Laurie Barr spent a recent Saturday like she spends a lot of her weekends: trodding through the thorny and damp woodlands of rural north-western Pennsylvania, juggling a point-and-shoot camera, a GPS navigator, a cell phone, and, most importantly for the mission at hand, a methane detector.
“I found one!” Barr yelled from deep in the woods to her two friends – fellow abandoned oil and gas well enthusiasts who were decidedly more hesitant to walk off the pre-cut path.
“Here’s the spot they killed the last abandoned well hunter,” Barr joked from somewhere deep in the woods. Then Barr did something she’s done hundreds of times in the last three years – she leaned over a foot-wide hole in the ground and waved around the gas detector until it began beeping. First the beeps were slow, then rapid.
“I haven’t met a well that hasn’t leaked some amount,” she said, taking a picture of the hole, marking the location on her GPS device, and walking back towards the path. “Some are high emitters, some are low emitters, but they all leak.”
The problem for a well hunter like Barr, and for the state of Pennsylvania, is that there are about 200,000 of them.
For much of its history Pennsylvania has been synonymous with oil, gas and coal extraction. Many of its municipalities and geographic features are named after the state’s main economic lifeline – Oil Creek, the village of Burning Well, the city of Carbondale. Oil and coal museums, monuments, and landmarked oil rigs pay tribute to the state’s pioneering past of fossil fuel development.
Even the McDonald’s in Bradford, one of Barr’s favorite locations to take visitors, has a historical well in its parking lot. A sign on the fence that surrounds it proclaims the well is the oldest in the area, producing oil from the 1870s to the present.
But Pennsylvania’s incessant tribute to its past might mask the more troublesome, and still ongoing effects of 150 years of oil and gas production. The fragments of infrastructure from decades of unregulated industry – a pipe in the woods, a few bubbles under a lake – might not be as visible as the monuments to its main industry. But when the less glamorous aspects of the state’s past do bubble up, the results can be ugly.
No one knows exactly how many abandoned oil and gas wells litter Pennsylvania or the US. The state’s Department of Environmental Protection estimates the number is close to 200,000. Some estimates are a little lower, some much higher. Across the country, the number could be more than a million. Most of the wells are relic of of a time when states didn’t bother to regulate much of what happened on private land, including oil and gas drilling, and when most Americans didn’t think twice about a seemingly esoteric issue like the environment.
But hindsight has proven that losing track of hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells can lead to some problems. For decades, many of the wells have leaked methane into the air, soil and water.
Now, as the state makes its way through the seventh year of a new drilling boom, thanks to the technology of hydraulic fracturing, the old wells are posing an increasing threat. The more companies drill in the state’s Marcellus Shale, the more likely it becomes that the old wells will act as a pathways for newly-released gas to make its way into the earth, streams, and even people’s homes, with potentially deadly results.
The state has launched a renewed effort into finding the wells, but no one, including state regulators, thinks they’ll be able to find most of the wells across the state anytime soon. And even if they did, regulators acknowledge it would cost untold sums and many decades to plug the wells with concrete to ensure the methane stays in the ground.
“Trying to locate all the wells would be an impossible task, but we at least need to raise awareness about them,” Barr said. “We need to face the fact that we’ve dug ourselves into this massive hole.”
Barr, who lives a few towns south of Bradford, has been hunting for oil and gas wells for three years. Until 2011 she was mainly a photographer and illustrator, and an anti-fracking activist in her spare time.
But in the winter and spring of that year, a series of fires and explosions in north-western Pennsylvania, including a house explosion in Bradford, were linked to abandoned wells. The explosion at 10 Helen Lane completely destroyed Tom Federspiel’s house. Luckily, Federspiel had decided to shovel snow that morning, and was outside when his house ignited. After an extensive investigation state regulators found that methane had migrated through an abandoned well and up through Federspiel’s basement. Three wells were ordered plugged by the state.
Barr realized that while thousands of activists fought against the fracking boom, hardly anyone was paying attention to the threat posed by the oil and gas industry’s past.
“There was a pipe in my yard but I thought it was just a pipe. Then I saw there were pipes sticking out of our neighborhood everywhere,” she said. “I realized I actually lived on an abandoned oil and gas field, and I didn’t even know what abandoned wells were.”
Now Barr spends nearly all of her time as the sole operator of Save Our Streams PA. Often from early in the morning until late at night, and nearly every weekend she’s either finding, mapping, photographing or talking about abandoned wells.
That involves driving around in her beat-up Jeep to libraries and local municipal offices and checking out maps so old they look like antiques. And sometimes it involves long treks into the woods or canoe trips in towns like Bradford.
The city is home to under 10,000 people, surrounded by oil and gas rigs, a large refinery, strip malls, woods and not much else.
Its streets are run down and many of its residents poor, but its hotels are booming, filled with men in Timberland boots and neon safety vests. They crowd the parking lots of the town’s bars with their pickup trucks after a days work in the fields. “Tree Huggers Suck,” read one bumper sticker.
Joann Parrick and Mark Dalton, friends of Barr’s who also are interested in abandoned wells, reckon they’re likely two of what can’t be more than a couple dozen Bradford residents who are critical of the oil and gas industry. They, like Barr, moved into a house without realizing it was surrounded by abandoned wells.
“I wouldn’t have bought this house if I had known,” Parrick said. “I wouldn’t have even moved to this area. This is like swiss cheese land over here.”
Barr recently met up with the couple to go searching for a well Parrick and Dalton happened upon during a canoe trip the previous weekend.
The three piled in Dalton’s truck with a canoe and kayaks strapped on the back and headed down to the reservoir in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest. When Congress authorized the creation of the Kinzua Dam and Reservoir in 1960 it forced the relocation of hundreds of Seneca Native Americans, despite the land being guaranteed to the tribe under federal treaty. The legal battle between the Seneca and the Feds is well-documented. Less well-documented is the fact that the dam flooded an old oil field, burying potentially hundreds of unplugged and poorly plugged wells under water.
Rotating between paddle, camera, and gas meter, Barr made her way toward the middle of the reservoir. After about 20 minutes, she and her friends spotted it: a steady stream of small bubbles coming to the surface that would disappear anytime the water rippled. The bubbles are one of the only remaining signs that there was once an entire industry beneath their feet.
Some wells are easier to spot than others: often a small section of rusty pipe might be sticking out of the ground. But many wells are nothing more than holes in the ground, their casings removed by scavengers, oil companies, or dutiful citizens during the US’s drive to collect metal for the war effort during World War II.
Wells were often drilled in specific patterns and often spaced only a few hundred feet away from each other, so once Barr finds a few, it’s easier for her to find more.
In seemingly pristine places like the Allegheny forest the wells are so densely packed together and so prone to leaking that the EPA determined in the 1980s that the forest was essentially experiencing a slow-motion environmental disaster. The EPA spent millions to help plug some of the wells, but not without opposition from the industry and the local residents who support it. One EPA inspector even claimed he was shot at while walking through the forest.
Like every effort to locate and plug abandoned wells, the EPA’s short-lived program only addressed a tiny fraction of the problem.
Not knowing where the vast majority of the wells are obviously makes determining their cumulative effects difficult. Studies are scarce. But according to several experts, the wells could account for about 10% of the state’s total methane emissions. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, several dozen more times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
“If emissions from abandoned wells are indeed a tenth of the methane emissions, that’s a real, substantive problem for global warming,” said Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University. “We could be setting ourselves up for a situation that lasts centuries.”
The state’s Department of Environmental Protection recently launched an effort to digitize maps from various state agencies in an effort to find wells that are documented in some form but still not on the DEP’s master list. So far the agency only has about 8,700 on its list.
The state has also partnered with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, a branch of the US Department of Energy, to conduct helicopter flights over state forests. The helicopter is equipped with an electromagnetic sensor that can find the general location of wells as long as the metal hasn’t been stripped out of them. The NETL’s helicopter data is still being analyzed, but its researchers say they’ll likely find at least a couple hundred.
That still leaves the vast majority off the map. And it still leaves the question of what to do with the wells once they’re found unanswered.
“Even if you knew where all the sites were, you could only do so many contracts [to plug the wells] each year,” said Seth Pelepko, who heads the DEP’s abandoned oil and gas well program. “So this is always going to be an incremental process.”
According to Barr, if the DEP planned to plug every oil and gas well in the state at its current rate, getting to 200,000 would take hundreds if not thousands of years.
Given their limited budget, the state and NETL researchers say they’re focusing their efforts mostly on public land where new gas wells are likely to be drilled.
Once the NETL maps those wells, the idea is that either the state or fracking companies can plug them before new drilling begins. That way the state can at least help prevent new gas migration.
But activists like Barr say the state’s limited plugging won’t be enough.
Since 2007, Pennsylvania has issued nearly 45,000 new well permits. About a third of those are for “unconventional” wells. That means they’re often thousands of feet deep and hydraulically fracked, a process which requires myriad chemicals and leaves holes significantly more complicated to plug than traditional wells.
State leaders like Republican Governor Tom Corbett have made the case that regulations today are much more strict than in the past. Before 1956, oil and gas wells on private property didn’t even require permits. Now companies must go through mountains of paperwork to drill a well. The current regulatory system means newly drilled wells likely won’t go missing like their predecessors did. But they might still be abandoned.
The state currently requires companies to put down a bond of $4,000 for shallow wells and $10,000 for deeper ones. The state can (but is not required to) use that money to plug the wells if the companies abandon them.
The problem, according to experts, is that hiring plugging companies and buying enough concrete to fill many thousands of feet will almost always costs more than the price of the state’s bonds, especially for unconventional wells. That may give companies disincentive to plug their wells, and the state with the bill.
“It’s definitely not $10,000. Even $50,000 is a very optimistic number,” said Austin Mitchell, a postdoctoral fellow in the engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University who co-authored a study on the economics of abandoned wells. “Usually you want either the carrot or the stick to be big enough, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in Pennsylvania.”
It will be decades before anyone knows whether today’s oil and gas companies will pay for their wells or leave that burden to the state. Neither of Pennsylvania’s main industry groups – the Marcellus Shale Coalition and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association – responded to comments for this story.
But given Pennsylvania’s industry-friendly attitude, Barr and others are worried that the state’s oil and gas drilling past might be a prologue for the state’s Marcellus-fueled future.
“We could be leaving our future generations with the same problem we’re left with, only bigger,” Barr said. “We’re shovelling sand against the tide, and not doing anything to stem the tide.”


Hello , this time small combination padlock with Polish Combination Lock mechanism inside is going to Swynndla for next review. This small padlock has very similar construction to previous lock however it works very smooth. You do not need any force to rotate the knobs and almost zero force needed to open it. It will be nice to see Swynndla opening this small padlock. It has in theory only 10 000 combinations but here due to 3D print limitations is only 1250 possible combinations therefore it is quite easy to open even going one by one.
Swynndla however will not go “brute force” but as in previous lock he would like to find the way to decode it. This is not 7 days challenge rather I asked Swynndla to do everything in front of camera since he unpack the lock till the final opening. In theory he should open it in less than one hour by going all possible combinations. I hope he will show his attempt and share his video with us.
The goal for me from Swynndla next review is to find out how ease is to operate this padlock. User experience of holding it and operate is the key for me to understand if anything should be improved here. Of course the numbers in metal version will be much more visible here the visibility is rather limited. This is no issue for me now. The most important is ease of operation and overall feedback. I hope Swynndla will like it as comparing to previous model this one operates without any force needed.
This small padlock has Seeger mounting ring (steel one) inside instead of the nut. This means Swynndla will not be able to change the code after opening it while special tool is needed to remove so small Seeger from the central shaft. Therefore fun is only one time game for him. I am very much interesting to see his impression about this small padlock and most important the user experience from operation, it will be all time pleasure because everything is working there without any special force needed.
This review would give me additional hints towards full metal prototype.
Current metal project assume that first full metal padlock will have 10 x7 knobs = 10 000 000 true combinations (each knob could be rotated 10 times to change the code).
I think that this time laser method will not works because of the size of this padlock but we will see soon what Swynndla will do with it.
Finally I have added some final words in my Next Step article:
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdgFa7Ur7q7sW38URiLCtUQ
More information about this small padlock: https://www.polishlocks.com/3d-stainless-steel-model-for-cnc/
11 July 2019 Swynndla has decoded my lock mechanism and therefore the challenge is over. You can watch Swynndla video where he explains how he decoded my mechanism. I would like to thank Swynndla for his participation, his passion and creativity in decoding. Here is his video: https://youtu.be/h1MYWwpqH2s
The mechanism has been decoded by Swynndla using a laser. In my thoughts section I have written what I think about it. I like to invite you to read the article “Next Steps“.
If you like my unique combination lock and you want to see it on the market please support me.
Here is direct donation link: https://www.paypal.me/ZbigniewOlejnik
The Polish Combination Lock has been delivered to Swynndla.
He made his first video: https://youtu.be/S9fFSnUZJEg
Next round of worldwide decoding challenge just started. Swynndla has now 7 days for his decoding attempt. Good luck!
More information about global decoding challenge you can find here: https://www.polishlocks.com/the-worldwide-challenge/
Please help Swynndla if you have any idea how to decode my combination lock. You can write your comments under his video.
I am working now on full metal version of my Polish Combination Lock mechanism. Here is first concept visualisation. 4×15 code complication, 80x60x30mm body. More details will come soon. Still waiting for some feedbacks before final design.
Polish Combination Lock (white version) is now in USA and HelpfulLockPicker just received it. He will made his review very soon. HelpfulLockPicker is not participating in worldwide challenge. He received also the correct code in the closed envelope so he can play with my lock and then open it and show the inside. I would like to thank him for supporting me with his review and I am sure it will help to share this information and increase visibility of this unique mechanism.
Please do not pay too much attention to current design. Concentrate rather on mechanism and pros and cons about PCL combination lock mechanism.
Please visit my YouTube channel or watch more here.
Polish Combination Lock will be soon converted from printed 3D model to full metal production version. Please share this information widely.
Polish Combination Lock is now delivered to New Zealand, Swynndla should receive it very soon and next round of the challenge will start. HelpfulLockPicker (USA) should receive PCL as well very soon and his review we will watch very soon too.
I am very close to start 100% full metal prototype it is possible maybe next month depends on funding. If you like to see it very soon please donate any funds by clicking on green mark on the right side. After first production I will send metal version for review, certification and then I will start mass production. Polish Combination Lock will be available as the padlock with close 10mm shackle and will be soon in my e-shop. I will ship it worldwide. The e-shop will be available soon. Stay in touch and share it widely please among your friends. People who donate and contribute to this development will have priority to purchase this unique padlock.
Moreover all people who donate more than 100PLN or 30USD or 25EUR or 20GBP would have personal engravings on the body and my signature and the rest of people who donate less funds will have nice discounts as well.
The final price of this padlock will be set after certification and initial production.
The first production will be very limited because the mechanism will be produced with extra precision and very small tolerances +-0.01mm. I cannot tell you more at this moment. This will be the most secure combination padlock ever created in my opinion. You can subscribe my YouTube channel to be notified when the new padlock with Polish Combination Lock will be available. The operation will be smooth and easy and the precision will be incredible. The size of the padlock would be most probably around 80x60x30mm. It will be very similar to this image but it will have most probably 15 numbers per knob:
Hello, I would like to thank you very much for your interest in my unique Polish Combination Lock mechanism. There are almost 30 000 unique visits so far here on my web page.
Here is the world map with all those countries marked (blue). Please share my web page with your friends. Please check my YouTube channel and subscribe.
If you like my Polish Combination Lock please donate any founds for further development: https://www.paypal.me/ZbigniewOlejnik or click on right green box.
Check nice piggy bank for your child here.
Hello, just few moments ago Swynndla has published wonderful pre-review video of my Polish Combination Lock. https://youtu.be/Pli70ILvhfI I like this video very much and the energy and hope to decode my lock by Swynndla presented there. Good Luck!
Swynndla is going to decode it soon and now he has asked people around the globe to share with him any ideas how to approach it. Please help Swynndla with your ideas. This is very important to test as many ways as possible to be sure that this mechanism is so secure as I think it is. I would like to thank Potti314 for his contribution and wonderful explanation of the mechanism and disassembly process.
Please do not pay to much attention to design this is just basic example. Please concentrate rather on mechanism itself and the working principia which is very unique. The body design and the final shape could be completely different because this mechanism is highly scalable. I am sure Swynndla will make wonderful next review video so please stay in touch.


text:
- After almost 11 years in the position
- Praise and thanks for Elisman
- Tom Tedford taking over
- Elisman said 76 words
(exechange) — Lake Zurich, Illinois, August 8, 2023 — Boris Elisman, chief executive of Acco Brands, leaves his position. As announced by Acco Brands Corp. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, Boris Elisman leaves his post as chief executive officer at the office supplies manufacturer, after almost 11 years in the role, effective October 1, 2023.
Generally speaking, it raises questions when a CEO leaves his post at short notice.
Boris Elisman’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Thomas W. (Tom) Tedford, currently President and Chief Operating Officer at Acco Brands Corp.
The management change is explained as follows. Lead Independent Director, Thomas Kroeger, stated: “The appointment of Tom as Acco Brands next CEO is part of a succession plan that Boris and the Board have been preparing over the past few years.”
Precise information regarding Boris Elisman’s future plans was not immediately available.
Acco Brands said: “Mr. Tedford will succeed Acco Brands current CEO, Boris Elisman, who will continue as Executive Chairman until his retirement in the first half of 2024. He has notified the Board that he will not stand for reelection at the 2024 stockholders’ meeting.”
Acco Brands further said: “On August 4, 2023, Boris Elisman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, notified the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Acco Brands Corporation (the “Company”) of his intention to resign as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the Company effective October 1, 2023, and his intention not to stand for re-election to the Board at the Company’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.”
“Does not reflect any dispute or disagreement”
Acco Brands stated, regarding the change: “Mr. Elisman’s intention to retire does not reflect any dispute or disagreement with the Company.”
Share price decline since August 2018
The announcement follows a decline in Acco Brands Corp.’s share price of 52% since August 2018.
In the position of CEO since 2013
Boris Elisman became CEO of the Company in 2013.
Elisman is the Company’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.
Elisman was appointed as Chairman of the Board in May 2016.
Prior to becoming the Company’s President and CEO in March 2013, Elisman served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company from 2010 and was President, Acco Brands Americas from 2008 to 2010.
In 2008, he served as President of the Company’s Global Office Products Group and from 2004 to 2008, he served as President of the Company’s Computer Products Group.
76 words by Boris Elisman
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Acco Brands Corp., Boris Elisman received praise and thanks.
In announcing his departure, Boris Elisman said 76 words.
“Accelerate profitable growth”
Boris Elisman stated: “During my tenure at Acco Brands, the Company and the industry have undergone significant changes and I am proud of our teams’ accomplishments during this period. Having worked closely with Tom for many years, I know the company is in great hands to continue to progress and accelerate profitable growth. It has been my privilege to lead this great company, and I look forward to continuing to serve as Executive Chairman to ensure a smooth transition.”
Push-out Score for Boris Elisman’s move determined
The Push-out Score indicates on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely it is that Boris Elisman was pushed out or felt pressure to leave his position.
exechange reached out to Acco Brands and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 33.2023 ($).

domain: news


Alleged Victorian Teenage Killer Fronts Court
A young woman who allegedly murdered a man she met on a dating app is due to face a Melbourne court on Tuesday.
Jamie Lee Dolheguy, 19, is accused of murdering Maulin Rathod on July 24 last year at Sunshine.
In November, Dolheguy faced Melbourne Magistrates Court, with her lawyers flagging they would argue she was either mentally impaired or unfit to plead.
"It was obvious from day one this was going to be about psychiatric status," magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg said at the time, critical of the matter's slow progress.
The court was told she would be assessed by a psychiatrist as her mental state would be a key factor in the case.
Dolheguy will return to the same court on Tuesday for a committal hearing, which will determine if the matter goes to trial.


text:
Pontellier talked about her father's Mississippi plantation and her girlhood
home in the old Kentucky bluegrass country.
As I walked by her side that May morning, I was only conscious of her voice and her exquisite girlhood
; for though she talked with the APLOMB of a woman of the world, a passionate candour and simple ardour in her manner would have betrayed her, had her face not plainly declared her the incarnation of twenty.
She wondered as she regarded some of the grizzled women in the room, mere mechanical contrivances sewing seams and grinding out, with heads bended over their work, tales of imagined or real girlhood
happiness, past drunks, the baby at home, and unpaid wages.
Eliza had been brought up by her mistress, from girlhood
, as a petted and indulged favorite.
Looking at her she may have recalled the golden, irrecoverable days of her own girlhood
and her own first ball.
Between Elizabeth and her one son George there was a deep unexpressed bond of sympathy, based on a girlhood
dream that had long ago died.
But in another moment she seemed to have descended from her womanly eminence to helpless and timorous girlhood
; and he understood that her courage and initiative were all for others, and that she had none for herself.
The whole world bloomed in a flush and tremor of maiden loveliness, instinct with all the evasive, fleeting charm of spring and girlhood
and young morning.
Rebecca, Adam thought, as he took off his hat and saluted the pretty panorama,--Rebecca, with her tall slenderness, her thoughtful brow, the fire of young joy in her face, her fillet of dark braided hair, might have been a young Muse or Sibyl; and the flowery hayrack, with its freight of blooming girlhood
, might have been painted as an allegorical picture of The Morning of Life.
Had it befallen me never to quit that village--had it befallen me to remain for ever in that spot--I should always have been happy; but fate ordained that I should leave my birthplace even before my girlhood
had come to an end.
"All the world is so changed since our girlhood
!" rejoined the other: "young people have such old heads now.
She had occasionally caught glimpses of these men in girlhood
, looking over hedges, or peeping through bushes, and pointing their guns, strangely accoutred, a bloodthirsty light in their eyes.

domain: library


Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor
Universities should carry out research on post-harvest losses to help provide strategies for reducing losses among smallholder farming communities in the country, a senior Government official has said.
In a speech read on his behalf, Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Fanuel Tagwira said research was vital in improving the country’s agricultural output.
“Research activities in our universities should be modelled towards meeting sustainable development goals of reducing postharvest losses by at least half by the year 2030 to enhance the food and nutritional security of our people,” he said.
“Post-harvest losses still affect our smallholder farming sector and we need to do more research to find solutions to this problem.”
The comments were made at a Grain Post-harvest Stakeholder Learning Forum which was held recently in Mbire and Guruve districts, north of the country.
The event was organised by the University of Zimbabwe Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering to share their findings of a four-year research on the effectiveness of hermetic grain storage bags in reducing post-harvest losses.
Prof Tagwira said it was important to improve post-harvest handling methods to reduce losses and cut down the country’s import bill.
“I am happy that the research brought together the expertise of academics, extension staff and local communities to address the complex challenges associated with agricultural post-harvest pest management affecting our smallholder farming sector,” he said.
“This kind of collaboration enables the hands-on training of farmers and extension staff, as well as sharing of experiences.”
Reducing post-harvest losses can help increase food availability and improve access to food, nutritional quality, food safety and farmers’ incomes.
Data on post-harvest losses is in short supply and more research still needs to be done to reduce post-harvest losses in the country.
According to research findings by the UZ Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, Zimbabwe has an average maize post-harvest loss of about 18,5 percent, roughly worth about $259 per tonne while for sorghum, the figure is pegged at 12,5 percent which translates to a loss of $175 per tonne.
The post-harvest losses are mainly due to destruction during storage by insects and pests.
Speaking at the same event, Dr Elijah Nyakudya, Dean of the UZ Faculty of Agriculture, said finding useful strategies to minimise post-harvest losses could help enhance the country’s food and nutritional security.
“As a university, we remain committed to using research to find solutions to problems facing smallholder farmers,” he said. “All this is in line with the Government’s vision to attain the middle income economy status by 2030. Universities are there to work with communities to find solutions to pressing problems.”
Zimbabwe requires 1,8 million tonnes of grain for both human and livestock consumption a year and 800 000 tonnes is expected to be imported to cover the gap.
Up to 18,5 percent of the country’s expected harvest this season will be lost largely due to poor post-harvest handling methods.
These losses translate into millions of dollars worth of grain imports.


text:
A recent review by the UK Foods Standards Agency came out claiming that organic foods are no better than the less expensive conventionally grown foods. A closer look at that review reveals some truths underlying the growing media attention and debate over whether or not organic foods are worth the extra buck. I am re-printing an excellent post on this topic by Tom Philpott who farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
One of the key messages I received while researching this topic is that organic foods consistently contain a higher level of tertiary, phytochemicals then conventionally grown foods. These phytochemicals (e.g. resveratrol, chlorophyll, glucosinolates) hold as much, if not more promise for preventing and treating disease then the basic nutritional compounds that are used to test the benefit of one food over another.
A bit of nitrogen with those veggies?
A recent literature review by the U.K. Food Standards Agency concluded that organic foods offer no nutritional advantages to ones grown with conventional chemical agriculture. The report quickly bounced around the media and the internet and has congealed into received wisdom. For example, in a recent chat with readers, Washington Post food politics columnist (and general policy writer) Ezra Klein engaged in the following exchange:
Santa Fe, N.M.: I saw a report today on a study finding that organic food isn’t any healthier than conventional food. Is buying organic a waste of money, in your opinion?
Ezra Klein: Honestly? Yes. It’s definitely not healthier, at least not according to any study I’ve seen. There’s some argument that it’s more environmentally friendly. But it’s not something that I’m convinced is worth a premium. I’d rather buy from a local farm that uses some pesticides than a major producers who has gone organic.
Whoa – lots going on there. Let’s stick to the “definitely not healthier” bit for now. (As for the idea that there’s just “some argument” for the environmental benefits of not dousing fields of food with synthetic poisons and greenhouse-gas-spewing fertilizer, I’m not sure what to say.)
Well, Ezra, here is a study, released last year by the U.S.-based Organic Center, that comes to a conclusion quite different from the U.K. agency’s findings. It’s called “New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based Organic Foods.” The Organic Center recently released a cogent rebuttal to the U.K. findings as well. True, the Organic Center is funded by Big Organic companies like Dean Foods (owner of Horizon Dairy) and Whole Foods, which have an interest in promoting organics as healthier. But I’ve never seen the Center’s scholarship successfully challenged.
Moreover, as Paula Crossfield’s excellent recent post on Civil Eats shows, the U.K. Food Standards Agency itself, despite its governmental status, can hardly be seen as a neutral adjudicator. Like our own FDA, the FSA is shot through with once and future food-industry execs and flacks. (Paula also points us to another study finding nutritional advantages to organic food – this one commissioned by the European Union.)
The Organic Center claims that the FAS study neglected to consider total antioxidant content – which seems a pretty gaping oversight, giving that antioxidants are emerging as a key micronutrient for fighting cancer and other maladies. (The Center’s own study found significantly more total antioxidants in organic food than conventional.) The Center also makes a convincing case that the FAS researchers botched the measurement of another key micronutrient, polyphenols.
But what I find most immediately significant is this: Both studies found that conventionally grown produce has substantially higher levels of nitrates than organic – most likely from widespread use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on conventional farms. This consensus around a nitrogen gap suggests a non-trivial advantage for organic food: A growing body of literature indicts heightened levels of nitrates in the U.S. diet as a significant health menace. For a while, we’ve known that nitrates are a powerful carcinogen. The latest: a rather stunning recent report from the Journal of Alzheimer Disease (press release here) linking nitrates in food to “increased deaths from diseases, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson’s.”
The study’s lead author, Suzanne de la Monte of Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, declares that we have become a “nitrosamine generation,” exposed to increasing levels of nitrogen-derived compounds that pose a threat at even in low doses. She indicts nitrate-preserved foods like bacon – but also conventional agriculture. According to de la Monte, “We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture,” which are both taken up in food crops and also seep into drinking water.
De la Monte reports that incidence of the diseases in question – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and type 2 diabetes – have “all increased radically over the past several decades and show no sign of plateau.” According to de la Monte: Because there has been a relatively short time interval associated with the dramatic shift in disease incidence and prevalence rates, we believe this is due to exposure-related rather than genetic etiologies. The press release adds: The findings indicate that while nitrogen-containing fertilizer consumption increased by 230 percent between 1955 and 2005, its usage doubled between 1960 and 1980, which just precedes the insulin-resistant epidemics the researchers found. They also found that sales from the fast food chain and the meat processing [industry] increased more than 8-fold from 1970 to 2005, and grain consumption increased 5-fold.
To me, the study stands as a pretty damning indictment of industrial agriculture – and in particular efforts to extend its alleged benefits to the global South. Hey, grow more food with our agrichemicals – and melt your brains and become dependent on pharmaceutical insulin in the process! It bears remembering, too, that industrial agriculture’s reliance on synthetic fertilizer contributes significantly to climate change and coastal dead zones.
Organic agriculture, meanwhile, relies on slow-release fertilizers that don’t get taken up as readily by plants, leaving lower residue levels in food. And because organic agriculture builds carbon in soil, it also tends to hold nitrogen better, not letting it leach into soil or air nearly as much.
It sucks that major media isn’t going to grab on to this one like they did to the UK report. For me, I could care less if organic is actually better for you or not, its all about the environmental impact. And if you look at total health cost of one versus the other, organic fairly obviously comes out on top. Maybe not in ALL cases. but certainly most of the time.
This study did not take into account the pesticides used in conventional food production; 70% of which are know carcinogens. It also only looked at the minimum amount of macro nutrients, completely discounting micronutrients and anti-oxidants.—HELLO!
The study reflects the same tunnel vision thinking of food scientists who, in the 40-50’s removed Omega’s(mostly 3’s) from food for greater shelf life and the proponents (oil corporation scientists and Fed’s) of chemical based conventional farming, stopped almost all “annual re-mineralization and micronutient supplementation” of crop fields as well as fallowing in every farm in America!
Food Science and the Fed’s deemed minerals and micronutrients not needed because plants only need the nutrients N, P, and K to live. Notice the key word is live. I could live on fast food, but I would not thrive and I would have health issues.
With the use of petroleum based fertizers and pesticides the current produce at your local Ralph’s has only 10 to 50% of nutritional value of the produce your grandparents ate as a child. This is because the fields were remineralized and left fallow or in rest for a portion of the year when your grandpa was a kid.
It is extremely to easy to buy local organic food. You can go once a week or buy green produce saving bags and go only a week. You can go to one of the many certified farmers markets in OC, SD, LA and Riverside Counties. Most growers are honest. TALK to the grower, befriend them. Tell them your food fears and ask them to explain their farm practices. Use your gut and soul, you will know true person of character. But as far farmers go…the good ones come in all shapes & sizes and looks. Some of the best food I have ever had has come from the roughest looking farmers in smallest stands.
Exercises for lower back pain…
[…]Organic Produce Under Attack « Dr. Gina's Blog[…]…

domain: agronomy


text: I love pineapples almost as much as I love target. Over the weekend, I decided to spice up my mani with a little pineapple fun. Summer weather is finally here, and I was feeling festive. I got a no-chip manicure on Wednesday and decided to add the pineapple over the weekend. For the no chip I chose OPI Toucan Do It If You Try the statement nail is OPI Alpine Snow. I used basic acrylic paints to paint the pineapple and it was SUPER easy!

domain: hobby


Tech Expertise: High Availability SolutionsWe build high load and availability architectures, powered by the most efficient technologies available.
Explore our High Availability Systems expertise
High Availability allows globally distributed companies to be able to handle any system, application or data load. We design reliable, efficient, and scalable software that handles large volumes of data requests and backend computational resources.
Our highly skilled development teams have absorbed extensive experience in building high-load systems that deal with a big volume of server requests. CodeCoda’s software engineers design thorough software architectures, which are optimized for performance. Whether it is a web site or a restful API with hundreds of thousands of visitors and requests - we build the right scalable and reliable solution to power it up and shape it into a truly global accessible system.
We're not in an
anymore. We're in the
information management age.
We build and design robust architectures that consider all common issues related to high load systems. The software we develop runs on systems leverage technologies with the smallest response latencies. Technologies, used to build such infrastructures, include Apache, Nginx, or cloud-native edge routers such as Traefik. The Applications or APIs built include ultra-fast response programming languages such as Python, Java, NodeJS, ReactJS, React Native and others.
High Load tech stack
Over the years, our dedicated teams have amassed substantial experience with a diverse technology stack. This enables us to power high-load solutions. Our experience in building highly streamlined server infrastructures, on-site or in the cloud, enable us to deploy state of the art solutions. Combining server-side knowledge with our expertise in custom software development achieves the best results together. We deliver high-load systems end-to-end.
By focusing on load balancing, both physical or emulated, we achieve fault-tolerant solutions, which can handle a maximum number of connections with short application response times. High availability is the most significant cornerstone of high-load systems, which we have built for the Fintech, TelCo, Gaming and Media industries. CodeCoda's system architects use the latest technologies to achieve zero downtime. This allows for applications that are deployed in high load infrastructures to be available 24/7/365.
Added Value of High Load Systems
CodeCoda strives to add value to our clients' operative business. High Availability and Load systems designed by us guarantee zero downtime and lowest response latencies.
Many providers and integrators guarantee an uptime of 99%. 1% downtime might seem a little. But start counting. 1% downtime of your business corresponds to 87.6 hours per year or 3.65 days per year. Are you really willing to give up on revenue for almost 4 days? We offer the following services - and - guarantee a 100% uptime to systems developed and deployed by CodeCoda end-to-end.
High Load Architecture Design
High Performance Apps and APIs
Refactoring of current infrastructures
System Support and Upgrade
Performance and stress testing
How High Availability solutions are delivered
End-to-end implementation from infrastructure to high availability custom software solutions.
We architecture systems from the ground up, using cutting-edge tools to achieve the lowest possible access latencies. Software, which is designed by our experienced Software Engineers, and deployed on High-load infrastructures, performs better and achieves zero downtime.
We guarantee a 100% uptime on systems designed by us and deployed according to industry standards in the cloud, across datacenter regions. Zero Downtime stands for 100% availability of our clients' online services and is particularly important in the Banking, Fintech, and eCommerce industry.
CodeCoda system architects make use of the most efficient processes to deliver state of the art solutions to our clients. How does it work:
Analysis / Requirements
We work with our clients to analyze and devise in the best possible way to tackle particular problems. Requirements include a detailed description of the solution.
Our preliminary pipeline facilitates continuous integration and timely delivery. This solution works on a minimal infrastructure base and allows measurements as pragmatic as the real thing.
Our full scaling solutions happen on-site or in the cloud. We can even build solutions in hybrid environments, or across multiple cloud providers.
We develop the software solution according to our clients' specifications and requirements, taking load and execution times into account. Too slow? We pull the strings until we reach the minimum latency.
Testing and QA
CodeCoda QA engineers thoroughly test the solution before deploying it. This way we can see how the infrastructure shapes at an early stage.
The process is continued until the full solution is delivered and tested. We are now able to scale up and down, and emulate a high load before setting the solution into production environments.
Advantages of High Load Systems
Performance and Efficiency
Tuning of infrastructure and software
Performance and Efficiency
Our teams create high-load applications that successfully handle a variety of performance challenges. We design system architectures that maintain high computing speeds and uninterrupted services with short response times. Our experts use load balancing and cloud computing capacities for efficient operations and real-time data processing.
Working 24/7/365 with no down time
High-load systems built by CodeCoda are ready to perform under pressure. We build architectures that handle component failures, such as software crashes and network outages, to ensure the high availability of user applications at any given time. Our goal is zero downtime, which is vital for almost any industry.
Scaling when connections scale. Automated!
Our Software Product Development teams build robust applications that can scale up or down according to current traffic demands - automatically! Scalable systems can handle a growing amount of load and user interactions without the need to get administrators involved.
High Load Systems Tech Stack
Tools, Programming Languages, Servers and Databases we use to achieve high load systems and zero downtime.


text:
This event ended on July 12, 2023 9:10 PM +06
Wednesday Jul 12, 2023 hours 21:10 (UTC +06:00)
Everyone looks forward to lunch because it offers more than simply a break from work or school. Lunchtime has special meaning. It's a critical period that can affect the remainder of our day and our level of energy, productivity, and general wellness. Due to its potential influence on our daily lives, this phenomena, often known as the "lunchtime outcome," has been drawing attention.
The Lunchtime Result: Understanding
The outcome of our midday meal decisions is referred to as the lunchtime result. It concerns how the lunchtime meal we eat can either feed us for the rest of the day or cause an afternoon slump. In particular around the middle of the day, the idea emphasizes the value of mindful eating and nutrition.
Results and productivity at lunch
It is obvious that our lunchtime decisions affect how productive we are in the afternoon. We can stay alert and focused by eating a balanced meal that is high in protein, good fats, and complex carbohydrates. In contrast, a meal high in simple carbs or sugars might result in a quick rise in blood sugar levels followed by a subsequent drop, which can produce weariness and poor focus.
A British Journal of Health Psychology study indicated that people who ate more fruits and vegetables were happier, more engaged, and more creative than people who did not. research highlights This is how a wholesome lunch helps to increase productivity.
Health and Ltimeunch Result
Additionally, the midday outcome has important health ramifications. Regularly eating nutrient-rich foods at lunch can aid in maintaining a healthy weight, lowering the chance of developing chronic diseases, and enhancing general wellness. A diet high in processed or fast meals, on the other hand, can result in weight gain, a higher risk of diseases like diabetes and heart disease, as well as poorer mental health.
According to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, those who eat their biggest meal at lunch tend to lose more weight than those who eat their biggest meal later in the day. According to this research, the time of our meals may be just as significant as the food itself.
The PowerConscious Eating
To get the best benefits during lunch, mindful eating is essential. This technique entails paying close attention to every aspect of eating, including the flavor and texture of the meal as well as emotions of hunger and fullness. Eating consciously helps us appreciate our food more, consume less, and choose healthier foods, which improves our performance and well-being.
Tips for Improving Lunchtime Result
Planning and deliberate decision-making are necessary to get better lunchtime results. Consider the following tactics:
1. Meal planning: Make sure your lunches are balanced and nourishing by planning them in advance. Additionally, doing so can lessen the temptation to choose unhealthy fast meals and save time.
2. Portion Control: Watch your portions to prevent overeating.
3. Variety: Incorporate a selection of items into your lunch to guarantee you're getting a variety of nutrients.
4. Hydrate: Make sure you receive enough water. Fatigue and lowered cognitive function can result from dehydration.
5. Mindful Eating: Use mindful eating to appreciate your food to the fullest and identify when you are satisfied.
The lunchtime finding, in conclusion, is a potent idea that can affect our productivity and health. Making thoughtful, nutritious lunchtime decisions can help us nourish our bodies and minds for the remainder of the day, improving our performance and general wellbeing.
If the email address you entered is the one you registered with, we will shortly send you an email with all the information to reset your password.

domain: health


text:
Flashback… 1960 my father buys land in a pasture that is a half mile from a river. Going on good information he and mom start building their future weekend home on the side of a hill. With plans that they found in a magazine the project of their lifetime started. The front yard slightly sloping to the edge of the property line…a pasture with meandering cows. Up goes a retaining wall, a dock, boat house, and sidewalk along the retaining wall. Sounds strange doesn’t it? Well not if you have insight into what’s about to happen just a few years down the road. The river that seems so far away in the distance will soon be damned up by the electric company and the water will back right up to the retaining wall. What was once just a funny looking property with a boathouse and dock in the middle of a pasture will soon be waterfront property. The place where we will go each weekend to relax and spend summers once school is out.
Fast forward 50 years…that’s what I want to do. Over the past couple of years I’ve had this feeling like I wanted somewhere to go, to just get away, like we did when I was growing up. One of my aunts and uncles have a cabin that they travel to on the weekends too. Being retired they are able to come and go as they want. Is it crazy that I’d like to have the same? Sometimes with the stress that comes with both our jobs I think that a weekend away might give us that relief we’re searching for.
I’ll keep searching and maybe one day before we’re too old to enjoy find a chunk of land somewhere. It’s a good time to look for something since we’ve knocked out all our bills except for utilities, mortgage and food! The search is on… and if it turns into a piece of land that we camp on in the beginning…that’s just fine with me! Ok…100F temps may factor in, but that’s what portable A/C units are for right?

domain: geography


text:
Wrapping up, Show Me Your Cover!
Well we are done! I want to thank all the authors who shared their covers with Karen’s Different Corners. Click on their name and it will take you to their post here on my blog.
A Big round of applause for the authors!
And Now for The Cover Designers
It has been brought to my attention that I missed two very important people in the cover designers and I have added them below. I do apologize. If there is anyone else that I have missed, please let me know and I will update! Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. Talk soon.
Erin Dameron-Hill Chelsea Starling
Timothy Burch Matt Maguire
I loved all of the covers! Every one was unique and special in its own way. I still don’t judge a book by its cover though 🙂
And if you are going to design your own cover, my advice is to make your cover as unique as you are. I know a cover is supposed to represent your story, but make sure you add something special to represent who you are, whether it be the color you choose, the title, or a photo you’ve taken, make the cover your own! And last but not least here are a few helpful links.
Looking for photos for your cover?
And for designing the cover and working with your images;
Well that’s it. 🙂 Hugs and thank you to all who participated. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be taking a blogging break for a couple of weeks, so I can get some much needed writing and reading done and I’ve updated all of my blogs, so if you get bored, there are plenty of things to see and do at each one! (Well, I still have one more post to finish for my newest blog)
Here are the links,
And my newest one needs some love! And I am having a contest there. Check it out and you could win a $10 Amazon gift card!

domain: artistic


text:
Toward the end of his life, Leo Tolstoy turned away from artifice, including the fiction of his own novels. It stands to reason, then, that he would find the latest adaptation of Anna Kareninaespecially disappointing. Told partly as a staged production (call it “Imperial Russia 1874”), director Joe Wright’s interpretation emphasizes the staginess of the lives of privileged aristocrats—a version of the royalty-as-rock-stars device—and how the glare of this spotlight accelerates the disintegration of Anna (Keira Knightley), a woman who sacrifices everything for love. There are beautiful interludes in this concept, but since the entire film is visually ravishing, they don’t matter. And more often than not, the stage, whether it be the ballrooms of high society or the opulent manor that Anna shares with her bureaucrat husband (Jude Law), acts as a gimmick: a setting and nothing more for sumptuous a misé-en-scene that gets in the way of the action.
And though the film is in constant, elegant motion, it seems as though not much really happens, and not just because Tolstoy’s dialogue has been pared (by playwright Tom Stoppard) to the barest essentials. It’s all about the spectacle, such as the first dance between Anna and rich, handsome cavalry officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson); or Oblonsky (Matthew MacFaydyn) blithely returning home to his wife Dolly (Kelly MacDonald) after a scandalous affair; or Vronsky’s accident during a horse race. The race occurs onstage, as a clunky metaphor for how the men compete for the ladies’ favor, and yes, it’s disastrously silly. Diminished in all this stagecraft is that Anna herself is the spectacle of society, once her affair with Vronsky becomes common knowledge.
Back to that first dance, which is, like all of the lovers’ encounters, both sweeping and annoying. Anna wears a black gown with silver jewelry, while Vronsky’s jilted amour, Kitty (Alicia Vikander), is a vision in white with pink ribbons (black swan white swan). Anna and Vronsky fall in love while waltzing, their arms and hands plaiting and undulating. As the mood becomes delirious, the other dancers freeze like statues—because Anna and Vronsky exist only for each other, an emotional intoxication expressed gloriously by the brilliant dance choreography. It’s not the only time the other characters are flash frozen, as Wright piles on the symbolism until the floorboards almost groan under the weight of the obvious.
This is Knightley’s third film with Wright, after Atonement and Pride & Prejudice; and she is no more memorable than in the previous films. All the leads are competent though not compelling, with the most incisive moments coming from three actresses, all with experience in period dramas, in small roles. They are Olivia Williams as Vronsky’s haughty mother, Michelle Dockery as an even haughtier princess, and Ruth Wilson as decadent Princess Betsy. These performances are like finely etched cameos standing out from a sea of silks and satins.
Wright’s mannered flourishes are effective though unimaginative, while the juxtaposition of high society with the naturalistic cinematography of farm life—as Levin (Domhnall Gleson) returns to the countryside with a broken heart—comes across as both welcome relief from the contrived art direction and a lack of bravura on the director’s part for not keeping it all of a piece, despite the noticeable influence of Stoppard’s Shakespeare in Love.
In between salon and farm is the repeated image of a train pulling into the station pushing a ton of snow in front of the engine. It’s an apt one, though probably not for the reason that Wright intended.

domain: entertainment


text:
CHANDLER, Ariz. (FOX 10) - Police say a patrol officer has been hospitalized following a three-vehicle crash in Chandler.
According to the Chandler Police Department, the crash happened Friday morning at the intersection of Ray Road and Arizona Avenue.
After the crash, police say the officer was conscious and was able to communicate with the dispatch center through his car radio.
The officer was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Other people involved in the crash suffered minor injuries.

domain: law


text:
Leading into last night's Super Bowl, Hamilton's original Aaron Burr, Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr., performed a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful." Backed by large choir, the performance featured sign language interpretation by Alexandria Wailes, who served as associate choreographer for Deaf West's Broadway production of Spring Awakening.
Before his performance, Odom Jr. announced that a recorded version of the song would be released for purchase. Click here to download.
Share via Email
Don't show this again.


text:
Comedian W. Kamau Bell will try to contend with the legacy of Bill Cosby in light of the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him in a new four-part docuseries, We Need to Talk About Cosby.
It’s been almost eight years since Bill Cosby was hit with dozens of sexual misconduct allegations, and three since he went to jail. (He’s since been released.) But though his actions have been relentlessly reported on, we as a society have never had a serious conversation about how to deal with his unique legacy. It seems that is exactly what we’re getting with W. Kamau Bell’s forthcoming docuseries We Need to Talk About Cosby.
The trailer dropped on Monday, along with the news that it will arrive on Showtime on Jan. 30, on week after it debuts at the Sundance Film Festival. Over four segments, Bell will examine someone who was more than a popular comic. Cosby changed the culture, turning a show about a comfortable, upper middle class African-American family into one of TV’s biggest smashes.
“I am a child of Bill Cosby,” Bell says in the trailer. “I’m a Black man, a stand-up comic, born in the ‘70s. Bill Cosby had been one of my heroes. But this…”, he says over images of him having his mug shot taken, “…this was f*cked up.” He adds, “What do we do about everything we knew about Bill Cosby and what we know now?”
In a statement, Bell acknowledges the difficulty of wrestling with someone who did so much to advance Black voices in mainstream with someone who was accused of various forms of misconduct by over 60 women, some incidents dating back some six decades.
It will debut at Sundance on Jan. 22 and premiere on Showtime on Jan. 30.
You can watch the trailer for We Need to Talk About Cosby below.

domain: sociology


Beer is far from the worst beverage you could be craving while out on a tough ride. While you're actually riding, water or hydration mix is probably still your best bet, but SockGuy's IPA 6in Wool Socks at least let you keep your eye on what you're working towards. Made with a 50/50 blend of merino wool and synthetic polypropylene fibers, the material allows the socks to be stronger than wool and provide better insulation and temperature management than polyester blends alone. Your hardworking feet will get moisture management throughout your ride, while you get a little extra encouragement to pedal through those intervals a little faster than usual.
- TurboWOOL (50% merino wool, 50% polypropylene)
- 6 in
- Manufacturer Warranty
- 1 year


text:
Minecraft party - kids can make perler bead heads
For crochet squares. Minecraft designs for Fractions decimals and percentage Level a- color three different colors, write a fraction for each color you chose Level b-create a robot with green blue red. Level c-create a robot green blue red.
They are minecraft mad at the moment.


The first step in creating a wonderful garden is to prepare the soil. Doing this by hand is extremely time-consuming and laborious, so locate the finest rear-tine garden cultivator if you want to attain the greatest results in the quickest amount of time. Today, we’ll look at the most worthy models and see which one best meets your demands and expectations.
Compare The Best Rear Tine Tillers
|Item/Characteristics||Tilling width||Tilling Depth||Type of fuel||Dimensions||Weight||Type of engine||Gears|
|Husqvarna CRT900L, 17 in. 12.51cc Briggs & Stratton Rear-Tine Tiller, CARB||17 in||Up to 7 in||Usual gas||48 x 24 x 35 inches||212 pounds||Briggs & Stratton engine||Forward and reverse, neutral|
|Southland SRTT196E||11 in||10 in||Usual gas||44 x 120 x 18 inches||176 pounds||Chinese 2 and 4 cycle gas engine||Forward and reverse|
|Yard Machines 208cc Rear Tine Tiller||18 in||12 in||Usual gas||49.8 x 24 x 29 inches||185 pounds||Powermore||Forward and reverse|
|Troy-Bilt Pro-Line CRT Counter Rotating Rear Tine Tiller||16 in||6 in||Usual gas (ethanol-free fuel is recommended)||49.9 x 22.7 x 28.5 inches||171 pounds||160cc Honda GC160 engine||Forward and reverse (no neutral)|
|Craftsman 29932 18″ 208cc Dual Direction Tine Tiller||18 in||Up to 7.5 in||Usual gas||N/A||262 pounds||208cc OHV Craftsman® engine||Forward and reverse|
|Poulan Pro PPCRT17, 17 in. 208cc Counter Rotating Rear-Tine Tiller||17 in||Up to 7 in||Usual gas||48 x 23.5 x 32.9 inches||240 pounds||LCT Over Head Valve Engine||Forward and reverse|
|Earthquake 6015V Rear Tine Rototiller with 212cc 4-Cycle Viper Engine, 5 Year Warranty||N/A||Up to 5 in||Usual gas||49.8 x 21.3 x 50.5 inches||145 pounds||4-Cycle Viper Engine||Forward and reverse|
|Champion 19-Inch Dual Rotating Rear Tine Tiller with Self-Propelled Agricultural Tires||19 in||8 in||Usual gas||58.7 x 20.9 x 22 inches||160.9 pounds||212cc engine||Forward and reverse|
|YARDMAX YT4565 Dual Rotating Rear Tine Tiller, 208Cc, Briggs & Stratton||18 in||6.5 in||Usual gas||N/A||238 pounds||Briggs & Stratton engine||Forward and reverse|
How Did We Select and Put Rear Tine Tillers to the Test?
Choosing the best rear tine tiller 2022 was a difficult work since the market provides hundreds of types, each with its own set of features and equipment. To choose the top 10 machines, we looked at engine strength, component durability, speed, noise level, convenience and control choices, and application domains. User feedback assisted us in weeding out worthless versions, and here it is – the top ten rear tine tillers for expert gardeners.
The Top Ten Rear Tine Tillers
Find the ideal model for your garden by comparing machine specifications, benefits, and disadvantages.
Husqvarna CRT900L, 17 in. 12.51cc Briggs & Stratton Rear-Tine Tiller, CARB
This machine has a wide operating breadth and is ideal for routine tasks such as cultivation, ridging, and ploughing. The Husqvarna rear tine tiller features a fast rotation speed for working in the most difficult sections of your yard. It features a Briggs and Stratton engine with forward and reverse gears for easier passing. There is both a chain and a gear transmission.
In our view,
Because of its enormous working breadth, this machine is ideal for treating a big area. The price is well justified by the quality.
- large working depth;
- easy to start;
- both reverse and forward gears are included.
- some parts aren’t reliable.
Use this gas tiller on the most difficult terrain. The Southland rear tine tiller is simple to construct and use. It includes an easy-to-use control mechanism and increases passing ability by crushing the dirt it comes into touch with. Adjustable 11-inch self-sharpening tines are included, as is a convenient gear-driven system with forward and backward motion. The machine’s 13-inch pneumatic tires enable it to be used on even the most difficult terrain. The machine is CARB compliant and has a 2-year guarantee.
It’s a good alternative for plowing and agriculture, but critics say it’s difficult to operate and maneuver. Only powerful males should utilize it.
- strong and fast;
- easy in assembly;
- self-sharpening tines.
- hard to move and control;
- has only one gear for everything.
Yard Machines 208cc Rear Tine Tiller
Yard machine rear tine tiller is ideal for small and medium-sized yards, with 18-inch tilling width and a 6-inch adjustable depth. There is a handle length adjustment, and the item is lightweight and simple to use. 12-inch steel tiles are long-lasting, and a 22-inch tine shield quickly digs into the dirt. It is possible to rotate both forward and backward. is covered by a two-year warranty.
A durable 13″ tire machine designed for soil preparation in medium-sized gardens. Yard Machine rear tine tiller evaluations indicate that it offers a wonderful price/quality ratio, and consumers are very delighted with this option.
- optimal price/quality ratio;
- wide tilling width.
- we haven’t found them yet.
Troy-Bilt Pro-Line CRT Counter Rotating Rear Tine Tiller
Pay attention to the Troy Bilt rear tine tiller if you want a machine with a high-quality engine that will last a long time. It is powered by a high-performance Honda engine and has a cast-iron gearbox with bronze gear drive. The tiller has a 16-inch tilling width, a 17-inch shield, and a 6-inch tilling depth, which is sufficient for ploughing a medium or small-sized garden. The machine includes a recoil start for easy operation, making it very user-friendly. If this metal behemoth breaks, the manufacturer will fix it: it comes with a 2-year guarantee.
A long-lasting machine with a dependable build, although it works slowly and is best suited for small gardens.
- quiet engine;
- made of reliable materials;
- great tilling width.
- no neutral gear;
- too slow.
Craftsman 29932 18″ 208cc
You’ve got a lot to accomplish in the uncultivated soil of the garden? The Craftsman rear tine tiller was built for heavy-duty work: it will quickly break through clay thick soil with tiny boulders and subterranean roots. The machine is quite simple to use – its patented engine offers a faultless experience, and the 18″ tile width speeds up the cultivation process. To top it all off, the machine has self-sharpening tines and dual rotation, as well as big pneumatic tires that allow it to navigate particularly tough terrain.
This is an excellent option for dealing with weeds, sand, and stones in hard soil. Choose this item if you are prepared to properly maintain it.
- large pneumatic tires;
- great tile width;
- adjustable construction.
- problems with shifting;
- some parts go loose.
Poulan Pro PPCRT17, 17 in. 208cc Counter Rotating Rear-Tine Tiller
The equipment would work well on both big and small gardens. It is simple to use: the tines readily break up hard and dry uncultivated soil. The Poulan rear tine tiller’s design enables it to be used in both forward and backward mode, and it may be operated with one hand. A high-quality engine produces a lot of power and works smoothly.
This tine tiller does not distinguish out in any way: it has contradicting customer evaluations but is typically dependable.
- sturdy construction;
- easy start and fast speed.
- can be delivered with some parts missing;
- too expensive.
Earthquake 6015V Rear Tine Rototiller with 212cc 4-Cycle Viper Engine
Women and teens should use this gadget since it is lightweight and easy to manage, although it does not plow the ground very deeply. The Earthquake rear tine tiller has a six-position adjustable handle and a length regulator. Its pneumatic wheels provide exceptional cross-country capability as well as optimal speed.
The only time you should think about this model is if a tiny person would be using it (compact size is its main advantages). In reality, it does not cost that much, and there are stronger options that are $200-300 less expensive.
- compact and lightweight;
- adjustable construction.
- can break easily;
- ploughs and processes ground worse than analogs;
- too expensive.
Champion 19-Inch Dual Rotating Rear Tine Tiller with Self-Propelled Agricultural Tires
Gardeners looking for a low-cost rear tine tiller should consider the Champion 19″ tine tiller. It is made of heavy-duty cast iron and has dual rotation. The vehicle effortlessly tackles difficult terrain and comes with a 2-year guarantee. What distinguishes it? It’s inexpensive yet highly effective.
This model offers the best price/quality ratio, but it is not the most convenient solution so far.
- sturdy metal construction.
- tires are poorly made;
- hard to push forwards.
YARDMAX YT4565 Dual Rotating Rear Tine Tiller, 208Cc, Briggs & Stratton
The Yardmax tine tiller, one of the most powerful versions, has a rotating speed of 190 rpm and an easily adjustable design, making it a complete garden care solution. It is lightweight and can be used with one hand. Self-sharpening tines can operate with any type of soil, and 13″ pneumatic wheels readily traverse difficult uneven terrain. It goes without saying that a dependable, long-lasting Briggs & Stratton engine is required.
According to rear tine tiller evaluations, this is an excellent model that more than justifies its price.
- reliable and strong;
- great price/quality ratio;
- optimal tilling width.
- doesn’t work well on completely new soil and can slide on wet soil.
Conclusion and Our Recommendations
We discovered that the price is far from the most important consideration in this option after examining the wide range of available rear tine tillers. A low-cost Ariens rear tine tiller, for example, falls short of users’ expectations. It is easily broken up and difficult to operate. Avoid tine tillers powered by Chinese engines since they aren’t built to work in really hard soil.
The bulk of the tine tillers we discussed cost approximately $700. This is a fair price that ensures you’ll have durable, dependable equipment at your disposal. We strongly suggest taking a look at the Yard Machines 208cc Rear Tine Tiller. This model offers the best price/quality ratio and has shown to be durable. Do you want a lightweight model? Women and teens, according to Earthquake rear tine tiller reviews, can easily operate this gear. Its quality, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.
While most rear tine tillers have 3.5 HP engines and are used in typical residential backyards, big areas should be treated with an industrial tine tiller that has a 5HP or greater motor. You will prepare the soil for outstanding harvesting outcomes with the assistance of an appropriate solution!
===> Find Even More Related Good Ideas ===>
Other Garden Enthusiast Are Reading:
- Best 10 Herbicide Of 2022 For Maintaining A Clean & Healthy Yard Reviewed
- Chipper Shredder Reviews 2022 – Best Electric Yard Machines For Composting
- All You Need To Know Before Your Garden Sprayer Purchase: The Essential And Convenient Plant Maintenance Tool FAQs 2022
✅ Outdoor Garden Design And Tips
- Beginner’s Guide To Mastering Garden Shears 2022: Tips On Safety, Selection, Maintenance And More
- How To Find Your Car In Giant Outdoor Parking Lots When No-one Else Could – How We Laughed!
- Calling Everyone With A Small To Tiny Garden
✅ Indoor Design And Tips
- The Best Grow Box To Cultivate As A Pro Reviewed 2022: Incubate Your Perfect Indoor Greenery Garden
- The Best Mosquito Trap 2022 Reviewed: Keeping Pests At Bay By Baiting Them According To Your Needs
- Add A Burst Of Colour: The Hydrangea Colour Wheel Dining Sets
✅ Even More Great Products
- Make Your Summer Fantastic: Choose The Best Combo Smoker Grill 2022 For Family Barbeque
- Lawn Sweeper Buyer’s Guide: 2022 Review And How To Choose The Best One To Meet Your Needs
- Best 10 Patio Heaters Review 2022: The Ultimate Guide On Keeping You Warm Outdoors
✅ Sustainable Lifestyle Products And Tips


text:
Harlan Ellison's classic 1969 science fiction novella 'A Boy and His Dog' is one of the funniest but ultimately grimmest post-apocalyptic stories ever written, in my opinion. And while it is not a zombie story, it certainly has some of the same tropes -- man emerging as his own worst enemy, social breakdown, survivors hunkering down in a presumed safe spot, monsters spawned by the end times and so on.
The plot concerns a teen-aged survivor named Vic and his genetically engineered, military trained telepathic companion -- an intelligent dog named Blood. Vic narrates the tale but Blood is the brains of the pair (you might say he is the tail that wags the dog).
The two are on a quest for supplies, but Vic is after the scarcest commodity of all -- females. They come into conflict with brigands and eventually wind up discovering an underground bunker where a mockery of the former middle America is maintained. Everything culminates in a brutally tragic ending.
There is a film adaption by L.Q. Jones starring a younger Don Johnson. Many people like it but I feel that it blunts the tragedy of the original story by resorting to gallows humor as a concession to hipness. It also lacks the story's attention to detail -- my favorite bit from the print version involves a theater run by a local gang where the audience includes more of the telepathic dogs -- the pooches are critiquing a war film about a battle in which some of them had fought.
Ellison also wrote a sequel titled 'Vic and Blood' in which the dog narrates the story.
This tale, which can be found in Ellison's short story collection 'The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World', is worth your time. Check it out.
(Editor's note: our review of the rpg 'Outbreak: Undead' can be found here).