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Post by steve h on Sept 28, 2019 19:42:22 GMT 1
On clean energy think a few kms or miles beneath your feet. An inexhaustible supply of heat for electricity production.
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Post by icarus001 on Sept 29, 2019 1:55:21 GMT 1
The weather still isn't too bad, so get out on your polluting two stroke motorcycles, your grandkids won't have the pleasure, so you might as well go mad while you can. Or if you really do want to make a social stand and help the planet then you could sell them and give the money to charity. Let us know how you get on
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Post by veg on Sept 29, 2019 7:04:23 GMT 1
I give a percentage of my earnings to charity, I also work f.o.c. for 1week a year for certain charities, I also work for a specific charity on a regular basis and charge considerably less than I do other clients, not because I’m a smug t**t but because I care about my work and I want to make a difference in a small way to children’s lives and have a positive impact, you??. I don’t when I have nothing constructive to say resort to criticism or belittling as that doesn’t allow or aid debate about the problem. So no I won’t be selling my bike that I barely use but I will continue to do everything I can to decrease mine and my family’s impact and not attempt to belittle those who don’t agree with me.
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Post by pdxjim on Sept 29, 2019 7:25:55 GMT 1
On about trees and plants , have you noticed when a young couple move into a house (not new build) they strip their whole gardens of anything living ! Font gardens maybe as parking can be a problem but why not have the rear garden as a little Oasis I'm just an old fart Well your not on your own. Makes perfect sense to leave a little corner or more alone for wildlife. I do so at home it's called the front and rear garden, and if the neighbours don't like it they can swivel. Toying with the idea of wild flower seeding the "lawn" and cutting once a year instead of the usual twice (I dry the grass and use as bedding for 3 hens!) You could go a bit further and keep bees. Doesn't take much effort to keep a single hive, don't even need a huge garden! plenty of help and advice out there!. There are a few colonies in the local garden centre, people all around them watching no threat to the people as they are enclosed in a fine mesh cage about 7 foot ish high around the hives with a door for access. I sit and watch ours, I find it fascinating... if only humans were so efficient. Go on... think about it.. www.bbka.org.uk/PS as for getting stung, don't let this scare you off and don't dwell on the possibility of it happening.. it will happen. We have bikes, we fall off bikes and get hurt...it does not stop us ridding!! The Mrs is allergic to bee venom and is on a course of allergy treatment 3yrs long, we just carry an EpiPen and phone... I'm a beekeeper here in the States as well. Here's an old pic of my 10yo daughter I mentioned earlier. Got two hives at the mo. Pulled 10 gallons of honey off them a few weeks ago. Will be good for $1000+ if I sell it instead of giving it away.
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Post by earthman on Sept 29, 2019 10:42:29 GMT 1
The world/this planet will end one day, it's got to, nothing lasts forever, however it's the human race and our inventions/modern way of living that has no doubt accelerated the situation, by how many years exactly, who knows for sure?
Just the amount of humans on the planet is a big factor I think, majority living longer due to medical advancements etc, we are all putting a strain on the planet in one way or another.
That Workshop guy on Youtube once said that if there had been a major war/plague in recent years, resulting in a big percentage of humans being wiped out, he could burn tyres in his garden all day and night and that wouldn't make a jot of difference to the atmosphere/global warming aspect.
Extreme thing to say but I get his point.
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Post by alankelly on Sept 29, 2019 10:56:52 GMT 1
Hi all
I work for a big medical company and one thing I can say is that they are always planning for a pandemic outbreak
A few years ago it was bird flu and everybody globally who was critical to the company was vaccinated to ensure that every precaution was taken to ensure as much as possible this possible threat to company production of vaccine delivery systems was minimal
With today’s air travel etc I think it will only a matter of time before this become a reality and it will be something like Ebola that breaks out from Africa into the global population or even worse Ebola or some other virus evolving so that it transmits airborne rather than contact like the original Black Death which was bubonic spread but contact rather than pneumonic spread in the air
Also don’t forget for reason I don’t understand (in my opinion it should be destroyed so that it no longer exists on this planet) the smallpox virus i believe is still keep in it jar in some secret facility that now nobody is vaccinated against
Sorry all rant over
Best wishes Al
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Post by veg on Sept 29, 2019 11:11:40 GMT 1
In my old job I was a cbrn (chemical, biological radioactive and nuclear) first responder. We trained for a man made attack in the UK and understood the likely outcomes, we also used to discuss Mother Nature’s own potential for wiping us out and that was far far scarier and far less able to be dealt with and managed.
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Post by steve h on Sept 29, 2019 12:06:23 GMT 1
Well your not on your own. Makes perfect sense to leave a little corner or more alone for wildlife. I do so at home it's called the front and rear garden, and if the neighbours don't like it they can swivel. Toying with the idea of wild flower seeding the "lawn" and cutting once a year instead of the usual twice (I dry the grass and use as bedding for 3 hens!) You could go a bit further and keep bees. Doesn't take much effort to keep a single hive, don't even need a huge garden! plenty of help and advice out there!. There are a few colonies in the local garden centre, people all around them watching no threat to the people as they are enclosed in a fine mesh cage about 7 foot ish high around the hives with a door for access. I sit and watch ours, I find it fascinating... if only humans were so efficient. Go on... think about it.. www.bbka.org.uk/PS as for getting stung, don't let this scare you off and don't dwell on the possibility of it happening.. it will happen. We have bikes, we fall off bikes and get hurt...it does not stop us ridding!! The Mrs is allergic to bee venom and is on a course of allergy treatment 3yrs long, we just carry an EpiPen and phone... I'm a beekeeper here in the States as well. Here's an old pic of my 10yo daughter I mentioned earlier. Got two hives at the mo. Pulled 10 gallons of honey off them a few weeks ago. Will be good for $1000+ if I sell it instead of giving it away. That's a good crop for 2 colonies!!! Must have a darn good source of nectar! We get affected very much by the weather, there was a starvation warning from our club back in July!! Being in the north also has its down side as southern keepers are taking a crop weeks before us. (It's grim up North!) We have 4 hives the moment after having 3 destroyed last year by wasps. (2 Buckfast colonies and 2 local colonies.)
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Post by pdxjim on Sept 29, 2019 18:39:48 GMT 1
That's a good crop for 2 colonies!!! Must have a darn good source of nectar! We get affected very much by the weather, there was a starvation warning from our club back in July!! Being in the north also has its down side as southern keepers are taking a crop weeks before us. (It's grim up North!) We have 4 hives the moment after having 3 destroyed last year by wasps. (2 Buckfast colonies and 2 local colonies.) We are at 45.5* N, so pretty far north ourselves here in the NW corner of the USA. What type of wasps are a threat to your bees? We have Yellow Jacket hornets here which can take over a hive if you let them. I put entrance reducers on in late summer (as seen on top of the hive in the pic), giving the bees a better chance of defense. Varroa Mites are the real threat here. I've had good luck with doing a formic acid treatment every fall to knock them out. Cold isn't so much of a problem here, but with 43"+ of rain annually, ventilation is crucial.
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Post by steve h on Sept 30, 2019 12:13:30 GMT 1
It's just our common wasp vespula vulgaris. It was just the overwhelming numbers (never seen so many ..ever) Usual precautions taken with entrances, and traps, I caught a couple of gallons of pure wasp. But they just reduced the colonies as the were fighting them off for weeks and we had nowhere to move them to. Now we have 2 sites so we have that option. Varoa treatment happening soon, soon as the Mrs has got our county show done and dusted. Probably the biggest threat at the mo is Asian hornet, although it seems to have been quiet up to now... and hopefully stays that way, but they get here and its a case of keeping them controlled. Lot of work being done by enthusiasts. We cropped 23lb off the Buckfast bees (only got the nucs at end of May, brilliant placid hard workers and not in an easy area!) and 16lb off the local bees even though we got them at the start of the season, they've been a pain trying to swarm constantly and have been re queened,) Get some mead on the go!
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Post by icarus001 on Sept 30, 2019 15:18:58 GMT 1
I didn't realise that common wasps would attack honey bees, I thought it was just hornets.
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Post by pdxjim on Sept 30, 2019 17:59:41 GMT 1
I didn't realise that common wasps would attack honey bees, I thought it was just hornets. Oh yes. Quite a problem. As a note, I just checked and your”common wasp” is the same as our “yellow jacket”. Nasty fcukers with no redeeming qualities whatsoever
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Post by steve h on Sept 30, 2019 19:12:11 GMT 1
That's one way of describing them! I have been tolerant in the past, having had a couple of wasp nests in the garden. I let them be, they are part of the great scheme of things. But I will be sorely tempted to bung a half gallon of unleaded in their borrow next year..
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Post by steeley on Sept 30, 2019 20:30:38 GMT 1
That's one way of describing them! I have been tolerant in the past, having had a couple of wasp nests in the garden. I let them be, they are part of the great scheme of things. But I will be sorely tempted to bung a half gallon of unleaded in their borrow next year.. Hmmm , nice . Hope you film it and turn it into a health and safety film for Wasps.
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Post by steve h on Sept 30, 2019 23:27:41 GMT 1
I don't ignite it steely, the fumes do the job. Just fill the hole in sharpish like!! I know a geezer who emptied a 45 gallon drum of avgas into rat holes.... and lit it.
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Post by donkeychomp on Oct 1, 2019 0:44:40 GMT 1
Bloke walks into a pet shop. 'I'd like a pet wasp please'...owner looks at him a bit puzzled. 'Sir, we don't sell wasps' he replies. 'Really? You have one in the window...'
Alex
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