Tibetan Latrines

This is the second post for today, because that first one was just me being really excited about sleeping and didn't really count.
Topic of the day: Normally I would put some sort of topic here, like Tibetan fertilizer or why parachuting cats into Bangladesh is a good idea.
Actually... those aren't bad topics.
Okay, item one: Tibetan fertilizer.
Tibetan's use a fairly basic latrine set up, much like I experienced at Girl Scout Camp: Dig hole in ground, place seat on top, and do your business into the hole. Tibetans design these outhouses so that they're built into the side of a hill with a stone and mortar enclosure making up the outer edge of the hole. They place a door into this wall because come spring, when they are tilling and planting their fields, they have access to an entire winter's worth of manure. This is what Americans sometimes fail to recognize as good economics because we're too busy going, "Ewww."
This is interesting/significant, though, because in this area of Tibet/Nepal the people were suffering from a lack of iodine in their diets, causing them such complaints as goiters and other iodine deficiency related illnesses. People in developed countries get their iodine from using iodized salt, which works because humans only need trace amounts of it in their diets. The solution in Tibet, though, was to go in once and give every resident of the various small towns a single shot of iodine. This solution is still working today (years later) because the excess iodine passed through their bodies and into the manure they use in their fields where it is absorbed by the crops they eat. Self sustaining system! Eventually the population will need to be re-iodized, but because humans need such trace amounts this won't be for many years.
I think I'll save the parachuting cats story for tomorrow.