Re: Horsetail/Equisetum Arvense
Daniel - Thanks for that! It's hard to see how my often waterlogged, heavy clay soil could contain excess nitrate, but there's no harm in trying... Tony N-S.
Re: Horsetail/Equisetum Arvense
Jane - I was planning only to use the tea as a fungus controller: maybe I should hope it IS toxic? Tony N-S.
Re: seed soaking
At an Emerson College course in 1996 I was given a table copied from Applied Biodynamics no 7 (Spring 1994) with the following information: Place prep in a glass container with one litre of rainwater, stir for 5 mins, immerse seeds for one hour and then sow out. 500 for chard, spinach 502 for grasses and rye 503 for alfalfa, linseed, clover, beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, peas, radish and turnip 504 for barley 505 for lettuce 507 for wheat, maize, beets, carrots, celery, celeriac, chicory, cucumbers, leek, melons (cantaloupe), onions, peppers, pumpkins, scallions and tomatoes; perhaps also aubergines, garlic, squash and watermelon. Barrel Compost for sunflowers BC/water/whole milk (1:4:5), (? stir 5 mins), let stand 24 hours, stir another 5 mins before use, as an alternative for beets and carrots. Haven't tried it myself, hope it helps. Tony N-S.
Re: Shredders for composting
I find a small shredder (bought, not home-made!) invaluable for making shrub trimmings up to about 3/4" diam, and often several feet long, suitable for inclusion in compost. I can't see how else these could be processed? Tony N-S.
City folk ( was Re: Indoor Mildew/Standing Water Remedy?)
The BBC Radio 4 'Today' news programme is currently getting excited about purple carrots. Anchorman John Humphreys discovered that it's only the outer skin which is purple, but is still flabbergasted by this novelty. Has he never seen the top of a turnip or swede (rutabaga)? Tony N-S.
Re: Horsetail/Equisetum Arvense
Steve - Pulling horsetail shoots damages the plant? I should be so lucky! I approve of this plant in the right place, but not overwhelming my veg patch. I've dug down three feet into my subsoil (solid glacial clay) without coming to the end of its stolons - I've read that they can extend downwards for several yards. Every spring I pull each shoot as it appears, and appears, and appears; after a decade or more, they are as vigorous as ever. Of course, if I'd _wanted_ them there Naturally, I dry the best leafy shoots for tea making. Tony N-S.
Re: Just saying hello
Merla - I have illustrations of various flowforms (as I'm sure many others also do) which I'd be glad to scan to you, if you'd quote your e-mail address (as Allan doesn't approve of attachments). Tony N-S.
Re: Flow forms and compost tea
Steve - I don't want to nit-pick, but I wonder how the vortices in my flowform cascade are not peripheral ? The flowforms are thin plastic shells and, inside each one, the liquid flows around the outer edge in twin vortices before joining in chaotic discharge into the next flowform beneath. That seems to be about as peripheral as in a bucket ? Thanks for your suggestion that I should double the time to 20 mins. Tony N-S.
Re: Flow forms and compost tea
Allan - I have 14 tiers, as used at Emerson College. I think I remember their telling me that they ran preps for 10 mins - but, also, I calculated that 10 mins' circulation through them equals as many vortices and reversals (chaos) as I'd get in an hour's hand-stirring.Tony N-S.
Re: Flow forms and compost tea
Instead of stirring, I run water plus prep (for spraying or compost heap, not to make tea) through a cascade of flowforms for about 10 mins. Do I win both ways or get the booby prize ? Tony N-S.
Re: A Neo-agrarian culture
Thanks, Christy, for the notes on Wes Jackson's talk. On a minor point, I picked up on the '1 nuclear accident every 10 years' estimate. As a coastal marine ecologist, I figured out that (around the NW European coastline) we have averaged one severe winter and one serious oil-spill every ten years. Is there something special about this period ? I seem to remember that the sunspot cycle runs over 11 years (near enough ?). Tony N-S.
Re: [biotech_activists] Intl Campaign Touts High-Yield (biotech) Farming
Yeah, it's a good story; but I remember the suggestions during the 'Green Revolution' that new high-yielding rice varieties would enable peasant farmers to produce more and thus become more prosperous. What reportedly happened was that they planted less to get the same crop and became more relaxed. Tony N-S.
Re: WDNR CWD Management Plan a Practical Impossibility
During the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the UK, there was a shock-horror revelation in some newspapers that red deer are susceptible and some had tested positive. The opinion was expressed that, unless something urgent was done about it, it would become endemic in wild deer and remain a constant source of infection for domestic cattle. In spite of massive culls of cattle at horrendous expense, to the best of my knowledge nothing was done about the deer. Could this be because the authorities realised that nothing could realistically be done about it ? I merely pass this on, I have no special knowledge of it (does anyone out there ?).Tony N-S.
Off: Badger cull (was Re: You & CWD)
Wherever there's a problem, kill the obvious suspect without considering the consequences ! Those overseas from the UK might be interested to know that the 'experimental' badger cull re-started yesterday. Badgers and cows both suffer from tuberculosis. Farmers and the Agriculture Department interpret this as indicating that the badgers are spreading it to the cows, and are carrying out a massive 'experiment' during which tens of thousands of badgers will be killed over a period of 5 years. It is claimed that the TB situation at the end of that time will prove that badgers are the problem. Wildlife enthusiasts point out that TB can be passed from cow to cow and conditions during which cows were cooped up together during the foot-and-mouth epidemic would be ideal for this klind of infection. Now that re-stocking is permitted, potentially infected cows can be moved over considerable distances and TB is showing up where it never previously occurred. TB testing should be required before such movements and vaccination is possible, but both are 'too expensive'. As always, we'll find out much too late that the alternatives are even more expensive (but someone else pays ?). Tony N-S.
OFF: Crap and political opinions
I'm not sure whether I'm one of the purveyors of 'leftist crap' or not, but it might be worth mentioning that, some years ago, I would without hesitation have described everything covered by this forum as crap. BDNow didn't convert me from this view, - I reached it with help from my wife, reading and a short course at Emerson College - but it has filled out my understanding of many issues enormously. I'm reassured that the majority who have commented on 'political postings' have found them interesting and don't want them abolished. My views on the situation in Israel/Palestine are coloured by the fact that I've been to numerous Middle Eastern countries and have supervised the work of many Arab postgrads (although I've known and liked many Jewish people, not necessarily Zionists, however). To take an extreme example, Saddam Hussein is now represented to us as a monster (let's remember that he was a valued ally only a few years ago); but one of my Iraqi students came from a peasant family. Thanks to the Ba'athist regime, he was well educated, got a degree at a local university, was funded to come to Britain for his doctorate and now holds a good position in a research institution back in Iraq (as a marine biologist, not a developer of weapons). His opinion of Saddam might be slightly different from ours. If the excerpt from Will Hutton's new book 'The World We're In' (quoted in my Sunday newspaper) is to be believed, it would not now be possible for an equivalent US American to achieve this. What might my Iraqi conclude from this comparison ? Tony N-S.
OFF - Re: Political posts
Might I add my tuppence worth? Jane seems to be the person most complained against but I, likle numerous previous posters, have greatly appreciated her contributions. I was a minor offender in posting some comments in favour of Palestinians rather than Israelis. BDNow! comprises a group of liberal, like-minded and humane people whose advice and opinions on practical spirituality, particularly as related to agriculture and horticulture, is very valuable - but I also value your opinions on broader matters, even when I totally disagree with them. The majority US membership helps to counter both official sources of US news or opinion and the far-right survivalist 'mountain men' who provide the only alternative opinions given in our normal news media. I certainly have no group of friends with whom this sort of discussion, face to face, could possibly compete, and I know of no other comparable e-mail forum (can any of the critics suggest one?). After Stephen complained of the cost of receiving political messages, whether or not he instantly deleted them, I made a few sample timings and found that a BDNow message takes an average of just under one second to arrive on my screen; I am connected by a normal UK telephone line, not a specialist broadband one. This costs me peanuts - am I just lucky in this? I've marked this OFF, to suit anyone who is filtering all but mainstream messages. Maybe we should at least take note of Allan's occasional requests and use OFF wherever appropriate, also changing the subject field as the nature of the thread changes? Tony N-S.
Re: Drought Redux
Here in south-west Wales, we thoughtlessly complain at our frequent days of persistent drizzle or worse, not really appreciating how much of the rest of the world would be delighted by it! My good intentions on reading advice about putting a brick in the loo cistern, never brushing teeth under a running tap and so on are rather soured by a knowledge of the wasteful use of water in many industries, often manufacturing worthless objects anyway - but at least I have the benefit of a year-round source of spring-water, so I can water the plants with a clear conscience. On this line of thought, I remember awhile back, when Britain was suffering a fuel crisis, the government asked us to make the greatest effort to save on electricity. The following day, my newspaper printed a photograph of the Energy Minister's house after dark: every single window was brightly lit. Does anyone know how the great and the good are conserving water? Tony N-S.
Elementals (was Re: Dandelions)
Interesting. Recently, I keep having the sense of catching a glimpse of movement or some out-of-place object just out of my line of vision. Some while ago, I related to this forum the story of my new neighbour seeing the ghost of a former owner of our property, believing it to be my wife. I had thought that I was now not-quite-seeing her, but maybe our elementals are beginning to show up? My vision is not deteriorating but I believe that I'm still developing spiritually.Tony N-S.
Re: Oak leaves
Tony - is vit B12 really that thermally stable? Tony N-S.
OFF Re: religion vs ethnicity ( Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel)
I doubt that Allen will support this discussion for much longer, as it's so off-message; but I think it's pushing things too far to regard 'Muslim states' as being united by religion rather than ethnicity. These states may be overwhelmingly Muslim, observing Sharia law, but they are still occupied almost entirely by people of defined, local ethnic origin(s). I'm not aware that any foreigner professing Islam has a specified 'right' to consider himself (say) a Saudi or Afghan citizen. There may be a tenuous ethnic link between all people born into an orthodox Jewish family (which discounts those who have married out, converted etc), but there will surely still be enormous cultural differences between those from (say) the US east coast and Ethiopia. My main quibble is with the 'Right of Return' (about as misleading an expression as 'reclaiming' land from the sea?): it inevitably gives rise to pressure to colonise Palestinian land, an unpleasant reminder of Hitler's 'Lebensraum'. Tony N-S.
Re: ReOFF/ : Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel
Michael - There's a whole lot of history here, and theology too. It's pretty convenient to be able to say, "God gave me this land" ! The first thing that Joshua did when entering that land was to smash Jericho (early blueprint for Jenin?). I agree that it was stupid of the Balfour government to cede Palestine to both the Zionists and the Arabs - but then, the Brits don't have the monopoly of stupid foreign-policy decisions. I honestly don't know how many Jewish refugees were let into Britain (or turned away) during the war, but don't forget that Jews had been entering Britain from other European countries since the time of William the First - and, yes, at times dispossessed or massacred here, too. It just seems sad that the Jews who left Nazi oppression for Israel should so quickly have put on the jackboot. Tony N-S.
Re: Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel
It's encouraging to learn that some 'ordinary' US Americans are at least criticising Sharon's Israel, if not offering much support to the Palestinians. The Brits (and probably a majority in much of Europe generally) are much more supportive of the Palestinians: we deplore the bombing of civilians, but at least understand the desperation of the people behind it. TV news a couple of days ago interviewed a group of Russian jews who had arrived in Israel six weeks previously. An elderly man proclaimed that, if he could, he would join the army to protect 'his' land - from Arabs who were born there, but are now herded into a refugee camp. By this measure, the French resistance fighters during WW2 were 'terrorists'? Tony N-S.
Re: Berry: The Prejudice Against Country People
In Britain, there is a loud and potentially powerful backlash by a group calling itself The Countryside Alliance. It campaigns against the closure of rural post-offices and banks, poor public transport and other problems of countryfolk but, unfortunately, it is a Trojan horse: it was set up by foxhunting interests to oppose the threatened ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs, using other complaints as a smokescreen. They organised a large march on London last year, then quoted the numbers attending as indicating massive rejection of the proposed ban (in fact, polls of specifically rural populations show support for such a ban running from 50% to over 70% - many of those on the march thought that they were supporting the 'smokescreen' complaints). US hunters please note that the activity in question is the traditional 'greetings-card' mounted hunt with a pack of hounds, fancy uniforms and arcane jargon, not two men and a dog out in the woods! Tony N-S.
Re: OFF: Astrological portents
Glen - sorry for a late response. You ask a series of interesting questions: do you have any answers ? In the famous story about Newton and the apple, surely as both apple-tree and Newton were spinning at the same speed, the net effect would be nil ? Doesn't a spinning object throw off, rather than attract, particles (ever stood near a dog shaking itself dry ?). Tony N-S.
Willow tea etc
I, too, would be glad to know about willow tea. I have a big old Black Hamburg vine, in a long lean-to glasshouse, which has suffered from intractable mould/mildew over the last couple of years. I grow nettles and mares-tails without effort (!) and also have numerous pussy-willow trees (Salix caprea), valuable as an early source of pollen for my bees - any use as an anti-fungal tea ? Tony N-S.
Re: The banning of seed exchange legislation
Bonnie - surely there must be a tighter definition than this ? Most food ingredients and prepared foods, booze, medicines, many textiles and rugs, wooden structures and timber (for example) are 'plant products'. You'd certainly not be able legally to move a trailer caravan across a stateline ! Tony N-S.
Knapweed
Is Merla's knapweed the same as ours in Britain -
Centaurea scabiosa or C. nigra (also known as Hardheads ? I have it
occasionally in a rough lawn on an old cinder patch but don't find it at all
invasive (it can easily be mown out). It is,
indeed, attractive and valuable as the major food-plant
of cinnabar moth larvae ('football jersey'
caterpillars). Tony
N-S.
Universe in synch (was Astrological portents)
Hugh (in particular) - did you ever come across the
news that two Japanese astrophysicists had detected the 'music of the spheres'
? I read it in 'New Scientist' a couple of years ago and have now
lost that issue but, in essence, these two were analysing the vibrations of
planet Earth. They gradually eliminated individual frequencies as they
assigned sources to each and eventually found that there remained one frequency
which apparently had no detectable source. They concluded that this is the
natural frequency of the planet, and that each celestial body has its own
characteristic frequency. This, to me, seems one of the most fundamental
validations for astrology - certainly worth quoting at those scoffers who
conveniently assume that the only influence such a body could have is by its
gravity, and thus 'demolish' astrology by showing that a passing vehicle
has a stronger local gravitational effect than the nearest planet.
It ties in with an assertion by
Dr Percy Seymour, a very brave professional astronomer who supports
astrology ('The scientific basis of astrology', Quantum Books, 1997),
that a foetus recognises the set of frequencies which define its
character and chooses to be born when external frequencies fit this - rather
than being defined by whichever set of frequencies happen to be vibrating at the
time of its birth. Makes one wonder what damage is being done by medical
intervention in the birth process
?
Tony N-S.
Chemtrails and shellfish poisoning
Thanks, Nancy and Michael. Seems like we've not experienced them here yet, then. We do have our own local mystery, tho' - for the last couple of months, the cockle fishery in our estuary has been closed because of Diarrheic Shellfish Poisoning. Poisoning of shellfish is usually due to a bloom of micro-algae, but only this estuary (the Burry Inlet/Loughor Estuary) seems to be affected. Three other rivers enter Carmarthen Bay and surely micro-algae would have gone up their estuaries, too: but cockles are still collected at Ferryside on the Tywi. There's talk of a mysterious toxin which no-one seems able (or willing ?) to identify - but then, it would have to be some outfall into the Loughor because, obviously, components of a chemtrail would fall over an even wider area. Tony N-S,
Re: [globalnews] Chemtrails - Barium, Aluminum, Titanium CONFIRMED In Rainwater
As I commented in a huffy OFF message earlier, I live under the 'Green' channel taken by transatlantic flights as they cross SW Britain - consequently, I often see large numbers of contrails in the sky. How can I distinguish such normal condensation trails from these chemtrails ? Tony N-S.
Re: How about $100 fees for permits for ALL seeds and plants moving interstate
Gil - Gandhi was once asked what he thought about Western civilisation; he replied that, yes, it would be a good thing. Tony N-S.
Flowform energising (was Re: The Wide World and Testing Preps)
Steve and Peter - I take your point about stirring with intention, but I hand-pump the water/prep through my flowform cascade, projecting my intention into the flow just as I would into the bucket if hand-stirring. I hesitate to argue with such an old hand as Steve, but there are two lemniscatory vortices in each of the 14 flowforms in my cascade and I dispute that the total effect of these is less energetic than the single hand-stirred vortex in a bucket. Were flowforms around when RS was urging hand-stirring? There seems to be a prevailing feeling in BDNow these days that, whilst honouring the intuitions of RS, we shouldn't be afraid to move on - as he apparently wished. Tony N-S.
Re: The Wide World and Testing Preps
Allan and Steve - why not avoid altogether the controversy between 'tedious' hand stirring and contentious mechanical stirring by using a flowform cascade? Tony N-S.
Re: Merla and the Weed Board
Merla - Of course, to us the preps are significantly processed/treated; but, to your legalistic regulators, surely you're just using unprocessed manure and vegetable wastes on one bit of ground and, later, digging them up and using them on another bit of ground? If it would be acceptable first time round, it has to be so on the second time round also - otherwise you'd be breaching the regulations every time you transplanted a shrub! At least, that's what you could tell your tormentor. Tony N-S.
OFF - Re: Charging for use of commons...
Thanks, Jane, for posting this interesting concept. As I've labelled this an OFF posting, maybe you folks will permit me to let off a little personal steam re aviation? As a young man, I was keen on aircraft (Air Scouts and compulsory service in the RAF). Now, I'm furious that I pay an enormous tax on diesel for my car, which I regard as essential as I live in the sticks, while overhead on the 'Green' air channel for transatlantic flights I can sometimes see a dozen contrails in as many minutes from 747s carrying holidaymakers to or from Orlando (essential journey?) and burning tax-free kerosene. Similarly, amateur Biggleses and parachutists' planes fly low over my garden from the nearby airfield, making a racket audible across a wide swathe of 'peaceful' countryside for which I would immediately be pulled over if it emanated from my car. As for microlights... ! Am I just thinking like a whingeing wrinkly ? What opinions from elsewhere ? Tony N-S.
Re: Happy Spring (Tomorrow) !! fWd from Troy Bogdan
Troy (via Allen?) - thanks for your inspiring note about Earth Day but, just to nitpick, not 'England' please but Britain ! We in Wales, together with our compatriots in Scotland and Ireland, share (indeed, were the originators of) the culture of the largely newcomer invaders who inhabit England. In my stroppier moments, I imagine referring to the whole of the USA as Texas, just to annoy those who post me mail addressed to '...Wales, England'! However, in peace, Tony N-S.
Re: Gardening Shed Advice (?)
If you're pouring a concrete floor, simple advice is to make sure which way the gradient runs. It seems obvious, but whoever laid the floor of my garage/workshop helpfully had it sloping to the back and sides so that, when I garage my car on rainy days, all the runoff drains into the area where I could best stack timber... Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
Gil - Apologies to any participating Kiwis; I took your recent reference to the 'land of the long white cloud' to indicate that you live there. Yes, I live quite near Llanrhidian. Milford Haven is quite similar to the Fal estuary - of which, incidentally, I've also done an ecological survey. I love the Cornish coast, but then so do too many other people! The Pembrokeshire coast is comparable and not quite so heavily touristic - if you manage to visit Wales, I'd suggest that you base yourself somewhere on that south-western corner. Thanks, Thomas, for the endorsement - I'm sure that the Wales Tourist Board would be most grateful. Iechyd da! Tony N-S.
The old ways are best! (was ... Cesium Rod?)
Herb - I took my degree (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry) in 1959/60 and enjoyed the primitive wet methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis; I also remember simple wet-chemistry methods for determining nutrient deficiencies in a leaf (can't remember after whom these leaf tests were named - can any other old hand help ?). Now it seems that not a thing can be done without an atomic-absorption spectrophotometer and gas-liquid column chromatography (or, preferably, GC-MS) setting the lab back tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros. Where did we go wrong ? Merla - I'm very familiar with the radiation warning sign because, as lab safety representative, I had endless struggles with our paranoid microbiologist who used to mark practically all his glassware with it to stop others 'borrowing' it. On the other hand, we had to balance carefully the safety requirement to label genuine hazards, however small, against the refusal of the garbage men to handle anything bearing a label which they thought might mean danger. Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
Gil - nothing so grand as 'farming', I just have 2-3 acres of roughish land, a little of which I use to grow veg for household use, a little more as relatively tame garden, the rest as wet paddock or wettish spinney. It's on the north side of the Gower peninsula in SW Wales, west of Swansea or opposite Llanelli if you look on a small-scale map. On the topic of place-names, I did my PhD on the ecology of Milford Haven (a deep estuary in Pembrokeshire) and so was fascinated to find so many local names transposed to Milford Sound in your South Island. Tony N-S.
Re: Radioactivity
Deborah - Sorry, I was just using the subject line of the original message: not an expert on caesium, but surely Ce would be cerium ? Confusion or mis-type - 137 could be an isotope of either ?Tony N-S.
Re: Did Anyone Lose a Cesium Rod?
Jane - I'm sure that the suspicions reported are well-founded, but radioactive releases can sometimes be due to plain ignorant stupidity - as in London some years ago, when a radio-source used in some sort of checking on a demolition site was taken away by the scrap merchant commissioned to clear the site of waste metal. The source was kept in a lead castle in a pit railed off and marked with the standard danger signs. The lead castle was recovered from the scrap-yard only minutes before a worker there was about to break it open. The man clearing the site claimed, apparently in all honesty, that he had no idea what the radioactive danger sign meant and that he'd been told he could take all the metal left there. Tony N-S.
Re: Presidential elections
Stephen - I had it in mind that Bush is, himself, a president who got elected only by disenfranchising the opposition...It would be a bit rich if he now gets all pious about it, even though Mugabe went about it a little more vigorously. Tony N-S.
Re: Gathering Chi (was re: agrisynthesis...)
Chris - Yes, I get your point about taking over a tree to act as a broadcaster. My main thought, as a rather junior practictioner of T'ai Chi - Chi Gung, was that the Chi has to come from somewhere and I'm not really harming the natural environment as a whole in my practice by drawing it in, especially as at least a large proportion of it is quickly released. There must be a limit to the amount that can be stored - and can one be said to destroy it by using it ?Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
Gil - Thanks for that. I'm sure that it is iron (clean spring from old mine, little vegetable matter to provide tannin) but it certainly doesn't seem to do any harm - it's a helluva job clearing unwanted plants from the waterway downstream of our watercress bed. I once thought it might be a good idea to plant Mimulus, now I struggle to clear and compost it before it seeds - looks pretty in flower, though. Tony N-S.
Presidential elections
Can you guys on the other side of the Atlantic tell me how President Bush is reacting to Robert Mugabe grabbing the presidency of Zimbabwe by disenfranchising the opposition ? Tony N-S.
Re: Gathering Chi (was re: agrisynthesis...)
Chris - surely the whole point about Chi is that you cannot retain it: you may 'gather' it, but it's only passing through. Thus it can scarcely be 'parasitic' to obtain it from natural surroundings - it returns to them soon enough ! Tony N-S.
Re: Watering the garden
It's probably not relevant to you but I have a stream fed by an old mining adit which provides typical iron-waste water (deposits of soft, sticky orange-coloured sediment). In the stream-bed, I grow the most luscious, tangy watercress I've ever tasted. I occasionally water other crops with it (although I admit I mostly use the public water supply, which is good) and it seems to do no harm; I also dredge the iron-rich mud from the stream-bed and have used it, mixed with garden compost and discarded peat, to build up growing beds which have been quite productive. I leave the spiritual implications of a high iron content to our BDNow gurus, though ! Tony N-S.
Re: ants and 'balance' (was companion planting)
Dear Wayne & Sharon - I don't want you to think I'm decrying your insights into plants and their needs, which I find both instructive and humbling (since I don't receive such insights) but I'm a bit confused by your proposal that this rose-bed must have something wrong with it because leaf-cutter ants are 'attacking' the roses, which we are told seem to be their favourite crop. Much though the rose-grower may dislike the damage they are doing, surely that activity is quite natural ? They are utilising this material just as we utilise plant materials (cotton, hemp, bamboo, timber etc) or food plants. How is it that their gathering such material reveals some imbalance ? Certainly, plants have evolved methods of deterring grazing animals, but the animals then evolve ways around this deterrence; otherwise there wouldn't still be leaf-cutting ants. Are you proposing that, with proper balance restored, these particular rose plants would so strengthen their defences that the ants would be defeated and go elsewhere ? That said, I'm all for preventing ant damage on a local scale, using methods which don't greatly injure the ants. Tony N-S.
Re: Dreamtime--previous lives
As Hugh commented, it used to be very fashionable to 'remember' a past life as a famous historical character (Cleopatra and Napoleon must have had a massive number of multiple personalities). I have no personal insights, but I attended a very interesting session during which a hypno-medium revealed the most recent past life of many of those present - all very humble (common soldier, seaman, agricultural worker, maidservant... ). Several of these accounted for previously unexplained phobias, preferences or recurring dreams. As to the main point of Hugh's message - sorry, can't help with funding Moen Creek. Tony N-S.
Re: Clinton not Bush
Y'know, there are times when the rest of the world feels that US Americans (present company excepted, natch) _deserve_ the bum Presidents which they elect... Pity that we have to suffer from their activities, too, though ! Tony N-S.
Re: Clinton not Bush (as reluctant bomber)
Allan - I'm not entirely sure that bombing the Muslim world, by whatever instigation, is necessarily the best indicator of a good President... Tony N-S.
Re: Weather Weapons
Can anyone tell me, if the US has the power to unleash hurricanes artificially, couldn't 'natural' ones be tamed ? Tony N-S.
Democracy (was Richard K. ... )
Richard K. criticises democracy and, of course, he's right - but which other realistic system is preferable ? Winston Churchill commented (roughly) that democracy seems the worst possible way to run a country, until you look at the alternatives. The 'democracy' of the Greeks and, later, the Founding Fathers was certainly restricted to an elite but, hopefully, we've come on a bit since then. I've briefly visited (for example) Iraq and Saudi Arabia and I'd certainly sooner live in the constitutional monarchy of GB, or even under the non-democratic presidency of George W ! Tony N-S.
Re: Alien life forms (was Spraying in airplanes etc )
Sorry, Markess - I was extending the comment on the problem of introductions of alien plants and animals, which clearly refers to material damage rather than spiritual implications. I wrote as an environmental biologist and intended a serious professional (not PC) meaning behind a seemingly flip comment. Previous postings at the time of anti-globalisation demonstrations in various cities were plainly on the 'them vs us' theme, which appeared to be acceptable to most contributors. I like and respect rats as animals, recognising them as fellow-mammals and equally entitled to a place on Earth; but, in my time, I have both used them in (non-harmful) experimentation and attempted by various means to drive them out of my kitchen - a 'them and us' situation which I regarded as necessary. However, I'll cogitate on your point of view, for which my thanks. Tony N-S.
Re: The Sustainable Label
Marla - as an occasional contributor of news items to a UK organic gardening magazine (as well as personally) I'd be very grateful to learn more about the possibility of GMOs being peddled under the 'sustainable' label, should this come up at your meeting. Tony N-S.
Re:Airplane air quality (was 'Spraying in airplanes etc')
My Sunday newspaper (The Observer, UK) has a short piece "We're heaving on a jet plane..." by Euan Ferguson) which claims that the member of a ground crew whose responsibility it is to help open the door on the arrival of an intercontinental flight gets a little extra pay for having to put up with the waft of foetid air which then hits him. Apparently this duty, at a Pacific destination, is carried out by Tommo Tikkulumu, which translates roughly as 'Tommy who relishes the smell of farts'. Tony N-S (who doesn't).
Re: Alien life forms (was Spraying in airplanes etc )
I don't quite get your drift, Markess. It seemed to me that in many ex-colonies and other third-world countries 'developed' by Europeans, these incomers have grabbed all the good land or most valuable resources, as well as introducing inappropriate plants and animals or imposing unsuitable religious/cultural constraints on the natives. One wouldn't expect this behaviour from RS-inspired people. Or are you having me on ? Tony N-S.
The Food Conspiracy
My Sunday newspaper (The Observer, UK) in a report on Sara Jane Olsen, the seemingly respectable Minnesota housewife currently on a murder charge relating to her youthful membership of the Symbionese Liberation Army, refers to her participation in the Food Conspiracy in the 1970s which was, she said, "an umbrella group of neighbourhood food-buying clubs that brought organic food from rural farms and local distributors". Does anyone know more about this group - was it widespread and did it knowingly include BD produce, or did she just invent it ? Tony N-S.
OFF & longish: eliminating mind-chatter
Thanks, folks, for helpful comments on how to get rid of irrelevant thoughts when trying to meditate, both recently and when I last brought up this topic. Suggestions seem to fall into three categories - 1. Accept them calmly, briefly register them and then let them go; 2. Expel them from the mind as soon as they appear. A recent comment (sorry, I've lost the name of its author) proposed visualising them being flushed away as though down the toilet. As I probably mentioned before, my favourite visualisation is to imagine my mantra (with a sibilant and then a hard, forceful sound - resembling "SSSay your MANtra" - as the sound of oars feathering back and then pulling: I'm sitting in the stern of a small boat, being rowed by a hooded, shadowy figure (I couldn't be rowing myself, as I'm fully relaxed; the figure is vague so I don't give any thought to its features). The boat is moving down a dark, still canal towards a distant brilliantly illuminated region which I enter when (hopefully) I attain the alpha state. In this scenario, I try to push any extraneous thought up onto a bridge which carries it away overhead. 3. Block them from entering the mind at all. In a similar scenario, the boat is being rowed through a cave or tunnel with rough rocky walls; on its prow is a torch with a guttering flame (which also helps to keep the rower in deep shadow) whose light plays on the walls and the slightly choppy water. If I concentrate on this flickering pattern, it seems to shatter the details of any extraneous thoughts before they fully register. The only problem with this is that a visualisation is, in itself, necessarily a thought. Is developing a visualisation in fact obstructing the objective of meditation rather than helping to achieve it ? Tony N-S.
Re: Alien life forms (was Spraying in airplanes etc )
Seems to me that the most damaging life form introduced into New World countries (in the widest sense) has been European humans - subscribers to BDNow excepted, of course! Tony N-S.
Re: Spraying in airplanes etc (was Why do the potentized preps work)
Hugh (or anyone else) - what became of the couple who were taking capsules of DDT daily, to prove that it was harmless to humans ? So far as I could tell, they were eccentric, otherwise ordinary citizens, not conspicuously sponsored by any chemical company. Can't remember any details, other than that they lived in the US. Tony N-S.
Re: Wandering mind (was 'visions'' while meditating)
Thanks for that, Chris - I'll look out for it. Tony N-S.
Re: Spraying in airplanes etc (was Why do the potentized preps work)
Allan - You were lucky that they sprayed after disembarking passengers! Some years ago I was on a flight (can't remember the destination, possibly Jordan) when, immediately after landing, the cabin attendants came through with small aerosol cans and sprayed the passengers. It wasn't at all thorough, so I imagine they were just making a gesture, but we got most of it at head level. I was also in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) about 15 years ago when the entire city was sprayed from twin-engined aircraft flying at low level. I was told it happened around 3pm daily and that the material sprayed was DDT. Nobody bothered to get off the streets or close windows etc. Good reason for women veiling up, perhaps? Tony N-S.
Re: SFW: Straining Compost
I've made and repaired plankton nets from an appropriate grade of nylon bolting cloth - sorry, can't remember the nomenclature of mesh-sizes and the name of a British supplier wouldn't be much use to you, but you could try a biological supplies house or a supplier to the flour-milling or similar trades. I've used a large nylon flour-sieve for a number of purposes, from netting macroplankton in shore pools to rough-filtering spring water, but maybe the pore size is too large for your needs.Tony N-S.
OFF: 'Visions' while meditating
Several subscribers made helpful comments when I last mentioned meditation problems, awhile ago, so I'm not too apologetic to come back for more... Often, after relaxing into meditation mode, I can see behind my closed eyelids a duller version of the effect one experiences when pressure is applied to the eyeballs: a series of indefinite shapes in either a greenish pale purple or a dull orange against the dark, purplish black background. These either swirl away in a spiral or expand from the lower edge of my vision in a semicircle, like a ripple in a pond. Their movement doesn't closely match any movements which my eyeballs might make, nor do they pulse to match my heartbeat. I believe that I might be in alpha mode by the time they appear. Can anyone suggest how these 'visions' arise? I often have problems suppressing extraneous thoughts (what my t'ai chi master calls 'your mind out shopping') but these 'visions' either appear when my mind is fairly blank or, perhaps, even override such thoughts. I'm still pretty much a novice so far as productive meditation is concerned, so I'd be grateful for comments from such masters of the art who, I'm sure, are out there somewhere! Tony N-S.
Re: The Golden Rule
Thank you, Jane. At the other end of the scale, don't the Chinese point out that nothing is quite so satisfying as seeing your neighbour fall from his (presumably single storey) roof ? Tony N-S.
OFF: Re Popular Headgear
Nice to see how many different threads appeared under this subject - some a good deal more thoughtful than my original one! However, if I might just add: 1 - saw a cartoon, years ago, entitled 'Why cowboys wear Stetsons'. A group of cowboys around a fire had taken off those tall hats with a deep fold down the middle: all had high, bald heads with a deep fold down the middle. 2 - don't know who Nelson is, but my distant ancestor seems always to have worn a hat. After he lost the sight of one eye, he didn't wear a patch (in spite of later popular illustrations) but had a small green visor added to his uniform tricorn to cut down the glare. Tony N-S.
Re: OFF: Popular headgear
Steve - does your Australian outback hat carry the authentic fringe of suspended corks? Tony N-S.
OFF: Popular headgear
In spite of the comment (can't remember by whom) that wearing a baseball cap automatically reduces intelligence by 25%; wearing it backwards, by 75%, this headgear now seems omnipresent. However, an American acquaintance insisted that they should properly be called feedstore caps. I can see the practical implications - giveaway caps would have the familiar adjustable strip at the rear, whereas surely part of the uniform of an established sports teams would be issued in suitable fixed sizes - but could someone in the wide range of US agrigultural experts on this list tell me if there actually is a significant difference between the two and which came first? Tony N-S.
Re: Can anyone offer a testimonial for the 3 kings spray?
Allan - I was attending a BDAA conference in Gloucestershire (UK) in early January a couple of years ago when the Three Kings prep was used. It was stirred quietly in a corner during an address by Manfred Klett and scattered around a nearby part of the grounds, especially a very ancient sycamore tree growing from a holy well, by a succession of people. I can't report what influence it subsequently had, but I found the ceremony very moving. Tony N-S.
Re: OFF: Re-inventing the wheel
Thanks for that, Allan. Both the National Botanic Garden of Wales (quite close to me) and the Eden Project in Cornwall (which I'm sure you know about) have domed greenhouses with a polygonal framework, truly massive in the latter. I recommend visiting either/both - although I'm told that the Eden Project is about as crowded as Disneyland was pre-11th Sept., even well out of season. Tony N-S.
