Posts Tagged ‘damagnificent seven’

Making farming better

Posted: June 25, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Living in flyover country can expose you to issues that go unnoticed in the big city.

Just up the road near my home in central Pennsylvania is a prime example of what’s become known as “regenerative farming.”

Owner Josh Leidecker says the farm practices regenerative farming, or, more simply put, growing as nature intended. This method refers to growing practices that restore soil health and increase biodiversity through crop rotation and other means.

“It just takes a little while to get there,” Leidecker said of the vision for regenerative agriculture at Today Farm. “You know, we’ve got a big plan for this.”

Leidecker brings agriculture experience from his other business venture, Susquehanna Mills, an area manufacturer of organic cooking oils. The farm plans to grow oilseed crops and potatoes, some small stands of vegetables, and at least one of the fields will be grazing grounds for animals—a regenerative agriculture method.

What was once known as “organic farming” has become a national trend. Some regenerative farm techniques may include planting interceding crops to benefit the soil and feed livestock and using so-called”chicken tractors” as a form of crop tilling. The chickens move about the ground in a controlled manner and fertilize the ground with their feces, providing nutrients for crop rotation.

Here is a documentary about the farming methods: Roots So Deep (You Can See The Devil Down There) https://rootssodeep.org from Carbon Natio.

Teddy Gentry, the bass player of the band Alabama, is a leading proponent of regenerative farming. He speaks about transforming his fields by listening to quail sing. See https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Upm_muwjI/

Since 1989, Gentry has been a pioneer in the cattle industry, creating the South Poll breed to combine the best traits of four breeds, resulting in heat-tolerant and efficient cattle.

The Farming Systems Trial from the Pennsylvania-based Rodale Institute argues that organic agriculture performs as well as, if not better than, conventional agriculture. The study demonstrated how nutrient-dense organic food helped to prevent and reverse diseases.

The institute tries to create economic vitality in rural communities by training tomorrow’s organic farmers.

Jon Lundgren, a former entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, left the government when he realized the pesticides meant to control pest bugs were wiping out scores of beneficial insects critical for the local ecosystem. See: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7RRciMNAN-/

Hat tip to Elizabeth Harper

Baby, you can drive my car

Posted: June 11, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

I bought my last new car the day after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

For those not Philadelphia fans or baseball enthusiasts, that was 16 years ago.

Today, my Saturn Aura is no longer being made. The electronic gauges have mostly failed, and I’ve had to search for competent mechanics to keep the old car running.

A recent Wall Street Journal article confirmed that I was not alone in my lack of desire to buy a new car.

“It’s not just the political class. America’s fleet of cars and trucks is also getting long in the tooth. Last month a study by S&P Global Mobility reported the average age of vehicles in the U.S. was 12.6 years, up more than 14 months since 2014. Singling out passenger cars, the number jumps to a geriatric 14 years,” Dan Neil wrote recently.

“In the past, the average-age statistic was taken as a sign of transportation’s burden on household budgets. Those burdens remain near all-time highs. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000. While inflation and interest rates are backing away from recent highs, insurance premiums have soared by double digits in the past year,” Neil added.

Moreover, Neil reported that many buyers don’t like designs that include more technology, particularly electric vehicles. “But lately another, stranger element is showing up in the numbers: a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing,” Neil wrote. “I cast a wide net on social media last month, posing this question: Name a new car/truck/SUV that is not as desirable as the design it replaces. I got back a long and distinguished list, a roll call of the compromised: Toyota Land Cruiser; Mini Cooper; Ford Mustang; Toyota Crown (née Avalon); Ford F-150; just about every model of BMW you can think of.”

The impact of Trump’s conviction?

Posted: June 4, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Unlike the media’s ‘experts, ‘ I am in a state of uncertainty, unable to predict how Trump’s conviction in New York will affect the November elections.

The only negative influence on Trump would be if he were sent to prison. That would eliminate his ability to use his effective campaign style to convince voters of his ability to handle the job.

Already, some polls state that conviction will play a limited role in the presidential outcome. But, of course, these are polls months before the actual vote and, therefore, are meaningless.

As one sage told me many years ago: “The only poll that counts is what happens when people go to the ballot box.”

What I do know is that the election will be decided on a variety of issues: the economy, immigration, abortion, and the apparent weakness of the United States in international matters, such as Afghanistan, Israel, and Ukraine.

The issue will fall flat if the Biden campaign focuses on Trump’s conviction.

Moreover, the election’s outcome will be heavily influenced by the usual key states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and a few others. The sway of local issues and the uncertainty surrounding Robert Kennedy’s third-party candidacy could potentially tip the scales in favor of either Biden or Trump.

It’s challenging to gauge Kennedy’s strength other than as a protest vote against the major parties. Only George Wallace and Ross Perot made significant inroads in the presidential election.

The media will continue to focus on Trump’s conviction and the faults they see in his personality. However, the media’s influence in presidential elections has declined significantly in the past decade.

Lethal autonomous weapons

Posted: April 9, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

As the U.S. Congress plans an investigation of artificial intelligence, one of the most challenging areas of concern is what’s known as LAWS.

LAWS stands for lethal autonomous weapons systems, which critics call killer robots.

I started gathering information about this type of A.I. when two of my favorite military authors, Mark Greaney and Gregg Hurwitz, posed some significant issues with LAWS.

Greaney ponders an attempt by one tech company to control the worldwide supply of such weapons, while Hurwitz warns about the absence of ethics when computers take over.

By combining A.I. with advanced robotics, the U.S. military and those of other advanced powers are already hard at work creating an array of self-guided “autonomous” weapons systems—combat drones that can employ lethal force independently of any human officers meant to command them. Such devices include a variety of uncrewed or “unmanned” planes, tanks, ships, and submarines capable of autonomous operation. For example, The U.S. Air Force is developing an unmanned aerial vehicle to join piloted aircraft on high-risk missions. The Army is similarly testing a variety of autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), while the Navy is experimenting with both unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned undersea vessels (UUVs, or drone submarines). China, Russia, Australia, and Israel are also working on such weaponry.

Michael Klare of The Nation wrote recently: “For the most part, debate over the battlefield use of such devices hinges on whether they will be empowered to take human lives without human oversight. Many religious and civil society organizations argue that such systems will be unable to distinguish between combatants and civilians on the battlefield, and so should be banned in order to protect non-combatants from death or injury, as is required by international humanitarian law. American officials, on the other hand, contend that such weaponry can be designed to operate perfectly well within legal constraints.”

The imminent appearance of autonomous weapons has generated concern and controversy globally, with some countries already seeking a total ban on them. Others, including the United States, plan to authorize their use only under human-supervised conditions. In Geneva, a group of states has even sought to prohibit the deployment and use of fully autonomous weapons, citing a 1980 U.N. treaty that aims to curb or outlaw non-nuclear munitions believed to be especially harmful to civilians. Meanwhile, in New York, the U.N. General Assembly held its first discussion of autonomous weapons last October and is planning a full-scale review this fall.

Given China’s superior numbers, the so-called “swarm concept” of A.I. weapons is particularly appealing to U.S. strategists. The antonymous weapons would act like a swarm of bees, ants, or wolves.

This concept of warfare undergirds the new “replicator” strategy announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks just last summer. “Replicator is meant to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage. More ships. More missiles. More people,” she told arms industry officials last August. By deploying thousands of autonomous weapons, she suggested, the U.S. military would be able to outwit, outmaneuver, and overpower China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. “To stay ahead, we’re going to create a new state of the art.… We’ll counter the PLA’s mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat.”

Any participating robotic member of such swarms would be given a mission objective, such as destroying enemy radar, but not precise instructions on how to do so. This would allow them to select their battle tactics in consultation.  

Authors Greaney and Hurwitz have one overriding concern about the technology: its introduction would make nations more prone to war.

Alternatively, the technology might reduce battlefield injuries and deaths.

One concept favoring A.I. technology development harkens back to the Cold War: mutual-assured destruction. If all the major powers each have LAWS, it is less likely that one will use the weapons because of the retaliation it would face.

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