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11/13/2004

Votergate Video :.

Take the worst case scenario and multiply it by 1000.


11/12/2004

Diebold Voting Machines Admin PIN Code "1111" :.

I couldn't make it up if I tried!

Rubin, his graduate students and a colleague from Rice University found other bugs, that the administrator's PIN code was "1111" and that one programmer had inserted, "This is just a hack for now."



Chip-Embedded Paper :.

Japanese company Oji Paper announced November 8 that it has jointly developed technology to embed semiconductor chips in paper during papermaking processes. This invention was co-developed with two other companies FEC Group and Toppan Forms.

According to the JCN network, the embedded chip is 0.5x0.5mm and comes with a built-in antenna for wireless transmission at frequencies of between 13.56MHz to 2.45GHz. This breakthrough technology enables mass production of chip-embedded paper.



The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die :.

The bottom line is that Dyn Corp aircraft are spraying RoundUp-Ready coca plants! Coca yields are higher than ever. The article seems to conclude that the plants were not genetically engineered, and that this happened through natural selection. But it just indicates that the plants don't use the RoundUp-Ready gene. There is a possibility that some other type of genetic manipulation has taken place, but that would take "groundbreaking" scientific research and development.

Well, when I asked a friend of mine how many geneticists could be purchased with $500 billion cash per year, he said, "All of them, and their mothers."

Just think about how convenient these circumstances are. Sure, maybe the coca farmers just got lucky. Maybe Mother Nature delivered a gift to them. I mean, anything is possible:

The war on Colombia's drug lords is losing ground to an herbicide-resistant supershrub. Is it a freak of nature - or a genetically modified secret weapon?



Melted Ice Caps = More Oil and Gas Drilling :.

Going off the rails on a crazy train:

An accelerating thaw of the Arctic may open vast regions for oil and gas exploration but that brings worries of spills in the fragile environment, experts said Thursday.

Research Credit: DS



MSNBC UNFURLS ON 2004 ELECTION FRAUD :.

This is not supposed to be happening. Appearances are not being maintained. Keith Olbermann is on fire!



CNN Poll: 90% Believe in 9/11 Cover-up :.

Nice one!



Data Recorders Required in All New Cars :.

Some safety and privacy experts are reacting with apprehension, others with all out condemnation over a recent ruling by the National Transportation Safety Board (search) to require electronic data recorders or "black boxes" in all new cars manufactured in the United States.



Repost: Tanks on the Streets of Los Angeles :.

Alex Jones has the video and several still images. The L.A. Times is running some nonsense about the armored vehicles being a part of some Veteran's Day parade. Oh yeah! Tell me another one. Two U.S. Marine fighting vehicles get lost on the streets of Westwood and park in front of a protest. Situation normal. Nothing to see here. Move along.



Falluja Rebels Use Primitive Communications Methods in Fight to the Death :.

The Iraqi insurgents have no command and control system... Well, almost no command and control system. Surrounded by the U.S. military, and running out of ammo, the insurgents are using flags to coordinate last ditch attacks.

The U.S. military is not only bristling with technology and the latest weaponry, it has the ability to re-supply its troops; unlike the insurgents, who are totally cut off inside Falluja.

Incredibly, men wearing t-shirts and flip flops and armed mostly with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are managing to kill U.S. soldiers, disable tanks and shoot down helicopter gunships.

The U.S. is spending $177 million per day to kill people who are running around in tattered clothes and using small arms!

There is no way the U.S. can win this war.

Forget the military futility of it. (And it is futile, consider France/Vietnam, France/Algeria, U.S./Vietnam, USSR/Afghanistan, Russia/Chechnya and dozens of smaller conflicts around the world.) The U.S. will bankrupt itself before it has a chance to wipe out the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S. loves to talk about asymmetric warfare. It's asymmetric alright... THE COSTS ARE ASYMMETRIC! What does it cost the "enemy" in Iraq to fight the United States? My guess is that it's less than $177 million per day! About $177 million less:

But these marines did see a black flag pop up all at once above a water tower about 100 yards away, then a second flag somewhere in the gloaming above a rooftop. And the shots began, in a wave this time, as men bobbed and weaved through alleyways and sprinted across the street. "He's in the road, he's in the road, shoot him!" Sergeant Brown shouted. "Black shirt!" someone else yelled. "Due south!"

The flags are the insurgents' answer to two-way radios, their way of massing the troops and - in a tactic that goes back at least as far as Napoleon - concentrating fire on an enemy. Set against radio waves, the flags have one distinct advantage: they are terrifying.

The insurgents are coordinating their attacks at a time when they have nowhere left to run. American forces have pushed south of Highway 10, the boulevard that runs east to west and approximately bisects Falluja. American intelligence officers believe that many of the insurgents have retreated as far as the Shuhada, a relatively modern residential area that is the southernmost neighborhood in Falluja.


11/11/2004

Off Topic: Assistance with Codec Hell

This request for assistance can be summed up in one sentence, so I'll cut to the chase for all the gearheads out there:

I want to start with an MPEG2/AC-3 file and wind up with an MPEG2/48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo file.

If you want to know more, read on:

I'm working on the documentary and I'm learning the technical aspects of digital filmmaking...the hard way. Actually, the only reason it's hard is because I'm using multiple media formats and codecs. If all of the footage was DV, this would be a snap.... Anyway, it's not, so here I am.

I'm using MainConcept's MPEG Pro plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro. This allows for native editing of MPEG2 clips. I'm pulling clips off the TV and the problem is that my DVD+RW recorder produces MPEG2 files that use AC-3 audio. THE MAINCONCEPT MPEG PRO PLUGIN does not support AC-3 audio. Of course.

So....

DVDDecrypter is a really handy tool. It allows me to easily demux the AC-3 audio stream from my DVD+RW MPEG2 files into a separate AC-3 file. I then use BeSweet to transcode the AC-3 file into a .wav. In Premiere, I sync up the audio and video separately.

This is a huge pain in the hole (even if the results are great), especially since I have to do this with lots of material.

Now, I know there's a better way to do this since I have one MPEG2 file with audio that just works! Yep. I import the file into PremierePro/MainConcept and the audio is right there. It works because this file doesn't use AC-3 audio. According to Premiere's clip properties, the file's Source Audio Format shows 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo.

Here's the question: Does anyone know of a tool that will allow me to transcode my DVD+RW MPEG2 files' AC-3 audio into 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo in one step? i.e. without having to demux, transcode and sync up the separate A/V files in Premiere??? <--- It sucks doing it this way.

Bottom line: MPEG2/AC-3 file in. MPEG2/48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo file out.

Something tells me VirtualDub-MPEG2mod might be able to do this, but if it can, I don't see how. Can DVDDecrypter do it somehow? Thanks for any assistance.

NOTE: It's not a matter of installing the AC-3 filter.



U.S. Dollar Drops to New All-Time Low :.

The U.S. dollar slumped to a new all-time low Wednesday against the euro, which briefly rose above $1.30 for the first time after data showed the U.S. trade deficit above $50 billion in September for the fourth straight month.


11/10/2004

Tanks at Anti-War Protest in Los Angeles :.

The End:

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location. Uploaded here is video from the event.



Grim Signs Mark Global Warming :.

Global warming has disrupted the lives of dozens of types of animals, birds and insects in the United States and will soon make the Arctic nearly unrecognizable, according to two reports released this week.

The reports document sweeping "you-can-see-them-with-your-own-eyes" ecological changes underway and offer dire predictions of massive species extinctions, an elevation of sea level by 3 feet and widespread disruptions to Earth's life-support systems.


11/9/2004

U.S. Marines: Religious Nuts Running the Nut House :.

"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."

- Colonel Gary Brandl, US Marines
President George W Bush is "reaching out" to Fallujah - the first major foreign policy initiative of the second Bush administration. The name: Operation Phantom Fury. The strategy: precision-strike democracy. The message: kill them all, and let God sort them out.

Former US intelligence asset turned prime minister without a parliament Iyad Allawi - widely known in Baghdad as "Saddam without a moustache" - has got himself another title: the Butcher of Fallujah. On Sunday, before co-launching with the Pentagon the biggest urban war since the storming of Hue in 1968 Vietnam, Allawi installed de facto martial law in Iraq for 60 days. Historians and political scientists are breathlessly trying to explain to the world that no democratic election can possibly be preceded by a state of siege.

To add insult to injury, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld is saying that Allawi is responsible for all major military decisions regarding Fallujah: only the Bible Belt may be gullible enough to believe that an Iraqi civilian without an army rules over the Pentagon. So it's the Vietnam tragedy all over again, replayed as farce - a biblical crusade in Mesopotamia. Those who learned their lessons from history know full well what happened after Hue.


Related: Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians



"Dude, Give Me the Sniper Rifle. I Can Take Them Out - I'm from Alabama." :.

After seven months in Iraq's Sunni triangle, for many American soldiers the opportunity to avenge dead friends by taking a life was a moment of sheer exhilaration.

As they approached their "holding position", from where hours later they would advance into the city, they picked off insurgents on the rooftops and in windows.

"I got myself a real juicy target," shouted Sgt James Anyett, peering through the thermal sight of a Long Range Acquisition System (LRAS) mounted on one of Phantom's Humvees.

"Prepare to copy that 89089226. Direction 202 degrees. Range 950 metres. I got five motherf****** in a building with weapons."

Capt Kirk Mayfield, commander of the Phantoms, called for fire from his task force's mortar team. But Sgt Anyett didn't want to wait. "Dude, give me the sniper rifle. I can take them out - I'm from Alabama."



Blogger Gets Night Visit from U.S. Secret Service :.

If this is what happens to a girl who usually writes about Harry Potter, I wonder what awaits me when They finally decide to punch my ticket...

I've noticed a couple of interesting things lately. Machines that don't resolve to any specific domain have been archiving every file on Cryptogon. All of it. (No, they're not robots.) Probably nothing... Additionally, on November 1st, there was a black SUV parked outside my house. The guy sitting in the vehicle alternated between watching my house and reading a newspaper. This went on for about two hours. I don't know how long he'd been sitting there before I saw him. I pretended to leave, but then circled back. He was still there, but left about five minutes after I returned. Again, probably nothing... But you wonder as you hear about girls getting door-knocked in the middle of the night by the SS.

If there are any lawyers in the Southern California area who wouldn't mind getting a call from me in the middle of the night, pro-bono-style, please email me your contact details. To all cops, feds, spooks, etc. who read Cryptogon daily, I have nothing to say to you. If you want to show up for a chat, save your time. If you want to arrest me (for what I don't know), I will not resist arrest. I will invoke my 5th Amendment privilege and request the presence of an attorney.

I say these things to let all of you know that if I go down, you will know how I behaved when the knock arrived on my door:

A WRITER on popular blog site LiveJournal has posted of her nightmare ordeal with the US Secret Service, an event spurred by a posting she made to her blog criticising George Bush prior to the Presidential Election earlier this week.

Agents told her that they had received a report (presumably saying that someone had dared to question the motives, sanity or intellectual capacity of The War President) from another blogger who had been reading Annie's site, and therefore followed up. Achtung!

The tale is a lesson to us all. Number one lesson is that what happens on the internet can and will bite you on the ass in real life. We've seen it time and time again with internet affairs and sordid emails - now, you'd better watch where you put your political commentating toes.


Her post of this incident is here:

What happened to me CAN happen to you. This is really the main reason why I am posting this publicly. I WANT you to make an example out of me. I want you to tell your friends to be CAREFUL about what they say on the Internet, because someone IS reading it and it CAN come back and bite you on the ass. And as nice as the Sekkrit Service dudes were (and honestly, they WERE very nice we even gave them coffee and shit, and they laughed with us and were generally very cool about the entire situation), you don't want them coming to your house. It's just not very fun.



Oilempire.us Stolen Election 2004 Page :.

There is now ample evidence to confirm this discrepancy -- and that Senator Kerry won the 2004 Presidential election in both the popular vote and Electoral College. Exit polls in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico and Nevada predicted a Kerry win, yet Bush was declared the winner. In several other states, the point spread was significantly different between the polls and the results, helping ensure that Bush was given the popular vote. (The 2000 election fraud was embarrassing for Bush, and claiming that millions more voted for him than for Kerry, despite a stronger Democratic voter registration drive, provides a veneer of legitimacy for what is about to happen.)

The Democratic Party let this theft happen.



The Stolen Election of 2004: Welcome Back to Hell :.

Using a variety of criminal methods that they have perfected over the past four years, the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney-Karl Rove syndicate stole another election, and extended their illegal occupation of the White House. Experienced, informed and unblinking observers were not fooled by any aspect of this utterly predictable goose-step towards full dictatorship.

But to those who are "shocked" as they watched the election night numbers mysteriously slip away amidst controversy; those who are struggling to understand "what happened", let this cold realization serve as bracing edification.

Welcome to hell. Welcome to the horrifying reality that whistleblowers have suffered and fought through every day, over lifetimes. No more illusions. This is reality.

It Is a Rigged Game

The US political and economic system, exemplified by Bush-Cheney, is deeply criminalized. It is designed to profit by killing things. It thrives on war and oppression. It is sustained by collusion, fraud, lies, cover-up, and the indoctrination and manipulation of minds. It does not, and never has, represented its people. Its operatives heed no laws. They "make" law. These facts must be burned into the consciousness of every decent human being.



.Gov and .Mil Hits to Cryptogon, Last Few Days

Greetings, Gentlemen:

ptohidec.uspto.gov
sherman.state.gov
gatehouse.cambridgema.gov
cftcfw.cftc.gov
lnx207.ncep.noaa.gov
doegate-1.doe.gov
n021.dhs.gov
wwwcache.lanl.gov
gatekeeper4.fcc.gov
ares.fppc.ca.gov
poes.ipo.noaa.gov
proxy.nla.gov.au
fernwood-arbiter-b.net.nih.gov
wdcsun23.usdoj.gov
alfw.doeal.gov
secfwopc.sec.gov
dal.net.va.gov
amcproxy.jccbi.gov
nwvcprojmac.er.usgs.gov
wdcsun19.usdoj.gov
smtp.csdf-cde.ca.gov
tias-gw1.treas.gov
wdcsun30.usdoj.gov
nwg001-ce2.customs.treas.gov

ce.ansbach.army.mil
host170-148.iraq.centcom.mil
nwc-host.nwc.navy.mil
ns.dia.mil
heid-cf.heidelberg.amedd.army.mil
bluecoat01.randolph.af.mil
relay6.nga.mil
wcs1-cbus.nipr.mil
vict-gateway2.iraq.centcom.mil
starscream.usar.army.mil
bluecoat.shaw.af.mil
fw.arioc.army.mil
199-211-169-106.jwac.mil
wcs2-cbus.nipr.mil
bluecoatdj.hoa.centcom.mil
gateway-fincen.uscg.mil
nsfw-mstr.js.pentagon.mil



Frontline: The Persuaders :.

On PBS tonight. Check the broadcast time in your area:

FRONTLINE takes an in-depth look at the 'persuasion industries' — advertising and public relations. To cut through mass-media clutter and to overcome consumers' growing resistance to their pitches, marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives, using sophisticated market research techniques to better understand consumers, and turning increasingly to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their messages come from sources we trust. A documentary essay, 'The Persuaders' also explores how the culture of marketing has come to shape the way Americans understand the world and themselves, and how the techniques of the persuasion industries have migrated to politics, shaping the way our leaders formulate policy, influence public opinion, make decisions and stay in power.



Secret Cult Breaks 43-Year Spell :.

This is an extra weird one for those who follow government/cult connections:

A religious cult of German immigrants has broken decades of isolation from a world shocked by sex-abuse scandals in the group, the flight of its secretive leader and reports it once helped Chile's military government torture political prisoners.

Research Credit: AM


11/8/2004

Meet and Greet

I'm looking to meet people involved with neuroscience, computer science/AI or robotics who have worked on projects that have direct or potential law enforcement, intelligence or military applications. You must be located somewhere between San Diego, CA and Eugene, OR.

Why?

Write in and I'll tell ya.

In a couple of sentences, let me know a little bit about your background, level of education and the types of projects you've dealt with. I'm especially interested in hearing from graduate students who are working on projects that are funded with government grants.

Nothing you communicate to me in these initial messages will be revealed on Cryptogon. This is just an initial attempt to meet people involved with the fields listed above. If you require PGP, my public key is here.

Thanks.



Solar Powered Homes in California :.

I could go on for several pages about why this is too little too late, but for now, let's just pretend this can make a difference. A little good news is better than no good news at all! Why spoil it with the details?

Hundreds of homeowners in California never worry about paying their electric bills on time. It's not because they are careless; it's because they live in new "zero-energy" homes that produce as much electricity as they consume. These homes are not multimillion-dollar prototypes -- they are entry-level homes using commercially available products.



Gold Reaches 16-Year High as Dollar Weakens on U.S. Deficits :.

Gold reached a 16-year high in London after concern that the September U.S. trade shortfall held near a record drove the dollar to its lowest-ever versus the euro.

A weaker dollar makes gold, which is denominated in the U.S. currency, less costly for holders of other currencies and increases its attraction as a hedge against declines is U.S. assets. A government report Nov. 10 may show the trade deficit was $54 billion in September, matching the second-biggest ever, according to the median of 46 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.



Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians :.

Got Jesus?Heavily armed idiots with Bibles killing for Jesus... Not much changes over the centuries. Let the eagles soar and Hallelujah In Fallujah!*

Evangelical Christianity represents a clear and present danger to the United States and the world. This thing is a macrocult comprised of millions of retrograde, easily manipulatable and deeply ignorant people. Many of them are not only hypocrites, they are, quite literally, nuts. They are as nuts as Wahabi Muslims, Orthodox Jews and Satanists.

What's the difference between a full-tilt "Christian" and a paranoid schizophrenic who's languishing in a psychiatric hospital lockdown? The nutter in the lockdown won't be issued an assault rifle and sent to carry out the whims of evil men lurking behind the scenes!

To all of you non-nuts Christians, Jews, Muslims or ______ <--- (insert name of your religion here), join me in a prayer for God to save humanity from His alleged followers:

NEAR FALLUJAH - With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year.

Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel.

They counted among thousands of troops surrounding the city of Fallujah, seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah.

"You are the sovereign. You're name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb," a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them.

The US military, with many soldiers coming from the conservative American south and midwest, has deep Christian roots.

Comforting

...men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.In times that fighting looms, many soldiers draw on their evangelical or born-again heritage to help them face the battle.

"It's always comforting. Church attendance is always up before the big push," said first sergeant Miles Thatford.

"Sometimes, all you've got is God."

Between the service's electric guitar religious tunes, marines stepped up on the chapel's small stage and recited a verse of scripture, meant to fortify them for war.

One spoke of their Old Testament hero, a shepherd who would become Israel's king, battling the Philistines 3 000 years ago.

"Thus David prevailed over the Philistines," the marine said, reading from scripture, and the marines shouted back "Hoorah, King David," using their signature grunt of approval.

The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.

"Victory belongs to the Lord," another young marine read.

Their chaplain, named Horne, told the worshippers they were stationed outside Fallujah to bring the Iraqis "freedom from oppression, rape, torture and murder ... We ask you God to bless us in that effort."

Holy oil

The marines then lined up and their chaplain blessed them with holy oil to protect them.

"God's people would be anointed with oil," the chaplain said, as he lightly dabbed oil on the marines' foreheads.

The crowd then followed him outside their small auditorium for a baptism of about a half-dozen marines who had just found Christ.

The young men lined up and at least three of them stripped down to their shorts.

The three laid down in a rubber dinghy filled with water and the chaplain's assistant, navy corpsman Richard Vaughn, plunged their heads beneath the surface.

Smiling, Vaughn baptised them "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

Dripping wet, corporal Keith Arguelles beamed after his baptism.

"I just wanted to make sure I did this before I headed into the fight," he said on the military base not far from the city of Fallujah.


* Mark Robinowitz sent me a warning about John Kaminski. Honestly, I've only ever read Kaminski's Hallelujah In Fallujah essay. I didn't know about Kaminski's other antics. (Search page for Kaminski.) I don't follow the 9/11 disinformation operations too closely (because there's so much nonsense), but Robinowitz keeps track of most of it.

Related: Should a Christian Join the Military?




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Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.