Fighting the Keystone-XL Pipeline: Unlikely Partners

This essay describes a relationship between two unlikely groups – a small Baptist Church in South Texas and Tar Sands Blockade in their efforts to fight the construction of the southern section of the Keystone-XL pipeline. Data were primarily collected from published data sources. It is argued that this relationship was made possible because each group held relatively non-gnostic commitments about social justice. This was true even though they had very different religious views. Gnosticism as a social phenomenon is explored, and it is suggested that modern idealism with its disregard for the environment is a type of “secular gnosticism.

A bodner-partom visco-plastic dynamic sphere benchmark problem

Developing benchmark analytic solutions for problems in solid and fluid mechanics is very important for the purpose of testing and verifying computational physics codes. Our primary objective in this research is to obtain a benchmark analytic solution to the equation of motion in radially symmetric spherical coordinates. An analytic solution for the dynamic response of a sphere composed of an isotropic visco-plastic material and subjected to spherically symmetric boundary conditions is developed and implemented. The radial displacement u is computed by solving the equation of motion, a linear second-order hyperbolic PDE. The plastic strains εp and εp are computed by solving two non-linear first-order ODEs in time. We obtain a solution for u in terms of the plastic strain components and boundary conditions in the form of an infinite series. Computationally, at each time step, we set up an iteration scheme to solve the PDE-ODE system. The linear momentum equation is solved using the plastic strains from the previous iteration, then the plastic strain equations are solved numerically using the new displacement. We demonstrate the accuracy and convergence of our benchmark solution under spatial mesh, time step, and eigenmode refinement

Subdividing the Public Lands: The Apportionment and Settlement of Northeast New Mexico

The land of northeastern New Mexico, outside of the recognized title rights of the former Mexican citizens, became the public domain of the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This immediately allowed for US control over 10,000 square miles of land within the area east of the 105° meridian and north of a line roughly defined by Interstate 40 in Quay County and the boundary between San Miguel and Guadalupe counties. Portions of the northeast which were excluded from this public domain by the action of the Court of Private Land Claims between 1891 and 1904 were the few large area Mexican land grants mentioned previously in a separate section of this report. These grant lands straddled the perennial surface water systems of the Canadian, the Gallinas, the Mora, and the Vermejo-Cimarron rivers. The survey of New Mexico, initiated in 1854, was designed to establish areas of the territory which could be occupied by settlers, to reserve land as a revenue source for public institutions, and to evaluate the land granted to communities, families and to individuals prior to 1848

Peopling the Northeast Plains

During the 1880s and the early part of the 1890s the cattle companies were continuing to hire ranch hands to prove up homesteads around water holes. At the same time the early farmers began to appear in the northeast, but not in the form of the sodbusters who were to later swarm over the highland llanos during the early part of the twentieth century. The early farmers were not labeled nesters, which was the derogatory term coined by the stockmen for the people who turned small parcels of the grassland into fields and began erecting fences over the plains. The first pioneer homestead families were located in the canyons and in the areas not covered by the prime grasslands. These settlers moved into the northeastern plains from a few locales in the west. After they had established their settlement areas and acquired the land and water rights to support themselves, the rush of farmers onto the upland grasslands was just beginning. These homesteaders, who came from the east, blanketed the remaining lands of the northeast that could be farmed

Factors related to voluntary dry matter intake by beef cattle fed primarily corn silage

The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of ration characteristics and body characteristics on voluntary feed intake of beef heifers and to determine the influence of voluntary rd^tion intake on animal gains and feed efficiency when corn silage was fed as the primary ration constituent. Corn silage ad libitum and 2.72 kg of various concentrates per animal per day were fed to 432 beef heifers, initially weighing 204-227 kg, during three one-year periods,, The experiments were from 110 to 140 days in length and each experiment was divided into four periods of approximately one month each. Body weights and sonaray measurements of fat thickness were determined initially and at monthly intervals throughout the experiments These measurements provided the basis of the body characteristic variables (percent fat and percent lean) and for the calculation of average daily gain (ADG) for each experimental period. Daily amounts of feed offered, refused and con-sumed by each pen of animals provided the basis of the voluntary intake variables and for the feed efficiency variables for each experimental period. Factors known or suspected to affect voluntary intake (VI) were used, and their effects on voluntary intake were determined using simple correlation coefficients with period measurements used as repeat observations. The independent variables, percent dry matter (DM) from silage, percent digestible energy (DE) from silage, mid-period weight and elapsed days, were utilized to establish useful multiple regression equations to predict voluntary feed intake. Simple correlation coefficients between various voluntary intake measurements and other factors known or suspected to influence either ADG or feed efficiency (DM intake, kg per body weight gain, kg) were calculated. Multiple regression equations were also developed to determine the influence of voluntary intake and other variables (percent DM from silage, percent DE from silage, voluntary DM intake per day, voluntary DE intake per day, elapsed days and mid-period weight) on animal per-formance (ADG and feed efficiency) with period measurements used as repeat observations. Voluntary intake of dry matter (VI-DM) and of digestible energy (VI-DE) was highly correlated with either variable which characterizes the ration, namely percent of either DM or DE from silage (r = approxi-mately 0o8). Therefore, VI increased as the proportion of silage in the ration increased. The other expressions of VI (VI per body weight, VI per metabolic size and VI above maintenance) were also positively correlated with percentage of either DM or DE contributed by silage. There were highly positive correlation coefficients between VI and body weight. When VI was expressed per body weight, it was negatively correlated with body weight. Expressing VI per metabolic body size reduced the influence of body weight to approximately 7% of the total influence of body weight., ADG was positively correlated with VI in some experimental periods only. This was due to lower than expected gains in one period while VI was as high as expected. Feed efficiency (higher numbers represent lower efficiency) was positively correlated with VI, VI per body weight, VI per metabolic size and VI-DE above maintenance. There was a high positive correlation between estimated fat percentage of the carcass and VI—DM and VI—DE. Almost all coefficients within periods were also positive (VI-DM, period 1-4: .60, .62, .31, and .46; VI-DE, periods 1-4: .59, .64, .20, and -.05). The fatter animals consumed more DM and more DE even within a period probably because they were also the heavier animals. The more meaningful prediction equations for VI were as follows: VI-DM, kg/day = -1.73 + 0.0806 (%DM from silage) + 0.00902 (mid-period weight, kg) - 0.00274 (elapsed days); VI-DI, kcal/day = -1321 + 327 (%DE from silage) + 3.04 (mid-period weight, kg) + 24.1 (elapsed days). The more meaningful prediction equations for animal performance were as follows: ADG, kg = 0.756 + 0.0167 (%DE from silage) - 0.0000530 (VI-DE, kcal/day) - 0.00278 (elapsed days) + 0.00136 (mid-period weight, kg); DM efficiency = -1,06 + 0.0608 (%DM from silage) + 1.01 (VI-DM, kg/day) + 0.0338 (elapsed days) - 0.0130 (weight, kg)

Homesteading and Public Land Law

It is important to the discussion of Butcher and Wyatt as homesteaders to understand the public land laws which affected their choice of land. Consequently, a review of the history of land legislation affecting the allocation and use of the public domain is in order and particularly that legislation under which Butcher and Wyatt made entry: the Homestead Act of 1862. Through this act early settlers around Tucumcari were able to acquire, at little expense, 160 acre tracts of land. In addition, the shortcomings and beneficial aspects of other acts of Congress concerning the acquisition of public domain will be examined as they provided the guidelines under which homesteaders received patents around Tucumcari throughout the early years of the twentieth century. The focus of this discussion will center on the use and abuse of the public domain by both the private sector and the various government regulatory agencies

Reasons for Vacating the Land

According to interview data, the mid droughts began very early. The first was in 1908 and 1909 followed by a low rainfall period of 1910 and 1911. These mild droughts were followed by another dry period in 1925 and 1926 and later by the dust bowl period of the mid-1930s. To experience even a mild drought was sufficient to weed out the land speculators who had little interest in farming the land. There were also a number of people who intended to farm, but arrived with insufficient funds to purchase the necessary equipment to produce enough surplus to ride through a period of harsh conditions. Bank loans for equipment would frequently place the farmer into a debt ceiling that would be impossible for him to recover from. These debts, compounded by crop failures and by bank failures in Des Moins (1912) and Clayton (1921) that instigated immediate repayment of outstanding loans, were sufficient to force the farmer off the land. The abandoned property would be foreclosed by the lending company in order to partially recover the debts

Elements to Assist the Farmers And Promote Immigration

The purpose of this portion of the resource survey of the northeastern plains is to reconstruct the settlement phase which occurred between 1880 and 1940, the period generally referred to as the homesteading era. To reconstruct the 60 years of human settlement and resettlement required an extensive review of secondary information resources as well as a field project(?) oriented around the collection of data from primary information resources. Much of the information that was compiled was directed toward a mapping project of the northeastern plains which included the location of the places named by the settlers as well as identifying the locations of both published resources (secondary data) and [illegible] settlers who were interviewees (primary data). The bulk of this data will then be transferred to a sequence of maps indicating the chronological process(?) of settlement history which will be followed by a series demonstrating the rise and fall of central places ( [illegible] towns) in the northeastern plains

Dry-Land Farming

Dry-land farming is a system of land use, crop management, and timing of operations that are designed to cope with the conditions of climate and rainfall of a semiarid land. Experiments began on dry-land techniques as early as the 1860s and the methods became well-known in the Great Plains by the end of the 1880s. A major component of dry farming, which is a term (along with dry-land farming) of western American origin, is the conservation of soil moisture during dry weather by special methods of tillage and plant adaptation. It is not farming without moisture, but farming where moisture is insufficient; often permitting agriculture to be practiced successfully in areas where rainfall is less than ten to twelve inches

Natural Elements of Northeastern New Mexico

Northeastern New Mexico is one of the most diverse natural landscapes in the state. Large volcanic vents dot the basalt flows that cap the piedmont surface, providing a very rugged horizon rather than the flat monotonous topography usually associated with the Great Plains of the United States. The dissected and rolling plains are broken by severely eroded canyons that have cut through the sandstone layers topped with caliche. In some areas where the major drainages confluence (such as the intersection of the Ute and Canadian or the Conchas and the Canadian) the narrow canyons broaden into extensive valleys characterized by isolated piedmont remnants. The entire area drains to the east and onto the flatter plains of West Texas. The western edge of the northeast is well defined by the dramatic snow-capped and rugged front range of the Rocky Mountains...an edge that is visible from most high points throughout the area surveyed for this report