Happy new year! Agoucha, Toon, Neko [pronounce N- e (like the first e of there) ko (like in in loCO)] and I wish everyone a healthy and happy new year!
The tower farm keeps growing slowly and surely! Some plants seems that they are really liking it there, especially the collard greens. I Also am pretty sure that I need to add more light to the system. Also the compost tea "experiment" is continuing, and so far it does not seem to provide significant amount of nitrates. Here is a breakdown of the state of things from top to bottom.
On the top, the is a pepper seedling, It grew in the compost from the worm crate and I transferred the 2 leaf seedling into the vertical farm a little while ago. It now has 4 leaves, and seems quite happy there.
Next there is one of the collard greens that grew its longer leave from 7.5 cm to 10 cm now. It also has added new leaves. (see second photo)
Next there is the parley, I harvested half of the leaves last week (not much, but it was tasty). this week it put out 2 leaves (stimulated by the cut ?)(see second photo)
Next there was a small 3 leave seedling of parsley that died, not sure why, but it became suddenly totally dry.
Then the is the bok choy core that seems to grow too, and added a few new leaves in the last 3 weeks.
Another collard grows lower, it also have grew new leave regularly, but it is not as green as the one on the top of the tower. This is what makes me think I need more lights. The light are placed on the top. Notice on the picture how the collard on the left is not as intensly green as the one on the right.
Also There were a few green onions lower, but they died (except one that is higher in the tower) after I did the monthly cleanup. I have disturbed them, and they didnt like it, maybe added to insufficient light also participated, as they were not as green as the one closer to the top.
When I did the clean up there was a bit of a biofilm in the reservoir, internet sources are no agreeing whether it s good or bad, but logically, since we are dealing with a system full of life, I would expect such biofilm to develop.
For the water quality, I have hiked up the amount of ammonia to 4 ml for about a week, and there is now an obvious accumulation of ammonia and nitrate, with some traces of nitrite. I have back down the additions of ammonia as I would aim for an amount that gets quickly processed into nitrates. I am also wondering if this increase of ammonia may be in part linked to the cleanup - which may a killed some of the living film, releasing ammonia as it decomposes.
For the compost tea addition, I have kept increasing the amount of compost used. Yesterday, I have added 2.5 cups of compost to 4 cups of water, and "brewed" for 24h with aeration. I finally got around to get test strips to look at nitrates, and it does not show a significant amount of nitrate in the compost tea. However, the stips also measures general hardness (180 ppm) carbonate hardness (120ppm) pH (7.5) and nitrites (0 or maybe traces).
Finally, I seems that the Blog will pass the bar of 1000 views ! that is quite exiting, Last check I had 997 views!
The week of a nettle harvest is always special, filled with fresh sparkling juiced nettles, delicious nettle soup, nettle quiche or frittata, green smoothies, then bundles and bundles of nettle leaves hanging in the kitchen to dry. This year our preservation method of choice is to dry and powder as many of the leaves as possible and freeze them in small bags to use through out the year as our own local, deep green super food (in place of spirulina and chlorella).
?
Herbalist Michael Moore says in his book Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West…"Nettle powder is somethingthat you can gather yourself in places that you trust, and you can add it to smoothies and salad dressings, put it in your bread, add it to tea, home beer, and so forth.It is green food your body recognizes, and can help build blood, tissue, and self-empowerment.”
Definitely our number one go to herb for extra nutrition and nourishment when we are stressed or depleted, an easily absorbable form of iron, vegetable protein, spring cleansing and so much more. Thank you lovely nettles!
Now that we are finally receiving the long awaited rain (hurray!!), the race is on to get winter chores done. Weve been amending beds with manure, heavily mulching, building compost piles everywhere, and transplanting lots of starts from the green houses to the beds. After going at this small farming business for almost four years now, we are honing in and getting organized. Our seed list has narrowed as we have learned a thing or two about what we like to eat and preserve, what types of plants grow well here, and what we can plant that will give us a large yield with little energy input/water.
The changing climate and weather patterns are forcing us to rethink everything. For us that means starting to establish our food forests and for annuals, keeping it simple. Growing the staples (beans, potatoes, squash, brassicas, and eggs) can keep us well fed all year long. Of course well plant some of our other favorites, but the bulk will be these five.
Since runners beans are hardy, produce a large harvest that can be eaten fresh or dried, and can become perennials, there are big hopes to plant them all over the garden this year. Scarlet runners, painted ladies and many more varieties to climb the fences.
Yukon Gold is our preferred variety
Potatoes are probably the biggest crop we want to grow. Our family consumes masses of them and with growing boys its always good to have some around as a base for a meal, especially when we are trying to cut back on wheat. Plus they thrive here, our big dilemma is that the gophers love them as much as we do. Were still searching for a solution to that problem.
Eggs are versatile, reliable, dont need refrigeration, and can be grown off the compost, extra vegis and waste products from our farm. They are our main source of protein given half of us dont eat meat. Every breakfast around here includes eggs with a variation of avocado and toast, porridge, or potatoes.
winter squash grows exceptionally well in our garden
A list of other crops that are easy and grow well for us in our soil and climate are zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkins, winter squash (Oregon Sweet Meat is our favorite), red and yellow onions, garlic, quinoa, amaranth, and artichokes. Planting vegis that need more hydration near the grey water is key and well be dry farming tomatoes again this year. These rainy days are perfect for planning and dreaming of the garden to come....
So tonight I took my first look at Arduinos and motors, watching a couple videos and reading a few webpages that talk about this topic.
Im spending time on how DC (direct current) motors interact with Arduinos because this weeks Humboldt Microcontrollers (MCUs) Group meeting will be at least partly focused on motors and MCUs. When the group is discussing this topic, it would be nice if I have at least a general understanding of what theyre talking about, even if some or a lot of what they say is over my head, both knowledge and experience-wise.
I started out by watching the Jeremy Blum Arduino Basics #5 video tutorial, which addresses motors and transistors. I didnt try to do the exercises in the video while I watched it today because figuring out the exercises, wiring up the breadboard, writing the code and figuring out what I did wrong will take a couple hours, based on my experience with the earlier Blum video tutorials. Tonights video viewing was just to find out what components were used in the exercises and to get an overview of what Jeremy is trying to teach in the video. At right is the DC motor that came with the official Arduino Starter Kit. I need to figure out whether that motor will work with the exercise Jeremy presents, because he doesnt always use parts from the starter kit that I have.
After watching the video, I did some online reading, starting out with the Adafruit Arduino Lesson 13: DC Motors. I wanted to read this over to compare Adafruits intro to Arduino and Motors to what Jeremy discussed in his video. Next I read a blog entry titled, Using motors with an Arduino. The post author said, "Motor control turned out to be trickier than I expected, and I dont see a lot of "Arduino motor control for dummies" pages on the web, so Im writing one." The blog post had some good tips about the authors experiences controlling motors with an Arduino. Something the post author did was buy a Freeduino motor shield kit (shown at left) and solder it together. That might be a fun, interesting and useful way for me to improve my soldering skills!
The post talks about controlling motors with an MCU using Arduino shields for motors, using a motor driver carrier PCB, using electronic speed controllers (ESCs) and using H-bridges. One of the authors goals was to find an inexpensive Arduino motor control method because they were shopping for parts to teach a summer camp class in robotics. After the post was written, someone suggested the author use a transistor as a very inexpensive way to run small motors and protect the Arduino from a high current load. The tutorial linked by the author for the transistor method shows pretty much the same concept as Jeremy explained in the #5 video.
One last webpage I read about motors and MCUs was on a Wikispaces wiki called Arduino-Info. This page had some info not covered on the other online places I visited today. It talked about two ways to totally protect the Arduino from the motors high voltage or high current. (I dont know if you need to protect it from one or the other or both. Something else to try and figure out before this Thursday evenings meeting.) The two complete isolation methods are to use an opto-isolator (as shown to the right above) or use a mechanical relay.
Tomorrows goal for my "Arduinos and Motors, Part 2" post will be to start figuring out how to breadboard the first exercise in Jeremys video. He uses a breadboard that has three terminal posts hooked up for the exercise, and I dont have posts on my breadboard. So Ill need to figure out if those posts are essential, or if theyre just a convenience that I can work around on my breadboard.
The Blum videos are Arduino basics tutorials, but someone as inexperienced with electronics as I am needs to spend a fair amount of time researching and talking to people to figure out how to hook up the different circuits shown in the videos. Thats mostly a good thing because figuring that stuff out, rather than just blindly following each step, helps me to better understand and remember the concepts presented in the videos.
However, when someone new to microcontrollers comes to the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group to learn how to use MCUs, we need to be aware of that persons potential frustrations when they dont have a clue about how to hook up some of the circuits in the Blum videos.
Reminder! This Thursday, June 12, from 6 to 8 PM is the third meeting of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group at 1385 8th Street, Arcata, California, USA. To make sure no one gets locked out of the building (which happened two weeks ago), well start out the night by meeting at the big table right by the front door. Well also have a sign on the door with a cell phone number of someone whos in the meeting so if were not by the door later in the evening, people who are inadvertently locked outside can call for someone to come open the door.
Tonights post is a chance to formulate some thoughts for tomorrows meeting of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group, where well be talking about Arduinos and motors, and maybe motors with MCUs in general.
Tomorrows meeting will be reviewing issues related to Jeremy Blums Arduino Basics #5 video tutorial. I didnt progress on my first MCU-controlled motor exercise from video #5 yet. Didnt have a chance today to figure out whether either of the two standard DC motors I have are suitable for use with the transistors I have available. That will likely get figured out either at the meeting tomorrow or sometime this weekend.
So here are a list of questions about MCU-controlled motors for tomorrows meeting, if theres time to get to them. If theres not time, Ill research the answers on my own. If you have other questions, let me know, and Ill try to make sure they get brought up at the meeting.
When do you use a motor shield instead of just a transistor?
Has anyone in the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group ever built a motor shield?
What are the features of a motor shield for projects people in the group have done?
What are some of the applications for Arduino-controlled motors?
The main applications I know of that Id work on for Arduino-controlled motors are 3D printers, robots and moving Halloween props. Im hoping the others at tomorrows meeting have a few more ideas, especially smaller and less expensive projects where I can get some experience on practical applications for the motors without having to spend too much time or money on the project. Maybe I can find open source plans for a micro quad copter that uses an MCU and doesnt cost too much for the components.
Tomorrow night, June 12, is the third meeting of the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group. Well be meeting from 6 to 8 PM at 1385 8th Street in Arcata, California, USA. People interested in microcontrollers or Arduinos are invited to join us -- the event is free, you dont have to know how to program microcontrollers, and theres no need to be a member of anything to participate.
So if you live in Arcata, Eureka, McKinleyville, Fortuna, Trinidad, Blue Lake or any of the other fine parts of the Humboldt region, you should consider participating in a new activity in the area -- the Humboldt Microcontrollers community.
The story of , now 8, doctor deaths in the south eastern US has rocked social media recently. A very large finger is being pointed at the fact that this is NOT a "coincidence". The vast majority of people re-posting these stories on facebook etc, are focused on the autism angle, but there is, I suspect, SOOOO much MORE.
"Autism" is the "go to" reason that many people refuse vaccines for their children, and the main focus of a vast majority of the outspoken families trying to wake the world up to the dangers of vaccines. But Autism is just one single piece of this puzzle and many of the other pieces are way bigger in scope.
I am not going to get into the finer details on this right now. I have been writing about the dangers of vaccines for many years, and as I have said several times, autism is just the tip of the iceberg. We are talking about the introduction of several forms of cancer, HIV/AIDs, Sterilizing/ antifertility drugs, and yes, mind numbing agents, that dull the basic ability of people to even organize their thoughts.
.... and that is without even looking at the nanotechnology being inserted into various vaccines, and the effects of nanites on on our physical bodies and mental capabilities...
I am going to be digging into the Nagalase factor hopefully later next week when I have some time to really do some research, but I wanted to publish this info now as the basic first step into understanding exactly WHY these doctors are being murdered.
Below are 3 articles on the subject, all three give a good jump start into figuring out whats happening and why. The simple truth is that the more we know about this and the more we spread the awareness of this in the public, then people will perhaps realize that there is a lot more going on than the media would have us know , and that its rather dark and oppressive.
d
Edited 07/25 at 12:26BDT to add:
Another article to add, that really blows up a LOT of warning signals for me. When you start talking about Vitamin D, there is a whole new door that opens in this massive puzzle. Now we are talking about Sunlight. ..... Do you see the connecting dots now? I wrote an article a long while ago about Neuromelanin, and melatonin, which has just dropped me into another rabbit hole.... I"m researching.....
....until I surface again, here is the article I wanted to add: d
Is this the real reason Holistic Doctors are being killed and vanishing?
Human GcMAF, otherwise known as Vitamin D binding protein macrophage activating factor, holds great promise in the treatment of various illnesses including cancer, autism, chronic fatigue and possibly Parkinson’s. Since 1990, 59 research papers have been published on GcMAF, 20 of these pertaining to the treatment of cancer. 46 of these papers can be accessed through the GcMAF web site.
GcMAF is a vital part of our immune system which does not work without it; and is part of our blood. GcMAF stimulates the macrophage element of the immune system to destroy cancer cells. It also blocks the supply of nutrients to cancer cells by stopping blood vessel development to the site (anti-angiogenesis). Cancer cells are weakened and starved, making them more vulnerable to attack by the GcMAF stimulated macrophage system. Research has shown macrophage activation and stopping diseased blood vessel development can also help in various neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory conditions, and diabetic retinopathy…
…In the past months Dr. Bradstreet has become interested in nagalese (also spelled nagalase in this document), which he describes as an enzyme “produced by cancer cells and viruses.” He thinks it unlikely that children with autism have undiagnosed cancers, and thus suspicion falls on a viral etiology. Dr. Bradstreet writes, “Viruses make the nagalese enzyme as part of their attachment proteins. It serves to get the virus into the cell and also decreases the body’s immune reaction to the virus-thereby increasing the odds of viral survival.”
2 more MD’s (1 prominent holistic, & one of missing docs) found dead, bringing the total to 8
In recent news, we’ve seen the mysterious deaths disappearances of numerous alternative and holistic physicians and a recent video may explain why.
According to the video researcher, GcMAF is a naturally occurring process in the human body. It starts off as a Gc protein. The Gc protein in an absolutely healthy human being will create its own, natural Gc Macrophage Activating Factor (GcMAF) to help protect the human immune system.
What is being found by these doctors is that something is being introduced into the human body that is called Nagalase. This Nagalase protein is this:
Nagalase is a protein made by all cancer cells and viruses (HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, herpes, Epstein-Barr virus, and others).
Nagalase causes immunodeficiency. Nagalase blocks production of GcMAF, thus preventing the immune system from doing its job.
There is something that is being introduced into the human body that is causing this Nagalase to block the naturally occurring production of GcMAF.
Nagalase precision
Like a stealth bomber, the Nagalase enzyme synthesized in and released from a cancer cell or a virus particle pinpoints the GcMAF production facilities on the surface of your T and B lymphocytes and then wipes them out with an incredibly precise bomb. How precise? Let me put it this way: Nagalase locates and attacks one specific two-electron bond located at, and only at, the 420th amino acid position on a huge protein molecule (DBP), one of tens of thousands of proteins, each containing millions of electrons. This is like selectively taking out a park bench in a major city from six thousand miles away. More astonishing, if that is possible, Nagalase never misses its target. There is no collateral damage.
What Dr. Bradstreet found, considering that this Nagalase blocks the naturally occurring GcMAF production in the human body, he found that with autistic children, that they had a highly elevated protein count of Nagalase. Then what he determined, and what many of these other alternative medical doctors were determining was, the Nagalse is surely causing the autism.
So then they were starting to wonder, “If this is happening and it’s occurring right at the very beginning of autism, when autism is occurring, then it has to be being introduced into the human body at the time, or just before the autism is occurring in the human body which appears to be at a state of infancy, not at birth. What does that tell you? That’s right, the Nagalase inhibitor that this GcmAF protein blocker is being introduced into the human body DURING vaccination
You are intentionally having your immune system compromised with a vaccination and some children are automatically coming up with autism, depending on their blood make-up, are acquiring autism.
In the past months, Dr. Bradstreet has become interested in Nagalase, which he describes as an enzyme “produced by cancer cells and viruses.” He thinks it unlikely that children with autism have undiagnosed cancers, and thus suspicion falls on a viral etiology. Dr. Bradstreet writes, “Viruses make the Nagalase enzyme as part of their attachment proteins. It serves to get the virus into the cell and also decreases the body’s immune reaction to the virus-thereby increasing the odds of viral survival.”
Dr. Bradstreet and others believe that this Nagalase, which Dr. Bradstreet and Dr. Gonzalez have proven unequivocally, is being introduced into the body at vaccination.
Since the GcMAF naturally occurs in the body but it’s being inhibited by the introduction of Nagalase protein blocker. There is a product that is being worked on in Europe that has been blocked and is highly illegal in the United States to use because the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies want it kept out of the United States and it goes by the exact same name as the naturally occurring GcMAF. that occurs in your body. So what they were finding is that this GcMAF treatment product, which is being created, actually was reversing autism, reversing tumors, shrinking tumors, curing cancers… that’s what they were finding.
The video researcher stated the following:
“The FDA is known to have visited almost every single one of these alternative medical doctors before they died. Why? It’s because they have found undercover, that they (these alternative doctors), were working secretly and trying to help out their patients SURVIVE… to LIVE… to reshrink their tumors, to reverse their cancers. They were finding evidence that autism was being reversed. They were finding, as what Dr. Bradstreet has found that this protein obviously is being introduced… the Nagalase protein is being introduced at the vaccination stage of someone’s human life.”
The video uploader encouraged people to visit the following websites as well:
Here is the Archive Video from Monday July 20th, The One People Roundtable Show.
I am posting all the info again here so that its all nice and neatly in one big pile, lol. Ive also included my Noahide law notes from my work room at the bottom. d Weve been heading deep into the rabbit hole of the Vatican, Vatican Law, The Treaty of Verona and the Magna Carta, "The Crown", the ISO, and the Grand Jubilee Shemitah. It seems that for the past 2 months, not a week has gone by that we didnt get handed yet another clue to all of this vastly convoluted mess.
On Monday night, July 20th, 2015, on the One Peoples Roundtable Discussion, Lisa and I will be reviewing the past few pieces of the puzzle, and really taking a close look at this HUGE piece that I was sent just before going live on air for the Transpicuous News Midweek Report this past Wednesday night.
In preparation for Monday nights show, Ive laid out here several of the pieces that are all very relevant to our latest discussions ..... This is your Pre-Show Homework.
Im not going to put it all in here (it would probably take me all weekend, lol), but I wanted to put out publicly several of the major pieces that have seemingly tied themselves together. Oh so neatly.
At the end of June, Lisa and I discussed the ISO amendments on the Roundtable Discussion (video archive HERE) , and I published the Data dump from my workroom with all the info I had at that moment HERE.
The moment I read the June 19th ISO amendments, I immediately knew that this was a huge piece of the puzzle. The June 19th ISO Amendment link is HERE. The major part of the amendments was adding -for most of the country listings- (THE) to the beginning of the countries names. Now, this wasnt the only ISO amendment listed- I actually went back and got the master list from ISO for country amendments HERE. At the bottom of this article I have embedded the actual Amendments Docs.
Here are the interesting amendments on the page:
With immediate effect, the following minor corrections are made to “Table A.1 – Currency and funds code list” (as advised by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency):
HOLY SEE (VATICAN CITY STATE) to HOLY SEE (THE)
RUSSIAN FEDERATION to RUSSIAN FEDERATION (THE)
UNITED KINGDOM to UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND (THE)
UNITED STATES to UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (THE)
The other interesting ISO Amendment happened back in 2014:
28 March 2014 ISO 4217 AMENDMENT NUMBER 158 With immediate effect, the following change is made to “Table A.1 – Currency and funds code list” and “Table A.2 – Funds codes registered with the Maintenance Agency“: Entity Currency Alphabetic code Numeric code Minor unit UNITED STATES US Dollar (Same day) USS 998 2 The US Dollar (Same day) is no longer in use and therefore will be removed from the ISO 4217 lists. With immediate effect, the following change is made to “Table A.3 – Codes for historic denominations of currencies and funds“: Entity Currency Alphabetic code Numeric code Minor unit UNITED STATES US Dollar (Same day) USS 998 2 ...... Vatican City State (HOLY SEE) has been removed as it is a duplicate of the entry HOLY SEE (VATICAN CITY STATE)
Really? The ISO didnt notice that they had a "duplicate entry" for Vatican City, that just happens to have a different corporate name..... for YEARS?! Yea.... I think not.
During that Roundtable Discussion I said that I suspected that the changes to the names of the countries is because they are going to "bankrupt" the old corporations (and currencies), and the name changes reflected the new corporations that would be replacing the old bust ass broke ones. Not only that, but the addition of the word (THE) to the names, is a statement of ownership BY the Vatican. (thanx to Mel Ve for that lesson in Etymology!).....
.... and now the Pope is openly stating that countries should be able to declare bankruptcy:
Francis stated, “if a company can declare bankruptcy, why can’t a country do so and we go to the aid of others?” Francis offered further comments noting that too many countries are struggling with high debts and he suggested a United Nations bankruptcy proposal could be the solution.?
Debt Forgiveness? National Bankruptcy? And an nice shiny Jubilee to wrap it up all nicely.
Then we also have Pope Francis "leaked" Encyclical on June 15th (just in time for the anniversary of Magna Carta.... among other things), in which he calls for new Earth Constitution, a planetary court, and a global government.... to go along with his idea of a global currency that he talked about last year, no doubt. All in the name of "Climate Change" & "Global Warming".
.... Agenda 21 Anyone?
Well be digging into this and a lot more on this Monday nights Roundtable Discussion, July 20th, at 11pm BDT/ 6pm EDT, LIVE Stream on CCN: http://www.consciousconsumernetwork.tv/ccn-live/
And just to be completely clear to everyone: in the past few days Kaperskys antivirus and Malwearbytes has decided that CCN is a dangerous site and they are now blocking people from being able to access it .... no matter what you do. So if you are running either of those programs or having an issue getting CCN loaded, no worries: you can also watch CCNs LIVE Stream here on Removing the Shackles, on lisamharrison.com , and on the CCN and RTS Facebook pages!!
d
Pope Francis Calls for Global Bankruptcy Process
Jul 15, 20157 Comments
WASHINGTON – Pope Francis called for an international bankruptcy process in a news conference as he left Latin America on Monday. According to the Associated Press, when asked about the Greek debt crisis, Francis stated, “if a company can declare bankruptcy, why can’t a country do so and we go to the aid of others?” Francis offered further comments noting that too many countries are struggling with high debts and he suggested a United Nations bankruptcy proposal could be the solution.?
“Pope Francis knows that heavy debt loads cause poverty and inequality,” said Eric LeCompte, who consulted the Vatican on its position. LeCompte is the head of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network. “The Pope’s statement is a logical extension of the Catholic Church’s strong support of debt relief for struggling countries.”
Last year, LeCompte led a delegation of global Jubilee organizations to advise Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on the need for a bankruptcy process to address inequality. The Catholic Church is a founder of Jubilee USA and supports its efforts to win debt relief for struggling countries.
In September of 2014, the United Nations General Assembly voted 124-11 to develop the bankruptcy process that Pope Francis referenced. LeCompte addressed the UN earlier this year on the creation of the process. This Fall, the United Nations is set to review progress on the proposal. Because International Monetary Fund (IMF) studies point to debt as a cause of inequality, the IMF is exploring aspects of a bankruptcy process based on an April 2013 paper. In addition to the debt crisis in Greece, nearly 50 countries? face worrying levels of debt distress according to World Bank statistics.
“A bankruptcy process is critical if we want less poverty and if we want to prevent financial crisis,” stated LeCompte, who consulted a recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development road map that fed into the UN bankruptcy process. “Bankruptcy means less inequality and more global stability.”.....
Read the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development road map: ?? Sovereign Debt Workouts: Going Forward Roadmap and Guide?.?
Read the IMF’s April 2013 paper on debt restructuring.
Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 75 US organizations and 400 faith communities working with 50 Jubilee global partners. Jubilee’s mission is to build an economy that serves, protects and promotes the participation of the most vulnerable. Jubilee USA has won critical global financial reforms and more than $130 billion in debt relief to benefit the world’s poorest people. www.jubileeusa.org
Notice the religious ties: Christian, Judaic, and Islamic
Jubilee (Christianity)
In Judaism and Christianity, the concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest....
In Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years; with extraordinary jubilees in addition depending on need. Christian Jubilees, particularly in the Catholic tradition, generally involve pilgrimage to a sacred site, normally the city of Rome.....
"Pre-History" of the Christian Jubilee[edit]
The year of Jubilee in both the Jewish and Christian traditions is a time of joy, the year of remission or universal pardon. In Mosaic law, each fiftieth year was to be celebrated as a jubilee year, and that at this season every household should recover its absent members, the land return to its former owners, the Hebrew slaves be set free, and debts be remitted (see Jubilee (Biblical)).
The same conception, spiritualized, forms the fundamental idea of the Christian Jubilee, though it is difficult to judge how far any sort of continuity can have existed between the two. It is commonly stated that Pope Boniface VIII instituted the first Christian Jubilee in the year 1300, and it is certain that this is the first celebration of which we have any precise record, but it is also certain that the idea of solemnizing a fiftieth anniversary was familiar to medieval writers, no doubt through their knowledge of the Bible, long before that date. The jubilee of a monks religious profession was often kept, and probably some vague memory survived of those Roman ludi saeculares which are commemorated in the "Carmen Saeculare" of Horace, even though this last was commonly associated with a period of a hundred years rather than any lesser interval. But, what is most noteworthy, the number fifty was specially associated in the early 13th century with the idea of remission. The translation of the body of St. Thomas of Canterbury took place in the year 1220, fifty years after his martyrdom. The sermon on that occasion was preached by Cardinal Stephen Lantron, who told his hearers that this coincidence was meant by Providence to recall "the mystical virtue of the number fifty, which, as every reader of the sacred page is aware, is the number of remission."
We might be tempted to regard this discourse as a fabrication of later date, were it not for the fact that a Latin hymn directed against the Albigenses, and certainly belonging to the early 13th century, speaks in exactly similar terms. The first stanza
Mighty straw bales...utilized in almost all of our projects, they are especially valuable for use with the livestock, in the garden, and for creative endeavors like building. The straw bale is an essential reusable staple on our homestead. Check out some of the ways we reuse this free available resource.
Cold Frame/Mini Greenhouse
Simply made from bales and old windows, this greenhouse fits about twenty wooden seedflats.
Natural Building
making cob with clay, straw, sand, and water
Animal Bedding
Compost Material
layers of green grass, horse manure, straw and a variety of compostable scraps from around the farm make a nice hot pile
Growing Mushrooms
Mulching Garden Beds
potatoes do well mulched heavily with straw photo by Lori Eanes
Childrens Archery Range
Another good idea: Straw Bale Compost Bins
For the small scale farmer and urban homesteader the possibilities are endless. You can find bales for sale at your local race track, feed stores and often free on craigslist.
Facebook had outages today in the US - even made the main stream media "news". On Monday I said that I expect these social media site "blackouts" and "glitches to get worse.... and it has.
On Facebook this evening I made this post:
CALL OUT:
Social Media has gone down several times- Skype globally on Monday and yesterday and today facebook has gone down for short periods. Im having internet issues in general with outages several times a day- and have to reboot the router? Im getting reports from all over about internet slow downs and outages- especially for the past two weeks.
Are you having internet issues? Where are you and what type of issues?
These are the responses so far:
* Facebook would not open for me today until this afternoon and I am in Texas *Texas as well....no facebook for about 15 minutes, but its been glitching for me about a week now. This is what I saw all day the other day.....no friends? Ummmm, try 2500 plus, not to mention all of the groups Im in or pages I like. *BarcelonA skype tonight heart emoticon *yep ... very slow internet or wont load Facebook or Yahoo. Have had to reboot quite often today Dani. *Norway, slow internet past couple of weeks, facebook wont completely load all the time today. *CA, SF Bay Area - slow & quirky but working *FB was down here in VA for about one hour. *Very slow Internet in Manchester and Facebook very on and off *Illinois...FB has had trouble connecting on my phone off and on over the past few weeks *NY - Skype out on Monday. Not aware of any other issues. *No problems Los Angeles *London okay. *i have excellent internet here in puerto rico...the last two weeks ...there have been more noticeable interruptions,,,outages...and slow downs... *Skype out Monday and for a few hours today. Facebook has been tough all day hard to post replies, shares and view links. Found that my computer protection had somehow been turned off between 11 am and 2:15 pm.~ when I was offline and not at home. THAT has never happened before........has to be done "manually". ahem. I am in Gig Harbor, WA. Funny, I actually came into FB here specifically to check is this was happening to anyone else. Voila, your post was the first one to show up. *FB was down in Tacoma WA this morning *Everything fine here in Florianopolis, south of Brazil. Did the pope just sent a 666 sign today at the US Congress or what! * Toronto. couldnt connect at all to FB earlier and then slow signal. *Slow slow slow -- for a few weeks now *Trouble with Facebook last night and this morning. YouTube has also been funky along with internet connection. SE Wisconsin usa. *In Idaho. Once in the morning the server we have. Slows down to the point of being slower than hell. And then again in the evening for about 15 minutes. This has been going on for 2 weeks. Same with a friend in Utah. Yesterday Facebook was insane. Didnt work very well all day every time I tried to go on. *Oklahoma. FB was off for only a few minutes for me today (That was the first time ever.), but the main problem has been with the router and messages telling me Im connected to an Unknown (WiFi) Network, which then causes the system to fail and I have to unplug it to get everything working right again. The latter has been happening off and on for a couple of weeks. Our internet speed always goes up and down. *shrugs*
*** Dani Arnold-McKenny: hmmm, thats exactly whats been happening to us here in Morocco all week. ive rebooted the router at least 10 times today
*Facebook down twice today ... Skype and cell phone dropping conference calls pertaining to our awareness. Other technical messages why I cant connect..Florida... *Yes have had to start rebooting router as constanty losing connectivity over last 2 weeks. Geelong, Australia. *Skype was down, not sure about FB as was not online at the time - internet connectivity seems the usual crappy level - Cape Town, South Africa *All is well here in Ontario Canada just like it always is smile emoticon *I had an issue with skype on wednesday...as I could not call anyone..and I was showing off line all day(england) * (mid Ontario) Interestingly, as of yesterday morning, I believe my phone gave itself an update without my permission. All of a sudden, I can’t charge it. It charged the night before no problem. I tried 8 different chargers to no avail. Eventually, I got a different message stating that the charger I was attempting to use was not an apple product. I used the girls’ charger, the only true apple charger left in the house (they almost never last more than a month) and lo and behold, it charges with that. I have NEVER had an issue with any of these chargers before. *(NY) My whole computer goes down andreboots for no reason, sometimes Skype, sometimes Google -gmail, or Facebook goes crazy, today again a lot *My computer has been turning off by it self too lately today twice (france) So my friends.... as far as Im concerned, this is a major move that we need to keep track of. As I said in the original post below- do you have alternative communications worked out? Plans in place to be able to contact your groups etc....
I think this is "them" testing the public and getting us sort of "immune" to these black outs- getting us use to the internet getting slower and going down at odd times..... they want us complacent and docile...... unsuspecting....
Please keep an eye on this my friends!!! This shouldnt be ignored.
love d ps: my paypal has been down- Ive just got it back again. My email is down,..... half of the messages I cant reply too, nor can I access my folders or my address book!!! my skype is randomly sending my messages at different times, and some messages are taking DAYS to get to me. .... Im beginnign to think about going back to sending post cards!!!!! lol. http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.com/2015/09/coms-during-social-media-black-out-or.html
Youve heard of mobile gaming and wearable computing. Well heres a twist on those terms -- a mobile game that someone is wearing.
It was recently the 30th anniversary of the classic video game Tetris. Tetris was extremely popular and has an addictive tune that will get stuck in your head, especially if you spent hours in your formative years playing the game. Heres how Wikipedia describes Tetris popularity:
"The game (or one of its many variants) is available for nearly every video game console and computer operating system, as well as on devices such as graphing calculators, mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs, Network music players and even as an Easter egg on non-media products like oscilloscopes. It has even inspired Tetris serving dishes and been played on the sides of various
buildings...Electronic Gaming Monthlys 100th issue had Tetris in first place as
"Greatest Game of All Time"...In January 2010, it was announced that Tetris had
sold more than 170 million copies, approximately 70 million physical copies and over 100 million copies for cell phones, making it the highest paid-downloaded game of all time."
One fan of Tetris, Marc Kerger from Luxembourg, decided that Tetris deserved to be playable on his clothing. So he hacked a shirt with readily available components from the DIY world of microcontrollers (MCUs), and he now has his playable shirt.
His shirts Tetris game was created with an Arduino Uno, two Adafruit Matrix controllers, a 2 X 64 LED matrix (8 X 8) Flat SMD RGB LEDs (only one color soldered), four AA rechargeable batteries, 3D printed housings for the Arduino and the batteries and 3D printed soft material for the game-play buttons. Oh yeah, and Marcs shirt.
Marc, playing his Tetris shirt
In Adafruits blog post about this mobile game shirt, they mention that,
"Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA."
Sewable Arduino-compatible FLORA
While it will take a lot more work than just a FLORA and a couple LEDs to make a textile computing project comparable to the Tetris shirt, a FLORA project might be a good place to start if you havent done any fabric-based wearable computing projects. One Adafruit FLORA project that might be of interest to Humboldt residents is the Light Up Your Skateboard project. Or maybe youd like to wear a Sound-Reactive Baseball Hat to the next Crabs game. The FLORA is only one of many MCU options for textile computing projects, but its a good basis for a beginning project in this genre.
When we have a couple people in the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group who are interested in doing a fabric wearable computing project, well connect with a few people skilled with sewing machines at Origin Design Lab in Eureka and see if we can get a collaborative project going.
Happy new year! Agoucha, Toon, Neko [pronounce N- e (like the first e of there) ko (like in in loCO)] and I wish everyone a healthy and happy new year!
The tower farm keeps growing slowly and surely! Some plants seems that they are really liking it there, especially the collard greens. I Also am pretty sure that I need to add more light to the system. Also the compost tea "experiment" is continuing, and so far it does not seem to provide significant amount of nitrates. Here is a breakdown of the state of things from top to bottom.
On the top, the is a pepper seedling, It grew in the compost from the worm crate and I transferred the 2 leaf seedling into the vertical farm a little while ago. It now has 4 leaves, and seems quite happy there. 
Then the is the bok choy core that seems to grow too, and added a few new leaves in the last 3 weeks.
Another collard grows lower, it also have grew new leave regularly, but it is not as green as the one on the top of the tower. This is what makes me think I need more lights. The light are placed on the top. 
Also There were a few green onions lower, but they died (except one that is higher in the tower) after I did the monthly cleanup. I have disturbed them, and they didnt like it, maybe added to insufficient light also participated, as they were not as green as the one closer to the top.
For the water quality, I have hiked up the amount of ammonia to 4 ml for about a week, and there is now an obvious accumulation of ammonia and nitrate, with some traces of nitrite. I have back down the additions of ammonia as I would aim for an amount that gets quickly processed into nitrates. I am also wondering if this increase of ammonia may be in part linked to the cleanup - which may a killed some of the living film, releasing ammonia as it decomposes.
For the compost tea addition, I have kept increasing the amount of compost used. Yesterday, I have added 2.5 cups of compost to 4 cups of water, and "brewed" for 24h with aeration. I finally got around to get test strips to look at nitrates, and it does not show a significant amount of nitrate in the compost tea. However, the stips also measures general hardness (180 ppm) carbonate hardness (120ppm) pH (7.5) and nitrites (0 or maybe traces).
