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December 01, 2021 at 04:28AM
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Jones High QB Julian Calvez matures into complete player for football state semifinalists - Orlando Sentinel
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The Robinsons’ journey is over. But if you’ve slept on the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space, you can now binge the entire story. As of December 1, 2021, all three seasons of the most underrated sci-fi series in years are streaming.
Here’s what to expect from Season 3, and why the series as a whole is one of the most surprisingly elegant and compelling science fiction shows of all time. No major spoilers ahead.
Molly Parker and Toby Stephens as Maureen and John Robinson.Netflix
It’s tempting to say that the final season of Lost in Space represents the best of the series so far. It’s only eight episodes long, as opposed to 10 each in the previous two seasons, but Season 3 might be the most effective simply because everything feels more urgent. Although the show is about space, there are other ways the Robinson family and the crew of the Resolute colony group get themselves lost. What makes Season 3 different is that, at this point, the heroes finally know more about the galaxy than their enemies.
Like another sci-fi drama rebooted from a cheesier progenitor — Battlestar Galactica — the goal isn’t just to find a suitable home, but also to keep that new planet protected from murderous robots. And like the ending of Battlestar, Season 3 of Lost in Space has a lot of robot questions to answer. Why does the alien SAR want to destroy humans? And why is the regular “Robot” so loyal to Will Robinson (Maxwell Jenkins)?
Lost in Space answers most of these questions better than the ending of many sci-fi series, including Battlestar. In a series built on dangling threads, its conclusion stands out because it’s not leaving the audience in the dark anymore.
In the season’s first episode, “Three Little Birds,” the message is clear: cliffhangers are out. Instead, the characters are climbing over huge cliffs, or riding down them in space rovers. Lost in Space became so good at cliffhangers that it mocks the idea with hilarious visual metaphors. And when Penny (Mina Sundwall) is questioned about a cliffhanger in her pseudo-memoir, she jokes about being “lazy.”
But Lost in Space Season 3 isn’t. It dares to have a real ending, and the ending works. It leaves you wanting more, but lets you walk away satisfied.
Parker Posey as Dr. Smith.Netflix
If your only knowledge of Lost in Space is the vague idea of the 1965 sitcom or the bizarre 1998 film, the entirety of Netflix’s Lost in Space will feel like a breath of fresh air. The series takes itself much more seriously than the campiness the original fell into, but also stays true to some of that show’s darker origins. Just like in the old series, Dr. Smith (Parker Posey) is an amoral villain. But, unlike on the classic show, the character arcs are natural and surprising.
In opposition to a lot of prestige TV, the mystery boxes of Lost in Space are less important than they seem. Watching the series feels more like reading an old-school science fiction novella than it does watching a TV show. You’re always concerned about what’s happening in the moment, so when world-building pops up, it feels like a bonus. You never feel like you’re owed answers to big questions in Lost in Space, so it’s nice when the show answers them anyway.
This adds up to great binging. There are many shows critics claim are great to watch back-to-back, but Lost in Space’s mix of big questions and immediate thrills crowns it the binge-worthy king. Now that we have the whole story, Lost in Space is a thrilling, original, and comfortable sci-fi adventure. It may not be pushing the boundaries of what new science fiction can be, but it’s a masterclass in what old-school space opera sci-fi should be. Go experience it for yourself.
Lost in Space Season 3 premieres on Netflix on December 1, 2021.
“I can’t wait to see what the vision is for this project. I’m just super excited that we have this coming,” resident Jose Rivas said.
Many Parkdale homes were built in the late 1940s but the area is also popular today with younger families.
“We were really lucky, my brother and my sister and I got to grow up in this community,” Rivas said.
He and his siblings roved around creeks and smaller parks in the area as they grew up, but in all their years, Rivas said they never visited that lake.
“There was this old tale that said there was quicksand. There was quicksand back there. And so, the kids, we were adventurous, but we were also smart enough to know, we better not go someplace where our parents can’t find us,” Rivas said.
Parkdale Homeowners Association President Casie Pierce said visitors will soon be able to find out for themselves that there is no quicksand because the loop trail will provide access to the site.
“Years and years ago we were thinking, ‘Man, Parkdale Lake would be a great place to do something.’ And so I’m glad there is finally something happening on it and it’s going to be donated to the city,” Peirce said.
Officials with the Loop Trail project said a $12 million federal grant has recently been secured to complete the $85 million needed for the entire loop.
It will use existing trail segments already completed. The Parkdale segment was one of the gaps.
Peirce said the trail and new lake park should provide a new boost for their older part of Dallas, where there are some smaller parks old commercial buildings that need new investment.
“Instead of just people going, let's go use this trail for the sake of using, they'll have a destination to go to. They'll come through the neighborhoods and they'll see. Hopefully, we'll be able to get better businesses in,” Peirce said.
Mayor Eric Johnson held a press conference Tuesday with those two residents on hand, along with neighborhood City Council Members Adam Bazaldua and Jaime Resendez and trail officials.
They officially accepted the donation and thanked electric power distribution provider Oncor.
“It's the single largest donation of park land to our city since 1938,” Johnson said.
The site was once a cooling lake for a power plant that was removed long ago. A small electric distribution facility is at one corner of the property.
“But there was a lot of it that was unused that could really provide, we think, a public benefit,” Oncor CEO Allen Nye said. “We couldn’t be more happy to do it and we’re thrilled to see what becomes of this property.”
Dallas Parks Director John Jenkins said around $20 million will be needed, likely from a future Dallas public improvement bond referendum, to complete park development around the lake.
But the new trail access through the site is already funded and could be completed next year.
“There is no quicksand as far as I know actually, so it's going to be great to have it,” Rivas said.
The long-time resident will soon be able to safely verify the lack of quicksand for himself.
MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Marlins completed the signing of right-hander Sandy Alcantara to a five-year contract on Tuesday, plus they acquired All-Star infielder Joey Wendle from the Tampa Bay Rays.
Alcantara and the Marlins agreed Sunday to a deal worth $56 million.
He gets a $1.5 million signing bonus and salaries of $3.5 million in 2022, $6 million in 2023, $9 million in 2024 and $17 million apiece in 2025 and 2026. Miami has a $21 million option for 2027 with a $2 million buyout.
Alcantara would receive a one-time assignment bonus of $1 million if traded.
It’s a record-setting deal for the Marlins in a couple of different ways. It’s the longest and richest for in history for any first-year arbitration eligible pitcher, according to the Marlins, and the longest deal that the current team ownership group — led by Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter — have given a player.
The 26-year-old Alcantara went 9-15 with a 3.19 ERA in 33 games, all of them starts, this past season. He was one of only three pitchers in baseball with at least 200 innings and 200 strikeouts, and had an MLB-leading six starts in which he went at least eight innings while allowing no more than one run.
He has been Miami’s opening-day starter in each of the last two seasons. If he starts the opener in 2022, he will be the third Marlins pitcher to do that three times in row — joining only Josh Johnson and Josh Beckett.
Wendle was acquired in exchange for minor-league outfielder Kameron Misner. Wendle battled .265 with a career-high 11 home runs and 54 RBIs this season for the Rays.
When I came on with the Port of Chehalis board a little over two years ago, it hadn’t been an opportunity that I had seen for myself. Now-former CEO Randy Mueller approached me about a position available at the port. And, at that time, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to leave the business I was a part of — but he knew I had it in me to go further. He saw potential and I will always be grateful for that.
Now, as incoming CEO of the Port of Chehalis, I find myself looking back at those early conversations, the belief in me, and I’m so thankful for the leadership that brought me to this place. I’m so excited to work with our elected port commissioners and community partners on projects with incredible potential for our community. But, in reality, it’s all thanks to outgoing CEO Randy Mueller. He is the one who saw what all of the staff here could be and gave us the opportunity to prove to him we were worth his investment.
Randy has been a thoughtful, strategic yet incredibly kind leader. There has never been a better example of how a leader of a public facility should be. He makes it clear to everyone transparency is the highest order and I’ll never not hear his voice saying, repeatedly, “What would the community want?” or “Every transaction needs to take place from the perspective of the people.” I will continue to work on community involvement and transparency, and I am grateful to have had a mentor who emphasized the importance of these qualities in a Port CEO.
I personally couldn’t have had a better mentor and example of true leadership, and I very much intend to take the things I’ve learned into my new position at the port.
Randy has had a great effect on the entire staff. The whole team wanted to write this article to honor him and ensure he sees how valued he has been. Our staff wanted to take the opportunity to leave Randy with some parting wisdom and remarks:
Mine is, "keep doing what you do, and never doubt your instincts. Ridgefield is lucky to have you!"
"Failure means you're finally in the game. Embrace it!" — Dana Lampert, facilities manager for the Port of Chehalis.
"We will miss you here, may your next adventure be just as great." — Justine Pense, office manager for the Port of Chehalis.
So, as a team that has been raised under Randy’s leadership, we would like to say thank you. We are truly grateful for his teaching spirit and his endless patience. We all strive to be a leader like him in our community and we wish him the best on his new endeavors. They are lucky to have him. And we can’t wait to put what we’ve learned from him into practical application as we move forward.
Thank you, Randy. We’re so excited to watch your success in Ridgefield.
•••
Lindsey Senter is the new CEO of the Port of Chehalis.
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December 01, 2021 at 06:28AM
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Guest Commentary: Parting Words to Friend and Colleague Randy Mueller - Centralia Chronicle
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December 01, 2021 at 02:08AM
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Complete Controller Partners with Mercer to Provide Gig Worker Insurance - inForney.com
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Shulins Solutions, known for its monitor, control and protection products for transmission sites, drone-based tower inspections and broadcast consulting services, says a “leading North American tower company has agreed to a multi-site purchase of Stellar Eclipse broadcast site monitor and protection system featuring VSWR Sentinel.
It’s not revealing the name of the tower company, but Shulins says the purchase means they will increase their deployment of Stellar Eclipse to more than 70 sites across the top 50 markets, protecting over 350 of radio and TV stations.
“Shared common antenna sites often with complex combining networks demand monitoring and protection beyond a simple remote control,” Shulins says. “To protect these significant investments, broadcasters need a proactive solution to not only provide next level of monitoring, logging and control, but a comprehensive VSWR system for maximum protection.”
In selecting Stellar Ellipse, the company is deploying a platform and architecture to not only protect the RF systems for FM and all formats of analog digital TV on VHF and UHF including ATSC 3.0, but also provides unique cloud-based monitoring of many shared systems often overlooked in an individual stations remote control, Shulins says.
Paul Shulins, the company’s President, comments, “This investment in our next generation, cloud-based monitoring and protection systems delivers the protection and visibility of critical communication infrastructure our customers count on to deliver their content
in a demanding 24/7/365 environment and much more.”
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November 30, 2021 at 01:55PM
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A 'Major Installation' For Shulins Is Complete - Radio & Television Business Report
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The Panthers capped off the season by excelling at the Section 8A meet as the boys qualified as a team for state with a runner-up finish while the girls just missed qualifying for state as a team by finishing third while sending one runner to the Class A meet.
“The season went well. Kids have been recruiting their friends and our numbers have been growing the past couple of years,” said head coach Pat Richard, who was named the Section 8A Coach of the Year. “We have two good leaders leaving, but we have good leaders coming back who are ready to step up. I like where our program is at.”
The main goal for the Park Rapids boys this fall was to compete at the state meet as a team.
A successful regular season set the stage for the Panthers to achieve that goal.
Senior Darryl Etter; juniors Logan Maanum, Eli Bervig and Blaine Hensel; sophomore Noah Huot; and freshmen Ephraim Bervig and Thomas Lopez led the Panthers most of the season. Also competing on varsity this season were juniors Matt Dahring, Pierce DeBlieck, Damien Dejarlais and Cameron Runyan; freshman Jarrett Galzki; and seventh grader Asher Bervig.
At the season-opening Central Minnesota River Run at Staples, the Panthers finished third out of 14 teams with 57 points with Huot (fourth), Etter (11th), Eli Bervig (13th), Hensel (16th), Ephraim Bervig (17th), Lopez (27th) and Dahring (51st) leading the way. Staples-Motley, which was rated No. 1 in the state Class A poll at the time, finished first with 38 points.
The Panthers finished first at the 14-team Wadena-Deer Creek Invitational with 35 points as Huot (third), Ephraim Bervig (sixth), Eli Bervig (seventh), Etter (ninth) and Maanum (10th) posted top 10 finishes. Hensel (14th) and Dahring (46th) also competed.
Maanum finished 10th to lead Park Rapids to seventh place at the 21-team Bagley Invitational with 190 points. Lopez (26th), Asher Bervig (31st), Dejarlais (64th), Runyan (77th), DeBlieck (83rd) and Galzki (90) rounded out the Panthers’ squad. Bemidji took first with 51 points.
Park Rapids ran to runner-up honors in Division 3 with 98 points at the Milaca Mega Meet. Leading the Panthers were Huot (sixth), Eli Bervig (19th), Etter (24th), Ephraim Bervig (25th), Maanum (29th), Hensel (36th) and Lopez (133rd). Perham took first with 96 points.
Top 10 showings by Huot (fourth), Etter (fifth), Ephraim Bervig (seventh), Eli Bervig (eighth), Hensel (ninth) and Maanum (10th) led the Panthers to the team title at the five-team Pelican Rapids Invitational with 33 points. Lopez finished 15th.
The Panthers finished sixth at the 23-team Perham Invitational with 173 points with Eli Bervig (20th), Huot (21st), Etter (38th), Maanum (39th), Ephraim Bervig (55th), Hensel (58th) and Lopez (75th) competing. Perham took first with 70 points.
All-conference finishes by Huot (third), Eli Bervig (fifth), Etter (ninth) and Ephraim Bervig (10th) led Park Rapids to the Mid-State Conference title at Detroit Lakes. Hensel earned all-conference honorable mention honors by placing 15th as the Panthers compiled 39 points to win the conference title for the first time since 1994. Staples-Motley was a close second in this six-team meet with 42 points. Lopez placed 21st to round out Park Rapids’ seven-member team.
At the Section 8A meet, the Panthers tallied 72 points to trail Perham’s 34 points to earn a trip to the state Class A meet. Huot finished eighth overall with Maanum (12th), Etter (15th), Eli Bervig (19th), Hensel (20th), Ephraim Bervig (25th) and Lopez (40th) following. That marked the Panthers’ first trip to state since 2012.
The Panthers capped off the season by placing sixth at the 16-team state Class A meet. Huot led Park Rapids by placing 30th while Maanum (66th), Etter (71st), Eli Bervig (89th), Ephraim Bervig (96th), Hensel (108th) and Lopez (129th) followed. Nova Classical Academy won the state title with 122 points and Perham was second with 128 points. Staples-Motley finished fifth with 191 points. Nova Classical was rated No. 1, Perham was rated No. 2, Staples-Motley was rated No. 5 and Park Rapids was rated No. 12 entering the state meet.
Earning team awards were Huot (MVP and Newcomer of the Year), Etter (Toughest Runner and Most Spirit), Eli Bervig (Hardest Worker), Hensel (Most Improved) and Jayson Ward (Coaches Award).
“We took it one week and one race at a time and trained to get stronger throughout the season to be at our peak at the section meet,” said Richard. “I definitely thought this team would compete for second in the section. They wanted it. Placing sixth at state was an awesome way to end the season.”
The Panthers will graduate one of their top runners in Etter, but will return a solid nucleus determined to return to the state meet next fall.
“The expectation for next year is to get back to state,” said Richard.
The Park Rapids girls fielded a full seven-member squad in seven of the eight meets this fall with junior Mogan Koppelman capping off the season by qualifying for the state meet.
In addition to Koppelman, senior Holly Johnson; juniors Olivia Davis, Julia Harmon, Natalia Lopez, Aleka London and Lyvia Livermore; eighth graders Breanna DeBlieck, Grace Etter and Sarah Hartung; and seventh graders Embry Deshayes, Amelia Gravdahl and Makenzie Mack competed on varsity.
At the season opener at Staples, the Panthers finished second out of 13 teams with 70 points behind Koppelman (sixth), Harmon (11th), Lopez (16th), London (20th), Davis (21st), Johnson (31st) and Livermore (68th). Staples-Motley, which was rated No. 2 in the state Class A poll at the time, won the meet with 22 points.
The Panthers fielded an incomplete team at Wadena with Lopez (eighth), Harmon (13th), London (14th) and Livermore (43rd) running.
Park Rapids won the title at Bagley with 86 points with Koppelman (ninth), Lopez (18th), London (20th), Harmon (22nd) and Etter (37th) comprising the team score. Mack (82nd) and DeBlieck (83rd) rounded out the team.
At the Milaca Mega Meet, the Panthers finished 13th out of 20 Division 3 teams with 322 points as St. Cloud Cathedral led the field with 52 points. Koppleman placed 46th with Lopez (60th), London (63rd), Harmon (94th), Johnson (103rd) and Livermore (151st) following.
A runner-up finish at Pelican Rapids followed as the Panthers compiled 38 points to trail Pelican Rapids’ 21 total in this four-team meet. Lopez (sixth), Harmon (eighth), London (10th), Mack (17th) and Livermore (18th) ran for Park Rapids.
Competing for the Panthers at the Perham Invitational were Koppelman (36th), Lopez (45th), Harmon (51st), London (53rd), Johnson (60th), Deshayes (93rd) and Hartung (94th). Park Rapids placed seventh with 225 points as Lakeville South topped the 21-team field with 40 points.
The Panthers concluded the regular season by placing third at the Mid-State Conference meet with 79 points. Staples-Motley (34) and Detroit Lakes (73) led the six-team field. Koppelman placed 11th and Harmon was 13th to earn all-conference honorable mention honors. Lopez (16th), London (17th), Johnson (22nd), Hartung (28th) and Gravdahl (29th) rounded out Park Rapids’ squad.
Koppelman qualified for state by placing 13th overall in leading the Panthers to third place at the 20-team Section 8A meet with 117 points. Perham won the section title with 35 points and Hawley followed with 42 points. Harmon (21st), Lopez (22nd), London (26th) and Johnson (41st) comprised Park Rapids’ team score while Deshayes (52nd) and Livermore (91st) rounded out the team.
Koppelman made her state debut by placing 84th at the Class A meet to cap off the season.
Team awards went to Koppelman (MVP and Hardest Worker), Lopez (Toughest Runner), Harmon (Most Spirit), Deshayes (Newcomer of the Year), London (Most Improved) and Johnson (Coaches Award).
“It was exciting to have a full girls team. The past couple of years we had to look at individual scores. It was fun to look at team scores this year. That’s a testament to the girls wanting to try a new sport,” said Richard. “We had some strong runners this year. They wanted to improve and they did improve. The girls should feel proud finishing third at sections. They can walk tall finishing behind Perham and Hawley.”
The Panthers will also have to replace one of their top runners in Johnson, but are looking to move up and challenge Perham and Hawley for a state berth next fall.
“I’m looking for next year’s team to grow and improve,” said Richard. “We’re going to train hard and try to chase down one of the two state spots next year.”
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November 30, 2021 at 11:27PM
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Cross country: Panthers excelled as both boys and girls fielded complete teams - Park Rapids Enterprise
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — After more than a decade of accomplished service, Kevin McLaughlin will finish his extended term as Brown University’s dean of the faculty effective June 30, 2022, and complete a sabbatical before returning to the faculty as a professor of English, comparative literature and German studies.
During his 11 years as dean, McLaughlin collaborated with University and academic department leaders to grow and diversify the faculty and worked tirelessly to enhance the academic strength of departments, centers and institutes across campus. In a Tuesday, Nov. 30, letter to the Brown community, Provost Richard M. Locke said he was honored to have worked with McLaughlin in the role and will miss his leadership.
“Kevin has been a longstanding presence on Brown’s senior leadership team and has been a tireless advocate for faculty,” Locke said. “He leaves an enduring legacy and impact on our institution, and I am endlessly grateful for his contributions over the last 11 years. Kevin richly deserves our gratitude for his remarkable service and our best wishes for his future endeavors.”
As dean, McLaughlin worked to establish innovative interdisciplinary academic centers, including the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice in 2012. Photos by Nick Dentamaro
Through the course of McLaughlin’s tenure, the number of regular faculty under the dean of the faculty grew from 517 to 609, the largest expansion of the faculty ranks in Brown’s history. Among those faculty, the number from historically underrepresented groups increased by more than 130%.
McLaughlin helped the University create post-tenure sabbaticals, “regularized” many long-serving temporary faculty into permanent lecturer positions with benefits, and reduced the teaching load in the humanities and qualitative social sciences from four to three courses per year. Each of those efforts highlights his work to ensure equitable treatment of faculty across disciplines and demographic lines, and to build and maintain an inclusive environment for faculty, staff and students across the University.
McLaughlin played a key role in enhancing and launching a number of signature academic entities at Brown, including the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.
“Each of these centers has had a significant impact at Brown and in an international context where Brown is a recognized leader,” McLaughlin said. “I have been very fortunate to have been able to collaborate with outstanding colleagues to build an environment for innovative interdisciplinary research and education.”
McLaughlin first arrived at Brown in 1996 as an assistant professor of English, rising to the position of associate professor of English and comparative literature with tenure in 2000 and full professor in 2003. He was named the George Hazard Crooker Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and German Studies in 2012. McLaughlin was appointed dean of the faculty in 2011 by then-president Ruth Simmons; in addition to assuming his new responsibilities as dean, he also continued his scholarship, publishing two books and teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on 19th-century European literature and philosophy.
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November 30, 2021 at 09:46PM
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Kevin McLaughlin to complete extended term as Brown's dean of the faculty - Brown University
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We’re officially in the holiday shopping season and the Hot Stove is going into overdrive. With CBA expiring just before tomorrow night at midnight, teams and players are signing deals at a rapid pace in order to lock in their futures before the pending lockout goes into effect. The Red Sox have been incredibly quiet up to this point and with plenty of big names leaving the free-agent board, they can’t afford to wait as time runs out.
We all knew going into this offseason that the Red Sox would heavily target pitching for both ends of the ballgame but with Eduardo Rodriguez leaving for Detroit, the rotation must be the focus. The market for starting pitchers was going to be deep this winter but the names aren’t all flashy.
Max Scherzer was the top prize this winter and earlier today he sized a massive contract with the Mets. For me, he was never an option for Boston but another big name definitely is, Marcus Stroman.
Stroman has more than plenty of experience pitching at Fenway Park as he has spent almost all of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays, and during his stint with the Mets this past season he made a trip to Boston. In my eyes, he’s a strong fit for this club as he has the personality to gel with the current roster while also being a hyper-competitive player that won’t take a night off.
Just under a week, ago the Red Sox were named as one of the teams in on Stroman and with the current hecticness of the league, it’s time to strike. Of course, Chaim Bloom and his team can still make the moves they want once the labor stoppage is over but by then it’s hard to tell who will still be available. He won’t be able to do any negotiating during that window and teams are gobbling up free agents like crazy.
I haven’t hidden my desire to bring Stro to Boston despite a chunk of the fanbase being totally against it. The right-hander is primarily known as a groundball pitcher and with the current state of the Red Sox infield defense, that could spell disaster. However, there have also been reports linking the Sox to Javier Baez, an addition that would instantly ramp up and correct the defensive woes.
Bringing in both Stroman and Baez could be a perfect one-two punch for the Red Sox as it gives them a strong second base option and a reliable starter to fill in the rotation. It also keeps a pair of teammates together that have a chemistry that will further connect with the culture Alex Cora has created in Boston. Stroman needs to be the priority though as the team’s pitching was their ultimate downfall this season and can’t be overlooked with bargain barrel signings.
The righty earned $18.9M this past season in the Big Apple and that salary could be keeping Chaim away from making a deal. Bloom was brought here to build a winner while keeping the budget in the black, something his predecessors didn’t always do. The thing is, FSG literally just bought the Pittsburgh Penguins so if they try and limit what Chaim can do financially, it’ll just be another red mark on their record with the Fenway Faithful.
Spotrac has the righty at an estimated market value of 4-years/$84M and that $21M AAV might be too rich for Boston’s blood. We have to remember that under Chaim the Red Sox haven’t spent much money and have kept annual salaries relatively below $10M per year. The thing is, Stroman is a pitcher of a different caliber. We’re not dealing with Garrett Richards here. I can guarantee Stro won’t forget to pack his jacket for the early parts of the season.
As we get closer to tomorrow night’s deadline more and more free agents will be flying off of the board and Chaim will need to act. The Red Sox have very clear needs that have to be addressed this winter and signing Marcus Stroman is the first step in the right direction. Adding a strong infielder to help the defense and counter his groundball style of work will only make Boston more of a threat in 2022. Hopefully, we see the Sox linked to some names before 11:59 tomorrow night, or else it may be one cold winter.
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November 30, 2021 at 09:13AM
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Red Sox should target Marcus Stroman to complete the starting rotation - BoSox Injection
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WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 17: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) answers questions in front of the House steps while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy holds a press conference November 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. McCarthy and other members of the
WASHINGTON - Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace "trash" and a "RINO" on Twitter after Mace criticized a Republican colleague, Rep. Lauren Boebert, on CNN. Greene also doubled down on perceived anti-Muslim statements Boebert made last week, apparently referring to a coalition of Democrats as the "Jihad Squad."
Boebert was filmed telling supporters in Colorado she was getting in the elevator with a staffer when she saw a Capitol police officer running toward them "with fret all over his face" trying to stop the elevator door from closing.
"I look to my left and there she is: Ilhan Omar. And I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,’" Boebert said, sparking cheers. "I looked over and I said, ‘Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.’"
Omar released a statement saying she accepted a phone call from Boebert Monday. Omar said she was hoping for an apology from Boebert but ended the call once she realized Boebert wasn't going to offer one.
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November 30, 2021 at 09:48PM
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'Trash': Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks GOP colleague, defends Lauren Boebert - FOX 5 DC
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A senior accountant and his younger female colleague have won a sexual harassment case against the authority after a colleague accused them of having an affair.
Oxford-educated Francis Austin had personally recruited Monika Newton to join his finance team supporting Kensington and Chelsea Council's response to the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster.
But an employment tribunal heard Ms Newton's arrival antagonised his deputy Lesley Shields, who became suspicious they were skiving off work to spend time together.
She openly suggested to colleagues that the pair were sleeping together.
And when they went out for an appointment she told a colleague they must have gone to a hotel before adding: 'She's sucking his c**k about now'.
Mr Austin, who was being paid the equivalent of around £150,000-a-year, and Ms Newton, who was hired on an equivalent of more than £100,000-a-year, complained about Ms Shields' comments.
And when the council ended their rolling contracts, Mr Austin and Ms Newton's took the council to an employment tribunal claiming they had been the victim of unwanted sexual conduct by Ms Shields.
They claimed sex discrimination, victimisation and that they had been badly treated for whistleblowing against Ms Shields - who they claimed had been deliberately slowing down the project.
The panel - chaired by Employment Judge Natasha Joffe - dismissed the other claims.
But she agreed that Ms Shields' remarks to colleagues had been sexual harassment. Mr Austin and Ms Newton are now in line for payouts.
Oxford-educated Francis Austin had personally recruited Monika Newton (pictured) to join his finance team supporting Kensington and Chelsea Council's response to the 2017 fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people
Mr Austin, who was being paid the equivalent of around £150,000-a-year, and Ms Newton, who was hired on an equivalent of more than £100,000-a-year complained about comments suggesting he was having an affair with Ms Newton
The tribunal in central London was told that Mr Austin joined the local authority on a rolling contract as deputy Chief Finance Officer in March 2017.
As part of his deal he was paid £650 a day, the equivalent of an annual salary of more than £150,000.
In June of that year, the fire at the Grenfell Tower block claimed the lives of 72 people and Mr Austin was made head of finance for the team helping the council's response to the tragedy.
Ms Shields - group accountant at the council - was his deputy, the tribunal heard.
By the autumn of 2019, the hearing was told, tensions were growing between the pair about the slow pace with which the team's work was being completed.
At the same time Mr Austin met with Ms Newton - an experienced project manager who he had worked with before - to discuss her joining the team to help with a 'housing legacy' project related to the disaster.
The tribunal was told that without authorisation, he proceeded to hire Ms Newton on a £450 a day short term contract, equivalent to more than £100,000 a year.
On Ms Newton's first day in November, the tribunal heard Ms Shields told her new colleague she was unhappy at the way she had been appointed and was not convinced her role was required.
The tribunal was told that without authorisation, Mr Austin proceeded to hire Ms Newton on a £450 a day short term contract, equivalent to more than £100,000 a year
Ms Shields - who was feeling under increasing work pressure - told the tribunal there was a change in Mr Austin's behaviour after Ms Newton's appointment.
'He came in to work late and went home early, and often took Ms Newton for lunch,' she said.
'There were grumbles in the team about how little work Mr Austin was doing.
'Mr Austin was going to all of Ms Newton's meetings when there was no need for him to do so.'
The hearing was told that soon after her arrival, Ms Shields referred to Ms Newton to colleagues as a 'c***' and a 'bitch'.
Ms Shields told the hearing that on 29th November Mr Austin and Ms Shields arrived at work late, then went to lunch together.
'She said they gathered their bags and coats at 1:45 pm and Ms Shields asked where they were going,' the tribunal heard. 'They said they were going to the Tower.
'Ms Shields asked why and they said they were going to (a meeting) and Ms Newton wanted to see the Tower.
Ms Shields looked at (the) diary which did not show such a meeting. Ms Shields said she was frustrated as she thought they were ducking out of work.
'There was no need for them to go to the Tower. They could have done the round trip in an hour but they did not return. '
'The whole team was under pressure but they seemed to be wasting time and money.
'She herself was working evenings and weekends and under pressure to meet budgeting deadlines and had personal issues.
'She said people were commenting and gossiping about Ms Newton and Mr Austin's movements.
'Ms Shields accepted she said something along the lines of: 'she's (Ms Newton) sucking his (Mr Austin's) c**k about now' to (a colleague).
'She said she regretted it immediately and apologised.'
Finance Manager Ronica Barard told the hearing Ms Shields initially approached the bank of desks where she and others were sitting and said Mr Austin had nothing in his diary so she was not sure where they had got to.
'She said they must have got a hotel room,' Ms Barard told the tribunal.
'About half an hour later Ms Shields approached the desks again and said: 'She must be sucking his c**k right now.'
Over the following months, tensions between the trio escalated.
In January 2020, in a row with Ms Newton the tribunal was told Ms Shields warned her: 'Don't walk away from me young lady.'
And Mr Austin started to believe his deputy was conspiring with colleagues to deliberately slow down their work-rate to extend their own contracts, the hearing was told.
On hearing that Ms Shields had told colleagues she suspected an affair, Ms Newton complained to Mr Austin: 'This is sexual harassment in a workplace and to that effect extremely distressing, derogatory and offensive.'
The council launched an investigation which led to Ms Shields being warned about her behaviour.
But it dismissed Mr Austin's allegations that she was working slowly on purpose.
In June of that year, the fire at the Grenfell Tower block claimed the lives of 72 people and Mr Austin was made head of finance for the team helping the council's response to the tragedy
Concluding that the housing legacy project was unnecessary, the local authority decided not to extend Ms Newton's contract after the end of March 2020.
And the following month Mr Austin was told his contract was being terminated as well.
The pair took the council to a tribunal claiming sex discrimination, victimisation and that they had been badly treated for whistle blowing.
The panel - chaired by Employment Judge Natasha Joffe - dismissed the other claims but agreed that Ms Shields' remarks to colleagues had been sexual harassment.
'(Her) purpose appears to have been to vent her frustrations about Mr Austin and Ms Newton to her colleagues,' it said.
Alleging they were having 'sexual relations rather than working' would have 'violated their dignity' and created a 'humiliating environment' for them, it said.
'The extreme vitriol involved in describing a colleague as a 'c***', arose, we concluded, from the particular level of resentment created by the combination of factors we have identified, including the perception...that Mr Austin and Ms Newton might be having an affair.'
The panel said that unless the pair and the council can come to an agreement themselves, a further hearing would be held next year to determine compensation.
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Senior accountant and younger female colleague win payout from Kensington council over affair claims - nation.lk - The Nation Newspaper
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2021 the third most active hurricane season but that’s not complete picture - WJXT News4JAX
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The Cleveland Cavaliers relied on a balanced attack to pull off a surprising 114-96 blowout over the Dallas Mavericks on the road. Now with a pretty complete roster, the Cavs have won two-straight games and are beginning to round back to their impressive early-season form.
With the Mavs being favored by oddsmakers to secure the win, a reinvigorated Cleveland squad completely pulled the rug from under them. Even the lopsided final score tells a skewed story of a much more one-sided affair, with the Cavs leading by as much as 31 at one point in the final period.
The Tower City frontcourt came up huge for the Cavaliers once more, with center Jarrett Allen leading all scorers in the game with 28 points to go with 14 rebounds, while Lauri Markkanen tallied a season-high 24 markers.
Rookie Evan Mobley had a comparatively moderate outing, finishing with 12 points, seven boards, and two blocked shots, but was no less vital for Cleveland on both ends of the floor. Even Kevin Love came in with a very efficient performance to boost a depleted bench unit without Cedi Osman.
After beginning to pull away in the second quarter, the Cavs never looked back nor relented on the accelerator, downright erasing another masterful performance by Dallas’ All-Star Luka Doncic.
Defensive-minded Cavs also clicking on offense
Despite allowing the superstar Doncic to notch another triple-double of 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, the Cavaliers defense did a solid job to help neutralize all the other Mavericks. Their swarming presence limited Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. to a combined 15 points off 32 percent shooting from the field.
Tower City made sure to dominate the boards as well, outrebounding a tall Mavericks squad 48-33, and was a big part of the Cavs scoring more than half of their points in the painted area.
The quirky, mismatched lineup combinations that made them successful early in the season, continued to bother Dallas. Led by floor generals Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio, the outside shots were also falling, with six Cavaliers finishing in double figures following a combined 53 percent clip from beyond the arc.
Returning to above .500 with an 11-10 record for the season, a now-healthy Cavs team resumes the chase for a play-in/playoff berth, out to prove that the early-season success was not an anomaly.
Cleveland will remain on the road for the entire week, facing off against two more playoff contenders in the Miami Heat (Dec. 1) and the Washington Wizards (Dec. 3).
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Cavs complete rout of Mavericks to usher second consecutive win - Factory Of Sadness
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This “has to stop,” an outraged Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) said Monday of the racist and Islamophobic attacks by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), calling her behavior a “pox on all our houses.”
He was referring to Boebert’s appalling joke in a speech to constituents last week in which she suggested that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Muslim, could be a suicide bomber.
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“I ... condemn the kind of comments that were made by my colleague in Congress towards a fellow colleague on the other side of the aisle,” Reed said on CNN’s “OutFront.” “This is a pox on all our houses.”
He added: “We have degraded to a point in the institution of Congress [to a] level of hate I’ve never felt before.”
This “rhetoric, this type of commentary, has to stop. We need to focus on the American people and solving their problems. That’s got to be the mission,” said Reed, the former leader of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.
This is the “institution of Congress, this is the People’s House, and we have to respect each other,” Reed added. American citizens “should be working together as opposed to engaging in what could be called antics of a high-school-level nature.”
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Boebert claimed in her talk to constituents in Colorado that she had just stepped into an elevator with Omar at the U.S. Capitol recently when a concerned police officer rushed over before the doors closed.
“I look to my left and there she is, Ilhan Omar,” Boebert said with a laugh in a video clip of her tale. “I say, well, she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine.”
She also claimed she glanced at the Democratic lawmaker and said: “Oh, look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.”
Omar said none of that happened.
Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.
Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation. https://t.co/S1APT7RbqW
But then Boebert said she told Omar that “she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric.”
“This is not about one hateful statement or one politician; it is about a party that has mainstreamed bigotry and hatred. It is time for Republican Leader McCarthy to actually hold his party accountable.”
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Republican Colleague Tom Reed Calls Lauren Boebert's Vile Attacks A 'Pox On All Our Houses' - HuffPost
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On Dec 2, 1954 — 67 years ago this week — Republican members of the U.S. Senate voted to censure their colleague Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. Taking this step, they aligned with 67 of the Senate’s Democrats. Their issue had to do with the repeated breaches of conduct by Sen. Joseph McCarthy — himself a Republican — recklessly traveling along a fraught path. Since 1950, he had proffered allegations of Communist infiltration within the civilian ranks of government, its uniformed forces, as well as academics, artists, authors, journalists, musicians, scientists, and so on.
Two Republican senators — Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont — opted to take on paramount roles. Whether or not their efforts were coordinated, each of them looked askance at McCarthy’s specious, and often destructive, claims in defiance of the prevailing decorum generally associated with Senate deliberations and procedures. Smith eventually found herself unceremoniously removed, by the Republican majority, from a key committee assignment. Party leaders replaced her with Sen. Richard M. Nixon.
None of this proved new. Four years prior to bringing the censure motion to the Senate’s floor, Smith delivered a stirring speech — re-printed in textbooks to this day and discussed by students learning about civics — “Declaration of Conscience.”
“I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition,” Smith said “... The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body. ... But recently that deliberative character has been debased to a forum of hate and character assassination.” In taking this momentous step, Smith demonstrated a measured resolve, judiciously never reciting by name the object of her remarks.
Flanders took to the floor on March 9, 1954, pointedly expressing his convictions pertaining to McCarthy: “It does not seem that his Republican label can be stuck very tightly, when, by intention or through ignorance he is doing his best to shatter the party whose label he wears.”
Subsequently, Flanders, who habitually avoided the limelight, would ruminate as to why he took this dramatic step: “The conviction grew that something must be done about this, even if I had to do it myself.” Standing in the well of the chamber, Flanders proceeded to introduce the censure motion on July 9, 1954: “ ... obstructing the constitutional processes of the Senate ... this conduct ... is hereby condemned.”
The past and the present
What happened next draws our attention from our vantage point 67 years later. Twenty-two Republican senators, both moderates and conservatives, courageously stepped forward to vote “yea” on the motion to censure McCarthy. By taking a decisive step, weighted with political peril, they all decisively opted to join with the Democratic majority.
Flanders, in a retrospective observation nine years after the censure vote, struck a philosophical note reflecting on his unaccustomed public stance: “Even in the established democracies ... the voters are easily seduced into leaving politics to skillful politicians who are themselves without a sense of general, social responsibility.”
Smith, accustomed to speaking forthrightly, proceeded to compose a memorable postscript. On the matter of voting affirmatively on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she forcefully challenged the resistance by conservative Democrats as well as their Republican counterparts. In doing so, Smith joined 26 other Republican senators who voted for the landmark legislation championed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Smith, again in 1964, dramatically entered the campaign in pursuit of the Republican party’s presidential nomination. Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona ultimately wrested the nomination in an ideologically fraught convention. But there is still more: In another high-wire act of defiance, captured via a nationally televised coverage of the party’s national convention in San Francisco, again Smith purposefully stepped beyond the prevailing principle of political orthodoxy. She refused to release “Smith delegates” to Goldwater even though he had accumulated more than enough votes to secure his party’s nomination.
Smith, by virtue of taking this momentous step, symbolically thwarted Goldwater‘s envisioning himself as the unanimous choice of the Republican Party.
John Lewis Gaddis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, cautions us to distinguish between the knowable past vis-à-vis the uncertainties of reading the present. But under the very best of circumstances, the past enables us to bring some light, however dimly it might shine upon fraught events unfolding before us in the present tense.
Michael H. Ebner is the James D. Vail III professor of American history, emeritus, at Lake Forest College.
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There was a time in history when Republican senators were willing to censure a colleague - Chicago Sun-Times
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All smiles at the introductory news conference. From left: USC Board of Trustees Chair Rick Caruso, USC President Carol Folt, football coach Lincoln Riley, and USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn smile for the cameras at the Coliseum on Monday.
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USC hires Lincoln Riley: Complete coverage of Trojans' shocking coaching move - Los Angeles Times
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Soil expert Dale Strickler’s new book, “The Complete Guide to Restoring your Soil,” covers why we should restore soil, what ideal soil looks like, practices that build better soil, and how to build better agricultural systems.
The book is peppered with case studies from around the globe, including a section on Indigenous farming techniques, and includes many anecdotes from Strickler’s own life and experiences as a farmer.
Strickler says many societal ills — malnutrition, disease, conquest, colonialism, warfare, famine, pestilence — can all be traced back to a root cause of soil mismanagement.
The book offers farming techniques, strategies and practices that can be used to regenerate soil, remediate contaminated soil, and build thriving agriculture systems.
Son of a sharecropper and lifetime farmer, Dale Strickler has lived his life by the soil. Strickler grew up in an impoverished area near the Ozarks in the U.S. Midwest, where he says he watched as the crops on his family farm died from drought and as the topsoil washed away from tilled fields.
“If I could change that soil, I could change everything,” Strickler told Mongabay. “And so that was kind of a goal under which I set forth … and I’ve maintained to this day.”
Strickler dedicated his life to learning about soil. He attended Kansas State University, achieved a master’s degree in agronomy, taught agronomy for 15 years, ran his own farm, visited farmers around the world, and now works throughout the Midwest and beyond helping people restore their soil and better manage their farms and pastures. He is the author of three books including Managing Pasture,The Drought-Resilient Farm and The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil.
His newest book, The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil, published on Oct. 27, is his reader-friendly magnum opus, covering why we should restore soil, what ideal soil looks like, practices that build better soil — such as farming without tillage (mechanically breaking the soil) and using cover crops — practices to remedy contaminated soil, and how to build better agricultural systems.
“I wanted [it] to be the first book that people would read on soil health … the gateway soil health book,” Strickler said.
Dale Strickler.
“Strickler gives us the tools we need to heal our damaged soil,” said Hank Will, editor at large for Mother Earth News. “This book should be on the shelf of every soil scientist, farmer, rancher, politician, landscaper, and informed citizen.”
The book is peppered with case studies from around the globe, as well as many anecdotes from Strickler’s own life and experiences, including converting his father from a staunch, old-fashioned, tilling farmer to a no-till devotee.
“He got caught in a downpour after he tilled his field. He watched his field wash away,” Strickler said. “All the soil he worked washed away in front of his eyes while he sat in the tractor. It was very sobering to him. ‘I’ve been doing this my whole life and, in the space of just a few hours, I lost what it took nature thousands of years to build. How many times in my life can I do this?’ And it changed him. He’d seen enough success with no-till that he felt comfortable converting the whole farm at that point. And to his surprise, it didn’t reduce his yields. His yields went up. The soil got better every single year. It got better and better.”
Cover of Strickler’s new book. Photo by Liz Kimbrough.
The book includes a section on Indigenous farming techniques and other success stories from agricultural practices that regenerate soil, such as agroecology. Strickler said that during his time researching, it was the convergence of thought — people around the world coming up with similar techniques and solutions to farm with nature — that most surprised him. He attributes this to people “thinking like nature” and using nature as a model, as “something to be imitated and embraced” instead of conquered.
“If we could heal our planet’s soils, we could heal a lot of human misery,” Strickler said. “And now we’re realizing that not only can we cure human misery, we can cure planetary misery. If we get enough carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil, we can reverse climate change, we can stop flooding, we can stop most natural disasters through soil management. I’m passionate about it. If you can’t tell.”
The biggest barrier to implementing these techniques on a larger scale, Strickler said, “is this really thick compacted layer that lies between the ears called the human brain. There really is no big technological barrier or biological barrier. There’s nothing outside of the human brain that is limiting us. It is all psychological.
“We have the technology right now to produce food on a mass scale, while we simultaneously make soil better. I’m more excited now about the future of this planet than I ever have been.”
Strickler spoke with Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough on a range of issues, from his fascination with soil, to his initial surprise that Indigenous farming produces higher yields than “modern methods,” to the source of his optimism for the future of farming.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AN INTERVIEW WITH DALE STRICKLER
Mongabay: What is your background and why we should listen to you about soil?
Dale Strickler: I grew up on a farm in southeast Kansas. We were sharecroppers. Mom and dad started off with basically nothing. Dad had a tractor disc planter and 10 cows, so I began life as a sharecropper’s son. The idea was just to work as hard as you can, as long as you can, and things will work out. We had some family tragedies along the way. Dad raised hogs and his entire hog barn burned down one night with the pigs in it. So that was pretty brutal. My mom still cries when she talks about that. And back then, we survived and persevered and dad eventually built a very large farm for the area. We did things the way everybody else did. We raised hogs and cattle and had some backyard chickens and ducks, an Old McDonald sort of thing, and then we raised crops on the cropland.
So, I grew up thinking that that’s the only way things could be done. And every summer I’d watch the corn crop burn up. On the Fourth of July it always looked great, and then by first of September it was brown and dead. We lived in an area where we had high rainfall, but we had very shallow soils that didn’t hold much moisture, and if we missed one rain, the crop would die.
Once I got to college, I started traveling around and seeing other geographies. I thought, “Wow. It hasn’t rained here in two months, and your crops are still alive, how does this work?” It’s just completely different in places with good deep soils. They could go without a rain for a while and not lose the crop, and that was just so foreign to me. I’m like, gosh, if I could fix that soil where I grew up, it would change everything. It would completely change our life. It’s sort of, not quite Ozarks, but it’s on the edge of the Ozarks and like Appalachia, we have a very impoverished area, by and large. If I could change that soil, I could change everything. And so that was kind of a goal under which I set forth when I was about a sophomore in college and I’ve maintained to this day. Now I’ve moved back home and I’m trying to put all this into practice.
Mongabay: Why the focus on soil? Why does soil matter?
Dale Strickler: Soil fixes all. I have a friend, Gail Fuller, who has a slogan that’s gaining some traction. He says, “The answer is soil, what’s the question?” And there’s some truth to that. If you look at the causes of human misery, so many of our societal ills trace to soil mismanagement. That was supposedly how warfare originated. When you ruin your soil through agriculture, you’ve got to go find some more, otherwise, you starve. And that’s why conquest and colonialism and so many ills of society — malnutrition, disease, warfare, famine, pestilence — they all stem back to having a root cause of soil mismanagement. Why do we not fight wars over oxygen? Because it’s plentiful. It’s everywhere. We don’t need to fight wars over oxygen. We fight wars over limited resources. Obviously, there are ideological differences, but when we don’t mind our neighbors and if all of our needs are met, we can just live and let live. It’s when we become jealous and greedy that they have something we don’t, that’s when warfare and social strife begin.
So, if we could heal our planet’s soils, we could heal a lot of human misery. And now we’re realizing that not only can we cure human misery, we can cure planetary misery. If we get enough carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil, we can reverse climate change, we can stop flooding, we can stop most natural disasters through soil management. I’m passionate about it. If you can tell.
Powder dry, blowing soil in western Kansas in September of 2019. Tillage and fallow caused the Dust Bowl in this region in the 1930’s, yet these two practices are still prevalent in the area. Photo by Dale Strickler.
Mongabay: What was your goal with this book?
Dale Strickler: Well, when I first started, I wanted to write the definitive reference on soil health. I wanted to cover everything. I started writing this book a long time ago, just writing a little at a time and as ideas would strike me. I wanted to be the Webster’s dictionary of soil health, the authoritative reference, the entire warehouse of knowledge. And once I started doing research, I found out a couple of things. One was that, this body of knowledge is far bigger than what can fit into one book. And the other thing is that I didn’t know enough. I started writing this book thinking I was pretty smart and pretty informed. And I found out how truly ignorant I am. Because as I started doing research and interviewing people and talking to people and meeting with people, there’s an awful lot of people that are a lot smarter than I am. And particularly within their own field. There are people that just spin circles around me in their area of expertise. And so, my goal with this book kind of changed midstream, in that I wanted it to be the first book that people would read on soil health and to use this book as a springboard. There are single paragraphs within this book about which there are multiple books written about the topic. But I want to introduce people to those ideas. And if it piques their interest, they can go on and learn more in-depth. I could not write a 30-volume set, not within my lifetime. So it became the gateway soil health book.
Mongabay: Would you like to see this as a textbook for agricultural schools?
Dale Strickler: Well, I think in agriculture, and this is probably true for most professions, we spend an extraordinary amount of energy defending what we do to the outside world when we should be looking critically at what we do. What can we do better? And there’s a lot of things we can do better. They say don’t curse farmers with your mouth full, but I think we’re actually horribly inefficient at our main job, and that’s capturing sunlight. I was just talking to a customer and said, “Would you buy a piece of land and let it sit idle for the next 30 years and then decide to farm it in year 31?” He said, “No, that’d be stupid.” Well, in corn and soybeans the average farmer farms for about 40 years. And in a corn-soybean rotation, there’s only about a quarter of the year spent in full photosynthesis, basically June, July and August. Why do we settle for that? That’s the same thing as leaving the farm idle for 30 out of 40 years. And that is the status quo. Why do we accept that?
Mongabay: As you were researching for or writing this book, did you learn anything that surprised you?
Dale Strickler: I think two things really jumped out at me. One was of the people doing things to support soil health, the amazing diversity of practices. I’ve got a story in there from Saudi Arabia, where they get like, 2.5 inches [64 millimeters] of rain a year, on average. Like, holy cow, what do you do? What can you do in that environment? And then I have another one from a guy who’s farming in the ocean, underwater. Talk about two extremes, places where there’s virtually no water to underwater, and the whole spectrum in between: cold, various tropical areas, rainforest areas, grasslands, forests.
The other surprise was the convergence of thought, all these people are coming up with similar techniques in complete isolation of each other. I think one of the reasons that we have this convergence of thinking is that the people who are thinking are looking at nature as a model. Instead of viewing nature as something to be conquered and dominated, they look at nature as something to be imitated and embraced. Instead of nature being the cause of our problems, we look at nature as a solution to our problems. Gabe Brown was the first person I ever heard say, “I used to get up in the morning thinking, what do I need to kill today to save my crop. Now I think, where can I create life now? What can I make live now, where nothing was living before?” And it is a completely different mindset. That seems to be the common thread that runs behind all of the case studies that I put forth in the book. That’s what I would call the common thread in all of them.
Mongabay: Tell me more about the section in the book on Indigenous farming techniques.
Dale Strickler: Well, I guess first thing is, I personally find it quite fascinating. Throughout all of history and prehistory, people who have had agriculture methods, who fought against nature, have tended to fail — with one lone exception: the tillage in the culture of wheat that spread from the Middle East that seems to have come to dominate the world, unfortunately. Because once you ruin soil, you could just go and take land away from someone else who has not yet ruined their soil. I think it’s really sad that there have been so many really interesting and fascinating forms of agriculture that really fit the environment that they were in, that were displaced by what we now call “modern agriculture,” tillage-based, annual plants in big monocultures.
Some of these Indigenous systems produce way more calories per acre than what we produce now with “modern” agriculture, and that was without fertilizer, without herbicides, without any of these inputs that we have at our disposal today. If we can imitate some of those systems, and add a layer of technology on top of them, what could we accomplish? Maybe we threw the baby out with the bathwater when we displaced some of these systems. It’s really sad when you look at what we eat now. When you look at corn and edible beans and squash and tomatoes and potatoes — those were all essentially Central American, South American crops that form a good chunk of our food supply now. We adopted the plants, but we’ve completely obliterated the systems in which they were formerly grown. And I think that’s really sad. And I think if we could look back at some of those systems, there are some definite things that we could learn. And if we could use our current technology to take that wisdom and make it even better, I think we could feed the world multiple times over.
The dark colored soil (right) has been farmed no-till and with cover crops for decades, while the pale one (right) is from a tilled field with no cover crops across the road. Photo by Dale Strickler.
Mongabay: What is tilling and why is it harmful to soil health?
Dale Strickler: Tillage is the mechanical stirring of the soil. And when people first started tilling, they got this tremendous growth response and it was almost magical. It’s like, oh, wow, we stir the soil up, and plants really grow. And so, obviously, when you’re rewarded for a behavior, that behavior increases. So we began down this path of tillage many years before we understood what tillage does.
Tillage breaks soil particles apart, exposes all this soil organic matter, all the carbon compounds to make some susceptible to being eaten by a class of soil microbes that feed off that soil organic matter. There’s a tremendous amount of fertility stored in that soil organic matter, like nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. When that organic matter breaks down, all that fertility is released. So it’s almost like throwing fertilizer out there, you get this big explosion in plant growth and it is dramatic. But every year you do that, it’s like when you first get a credit card, your lifestyle changes. Maybe a debit card is a better example, because that soil organic matter essentially is a savings account, and it pays annual dividends and it’s responsible for your desirable soil structure and all this. But using it is kind of like taking the porch off your house to burn in your fireplace. You eventually run out and then you’re so much worse off than we ever were before because now when you till you don’t get that fertility response because there’s no organic matter left to break down. And now your soil doesn’t absorb rainfall, the roots can’t go in because there’s no structure, there’s no oxygen movement, no gas exchange, and you’re stuck. You’ve got dead soil. The only way you can really restore that fertility is to import some sort of fertilizer from outside the area. And for the last 150 years, that’s been mined phosphate, last 120 or so it’s been anhydrous ammonia, or nitrogen fertilizers made from anhydrous ammonia. We have painted ourselves into a corner and now there’s really no new lands to conquer and that storehouse of fertility is just not there anymore.
Mongabay: Tell me a bit about your experience implementing the methods in this book.
Dale Strickler: I bought my first farm in 2000 and I grew corn and beans. It was an irrigated corn and soybean farm. So I did what had been done on it before. I tried to make a few minor changes; I tried minimizing tillage and inserting cover crops and having more complex rotation, and then I just kind of finally got tired of work where I made a huge amount of money for the seed dealer, the equipment dealer, the fertilizer dealer, the chemical dealer. I made a lot of money for a lot of people, but didn’t get to keep any money and my soil was getting worse. And I said, this is not how I want to do things. I want to farm in a manner that builds soil and I don’t have to write all these big checks. I want to leave something to my children other than dead soil and large debt.
So I bit the bullet and I put all my land to pasture. I said, everything that leaves here will walk off the place, everything will leave here on hooves rather than on tires. I don’t want to be exporting massive amounts of organic matter in the form of grain or hay or any plant material, I want to run all that plant material through livestock and turn it into meat and manure. And so I would retain the fertility. I didn’t want to till. I didn’t want to spray. I want all my fertility to cycle internally on the farm so I wouldn’t have to be annually importing fertilizer to replace everything that I dropped off in the form of grain. And there was no blueprint for what I did. I didn’t know anybody else on the planet. I met Gabe Brown a couple of years later and found out that he had done most of the same things that I was doing, only he started 10 years earlier. So it was a real relief to talk to Gabe. And it gave me a real sense of relief to know that I was on the right track.
The dark soil (left) is from a property that uses a practice called pasture cropping, in which cool-season cereal crops are planted during the fall in the dormant residue of warm-season grass pastures. Not only does this allow the production of both forage and grain from the same acre in the same year, but it results in darker soil color (indicative of greater stored soil carbon) compared to the soil from the pasture across the fenceline (to the right) which is not pasture cropped. Photo/caption from Dale Strickler.
Mongabay: What would you say to a conventional farmer who is interested but hesitant to try some of these methods in your book?
Dale Strickler: I think I would encourage them, number one, to learn. I think one of the biggest failings of farmers is that they don’t self-educate enough. You look at the personality traits of people that become farmers, they’re very independent. They want to be their own boss. They don’t like sitting at a desk. They don’t like sitting in the classroom. They like doing things, building things, doing things with their hands. They like to be active. They don’t like to sit and read. And I think that often is their undoing. I forget who originally said it, but the person who does not read has no advantage over the person who cannot read. And too many of our farmers do not self-educate. And we’re in a time in history where it has never been easier to self-educate. And so, that’s my first advice, is to go learn, teach yourself, don’t rely on the opinion of someone trying to sell you something.
The other thing is just experiment. If you’re farming 1,000 acres, how big of a mistake could you possibly make on 10 acres? Try it.
There are some failings of human nature and cognitive dissonance is one of them, and confirmation bias. If you take pride in what you’re doing and someone suggests doing something different, it’s often taken as an insult. It’s like, “how dare you criticize what I’m doing. I’m smart and I’m doing the best thing. I’m doing God’s work here. I’m feeding the world. How dare you criticize me?” Well, sometimes, oftentimes, that’s the worst possible response we can have. And we look for evidence that invalidates that criticism. Like, the person across the fence could be producing better crops than us nine years out of 10 but we remember that one year they didn’t. We seek evidence that confirms our existing biases. It makes us feel better about what we’ve done. Because in order to accept a different practice, we first have to accept that we need to change. And to accept that, we have to accept that we’re doing something wrong right now. If you’re proud of what you do, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. To say, “Well, I guess you’re right, I am destroying the planet” — that’s hard, that’s really hard to accept. I’ve spent my life destroying the planet. It’s not exactly a feel-good story that you put on TV. It’s a lot more comforting to pat yourself on the back and say, “I feed the world,” than to swallow hard and say, “but I’ve been destroying the planet in the process.”
But the one message that I would like to leave with is hope. I read this U.N. report that we’ve only got 60 years’ worth of soil at the rate we’re losing it. That’s not written in stone. That’s not our destiny. For the last 7,000 years, our means of producing food have, by and large, been methods that have been destructive. For the first time in history, we have the technology to produce food on a mass scale that rebuilds soil. That’s never been the case, in all of recorded history. That’s never really been the case before. That, to me, is tremendously exciting. We have the technology right now to produce food on a mass scale, while we simultaneously make soil better. I’m more excited now about the future of this planet than I ever have been.
Mongabay: What are the barriers to implementing these kinds of practices that you’ve written about in large-scale, commercial agriculture?
Dale Strickler: The biggest barrier is this really thick compacted layer that lies between the ears called the human brain. There really is no big technological barrier or biological barrier. There’s nothing outside of the human brain that is limiting us. It is all psychological. All of these things I talk about, they’re scale neutral. Everybody will come up with an excuse like, “that won’t work around here.” Everywhere I go, there’s this mythical place called “around here” where nothing works, where the laws of physics do not apply. Everybody has this “round here.” Why won’t it work around here? Well, it’s different here, you don’t understand. What’s different? Well, they get too much rain or too little rain, their soil is different, it’s too cold, it’s too dry. I say no, nature grows stuff everywhere. Everything works on sunlight and soil minerals and rainfall and gas exchange in the soil. Optimize those processes. Practices will change by region and even site to site within a region. You don’t do the same thing on a hilltop that you would do in the valley. You don’t do the same thing in a desert that you do in the rainforest. But the principles are universal. All plants need sunlight. They all need moisture. They all need minerals. They all need oxygen to the roots from carbon dioxide to the leaves. All these practices in the book are based on optimizing those inputs, those growth factors. And the only thing stopping us from optimizing those growth factors and becoming harvesters of sunlight and harvesters of rainfall instead of corn farmers or bean farmers or cattle ranchers is the barrier between our ears. I truly believe that.
It’s easier on the psyche to make excuses than to accept responsibility and swallow your pride and learn.
The Morrow plots at the University of Illinois is the longest continually operating agricultural experiment field in the USA (144 years). The plot in the left of the photo has been continually cropped since the inception of the plot shortly after the US Civil War (1876), while the area at the right of the photo has never been tilled. Note the subsidence of the soil due to loss of organic matter and pore space from a hundred and fifty years of tillage. Photo via Dale Strickler.
Mongabay: Your father used to till and then switched to no-till. Tell me about converting your dad to no-till agriculture.
Dale Strickler: My dad would get mad if you mentioned no-till. My dad was the hardest-working guy. He worked incredibly hard. His whole self-identity was about his ability to work. And to him, no-till was just basically an institution for laziness. You bring up no-till to him, he would get angry. You could see it in his face. The class I wish I’d had in college, but they never offered, was one called dad management. The best thing you can do with your dad, really probably anybody, is to make them think a new idea came from them rather than you. My brother and I have both worked in the private sector with no-till farmers, so we took my dad and we just drove around and visited farms to check this out. Eventually, he got to thinking this whole no-till idea was his idea. He started trying it out, kind of edging in, giving it a try here and there. I have the story in the book about how he got caught in a downpour after he tilled his field. He watched his field wash away. All the soil he worked washed away in front of his eyes while he sat in the tractor. It was very sobering to him. Like, “Oh my God, I’ve been doing this my whole life and, in the space of just a few hours, I lost what it took nature thousands of years to build. How many times in my life can I do this?” And it changed him. He’d seen enough success with no-till that he felt comfortable converting the whole farm at that point. And to his surprise, it didn’t reduce his yields. His yields went up. The soil got better every single year. It got better and better.
Mongabay: That’s a good story.
Dale Strickler: Thank you. Like most of these stories all I did was remember it. I didn’t invent it.
Banner image of tilled vs. no-till soil by Dale Strickler.
Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter @lizkimbrough_
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The complete guide to restoring your soil: Q&A with soil expert Dale Strickler - Mongabay.com
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