real estate developers and petty officials seek to whittle away at Corps of Engineers new authority to protect our precious wetlands. Waterfowl step-in and hold the frontline of constitutional mandate for almost fifteen years, until they are shot down by a growing conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Poop people from Chicago and an asshole named Rapanos are able to convince Justice Any of the Sexual Harassment Ones that, actually, it is NOT wetLand, but rather LANDwet. Don't drink the water in Aberdeen, South Dakota, or lots of other places, honestly.

The rest, as they say, is for the compost bin. Sharpen a f_ckin' pitchfork to this one whydontcha*^.

 

*Jared and James are extremely professional experts with lots of credentials 

^You should therefore accept everything they say as God's Honest Truth About the Environment

 

Links to sources:

Ackerman, Seth. "Failure Is an Option." Jacobin, N239. Fall 2020.

Eller, Donelle. "East Iowa restaurant's 'thick, juicy' breaded pork tenderloin named states best." Des Moines Register. 16 Oct 2020. 

Clean Water Act (Part 3): Nixon's Ghost

U.S. President Richard Nixon, original author of the "War on ______________", turns his sights on America's polluted waterways after being goaded by a large, predatory fish posing as a U.S. Senator - Edmund Muskie. This conflagration of Government Power and 1st-class sportfishing gave rise to the Clean Water Act, and set the tide-mark for the next 50 years of regulatory conflict and collusion among industry and their allies.

Jared and James look at how the Clean Water Act established a limited vision of government oversight, raised unforeseen issues of jurisdiction, and spawned new legions of "content creators". Also, how Nixon and the CWA planted the seeds of destructive neoliberalism - made manifest in wetland mitigation banking, a perfectly reasonable practice that makes lots of sense.

BIO-ETHICS DISCLAIMER: Several pigeons were harmed in the making of this episode.

Clean Water Act (Part 2): Drank

Prior to the Clean Water Act of 1972, the waters of the United States were a largely unregulated, polluted mess. They're still a largely unregulated, polluted mess, but slightly less so! #Biden2020

In this episode, Jared and James discuss how U.S. streams, rivers, and lakes became the dumping grounds of industry, and introduce the second key player in our story: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Also; the health effects of water pollution; and the lads dust-off their Oedipal complexes to examine the role their own families played in destroying America's waterways. This is a heavy one, dude.

Links to sources:

Cone, Marla. "Rural Well Water Linked to Parkinson's Disease." Scientific American. 5 Aug 2009. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rural-well-water-insecticides-parkinsons-disease-california/

 

Schwartz, J., Levin, R., and Goldstein, R. "Drinking water turbidity and gastrointestinal illness in the elderly of Philadelphia." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 54(1): 45-51. January 2000.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1731533/

 

University of Exeter. "Declining Male Fertility Linked To Water Pollution." ScienceDaily. 20 January 2009.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090118200636.htm

Clean Water Act (Part 1): New World Water

The Clean Water Act of 1972 was a significant achievement for the United States, and yet today the nation's waterways remain extremely polluted. If we have a "clean water" act - why is it so damn hard to find clean water?

In this introductory episode the lads discuss the recent failures of the Clean Water Act, the material science of water and the water cycle, and introduce the first key player in our story: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Did you know that shit rolls downhill? This and other amazing revelations in this episode!

Links to sources:

Eller, Donelle. "Environmental group says two companies in Iowa have escaped enforcement action despite dozens of clean water violations". Des Moines Register. 8 Oct 2020.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/10/07/water-pollution-laws-unenforced-iowa-environmental-group-clinton-sergeant-bluff-clean-water-act/3636534001/

ANTI-ENV 101: Environmental Ethics and the Lack Thereof

It's Compost Bin of History University time, as James and Jared take you to class on Ethics and why it's bullshit and not worth caring much about. They discuss how individual morals influence our actions and bring us into ethical conflicts - and how those actions and conflicts are filtered through the mass of society. None of this has anything to do with the Election.

Also in this episode: idealism vs materialism, tree propagation, permaculture, and exploitation in the trucking industry.

Kick-back and spark-up (allegedly) for an episode that goes in some surprising directions!