Nick Kitchener

Brian Rodgers wrote:I'll add that my wife and I enjoy watching videos from Suspicious Observers on Youtube as well as their site https://suspicious0bservers.org/ We are also aware that there is a number of in my opinion, really far out there thinkers following this site, that's fine too, no judgement from us.  The point of our watching is simply the wonderful charts and video he collects from around the world. Ben also has some impressive credentials Ben Davidson
We also love the way he sums up his daily videos with, "Eyes open, No Fear."   The videos of the Sun in various wavelengths are mesmerizing. The videos of lightning storms crossing the continents are incredible too.  
I see no reason to not think outside the box when it comes to astrophysics, simply because out there, where we've never set foot, it is all conjecture.
Brian

He posted an interesting study this morning that may potentially turn the standard model of vulcanism on its head:
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/189371/volcanoes-mush-reservoirs-rather-than-molten/

As I mentioned a few days ago, these crystals are often piezoelectric in nature and are the prime suspect in the link between GSM and volcanic activity.

I have her book and been experimenting with her technique. A few things to realize:

1. You need space. Notice that there are no walkways in her system and everything gets covered, and must remain covered.

2. It takes time. The first year will suck and you will spend most of your time smothering grass with hay, while at the same time trying not to smother your vegetables. Every place you have an open spot where a vegetable is growing is where the most tenacious undesirables will also grow. In hindsight, I would have given up trying to grow crops in the first year at least and just make sure everything gets well and truly smothered.

3. It will surprise you at how much hay is actually required to do an effective smothering job. Grasses that send out runners under the ground will happily send runners up into the mulch.

4. Direct seeding at a high density is not easy. You will probably come to the conclusion that the trade off for less work, is a decreased yield per square foot. Until the system is stable, direct seeding in general is hard. This is because as soon as you leave an area uncovered so the seed can germinate and grow, every other seed that is already in the soil will also germinate. I think all that mulch primes dormant seeds and as soon as you uncover the soil it's a seed germination party. In hindsight, I think I would have uncovered my mulched beds periodically in the first year to encourage germination, and then smothering out the seedlings again to create a stale seed bed.

5. Yes, hay does contain grass seeds (duh), and yes they do germinate. But I have yet to see these seedlings actually thrive when they germinate in the mulch. Even with less than 6 inches of hay mulch on top of newspaper these masses of grass seedling just never seem to pan out into anything. I've even let them be to see if the test bed turns into pasture but no, it did not. All the talk you see online warning about hay as a mulch I think is coming from people who haven't actually tried it.

I'd be inclined to work out the cost of hauling it away (like the cost of gas for a round trip pickup) and charge that amount.

Wort contains a lot of fats and proteins that don't easily break down. I can see that being a big problem. However, I have an idea...

The breweries separate this stuff out because it produces undesirable flavors in the finished beer, and interferes with stability of the final product (haze etc). Yeast will actually ferment this stuff out just fine, and it contains a lot of nutrients and sugars. There is a possibility here to take this stuff away at half the cost the city charges, ferment it out, and then distill the ethanol for use as a bio fuel.

Yeah GSM is a thing. It has always been a thing. We are near the end of a solar minimum, and the next solar minimum in roughly 15 years is most likely going to be a serious issue.

Anthropogenic global warming is a completely different topic and it's best to keep these things separate if a rational discussion is to take place.

Increased cosmic radiation and coronal mass radiation have a direct effect on seismic activity, volcanic activity, and weather.

Hopefully you all recognize that the earth is an electromagnetic system. It generates it's own magnetic field, and it is why you get 2 current events during 1 lightning strike. Our upper atmosphere (ionosphere) is also an electromagnetic system that encapsulates the earth, and is separated by a semiconducting layer (air, rocks, water etc). At the mantal / crust boundary, minerals slowly transition state from liquid to solid, forming crystals. Quartz and olivine are two such examples, and they form in very large sheets covering thousands of square kms.

These crystals are piezo-electric in nature, meaning that when an electromagnetic field is applied to them, they produce a physical force. This is how quartz crystal clocks work. When cosmic and solar coronal ejecta (both have very high energies) interact with the ionoshpere, the electric potential between the two electromagnetic systems increases. This in turn triggers physical forces within the earth crust, and especially along the plate boundaries.

Now consider weather systems, which are also electromagnetic systems. This increased charge potential couples with these weather systems too, intensifying them and also applying a physical force upon them that alters their course.

These cosmic rays and CME also act directly on clouds, which causes them to disperse. This means less rain, but also reduces the heat retention capacity of the atmosphere. during GSM, the total energy output from the sun is reduced, and the reduced energy entering the earth's system combined with the reduced ability to retain captured heat means that the GSM will bring with it significantly colder temperatures, especially in the Northern hemisphere. Since atmospheric convection drives oceanic circulations, we can expect disruptions to things like the gulf stream and the Beaufort gyre.

I live in a northern continental climate, and I have been preparing for a shift in hardiness zone downwards because of the approaching confluence of long time scale natural cycles. This last GSM was mild compared to the next one, and we experience widespread crop losses in every staple food.

Unfortunately for us all, this next GSM coincides with the earths magnetic pole reversal cycle. That's a different dynamic, but what it means is that the effects from cosmic rays and CME will be very much magnified.

I have elderberry seeds and apparently they are designed to go through the digestive tract of an animal before being viable which means that chemical scarification is necessary. The texts I've found recommend soaking them in a 90% sulfuric acid solution. But that's a pretty dangerous solution so I'm looking for alternatives.

I could swallow them I guess...

Then I thought soaking them in vinegar for a longer period of time might also work. Anyone tried this with success, or know what a recommended soak time would be? Is a 10 minute soak in 90% acid equate to a 100 minute soak in 9% acid?

I make it by first making apple wine by extracting the juice, adding sugar, and fermenting it to completion.

I then aerate the wine and add some active vinegar as a starter. I cover the lid of the pail with some cloth and leave it. I noticed that it's usually pretty much done when it stops stinking out your basement or wherever you keep it.

I read that the mother is what produced most of the vinegar and you're supposed to slowly add the wine over time because the mother needs to be in direct contact. Not sure if that is true or not. Anyway, I certainly ended up with great vinegar.

Post some pics!!!

Oh yeah I'm a fan of free and cheap. That cardboard box idea could have a great application in potato towers since you rip it apart at harvest time. Cardboard does have formaldehyde and other chemicals in it to prevent decomposition so just be aware of that.

I collect used paper coffee cups - the biggest size, and use them for planting tree seeds in. They have a thin plastic coating on the inside so they tend to last at least one year before they split and fall apart.

All my garden debris that I don't use for mulching (for whatever reason), I throw into a trench and it piles up. The next spring, I throw seed potatoes in the pile and harvest potatoes in the fall as I harvest the composted debris.

I'm always building stuff like growing frames out of used pellets that I deconstruct. The wood isn't treated, and it rots quickly so you have to be replacing it often, but it's free.

The whole survivalist / prepper thing started falling apart as soon as I sat down and really started thinking about it.
I realized a perished o-ring in the wrong spot of a nuclear bunker system is enough to end it all.
I realized after talking with a few special ops types that it's really easy to wipe out a fortified camp without ever firing a shot.
I also realized that the vast majority of vocal preppers / survivalists are really just gun nuts who are looking for a credible excuse to run around in the woods with their stockpile of weapons.

Maybe this is an inaccurate picture, but it's my opinion based on quite a bit of study.

So I got to really thinking about this because it's only a matter of time before we all face a serious survival scenario. I came to the conclusion that the key to survival is community. It always has been actually. And communities survive and thrive when they are set up to facilitate trade with other "outsiders". The trick is establishing such a community in a way that makes it an unattractive proposition to slash and burn it.

In these conditions, any warlord who lasts more than a few months has to be smart. Forget the madmax scenario. Those idiots wouldn't last 5 minutes. The trick is to structure a community in such a way that it attracts the smartest warlord because it is regarded as a valuable asset worth protecting. It's a feudal system, and feudal systems are nothing like what the movies portray. A feudal system is a partnership between a citizenry and a military organization. It is not a tyranny.

Since most of us are not military, it makes sense to engineer the most optimal feudal partnership.

Worms eat bacteria and other microorganisms that feed on the material. The chances are they moved on because the food isn't there anymore to support the population that was present.

One of two things is the likely cause of this:
1.  The compost has past the point of peak decomposition.
2.  The conditions changed to the point where it became hostile to your microbiome in the system.

Seems to me it's most likely the first option. The compost is essentially turning into, well, compost.

If the worms are earthworms and not composting worms, they borrow down into the subsoil for the winter. They might also be preparing their tunnels, and bringing food down there. I don't know a lot about earthworms but it wouldn't surprise me if the decreasing daylight times trigger a winter prep response in them.