The U.S. military was "effective" because:
After losing in Vietnam they never picked on a country that teeth to bite back.
They had allies that would follow them into their shit stirring and fill in the gaps in their support structure.
Had semi-qualified and only moderately corrupt military leadership.
This year they picked a fight with someone that could bite back. Pissed off their allies with trade wars. Installed extremely corrupt and incompetent leadership.
I sincerely doubt there is any significant number of former Wagner personnel left at this point. An 80% casualty rate per assault and multiple years of war is a brutal statiatic. There might be a few in those divisions today, but they likely spent time in other units for the past few years where it was safer.
It's a penal division of expendables being sent to their deaths.
They probably have to use several clips each to damage the drown enough to drop.
Oh look, another paper that uses broad assumptions and models while excluding some obvious outliers to their theory.
The paper claims: Maximum growing season temp of 33C.
What about the 1/2 million acres of rice grown in California? Where the average temperature is 33C and a maximum temp is regularly over 40C. It also has some of the highest rice production per acre in the world.
Broken or just stubbed?
Hold on, you got a old broken tractor that hasn't moved in 15 years up and running... You are seriously in the wrong spot. Nothing dull here.
That's a really cool photo. That hit looks to have done a ton of damage. There is spilled oil surrounding several tanks and out past the barriers. That could have easily caught fire and done more damage after the photo was taken.
Tax refunds act as forced savings for many people. It's not a good way to save as the government pays no interest on the savings. The the people then blow the money immediately on major purchases or paying down debt buildup.
Personally, I always tried to make it so that I didn't get a tax return. I always figured it cost me significant money in cash flow through the year. Always pissed me off to overpay in taxes when I could have used the money for critical things I needed during the year.
I use the agricultural suppliers for most of the basics: compost, potting mix, fertilizer etc. If you can store the larger quanties it is much cheaper. The last 1,000lbs of compost was $80.
For little things like pots etc, shop around. They sometimes are at places you wouldn't expect. The best pots are not at the nursery but at a local home decor place. I got some nice ones a few years ago at my local grocery store.
The best seedling flats are at the hydroponic store where the clerks have red eyes..
My wife's fluffy white dog I drive around with for work. He likes to eat higher moisture corn and cow shit.
For silage corn the entire plant is harvested, chopped up, and packed tightly in a pile and covered with plastic or very large plastic bag. This creates an anaerobic conditions and yeasts/bacteria convert the sugars to alcohol, then acids. This acid preserves the feed for cattle for up to 2 years.
Silage corn is the most common base feed for all dairies and feedlots.
This isn't even the tallest variety out there. There are others that are 3' (1m) taller.
The machine with the spout is a chopper. They are a million dollar gigantic woodchipper. These things are fucking terrifying and you should absolutely stay out the field when they are running. Every so often a deer jumps into them.....shudder.... nightmare fuel.
Early in the season before a corn plant is waist high it takes a guess on how many kernals it can fill. Sometimes it guesses wrong and so it aborts the top kernals to fill the rest.
The entire top of the damn plant turns bright red.
As sugars build up in the top of the plant with no place to be transported to, the upper leaves start to turn bright red and die back.
You may get a bar bell ear or there may be no ear on the plant. In of field of millions of plants a bright red top narrows the search down.
Start getting your pinky in shape with this weird environmental triggered trait. It's easy to find in any corn field (to be continued...).
This right here is 350bu/acre of corn. 113 day variety on an almost pure sand field. Every damn ear looked the same. Look at that beauty, every kernal is huge and dense.
This here is trichoderma ear rot in an organic field. This 100 day variety was chewed on by an earworm. The damaged kernals allowed trichderma to enter and infect the ear. This ear rot produces many toxins and is a big no for consumption.
The twist - Trichoderma is usually a beneficial organism in the soil. It feeds on other pathogenic fungus/bacteria and is applied extensively for biological control.
Although normally a secondary pathogen, it has mutated to become a primary pathogen in both Italy and Germany in recent years.
This here is a genetically susceptible 113 day variety to fusarium kernal rot. This is a nasty little fungus that produces all sorts of mycotoxins that can give any mammal that consumes it a belly ache or even death. It's easily identifiable by the white streaks in causes in the kernals.
This 98 day little minx has a flirty pink cob. It doesn't look like much but it packs quite the wallop. The ears posted yielded 302bu. Medium high ear placement and a fast drydown makes this an excellent choice for grain.
This is pretty little 102 day number with a bright white cob that threshes very easily. It does extremely well for dry grain, high moisture grain or earlage.
The field in this picture averaged 305bu.
Probably the easiest plant to care for once you figure it out.
I water it every month or two. Fertilize it every 2 or 3 years. Redirect the arial roots into the pot when I water.
It gets 3 hours of direct sunlight in the morning.
Every 5 or 6 years I haul it outside in the summer. Then leach the pot with the garden hose to remove the salt buildup. I also hack the plant back to a more manageable size.
They also need to remove the limited liability from companies for intentional illegal activities.
illegal business practices should be charged to the people involved instead of the company. The executives who made the decision to break the law lose personal assets.
Otherwise the shitheads just pass the company losses onto the employees: no raises, hiring freezes, layoffs, reduction in benefits, etc...
After the rapist Brock Turner was given a slap on the wrist, California passed mandatory sentencing for rape.
He was accused of 3 rapes but convicted of 2. He received the maximum sentencing for each.
His lawyers are likely going to fight the conviction constantly until the money runs dry.
My personal thought is the conviction is unlikely to be overturned but a sentence reduction is likely. So he got the maximum sentence. Danny will likely be behind bars for at least 6-10 years for his crimes.
How old and large is the plant?
The first few years as the plant mass grows you don't want to prune anything.
Once the plant is established, cutting the early vines helps with increasing and concentrating yield. Commercially the spray a dissicant on the early growth to knock them back.