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sunshineweb · 5 years

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Safal Niveshak, Uncopyrighted

January 11 2013 was a sad day for the Internet world. That day, Internet pioneer and open information activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide at a young age of 26.

Swartz’s “crime” – he had logged into JSTOR (Journal Storage), a database of scholarly articles, and rapidly downloaded those articles with the intent to make them public.

He didn’t “hack” the network to secure those downloads. MIT is anyways an open network.

He didn’t crack any special password system to get behind JSTOR’s digital walls. All he did was figure out how JSTOR was filing the articles that he wanted and wrote a simple script to quickly gather those articles and then copy them to his computer.

If Swartz had lived to be convicted of the charges against him, he either had to accept the label of a criminal and go to jail for 50 years or fight a million-dollar lawsuit.

Aaron decided to take a third option. He hanged himself!

And with that we have lost an incredible soul, one who had literally spent half of his 26-year-old life doing nothing except working for the public good as far as the Internet and learning are concerned.

It was he who helped develop RSS, revolutionizing how people use the Internet and went on to co-own Reddit, now one of the world’s most popular sites. He was also a key architect of Creative Commons, an organization that helps people share their knowledge and creativity with the world.

It is ironical that the punishment Aaron was supposed to face for downloading academic articles in an effort to make knowledge widely available to the public was harsher than what is accorded in the US to any of these…

Manslaughter (10 years in prison)

Bank robbery (20-25 years)

Selling slaves (20 years)

Aiding terrorists (20 years)

Threatening the President (5 years)

In other words, Aaron’s punishment would have been the same if he had robbed a bank, then slaughtered people, and then helped al-Qaeda develop nuclear bombs!

Just downloading and distributing academic papers brought him to face such a severe punishment!

This is in a world where the big corporations (and their top men) have destroyed trillions of dollars in investors’ wealth repeatedly, and have gone away scot-free (and with billions in bonuses)!

Anyways, Aaron’s death and the protests that followed prompted the insanely powerful US government to fix some important flaws in the law regulating the Internet so that others can be protected from legal abuse.

But that won’t bring this genius to life again. It won’t restore his shattered family or bring peace to his bewildered friends.

My Ode to Aaron Swartz I did not hear much about Aaron Swartz until I heard about his death in 2013. But the stupid reason of Internet privacy that destroyed this precious life pained me enough to uncopyright my blog (not many people read the site that time, so I am repeating what I did back in 2013).

Here’s something I did as my ode to Aaron Swartz, and repeating again today for a much bigger audience.

I “uncopyrighted” my blog, Safal Niveshak.

Come, Use My Free Content for Free Mark Twain said, “Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.”

To free God from this impossibility, beginning in 2013, I have released all claims on copyright and put all the free content of Safal Niveshak into the public domain.

You don’t need any permission to use the content of this site in an ethical manner. Just a line of credit is appreciated.

Here are some of the things you can do now with the content I’ve created (and will create) if you so desire:

All my hand-drawn illustrations are on this page. Please use them freely, but please don’t remove my signature and add yours.

All my articles ever written are on this page. Please use excerpts from these as required, and please give credit. Just don’t use the entire article as it is, for Google may get confused for who wrote it originally.

The above two links contain almost 90% of the work I do, and it’s all free to read and use. If you find any of these worthy to be shared for a wider cause, please share. That would make me feel my effort was worth it.

There is no need to email me for permission — you may use anything free on Safal Niveshak for any educational purpose. A credit would be enough.

People may use my work without attribution (and some have done so in the past). But usually, I have realized that people are grateful and give credit where it’s due anyway, without me requiring it.

Of course, I would not want you to share my paid content freely (I need something to run my house, you see)

I have seen bloggers take plagiarism very seriously. I have been guilty of doing my bit in the past as well. But then, as I have realized over time, thanks to the time I’ve spent in introspection, all of this content that I write on Safal Niveshak isn’t really mine.

We are living in a world of dreams, and anything here belongs to the dreamer (the ultimate power that runs this Universe), not to the individual projection known as Vishal Khandelwal.

At best I am a translator and a custodian of that dreamer’s work, but I can’t really be an owner, not in the strictest sense.

In Safal Niveshak’s case, the original dreamers also take the form of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and the likes.

So I’m just sharing what I’ve learned from them. How can I claim it as my own?

Also, while Safal Niveshak has started getting a lot of traffic and currently reaches out to over 60,000 tribe members, there are still thousands of small investors who haven’t been exposed to some of the most basic and prudent investing concepts.

So if you can help expose more people to ideas and information that will benefit them, I’ll be immensely thankful to you.

But Please Be Nice with Me While I’d love when you use my ideas and content and do something creative and generous, please exercise good judgment.

Don’t create headaches for me by doing something sketchy or deceptive.

For example, don’t make it look like I’m recommending or endorsing a stock or a financial product when I didn’t explicitly do so.

Please don’t quote me inaccurately. Please don’t get me a ban from the SEBI.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I like helping people. I like when people remove all barriers to sharing.

By uncopyrighting my free content and ideas, I am trying to do just that – remove all barriers to share my knowledge and ideas freely with the world.

This is something I want to experience as part of my own path of growth, and my wish to let go…to liberate myself.

This is what Aaron Swartz had worked for a large part of his small life. And I could not think of a better way to give my respect to this boy who braved to be a man in a world of cowards.

So come, use any of the free content on Safal Niveshak for the betterment of the world. Just send me some credit. I will appreciate it.

I can’t think of a better tribute to Aaron and many others who are trying to remove all barriers to sharing knowledge and thus making our world brighter and better.

Ultimately, this is what I’ve also learned from Bhagavad Gita –

Whatever has happened, has happened for good. Whatever is happening, is happening for good. Whatever will happen, will happen for good. What did you lose that you are crying? What did you bring with yourself that you have lost? What did you give birth to that got destroyed? Whatever you took, you took from here. Whatever you gave, you gave here. What belongs to you today, Belonged to someone else yesterday, Will belong to someone else tomorrow. Change is an established rule of this world.

What do you say?

What are you uncopyrighting?

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Safal Niveshak, Uncopyrighted published first on https://mbploans.tumblr.com/

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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F-Bombs Away!

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/f-bombs-away/

F-Bombs Away!

The surprise attack on Hawaii came on a quiet Sunday morning, and it fell to the president of the United States to rally a confused and stricken nation one day later in a momentous address to Congress:

“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941—a date which will live as totally fucked up—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of Japan.”

Story Continued Below

That’s the power of language at work. And who can forget the image of an American commander in chief in Berlin on the front lines of the Cold War: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this fucking wall.”

Let’s be mature about this. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan both surely dropped a choice word or two in private, even on solemn subjects like Pearl Harbor and Soviet tyranny. Democrat Beto O’Rourke, meanwhile, has not actually signaled that he will make the F-bomb a central part of his rhetorical arsenal in the unlikely event he becomes the next president.

He is, however, apparently hoping that vulgarity will be an engine of his political revival in the Democratic presidential contest. In doing so, he is part of a confluence of factors serving to mainstream what once counted as the most forbidden entry in the roster of four-letter words.

Notice to reader: The examples above are just two of 14 profanities in this story. Editors decided to skip the coy dashes and asterisks and more straightforward [expletive deleteds]. How else to handle it when a candidate for president infuses a policy statement after a horrific mass shooting with the phrase, “This is fucked up”?

On social media and in interviews, O’Rourke’s profanity has proved to be something of a political Rorschach test.

Pro: He has found a searing and even eloquent way of cutting through the madness and violence of the age. The real obscenity, by these lights, is routine mass shootings and the paralytic response they engender from the governing class, to which O’Rourke’s incredulity is a powerfully authentic rejoinder.

Con: O’Rourke’s profanity is risible, a perfect summary of a campaign that even before was mocked for its alleged preening and Wayne’s World affect. Even if the first time he dropped the F-bomb came as a genuine outburst, his repetition on Twitter and now official campaign T-shirts reveals calculation and contrivance—making his vulgarities the opposite of the authenticity they supposedly convey.

Either way, the Texan’s coarse language is a frivolous dimension of a serious question for Democrats: Should progressive leaders confront the rawness and norm-shattering nature of President Donald Trump’s political style with something similar? Or should they stand for a return to standards that used to be assumed for any presidential contender—including language reflecting the gravity of the office, or at a minimum was G-rated?

Before O’Rourke, the public figure who arguably was most notorious for his prolific use of the F-word was Rahm Emanuel, who kept the salty parlance of a political operative even as he became a member of Congress, White House chief of staff, and mayor of Chicago.

Emanuel, who calls himself “a reformed swearer,” acknowledged in an interview, “I’ve got this notorious reputation and I’m not saying that I don’t swear but you’ve never heard me publicly swear. … I actually don’t think it’s the right thing to do.”

“I think people are being exhausted by vulgarity and I think [the candidates] should be engaging people on the future” through the power of ideas, Emanuel explained.

But some other Obama White House veterans were more tolerant of O’Rourke’s rhetorical excesses.

“It’s good for him to show a little emotion and get angry so that people can see exactly where he stands and that he will fight for what he believes in,” said Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s former 2012 deputy campaign manager and cofounder of Precision Strategies.

“Most candidates do talk like this and they talk like this to their teams and at the bar with reporters, and they get credit for being real people and not engaged in some veneer,” said former Obama press operative Ben LaBolt. “Beto has used it to demonstrate outrage about some really outrageous issues that the United States should have been able to solve many years ago, and so his approach would distinguish himself from somebody who would serve in the Senate and say ‘my dear friend’ and ‘my dear colleague.’”

By so frequently crossing a line that once might have been career-ending, O’Rourke is partly changing the political culture, and partly reflecting changes that are already underway.

As far back as September 2014, Trump tweeted: “Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection. They can not help the fact that they were born fucked up!” More recently, in late March of this year, Trump told a campaign rally that Democrats should stop “defrauding the public with ridiculous bullshit.”

In June 2017, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who recently ended her presidential campaign, tried to stir a conference on technology and democracy by imploring, “If we are not helping people, we should go the fuck home.”

At the start of the year, newly elected Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib made a splash by saying of Trump, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker.”

Another newly elected member of Congress, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, was recently quoted by The Cut noting the annoyance of being asked as a female candidate about her “self-care” on the campaign trail: “I’m like, ‘I don’t have fucking self-care! I’m running for Congress.’”

But O’Rourke is the one who has made the word his signature. After making his Texas Senate race surprisingly competitive, before narrowly losing, in 2018, O’Rourke went viral with his concession speech in which he praised supporters, “I’m so fucking proud of you guys.”

When he began his bid for president, O’Rourke was scolded at a campaign stop by a voter who urged him to “clean up his act” and not use profanity in ways were children will hear it. “Point taken, and very strongly made,” O’Rourke replied, promising to “keep it clean.”

But last month, meeting with reporters after the mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, O’Rourke seemed impatient with what he regarded as the naivete of some questions about Trump’s role in inciting violence. “Members of the press, what the fuck?!” he exclaimed.

There are two facts about the F-word that most people learn early in their teenage years: The reaction it gets depends on context, and its shock value tends to diminish rapidly. O’Rourke’s initial uses of the word did seem a little like a young person at a family dinner:Wonder how the table will respond?

On balance, O’Rourke seems pleased with the reaction, at least among the people he cares most about. After new shootings in Texas, he went on CNN last Sunday morning to say: “We’re averaging about 300 mass shootings a year. No other country comes close. So, yes, this is fucked up.” He also defended his swearing by saying that it was “just honest” and important “to shock the conscience of this country.”

O’Rourke’s campaign also noted that all of the proceeds for his profane T-shirt go to March for Our Lives and Moms Demand.

Brit Hume, the prominent Fox News journalist, commented on Twitter, “As if his sewermouth will somehow give his argument more power.”

But Matt Bennett, a Democratic strategist unaffiliated with any presidential campaign and long-time gun control advocate, believes O’Rourke was rightly trying to shake people and signal that conventional politics isn’t adequate in the context of recurring mass murders.

“I think he’s decided that profanity can help him add emphasis where other language fails,” said Bennett. “Indeed, how else does one underscore their anger with, frustration at, and contempt for public officials who fail to act in the face of such horror? We all have been railing about this for years (decades in my case). How else do we signal that this situation is singularly obscene?”

George Lakoff, a retired Berkeley linguist who has written extensively on how Democrats sometimes lose political arguments by not effectively employing the power of language, was uncertain on the wisdom of O’Rourke’s shattering of old proprieties. “It’s basically saying: This is really important. Pay attention.”

O’Rourke may have grabbed attention, but it’s not clear how long he will keep it, at least based on the power of profanity. Forty-five years ago, the country was shocked by the prodigious use of Oval Office profanity—often as part of contemptuous and vindictive rants against opponents—by Richard Nixon and his aides when the White House tapes were released. The news media, reflecting the standards of the time, didn’t print the words but replaced them with “[expletive deleted].” Anticipating Tlaib by several decades, protesters outside the White House gates carried placards saying “Impeach the expletive deleted!”

But a generation that currently has made a star of Lana Del Ray and her album “Norman Fucking Rockwell” with its hit song “Fuck It, I Love you” isn’t likely to stay shocked, or perhaps even interested, for very long by O’Rourke’s language.

Back in 2004, when then-Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy to “Go fuck yourself” on the floor of the Senate, many news organizations debated internally about how to report the obviously newsworthy exchange—since it involved words that were forbidden by their editorial standards.

Those qualms seem irrelevant in the current climate.

Veteran reporter Nicholas Lemann, a former dean of Columbia University’s school of journalism, said these days, as politics grows more openly coarse, the news media should have no compunction about just reporting exactly what public figures say. The old notion of news organizations as a kind of unifying public square, in which editors had to primly enforce rules to ensure that the most sensitive people in the audience weren’t offended, has gone by the wayside now that every online reader is essentially his or her own editor.

“If they said it, you should quote it,” Lemann advises.

Another journalist, James Fallows, also served as a stint as a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, who he recalled sometimes swore in private but very rarely.

He sees O’Rourke’s language as a sign of the times.

“As an old guy,” said Fallows, who last month turned 70, “I’ll avoid any decline in civilization, but I guess until recently public figures felt that they had to observe a public-private barrier. … Politicians have always been earthy people, but we are seeing the time, at least for the moment, the earthiness membrane is being pierced or is permeable.”

#F-Bombs #Foreign #Politics

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athertonjc · 5 years

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Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center

Yesterday my long-time favorite garden center announced it’ll close soon. Here’s my tribute to the company and its people on a local blog. I’m reposting it here for the Rant’s broader audience because the closing is part of a very sad national trend. Also, it shows what great independent garden centers are doing for customers and the community and why their disappearance is such a enormous loss. (Sob!)

It’s official. In today’s press release, Behnke Nurseries announced that after 89 years, it will be going out of business in June. Thousands of local gardeners will mourn this incalculable loss.

Why It’s Closing

It seems that the time has just come, and not because business is bad; it’s because there are no family members coming up to take over the business. The only Behnke still working there is vice president Stephanie Fleming, granddaughter of the founder, who told me “We love our customers but the Behnkes are all in their 80s. The time has come.”

To answer your protestations of “But, but…” every possible alternative to closing as a garden center has been explored. Selling to another garden center or a buyer interested in renovating and keeping the nursery open isn’t feasible in today’s market, with independent stores closing and almost none opening. Some of the remaining garden centers are morphing into “lifestyle” stores, selling beachwear and pet supplies.

What about an employee buy-out, you say? If only! Many are retirement age or near it, and really, could they collectively buy almost 12 acres along busy Route 1? Hardly, at today’s prices.

What’s Next for the Site Zoned for miscellaneous retail use, the property could be just another car dealership, but the family wants whatever replaces the nursery to be an asset to the community and is participating directly in development of the property, rather than selling to a developer. To this end, the family has solicited suggestions and input from the county and local community groups and has obtained additional zoning that would permit their preferred use of the property – for townhouses, with a 1-acre green space in the center and a walking path around it.

Albert Behnke in the 1960s

Highlights from Behnke’s History

The nursery was founded in 1930 by Albert Behnke, who was born in Germany in 1904. He worked for his father’s rose and cut-flower business and decided to immigrate with his wife Rose to the U.S., for more opportunity, settling in Beltsville.

First Behnke greenhouse, with three of Albert and Rose’s children

At first, the Behnke greenhouse was a homemade affair attached to the side of the family house. In 1946, Albert and Rose Behnke had a modern steel and glass greenhouse built and by 1951 there were five greenhouses.

Albert Behnke at his most dapper. Rose Behnke at work. Her granddaughter Stephanie Fleming says she’s “really was the one that was the reason we were so successful.”

Sonja Behnke at 17, and more recently

Albert and Rose’s 17-year-old daughter Sonja was featured on the cover of the Washington Star weekend magazine watering African violets, which was one of the nursery’s mainstays. Behnke’s sent violets to every first lady from Bess Truman to Nancy Reagan, and they still have thank-you notes from them to show for it.

A Gardener’s Appreciation

Here’s just some of what Behnke’s has meant to its thousands of long-time customers, like me.

Plant Choices and Knowledge

Behnke’s has always stood out from the small crowd of garden centers with its extensive selection, including hard-to-find varieties. It’s so famous for its selection that garden club tours from out of state have included Behnke’s on their itinerary when visiting the garden highlights of the DC area.

According to perennials specialist Larry Hurley, “Selection has always been our claim to fame. We are ‘plant people’ and we love plants, and we are always excited by what’s new.” When Behnke’s grew its own perennials, it carried 1,500 to 1,800 of them. Even after its growing facilities were shut down, it still offered many more varieties than, say, the box stores. (According to company records, Behnke’s carried 1,465 perennials in 2014.)

Another reason the plant selection changed, especially for perennials, was the plague of deer in this area. Larry says it’s made a “huge difference in the demand for hostas and daylilies.” I’ll bet.

Teaching Gardeners

Peter Kukielski, author of Roses without Chemicals

Behnkes staff didn’t just source and sell plants, by a long shot. They gave free classes and workshops in the store and at garden clubs throughout the region. They sponsored still more free talks by well known authors and experts from throughout the East.

More learning opportunities throughout the nursery included a stormwater demonstration site, display gardens, and beehives.

The company’s website, blog and social media accounts have been packed with accurate gardening information and resources perfect for local gardeners. (You don’t see Home Depot doing that.) Stephanie Fleming tells me that they’ll be keeping the Behnke’s website and blog live online after the store closes, as long as there’s interest,

Environmental Leadership

In roughly 2000 Behnke’s became involved in the movement to study and stem the tide of invasive plants through the horticultural industry, a bold move for a retailer! John Peter Thompson, grandson of Albert Behnke, led that project and eventually left the company to pursue that issue full time.

As a result, they stopped selling problematic plants like English Ivy and Burning Bush Euonymus, and for plants like Barberry, restricted sales to the better-behaved varieties that produce little or no fruit.

At the same time, the nursery increased its emphasis of native plants, for which there had finally begun to be a market, especially for pollinator plants. They’ve published many articles about native plants on their blog.

Behnke’s was also an industry leader in prohibiting the application of neonicotinoids to its plants and urging their grower-suppliers to use the least-toxic alternatives.

They also stopped carrying products by Scotts Miracle-Gro, despite the huge demand for their products ginned up by expensive advertising throughout the media. (Here’s my round-up of reasons that company has so few fans.)

Who Hasn’t Worked There?

Behnkes staff clockwise from upper left: Christopher Lewis, Larry Hurley, Bill Mann, Constance Cleveland, Susi Ohara (who started at Behnkes as a teenager), Marian Parsley, Terri Poindexter, Miri Talabac, and in the center, Orion Taylor

From left, Patrica Bouton, Anita Garner and Becky Beaver

Behnke’s large staff is known for its well-trained, full-time experts ready to answer every possible question, none too specific or ridiculous. They’ve answered them all!

So how did they find or train their staff? Many are Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturists; some have college degrees in horticulture or related fields. They all receive in-house training and are encouraged to attend training provided by the UMD Extension and other educational opportunities.

Clockwise from upper left: Larry Bristow, Hank Doong, Helmut Jaehnigen, and Alfred Millard

But their staff is also known for longevity and for loyalty to the company. President Alfred Milliard, for example, started there when he was 13, never left and is the longest-serving employee. The second-longest is Hank Doong, the company’s CFO, who started in 1970 when he was 14. Operations manager Larry Bristow has been with the company since he was a teenager. Helmut Jaehnigen is another long-timer. Imagine their job hunts now, in an ever-shrinking market for their horticultural knowledge.

As Larry Hurley wrote me, “We have a lot of very old and grizzled staff members and we try to impart our experience to the younger folks. Many of us oldsters grew up working for Mr. Behnke (always “Mr.”), Helmut, and the other Behnke icons.”

Many employees got their start at Behnke’s through the PG Police Department’s Young Explorers Club, where Officer Hibbert apparently has a knack for finding the very best potential employees from among the many applicants at High Point and other nearby schools.

Behnke’s employees have gone on to get jobs at these highly respected institutions: White House greenhouses and grounds, the Naval Observatory grounds, the Smithsonian Institution Gardens, the University of Maryland, the National Arboretum, and the Architect of the Capitol. Others have gone on to establish their own nurseries, including homestead Gardens, Metzler’s Nursery and Jos Roozen Nurseries.

Supporting Local Clubs and Societies

Lastly on this long list of ways that Behnke’s will be missed are the many events at the nursery – the Garden Party where clubs and societies could recruit members, the many organizations that held their events at Behnke’s, rent-free (including Brookside Gardens, local societies for roses, gesneriads, orchids and bonsai), holiday parties, yard sales, and even paper-shredding.

Of course the company also donated directly to dozens of local causes, like the food bank at Beltsville’s United Methodist Church, to which Behnke’s donated the $600 it raised recently from its winter tool-sharpening service.

Other frequent recipients of Behnkes’ generosity are the Beltsville Rotary Club, the Beltsville Lion’s Club, the Beltsville Fire and Police Departments, and Toys for Tots.

That’s me with Behnke granddaughter Stephanie Fleming

Customers Mourn, Especially ME

In anticipation of this dreaded closing, my local gardeners friends have been consoling each other, or trying to, with limited success because we’re devastated by the news! No exaggeration. We struggle to suggest alternative sources for plants, reliable advice and fun gardening gatherings but those other stores are all farther away and frankly pale in comparison.

I’ve bought nearly all my plants at Behnke’s since the ’70s and loved the nursery and the people who worked there, but not nearly as much as I came to love them after I started writing their blog and other materials for their website in 2010. That’s when I got to work with the best boss I’ve ever had – Stephanie Fleming. Since retiring, I now go to Behnke’s any time I want to be surrounded by fabulous plants and the people who love and know them, whether I need to buy something or not.

Will I ever say that about Home Depot or even Patuxent Nursery, our closest independent alternative? I’m guessing never.

Thanks to Stephanie Fleming for the photos and information she contributed to this post.

Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center originally appeared on GardenRant on April 5, 2019.

from GardenRant https://www.gardenrant.com/2019/04/gardeners-mourn-the-closing-of-beloved-89-year-old-garden-center.html

#GardenRant

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wendyimmiller · 5 years

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Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center

It’s official. In today’s press release, Behnke Nurseries announced that after 89 years, it will be going out of business in June. Thousands of local gardeners will mourn this incalculable loss.

Why It’s Closing

What about an employee buy-out, you say? If only! Many are retirement age or near it, and really, could they collectively buy almost 12 acres along busy Route 1? Hardly, at today’s prices.

Albert Behnke in the 1960s

Highlights from Behnke’s History

First Behnke greenhouse, with three of Albert and Rose’s children

Albert Behnke at his most dapper. Rose Behnke at work. Her granddaughter Stephanie Fleming says she’s “really was the one that was the reason we were so successful.”

Sonja Behnke at 17, and more recently

A Gardener’s Appreciation

Here’s just some of what Behnke’s has meant to its thousands of long-time customers, like me.

Plant Choices and Knowledge

Teaching Gardeners

Peter Kukielski, author of Roses without Chemicals

More learning opportunities throughout the nursery included a stormwater demonstration site, display gardens, and beehives.

Environmental Leadership

Behnke’s was also an industry leader in prohibiting the application of neonicotinoids to its plants and urging their grower-suppliers to use the least-toxic alternatives.

Who Hasn’t Worked There?

From left, Patrica Bouton, Anita Garner and Becky Beaver

Behnke’s large staff is known for its well-trained, full-time experts ready to answer every possible question, none too specific or ridiculous. They’ve answered them all!

Clockwise from upper left: Larry Bristow, Hank Doong, Helmut Jaehnigen, and Alfred Millard

Supporting Local Clubs and Societies

Other frequent recipients of Behnkes’ generosity are the Beltsville Rotary Club, the Beltsville Lion’s Club, the Beltsville Fire and Police Departments, and Toys for Tots.

That’s me with Behnke granddaughter Stephanie Fleming

Customers Mourn, Especially ME

Will I ever say that about Home Depot or even Patuxent Nursery, our closest independent alternative? I’m guessing never.

Thanks to Stephanie Fleming for the photos and information she contributed to this post.

Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center originally appeared on GardenRant on April 5, 2019.

from Gardening https://www.gardenrant.com/2019/04/gardeners-mourn-the-closing-of-beloved-89-year-old-garden-center.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

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turfandlawncare · 5 years

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Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center

It’s official. In today’s press release, Behnke Nurseries announced that after 89 years, it will be going out of business in June. Thousands of local gardeners will mourn this incalculable loss.

Why It’s Closing

What about an employee buy-out, you say? If only! Many are retirement age or near it, and really, could they collectively buy almost 12 acres along busy Route 1? Hardly, at today’s prices.

Albert Behnke in the 1960s

Highlights from Behnke’s History

First Behnke greenhouse, with three of Albert and Rose’s children

Albert Behnke at his most dapper. Rose Behnke at work. Her granddaughter Stephanie Fleming says she’s “really was the one that was the reason we were so successful.”

Sonja Behnke at 17, and more recently

A Gardener’s Appreciation

Here’s just some of what Behnke’s has meant to its thousands of long-time customers, like me.

Plant Choices and Knowledge

Teaching Gardeners

Peter Kukielski, author of Roses without Chemicals

More learning opportunities throughout the nursery included a stormwater demonstration site, display gardens, and beehives.

Environmental Leadership

Behnke’s was also an industry leader in prohibiting the application of neonicotinoids to its plants and urging their grower-suppliers to use the least-toxic alternatives.

Who Hasn’t Worked There?

From left, Patrica Bouton, Anita Garner and Becky Beaver

Behnke’s large staff is known for its well-trained, full-time experts ready to answer every possible question, none too specific or ridiculous. They’ve answered them all!

Clockwise from upper left: Larry Bristow, Hank Doong, Helmut Jaehnigen, and Alfred Millard

Supporting Local Clubs and Societies

Other frequent recipients of Behnkes’ generosity are the Beltsville Rotary Club, the Beltsville Lion’s Club, the Beltsville Fire and Police Departments, and Toys for Tots.

That’s me with Behnke granddaughter Stephanie Fleming

Customers Mourn, Especially ME

Will I ever say that about Home Depot or even Patuxent Nursery, our closest independent alternative? I’m guessing never.

Thanks to Stephanie Fleming for the photos and information she contributed to this post.

Gardeners Mourn the Closing of Beloved 89-Year-Old Garden Center originally appeared on GardenRant on April 5, 2019.

from GardenRant http://bit.ly/2HYgqHH

#GardenRant

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sunshineweb · 5 years

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Safal Niveshak, Uncopyrighted

January 11 2013 was a sad day for the Internet world. That day, Internet pioneer and open information activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide at a young age of 26.

Swartz’s “crime” – he had logged into JSTOR (Journal Storage), a database of scholarly articles, and rapidly downloaded those articles with the intent to make them public.

He didn’t “hack” the network to secure those downloads. MIT is anyways an open network.

If Swartz had lived to be convicted of the charges against him, he either had to accept the label of a criminal and go to jail for 50 years or fight a million-dollar lawsuit.

Aaron decided to take a third option. He hanged himself!

Manslaughter (10 years in prison)

Bank robbery (20-25 years)

Selling slaves (20 years)

Aiding terrorists (20 years)

Threatening the President (5 years)

In other words, Aaron’s punishment would have been the same if he had robbed a bank, then slaughtered people, and then helped al-Qaeda develop nuclear bombs!

Just downloading and distributing academic papers brought him to face such a severe punishment!

This is in a world where the big corporations (and their top men) have destroyed trillions of dollars in investors’ wealth repeatedly, and have gone away scot-free (and with billions in bonuses)!

But that won’t bring this genius to life again. It won’t restore his shattered family or bring peace to his bewildered friends.

Here’s something I did as my ode to Aaron Swartz, and repeating again today for a much bigger audience.

I “uncopyrighted” my blog, Safal Niveshak.

Come, Use My Free Content for Free Mark Twain said, “Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.”

To free God from this impossibility, beginning in 2013, I have released all claims on copyright and put all the free content of Safal Niveshak into the public domain.

You don’t need any permission to use or distribute the content of this site in an ethical manner. Just a line of credit is appreciated.

Here are some of the things you can do now with the content I’ve created (and will create) if you so desire:

All my hand-drawn illustrations are on this page. Please use them freely, but please don’t remove my signature and add yours.