12/05 - World Soil Day

CDHistory1-171

~~ Dust Bowl

It is World Soil Day. What can one say, this is borderline fatuous. Industrial agriculture destroys the soil. If we humans wish to have significant amounts of healthy soil remaining, we have to abandon industrial agriculture. We are, instead, increasing its use. Meanwhile, techniques such as regenerative agriculture can radically revive soils, but cannot seem to catch on to a significant extent, perhaps in part because they aren't appropriate for pick-up seat farming, but require feet on the ground hands-on farming.

"Prohibition" ended on this day in 1933. That should really say the prohibition of some alcoholic beverages. Really weak beer and "sacramental wine" were ok. California alone produced enormous amounts of "sacramental wine". But, whatever. That, however, was only one type of prohitition. It was before pot was prohibited but many other things and acts were prohibited because the US has been exceedingly puritanical, narrow minded, and twisted since before it was even a country.

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On this day in history:

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0633 -- Fourth Council of Toledo with St. Izzy (San Ysidro in the US southwest)

1408 -- Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde got to Moscow, but failed to take it

1484 -- Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull authorizing a literal witch hunt in Germany

1492 -- Christopher Columbus became the first European to land in Hispaniola

1496 -- King Manuel I of Portugal issued an order expelling Jewish "heretics" from Portugal

1848 -- President Polk told congress that a lot of gold had been found in Callifornia

1932 -- Albert Einstein received a visa to enter the US.

1933 -- Utah ratified the 21st Amendment, thereby ending prohibition.

1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women

1952 -- The great smog of London killed at least 12,000 people

1955 -- The AFL & CIO merged to form, what else, the AFL-CIO

1955 -- Rosa Parks & E. D. Nixon led the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1964 -- The first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease was discovered

1969 -- ARPANET was set up, consisting of 4 (count 'em, 4) nodes

1978 -- The Soviet Union signed a "friendship treaty" with Afghanistan.

1983 – Dissolution of the US Backed Military Junta in Argentina.

2004 -- The Civil Partnership Act went into effect in the UK

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Some people who were born on this day:

Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

~~ Werner Heisenberg

1666 -- Francesco Scarlatti, composer & fiddle player
1687 -- Francesco Geminiani, ditto
1822 -- Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, philosopher, academic, and co-founder of Radcliffe
1839 -- George Armstrong Custer, rapist, war criminal, loser, see Gall, below
1855 – Clinton Hart Merriam, zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist, and ethnographer
1862 – John Henry Leech, entomologist
1868 – Arnold Sommerfeld, physicist and academic
1869 – Ellis Parker Butler, author and poet
1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, libertarian writer
1895 – Elbert Frank Cox, mathematician and academic
1901 -- Walt Disney, right wing cartoonist
1901 -- Werner Heisenberg, as best as we can tell, but there is some uncertainty
1903 – C. F. Powell, physicist and academic
1912 -- Sonny Boy Williamson II, singer, songwriter and harmonica player
1916 – Hilary Koprowski, virologist and immunologist, created the world's first effective live polio vaccine
1922 – Don Robertson, American songwriter and pianist
1932 -- Little Richard, preacher, singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor
1934 – Joan Didion, novelist and screenwriter
1935 -- Calvin Trillin, journalist, author, and poet
1938 -- JJ Cale, guitarist, singer, & songwriter
1940 – Frank Wilson, singer, songwriter, and producer
1946 – Andy Kim, Canadian pop singer-songwriter
1947 -- Jim Messina, as in Loggins & ...
1947 – Kim Simmonds, blues-rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1956 – Krystian Zimerman, virtuoso pianist
1968 – Margaret Cho, comedian, actress, producer, and screenwriter
1980 – Ibrahim Maalouf, trumpet player and composer

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Some people who died on this day:

Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice.

~~ Nelson Mandela

1791 -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer and musician
1870 -- Alexandre Dumas, writer
1895 -- Gall, Hunkpapa Lakota tactician & battle leader who played a major role at the battle of the Greasy Grass
1926 -- Claude Monet, painter
1931 -- Vachel Lindsay, poet, America's first rapper, boomlay, boomlay, boom.
1977 – Katherine Milhous, author and illustrator
1997 – Eugen Cicero, jazz pianist
2007 -- Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer and academic
2012 -- Dave Brubeck, unsquare dude who favored strange times
2013 -- Nelson Mandela, 1st President of South Africa,

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

World Soil Day

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

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Today's Tunes

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Polk's 1848 message to Congress

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Francesco Scarlatti (Yeah, not THAT Scarlatti, but, hey ...)

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Francesco Geminiani

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Sonny Boy Williamson II

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Little Richard

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JJ Cale

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Jim Messina

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Kim Simmonds

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Ibrahim Maalouf

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Karlheinz Stockhausen

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Eugen Cicero

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Dave Brubeck

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And here's more Brubeck

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

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Comments

Lookout's picture

@lotlizard

Angela, we love listening to your phone calls.

or

Mind if we blow up the pipeline providing you inexpensive gas?

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@mimi

important thing is "knowing what to kiss and when".

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 --

enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard

Ms. Merkel?"

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 --

lotlizard's picture

@enhydra lutris  
Meanwhile, Merkel might be thinking, “Don’t tas(t)e me, bro”

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enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard

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 --

@lotlizard
"What do you mean she's not twelve?"

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On to Biden since 1973

lotlizard's picture

@doh1304

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enhydra lutris's picture

@doh1304

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 --

Lookout's picture

In honor of soil day, let me re-post a couple of excellent books/pamphlets.
Conquest of the Land through 7000 years was an excellent monograph put together by soil scientist W. C. Loudermilk in the 1930's...

In 1938 and 1939, Dr. W. C. Lowdermilk, who was an assistant chief of the U. S. Soil Conservation Service at that time, made an 18-month tour of western Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East to study soil erosion and land use in those areas. This tour was sponsored by the soil Conservation Service at the request of a congressional committee. The main objective of the tour was to gain information from those areas -- where some lands had been in cultivation for hundreds and thousands of years -- that might be of value in helping to solve the soil erosion and land use problems of the United States.

Worth a scan just to look at his photographs from those days.

The One-Straw Revolution is a beautiful novel written by the famous author Masanobu Fukuoka. The book is perfect for those who wants to read gardening, soil fertility, and philosophy books. The book was first published in 1975 and the latest edition of the book was published in 2006 which eliminates all the known issues and printing errors.

Another book I recommend is Bromfield's Malabar Farm

Malabar was from the beginning an experimental farm, set up to replenish the weary and worn-out soil, while at the same time providing a living and good life for those working on it.

Bromfield set it up uniquely, financing the deal and taking the first five percent in profits from the production of the farm. He allowed his workers to live rent-free on the farm while paying them for their work. Workers were also fed for free from that which was produced on the farm.

What do you know found a pdf of the book. It is about 40 meg for the 400 page book.

Raining here. Looks like an all day rain too.
Thanks for the OT and everyone have a good day!

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

(Then, of course, I'll have to find time to read it - minor detail.)

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 --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

So free soil books on soil day!

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

usefewersyllables's picture

always reminds me of the "gamma garden" craze. At one time in the 50s and 60s, there were a lot of them: research facilities that set up a nice, toasty-hot 137Cs or 60Co source and planted crops around them, to see what sort of neat mutations they could make occur. Officially, there's only one left (in Japan). However, good ol' Monsanto is almost certainly still doing it, but not out in the open air anymore. Guess the smell of ozone got to be too distracting for the neighbors....

https://interestingengineering.com/science/atomic-gardens-how-plants-wer...
https://genomicgastronomy.com/blog/gamma-gardens-caesium-137
https://www.atomicgardening.com/1958/10/20/irradiating-seeds-for-fun-and...

Who needs soil when you have a nearly infinite supply of nuclear waste? Speaking strictly for myself, I'd prefer crops raised on sunshine and black loam rather than "sunshine units" and the front yard at Brookhaven...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

of that type on that scale, but, upon reflection, no surprise and almost certain to hae happened.

Beyond all of the other motives and concerns, there is the constant search for shortcuts because of the enchantment of more for less.

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 --

usefewersyllables's picture

@enhydra lutris

Livermore and Berkeley had one someplace out in your neck of the woods, but I can't find it now with a simple search- I think that the records of it have been carefully purged, it being California and all (I can only imagine the Prop 65 warning on *that* one). Same as the one that UCLA had at the Santa Susana Field Lab, which is way famous for a lot of other reasons. The web page doesn't even mention it any more. I think that the ruby red grapefruit came from one of those...

On edit: I misremembered. The Ruby Red was a natural mutation discovered in Texas in 1929, not manmade at all. Now I have to rack my brain to remember what other stuff came from out there.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

@usefewersyllables

as I recall, but I don't think any radiation was involved. It was also pretty linear, like a couple or three blocks long by one wide. Livermore, OTOH, could've been up to anything, some of it is definitely sekret and "Radiation" is it's name and game; the Livermore Radiation Laboratory".

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 --

usefewersyllables's picture

@enhydra lutris

a lot of the latest listings of mutagenically-created crops are new strains of weed, now that I look at that reference I listed above. Whoo-ee! Better living through chemistry (and a little bit of the ol' ionizing radiation now and again), I guess.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

ggersh's picture

This is Bill Gates and the WEF at work

https://clashdaily.com/2022/11/uh-oh-govt-throws-3000-dutch-famers-off-t...

The Dutch government plans to buy and close down up to 3,000 farms near environmentally sensitive areas to comply with EU nature preservation rules.
The Netherlands is attempting to cut down its nitrogen pollution and will push ahead with compulsory purchases if not enough farms take up the offer voluntarily.
Farmers will be offered a deal “well over” the worth of the farm, according to the government plan that is targeting the closure of 2,000 to 3,000 farms or other major polluting businesses.
“There is no better offer coming,” Christianne van der Wal, nitrogen minister, told MPs on Friday. She said compulsory purchases would be made with “pain in the heart”, if necessary. — TheTelegraph

My bolding

How about letting the farmers keep their property, I'm sure that's the best offer!

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

enhydra lutris's picture

@ggersh @ggersh

technically, it has been said that we but rent stuff from the future generations, and the reality of this world is that those with the lawyers, guns, and money, in the end, own everything and everybody.

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 --

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enhydra lutris's picture

@kelly

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 --

enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey EL, Hope it's all good out there!

Merriam was supermegabig ... and so was his sis Flo. Big fanboy here. And I am not prone to such. Merriam besides all those great critter's with his name, including a real nice Chipmunk, was the first 'life zone' dude in the states, which is the school I grew up in. I do like the various modern more specific versions, with things like upper Sonoran vs. lower Sonoran, etc. The famous old Audubon Field Guides by Richard Pough (2 Eastern and 1 Western) in 1950's (with outstanding plates by Eckleberry) had the life zones as insides of front or back cover. Life zones (and their various habitats or biomes) are everything about plant and animal distribution. When I was traveling around the country birding I birded by habitat. Find that, and then go looking for what lived in it. The original Birds of California Grinnell and Miller 1944 was all habitat based distribution. And my how it is intrinsically entwined with the soils. The habitat a function of the soil, and the soil a function of the habitat. We seem to treat soil here not much better than the air or waterways. Remember was it the late 60's when there was a U.S. stamp issue with the 'Save our Soils', save our air, and save our water, mottos, maybe .06 cents? I have them somewhere here. I think we're gonna need a bigger campaign.

Thanks for the great roster of sounds EL!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian

the key, or the somewhat parallel ecological niche. "Feeds on acorns" means "why are you looking in a coniferous area?"

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 --