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Hraz
Hraz
8 years ago

What was the name of the scanner app Jack mentioned on this podcast? It was something 5-0.

Jose Garcia
8 years ago

In ’08, when I did my first raised beds, I used a heavy duty weed block cloth from HD. I originally filled my beds with 4” of wood chips on top of the weed cloth and the remainder with compost and a layer of chips on top. In 2014, I was expanding the beds and had to dig out one completely. The weed block was as good as on day 1 and the bottom soil as hard as rock, still. No worm activity. This got me thinking if weed cloth prevents wigglers from coming through. I don’t use any chemicals on my beds or lawn, so I was very disappointed. The beds still produce abundantly but they don’t have many wigglers or life. They are 20” high, but started at 10” before I made them taller.

In contrast, In December 2014, I also prepared a patch of soil that was where the dogs crapped . It was a 12’ by 12’ neglected patch of dirt with weeds, Bermuda and super compacted. I waited for the first frosts to kill the weeds and grass. Then, I spread an entire compost pile over the area (about a cubic yard), covered it in thick layers of cardboard and got it soaking wet. Then, I spread 4” of wood chips. Today, that patch of dirt is filled with worm and life and I can plant tomato plants 8” deep digging with my hand alone. The weeds have kept down, but the grass always manages to creep in.

Here is a link to that little project with all the pictures:

http://libertygarden.us/weed-suppression/

Josh C
Josh C
8 years ago

Thank you Jack,

Because of your insight on today’s anarchy question I’ve finally figured out my problem with anarchy, and that is that it requires a person to put a certain amount of faith and trust in their neighbor or country man or fellow human beings. My programming is such that I really have lost faith in my fellow human beings and don’t trust anyone to do the right thing anymore. All I see or hear anymore is how corrupt everyone is, and if they aren’t corrupt they’re inept. I cannot believe anarchy will ever work because I don’t believe my fellow humans have what it takes to make it work.

Insidious
Insidious
8 years ago
Reply to  Josh C

There is a weird disconnect in this.

You need government because you have no faith in your fellow human beings.

So… the government is made up of…?

One corrupt/inept person = bad. But if we get a group of them together (government) it will suddenly = good?

The people making up the government are different/above/more evolved than the average person in their society?

What is this alien thing (government) that has been lowered from the heavens to save us from ourselves? Who are these benevolent alien creatures (bureaucrats) of which it is made? And why are they so much better than us at knowing what we need to do?

😉

I can understand the perpetuation of this meme in a colony (British being convinced that they were SUPERIOR to the Indians, and therefore were BENEVOLENTLY exploiting/ruling them), but it doesn’t make any sense in a country being run by the very citizenry that are supposedly too inept to manage their own affairs.

Josh C
Josh C
8 years ago
Reply to  Insidious

Did you read my next post?

Josh C
Josh C
8 years ago

Thanks again Jack,

You have really got me thinking.,..
The real question isn’t would anarchy work or what is anarchy’s solution to whatever ¿
The real question is which formof thinking gives the best answer anarchy or fill in the blank? The obvious answer being anarchy. The truth for everyone one who wants to know how does anarchy do whatever, is it all depends on you. Anarchy is only as good as the people in it.

Here’s another bit of truth for you. You have said this country had an anarchical style government in the beginning and the people allowed it to be eroded into what we have today. (I’m paraphrasing you) I would have to add we still have an anarchy today, it’s just not the same as we had before, because the people aren’t of the same mindset as before. I know you know this, but if the people, my fellow countrymen here just bang turned around tomorrow with the ideology that founded this nation it absolutely would be the anarchy it started out as plus the technology to be better. But any people group governed or not is only as good as the people who participate in it.

Life is anarchy anyone can leave at anytime.

Farley
Farley
8 years ago

There are also GMO canola and cotton, the cotton is engineered to produce BT for rootworm, but the canola is Roundup Ready and a big crop in a lot of Canada and parts of America.

Stephanie
Stephanie
8 years ago
Reply to  Farley

And sugar beets as well.

Anarchy Andrew
Anarchy Andrew
8 years ago

My favorite line from the Breakfast Club (from memory):
“If Andrew gets up, then everyone would get up. There’d be Anarchy!”

Thomas
Thomas
8 years ago

Per autism, though I don’t want to stir the pot… taking responsibility for your life and your family’s is crucial. However, jumping to conclusions on either extreme is potentially dangerous. Is there an increase? Possibly. Is the increase as bad as we are told? Not according to the following study (non FDA, non CDC). Are there good reasons to be wary of over vaccinating, using pesticides and herbicides and eating bad “food”? Absolutely!

Just food for thought, please read: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/10/13/autism-increase-mystery-solved-no-its-not-vaccines-gmos-glyphosate-or-organic-foods/

Whether the causes are genetics (which CAN be influenced over generations by environmental factors) OR strictly environmental (vaccines, pesticides, etc.) is not as clear cut as proponents on either side want to make it out to be.

Eat right, live right and question all assumptions. Just keep in mind that it is sometimes hard to escape bias. Examples of bias from Wikipedia:

Several of the more important ways observations can be affected by human psychology are:

Confirmation bias

Human observations are biased toward confirming the observer’s conscious and unconscious expectations and view of the world; we “see what we expect to see”. In psychology, this is called confirmation bias. Since the object of scientific research is the discovery of new phenomena, this bias can and has caused new discoveries to be overlooked. One example is the discovery of x-rays. It can also result in erroneous scientific support for widely held cultural myths, for example the scientific racism that supported ideas of racial superiority in the early 20th century. Correct scientific technique emphasizes careful recording of observations, separating experimental observations from the conclusions drawn from them, and techniques such as blind or double blind experiments, to minimize observational bias.

“Cargo cult” science

Another bias, which has become more prevalent with the advent of “big science” and the large rewards of new discoveries, is bias in favor of the researcher’s desired hypothesis or outcome; we “see what we want to see”. Called pathological science and cargo cult science, this is different from deliberate falsification of results, and can happen to good-faith researchers. Researchers with a great incentive or desire for a given outcome can misinterpret or misjudge results, or even persuade themselves they have seen something they haven’t. Possible examples of mistaken discoveries caused by this bias are Martian “canals”, N rays, polywater, cold fusion, and perpetual motion machines. Recent decades have seen scientific scandals caused by researchers playing “fast and loose” with observational methods in order to get their pet theories published. This type of bias is rampant in pseudoscience, where correct scientific techniques are not followed. The main defense against this bias, besides correct research techniques, is peer review and repetition of the experiment, or the observation, by other researchers with no incentive to bias. For example, an emerging practice in the competitive field of biotechnology is to require the physical results of experiments, such as serums and tissue cultures, be made available to competing laboratories for independent testing.

Processing bias

Modern scientific instruments can extensively process “observations” before they are presented to the human senses, and particularly with computerized instruments, there is sometimes a question as to where in the data processing chain “observing” ends and “drawing conclusions” begins. This has recently become an issue with digitally enhanced images published as experimental data in papers in scientific journals. The images are enhanced to bring out features that the researcher wants to emphasize, but this also has the effect of supporting the researcher’s conclusions. This is a form of bias that is difficult to quantify. Some scientific journals have begun to set detailed standards for what types of image processing are allowed in research results. Computerized instruments often keep a copy of the “raw data” from sensors before processing, which is the ultimate defense against processing bias, and similarly scientific standards require preservation of the original unenhanced “raw” versions of images used as research data.

Observational bias

An observational bias occurs when researchers (commentator insert: read ANYONE) only look where they think they will find positive results, or where it is easy to record observations. This is called the “streetlight effect”.

BigSky
BigSky
8 years ago

Hey Jack I drove by the food forest in Helena the other day and big surprise it is still not complete. If you didn’t know that it was started a couple years ago you would figure that they built it this spring.

Mike S
Mike S
8 years ago

For free fill, free deliverey
Try talking to local concrete contractors, they are always looking to dump loads of dirt that they pick up on jobs.

Alex Shrugged
Alex Shrugged
8 years ago
Reply to  Mike S

Regarding free fill dirt…

For gardening purposes, make sure that there is no construction trash in the soil.

I assume we are talking about soil from footing trenches, probably a foot or more below the surface. That is usually compacted soil. (No earthworms.) It might require some work in order to use it for gardening.

For construction purposes, make sure that the soil is at least a sandy silt. Clay soil tends to expand in the winter and shrink in the summer as it becomes wet and dry.

Do not discount this issue. The expansion/contraction of normal clay can break a concrete slab if you don’t handle it right. (An engineer would tell you to keep the soil wet, lay down a plastic sheet and 4 inches of sand over that before you pour the slab for a building, but I am not an engineer.)

Clay is really tough on retaining walls. (I won’t say more. Designing proper retaining walls is a difficult job and I am not an engineer.)

Clay also has poor shear strength. That means it cannot handle certain types of building loads without a design change and heavy truck tires tend to do strange things to clay. You have to see it to believe it. (I’m looking at you, Irvine, California!)

I hope that wasn’t too much. I was a soils inspector (for construction) in another life and part of my job was monitoring the types of soil brought onto a construction site.

Alex Shrugged