There comes a time in life when one has to reckon with oneself. In fact if we are attentive to life itself, this time of reckoning comes more then once. We may not always be ready for it or want it but it arrives, like it or not. In the life of a photographer, when it arrives, one must be prepared to deal with it regardless of what it brings with it. I wrote in my last post about organizing work to get a clarity for the present and future. That's all well and good and should help prepare for the demons of uncertainty and the land of complacency. We as warriors in life need to be prepared for the battle to produce and stand by our work, the very essence of who and what we are. Life will continually throw shots at us and try to defeat our efforts and the love we have for our life's work.
Having clarity on our past efforts and successes allows us to stand tall with confidence as we move forward on solid ground. It's way to easy to get hammered and be effected by others. Even the fact of going out to work requires a solid background of what we did and how it effects us now. It's called clarity. Shooters love clarity, sharp lenses, good MP sensors, good Depth of Field etc.
I hope all of you find heart and mind with an openness of clarity so that you continue to work in peace and be productive more each and every day.
Wise words, street shooter. Happy new year to you.
Thanks Ian, Happy New Year to you and yours.
Looking forward to having a more photo-productive and creative year in 2017. And your blogs help Don – thanks for all you share. May you have a healthy and shooter New Year!
Thank You Dave. Amongst all else, peace.
In my hotel room in Hamburg, Germany. L o n g day and some louzy photos of the fireworks. Happy new year to you and yours!
Hey brother, your photos are the only ones from your time and space with your camera. wow… awesome.


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The Small Farm Plan By Booker T. Whatley – Mother Earth News (2023)
You might say that the problems facing America's small farms are like the weather: Everybody talks about them, but nobody does anything about them. After all, it does seem that most agricultural "experts" and country-oriented publications have lamented the plight of the family grower, and done so without suggesting any specific program of action to remedy the situation. Horticulturist Booker T. Whatley, though, is one individual who's definitely rolled up his shirt sleeves and started fighting for the small farmer. Over the course of the past eight years, this scientist developed a remarkable plan for a 25-acre family farm capable of providing a gross income of $100,000 a year, and he supervised a successful working prototype of his dream at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute.
And that's not all. The recently retired agriculturist ("I'm retired but not retired, if you know what I mean") is currently overseeing the establishment of another model farm at Montgomery's Trenholm State Technical College—spreading the word about his innovative growing scheme through workshops and lectures (with the help of the huge 4-by-10-foot canvas map you see reproduced on the facing page), consulting with officials in various states and nations about limited-resource farming schemes, and publishing the Small Farm Technical Newsletter to give specific instruction to individual growers.
Furthermore, although the effort to help save America's small farms is at present taking up the greater part of Dr. Whatley's time, he's had a lifetime of varied horticultural experiences. Raised on a family farm in Annislon, Ala., Booker received his B.S. in agriculture from Alabama A & M and a Ph.D. in horticulture from Rutgers University.
During the Korean War, he operated a 55-acre hydroponic farm in Japan. (The water-grown crops were needed to feed American troopsas the soldiers often contracted amoebic dysentery if forced to eat local produce raised in ground fertilized with "night soil," or human waste.)
Dr. Whatley has also originated 5 sweet potato and 15 muscadine grape varieties, written more than 40 scientific papers, done research in biomass fuel production, been elected a fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science, and been honored by the Alabama State Legislature.
Yet this experienced professional hasn't let his credentials and successes taint his warm "just folks" manner. Indeed, when photographer Anita Ingle and writer Pat Stone flew down to Montgomery last January to visit the doctor and his wife Lottie, they were immediately made to feel like welcomed friends rather than strangers on a job. Nevertheless, the work got done. The interview session started at eleven o'clock in the morning and wasn't completed until nine o'clock that night.
The opportunity to enjoy Booker and Lottie's manner of playfully teasing each other provided our staffers with a pleasant side benefit to the assignment, too. Whatever the question — who was better at giving directions, did the good doctor look presentable for his photo session, or even who checked up on whom each night to make sure the house doors were locked — the couple (who've been together for 40 years) continually demonstrated a warm, lively and affectionate relationship. Indeed, Dr. Whatley made a unique testament to their romance a few years back when he christened a new grape cultivar 'the Foxxy Lottie'!
We think that you'll enjoy reading this edited transcript of the interview and, like us, come to suspect that Booker T. Whatley is onto something. While his plan clearly is not for everyone — and while we must recognize that there's a significant gap between conceiving and implementing any concept — its basic ideas do ring true. Most important, it's a concrete scheme for action—a plan that, although it won't do a thing about the weather, may just help the small farm remain a vital part of the American economy.
Dr. Whatley, last November you gave a rousing speech at a symposium on small farms sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md., a lecture that's since brought you attention from book publishers, newspapers and, now, MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
That's right. You know, I've been in the agricultural research game for 30 years, but that was the warmest reception I've ever had. Why, I actually got a standing ovation!
Tell us about the speech.
I described my plan — based on a project done at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama — for a 25-acre farm that grosses over $100,000 a year.
It's hard to imagine a small farm bringing in that kind of money. Most such operations in this country are just barely surviving. In fact, a number of other speakers at the Beltsville conference maintained that family farmers can't make it on their own. As one of them, Luther Tweeten of Oklahoma State University, put it, "Small is beautiful, as long as you have an outside income."
That is the attitude held by most professional agriculturists today. They think the only way for the little guy to survive is to become an "SS farmer," who works in town all week and tries to tend the fields on Saturday and Sunday. But I don't buy that. It's just not so. No sir, this plan I'm talking about will provide year-round full-time employment.
The truth is that we professional agronomists have helped create the situation that exists today. We've made life hard on the small farmers by recommending that they grow exactly what the big boys produce. We'll tell a little guy with 40 acres to plant a scaled-down version of the crop mix that some fellow with 2,000 acres raises. For example, we'll suggest that he keep fifteen acres in cotton, ten acres in soybeans, seven acres in corn, seven in pastureand then try to raise a few head of beef cattle. Well, those particular crops give a very low per-acre return, so what happens? The man works hard and just about starves to death.
I say let the big boys grow soybeans, cotton, hay, peanuts and beef cattle. The plan I'm talking about takes the small farmer out of the big guys' ballpark.
Dr. Whatley, just what is your plan?
There are five essential criteria for the success of this small-farm operation, and the first of them is that each crop component of a limited-resource farm must produce an annual gross minimum income of $3,000.
Let me give you an example. If a farmer here in Alabama plants one acre of land in cotton, and has a good year, he can expect to get one bale of cotton from that acre. Now a bale weighs about 500 pounds, and cotton's selling for around 70 centsa pound, so the man's annual gross income off that piece of land will be $350. However, if he takes the same acre and plants it in collards, he can get 8,000 bunches of greens. By selling those for 50 centsa bunch, he'll gross $4,000. And then, if he plants both a spring and a fall crop of collards, he can take in as much as $8,000—that's $8,000 per acre versus $350!
If you look at the map of our plan [see the reproduction in the Image Gallery], you'll see the high-value crops I recommend in Alabama. The components of this particular farm are one acre of blackberries, two acres of rabbiteye blueberries, two acres of collards, five acres of muscadine grapes, one and a half acres of mustard greens, five acres of purple-hulled southern peas, one acre of strawberries, five acres of sweet potatoes, one-and-a-half acres of turnip greens, and one acre(that's 60 colonies) of honeybees.
What's the second criterion essential to your plan?
The components of the farm must provide year-round family income. People are always talking about the poor cash-flow pattern on a typical farm. This plan solves that problem. Strawberries — you've got to have a combination of early, midseason and late varieties — will provide income from mid-April to mid-May. Blackberries will come in from mid-May to mid-June, and rabbiteye blueberries from mid-June to the end of July. Then you can harvest and sell one acre of your sweet potatoes from the last week in July to mid-August. Once that job's done, the muscadine grapes will begin to mature, and that harvest should last through September. In October, the remaining four acres of sweet potatoes can be dug up and cured. They're sold, on a weekly basis, from November 1 to mid-April. On top of all that, southern peas provide additional cash flow in June, July and October; greens come in from April to May and from October through December; and the various bee products can be sold year round.
You'll notice, then, that each crop has its own on-sale season, and that brings up my next point: The components of the farm must be compatible. They shouldn't compete with each other for labor, and you don't want everything coming in at once. Of course, there is some overlap in my plan, but it's manageable and — for the most part — desirable.
The fourth criterion is that the farm must provide year-round full employment. To attempt to work part- or full-time off the farm while following this plan is to invite disaster. The way we figured it when we first set up a working model at Tuskegee Institute, the labor requirement for the farm is 2.5 man-years.
Two and a half people?
That might include full-time work from a man, three-quarter-time help from his wife, and one-quarter-time each from three teenage children.
All right, then, what's the fifth criterion for the $100,000 small farm?
It should be a pick-your-own operation, with a clientele membership club. You see, running the farm on a pick-your-own basis eliminates the two major complaints of small growers, no labor and no market. It lets the farmer avoid the cost of harvesting, washing, grading, packing, packaging, refrigerating, and transporting the produce. And it brings in buyers. More than once I've run across a farmer with five acres of turnip greens, who's just sitting there complaining that there's no market for the crop—when it'd be easy to get folks to pay for the chance to pick it.
Pick-your-own operations have been around — and been successful — for quite a while, but what exactly is a clientele membership club?
That's the twist that makes this whole project innovative. The farmer has to seek out people–city folks, mostly–to be members of the club. The annual membership fee, $25 per household, gives each of those families the privilege of coming to the farm and harvesting produce at approximately 60 percentof the supermarket price. Sweet potatoes and honeybee products, by the way, are not pick-your-own crops, but members can still buy them at a discount. At any rate, one of these 25-acre farms should be able to support 1,000 member families, or around 5,000 people.
The clientele membership club is the lifeblood of the whole setup. It enables the farmer to plan production, anticipate demand, and, of course, have a guaranteed market. However, that means the grower had better work just as diligently at establishing and maintaining the club as at producing the crops. Put it this way: If you fail to promote your club, something terrible happens— nothing!
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It sounds as if your farm family is going to have to live near a city.
That's right. They should be located within 40 miles of some metropolitan center; that's pretty much a prerequisite for setting up one of these farms.
Are there any other conditions that you haven't yet mentioned?
Yes, several. For one thing, the farm is going to have to be run as a well-managed, high-yield operation, so it's essential that irrigation be available for each crop component. And the place has got to be located on a hard-surfaced road so the customers can easily reach it. You'll have to keep it in a high state of maintenance, too—eliminating potential hazards and pests, providing comfort stations, and setting up a play area for children. You'll also need to get yourself $250,000 of liability insurance, perhaps through the local Farm Bureau. And your farm should be incorporated for maximum legal and tax benefits.
Last, you must realize that it'll take five years for the operation to get into full production. After all, a lot of the crops — including grapes and berries — need a few seasons to get going. By the fifth year, though, a farmer should be able to gross $100,000 or more, and have a net income of one-third to one-half that amount.
You seem to have given a lot of thought to the details of this operation. Has such a plan always been the goal of your research?
No. In fact, I figure that at this point the most significant thing I've done for mankind is to develop the Carver sweet potato. I had to test over 200,000 different cultivars, and spend almost $1,000,000, to get that one variety, but it's already returned more than $10,000,000 to growers. In fact, Carver has now replaced Centennial in Cullman County, the leading sweet potato-producing county in Alabama.
Actually, I put my small farm idea together only after I came to Tuskegee Institute in 1973, and it was my work with sweet potatoes that took me there from Southern University in Louisiana. I was down at Southern trying to produce a quality "eating" sweet potato — which turned out to be the Carver — and one that'd be good for cattle feed.
You wanted a sweet potato to feed to cattle?
Well, corn yields in the deep South are so low, compared to those in the Midwest, that it hasn't been economical for farmers here to finish our beef cattle. It's made more sense — since it takes four pounds of corn to produce one pound of meat — for us to ship the animals up to the corn than to get the corn to the cattle. The carbohydrates in sweet potatoes, though, are for the most part equal to the carbohydrates in corn—and we can grow more pounds of sweet potatoes than corn per acre. So I thought a livestock potato would be a real boon to southern farmers.
Eventually I did come up with a fine white sweet potato–the average American doesn't like white-fleshed varieties, so no one would confuse them with those grown for human consumption– and named it Rojo Blanco . . . because it was red on the outside and white on the inside.
Of course, all this didn't happen overnight. It takes eight or ten years to get a good new sweet potato, you see . . . and that's only if God smiles on you.
I still don't understand how those experiments led you from Southern to Tuskegee.
Well, I've always wanted to work at Tuskegee. After all, George Washington Carver had worked there, and he was a big breeder of sweet potatoes — as well as peanuts — himself. And then Booker T. Washington, the man I was named after, was the founder and first administrator of the school.
But what really motivated my move was the fact that Southern University is located in what's called a quarantined area. The sweet potato weevil problem is so devastating down there that you can't ship any plants out unless you first treat them with methyl bromide, and that kills the weevils and the sweet potatoes. In other words, I couldn't disseminate any new hybrids I developed! On top of that, the governor of Louisiana — when he heard about my trouble — offered me some breeding land in a nonquarantined area of the state. But that site was actually in the Angola state prison. Well, I've never liked prisons, so I decided to go home to Alabama.
Was Tuskegee interested in your sweet potato project?
They didn't mind my working on that. The truth is — and most people don't realize this — that a black professor at a black university is about the freest individual in this country. It was my own idea, for example, to start doing honeybee and small-fruit research at Tuskegee. And my work in those three areas — sweet potatoes, small fruits, and honeybees — eventually led to my design for a successful 25-acre farm. The map you've seen is based on the actual farm we set up and operated at Tuskegee.
How did you get interested in honeybee and small-fruit research?
That's simple. When I got to Tuskegee I soon learned that there was only one black apiculturist in the whole country . . . primarily because none of the black agricultural schools taught any beekeeping courses. Well, I wanted to get some students working in apiculture — heck, Booker Washington's wife taught a class in that subject back in her time — so I started a beekeeping program.
It was just as easy, when looking at the plight of low-acreage farmers, to realize that small-fruit production would make a lot more sense for them than growing cotton or corn. So I figured I'd better do some research in that area. You have to understand something: None of our country's current agricultural research is directed toward helping small farmers. The state agriculture schools in this country — set up by the 1862 and 1890 land grants — are focused on programs for big growers . . . simply because those are the people with money and powerful organizations.
Take soybeans, for instance. Every county in this state has a soybean association. Then the state has its own group, and there's a national organization, too. So if our senator Howell Heflin needs to hear from a lot of soybean growers in order to get funding for research, he can just call the president of the Alabama soybean council … and have a few hundred telegrams on his desk in Washington the next morning! This kind of thing just doesn't happen in support of the little guys' specialty crops … we don't spend any money in Alabama on purple cabbage research!
Where did you get the funds to support your small-farm studies, then?
Once I'd worked out my plan, I approached the Rockefeller Foundation people, who gave me $250,000 for a three-year study. Then I assembled a team to develop the data and create a working model. I had help from an entomologist, a small equipment specialist, an irrigation expert, and a slew of other horticulturists, agriculture engineers, economists, apiculturists, and food scientists.
You obviously had more than 2.5 people, then, working to develop your plan. How did your team determine that the farm would require that unusual number of employees?
We based that figure on information from a variety of sources . . . including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the land-grant colleges. And we also kept track of the exact number of man-hours, and tractor-hours, that were required to produce the crops and run our trial pick-your-own operation at Tuskegee.
Let's talk about some other aspects of your plan. Are you aiming to reach people who are already farming, or folks who are trying to start from scratch?
Our targets, initially, were individuals who owned from 25 to 150 acres of land . . . the farmers who are currently growing cotton, corn, soybeans, and cattle and being driven out of business. I've found, though — as I've publicized the plan — that the idea also appeals to lots of people who aren't yet farming.
Of course, someone new to agriculture would likely first have to acquire land, skills, and equipment. How much of an investment in tools would a completely unequipped newcomer need to make?
He or she'd have to have a pickup truck . . . and one 35-horsepower tractor equipped with cultivation attachments, plows, disks, transplanters, a posthole digger, spray equipment, and fertilizer- and lime-spreading implements. All that gear would probably cost between $50,000 and $90,000. But the guy I'm really after is the guy who already has all that.
And that's who you'd like to see working full time on your plan. Now you've said that you're not partial to "SS farming", but wouldn't it make sense to suggest that inexperienced growers would be best advised to phase into the operation one step at a time?
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Yes, that's right. A lot of folks who become interested in the plan will start on some of the components and hold some other kind of job on the side. You know, they'll believe you a little
bit but — as the saying goes — only risk one eye at it. And that kind of approach makes sense for someone who's just starting out . . . but not for someone who's farming now and losing money.
What about growers in areas other than the South? Some of your suggested crops seem to have a limited regional appeal. Does that mean farmers in the West, Midwest, and Northeast can't follow your plan?
Oh, no. Let me emphasize this: The crop mix will vary from area to area — after all, you have to raise products that grow and sell well where you live — but the plan's basic principles, and the five critical guidelines I mentioned, can be applied almost anywhere.
Would any of the crops remain constant across the country?
Grapes. Your area may be better for labrusca or vinifera varieties, than for muscadines, but you can grow and sell grapes in most parts of the U.S. Strawberries are another crop that'll do well in many different areas … as are small fruits like blueberries and blackberries or raspberries.
You'll also want to have honeybees . . . for one thing, you're going to need them to pollinate all your small-fruit crops. And don't forget, you can sell pollen, propolis, and pollinating services as well as honey. In fact, the small farmer should aim for total exploitation of the honeybee.
Sweet potatoes are popular everywhere, too, and folks who live in colder regions can often use black plastic mulch, or other season-extending techniques, to grow them. In an area where sweet potatoes just won't grow, though, a farmer might go for rutabagas.
I also recommend that you add a fish pond to your farm, if possible, since it'll really help you draw members. Sure, building a pond is a big expense, but the Soil Conservation Service can help you plan and finance it. Then, once you have it stocked, you can charge $15 for fishing rights — in addition to the normal $25 membership fee — and, on top of that, charge people less for what they catch than the regular pay-to-fish
What crops should vary from region to region?
The vegetables. You might want to grow broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, or asparagus instead of the greens and peas I talk about.
Do tree crops have a place in your plan?
Oh, yes, but only if they give a high-value return. For instance, I do recommend growing pecan trees here in Alabama . . . but not the standard varieties, because they take up too much room to give a good yield per acre. Some of the new semidwarf cultivars, though — such as Cheyenne — require a spacing of just 25-by-2 feet. . . can each give 40 to 50 pounds of nuts by their eighth year . . . and could definitely become a permanent component of a profitable small farm.
And you can take an innovative approach to marketing tree crops, too: Simply lease the tree! In other words, sell the rights to each pecan tree to one family for $50 per year. Then label the tree with the lessees' name, and they can visit during the year to see how their "property" is maintained. Just before harvest time, use tape to stake out a 25-by-25 footsquare under the tree. Members of the family can come out, watch as you shake their tree, and pick up their nuts.
Now some folks might think that a person wouldn't pay $50 to gather the nuts from one pecan tree, but a lot of them will! It really happens. And not only with pecans . . . people will lease peach and apple trees, too. The fact is that some city folks are the easiest people to sell things to in this country.
Your plan is based on getting people to join the farm's clientele club. But if the members have to pay $25 or more up front, they're going to have to pick a good bit of produce before they can make much of a saving.
Well, most folks will pick a whole lot and then freeze it, so they'll make out all right. Take blueberries, for example: They've been like gold around here for the past two or three years. Why, the little 12-ounce boxes from New Jersey or Michigan cost from $1.29 to $1.69 apiece . . .but a member can go out, pick 15 or 20 pints of blueberries at a 40 percentsaving, and know they're fresh.
There's a lot more to it than that, too. We're bringing up whole generations in this country today that don't even know how collards or chickens are raised. So some parents see a farm visit as a wholesome and pleasant educational experience for their youngsters . . . one that the entire family can share. The average middle-class city person likes a chance to get out on a farm. It's a form of entertainment, and those folks can save money while they're having a good time. Why, people used to drive all the way from Birmingham — a good 150 miles away — to pay to pick food at Tuskegee.
Furthermore, folks like to belong to groups . . . whether the organization is the Montgomery Golf Club or a farmer's clientele membership group.
How does a farmer go about finding members in the first place?
You can put a club together by telephone calls . . . posters in office buildings or other public places . . . and newspaper, radio, or TV announcements. You've got to reach the people who have home freezers and let them know what you're offering. That's the main thing.
And after you get your customers, you've got to cultivate them just like you cultivate crops. You might — for instance — put out a little newsletter, mentioning your members' birthdays and reporting any news from your farm. You'll probably want to give the head of each household a numbered, laminated identification card, too. You could even put a recorder with a when-to-pick-what message on your telephone. Oh, running a membership club isn't easy, but all jobs involve work. In short, you've got to be a good manager . . . some folks could be the best kind of growers but not be able to get along well with other people, and they'd never make a go of this sort of small farm.
How come there's not much livestock in your plan? Aside from honeybees and fish, the only type of stock indicated, on your map is quail.
Those birds are a high-value crop. You can raise 30,000 quail on an acre of land. And — here again I'm talking about the total exploitation of your products — you can sell the livers, pickle the surplus eggs and market them to bars, and even use the feathers and hollowed-out eggs to make salable jewelry. Pheasants, and perhaps turkeys, could be high-value livestock, too. In some areas, rabbits might be a viable farm component . . . but there's no market for rabbit meat down here.
I definitely don't recommend raising traditional farm livestock — such as chickens, cattle, and hogs — because they just don't give a high enough per-acre return. Why, in Alabama, it takes three acres of land to support just one cow or calf!
How about keeping, say, just one pig for your own meat?
That doesn't make sense. You have to feed it and spend time taking care of it. Why, by the time you're done, your pork chops'll probably cost about $10 a pound!
What about keeping a few chickens to produce your own eggs?
That's not worthwhile, either.
Goats for milk?
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Sheep for meat?
NO. Look, I'm talking about farmers who are going to be netting somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 a year . . . they can buy center-cut pork chops at the supermarket just like anybody else! I'm talking about people who'll go to the Bahamas or Europe for vacation. I'm not talking about subsistence . . . I'm talking about making a living! If these farmers get a taste for champagne, I'm not recommending that they make their own . . . they can go out and buy it.
You don't even suggest having a kitchen garden . . . like the one shown on your map?
I put that on there when I was trying to appeal to the Rockefeller Foundation. I thought they'd like it. But you can study my farm plan closely, and you'll see that those two and a half people working on it are going to be pretty busy without trying to maintain a garden on the side.
Now that doesn't mean people won't have gardens … if that's what they want to do, fine. What I recommend and what people actually do are two different things altogether. If we had 100,000 of these farms in the U.S., I don't imagine that any two of them would be just alike.
And do you really believe a person can take in $ 100,000 or more from a 25-acre farm?
Sure, and that's without even counting all those $25 membership fees.
You're kidding!
Just look at the numbers. I showed you earlier how to make $4,000 an acre off each crop of greens. Well, let's be safe and say you make just $3,000 an acre. You've got five acres of those greens, and they give you both a spring and a fall crop so how much money will they bring you?
$30,000.
Right. Now, you've got five acres of sweet potatoes. You can get 600 to 800 bushels an acre of those . . . but we'll be conservative again and say 600. You can probably sell each bushel for $8.. So figure 3,000 bushels at $8 each . . . that's another $24,000.
Then you have five acres of southern peas. You get 300 bushels per acre of those vegetables and, again, two annual crops. So that's a total of 3,000 bushels, and they can go for $5 each … or $15,000 in all. In addition, you can sell a shelling service. Most folks aren't going to want to spend hours shelling the peas they buy, so you use a mechanical sheller — which can go through a bushel in a minute — and charge them $1.50 for each bushel of peas you shell. That can bring in another $4,500. So how much have you earned so far?
That'd be $30,000 plus $24,000 plus $15,000 plus an extra $4,500 . . . that's $73,500.
Then you've got two acres of blueberries. That's 1,210 plants. You could get as much as 25 pounds per plant, but let's say you get 20 … that'd be 24,200 pounds of blueberries. Sell those for 60 centsa pound and what do you get?
Let me see … uh, that's another $14,520.
OK. You can also harvest 300 bushels of blackberries from your one acre of that fruit. Each bushel weighs about 50 pounds, so you've got 15,000 pounds of berries that go for 60 centsa pound … or $9,000. How much have you earned now?
$73,500 plus $14,520 plus $9,000: That's $97,020!
And I haven't even got to the strawberries or honey or grapes! So you see, my problem isn't selling the plan . . . it's the fact that it oversells itself. The concept sounds so good that people find it difficult to believe.
It does sound amazing. Still, a plan's just a plan until somebody actually makes it work. Are any farmers actually grossing $100,000 a year from a farm based on your model?
No. You've got to remember, it takes five years to get into full production, and I've been promoting the idea only since the second day of November 1980 . . . when an article about it appeared in the Birmingham News. I got so much response from the one story that I went on to hold 14 workshops around Alabama to explain the small-farm idea further.
Then, this past September, I retired from Tuskegee Institute and started to publish my monthly Small Farm Technical Newsletter, which details the different aspects of the plan. That newsletter's got over 4,000 subscribers now. In November I gave my talk at the Small Farm Symposium in Beltsville . . . and that speech got a lot of folks — including your magazine — interested.
As you can see, though, I haven't been pushing the idea very long . . . it's still pretty new.
How many people are currently in the process of trying your plan out?
I don't really know. The way Whatley Farms operates right now, we have a board of directors and set policy and all, but there are no employees. I do all the work. So although I get calls from guys who've been losing money growing soybeans and say they're going to do my plan, I haven't been able to follow up on them. I can talk more specifically about Alabama than about any place else, and right now I'd say there are 40 or 50 people in Alabama trying out part of my model, but not more than a dozen who are aiming to go for the whole ball of wax.
Do you advocate some of the newer farming techniques, like integrated pest management and no-till agriculture?
Very definitely. For instance, I recommend not tilling the perennial crop areas. Instead, keep those plots — all except the rabbiteye blueberry fields, which require a different soil pH — companion-planted with crimson clover. And wait until the clover's seed heads mature and then bush-hog, rather than cultivate, the plants. That way, you can add organic matter and nitrogen to your soil, prevent erosion, and provide a good pasture for your honeybees . . . and the clover will reseed itself!
I also advise growing three annual crops that have complementary soil needs, and planting equal acreages of each. Then you can rotate the crops to avoid depleting the soil or encouraging the types of pests that tend to winter over. The three annuals I recommend here are sweet potatoes, southern peas, and greens. Again, though, folks in other regions might want to rotate different crops . . . perhaps sweet corn, Irish potatoes, and cantaloupes or pumpkins.
I've noticed that your newsletter does recommend the use of various commercial sprays from time to time . . . how do you feel about organic growing methods?
If someone wants to raise all the crops organically and then emphasize that point as part of the club's promotion, that's fine by me. I try to reduce the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers because, for one thing, they're expensive . . . and the bottom line — as in any business — is what's left after you subtract your costs from your sales total. But I'll use those products when I need them and I know they can work. For instance, I do spread some chemical fertilizer in the little garden out behind my house, but I'm also a strong believer in mulch . . . that plot's got a foot of sawdust in it and every leaf I've raked up around the place, too.
Let me put it this way: I make every effort to operate right at the state of the art. But at the same time I'm not going to let army worms eat up my garden . . . not if I can help it.
(Video) CSA Ideas Lab: Moving from Food Access to Food Justice
To be successful at implementing your plan, a farmer's going to have to get the best possible yield per acre. He or she will, indeed, have to know how to operate at the state of the art.
That's right. And most agriculture professionals in this country have a misconception of what the small farmer of the future is going to look like. They think that if he's white, he'll always be chewing tobacco and have juice running out both sides of his mouth and sopping down under his chin . . . and that if he's black, he'll wear an old hat and patched-up overalls and "split" every verb that comes out of his mouth, saying things like "they is" all the time. But the small farmer of the future — man or woman, black or white — is going to be a professional. I say this plan of mine is for a "limited resource" farm, but the only limited resource this farmer will have is land. That person will know his or her job!
I want you to understand something. The reason for the demise of the small farm isn't that the growers have failed … we scientists in agriculture are the ones who've failed. All we've been doing is describing and describing the plight of the little guy. Every few years one of us will do another study showing just how bad the small farmer's problem is, but each time there're fewer of those folks left to describe. We're about to describe them right off the farm!
In my opinion, agricultural researchers can no longer afford the luxury of stopping their work at the descriptive stage, so I'm trying to promote a plan that'll help the situation. Now some other professionals will probably try to talk this idea to death, too, just as they're doing to small farming in general . . . but I don't intend to let them do it!
Why is it that other professional agriculturists have failed to come up with concrete proposals to help the small farmer?
Look, between 60 and 70 percentof all the people with Ph.D.'s in the agriculture business graduated from just ten universities. So we're a homogeneous group to start with. And on top of that, we all go to the same horticulture society meetings. In short, it's difficult for the vast majority of us to get away from our training. Most of us talk only to each other . . . and don't talk to the farmers.
Well, I'm comfortable with farmers. I don't try to talk over anybody's head … I don't try to be arrogant . . . and, on the other hand, I don't criticize agencies like the agricultural extension service or experimental stations when I'm talking to people — even though those folks don't have much credibility with farmers — because, after all, I've been part of that system for 30 years. Of course, some folks at those agencies and stations may criticize me. . . but that just makes my clientele, the little guys, more willing to hear what I have to say.
Why do you suppose you have a knack for understanding the farmer's point of view when most other experts don't?
Now listen. I grew up on the farm . . . it's not strange to me. My granddaddy made all the syrup that came out of his community, castrated all the hogs, shoed the horses, built the doorsteps … he was one of those guys who could do everything. But he never went to school. He just had a head full of common sense. So when folks tell me my plan is too complicated for small farmers to handle, I don't believe them. I was brought up on a farm a whole lot more complicated than this one.
Is that why you chose to work to help save our small farms . . . because you were raised on one yourself?
I'm afraid that if I don't do it, nobody else will. When I spoke to representatives of the USDA in Washington, D.C.– back in February of 1981– one of the economists there raised his hand and said, "There're about 220,000,000 people in this country, and you say that one of your farms can supply its products to 5,000 people. Even if your plan is 100 percentsuccessful, then, you're going to save only 44,000 small farms." Well, I told him if we continue the way we're going, by the year 2000 we won't have any small farms left at all!
I'm going to do what I can to keep that from happening. The time I still have on this earth will be devoted to helping small farmers develop efficient and profitable operations.
Doing It
Here's what four Alabama farmers told MOTHER EARTH NEWS about their Whatley-inspired growing efforts.
For the past few years, Charles Carter has been trying to operate "a little cattle farm that isn't doing too good" while maintaining a steady job with the local labor department. Charles is very enthusiastic about switching his 20 acres over to a Whatley-style farm, and hopes that doing so will enable him to become a full-time grower within the next few years. He's currently keeping his outside job, though … so that he can –among other things — save up enough money to replace his 25-HP tractor with a 35-HP machine.
Last year, Carter grew seven acres of sweet potatoes, five acres of collard and turnip greens, and three acres of sweet corn ("corn's not on Whatley's plan, but it's a good seller"). He marketed an estimated $7,000 worth of his produce through supermarkets and door-to-door selling . . . while claiming that "I must have given half of my crops away". Mr. Carter figures he should have no major difficulty getting people to join a clientele membership club ("folks wanted to join last year, but I hadn't talked to my lawyer yet"), especially since he lives just a few miles away from a city of 100,000 residents.
Charles plans to start his membership club in 1982 and — during the same period — to put in a strawberry field . . . develop his small catfish pond . . . start a one-acre watermelon patch . . . and begin keeping bees (after he attends a three-day honeybee symposium Dr. Whatley is organizing). The single problem he's encountered so far — he reported to us — is coming up with enough money to invest in further farm improvements. "That's what's holding me back from buying a lot of small-fruit plants," Charles admitted.
In contrast to Carter's 20-acre spread, W.A. Fullilove farms 600 acres (about half of it rented) . . . growing soybeans, wheat, cotton, grain, and beef. And while he's not intending to switch to a complete Whatley-style farm, he allows that — partly thanks to the influence of Booker and the Small Farm Technical Newsletter — he's changing the focus of his farming this year … by planting half as much land and moving more into vegetable growing. "Fresh vegetables and sweet potatoes demand more labor, and cost more per acre to produce, than do grain crops," W.A. says, "but the returns are a lot better." Just as important, he'll be able to "rent less land, farm less land, use less fuel, and not have to work so far from home".
This will be the first year of his switch from "big acres to small acres", Mr. Fullilove notes, so he's going to raise both 15 acres of vegetables and 40 to 50 acres of sweet potatoes while pasturing 150 cattle and continuing to grow some grains and soybeans. W.A. also adds that he's reluctant to plant small fruits or raise honeybees. He's afraid that if he gets too diversified, he won't be able to tend to all his crops well, and might just end up losing on one what he makes on another.
Mr. Fullilove intends to market his produce to local food stores and wholesalers. He may try pick-your-own harvesting on a small scale to see how well it works, and possibly will set up a clientele membership club sometime in the future . . . particularly if more residents move into the few towns in his mostly rural area.
Like W.A. Fullilove, Howard Millican is cutting back on the amount of land he'll farm and raising (at least for the time being) a mixture of standard commercial and intensive small-farm crops. He owns 200 acres, but hopes to "back up some" so that–eventually–he and his son will be able to make a living from 75 acres of land. Mr. Millican, though, seems committed to more of Dr. Whatley's ideas than is Mr. Fullilove. (In fact, when we talked with him, he had just come in from clearing some land for grape production.)
One of the aspects Howard likes most about Whatley's plan is the crop diversification. "Last year," he related, "I lost $5,000 or $6,000 on tomatoes. All the commercially grown tomatoes from north Florida to Kentucky came ripe at the same time, so we had to sell ours for very low prices. I'm going to protect myself by dividing my crops up more in the future."
Inspired by Dr. Whatley, Millican put in two ponds on his property last year and stocked them with 6,000 fish . . . but he says he lost the vast majority of that crop to thieves who repeatedly raided the ponds while the Millican family was attending church services. "I'm not going to bother with fishponds again until I can put them near my house, under lights, and inside a fence," he says.
He also figures to hold off keeping bees for a while, and admits he needs to do more research before putting in nut and blackberry crops ("I'm practically illiterate when it comes to raising blackberries"). He is planting other small fruits, though, while diversifying his vegetable production and expanding his irrigation capabilities.
Howard does intend to start up a clientele membership club . . . but not for two years, at which time more of his perennials will have started producing. "I don't think I'll have trouble finding members," claims Millican, who lives within 35 miles of Birmingham and two smaller towns. "I know of people who think nothing of driving 60 miles round trip just to pick two or three bushels of tomatoes."
When he begins to operate his club, Mr. Millican wants to put in a storage cooler ("so I can keep two or three kinds of fresh produce available at a time") and to transport the pickers between his parking area and his fields ("so the same kind of thieves that hit my fishpond won't be able to put me out of business").
Entomologist Frank Randle helped Dr. Whatley develop parts of the small-farm plan, and is putting much of it to use himself ("I'm going into diversified organic farming, using Booker's plan as a focal point"), Mr. Randle, who is currently both the Alabama state apiarist and a commercial beekeeper with 400 to 500 hives (on his own property and spread over various out yards), plans to work together with his horticulturist brother Mark. The two men come from a rural background, and hope to make their break from off-farm employment about a year from now (although Frank does intend to keep his bee business in operation).
Randle particularly likes the diversification and year-round income aspects of Whatley's plan. He's also convinced that — at least in his area, near Auburn University — clientele membership clubs can work. "At first I couldn't believe that people would pay me money to harvest my crops," he says, "but I've found that they will. It gives them a chance to feel they have a hand in putting food on their tables." Yet he plans to keep a strict limit on the number of his clients (last year, he had only 25 members, people who heard about his farm from friends). For one thing, Frank doubts that a 25-acre farm could support 1,000 members ("I've had individuals who picked five or six gallons of berries in a single visit!"). More important, he really doesn't want hundreds of people coming on his property. "I'm a rather private individual," Mr. Randle says, "and my family lives right here on the place. Besides, I have a lot of bees around. So I'd rather have fewer members, hire high schoolers to help me harvest the rest of the crops, and sell some produce to wholesalers and at local farm stands."
Having seen — in his capacity as state apiarist — many novices fail at large-scale beekeeping, Randle tempers his enthusiasm with caution when he talks about Whatley's small-farm scheme: "This plan demands an extremely high level of management . . . the kind of farming knowledge that's not easy to come by … and a tremendous amount of capital — I'd say $100,000 to $125,000, even if you own your land–to purchase your tractor and other equipment, build a fishpond, and pay for fertilizer and plants and insurance. And I question some of Dr. Whatley's numbers, too. For instance, while bees are essential for pollinating your small fruits, local forage just won't support an apiary of 60 hives in most areas … so I'd recommend starting off with two or three colonies and building up to 20 or 25 hives. In addition, I think the work will probably demand more than 2.5 people, and I don't think it would be realistic to expect to gross a full $100,000 even by the fifth year. Still, I think the basic concept of Whatley's plan is extremely valid.
"One thing is for certain," Frank continues. "Anyone who's motivated solely by that $100,000 figure would be a fool to get into this. Farming demands such an investment of time that one must be motivated by love of the land to succeed. I'd say my own goals are to feed other people for a living . . . enjoy being with and raising my family . . . earn a comfortable, middle-class income … be my own boss . . . and leave this place a little better than I found it."
Originally published as "The Plowboy Interview: Dr. Booker T. Whatley" in the May/June 1982 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
(Video) Plenary IV | Agroecology: A Global Movement | Soil Not Oil 2019
1. Farming While Black: African Diasporic Wisdom for Farming and Food Justice
(Harvard Divinity School)
2. These Gardens are Blueprints: Sowing the Seeds of Food Justice with Naima Penniman
(UVM DEI)
3. Leah Penniman: Grassroots solutions for a just and sustainable food system
(nofamass)
4. Bible Time with Jason Wallace
(Jason Wallace)
5. TFBWL: Nicole Hodges Persley reads from "We Are Each Other's Harvest"
(Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity)
How do you find the sample size of two groups?
Is 20 a large enough sample size?
Author: Amb. Frankie Simonis
Name: Amb. Frankie Simonis
Address: 64841 Delmar Isle, North Wiley, OR 74073
Job: Forward IT Agent
Hobby: LARPing, Kitesurfing, Sewing, Digital arts, Sand art, Gardening, Dance
Introduction: My name is Amb. Frankie Simonis, I am a hilarious, enchanting, energetic, cooperative, innocent, cute, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A lot has changed over the years. However, our need for transportation has stayed the same. This is why year after year, you will see more and more cars being bought and sold. While other industries suffered due to slowing down of economies, the automobile industry has continued to grow. In 2017 alone, 73.5 million cars were manufactured worldwide.
Many people sell their car to buy a new one. And a growing trend is to use an online platform to buy and sell cars. There was a time when buying and selling of vehicles were solely done via dealerships. Now, consumer preferences are changing. Millennials usually prefer shopping online. In a recent survey conducted by McKinsey, at least 70% of worldwide respondents reported that they indulge in some form of online shopping.
Now, the two worlds are colliding. The automobile industry is converging with E-commerce and delivering online portals to buy and sell cars. You can easily opt for a free valuation from online platforms, who will then claim, we want your car! and take it for you without your need to physically go to a location.
Here are benefits of selling and buying vehicles via online platforms.
Most online car buying and selling portals have very easy to understand interface. The tech-savvy consumer of today is bound to find the process of buying and selling online very easy.
For instance, when buying a car online, you can filter your searches based on car models and other specifications. Rather than sifting through a catalog or driving to a specific dealership that has your dream car, you merely search for it using the built-in search system. When you do so, you will be provided with all the information about the vehicle, including mileage, engine capacity, and price.
The process remains as simple when you are selling your car. Rather than placing ads on newspapers and other forums, these sites get enough traffic to ensure that your vehicle will be sold. The process of enlisting your car for sale is straightforward as well (in most cases).
Whatever role you assume in this equation, online portals allow you to get a better deal in your transaction. In case of purchasing a car, this is because you can easily compare the price offered with other online platforms and select the one within your budget. Also, if you are purchasing a used car, the sellers are usually not professionals. Instead, they are people like you. Hence, they are easier to bargain with.
As a seller, because you are not dealing with dealerships, it is easier to get your car sold at your demanded price (if you are good at negotiating). After all, the chances are neither you, or your customer knows the intrinsic details about cars. While they will ask the significant things that matter, they won't demand a price decrease for little stuff because they might not consider asking about it.
Car dealers are out to make a sale. They get paid for it. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they are very persistent in getting you to close the deal. For some people, this can get overwhelming. You end up making a decision you later regret. Post-purchase dissonance always exists, but it is higher when you think you were forced to make a decision. The best thing about online portals is that it eliminates the physical interaction between dealers and buyers. Sometimes you aren't even dealing with professionals at all. Either way, it is easier to avoid professional haggling on online platforms.
It gives you more time to think about your decision and select a car accordingly.
A dealership limits your choices. Actually, anything which is sold and bought on a physical location limits your choices. However, there are no such boundaries in online portals. Instead, you can sit in one city and purchase or sell a car to another. Yes, travel expenses may be incurred. However, when you are getting a great deal or a chance to buy the best car for you, the chances are you won't mind the extra bucks spent.
In terms of selling cars, this characteristic of online platforms means that the sky is your limit. Again, if you are willing to bear the brunt of travel expenses, you don't necessarily have to sell your car in your locality. Instead, you can close the most profitable deal regardless of where the customer might be located.
While online portals are a great way to carry out automobile transactions, there are some flaws as well. For instance, it is easier to get duped on online platforms than if you physically meet your buyer or seller. This doesn't mean you shouldn't give online portals a try. Instead, make sure you are cautious. Do your research about the platform you are using. Make sure your seller or customer is not a fraud by researching about them.
Go ahead and buy or sell your car. Enjoy the convenience of online shopping. Shop or sell away from the comfort of your home. Life is undoubtedly getting more and easier by every passing moment. It is a great time to be alive, isn't it?


Every year since 1975, American photographer Nicholas Nixon (b. 1947) has taken a portrait of his wife Bebe and her three sisters. The requirements for this unusual, long-term artistic project are extremely simple: The four women reunite for a group portrait, with the only constants being the order in which they appear left to right and the size of the negative. The sisters are usually portrayed within a narrow frame, often shown standing and from the chest up – more rarely seated or in full view – and looking directly into the camera.


WRAP_Theses_Chatzistefani_2017.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.
In this thesis, the development of an anatomically meaningful musculoskeletal model of the human foot with specific application to the Achilles tendon is presented. An in vivo experimental method of obtaining parameter values for the mechanical characteristics of the Achilles tendon and the gastrocnemius muscle is presented incorporating a Hill-type muscle model. The incentive for this work has been to enable the prediction of movement with regard to Achilles tendon motion of healthy volunteers, in order to then compare it with the movement of a pathologic gait and help in preventing Achilles tendon injuries.
There are relatively few mathematical models that focus on the characterisation of the human Achilles tendon as part of a muscle-tendon unit in the literature. The mechanical properties of the Achilles tendon and the muscles connected to the tendon are usually calculated or predicted from muscle-tendon models such as the Hill-type muscle models. A significant issue in model based movement studies is that the parameter values in Hill-type muscle models are not determined by data obtained from in vivo experiments, but from data obtained from cadaveric specimens. This results in a complication when those predictive models are used to generate realistic predictions of human movement dynamics.
In this study, a model of the Achilles tendon-gastrocnemius muscle is developed, incorporating assumptions regarding the mechanical properties of the muscle fibres and the tendinous tissue in series. Ultrasound images of volunteers, direct measurements and additional mathematical calculations are used to determine the initial lengths of the muscle-tendon complex as well as the final lengths during specific movements of the foot and the leg to parameterise the model. Ground reaction forces, forces on specific joints and moments and angles for the ankle are obtained from a 3D motion capture system. A novel experimental marker placement for the Achilles tendon is developed and generated in the 3D motion capture system.
Movement dynamics of the foot are described using Newton's laws, the principle of superposition and a technique known as the method of sections. Structural identifiability analyses of the muscle model ensured that values for the model parameters could be uniquely determined from perfect noise free data. Simulated model dynamics are fitted to measured movements of the foot. Model values are obtained on an individual subject basis. Model validation is performed from the experimental data captured for each volunteer and from reconstruction of the movements of specific trajectories of the joints, muscles and tendons involved in those movements.
The major output of this thesis is a validated model of the Achilles tendon-gastrocnemius muscle that gives specific parameters for any individual studied and provides an integral component in the ultimate creation of a dynamic model of the human body. A new approach that was introduced in this thesis was the coupling of the Achilles tendon force from the musculoskeletal model to the muscle-tendon model and the non-linearity approach studied through a motion capture system. This approach and the new Achilles tendon marker placement is to the best of the author's knowledge, novel in the field of muscle-tendon research.
Chappell, Michael John, 1960- ; Evans, Neil D.


Evie planted some radish seeds in the garden a while back, long before any of us were really ready to be doing any spring gardening. The ground wasn't prepared, but she cleared a small spot and planted her seeds. Owing to a warm winter and some surprisingly diligent watering, those seeds sprouted up and leafed out quickly!
Lo and behold, a dozen fat and gorgeous radishes had popped up above the dirt.
She carefully pulled up her radishes and then took them inside to wash them off. As we stood at the sink together I felt proud and happy. We talked about what radishes taste like, how to use them, and how we could incorporate them into a meal.
We decided on fish tacos, and started making a grocery list: 1/2 a pound of cod, cabbage, limes, cilantro, tomatoes, onions, yogurt and mayo for white sauce. They were absolutely scrumptious, and everyone agreed it was a great dinner. We even threw together a quick fruit crisp for dessert with some of last summer's apricots I pulled out of the freezer.
Warm the tortillas in the oven. Grill fish, or bake in the oven at 350 degrees until cooked through and easily flaked. Alternatively, lightly oil a skillet and cook ov er medium heat until lightly browned and cooked through. Flake.
Prepare the white sauce by stirring together mayo and yogurt. Prepare the pico de gallo. To make up a taco, scoop fish into a tortilla, pile on cabbage, pico de gallo, and radish slices, Drizzle a little white sauce on top and a squeeze of lime juice. Then, put it in your belly and smile!
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate up to 1 day.
This entry was posted in Mealtime, Recipes and tagged Barramundi, Cooking, Dinner, Family, Fish Tacos, Food, Garden, Gardening, Healthy, Life, Pico De Gallo, Radishes, Recipe, Vegetables, Whole Foods on May 15, 2013 by Angela Major.
Feeding us all on baseball game nights has been a challenge! We leave the house at 4:30 in the afternoon, not to return until at least 8:30 at night (hello, bedtime!). Eating dinner at home would mean either an absurdly early meal, or a really late night for everyone. Eating dinner at the ballpark means nachos and hot dogs all around. Neither scenario is ideal.
Tonight I packed us a picnic: cantaloupe, snow peas/carrot sticks/cucumber slices, avocado, whole wheat pita, hummus, pb&j's, and dried pineapple and graham cookies for a treat. Will had his own dinner packed in his baseball bag, including his favorite dugout snack–orange slices!
Everyone ate, everyone ate well, and I can throw them into bed for a good night's sleep the moment we walk in the front door. Success!
This entry was posted in Mealtime and tagged Baseball, Dinner, Family, Food, Healthy, Kids, Life, Nutrition, Picnic, Sports teams, Vegetables, Weeknight Meals, Whole Foods on April 30, 2013 by Angela Major.
This looks like it could be a great tool! I wonder if I can take a peek at the code book before buying?
My CDE noticed my new appreciation for making things from scratch. (Or more often than not, having my husband make things from scratch for me because I hate cooking.) She also noticed that my blood sugars are being poorly affected from miscalculating carb counts in fresh foods.
The quinoa bake was a really good example of the mistakes one can make during insulin dosing. (Seriously… why do pasta and grain packages only give you nutrition information for dry portions?) Since I was getting frustrated not knowing exactly what I was eating when making things from scratch, she suggested I get a scale. But not just any scale – one that measures carbs and other nutrition facts for a multitude of other foods.
I bought one this weekend. Here is my Perfect Portions Nutrition Scale.
This entry was posted in Type 1 Diabetes, Uncategorized and tagged Cooking, Diabetes, Dinner, Food, Healthy, Kids, Lunch, Nutrition, Scale, Snacks, Tools, Whole Foods on February 10, 2013 by Angela Major.
I love popcorn. And my kids love popcorn! Plain popcorn is a healthy, crunchy, whole-food snack with only 6 grams of carbohydrate per cup (popped). What I don't like, however, is popcorn smothered in butter, oil, and sugar and/or salt. I want it PLAIN.
I also want it to be quick, and without a lot of fuss, or an extra appliance to fiddle with. I tried Alton Brown's Good Eats method once, but the process of shaking a metal bowl of kernels over a gas burner was cumbersome, and it turned my bowl black (and it was HOT!). I need something more kid-friendly.
Enter the microwave, the quintessential convenience tool. Throw in a bag, enter the time, stand back and listen for the POP. Great, right? Except that most of the microwave popcorn found on grocery store shelves is full of ingredients that make me cringe.
Even the few labeled "Home Style" and "Natural," and the organic varieties, contain tons of oil (usually soybean or palm oils, sometimes partially hydrogenated) and salt. The worst offenders contain nasty ingredients like diacetyl, which gives a butter flavor, chemical preservatives and colorings, and artificial flavoring agents. To top it off, the bags are lined with PFCs (perfluorinated compounds). Yum.
The right amount of popcorn for a brown paper lunch bag is between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup. Our first try resulted in a bag that opened up mid-pop, so we solved that problem by threading it closed with half of a wooden skewer. I think a toothpick would work just as well.
We set our microwave for 4.5 minutes, and it finished popping around 4 minutes. Every microwave is different, so make sure you listen for when the popping slows to 1 or 2 per second to avoid burning.
This entry was posted in Recipes and tagged Cooking, Creativity, Food, Healthy, Kids, Recipe, Snacks, Whole Foods on December 13, 2012 by Angela Major.
This is my latest go-to quick lunch for busy weekdays, when I often only have the time (and the inclination) to throw something in the microwave. It's usually dinner leftovers, but those run out. This is a great alternative to a pb&j when you need a speedy meal that's both filling and healthy.
I buy these shelf-stable packages of Tasty Bite pre-cooked Madras Lentils at the grocery store (in the Natural Foods section at Fred Meyer) or Costco. They contain 2 servings per package, but I've found the whole package to be a nice amount for lunch.
Water, Tomatoes, Lentils, Red Beans, Onions, Cream, Salt, Butter, Sunflower Oil, Chilies, Cumin.
All you have to do is tear the top of the pouch about two inches, toss the whole thing in the microwave for 90 seconds, and then pour it into your favorite bowl.
The lentils will be piping hot at this point. To boost my veggie intake for the day, and to add some crunch, I pile on a big heaping handful of spinach leaves. The hot lentils will wilt the spinach slightly, but you can return it to the microwave for another 60 seconds or so if you like your spinach softer. Voilá! A 300 calorie lunch packed with Vitamin A, fiber, B-Vitamins, essential amino acids, and trace minerals, made in under two minutes. Throw a kiwi (or other Vitamin C rich food) onto your plate to increase your iron absorption from the lentils and spinach, and dig in!
Calories: 307, Carbohydrate: 37 gm, Protein: 8 gm, Fiber: 11 gm. Vegetarian. Gluten-free.
This entry was posted in Mealtime, Recipes and tagged Food, Healthy, Lentils, Lunch, Quick Lunches, Spinach, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Whole Foods on December 5, 2012 by Angela Major.
This scrumptious pile of perfectly steamed crab, paired with a chilled glass of a fantastic local white wine, a bit of homemade Cajun aioli, and a plate of wilted spinach with lemon was dinner last night. And what a treat!
We picked up the live crab from a local seafood market, steamed it at home, then spent the next hour talking and eating, while picking luscious, buttery crab meat from the shells. It was tender and rich, and a dab of garlicky aioli was a perfect accompaniment to every bite. Washed down with a crisp, fruity wine…..mmmmm.
Its so satisfying to source beautiful, local, seasonal foods from markets or growers, spend some time learning how to cook and eat them, and then share and enjoy the meal with other people. To discover and appreciate all the flavors and textures and subtleties of whole foods in their natural, unprocessed state.
This is what I love the most about food.
This entry was posted in Mealtime and tagged Cooking, Dinner, Food, Gastronomy, Whole Foods, Wine on October 8, 2012 by Angela Major.
Colorful peppers on display at the Farmer's Market.
I am a Registered Dietitian and mother of three active children. Two of those three children have Type 1 Diabetes. I practice yoga, ride my bike, and eat mostly plants. I'm a bit of a foodie, or at least a food lover! I believe in striving for best health in every way.


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"It's been a couple years now since you reunited me with my birth mom. My birth father passed away in 1997, but with your help I was able to to get in touch with his family as well. They have been an incredible source of love and acceptance and, my aunt and cousin, came to visit and we were able to meet for the first time just a couple weeks ago. I also got married this summer and i was able to have my birth mom there to support me. It was an incredible experience and I am so grateful for everything you have done for me and the wonderful things that continue to unfold as a result of your help. You guys are amazing and I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for what you've done for me.
"I recently used Omnitrace to find my birth mom. Within a few months they had found her and my two half brothers!! Since then I have been in contact with her and have met with her. We have agreed that we want to stay in touch and be a part of each others lives. It's been wonderful!! My experience with Omnitrace was great!!! They did exactly what they said they would and then some!!! I would highly recommend them to anyone searching for their birth mom!!!
If you are searching for your birth mom, please don't hesitate to call us at 888-965-6696. Thanks!


Topic: Re: More DH Lawrence than Jane Austin..
This one-off adaptation of DH Lawrence's novel brings some welcome Sunday sizzle back to the forum. Posh wannabe Doris Chatterley, who hasn't had any saucy excitement since watching Poldark with her pets, gets the hots for a gruff but buff local heartthrob. She fantasises about his wet Darcyesque torso after he rescues a puppy that had been thrown into the lake in Chiswick House Grounds by benefit seeking migrants..
Inevitably, things get messy when he ignores her obsessive screeches for attention and she seethes and growls and tells her net curtain twitching friends over a Subway 7" pulled pork sandwich that he is a rotter..


Beginning of a new year, makes us think about what we've done, what we've accomplished or what we can learn from our failures or shortcomings in the year behind, and set new goals, both personal and professional, for the coming year. We might not aspire for big bangs or extraordinary inventions. However, I believe every human being needs growth in various aspects of their lives and gets satisfaction from contributing to their environment. In this sense, new years are more or less like a checkpoint for ourselves.
In my opinion, it's never too early for our children to learn to be able to evaluate their own growth themselves at a young age. I agree, not every child's perception of self, wants, goals and growth mature at the same age. However, they should start setting their own goals and own expectations at their own pace, so that they learn to look inside for their own motivation and approval, rather than from outside.
This is not to push the children or give them a nuisance but to encourage them to find ways to grow themselves. It also helps us, parents, to understand what's important to our children and keep ourselves accountable to help them achieve their goals as much as ours.
We did an informal goal setting workshop for the first time with my children, as I finalized my own list on the first day of the year. They write "goals" at the beginning of the school year. So they are not completely foreign to the concept. I helped them a bit in the process, deliberately restraining myself from planting my ideas into their heads or manipulating them. Below is the 10 step process to list new year's goals and format them and the questions I used to make them think about their goals.
Explain what are considered goals, in what areas they can set goals by using questions below and give examples."Try to avoid"planting your own into their head at all costs.
Encourage them to write down everything that comes to mind on a scratch paper. At this point, tell them not to number the items. This can go over few days to let them think through.
Review list and consolidate related items into one.
Identify general goals and see if they can specify them to be able to tell they have accomplished at the end of the year.
Prioritize their list from the most important to the least by numbering them. They can take their time to go over the list as many times as they need to reevaluate.
Explain them, that it's better to keep the list to 15 items maximum so that they can focus on the more important stuff at this time. Identify extra items they can drop off the list to focus on more important stuff for them. You can note these things somewhere, to include them in the next year's list.
Once the draft list is finalized, they should write or type them down on a clean sheet of paper and decorate it if they want to. The most important part is that they should date and sign their goals list.
Print the typed up list and laminate.
Explain them, whenever they have to decide what to do, they can check their goals list to remind themselves of their goals and priorities.
You can share your goals as a family and set one or two common goals.
What are you good at and keep being good at?
What do you like most and want to keep doing (more)?
What different things would you like to try out?
What do you want to do most or accomplish as yourself, as a member of our family, as a member of our household, as a student, as a friend etc.?
What would you do if you had all the time to yourself?
What would you do if there was no chance of failure?
What would you do if nobody (including naysayer parents) would object it ?
Eat healthy and keep active every day.
I am looking forward to making this an annual tradition as the "Good things, great times" jar. We set our first "Good things, great times" jar at the beginning of 2014 and kids read all the notes we've put in on NYE. It was both fun and an excellent practice of gratitude for all the great times we've had in 2014. Even though I have reminded them to put their notes in the jar many times, after a while, it must have become a habit because as they were reading out, I've noticed quite a few notes, that I don't think I've reminded them to write down. Now it makes more sense to them why we do it and they keep at it.
You can use an illustrated or collage dream board or bucket list format as well.
I hope the purpose of goal setting and following up will become much more apparent to them, once we go through self-evaluation at the end of the year. You can also use this list to set monthly goals.
Have you set your goals with your children this year or ever before? Please share your experience with us. What worked and what didn't?


text:
November 2, 2016 by sisterkrissy
Antinous the Liberator
The Sacred Nights of Antinous are what we call the days leading up to, and surrounding, the most important festival day in Naos Antinoou's ritual year: Foundation Day. These are the days that we observe the death of Antinous in the Nile river, his deification as a god, and the subsequent establishment of his cultus. This year, Foundation Day was also important to us because we established Naos Antinoou as a new queer Greco-Roman-Egyptian reconstructionist polytheist community. Now we find ourselves at the end of the Sacred Nights. We have observed the Festival of Osiris, celebrated the goddesses and female figures surrounding Antinous, walked the Serpent Path and contemplated both the light and the dark, considered fate and making every day important, mourned the death of Antinous, celebrated his becoming a god and triumph over the Underworld, and established again his city and his temple in our hearts. This last day of the Sacred Nights now marks the official transition of Antinous into his role as Liberator.
Technically, we could say that Antinous assumes his role as Liberator on Foundation Day. After all, his deification was a liberation from the Underworld, and breaking through of that barrier that exists between the human and the divine. However, today is the day that we officially recognize this role and welcome it in. In modern Antinoan mythology, Antinous is seen as having triumphed over death through deification, now ascending into the celestial spheres to do battle for 90 days with the various archons who restrict and oppress us in our lives. The end of that 90 days will take us to the Festival of Stella Antinoi, or the Star of Antinous, where, having defeated the archons that oppress us, Antinous then transitions into his role as Navigator.
As Liberator, the focus is on warrior energy. This isn't necessarily that hyper-masculine, super athletic aggressive warrior energy, although it can mean that too. One of the central stories to our mythology is the account of the Lion hunt, after all, so that hunter imagery is certainly present. Athletic games held in honor of Antinous were also common, so that image of the sculpted, muscular athlete is also realistic. However, it should be noted that at those games, there were also competitions for poetry and art. Physical prowess was not the only focus. In the same way, we recognize warriors as those who fight against oppression not just physically, but with words and actions. It's supporting justice for all those who have traditionally been oppressed and excluded. It's supporting equality for LGBT individuals. It's speaking up in support of Black Lives Matter and standing with people of color against a racist system. It's standing in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux when the government wants to put a pipeline through their ancestral lands. It's supporting the Trans* community against hateful laws. It's supporting the rights of women everywhere to autonomy over their own body and the ability to make their own healthcare choices. And it's all the things in our lives that we need to change, to conquer, and seek liberation from, whether those things are psychological and emotional issues, life circumstances, or bad habits we are seeking to change. These are all things that Antinous the Liberator cares about and lends his agency to.
Ave Ave Antinoe Liberator!
← 31 Days of Devotion, day 31
A Post-Election Litany for Antinous the Liberator →
One thought on "Antinous the Liberator"
apolloslibrarian | November 2, 2016 at 4:39 am
Standing in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux against the DAPL was a feature during several of the Sacred Nights. For the Festival of Osiris, a group of us here in Cascadia performed an adaptation of a spell from the Book of Overthrowing Apep (the serpent that tries to devour Re during His daily journeys through the heavens and underworld) where we cursed the black oil snake that DAPL is trying to construct under the Missouri River, which has the definite potential to poison the river, the source of life and drinking water for the Indigenous people downstream. We cursed the black oil snake at all times of the day. We spat upon its image. We stabbed it with our spear. And we set it on fire, burning it to ash. In the name of Re, who gives life by the sun; in the name of Osiris, lord of the River Nile and its inundation which feeds the land; and in the name of Antinous, at whose name the gates of the underworld tremble, we so cursed that black oil snake. And on Foundation Day, we continued to offer up our prayers to the Standing Rock Sioux and all those who work to protect the waters there.
Beyond the Nile, Antinous: Part Two
Worship, service, and agency
Thank You to the Temple Raisers!
A Temple of Antinous at PantheaCon
Beyond the Nile, Antinous: Part One
Follow Naos Antinoou: A Temple of Antinous on WordPress.com


text:
Here's Some Stupid For Lunch
Up in Wisconsin, there's a guy named Brad Schimel running for attorney-general, and he's turned a lot of heads over lunch here at the Cafe because he's clearly pitching for a regular seat at the counter.
For months, Schimel has said he would have defended the state's ban
on gay marriage in court because the attorney general is obligated to
uphold state laws and provisions in the state constitution. As he discussed his stance on that issue last month on an Oshkosh cable access program,
he was asked if it would have been his obligation to defend a ban on
interracial marriage if he had been an attorney general in a state with
such a law 60 years ago. He sighed and said, "Yeah, it is...It might be
distasteful to me ...but I've got to stay consistent with that - as the
state's lawyer, it's not my job to pick and choose."
Needless to say, Schimel didn't always feel this way.
On the Oshkosh program, Schimel also reversed his position on how he would have handled a domestic partnership case. In June, he said he would have followed Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's
lead and refused to defend a 2009 law that gave same-sex couples some
but not all of the rights of married couples. In the more recent interview, he said he had made a "mistake" in saying that he would not defend the law. "I did some research after I got out of that (summer interview) and I changed my position on that," he said.
We'll just bet you did.
UPDATE -- Corrected name of today's star thanks to TC Jake Miller.


Home of the 2010 Ryder Cup and the host venue of the NATO Summit in 2014, the five-star Celtic Manor Resort is set on more than 2,000 acres of panoramic parkland and serves as the gateway to Wales. With four hotels, a large convention center, two exceptional spas, two state-of-the-art health clubs, fishing, golf, treetop high ropes course and tennis courts, the Celtic Manor Resort provides a complete experience for business, leisure and family golf. For more in-depth analysis and information, please visit the Celtic Manor website.
The Celtic Manor Resort offers a vast range of children and family-based activities, please visit the applicable webpages to explore the available options.
The Celtic Manor Resort is located just off the M4 (J24), only 90 minutes from London Heathrow (LHR), 45 minutes from Cardiff Airport (CWL), 40 minutes from Bristol Airport (BRS) and 5 minutes from the Severn Bridge. The Resort is located close to intercity rail services at Newport, with direct trains to Cardiff, London Paddington, and Birmingham.


text:
Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater (1575, De Rijp, Països Baixos – 1650) va ser un arquitecte, constructor de molins i enginyer hidràulic neerlandès.

Biografia

Leeghwater nasqué amb el nom de Jan Adriaanszoon. Més tard va adoptar el cognom de Leeghwater, de laag water o «marea baixa». Va estar involucrat en la construcció del pòlder de Beemster, uns del primers del món creat drenant l'aigua d'un llac utilitzant molins de vent que es va inicar l'any 1607. Entre 1607 i 1635, els pòlders Purmer, Schermer i Heerhugowaard També va fondre les campanes i va fer el rellotge dels campanars de les esglésies d'Amsterdam.

Bomba de vapor de Leeghwater
Leeghwater va estar entre els primers a assenyalar el perill del llac Haarlemmermeer, situat entre Amsterdam i Leiden. Finalment es va assecar l'any 1852, utilitzant grans bombes de vapor. La instal·lació de Kaag, la Gemaal De Leeghwater, va rebre el nom de Leeghwater.

Referències

Bibliografia
 Leeghwater, Jan Adriaensz - het Haarlemmermeerboek, Reprinted in Amsterdam 16 times from 1641.
 Leeghwater, Jan Adriaensz - De kleyne Cronyke, till 1865 reprinted in more languages
 Roever, J.G. de - Jan Adriaensz Leeghwater, Amsterdam 1944
 Lehr, André - Jan Adriaensz. Leeghwater en het klokkenspel. Article in "Klok en Klepel" het orgaan van de Nederlandse Klokkenspel Vereniging nr. 6 from 1965
 Bijtelaar, Mej. B.M., Bep, De zingende torens van Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1947 page. 141-146.

Enllaços externs

 Leeghwater's eye witness account  del 1634 Nordstrand Burchardi flood.
 Haarlemmermeer-boeck in the DBNL

Enginyers europeus
Neerlandesos
Morts a Amsterdam

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The South Williamsport Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is an organization of parents and teachers from Central Elementary and Rommelt Elementary Schools. All parents and teachers are automatically members of the PTO, which is headed by a Board of Officers. The PTO's mission is to foster a strong partnership between the school and community. The PTO performs fundraising to purchase or fund school enhancements that are not otherwise provided by the school budget.


text:
Areca rechingeriana är en enhjärtbladig växtart som beskrevs av Odoardo Beccari. Areca rechingeriana ingår i släktet Areca och familjen Arecaceae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

rechingeriana


The Southeast Asian ride-hailing and logistics services Grab is anticipating to raise about $2.5 billion in a record round of fundraising to secure its lead over its nemesis Uber in the region and grow its payments system.
Southeast Asia has become an essential field of battle for tech startups vying for a market share of over 600 million people, with a flourishing middle class as well as a millennial, internet-savvy demographic.
Grab's Chinese peer Didi Chuxing and Japan's SoftBank Group, both of which are existing major investors, will contribute up to $2 billion of combined investments to lead the current financing round, it said in its press statement on Monday, July 24.
The ride-hailing company expects to raise an additional $500 million, bringing the total financing round to $2.5 billion, which Grab said would be the largest-ever single financing round in Southeast Asian region.
Grab will be valued at more than $6 billion at the close of this financing round, according to a source close to matter.
The Singapore-based firm stated that it has a Southeast Asia market share of 95 percent in third-party taxi-hailing and 71 percent in private automotive vehicle hailing. It operates private car, motorcycle, taxi and carpooling services across seven nations in the ASEAN region, with 1.1 million total drivers.
Building on skyrocketing user numbers of its Grab ride-hailing app and GrabPay payment platform, the five-year-old startup company strives to transform into a consumer technology company that also offers loans, electronic money transfer as well as money-market funds.
Earlier this year, Grab acquired the Indonesian payment service Kudo and said it is seeking more acquisitions to support rapid growth of the company.
Grab directly competes with the likes of Uber, the world's largest ride-hailing service, as well as Indonesia's Go-Jek in the Southeast Asia. Chinese investment holding company Tencent invested around $100 million to $150 million in Go-Jek earlier this month.
Uber has been expected to increase its focus in Indian market as well as in Southeast Asian region after retreating from China last year.
Grab's recent investors include sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, hedge fund Coatue Management LLC, venture capital firm GGV Capital, and Vertex Ventures Holdings – a subsidiary of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings (Pte).


Read-it-later service Instapaper has released what it's calling a "full API." With it, developers using the Instapaper API can create applications that both write to and read from the service. The full API is free to developers, but only paying users can read from their Instapaper account using third-party tools.
Usually when we cover read/write APIs, the write is the method added second. And usually, if there's access the provider wants to restrict to a premium account, it is again write access. However, with Instapaper, adding to its database of content is easy. Its usefulness comes in reading content you've saved for later. Instapaper is charging for the value they create for users.
Instapaper has nontrivial operating costs. If a large number of people used it exclusively via someone else's API app, and never saw the Instapaper website's ads or purchased the Instapaper iOS app, I'd lose a lot of money supporting those users.
One of the biggest uses of a full API is to make mobile apps. But Instapaper already has an iOS app, and this generates nearly all of its income. If someone else's Instapaper app significantly reduced its sales, or forced it to become free to retain a significant userbase, the service might not survive.
As one commenter in the Hacker News thread worried, the requirement that a user pay Instapaper to use third-party apps might be confusing. Granted, the $1 per month subscription isn't likely to get much complaint if the service is worthwhile. But the fact that Instapaper is charging anything means that developers creating applications on the company's full API will be the ones in charge of communicating the news to users--users who may not understand who they're paying and why.
On the other hand, this sort of approach might help homegrown services and developer side projects become more viable businesses. Do you think more APIs should find a way to charge for what's valuable, or should they give it all away and hope to make it up in volume?


Lands are used for silage and grazing.
Lot two has a wagon roof tin shed on the land located at the road side, with private access off the Slate Quarry Lane.
We would request all interested parties to contact our office at their earliest convenience for more details, maps, appointments to view etc.
We are advised that electric, phone, water and drainage are available in the vicinity. A buyer is recommended to obtain confirmation from their surveyor or solicitor.
Thinking of selling, we can offer you a FREE VALUATION of your land or property along with instant mortgage advice.
Check out the property I found on PropertyPal.com: 5.1 Acres - Lot (2), Slate Quarry Lane, Lisbellaw BT94 5BB.


Mouse move to make the hare skate safely without skidding. Avoid obstacles and grab the magic wand on your way.
I like the idea, but it's quite flawed. The sound quality is low, the animation seriously needs work and its pretty hard to see amongst all the white.
To really improve this, I think all you need to do is change these things. It would make the game MUCH better from my perspective.
Your favourite live action arcade game in full 3D!
A pong with wtf mode.


Monitoring and control system for anchor handling and towing winches.
Graphic and numeric display of wire length and tension. Alarms on overload and if an anchor slips.
Simple access to historical data lets you monitor how a situation develops or analyze previous recordings.
Area sensors and activators available for Zone 1 and Zone 2 operation.


text:
Ad raises quite a stink
Even by the Wild West standards of infomercial-dom, Doc Bottoms Aspray is being greeted with awe.
Once upon a time in this great land, there was a roofing contractor. His name was Adam. He lived on Long Island, N.Y.
It came to pass that Adam had an idea for a personal grooming product, and because this is America, where anybody can do anything, Adam begot something so completely and wonderfully absurd that he took to the airwaves to advertise it himself.
And so there came to be Doc Bottoms Aspray, billing itself as the first "All Over" deodorant.
The resulting two-minute infomercial, featuring wildly enthusiastic Adam Jay Geisinger as pitchman, is so cheerfully mortifying that it reaches its own level of art. It showcases green gases emerging from various body "odor zones," a construction worker musing that "I got odor in special places," people spraying their "privates" and Geisinger shouting the unforgettable tag line: "NO BACTERIA, NO STINK!"
Think of a blond and beardless Billy Mays, as directed by Ed Wood.
MSNBC says it aired the ad once a couple of weeks ago, in the television graveyard of 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. The channel pulled the spot immediately.
"The first time it aired was the last time it aired," says Jeremy Gaines, an MSNBC spokesman, noting the demo the network was given did not match the full ad. (Geisinger counters that the ad aired more than once, and may air yet again.)
Even by the Wild West standards of infomercial-dom, Doc Bottoms is being greeted with awe.
"I just couldn't believe it was real," says Remy Stern, author of "But Wait ... There's More!," a history of the infomercial biz. "I'd put it right up there near the top of the all-time most ridiculous ads."
And he means the bigs, the Hall of Fame, the Infomercial Unforgettables.
Hallowed icons like "I've fallen and I can't get up!" The HeadOn commercial, about a topical analgesic you rub on your forehead, though all the ad ever really said was "HeadOn! Apply directly to the forehead!" over and over and over again until you threw a large rock through the television.
Have we mentioned that, in the Doc Bottoms ad, Adam says you can "Aspray your butt"? Did we say that when we asked a Post researcher to help track down the company, she replied, "This is the most degrading thing I've ever done for money"?
And here he is, in his first media interview. "How am I doing so far?" Geisinger asks, about three questions into the phone call. "I gotta admit, I'm a little nervous."
He's doing fine. Seems like a nice guy. He's 38 years old, married to Wendi Rogers, who was a stalwart on infomercials in the 1990s with beauty products. He's explaining the genesis of Aspray. He thought of such a product in his truck about two years ago, because, "Frankly, I needed it."
A contractor who sells roofing, siding and other outdoor building materials, he works up a working man's sweat during the day. Afterward, he likes to go to the gym, without stopping by home first for a quick shower. The result, he said, was that "the funk was building up."
"Now, I'm not a dirty person. I'm not someone who doesn't shower or who has a weird, smelly disease."
He looked for an antibacterial product that could be sprayed all over the body, didn't find much, worked with his wife and a "team" that developed a product without alcohol, aerosols or other irritants. It's designed to stop odors before they start, not just mask them, he says. The product is licensed.
He swears business is fabulous, never mind those prudes at MSNBC. He slapped it on YouTube, and it's garnered more than a quarter-million hits in two weeks.
"We've created a monster," he says. "The reaction from the public has been unbelievable."
According to the product's Web site, $14.99 plus $7.95 shipping and handling brings you a "full size" bottle, plus a pen-shaped "pocket shot" of Aspray.
People are buying?
"Absolutely buying," he says. "We knew there had to be humor to get the message across. It may be controversial, but if it wasn't, I don't think you'd be talking to me."
In the sell-now-or-die direct-marketing business, where only one in 30 products makes money, there's a reason people make "bottom-feeder" ads like this, says Sam Catanese, president of the Infomercial Monitoring Service Corp., a Philadelphia-based outfit that chronicles the comings and goings of infomercials.
"They work," he says. "Campy stuff works, goofy stuff works. ... If it's like, 'Uh-oh, oh no they didn't!' and it stops you in your tracks, then they've gotten your attention."
That's key, because the shelf life for these products can be two weeks or less, he says.
"If you keep seeing a goofy ad, it's because somebody's buying it."
Aspray may or may not live on as product. But the ad is history.


text:
At the Mouth of the River of Bees
Author: Kij Johnson
Publisher: Small Beer Press, 2012
This book does not appear to be part of a series. If this is incorrect, and you know the name of the series to which it belongs, please let us know.
Submit Series Details
Book Type: Collection
(15 reads / 7 ratings)
daxxh
SarahPi
piibald
LDev
justifiedsinner
GeorgeOrr Binks
A sparkling debut collection from one of the hottest writers in science fiction: her stories have received the Nebula Award the last two years running. These stories feature cats, bees, wolves, dogs, and even that most capricious of animals, humans, and have been reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and The Secret History of Fantasy.
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss
The Horse Raiders
Fox Magic
Names for Water
Schrodinger's Cathouse
My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire
Chenting, in the Land of the Dead
The Bitey Cat
The Empress Jingu Fishes
Wolf Trapping
The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles
The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change
Kij Johnson's stories have won the Sturgeon and World Fantasy awards. She has taught writing; worked at Tor, Dark Horse, and Microsoft; worked as a radio announcer; run bookstores; and waitressed in a strip bar.
- justifiedsinner


There are very many influential people in the world today that have made very many changes to different sectors of business and government. Because of the understanding that these people have been able to bring and also, their contribution, they have and a lot of respect in the different industries they have operated in. When people are able to invent things that are able to help other people, it leads to very many changes and a lot of appreciation.Quite a number of these people have been known to use their own resources to propagate what they believe in and in the end, it has helped in their belief. In many parts of the world however, there are also the other kind of people that usually oppose the individuals that want to help others. These people usually stop doing what they want to do most of the time especially if, they get up opposed by different people in the different sectors.Overcoming these challenges can sometimes become difficult and that's the reason why the opt out. The codification levels that you will realize with these individuals are very high and that's the reason why they are sometimes known to exhibit very high success rates.
Nancy Mozzachio is one of the individuals that has been able to help the world in her own capacity.Nancy Mozzachio is the former chief operating officer at the company that is based in what Washington known as, Cedar Realty trust. The success rate that this woman enjoyed in the company was very high and that's the major reason why, it is considered gets to have high in the company. When you look at the position that she held in the Cedar Realty trust in part Washington, demanded a lot and at this positions to show still able to perform quite a lot. The levels of profits of the company were good when she was with the company that's the reason why she is very important in the company. There are some challenges that she however faced and this became a problem in her quest to help the company even more.
There have been allegations that she has been able to file regarding the Chief Executive Officer especially regarding sexual harassment and this is a major issue these days. The filing of the lawsuit in the courts of law means that, there is a possibility that can be able to get a lot of compensation and in addition to that, she also talked about pay in discrimination meaning that she is not paid properly. As you can be able to see, she's a person that has gone through a lot.