Free Republic

Europe’s last primeval forest is facing what campaigners call its last stand as loggers prepare to start clear-cutting trees, following the dismissal of dozens of scientists and conservation experts opposed to the plan. Poland’s new far right government says logging is needed because more than 10% of spruce trees in the Unesco world heritage site of Białowieża are suffering from a bark beetle outbreak. But nearly half the logging will be of other species, according to its only published inventory. Oak trees as high as 150 feet that have grown for 450 years could be reduced to stumps under the...

Peggy Noonan, one of the first neo-cons to turn on Sarah Palin, is forecasting that Hillary should pick Bernie for her Veep. Right. So Hillary dies of her hematoma, and now we have Bernie for President of the United States. Who would Bernie have in his Geezercratic cabinet? We could naturalize Fidel Castro, to become Bernie's Vice-President. Havana could become our new national capital; the Cuban flag would have to be altered a bit to show the US as a minor province. Henry Kissinger would be the Secretary of State. (Hillary would have liked that.) George Soros' head could be...

On the CBS3 health watch, its vertical farming. Philadelphia aims to become an international hub for indoor growing, according to a resolution passed today by city council. When growing produce we usually think of acres of farmland. Some say the next generation of farming will be in urban centers like Philadelphia, and you won’t need soil or the sun, just an old warehouse. Welcome to vertical farming, where produce is grown inside, in specialized shelves that are stacked up vertically....

The debate over a California initiative to legalize recreational marijuana sparked heated rejoinders from both sides this week. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) suggested that legalization "will better deploy law enforcement resources. Energy that is now put into harassing inoffensive users of marijuana can be redirected toward suppressing more serious crimes like rape and murder." Leading opponent of legalization, Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, challenged the Congressman "to name one so-called rape or murder victim who might otherwise have been spared if police officers weren't occupied enforcing our drug laws." "Potheads like to portray...

Here’s one way to grow food in an urban environment: Raise a school of tilapia in a tank. Filter out the nitrogen-rich waste, and let naturally occurring bacteria transform it from ammonia into nitrate. Run that naturally derived fertilizer beneath the roots of greens, herbs and peppers. Let the veggies flourish beneath LED lights. Harvest the vegetables. Later, harvest the fish. Cook and serve. Known as aquaponics, this complicated but efficient ecosystem is the latest attempt at making agriculture commercially viable in New York City—even though it has a spotty history, a not-quite-proven track record and plenty of skeptics. “We...

Hello Everyone, it is time to once again to open our mind/s to the realms of saving our & families arse/s when things go from bad to worse. I would have posted up last week, but I & my family were under the weather, so I had to play nurse to the 3 of us. So now let us discuss property management. For me, we have 5 acres here in eastern central Mo. by the mighty Mississippi River [way above the flood plains too]. But about 1/3 of my property is over grown with trees & invasive plants. And in...

Many urban homeowners increasingly desire to keep small flocks of chickens in their backyards, and with good cause. There is no reason every family in this country that can run a flock of chickens in their backyard should not. This perfectly logical and reasonable habit—backyard chicken farming—has been buried under a great deal of hipster elitism (from many of the backyard chicken farmers themselves) and sneering derision (from their critics). Please try to ignore these detractors. If you can play host to backyard chickens, you should. It is, in many urban localities, easier said than done. This normal and praiseworthy...

Ok folks, welcome back to our weekly discussion on what & how are we going to deal with the end of the world as I see it. This week we are going to discuss medical supplies & possible issues that may/are going to face us when & if everything goes to heck in a hand basket. First of all you can not beat a good all around first aid kit, for everyday run of the mill emergencies. But know how life likes to throw us a real good wrinkle we need to look at gaining extra, like do you know...

The two events had nothing to do with one another, and yet they are inextricably linked. I am an inveterate coupon clipper and in the latest mailer from BJ's Wholesale Club (my big box savings store of choice) I noticed an eye-popping deal on LEDs--8 60 watt-equivalent bulbs from Sylvania for $19.99, or roughly $2.50 apiece. The next day, GE announced that it planned to stop manufacturing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and focus instead on LEDs. The market never really took to CFLs, for understandable reasons noted in my household as well: Most of them could not be used with...

Ok, folks, 2 weeks ago I started us on a series of discussions, on what we need to be looking at for long term survival, if & when the need arises. [I need to apologize for missing last week's installment, I had some family issues come up that needed my attn all weekend long] So we started on the need of looking at a long term food supply/ies, because the stores are going to go bare very fast & chances of resupply maybe very dim. I was hinting around gardening & raising your own. [Because every durned fool is going...

In 2017, the Japanese company Spread will open the world's first fully automated agricultural plant, with robots working the whole process: from seed to harvest. Spread, headquartered in Kyoto, explained that this plant will start operating regularly by mid-2017. Mechanization will allow it, among other things, to produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day, as noted on their website. This figure falls short of the firm's expectations, as its goal is to produce half a million heads of lettuce a day within five years. Furthermore, the new automation technologies will reduce labour costs by 50% and energy use by 30%...

Took a fall off a step ladder yesterday while picking apples and broke my wrist. Surgery tomorrow at noon to put in a plate. Please pray that it goes well. Thanks. EV

Preppers you know what we are looking for things like good preparedness supply buys, small discoveries and helpful hints which possible by themselves would make a interesting thread, but would be of interest to fellow preppers.

Time stood still in what I now remember as a pristine, open-air, chapel, where a congregation of two melded their souls with Mother Nature’s glory After serving in World War II, my father raised cotton on two hundred Mississippi Delta acres. The wealthy doctor who owned the land loaned him enough money to buy a tractor and a cultivator. Single-handedly and determined, he worked the land, made his first crop, and launched a 50-year farming career. When a much larger farm came up for sale, the doctor loaned Dad the money to buy it. I was ten years old, and...

Transcend Lighting, one of the more unconventional startups accepted into Y Combinator’s latest cohort, is launching out of beta today to bring its energy-saving LED lights to indoor farmers everywhere. Founder Brian Bennett, an optical engineer by training, invented the first Transcend prototype after his father challenged him to build some LED lights for the family farm in upstate New York. When the lights he designed were successful, Bennett entered a business plan competition at Columbia, won some money to continue developing the idea, and was accepted into Y Combinator’s Spring 2015 class. “Farms today, generally speaking, use high pressure...

We’re a month away from going over budget in using this year’s planetary resources. One way to balance our ecological books is to eat more insects. By mid-summer of each year, we use up the Earth. Known as Earth Overshoot Day, it’s the day, sometime in August, when our yearly demand for ecological resources exceeds how much the planet can replenish those resources for the year. Soon after August 15, this year, Earth will be operating on a deficit. All the while, the population of Earth is growing. It’s estimated there will be 9 billion people by 2050, an additional...

What kind of a man negotiates nukes with the most prolific sponsor of terror in the world, Iran? What kind of a man stands with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, even giving them aid and comfort through the United States Government? What kind of man skips the international show of solidarity in Paris following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist massacre? What kind of a man stands in front of the United Nations General Assembly and declares that free people should not be allowed to criticize “the Prophet Mohammed?” What kind of a man lies to the American people daily, and never bats...

 Dear Senator Sanders, I'd gladly apologize for anything my fat, rich, bourgeois, Kulak ancestors did. But please, precisely, explain what I'll be apologizing for. When Africans were being stolen from their country, my Irish ancestors were being told, "Either convert to the Protestant Church of Ireland, or just take your children and GET out on the road.(BTW: I don't blame you for the fact that your surname seems English.)

It’s been six years sinceelectric vehiclemanufacturers enjoyed their windfall from U.S. taxpayers via the stimulus, but the thirst for subsidies, and pain from financial losses, have not waned. The pursuit of government goodiescontinues apace forTesla Motors, even more vigorously after the Los Angeles Timesreported last month that CEO Elon Musk depends on more than $4.9 billion in corporate welfare for his companies, which also include SolarCity and SpaceX. Tesla’s quest may more accurately be portrayed as preservation of the golden goose that is California’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) credit scheme. The Golden State requires the six largest auto manufacturers to...