Category: Uncategorized

As part of coalition led by Just Futures Law, EPIC and 9 other organizations sent a letter to officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urging them to act to address rampant data abuse by data brokers. Specifically, the coalition is requesting an advisory opinion clarifying that credit header data is not exempt from the Fair Credit Reporting Act, enforcement actions against data brokers, and rules that ensure data brokers are covered by the law. Further, the coalition urges the CFPB to bring enforcement actions in line with this advisory opinion against data brokers to incentivize improvement in behavior.

EPIC has consistently urged commonsense data privacy and AI regulation, and particularly has illustrated the urgent need to regulate data brokers.

Continue reading

Do you need livestock guardians for your homestead? If you’re looking for some tips on picking the best guardian for your home, try this!

Livestock Guardians

I should begin by saying that I am a dog person. Specifically, a spaniel person. Field bred, English Springer Spaniels. I’ve had them my whole life, and right now there are three gamboling joyfully in my house. I don’t keep dogs outside, they are welcome to come in and lay on the sofa, muddy paws and all, and I have been known to welcome them into bed with me too.

So when we moved to the new farm and it became apparent that we had a significant coyote and stray dog problem, the prospect of employing a livestock guardian dog was, honestly, somewhat intimidating. I had tried at my previous place to have an LGD, and it hadn’t worked out. Granted, that was probably more to do with the fact that the dog came to me with a significant set of psychological issues related to his past than anything else, but I’m never one to stray from a challenge and I thought I could fix him. I was wrong.

 

The dog that ultimately arrived at the farm was Merry, a one year old Great Pyrenees who had been raised and trained by a good friend who owns a sheep and goat farm in West GA. I was opposed to the idea, as I had fairly recently lost a dog who I loved very much, and I didn’t feel there was room in my heart or my life for another one. But nonetheless, I did everything as my friend instructed: trained her to her area, taught to trust me, bonded her to her livestock, and slowly but surely, she settled into her place here and now I can’t imagine life without her.

 

By contrast, she was later joined by Willow, a GP x Anatolian mix. Willow is a great LGD, but has scant regard for people’s personal space, and weighs more than I do, so she can be difficult to handle. She is also unreliable with rabbits and small birds, and likes to dig under fences. But all the same, since these two dogs joined forces (reluctantly; Merry isn’t really a dog person), I haven’t had a single loss from predators.

 

But here’s what I’ve learned from my journey; perhaps some of it might help you find your perfect farm partner:

• Choose your breed carefully. Research and ask advice as to which one might suit youbest, from breeders and other LGD owners. Some breeds are more suited to different livestock, acreages and predator type.

• Don’t buy just any random dog labelled as an LGD from Craigslist! While there’s achance of striking gold, there’s also a chance that you’re buying a dog with a whole pile of issues. The safety of your…

Continue reading here

Jake Wiener, Counsel in EPIC’s Project on Surveillance Oversight, will testify this afternoon at a Maryland Senate Finance Committee hearing on SB169, a bill to enact a biometric information privacy law in Maryland.

“A person’s biometric data is linked to that person’s dignity, autonomy, safety, and identity.” Mr. Wiener submitted in his written testimony,  “Unlike a password or account number, a person’s biometrics cannot be changed if they are compromised. SB169 would protect Marylanders by requiring that the use and retention of biometric data is minimized and that data is kept secure.” He also urged the Committee to ensure the law has a strong private right of action.

HB259 is modeled after the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Passed in 2008, BIPA has been referred to as one of the most effective and important privacy laws in America. EPIC also submitted a recent case study on the Illinois law written by EPIC Advisory Board member Woody Hartzog.

EPIC’s Senior Counsel and Director of the Surveillance Oversight Project Jeramie Scott testified before the Maryland House of Representatives on an earlier version of the bill last year. EPIC previously filed an amicus brief in Rosenbach v. Six Flags, in which the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously decided that consumers can sue companies that violate the state’s biometric privacy law. [Watch the hearing.]

Continue reading

Living in an age where we are so disconnected from the origins of our food has made survival a subject of wonder. We have repeatedly been told that our water needs to be boiled and filtered or that our food needs to be cooked to be edible.

This mentality has been laser-focused on products such as organ meat, the liver being a prime example. Cross-contamination is a threat, it’s true. But only if the ingredients are handled improperly.

Yes, you can eat liver in a survival situation or otherwise. Being cautious is advised since it is one of the primary detoxification organs which can hold impurities and disease unless cooked properly.

The liver is one of those food items that people either love or hate. While there are clear benefits to consuming it there are also some factors that need to be considered before you try it, especially in a survival situation.

Should You Eat Liver Raw or Cooked?

While it is possible to eat the liver raw and be just fine, the risk of food poisoning is still there.

Even cooked, you can still reap the benefits of eating the liver with a much-reduced risk of damaging your health.

Eating any meat that is uncooked has a large risk of making you sick. Pathogens cannot stand high heat for a long time which makes cooking the liver thoroughly the ideal way to prepare it.

All of the harmful substances from environmental pollution, heavy metals, and similar chemicals are filtered through the liver. This means it is an epicenter for issues such as parasitosis or chronic disease.

Raw Liver

The raw liver consists of a smooth, creamy-like texture paired with a strong taste that can be off-putting. Some people claim that the liver has a sweet nuttiness to the taste that cannot be found anywhere else on the animal.

Foie Gras (duck liver) is considered a delicacy with its unique taste and texture.

It’s interesting to note that the taste of the liver depends on the animal it came from. This means that the liver from a duck won’t taste the same as a beef liver.

Cooked Liver

Growing up as a kid I remember my mother cooking up some liver and onions and I found the taste revolting.

However, everyone else in my family didn’t mind the taste. I found that it has a strong flavor, much like iron or blood in my mouth.

It was quite tender to the fork but there was just something about that overwhelming taste I didn’t like.

The larger the animal is the more flavorful the liver. If it is overcooked then it will be hard to chew, much like sturdy leather. When prepared properly it will maintain some of that soft texture it had while it was raw.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Raw Liver?

If the taste and texture of cooked liver turn some people away, then what exactly is the draw towards eating…

Continue reading here

Here is a simple meal you can enjoy in the summer and fall on the cheap. Dine on butternut squash, kale, egg, and watermelon, and enjoy the simplicity of a farm to table meal. 

Please enjoy how this homesteader is getting back to his roots. 

-Riley E. Carlson

By Mark McNaney

I couldn’t help thinking of my grandparents the other day as my wife and I shared a simple evening meal – lightly roasted butternut squash and kale topped with a poached egg – earlier this week. For dessert that night, we enjoyed a juicy, sweet seedless watermelon.

This was the same kind of simple, yet highly nutritious, meal that I had shared with my maternal grandparents when I would stop by to have lunch with them while attending high school.

I remember those meals with them fondly, as they would listen to Paul Harvey deliver the news and comment on the latest developments.

Those were simpler, and seemingly easier, times. There were no cell phones ringing, no alerts signaling a new email, no television channels beyond the basic CBS, NBC and ABC networks.

As my wife and I enjoyed our simple and tasty meal, I wondered too if the very simplicity of the food itself, purchased earlier in the week at a local farm market and nearby grocery, would have contributed years ago in some way to my grandparent’s long lives. We knew that the meal was a lighter fare that would help us lose weight,

but what was it in that meal that was so valuable in terms of contributing to our improved health and wellness?

Butternut Squash – Health Benefits

Certainly much more abundant in the Autumn, the butternut squash is available year-round in our area and easily stored in the cool air of a root cellar. Butternut squash is actually a fruit, though most folks think of it as a vegetable, and is related to the pumpkin. Known by it flesh-colored thin skin, it has a distinctively elongated, pear-like shape.

The butternut squash is full of vitamins – A and B-complex – and is rich in beta carotenes and fiber.

It has no saturated fats, so for those readers watching their cholesterol, it can be a staple in your diet. That said, the butternut squash’s seeds do have some oil. The seeds themselves can be roasted and make a delicious snack, similarly to its cousin the pumpkin seed.

The USDA reports that the low-carb butternut squash is a source of iron and magnesium, along with copper, phosphorus and calcium. This low-calorie fruit is an ideal source of anti-oxidants and is reported to have benefits in terms of skin and eye health.

Kale – Health Benefits

It should be noted that a cup of these greens, like collard greens or Swiss chard, will cook down to almost nothing. So eat plenty of kale without any fear. Low in calories and fat, kale is a source of Vitamin A and C, with lesser contributions in terms of calcium and iron….

Continue reading here

Want to know how to crochet an infinity scarf? This wonderful tutorial will have you crocheting your scarf in no time. The best part is you don’t even have to follow a pattern! No pattern required.

My mother taught me how to crochet. She was a master. She made beautiful lacy doilies and tablecloths and mittens and scarves and over a hundred crocheted throws and blankets and gave them all away as gifts.

I am not a master. She tried to pass on her skills to me, but became frustrated because I am a lefty and therefore do everything backwards! Also, I didn’t have to patience to perfect my crocheting skills, and to this day, single and double crochet are about as fancy as I get.

However, I do have a skill, which is serving me well in my new homesteading endeavor. I don’t need a pattern to crochet. Actually, to be truthful, patterns don’t serve me well. With my limited skills they are either hard for me to figure out, or else I’m not neat enough to get the correct result, OR, the created objects just don’t fit me right. For instance, I have huge piano-playing hands, which do not lend themselves well to fitting into the pretty girly mittens and gloves I would like to be able to make or buy.

So, I don’t use a pattern, and frankly, NOTHING BAD HAPPENS! In fact, it’s a really freeing experience, because I know I can be totally off the grid, and I can still make items that fit every member of our household. Knowing that I can make warm mittens and scarves and hats and cowls without any pattern is a useful skill for any homesteader.

I’d like to demonstrate how easy it can be to make items like this without a pattern by showing How To Crochet a Cowl, aka an Infinity Scarf:

I am going to assume that you have a little crocheting experience. If not, there are lots of videos online to show you the basics and let you practice. If you think you can do the following: slip knot, chain, slip stitch, single and double crochet, you are ready for this first project. Let’s make a beautiful custom-made-for-you-cowl.

If you don’t know what a cowl is, it’s like a tube top for your head . It’s A scarf with no end, that can be used as a hoodie.

To start, all you need is a crochet hook and some yarn, and a yarn needle. I used a size J hook and 7 ounces of medium weight yarn. You can go bigger or smaller, and nothing bad will happen. In fact, if crocheting scares you because of all these numbers, just buy whatever the store sells, the standard sizes work great!

I love this yarn! It is 70% acrylic, 30% wool. Very soft and drapey and warm….

Continue reading here

Looking for a natural poison ivy treatment that actually works? Here’s how you can use the leaves off a pecan tree to heal your poison ivy rash at home naturally – no trip to the doctor necessary.

By Jordan Winders

If you have ever had poison ivy then I don’t have to tell you how uncomfortable it is. First I would like to go over how the rash is contracted then offer you a simple home remedy for poison ivy treatment. I can only speak for poison ivy as this is the only one I have had.

Poison Ivy can be identified by three flat leaves in a group

The one thing poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak all have in common is the urushiol oil that the entire plant gives off. Yes, the entire plant including the roots, stems, and of course the leaves. If this comes into contact with the skin then more than likely you are going to have an allergic reaction and break out in the commonly known red rash you get from any of the three plants.

Contrary to popular belief the only way to spread this is by moving that oil around the skin.

Your skin will break out in rash with an oil residue

So if you know you have just contacted poison ivy, stop what you are doing and go inside, wash your hands with cool soapy water. Soap and water are only effective if you can use it within the first ten minutes of exposure. After that there are some store bought products that claim to take off the urushiol, I have never used them so I am not sure if they work. As for the clothes you are wearing – be extremely careful when taking them off and get them in the washer as soon as you can as there may be oil on them as well.

Watch for poison Ivy EVERYWHERE – it can grow along forest floors, walls, fences, and pops up among other shrubs and foliage.

 

Poison ivy is tricky and sometimes shows up as quick as a couple hours after exposure and sometimes it takes a few days to show up. That being said, after the rash shows up chances are the oil has all soaked in and there is not a way to spread it after the oil is absorbed. Unfortunately this is where the nightmare of poison ivy begins.

I stumbled upon a remedy for poison ivy using none other than pecan leaves.

There is not much to it and it keeps for quite a while. First things first, you need to locate a Pecan tree, here in Northeast Oklahoma there are lots of them so this isn’t a problem, their natural range is from Central Illinois, south into Texas, west as far as Oklahoma and east into Mississippi. Now if you don’t live in this area and can’t find them anywhere you live, find a friend who does and have them overnight some…

Continue reading here

Jeff Deist: First of all, congratulations on your new book The Price of Time. It was fantastic.

Edward Chancellor (EC): I’m glad you enjoyed it.

JD: I ask all authors this question, especially authors of weighty books. Was it worth it, in terms of the opportunity cost in your own life?

EC: Not financially [laughs]. I bet most of them say that. Heaven knows why people write books, really. The best you can say is that, you’re building up your own human capital and you’re making some contribution to civilization. And I work in the world of finance and investment, and on the whole, it pays for me to spend time building up my human capital. You never quite know when the payoffs come. Now that I’m toward the end of my career, it doesn’t really matter that much, anyhow. So, I wrote this earlier book called Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation. That paid off, and it created career opportunities for me. I don’t think this book will, but perhaps it will have some influence on policy. I think of it like this: it’s a sort of testament to what’s gone on. It’s harder now to shovel these things under the carpet because people will be able to come back to this book and say, Can you answer these questions? So, we’ll see. I don’t regret writing it. One thing you’ll find about people who write books is that they’re tremendously relieved when they’re done.

JD: You received a nice review in the Wall Street Journal. How about reviews in the UK and Europe?

EC: Yes. So, it probably won’t particularly surprise you, given the polarization of the press today and in particular the polarization of economic questions, that the so-called right-wing press—the Wall Street Journal, Telegraph over here, Spectator over here, Times over here—they all liked the book, almost uncritically. The Left has completely ignored it. As I said, my previous book, Devil Take the Hindmost, actually sold hundreds of thousands of copies, established me reasonably well. Admittedly, it’s been a while, but I find it a bit strange that the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian deigned to look at The Price of Time. And then you’ve got the policy-making media, the technocratic media, the Financial Times and columnists—they didn’t like it. Martin Wolf at the FT said that I obviously wished for a state of permanently high unemployment. You can imagine that argument. And both royal family economists reviewed my book alongside the latest offering by Ben Bernanke, coming down decisively in favor of Bernanke, which is fair enough, but what both of those reviews failed to do, needless to say, is to address my argument. It’s easier to disparage persons you disagree with than to address their arguments.

JD: I did not find the book ideological per se.

EC: You know, subjects on interest have always been fraught with political disagreements. And I suppose in the end, interest is always going to…

Continue reading

NASA finds the answer via the Human Research Program.

|

Ever wonder how the astronauts don’t lose their humanity while floating in a tiny capsule for days…weeks…and years around the planet?

Part of feeling human is being present on the earth: toiling the soil, feeling the heat of the sun, hearing the birds chirping, the bees buzzing, the smell of spring… We have so many senses that are engaged daily as we live out our lives here on the big blue.

And then there’s space. Space is the opposite. Space is void of sounds, smells, even color. There is NOTHING* in space. (But that’s why we’re exploring it!)

For the heroes out there living in space, I applaud thee.  Which brings me back to my question…

How do astronauts hold onto their sanity, nay, their humanity, while floating through outer space?

This is how- NASA is performing a test: The Human Research Program – One Year Mission, and a video mini-series documenting how our space-explorers hold onto their human factor while living in a 0-gravity human-intolerant environment.

Watch an intro here:

What are your thoughts on homesteading? Space exploration?

Would you go into space if you had the opportunity? What is one thing you would miss about planet earth (and gravity) the most?

Share with us in the comments! Share with your friends on Facebook!

Read Full Article Here on NASA.gov

 

Like This Post? You’ll Also Like:

Urban Farming | Grow Your Own Organic Garden Green Smoothie Recipe

Why Every Homestead Needs Zinc Oxide Natural Sunscreen

Why Everyone Should Own The Juice Plus Tower Garden

 

*

 

*There may be “nothing” in space to the human eye. But really, there’s quite a bit of space plasma, some magnetic fields, and a few billion other solar systems –  

Continue reading here