Welcome to Saturday's Potluck

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 5:00am

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Morning, just finished rewatching a BBC series WarTime Farm about the challenges of running a farm during WII in Britain. It was a forced shift from traditional farming methods to modern commercial agriculture. Surprising number of technological advances from chemicals to machinery existed for significant time. The market for the products simply did not develop without government intervention.

When watching the series kept seeing parallels to actions of today's government making drastic changes to society and individual lives. Centralized planning on overdrive. Are we in an active World War and nobody thought to let us know?

Did not include a posted link to the youtube videos. Did not want to trigger them being removed for copyright issues.

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Technology War Front

United States is working on not letting the Peoples Republic of China have access to a new Dutch machine using ultraviolet lithography to etch microchips.

The $150mn machine that will change the world

Amid the recent chip shortage, ASML’s products have become central to a geopolitical struggle between the US and China, with Washington making it a high priority to block China’s access to the machines.
...
Asia Pacific continues to hold the largest revenue share in the global market for EUV lithography, with Taiwan (Republic of China) expected to have an edge in the region over the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.
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So far, the US government has successfully pressured the Dutch not to grant the export licenses needed to send the machines to China.
...
Company CEO Peter Wennink says that, in addition to demand from chip manufacturers, ASML is set to benefit from a trend towards “technological sovereignty,” with the US and Europe looking to ensure local production of critical semiconductors.

One of the plans to minimize the disadvantage of no longer designing and manufacturing advanced chips in the United States was to focus on software to dominate 5G technology. The video uses all the right buzzwords for a worldwide coalition. The difficulty appears to be when companies need to make a choice between China and the US markets.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6d0JZ9CTkQ]

O-RAN an also-ran to Huawei 5G
China’s 5G market is so much larger than America's that big players like Nokia are dropping out of the US-led software-based effort

Eighteen months ago the Trump administration dropped plans to create an American national champion to counter Huawei’s dominant position in 5G broadband infrastructure. Instead, it endorsed a software-based approach known by the acronym O-RAN – Open Radio Access Networks.
...
By the end of 2020, China had built nearly 700,000 5G base stations, or 70% of the world’s total, compared with only 50,000 in the United States. China will build another one million during 2021, providing 5G service to all cities with populations of 250,000 or more.

Huawei has about three-fifths of China’s 5G infrastructure market and appears to suffer from no constraints in semiconductor availability for the buildout. Meanwhile, O-RAN has yet to get beyond initial tests.

Sweden’s Ericsson, Huawei’s largest competitor, waved off the O-RAN project as infeasible, but the number three telecom equipment provider, Finland’s Nokia, joined the US industry umbrella group promoting the software approach.
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Nokia dropped out of the O-RAN Alliance this week in response to an American decision to put some of Nokia’s Chinese partners on the entity list that sanctions Chinese companies whose activity is deemed threatening to US national and security interests.
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For O-RAN and its American umbrella group, the trouble is that China’s market for 5G telecommunications is so much larger than America’s that major international players like Nokia will drop out of the American effort rather than compromise their Chinese business.

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Conflict in the countryside. The grassed in the fields are a little tall with maturing seed heads. Insect and rodent life is abundant. Starting to see a wider variety of wildlife. The bird on the left is a Magpie and the one on the right, I believe, is an American kestrel. Sorry about clarity and color - there was no time to fiddle with the camera and shot through a window.

Race to the perch.
soe conflict 1.JPG

What you really landed next to me?
soe conflict 2.JPG

This is my spot, Get Off.
soe conflict 3.JPG

Let's rumble.
soe conflict 4.JPG

California Scrub-Jay (?) (lower right corner) Are you two at it again?
soe conflict 5.JPG

Next day.
Just try to land next to me.
soe conflict 6.JPG

This is better, all mine.
soe conflict 7.JPG

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What is on your mind today?

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Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 6:50am

In 'Wilding' by Pamela Tree, she talks about the British war

effort to farm every square foot of possible farm land for the feed the homeland goal. Her husband's family farm in West Sussex was on less than optimum soils for large scale agriculture, although once it was theirs to farm they did everything modern ag schools and agencies suggested to produce a robust set of crops and cattle. Only once in ten years, working as hard as they could did they break even.

Eventually they decided to sell off the herd and to allow the land to go back to a more natural state. It wasn't a well received project to begin with, but they have made tremendous progress and learned so much about what it takes to create healthy land, soils and critters.

[video:https://youtu.be/mP3-TsRRSys]

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 12:45am

Thanks for the update on the Knepp

@Dawn's Meta It has been a few years since I watched a video on the project. The ecosystem keeps getting more complex. I admire them for the patience not to meddle in the process too much.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 4:50am

The thread below the video has critical comments about not

@studentofearth introducing apex predators such as Lynx, large birds and wolves, maybe others. The problems they had with each introduction was local neighbors, horse riding folks and national organizations including conservation groups which opposed bringing in more natural breeds.

The Tamworth Pigs were substituted for Sangliers (wild Boars) because local farmers were concerned with potential disruption of their crops. Plants such as Thistle and other brush are also opposed, so they obligate themselves to police the fence-lines and roadways to be sure nothing escapes to another landowner.

Re wilding groups and landowners in Scotland, other parts of England face great opposition to reintroducing traditional species, so they move slower than they might and have to leave out certain important animals and plants as they convert back to natural ways of things.

Thanks for the OT.

—

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 8:06am

“Deeply-held beliefs”

— from PBF comics, via The Automatic Earth, where there’s been a strong focus lately on Covid and the controversy surrounding ivermectin

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 1:12am

Influencer at work

@lotlizard thanks for contributing.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 8:59am

good morning

Thanks for the video recommendation, I'll check it out.

Time to work with nature instead of dominate the system. At least as individuals we have the opportunity.

Nice bird photos/story. I heard a horned owl and a screech owl last night...sort of the big and little of the owl world.

A lovely 60 degree AM here. Pleasant stroll through trade day. Many are back to wearing masks as delta is raging in the South. One step forward, two steps back it seems.

Had my first case of what I think are cut worms. Mowed down a row of young broccoli plants. Then someone asked me if I had an army worm problem. They said their fall pastures had been devastated. I still think I got hit by cut worms. I pushed my fall plantings too early this year I think.

Well take care and have a great holiday weekend!

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 9:28am

I thought I remembered a low tech cutworm remedy

@Lookout

from Crockett’s Victory Garden. Turns out it’s in The Old Farmers’ Almanac too. For small gardens they suggest putting paper collars around the stems to stop the cutworms from, well, cutting. That’s probably too fiddly for you, though.

Look who’s talking! I stopped gardening when caring for my f-I-l and homeschooling my son. We let the trees grow up around the yard so much that there isn’t enough light for gardening now.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 9:50am

I had some plastic cups...

@Lily O Lady

and cut off the bottoms to create a collar around each plant. They should survive several seasons. First time I've had this issue. Thanks for the tip!

I think growing trees is a great idea too!

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 1:40am

Shade trees and bird habitat

@Lily O Lady pretty good harvest.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Sima on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:25am

Cutworms

@Lily O Lady Cutworms are a big deal for gardeners in north-east England, my ex husband was from there. He taught me to collect toilet paper tubes and use those to make the collars for the seedlings. However, the problem in the northwest USA (WA state), at least along the coast, is not cutworms. So the first crop of broccoli I was growing for sale (ran a CSA for a long time), I put out those little cardboard collars. AND... the slugs LOVED them. What a great hiding place, right by the food, shady, cool, damp... Heh. Lost an entire bed of broccoli, 4 by 100 feet, in a night, right after a rainstorm which occurred about two days after planting the seedlings. Learned my lesson! And right after that, learned how to fight the slugs!
Due to climate change, there are much fewer slugs out here now, at least on my farm. Much fewer. They started disappearing about 5 or 6 years ago... I would be delighted but, I'm not. I don't like the changes, I must admit. Dang it.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 1:22am

Showed a number of interesting early farm equipment

@Lookout mad during the transition from horses to machinery.

I have used the paper collars suggested by Lily O Lady successfully. They do like the brassica vegetables. Never seen a weed clipped off.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 11:01am

Good morning soe. Definitely Kestrel and definitely

Scrubbie. Great series of photos. Our backyard scrubbie sort of runs things here, though he and the woodpeckers never confront each other (Nuttals and Downys share the yard relatively non-confrontationally, fwiw). Oddly enough, however, the scrubbie vanished from the yard for a period recently which ended pretty much once the Towhee's offspring was independent and self-sufficient, leading to speculation that she maybe chased him off while it was a nestling & fledgling. We'll have to try to keep an eye on that behavior next year.

I thought cut worms attacked lawns, silly me. I also thought that raccoons would dig up the whole damn place trying to get them and the grubs. Farmer's market shortly, then a lot of cooking and chores. My office is once again beginning to look like one of those pictures of a trailer park hit by a tornado, but I have plans for that (the same plans I've had for about 3 years now)

Thanks for the OT. btw.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 1:48am

Thanks for confirming the identificaiton

@enhydra lutris the male Kestrel has been hunting this year in a field I let flood irrigate. Never have a camera with me and has been puzzling me, what type of bird, since June. He hovers for the longest time before diving after prey. I simply stand still for a for moments, if I keep walking he aborts his hunt.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by jakkalbessie on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 12:54pm

Great OT

Always interesting to watch the bird interaction around my place. I occasionally get a raptor in the tree waiting for one of the finches or gopher to provide a meal!

Today was a beautiful day for a bike ride to the Farmer’s Market. Very busy but most people were wearing masks and masks were required for the inside part of the market. Since I have not yet managed to become a gardener, I support the wonderful things to be found at the Farmers Market. The Chile roasting is almost over for this season but people watching is always fun while there.

As getting ready to head back home, the Railrunner train that runs from Belen, New Mexico to Santa Fe and back several times a day was trying to complete the route. Cars kept coming across the intersection but conductor was finally able to drop the barriers so could continue. Happy crowd of young children waving to the train as it passed

Back at the house and now must turn my attention to house cleaning. Hope all have a great Saturday and rest of the Labor Day weekend.

—

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:00am

From the description of the market trip

@jakkalbessie it sounds like a mini festival. Great way to start the holiday weekend.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 1:40pm

Afghanistan Poll

The public still overwhelmingly wanted out.

The new poll shows that 77 percent of respondents support the decision to withdraw all U.S. forces. The support goes across party lines, with 88 percent of Democratic respondents, 74 percent of Republican ones and 76 percent of independents polled supporting the withdrawal.

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:14am

Propaganda is getting pretty thick on why America

@gjohnsit needs to keep interfering in Afghanistan. Usually the warmongers just do what they want and may be tell us a few years later. Wonder why it is different this time? Barriers to reengagement or trying to prevent progress on leaving Iraq?

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by CB on Sat, 09/04/2021 - 2:16pm

First COVID-19 death in US Jan 9, 2020?

Health officials quietly moved the date of the 1st US COVID-19 death to January 2020
Sept 3, 2021

The first recorded death from COVID-19 in the U.S. occurred a month earlier than previously thought: A Kansas woman's death certificate was recently amended to say she died from the disease in January 2020, according to news reports.

The 78-year-old woman, Lovell "Cookie" Brown, died on Jan. 9, 2020 in Leavenworth, Kansas, several weeks before the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in the U.S., according to The Mercury News. Initially, Brown's death certificate said she died of a stroke and chronic obstructive lung disease. But in May 2021, her doctors quietly updated the certificate to add "COVID-19 pneumonia" as a cause of death, The Mercury News reported.
...

Submitted by studentofearth on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:24am

Interesting development, no clues in the referenced

@CB article on haw exposed to Covid. My suspicions is if the multiple labs through out the country had been allowed to develop and use their own Covid tests at the beginning of 2020, they would have discovered the virus widespread throughout the United States. The narrative of a "China virus" would not have had time to develop in the country's conscious.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by CB on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 4:09pm

Possibly that is why the government

@studentofearth
was not only slow to roll out the tests but they failed on the first try which then postponed the supply until early March. Meanwhile German researchers had developed a diagnostic test for COVID-19 on Jan 16, 2020.

By March 15 the CDC had only minimal amounts shipped. During the period when the CDC couldn't produce the test they had banned ALL the States from using foreign manufactured tests. Any that were used prior to the CDC's authorization were supposed to be destroyed.

January 20, 2020 Xi Jinping publicly announces that the coronavirus outbreak “must be taken seriously” and that the country must impose all possible measures to contain the virus. Chinese officials also confirm for the first time that the new coronavirus is transmissible via human-to-human contact.

January 22, 2020: China closes off the city of Wuhan. At this time I was watching the building of the first 1000 bed Covid hospital on line and posted it here after a couple of days. By this time China had put their testing in high gear. The US could have done the same.

We might have had much more information about the true origins of the virus if we had tested promptly.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 09/05/2021 - 2:57am

“Rolling Stone [and the BBC] caught running propaganda again”

https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/politics/rolling-stone-caught-runnin...

The BBC picked up the story and at the moment the version on its website states the BBC talked to Dr Jason McElyea directly. Ha ha, but the mighty BBC doesn’t bother to name the hospital where this is supposedly happening or contact it directly to confirm.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58449876

https://nhssequoyah.com/

Message from the administration of Northeastern Health System – Sequoyah:

Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room.

With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months.

NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose.

All patients who have visited our emergency room have received medical attention as appropriate. Our hospital has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care.

We want to reassure our community that our staff is working hard to provide quality healthcare to all patients. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify this issue and as always, we value our community’s support.

The mainstream media know very well what they are doing and why more and more ordinary people quite rightly don’t trust them or take what they say at face value.

Incidentally, this is also why Wikipedia’s assumption that MSM = “reliable sources” means it can never be more than a further piece of fencing around the information pasture to which the 1% intend to keep the 99% confined.