Legalized marijuana is going the way of all agricultural commodities in the United States, and that shouldn't be a surprise. A really interesting analysis by 538 reveals that the price of pot has dropped for grower and dope fiend alike, and with big money at stake -- $6.7 billion this past year and $20 billion the dream for 2021 -- big money is very interested. The market, according to 538:

increasingly favors big businesses with deep pockets. As legal weed keeps expanding, pot prices are likely to continue to decline, making the odds of running a profitable small pot farm even longer.

Botany One reviews Food: Delicious Science, a newish TV series from James Wong and Michael Mosley, originally produced on BBC2 as The Secrets of Your Food. Among the "entertaining stories" that Ian Street singles out for special praise:

Watching James Wong and Michael Mosley participate in a...

Taking advantage of the downtime to continue migrating old blog posts, I'm mostly conscious that nobody except me cares whether most of these pieces endure. Some I'm rejecting out of hand, as too ephemeral or unimportant to bother with. The bulk I just process. A few are worth drawing attention to once again.

A paper just published in Nature Geoscience has terrific news for anyone worried about the sustainability of agriculture.¹ It should be possible to grow 10% more calories and 19% more protein while simultaneously using 14% less rainwater and 12% less irrigation water. And that, the authors say "would feed an additional 825 million people".

Desktop computer; phone; router; Time Capsule; LEDs; active loudspeakers (x2); audio mixer; external hard drives (x2); fan; desk lamp.

Twelve electrical devices, permanently plugged in just to make my work space work. Two more -- USB charger and audio recorder -- plugged in intermittently, although seldom simultaneously.