Small Town "No Kings"

 

 

"No Kings" flash mob. Two minute run-time

Of course, out here in the hinter-boonies we call No Kings "The Fourth of July" or "Independence Day". We have these demonstrations every year regardless of who is in office.

It has a distinctly different "feel" than the more recent, urban "No Kings" events. 

Places in the shade are highly sought after

It kicks off with a show of the colors

Not her best side. But even so, that is a fine looking Oliver Tractor.

Yes, you can accurately describe the event as "performative", but it is "performative" in the best possible way.

The route is 1.2 miles long from the McDonalds on Spicerville Highway to Knight Street. That is 6300 feet. Spectator density ranges from "very light" near the start of the parade to "four deep on each side of the road" near the end. So if we figure 3 feet between spectators and one-deep on both sides, that works out to 4200 spectators. Add in another 300 participants and you have an estimate of 4500 people attending.

That is a pretty good showing for a town with 5200 residents. 

Horror in three

"Selected for audit"

"Moving to Chicago"

"I am pregnant"

"Changing my gender"

"Here to help"

"Out of beer"

"Old military surplus" 

"Filing for divorce"

"You tested positive" 

---None of these are true except "Here to help"--- 

It is kind of a combined word-association, ink-blot test. Give it a whirl. 

Peonies and horseradish

Peonies and horseradish

There was landscaping around the deck that I demolished this summer. Summer is not the best time to move plants. Yesterday was a great day to move plants. We had about an inch-and-a-half of rain Saturday and Sunday with more on the way Tuesday and Wednesday.

Peonies are a durable plant that can be used to identify the sites of abandoned farm-houses. Daffodils and lilacs are other such markers.

One of those plants is a peony that the previous owners had planted UNDER the deck. It was never a happy plant. Yesterday, I dug up the peony roots and divided them. I ended up with about eight "starts".

Because my goal was to plant them in the Upper Orchard, and because planting eight divisions is not very much work, I also dug up about 10 horseradish crowns to make the trip worthwhile.

I am trying to stay in the good-graces of the neighbor whose property shares a property line with the Upper Orchard. I think he is pretty happy to have the brush removed. I think his wife will be happy to be able to look through their sliding glass door and see mowed grass and peonies blooming in the spring time.

It isn't pure altruism.  Good neighbors cannot be bought with money. A good neighbor will call you (or 911) if a shady crew shows up and starts timbering-off the Black Walnuts or removing equipment from a barn. A good neighbor will give you permission to track a deer across their land. A good neighbor is likely to agree to your putting a deer stand close to the property line as long as you demonstrate that you will be shooting AWAY from their property.

Besides, peonies have extra-floral nectary glands. That is, they exude nectar even before the flower opens. That would be pretty much the entire month of May in Michigan.

Why is that important?

Adult parasitoid wasps (which might be a swarm of over a hundred different species) that prey on orchard pests eat nectar. They live three times longer and, presumably, can lay eggs on three times as many pests when there are suitable sources of nectar.

The lazy, semi-organic orchardist who puts a little bit of thought and sweat into ensuring a steady succession or "shingling" of nectar sources from May 10 (in Michigan) until the end of June can avoid most spraying if his customers can tolerate some cosmetic damage to the fruit.

Horseradish is good for May 20-through June 10, which is an exceptionally long period for this application. Raspberries and Rugosa Rose follow. Turnip/rape/canola is in the mix during and after raspberries.

Rhubarb, when it flowers, is an incredible magnet for tiny wasps (back when we were kids we erroneously called them "flying ants"). Unfortunately, that flower stalk lasts for about three days before the flowers dry up and fall off. They cannot hold a candle to the three weeks that horseradish flowers feed the parasitoid wasps.

"No Kings" Boston

 

Boston No Kings main assembly area. 19,000 square-meters

At 2 people per square-meter that works out to a little less than 40,000 people attending.

How dense of a crowd is 2 per-square meter? That is the equivalent of six people standing on a 4' by 8' sheet of OSB or 55 people standing inside a standard, 24' by 24', two car garage. It is pretty packed. So the 40k people is a high-end estimate.

At one person per square-meter, that gives a low-end estimate of 20k people. 

A frequently used "standard" for sizing the sanctuary of a church is to assume 1.2 square-meters per worshiper (or 0.8 worshipers per square-meter) for maximum crowds. Those calcs incorporate aisle-ways for egress (including enough room for two wheelchair to pass abreast) and pews spaced far enough apart so worshipers can sit and stand and kneel.

 

If you zoom into the crowd, you can still see the sod through the people and signs suggesting a lower-than-2/m^2 density

As I was looking at the images on the internet, I noticed that many of the people were carrying signs and that a disproportionate number of them were facing the camera. That makes it difficult to estimate the spacing of the protestors and makes the area seem "blanketed" with people, even when it is not. That is especially true with low-angle shots. One difference between the Chicago and the Atlanta images is that the Atlanta images were taken more directly overhead while the Chicago images were taken at a lower angle and the Boston images were all shot at 10 degrees or less. 

Computer update

I ordered a new power-port and battery for the Win 10 computer. I will probably disconnect it from the WIFI and use it for note-taking, number crunching and writing drafts.

"No Kings" crowd estimates

 

Butler Field, Chicago fifteen minutes after the event kicked off.

Approximately 13,000 square meters comfortably contains the high-density portion of the crowd.

When given a choice, crowds in the United States rarely exceed 2 people per square meter. A very defensible estimate for the size of the crowd at the main, "No Kings" rally in Illinois is 25,000 people. The mainstream media reported that a quarter-million people attended the protest.

For the record, the Chicago Teachers Union claims to have 20,000 members and that does not include retirees.

Atlanta, MASSIVE "No Kings" protest

Twenty bodies in the red square. 120 in the green rectangle.

Extrapolating, 600 total in the crowd. A football game at Greater Atlanta Christian school draws a bigger crowd than that.

Given the numbers, it is not impossible that 1/2% of the crowd could have been Feds collecting evidence to be exploited at some future time.

A few pictures

 

Ornamental cabbage

Fancy fence around the garden

Ornamental chilies. They also had chiltepin (small, round bird) peppers but I didn't get any pictures.

Regular cabbages. Beds used both red and green cultivars.

Garlic chives

Lacinato or Tuscan kale

The landscapers also tucked the a tomatillo and cherry tomato plant into an odd corner.

I saw this in Pawpaw, Michigan. We were getting gas when a 1970-ish F-150 pulled in. Very lumpy at the low RPM he was running and my nose told me that he was either running dead-rich or he was running a cam designed for MUCH higher RPM. The truck was in plain black with a red, vinyl interior. It was plain-jane, base everything.

For the record, a base 1970 F-150 has a curb weight of 2800 pounds while a stripped 2025 F-150 weighs more than 4000 pounds.

I asked the gentleman what was under the hood. 

He replied, "Nothing special, just a slightly warmed-over 460 V8. Why? Do you want to look at it?"

I agreed that I would love to take a peek at it. With his permission, I took this picture.

After filling the tank, he drove out onto the main road. He had to keep feathering the clutch to keep it from stalling out. Once he had it pointed straight down the road he gave it some gas. It looked like the Star Trek USS Enterprise hitting warp speed.

When is it appropriate to administer "punishment"?

...poor behaviour often has to be punished in order to dissuade the perpetrator from engaging in it...    -Glen Filthie, from the comments

That statement is probably worth talking about. Some of my opinions have no nuance. Other opinions that I hold on that statement are nuanced. I don't offer these as "truths", these are only my opinions.

Un-nuanced opinions on "punishment"

If somebody is standing on your foot while you are in the elevator, it is YOUR job to get them off your foot.

Escalating from the least-intrusive to the most-intrusive methods results in the fewest unwanted outcomes. If the elevator is not crowded, a brisk "You are standing on MY FOOT" is usually effective. If that doesn't work or if the elevator is loud, a firm push forward on the lout's backside is the next level of escalation. While shanking the lout in his right kidney is very effective at getting him off your polished, penny-loafers, the task of getting him off of your foot can usually be accomplished short of blood-shed.

It is YOUR job to protect your wife and minor children. If "a lonely stranger in a black sedan" is getting too close to YOUR child, it is your God-given duty to deal with that stranger.

Recapping:

• WHO: You and your family members who you are obligated to protect
• WHAT: Observable, quantifiable injuries or threats
• HOW: Starting at the lowest response likely to change the behavior and escalating at a pace consistent with the threat level. Keep clicking up the volume knob and asking "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"
• WHEN: As the event is happening. The facts cannot be disputed. Unwanted behavior is stopped before additional damage occurs.
• WHY: Because it works

Slightly nuanced opinions

It is not your God-given duty to confront every adult who is talking with a minor child who is not your own. If you are getting a bad-vibe, you can move toward them and let the adult know that they are being watched. If you get a really bad vibe, you can write down their license plate number.

It is not your duty (or even desirable) to rescue somebody from an abusive relationship...unless you have the ties-of-family AND they ask for your help. Most abusive relationships are co-dependencies and the "victim" you rescue will either immediately lurch into another abusive relationship or shoot you in the back of your head.

It is not your duty to "punish" assholes on behalf of others. If the asshole injures you, absolutely, it is yours to remedy but within the limits of an eye-for-an-eye. Otherwise, you are playing God when you intervene on behalf of others because you are assuming that you are omniscient and have God-like knowledge when your knowledge is actually second or third-hand and has been "spun" to control the narrative.

One of the major pathologies of the WOKE movement is that they believe that it is their duty to be the instrument karma to every person they perceive is an asshole. They stack a multitude of assumptions and then leap to precarious conclusions. You end up with ancient, green-haired Karens interfering with police arresting child sex-traffickers because the sex-traffickers look like they are Hispanic. She is totally unaware of her arrogance and conceit as she injects herself into the middle of the arrest. She is also unaware of the risks she is taking, not just from the police but from the person being arrested and his associates.

Summary

"Punishment" has some limitations. It is not terribly precise and many times the person who receives the punishment will be unclear on exactly which parts of their behavior triggered it. Difficult to believe (since it is crystal clear to you) but true none-the-less.

When events are dire and moving quickly (like you are getting mugged) there is not time for a sedate and orderly escalation. THAT is the time for rapid and decisive "punishment". When the situation is less dire, the orderly escalation puts a lot of bread-crumbs on the ground and the malefactor has ample information to figure out why he got clobbered.

The Old Testament's "eye-for-an-eye" was an attempt to limit (i.e. set maximum amounts) for the retribution that was allowable. The Christian "turn the other cheek" was an attempt to incorporate the possibility that perhaps the injury was accidental and that the party who caused it was not aware of the damage.

The major failing of "eye-for-an-eye" IMHO is that it is impossible to "calibrate" for the pain we inflict on others. We cannot judge the pain in the other person's testicles by how much our toes hurt. Blood-feuds escalate because each side judges the pain inflicted upon them was disproportionate to the pain they had dished out.

We all know a grudge-holder who goes out of their way to inflict pain on people until they (the grudge-holder) feels vindicated. They will continue to harass, hector and shit-on more-and-more people as they navigate through life and their targeting of each person can continue for decades. Inevitably, they end up lonely and still feeling like the victim because they alienated every person who was close to them.

And yet...there are times and places when "punishment" is the only proper tool. That is after the behaviors were not improved by more subtle interventions. It is appropriate when the malefactor's behaviors are so far out of bounds that they are a grave danger to others; like when you and your wife are approached in a parking ramp by two dudes brandishing weapons.

Bonus image

The oats I planted as a cover crop are up.

The planting density around the  edges is lower. I don't know if that is because birds picked off the seeds or if I didn't plant as heavily. 

Quote of the Day

"We don't need perfection. What we need is Indiana!"

Context

I was packed in a minivan with too many other people and we were making our escape from a large city that was scheduled to host a "No Kings" protest in a couple of hours.

The navigator's smartphone had just gone Tango-Uniform due to a dead battery. The navigator was pointing out the deficiencies of the replacement unit. The screen was too small. The layout was tiled wrong. The controls were not intuitive....

From the back-seat one of the passengers observed "Brad, stuff a sock in it. We don't need perfection. What we need is Indiana!"

So, a big shout-out to  all of my readers who live in Indiana or who grew up in Indiana. How many other states can you name that are more desirable than perfection? 

One of my college professors was Bob Hubbard, one of the co-inventors of the HANS helmet used by NASCAR.

He went to college at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago during the Vietnam War. He clearly remembered having to fight his way through unwashed hippies protesting the war. But oddly enough, it was only when the weather was pleasant.

He went to his classes every day, rain-or-shine, sunny skies and when there were blizzards with -20F wind-chills. The protesters were only there during "picnic weather".

Looking at the weather, the No King's protests in the city were I was this weekend might be sparsely attended. 

A bouqet of roses for Cabinet Works

One of the things I enjoy about writing a blog is that it gives me a venue for calling-out companies or people who I think went above-and-beyond in terms of customer service.

Background

We purchased a vanity back in June for the bathroom remodel. Due to other demands on our contractor's time (and our willingness to let him use our project for "filler" work) the project dragged on through the summer.

Three weeks ago, it was time to install the vanity. He went out into the garage where we had stored it and opened the cardboard box it had been shipped in.

There was mold growing on the back of the vanity. My best-guess is that the cardboard box had been dampened sometime in shipping and our storing it in our un-air conditioned garage meant that the box and contents never dried out. If we had unboxed it as soon as we had received it might have been fine. If it had been installed within our air conditioned house, it would have been fine. It was the combination of getting damp and then incubating in our hot, humid garage that caused the problem.

The customer service at Cabinet Works was outstanding with a big tip of the hat to Kristy. They asked for a picture or scan of the sales receipt and some pictures of the unit that showed the problem.

The replacement was approved the next day. There was no ship-back requirement even though the drawers were fine and probably cost the factory $20-to-$30 each. There was no push-back about the time-lag between the purchase and the claim.

Since it was a custom-built unit, it was not in stock.

I requested that they work it into their normal schedule and that they not expedite the order. Jacking around people on the assembly line is not a way to get good quality.

Update  

The company did expedite the shipping. A very large box-truck showed up yesterday. I opened the box immediately upon arrival to make sure it was the same unit with the proper wood-finish. It was good-to-go. 

Beautiful in every way

 

I realize that this will not be everybody's cup of tea, but watch both of the artists as they play. They are clearly VERY aware of each other.

Both Mrs ERJ and I found this video acoustically and visually enchanting.

Hat-tip to Coyote Ken. 

Jones’ Law

 “Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate”. -Jones’ Law

“ The warm, golden-glow of hugs and kisses is fleeting. The scar-tissue from criticism (whether warranted or not) endures forever”.   -Logical extension of Jones’ Law

Progressives predict blood-bath for conservatives during mid-term elections

Progressives predict a blood-bath for conservative candidates during mid-term elections 

Maybe so. History shows a tendency to swing back toward the party that lost power during the POTUS elections.

My opinion, one in 330,000,000, is that every politician in office should do "the right thing" to their best understanding of the desires of their constituents (not their donors), regardless of possible electoral consequences.

My reading of the tea-leaves is that inflation will be the primary issue of the mid-terms. Paying $6 for a six-ounce package of Fig Newton cookies is quite a shock.

The progressives will blame Trump's tariffs and the deportation of our slave labor illegal immigrants for the exploding prices. Conservatives will blame Biden and the legacy of regulatory strangling of productive enterprises as well as the gross budget deficits created by the progressive's entitlement programs.

Conservative's best chances of hanging onto a majority is to have a track record of taking a flame-thrower to non-value-added, regulatory chicken-shit. They need to show that they anticipated the issue and have been acting on it. 

Last year, I drove to the countryside, pulled over at a farmers’ market, and had a long conversation with the husband and wife who ran the farm and the meat and vegetable stand. They talked of their struggles with the weather, of course, and dealing with the exigencies of nature.

Mostly, they spoke of the artificial struggles they face. They are hit relentlessly with tax on land, taxes on production, taxes on profits, taxes on everything. There are regulations too. They are prevented from selling directly to stores. They face grueling restrictions on meat processing. The health inspectors drive them nuts. They face constraints on wages, hourly restrictions on labor, and wrangle with bureaucrats constantly.    Source   (Hat-tip to Coyote Ken)

 

Sinews of War

 "The sinews of war are an infinite supply of money"    -Marcus Tullius Cicero

Trump is getting hammered in the press for "weaponizing" the Internal Revenue Service.

My perspective is that Trump is merely leveling the playing field. Lois Lerner aggressively launched audits against every conservative group who she felt was not in alignment with Obama's agenda. Since she was allowed to do this, we can only assume it was done with the approval and tacit backing of IRS management. Since she was never prosecuted, for all we know she was tasked to do that by her management.

Since a significant portion of Lerner's chain-of-command still exist and presumably still endorse the IRS meddling in politics, Trump found it necessary to ensure that "the rules" also be applied to the organizations (many of them NGOs who claim non-profit status) that are funding the violent demonstrations that are cratering the quality-of-life in many cities. 

 

Fine Art THURSDAY

Willow sculpture can be divided into "wicker" and "living".

Wicker sculpture lasts for a few years outdoors. It will be gone before you are tired of it.

Living willow sculpture can last for fifty years if you maintain it...but it does require some labor.

Neither of these media are exceptionally expensive, as art goes.

Living Sculpture
 

A modest amount of shelter and privacy

Note the person on the left side of the image for scale.

A living fence

Advice from the fashion-police

 

Apparently, it is not fashionable to wear a brown shirt with gray slacks.

Who knew?

I am sharing this so you don't make the same mistakes I made...unless you want to. 

How to determine if you have Windows 11 installed on your computer

 

There will be clues if you have Win 11 installed on your computer

Hands kill. Always watch the hands.

Background

A lane ended due to construction and the driver of the car parked in front of the Dash Cam wedged his vehicle in front of the vehicle with the Dash Cam. A minor amount of paint was swapped.

Actors will be called "Stellantis" and "Dash Cam". 

Link to 31 seconds into the event

ERJ note one: Look at the hands of Stellantis as he exits his vehicle and approaches Dash Cam.

ERJ note two: Observe that Dash Cam turns his back on Stellantis from 0:43 until 0:47. Perhaps not a good move, tactically. At 0:47 Stellantis removes his right hand from the hoodie and hits Dash Cam in the side of the face. His hand may or may-not have been holding a weapon.

ERJ note three: Stellantis's weapon is clearly visible at 0:49 and he is raising it to shoot Dash Cam. At this point, things speed up. I advise you slow it down to 25% speed.

Still at 0:49: Both men appear to fire simultaneously at a range of five-to-seven paces. 

ERJ note four: Before 0:50, Dash Cam pulled his weapon after Stellantis's weapon became clearly visible and Dash Cam fired twice and Stellantis fired at least once. The first shot was Stellantis's only "aimed" shot. From the sounds, the men were firing in near unison and Stellantis fired at least one more shot based on smoke.

ERJ note five: Unless there is an echo, Dash Cam is cranking off more than two shots per second. At 0.50, a puff of concrete dust spouts off off the utility pole in the median at about 7' of height.

ERJ note six: At 0:51, Dash Cam shoots through the rear window of Stellantis's car even though Stellantis might not have been visible. It may have been Dash Cam's 6th shot in three seconds. It is difficult to tell from the acoustics.

ERJ note seven: Shooting re-starts at 0:58. Dash Cam shoots six more times in two seconds. No reverb issues. It does not seem that Stellantis fires another shot.

What Dash Cam could have done differently

He could have stayed in his vehicle, vehicle running with transmission in gear and starting to call 9-1-1, especially after Stellantis's walking toward Dash Cam while keeping one hand hidden in the pocket of his hoodie until Stellantis started shooting.

Dash Cam could have talked through the window and been ready to floor the vehicle if Stellantis got hinky.

If he had gotten out of the vehicle, he should not have walked in front of Stellantis. Better to walk beside him so he can keep him in his peripheral vision. 

Considering that Dash Cam just got clonked in the face and his eyes were probably watering, he was able to rip his weapon out of the holster and return accurate fire amazingly fast. Also amazing, to me, was the volume of fire he generated.

Things went sideways very, very quickly. Stellantis really didn't leave Dash Cam any good options. 

Opinions from my readers will be appreciated. The event happened in Milwaukee.

What happens when we add in velocity?

That is a separate phenomena and the first-order calculations are done differently.

Looking at the qualifiers for the 2025 NCAA Div III Outdoor Qualifying 100 meter dash times, the 50th male qualifier clocked in at 10.56 seconds and the 50th female qualifier clocked in at 12.0 even.

Even though it is not a huge difference, the difference in the weight of the "bullet" and "target" also comes into play.

In our example a 187 pound "bullet" hitting a 96 pound "target" at 10 ft/second results in the "target" accelerating to 6.61 feet/second (assuming a totally inelastic collision). A 175 pound "bullet" hitting the same target at 10 ft/second results in the target accelerating to 6.45 ft/second. Since the kinetic energy is the square of the speed, we can estimate that the 187 pound bullet imparted 4.7% more energy to the target even though they hit at the same speed. That kinetic energy gets converted to shear stresses, hydraulic pressure of fluids and hyper-extension of muscles, ligaments and brain-stem&medula.

So, combining our estimate of the speed differences and weight difference for a simple kinetic energy comparison:

187 lb Male 95% hit =(9.47m/s * 0.661(relative mass adjustment))^2 = 39.18 KE/mass

175 lb Female 95% hit =(8.33m/s *  0.645(relative mass adjustment))^2 =28.86 KE/mass

Normalizing by the female 95% number, the male hits about 36% harder on a KE imparted basis.

Range of body-fat for athletes participating in various sports

Please remember these are first order estimates. One important variable that these estimates don't comprehend are the "hardness" of the "bullet". Harder "bullets" drive more of the potential energy into the target than softer, more padded bullets. Since women (even the athletes) tend to have more body-fat, they would be softer bullets.

When boys and girls collide on the playing field

Picture in your head two athletes about to collide head-on on the playing field/court/pitch.

Anticipating the impact, the athlete drops his/her shoulder and balls his/her fists together at mid-thigh level. Upon contact, the athlete lifts upward as his/her forward momentum carries them forward.

Is it possible to estimate energy levels for the impact?

Let's give it a whirl.

Since energy is force-through-a-distance, we can get close if we have proxies for both of those quantities.

According to the CDC growth charts:

• 5th percentile 17 year-old girl weighs 96 pounds
• 95th percentile 17 year-old girl weighs 175 pounds
• 5th percentile 17 year-old boy weighs 112 pounds 
• 95th percentil 17 year-old boy weighs 187 pounds

According to Kilgore's strength standards, a "physically active":

• 125 pound, 17 Y-O girl can dead-lift 37 pounds
• 175 pound, 17 Y-O girl can dead-lift 53 pounds 
• 125 pound, 17 Y-O boy can dead-lift 98 pounds
• 200 pound, 17 Y-O boy can dead-lift 171 pounds

I chose the dead-lift values because the motion described in the intro very nearly replicates the motion of a dead-lift so the forces should be very good proxies for what would happen on the field. These values will be used as the "Force" in our Force * Distance calculations.

According to Ergonomic Human Measurement Tables, the distance from the ground to the tops of the shoulders:

• 5th percentile woman 48.8 inches
• 95th percentile woman 56.4 inches
• 5th percentile man 52.8 inches
• 95th percentile man 60.8 

Whlle the height of the shoulders is not directly related to the amount of energy that will be generated, it is a reasonable proxy for the distance the doubled-fists will travel as long as we look at RELATIVE numbers. 

If you "normalize" the 5th percentile woman as "1.0" then all of the other numbers will be the multiple quantifying how much greater the force generated by the other cells in the matrix.

Energy, first order calculations:

• 5th Percentile, 17 Y-O girl   1.0  (Let's name her "Olivia")
• 95th Percentile, 17 Y-O girl 1.7  (Hannah)
• 5th Percentile, 17 Y-O boy 2.9   (Ashok)
• 95th Percentile, 17 Y-O boy 5.8  (Biff)

So in a collision between Olivia and Hannah, Hannah can deliver 70% more energy to Olivia than Olivia can deliver to Hannah.

In a collision between Hannah and Ashok, Ashok can deliver 70% more energy to Hannah than Hannah can apply to Ashok.

In a collision between Ashok and Biff, Biff can deliver 100% more energy to Ashok than Ashok can apply to Biff.

And in a collision between Olivia and Biff, Biff can send Olivia into orbit with 480% more energy than Olivia can deliver to Biff. 

* "Physically active" according to Kilgore : A person who exercises or plays a sport(s) at least three times a week for more than 45 continuous minutes each session. No goal or programming of exercise need be apparent. Activities done during work hours and household chores are not relevant to this definition (neither are accumulated steps, i.e. step counting). 

A rough budget for cattle fencing

At current prices, fencing Southern Belle's two-acre pasture will cost:

$100 for 3/4 miles of 14 gauge, galvanized steel wire for a three-strand, electric fence.

$60 for 200, 2" plastic insulators.

$350 for 68 new "T" posts on 20' centers.

$150 for a 12V fence energizer. 

$150 for a deep cycle battery 

$20 for an 8', galvanized ground-rod and clamp 

$40 for gate hardware.

In round numbers, about $900 in materials for a perimeter fence that will probably keep cattle in. Early training of the cattle to respect electric fences goes a long way toward keeping them in the enclosure. Never letting them run out of feed, water or salt is also a big deal.

WOKE ===> Slavery

 

The controversy began when an 18 year old biological male was allowed to play on a junior varsity team in the Tumwater School District, alongside 14 and 15-year-old female athletes.

15-year-old Frances Staudt noticed the obviously male athlete on the opposing team during her warm up for the final game of the season and asked the school’s athletic director whether the player was a male, but  was told that, in accordance with Washington state law, the school will not discriminate based on sexual identity.

Staudt then notified her coach that she was unwilling to play against a biological male opponent.  (Source)

... 18 year old biological male...against...14 and 15-year-old female athletes.

And a 15 year-old girl is being sued because she refused to play against him.

So if a 15 year-old girl can be forced against her will to play against a man (18 years-old being a legal adult), and if she is not being paid; how is that any different than forcing Black people to pick cotton against their will and without monetary compensation?

This attempts to set a precedent where you can be sued and forced to pay damages for doing nothing. They want to punish people who do not dance to the tune mutating in their head.

Between the farm gate and the dinner plate

 

Beef at the farm-gate

Beef on the dinner plate

A clean, 1400 pound, fattened steer will have a hot-hanging weight of about 62% of its body-weight or about 880 pounds. After hanging for two weeks and being cut into retail cuts of meat, the 880 pounds will have been reduced to somewhere between 500 (totally deboned) and 600 pounds of meat for an average of about 40% of the weight of the animal on-the-hoof. (Source)

Current cattle prices

(Source)

Last week, a 540 pound calf cost $2025 in Indiana. 

 

That same steer, grown out to 1400 pounds sold for $3200. Throw in $1000 for cutting costs and store mark-ups, then the average cost of a cut of beef becomes $4200/550 or a cool $7.60 a pound.

Given the high price of calves, the prices will not be coming down in the next 20 months.