Kaffeesatz: Wie man Abfall zu Austernpilze aufwerten kann!

Selber züchten von Pilze macht Spaß. Dafür gibt es viele Fertig-Sets wobei man mit wenig Aufwand eine schöne Ernte hat (unbedingt probieren!). Als ich erfahren habe dass Pilze auch auf eigene Abfälle gezogen werden können, wollte ich das ausprobieren. Man kann sehr gut Austernpilze auf Kaffeesatz züchten, und davon haben wir genug

Da es im Internet (siehe unten) verschiedene teils konträre Empfehlungen gibt, erläutere ich wie es  bei mir am besten funktioniert hat:

Als Behälter habe ich Joghurtbecher (> 1 L) benutzt. Weil das lebende Material atmen können muss, habe ich an der Seite und im Deckel Löcher ausgeschnitten und diese mit atmendes Klebeband (medizinisches Klebeband) abgedeckt. Die Becher werden direkt vor der Benutzung nochmal mit kochendem Wasser sterilisiert.

Als erste braucht man Austernpilz-Pilzbrut das man zum Beispiel im Internet kauft, oder von Freunde bekommt. Diese Brut zerbröckele ich in 1 cm Bröckchen die ich Schichtweise mit Kaffeesatz im Joghurtbecherfülle. Es ist ganz einfach; nach gemachte Kaffee der Kaffesatz im Becher leeren bis ein dünner Schicht da ist. Dann ein Schicht Pilzbrut gut verteilen, und der Rest des Pilzbrutes wieder im Kühlschrank stellen. Nach dem nächsten Kaffee-trinken das Pilzbrut mit Kaffeesatz bedecken. Wenn es Bedeckt wieder ein Schicht Pilzbrut, und so weiter. Minimal ein Drittel soll Pilzbrut sein. Wichtig ist das man den Kaffeesatz in den Stunden nach den Kaeffebrühen verwertet (und auf keinem Fall am nächsten Tag), weil sonst zu viele Fremdpilze im nassen Satz schon anfangen zu wachsen (wenn der Kaffeesatz direkt mit Austernpilzbrut bedeckt ist, kann dieser den Konkurrenz gewinnen).
Jede Woche habe ich Wasser gekocht (steril) und in einem Pflanzensprüher gefüllt und es damit immer wieder angefeuchtet (nach dem Kochen zuerst abkühlen lassen!).

Irgendwann ist der Joghurtbecher voll und bei optimalen Wachstumsbedingungen sieht es dann nach 2 bis 4 Wochen so aus; fertig für die nächste Phase. Optimal war bei 18-20°C in der Wohnung. Der Wachstum im Abstellkammer und Keller bei niedrigere Temperaturen war zu langsam, und dadurch konnten andere Pilze eindringen. Falls das auch mal bei 20°C passiert, trotz aller sterilen Maßnahmen, dann versuchen die Stelle zo schnell wie möglich weg zu schneiden. Alles was nicht diese schöne weißen Farbe hat, gehört nicht drin! Grau und grün sind ganz böse, und können das Ende des Experiments sein!

Die nächste Phase dient der Pilzwachstum. Der weiße Klumpen aus dem Joghurtbecher wird in einem anderen Behälter gebracht wo es feucht bleiben kann, aber die Pilze auch genug Platz zum wachsen haben. Als Behälter habe ich einen Torten-Transportbox benutzt, aber was anderes geht auch. Wichtig ist das es genug Zugluft geben kann! Deshalb habe ich immer, wie auf dem Bild, den Deckel etwas aufgelassen. Gleichzeitig brauchen die Pilze Feuchte zum wachsen und dürfen nicht austrocknen! Ich habe die jeden morgen mit Wassernebel angesprüht, besser wäre vielleicht noch 3x täglich. Der optimale Temperatur für diese Phase scheint 10-20°C zu sein. Bei mir war das draußen an einem schattigen Ort. Unser Keller hatte leider zu viele Fremdkeime, und hat immer zu Verderb geführt. Bei einem sauberen Keller könnten theoretisch die Bedingungen das ganze Jahr optimal sein.

 

Nach nochmal 2-4 Wochen sind dann die Pilze da!

Tipp: rechtzeitig ernten! Austernpilze sind relative empfindlich und können am nächsten Tag vertrocknet, oder das Gegenteil, angeschimmelt sein. Die auf dem Bild sind auf jedem Fall Erntereif! Guten Appetit!

Und das Beste von Allem kommt noch; wenn die Ernte vorbei ist, kann man den weißen Klumpen wieder als Brut für die nächste Serie benutzen!
Ich hatte immer 2-3 Joghurteimer Parallel laufen (soviel bekommt man auch aus dem Anfangsbrut) und viel Spaß daran gehabt. Doch nach allen Experimente mit verschiedenen Bedingungen habe ich nach einem Jahr aufgeben müssen. Aber es hat geschmeckt!

Kurzgefasst:
- Substrat immer feucht halten
- immer atmen lassen, und in der zweite Phase Luftzug zulassen
- Temperaturen von über 25°C und direkte Sonneneinstrahlung verhindern
- rechtzeitig ernten
 
Zum Schluss noch ein paar Sachen die nicht funktioniert haben:
- Beimischen von Holzspäne/Sägemehl. Übergossen mit kochendem Wasser war es zwar sterilisiert, aber das Lignin im Holz (oder was anderes im Holz) nicht weit genug vorbereitet um den Pilz zu ernähren. Das Pilz-Mycel wollte nur im Kaffeesatz wachsen, und das Holzmehl ist am Ende vergammelt gewesen.
- Kein Zugluft in der zweite Phase führte immer zu kleine Pilze die danach direkt vergammelten.
- Im Sommer draußen. Es war einfach zu warm, und Pilze trockneten zu schnell aus! Ein kompletter Joghurtbecher hat den ganzen Sommer (4-5 Monate) bei mir im Kühlschrank gestanden und im Herbst wieder Pilze gegeben. Das hat funktioniert!


Viel Erfolg!


Weitere Weblinks:
http://www.tintling.com/inhalt/1997/Austernseitling.pdf
Open Source Anleitung zur Pilzzucht auf Kaffeesatz
http://de.wikihow.com/Drinnen-Pilze-z%C3%BCchten
http://www.pilzzuchtshop.de/anleitung3.php?mode=ext
http://www.pilzpaket.de/pilzzucht-blumentopf-experiment/
http://archiv.alessandrohaas.de/pilzzucht-auf-kaffeesatz/

Battery dead but not replacable - What now?

It happens a little bit too often; stuff that you used for one or several years with much pleasures, just stops working. Battery dead! Well, yes, the built in rechargeable battery won't charge anymore. One thing you could do is to give in to it and buy something new. But what if you refuse to throw away your favorite item that you re-charged less than 50 times? Or what if the item cannot be bought new, because it was only sold for 2 years? Well, fix it! In the age of the internet you can now find a solution to almost any problem, including how to repair or replace dead batteries for many items.

I would like share the case of my mp3 player. It did not charge so many times and just stopped working. I found several instructions to it (my main source seems dead, but this one is also good) and it was so interesting that I decided to try it. The short explanation: a too long battery pause can cause a hardware switch to set the battery in inoperable state. This switch can be undone by de- and re-solder the battery. In this case you don't need a new battery at all! So I tried:

I soldered it back on, I put it back together, and plugged it in for charging.
And guess what? It worked!
It took me only 20 minutes (and no ordering of new batteries) and was definitely worth doing!

There was another item I wanted to fix, which many of you may have: an Oral B toothbrush with a dead battery:

 

And there are many manuals online that show how to replace the battery: Here, and here.

A new battery costs about 10 Euro/Dollar and the replacement is quite tricky, but can be done with patience. It will take about an hour...
And than I considered the following: It is an hygiene item. The bottom side is really full of microorganisms such as algae that got in the rubber and cannot be washed out... Also the grip got more difficult to clean. And it should be clean, you stuck it into your mouth...! I admit, in this case I bought a new one for 20 Euros and saved an hour of messing around.
I really wonder, who makes these pervert designs? It should be no problem to earn money with the replacement brushes and make the electric holder partially out of metal for more easy cleaning. And the bottom out of plastic with a screw system for easy battery replacement. Technically no problem at all! You then could easily use your toothbrush for 10+ years without causing extra waste.

Well, anyhow, many thanks to all the people who write these repair manuals!! I will post more of my successes in the future.

Convenient life-hack for an entomologist - solution to troublesome pin holding

If you ever have tried to identify a pinned insect, you may have been either irritated that holding the pin in your hand to see all sides is exhausting your muscles, or have been irritated that the pin is fixed somewhere and you can't see the side you need to observe. This very simple aid solves the problem.

Take a rectangular piece of polyethylene foam used as bottom inlay for insect boxes (or use something similar), about 5 by 5 cm. Take an apple corer and rotate very slowly with mild pressure into the foam to get the nice round hole in it. It exactly fits a finger! I usually use it on my forefinger or my thumb; sometimes I use two at the same time! And you can pin multiple specimens on one at the time and compare them. A very convenient life-hack for an entomologist.

When do you throw your food away?

It is a challenge for all of us: we do not want to eat bad food, but neither we want to be bad for the environment or a shame to hungry people. So when do we throw our food away? When the date is expired, or when it looks or smells bad? Every person has its own way, but it makes sense to give it more thought. Therefore I made this diagram to make a fair and healthy decision.


Diagram to determine if your food is good or bad


Rule of thirds
When you buy a product, look at the 'best before' date. Count the days, weeks or months that is in the future and add one third: this is the more realistic date of expiration. So: the for milk you may have three days left, but you can probably use it four days; for a glass of vegetables for which you have 9 months will last 12, etc. Some products like flour, pasta, rice and some canned food will even last much longer. Meat that expires the next day, may last 0.3 day longer, but with such low margins you better stick to the date!

Why is it important not to throw it away on the expiration date? Because manufacturers reduce the expiration date every year silently and this seems an ongoing loop. So more and more food is wasted every year! See here (NL) and here (DE). Throwing it away on the expiration date is not very responsible.


The shelf life is actively reduced by manufacturers that set the expiration date earlier. As a result people are surprised that their food is expired earlier, but still throw it away, increasing food waste. They buy a new package instead. As a result sales go up. Now the manufacturers have an incentive to further reduce the shelf life of their products. Completely unnecessarily from the point of the food quality! Therefore it makes sense to use the diagram above to determine if you should throw your food away instead of the date!

Final notes
-  It is mostly safe to follow the diagram here, but it is on your own risk. Internet resources like this one can give you advice but cannot be hold responsible
- The manufacturer can be hold responsible for food going bad when it happens before the 'best before date'. Therefore it is logical to have the date early set, but there are not any legal rules for how early.
- Because the date is set earlier year by year, the rule of thirds is very rough and may be one day rather a 'rule of halfs'.

The supermoon of 14.11.2016 explained

Supermoon
The Moon has an elliptical orbit around Earth, and the Earth is not exactly in the middle (like the yolk in the egg). Therefore each month the Moon has a close position to Earth (Perigee) and a far position to Earth (Apogee). When it is close, it appears on average 14% larger (in diameter) and 30% (surface area) brighter when it is full moon. When both Perigee moon and full moon occur together, we speak of a supermoon (in far position of a micromoon).

The Earth has a similar elliptical orbit around the sun and also has a close and far position to the sun, together with the Moon. Hence, sometimes the gravity effect of the Sun is stronger than  other times, causing the Moon to vary in its far and close position. The close position varies roughly between
356.000 and 371.000 km while the far position varies roughly between 404.000 and 407.000 km.


Far and close distances for every moon rotation from 2001 to 2100. Data Source: Moon Perigee and Apogee Table Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com. Full moons are in yellow, data Source: Keith Cooley, http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/fullmoon.htm.

When the Earth would not turn around the Sun, the close distance would always fall together with a full moon. But because of the rotation around the sun, the light angle changes, causing a small shift in the cycle of full moon. After 14 moon cycles, both cycles are in the same position again, with a full moon in the close position, hence almost once every year! The interesting thing is that it is mostly never the same position relative to the sun, and therefore somewhere between 356.000 - 371.000 km as explained above. And that makes the the 14.11.2016 special; this full moon in Perigee position is closer than after most other 14 moon cycles. A super close, superbig moon! However this difference is much smaller than between a Perigee and Apogee month.


A close-up of the previous graph (only the very low band with full moons!), with the 100 closest moons from 2001 to 2100 and full moon in yellow and the dates everyone is talking about in orange. Closer moons will follow several times this century, so it is not so rare. And remember from the first graph: the distance and hence appearance diameters of all full moons in this graph do not much differ to the eye and are actually all supermoons!


The moon illusion
People often think they see a supermoon. But in fact they are victim of the so called moon illusion! A very good explanation is on Wikipedia.

Macro photography in millimeter range: microscope vs DSLR camera

In this small review I compare two imaging methods, the VHX2000 microscope and a Canon EOS 7D camera with a reverse ring, for an object of a few mm in size.



This motive, a 30 million year old ant trapped in Baltic amber, is about 3 by 4 mm. Wit a normal macro lens or extension tubes, it is not possible to get such a small object so detailed captured. Reversing a wide angle (zoom) lens with an adapter (reverse ring or retro adapter) gives high magnifications and it is possible to get a good picture (right two images). I also had the opportunity to use a microscope with camera, the VHX2000 from Keyence, which is specially built for imaging small objects. I found that both are not perfect solutions, which makes a comparison meaningful.

Before I get to the differences, some words on what they have in common. Both work with lenses and a digital sensor. The depth of field is very limited and both require a stack of 10-20 images from bottom to top that are either merged in a stacking program like CombineZP or Photoshop*. They both disappoint in image quality and detail for printing on a A3 format. For more detail you need to zoom in and make a mosaic composite**. The ant image is based on a single stack image.

VHX2000	DSLR
Stability
Stable platform present	Need to stabilize camera and object carefully
Image Quality
1600 x 1200 (3200 x 2400) pixel resolution	5184 x 3456 pixel resolution
Compressed/filtered data	Raw data
Crisp sharpness difficult	Crisp sharpness difficult
Details such as hairs visible	Details such as hairs visible
Photo stacks by software	Photo stacks manually
Optimal stacking	Non-optimal stacking (movement of camera possible when turning wheel)
Light
Artificial light	Natural and artificial light possible
Light from all sides (adjustable)	Light from one side (with natural light)
Light can work 'flat'	Lighting very flexible in giving depth
Clipping of light areas	Fewer clipping areas (with Raw data)
Other
Zoom under 1 mm possible	Zoom limited (here to about 2 mm objects)
Relatively fast	Time consuming
Expensive	Not expensive, when camera and lens are already in possession

Conclusion:
The pictures with either a VHX2000 or a reverse ring are slightly different, especially concerning color. The reverse ring method is more complicated and time consuming but gives an image quality that can keep up with a microscope image (apart from small lens distortions that are not considered here). For the price and quality, a reverse ring is a very attractive alternative to a microscope, when the object is not smaller than about 2 mm.

* On digital stacking:
1) CombineZP (freeware for stacking) gives nice results with the pyramid weighted average method. The idea is that the software reconstructs the 3d depth of the object. From the bottom layer, the sharpest is considered and build up to the top layer with complex algorithms.
2) Photoshop can also yield nice results with a different method. It just keeps the most sharp part from each layer. Sometimes the result is nicer than CombineZP, sometimes not. To do this, choose File => Scripts => Load files into stack. In the layer palette, select all layers. Then choose: Edit => Auto-Align Layers, followed by Edit => Auto-Blend Layers. Sometimes the result is better without Auto-Align (eventually manual align).

** Mosaic composite:
E.g. a mosaic of 6 image columns by 6 image rows with overlap in area for stitching gives at most 3 times more detail. With 20 stack layers per image, you need to manage 36x20=720 images (which I only did once). First you stack each mosaic part with the favored software, after which the mosaic is stitched together. This is time consuming because it often requires manual adjustments, and is only justified when an image is indeed to be presented at A3 format.

De koffiespecht en de treinreis (NL)

 

De koffiespecht - ik kom er zo op.

Eerst even dit. Laatst zat ik in de trein en hoorde wat ik vaker hoor. Er werd omgeroepen 'Deze trein rijdt niet verder als...'. Wacht even, ver - verder - verst, DAN!, verder dan...
Tenzij de trein natuurlijk niet verder als stoptrein rijdt, maar als sneltrein (in de hoedanigheid van), dan is 'verder als' dus wel goed. Maar bij de vergrotende trap hoor je gewoon 'dan' te gebruiken, dat hebben we zo afgesproken. Toch wordt het misschien ooit 'verder als'. Als iedereen namelijk hetzelfde steeds fout zegt, dan is er een soort consensus dat het goed is. Afspraken, zoals bij de vergrotende trap, kun je veranderen.
Anders ligt dat bij grammaticale logica. Deze sneltrein word stoptrein, zonder t, is echt fout. Ook als iedereen het fout schrijft zal het nooit correct worden. Dit is namelijk logica afgeleid uit een algemene afspraak dat voor vele werkwoorden geldt. Als je dit zou toestaan omdat veel mensen het fout doen, dan zou dat op alle andere werkwoorden ook toegepast mogen worden. Dan krijg je gekke dingen als 'de trein stop niet bij het volgende station'.
Er zijn nog andere uitspraken die om logische reden onjuist zijn. Bijvoorbeeld 'de trein rijdt omhoog'. Dat kan niet. Een trein kan alleen maar in tekenfilms direct omhoog rijden, want 'omhoog' is een verticale beweging, net als omlaag. Zo zijn 'vooruit' en 'achteruit' de horizontale beweging. Een trein kan wel schuin omhoog rijden; mooier is echter 'de trein reed de berg op'.

Nou vooruit, nog een regeltje dan. 't Kofschip, 't fokschaap en xtc-coffeeshop hebben de medeklinkers t, x, k, f, s, c, h en p. Als de stam van een zwak werkwoord hierop eindigt dan gebruik je in de onvoltooid verleden tijd -te en -ten, en anders -de en -den. Het blijven rotwoorden. Wie onthoudt die nou? Dus kan er nog wel eentje bij; ik introduceer 'koffiespecht'.



De koffiespecht drinkt wel een kopje mee als het om de Nederlandse taal gaat! Gezelliger kunnen we niet maken ;-).