econads

Gardener who developed software for money. Brit in Germany over 10 years now. #permaculture & regenerative agriculture, allotment owner. #reading, casual running, practical #biking, environmental stuff in general.
I don't favourite everything I read.
I was here to #chill, but the politics has bled over, I really can't help myself. Nice to meetcha.

Picture: Photo is of purple sprouting broccoli I grew/that grew. I don't remember planting it.

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Last Notes

2026-10-02 09:04:00 UTC

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I heard that in it's native country pothos is called devils ivy because it just will not die, even in the dark.
Ivy also sticks to walls, as does Virginia creeper. I understand that Ivy excretes a kind of liquid through the root hairs, which seeps into any cracks and then hardens, gluing/hooking it to the surface, probably pothos has something similar.
It seems not to be able to climb glass, I guess because that's a completely smooth surface.
Edit: talking about the plant not the muskateer.

2025-12-27 10:28:44 UTC

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I don't know that saying something is understandable or excusable in some situations is specifically endorsing it, I think I'm just acknowledging that there are naunces :-)
Because if you don't do that, your nice paper logic looks great and clean but you're condemning someone somewhere to starve when they don't need to.
@npub12pw…zvxn

2025-12-23 16:41:03 UTC

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I don't think stealing is something one should choose to do if there are viable alternatives but I don't think one should martyr oneself either. Yes for example a parent stealing to feed their child I'd also be ok with. In practice there are often alternatives to a life of crime, but for the sake of argument.
What do you think about companies that don't pay workers their full value? Isn't that also a form of theft?
@npub12pw…zvxn

2025-12-23 13:08:53 UTC

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So the 10 commandments as it were of this ethical system would be..?
I guess, since you already mentioned it, theft is always wrong, all gain should be paid for (presumably with an exception for voluntary gifts), ... ?
I don't think it's wrong to steal bread if you're starving for example.
@npub12pw…zvxn

2025-12-23 08:05:25 UTC

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when you say scientifically proven, I'd be interested in sources/studies. Like a name or something I can Google :-)
Regarding automatic ethics, are you saying you don't think it's possible for a capitalist to be unethical at all by definition?

2025-12-22 19:23:55 UTC

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I'm no stranger to discussing opinions I disagree with ;-)
Don't you find that all those categories you mentioned about leftists can also be found on the right?
And how do you feel about straight people's PDAs (public displays of affection, holding hands, kissing etc in public)?

2025-12-22 14:25:50 UTC

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Well I'm sure you can also look there, since you'll trust your own research more than mine and I'm not made of time :-)
I'm just trying to work out if you're equating all leftists with communism and with authoritarianism or if you're against like anarchists as well, considering you were talking about freedom and privacy (sorry I had a little nosy at your profile).
Are you familiar with political compass?
@npub12pw…zvxn

2025-12-21 21:02:52 UTC

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they generally resulted in people favourable to the US, sometimes toppling democratically elected leaders in favour of dictatorial puppets. You can check out the Wikipedia list and make your own judgements.
How do you feel about right wing dictators like Pinochet?

2025-12-20 23:54:45 UTC

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I was thinking more of the coups and revolutions the CIA has sponsored over the years.

2025-12-19 19:04:55 UTC

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so... You don't think that the US government is responsible for taking any lives?

2025-12-13 19:26:05 UTC

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I learned to drive just before Google maps took off, so I can remember navigating with a paper atlas, then printed directions from google maps then much later with a phone with GPS. The phone is much much better. If you didn't have anyone navigating you'd be looking for somewhere to pull over on the regular to work out if you were still in the right place, and if you hadn't seen a street name for a while...

2025-12-13 10:14:28 UTC

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yeah BF was asking about GPS

2025-12-09 11:18:49 UTC

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Have you heard yourself? Age verification involves identifying yourself. That is the opposite of privacy.

2025-12-05 19:22:10 UTC

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and without the sources to compile yourself, how can you be sure they match?

2025-12-05 19:19:35 UTC

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it's the absolute basic of security, not a guarantee. It's the auditability. If something is closed source you can't check whatever claims it wants to make.

2025-11-26 11:02:19 UTC

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it's also to do with who you hang out with. Having (and I don't know how to say this without sounding like a dick) significantly poorer friends, is extremely grounding. Also, you know, look up where you stand in comparison to the rest of the country.
Had to convince my BF we are very well off because he has a friend who makes significantly more than him and he didn't know anyone (then) with a much lower income.

2025-11-20 08:01:08 UTC

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Edit: Ok Jesus stop boosting now
https://fsn1.your-objectstorage.com/drum/media_attachments/files/115/580/964/459/385/136/original/2a60aaf5362deb95.jpg

2025-11-19 12:37:37 UTC

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surely all protest is political? You're trying to force some change..

2025-11-04 18:59:04 UTC

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I don't know about predictive, but there's a book called the spirit level which compares 10 developed countries for equality of income and outcomes like crime, education, etc. More income equality creates better outcomes regardless of how that's achieved.
@npub12pw…zvxn

2025-10-22 19:59:10 UTC

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Interesting. I suppose that advertising of any kind might get people in the door the 1st time but it's the service and food, and value for money that bring them back, with their friends. If the place isn't all that they'll go elsewhere and tell others not to bother.
@npub14uz…t4ng @npub1qz4…fz6y @npub1vy7…0ft7

2025-10-22 18:06:59 UTC

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The thing is, most small food place owners that I know (ok only a few well enough) aren't particularly techy. They spend a great deal of focus running their business, they about know Instagram, but I'm not sure they even know what wordpress is. Their main business is food, in the real world. They don't have money to employ social media experts, and they certainly don't have the free time to research esoteric social media platforms. I think most people in this thread are being overly judgey if we're taking only about small business owners. For big chains yes, they got no excuse.
@npub1qz4…fz6y @npub1vy7…0ft7

2025-10-22 14:28:05 UTC

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But, I'm very sure that most of their customers won't have a clue what Mastodon is. You want them to come here just for that 1 business? They're not going to do that any more than we're going to go to meta.

2025-10-04 09:36:17 UTC

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sometimes the other perspective is completely fucked though. How am I supposed to empathise with a Holocaust denier for example?

2025-09-24 23:03:11 UTC

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You're right, but he's the mayor of London not the mayor of England or UK. He's just looking it for his electorate. Politicians employ hyperbole and bias all the time.

2025-09-15 19:26:20 UTC

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yeah neighbour has it like that. I've nothing against it except that it had a tendency to take over, like ivy.

2025-09-14 17:57:22 UTC

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I have this in my allotment and it's a bastard for covering things excessively. On the other hand it's super tough and flexible when you cut it back, and you can use it for tying things up in the garden, no need for garden twine, and I once made a decent basket with it. I have lots of ideas.

2025-09-02 08:46:42 UTC

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I'm not trying to demean your alt in any way, I hope I didn't offend!
It's truly beautiful, I think I didn't do it justice either.

2025-09-02 08:39:08 UTC

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I hope you don't mind me adding to the #alttext cos that's cracking colours and it's such a shame if you can't see it:
4 wings. The top wings are nearly all black cos there are black stripes from the top of the wing near the "shoulders" curving out to meet the bottoms at regular intervals. More dark stripes along the bottoms of the wings crossing them. The bottom of the wings are sky blue, grading darker as they go up. The red spots are barely seen at the tips where it's dark.

2025-08-24 07:25:15 UTC

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it's because the bigger the company is the more likely it is to have a cab free and near you. They only earn money when they're ferrying someone, empty driving between spots is wasted. In addition if you have to wait an hour for a taxi to drive across town you won't take that company next time.
The reason for chain restaurants are different from the reasons for big can companies, which is things like people go for names they recognise even if it's a bit shit familiarity feels safer.

2025-08-11 20:30:32 UTC

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presumably if there are also typos in your translation (or even just the original word untranslated) then you've performed the correct service, a direct translation?*
*Idle bullshit here, not suggesting you actually do that

2025-08-10 07:02:40 UTC

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I would say rice, pasta and potatoes have been staple for a couple decades at least

2025-08-07 09:38:26 UTC

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We went on a talk by a conservationist, and she said that wolves and lynx aren't really effective against deer because they'd have to eat huge amounts to control the populations. Deer have an unnatural food source in farms as do their predators - there are much easier prey than deer.
Her recommendation for controlling deer was to send very good marksmen and take out doe & child pairs, but here there's a hunting lobby that actually preserves them.

2025-08-05 06:39:05 UTC

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I think you have to do something about the overwork. A German wife of a friend who worked in the NHS before they moved back to Germany was very emphatic about never working for the NHS again.
Admittedly the amount of work is influenced by the amount of workers..

2025-07-31 20:56:31 UTC

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the major problem with both US and UK is the antiquated FPTP voting system. I suggest people advocate for electoral reform alongside anything else, for example the ERS in UK, I'm sure there are similar orgs in the states.

2025-07-12 14:51:08 UTC

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I climbed a pumpkin up a hanging net on my balcony a few years ago - worked quite well for shade and privacy

2025-07-05 15:00:50 UTC

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you need to move to #proportionalrepresentation first of all

2025-07-04 12:46:14 UTC

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the makeup could probably be changed, removing hereditary peers is no doubt wise, but I wouldn't want to abolish them for that reason. Empirically they've blocked a lot of bad stuff, especially around surveillance (my area of interest for some time).
And they definitely should not be left to run things alone!

2025-07-04 09:59:45 UTC

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although in theory the house of lords is anti democratic, in practice they do serve as a break to some of the more extreme laws. I think it's because since they aren't elected they don't have to worry about the likes of the daily mail.

2025-07-01 18:50:52 UTC

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The political class want what will get them power, which is often votes. If enough people push for it and they aren't losing personal capital or some other push back, they'll do that. You're being overly defeatist is what I'm saying, if you don't entertain the idea it will never happen - we need to start somewhere.

2025-07-01 16:11:50 UTC

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I don't think it's as simple as "build more houses" if the houses being built aren't affordable. Right to buy should go, in my uninformed opinion, and perhaps there is a way to limit the amount of houses a single person can own...?

2025-05-21 09:17:57 UTC

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if you feel unattractive it's easier to sell you other things as you try to make yourself feel better.

2025-04-12 21:12:28 UTC

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I'm not so high faultin' with my headphones, but for my Logitech the replacement cushions I got were a slightly different shape but they stretched fine. Maybe it doesn't have to be super precise?

2025-04-07 17:25:45 UTC

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Stationary or moving regularly?

2025-04-07 14:51:28 UTC

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I dunno how long I could go without hot water.

2025-04-07 06:56:27 UTC

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If you leave them you will get more slowly. Bulb plants split over time.

2025-03-14 07:02:53 UTC

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good for you! Heres to having them for everyone!

2025-03-07 22:12:21 UTC

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#ALT4you
photograph of a hermit crab with big pink claws, an electric blue body and big feathery.. antenna? feelers?peeping out from a hole in what might be a reef on the left half of the photo. The reef is composed of a load of peach coloured regular modules all topped with a green spot. It's actually a bit disturbing but the crab is really colourful.

2025-02-22 06:36:51 UTC

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But I can defrost things in a microwave
@npub1eey…339h @npub1eex…wnny

2025-02-19 14:49:11 UTC

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It's Marvel innit? Just overdone the whole thing and turned them into grey goo.
Any sci-fi recommendations?

2025-02-19 10:34:56 UTC

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have you seen "the boys"? Seems more like your vibe.

2025-02-12 16:24:36 UTC

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Werrll, you're never going to post as much as @npub1c6z…q3gp are you? I'd rest easy.
@npub1jmc…ugn3

2025-02-08 22:31:35 UTC

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And the washing up.

2025-01-29 18:14:43 UTC

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are there stereotypes of the two language speakers? Like one is seen as richer than the other or more relaxed or whatever?

2025-01-28 11:02:23 UTC

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My other half turned it on for pictures, honestly it's a bit crap. The classification is so so, there doesn't appear to be any way to further train it, and I actually don't see the usecase for having a list of all my pictures that contain chairs even if it could properly identify them.

2025-01-10 07:36:22 UTC

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also mixed fabrics make recycling impossible. Full polyester, OK. Full cotton or wool, OK. Mix, they have no way to separate the materials.

2025-01-09 15:24:04 UTC

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That's interesting, the other way for me. I wish my parents would have taught me to fight back. At least for me it was only verbal rather than physical, but I wish someone had taught me to stand up straight and sneer. "Just ignore them" does shit all when your body language isn't.
And my mum talking to the school helped a bit, but the Christian values I was taught (despite not being one) helped not at all. Being kind doesn't have to involve forgetting yourself. It gets better.

2025-01-08 16:01:23 UTC

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Do eeetttt! Do eet now! I'm going to do it for work some time before windows 11 becomes compulsory. Any day now I tell you. I'm already on mint for my personal laptop, unfortunately the gaming PC is still windows.

2025-01-08 15:37:18 UTC

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Yep, and that makes you effectively a captive audience, who might possibly be persuaded to use it privately as well, or at last talk about it.

2025-01-08 15:35:04 UTC

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You have to remember you're using OUTLOOK, in case you forget. I bet it's a form of advertising, making you read it multiple times a day.

2025-01-02 21:49:17 UTC

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I like this much better than "as bad as Boris".

2025-01-01 13:17:46 UTC

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Last time you recommended this someone posted an online version that I started to read. Maybe archive.org?=

2024-12-25 18:30:16 UTC

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so Christmas pudding? What a lot of drama for nothing *rolls eyes*

2024-11-17 20:19:42 UTC

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Got a link?
I wonder if a smaller audience that needs to have saught out the network leads to a more discerning audience? Maybe I'm wishful thinking.
@npub10qt…hy94 @npub12pw…zvxn @npub1wrv…8twl

2024-11-17 20:17:41 UTC

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When the campaign started, Gove was on TV saying the customs union wouldn't be left, we would still have freedom of movement. Then it escalated.
@npub1d9u…e00c @npub1y5e…uugn

2024-11-16 22:56:00 UTC

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I read it's a beaver moon. I don't know what a beaver moon is and the BBC did not enlighten me. That corporation is going to shit.

2024-11-15 18:53:25 UTC

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wasn't that quite a while ago now?

2024-11-14 06:20:32 UTC

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thanks for the info, I'm going to look at that. That sounds very dry?

2024-11-13 19:35:36 UTC

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Earthships are those buried houses with a long back wall of tyres and a low open front right? What's your climate like? I was super interested in making one once but I read they don't really work well in wetter climates like UK.

2024-11-12 19:05:02 UTC

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The only good use of something like that is the do not eat bot on r/whatisthisplant, I think it was, which posted a warning every time someone used the word "eat" "eaten" "edible" etc.

2024-11-10 04:29:35 UTC

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I think if you can't credit the artist, you don't need to credit the search engine. My brother does this too "found on bluesky" and I'm like why are you advertising for the middleman?
Sorry not trying to sound like a rant, just an observation :-)

2024-11-08 16:38:50 UTC

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Hahahahha I love this. How do USians eat peas? Stab them all individually?

2024-10-31 07:23:47 UTC

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My British friend was very excited when he discovered the possibility of drinking eierlikor from little tiny chocolate dipped icecream-waffel style shot glasses.

2024-10-23 16:15:51 UTC

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The guy was brave but at the end of the day he didn't deliver

2024-10-21 08:58:56 UTC

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this.
You could try asking someone with a bigger following to boost it.
@npub1zdf…6u9l

2024-10-20 12:43:35 UTC

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Same with private companies: new CEO arrives, changes things around, moves on after 2 or 3 years, no idea if those clashes made an effect, or the ones before them, or the current guy.. Or none if them.

2024-10-19 07:26:36 UTC

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I've read that using lime to change the ph can block uptake of nitrogen?

2024-10-19 07:15:53 UTC

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just for the fun explosions, or does it have other benefits?

2024-10-17 10:36:15 UTC

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The fact of the matter is, no one* uses whom any more in every day speech. Languages are living and evolve over time, and insisting on archaic rules for no reason other than snobbishness just makes you look old ;-)
Or maybe we should all be speaking Shakespearean English? :)
*[the majority of people]

2024-10-14 14:46:45 UTC

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An aside: I had a friend in that situation too, and it blew my mind. Talking your kid out of university for personal gain seems disgraceful to me. Its different if there's a financial aspect.
@npub15yr…pa64 @npub1hfw…pfwr @npub1m3t…jh39

2024-10-14 14:40:38 UTC

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It's kind of a weird situation we find ourselves in in UK where a house is an investment. Surely a house should be a place to live, first and foremost. I suspect the profit motive behind housing leads is to some of the problems it causes.
@npub1m3t…jh39 @npub1hfw…pfwr

2024-10-09 06:18:40 UTC

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how do you pronounce it? Never come to Germany, z = "tz" most of the time.

2024-10-02 13:29:58 UTC

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There's a headline written by a scab..

2024-09-30 09:25:25 UTC

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Yeah but it's already in the news. They're spreading shit around to normalise it "see it's not just us".

2024-09-30 09:22:42 UTC

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...However, the judiciary – like the police – is proving to be an effective arm of the oil and gas industry, by silencing and imprisoning members of the public taking nonviolent action against climate collapse. Future generations will be disgusted by rulings such as this." - Cressie Gethin of just stop oil, arrested at 22 for conniving a gantry. 2/2

2024-09-30 09:22:22 UTC

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quote I saved:
"It would be extremely convenient for everyone if the climate crisis could be removed from our lives by the ruling of a Judge. If we could imprison the wildfires, if we could arrest famines, or if we could legislate against the rising sea waters that will leave parts of Britain submerged, that would be a fantastic outcome – but the reality is that we can’t and rapid decarbonisation is the only way of preventing these horrifying outcomes... 1/2

2024-09-25 19:31:33 UTC

Since I just upgraded from balcony to allotment, here is a question: if you are #gardening in the soil (not containers) what do you wish you knew when you started out?
#permaculture #gardenlife #gardeners

2024-09-15 16:35:34 UTC

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do you think that'll solve your problem? Do you not think it's a tad more systematic than getting rid of 1 person? If he's gone they'll find someone else to serve their interests.
Sorry to be a downer, time of the month.

2024-09-13 13:36:05 UTC

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I think it was always fairly obvious that the more left wing stuff was just posturing to reassure the corbynites and it was going to fall by the wayside. He might mean well but he's fundamentally neoliberal.

2024-08-31 20:39:42 UTC

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Apparently in Minnesota (?) this is aggressive.

2024-08-31 14:51:01 UTC

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TV. What do you do?

2024-08-27 12:03:46 UTC

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I'm in Germany, I don't think there's any poison ivy here. Normal ivy isn't dangerous just insidious. Oak is invasive you say? The tree? Really?
@npub1sm8…feyd

2024-08-25 16:57:39 UTC

#compost -ers, a question: I currently have a lot of ivy and brambles that I'm scared of putting in the compost lest after spreading the compost I find them coming up everywhere. As I know both of them are super invasive.
Would it be safe to let it all dry out thoroughly in the sun to kill it before adding to the compost, or better to take it to the dump or somewhere far from my garden?
@npub1sm8…feyd @npub1sh5…uyrq
#compostodon #composting

2024-08-21 08:07:45 UTC

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wow that's a lot of tools! I've learnt some things. It might be some kind of bill hook or someone else suggested a brush hook, but it's more curved than the examples there.

2024-08-20 20:40:39 UTC

#gardening -ers, there's a really cool tool for getting deep roots like brambles out, it's got a long handle, a hook shape about the size of a half basketball with a blade on the inside and a kind of tiny spade perpendicular to the end of the hook.
What's it called? Someone I used to do unpaid garden work for had one. I don't want to ask them because reasons but I want to get one.
Can you help? Also boost if you don't know. Also if you know a good hashtag pls thankyou.
#gardeners #gardenlife

2024-08-09 16:51:43 UTC

Now the apartment has tenants.
@npub1ppe…qv2g @npub1tjt…2xn4 [@Natasha_Jay](https://tech.lgbt/@Natasha_Jay )

2024-08-05 06:56:05 UTC

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I feel like there's some context missing here. You can make a lot of things weird if you remove the context. I'm struggling with this one but it would be interesting to know anyway.

2024-08-02 11:53:02 UTC

Here, gentles all, is a slime mold I found on my balcony. I haven't seen one for a couple of years but there used to be quite a lot of it. Slime molds are super cool, not plants or animals but single cell organisms that are usually spread out but come together when times get hard to look for food or reproduce. Although they don't have organs as such and are just a homogenous blob inside, the blob can actually move around in a limited fashion. 1/
https://mendeddrum.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/892/272/222/042/076/original/63d831dba2c7a0d8.jpg

2024-04-21 15:46:04 UTC

Question for @npub1ppe…qv2g following a conversation today: can ants get lost?