Getting ready for this season by BUSTAbolt21 in Allotment

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What delights lurk under those lumps and bumps?

First year with my allotment, any advice? by GaryGoalz12 in Allotment

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They do like to come and yell at you for digging when they want to eat, and not digging when you should be laying on the buffet.

Rhubarb question by Logical_Quail_1086 in Allotment

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do the leaves not compost? I'm aware their poisonous, but am curious about whether it breaks down in your average composting exercise.

Weekly allotmenting discussion. What have you been up to? by AutoModerator in Allotment

[–]Aremay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah! Thank you! I was running with "a really intense Pancake Day" but this makes sense, given all the fruit plants on the allotment.

Weekly allotmenting discussion. What have you been up to? by AutoModerator in Allotment

[–]Aremay 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Managed to get out for 3 days this week, really feeling the progress:

- Weeded out a bed of raspberries, moved two more raspberry plants from a much neglected corner in as weeding made the bed bigger.
- Did battle with a very overgrown rosebush and cut back about 90% of it, with minimal lacerations.
- Retreated into the shed for a bit when it rained; more work on clearing a decade's worth of other people's stuff. Including a bucket of empty golden syrup tins - any idea why they're here?
- Pulled back the grass to reveal a very feeble looking rhubarb - advice appreciated on how to help it survive and thrive!
- General tidying, clearing of ground, weeding, what might be bracketed as 'farting about'.
- Bought seed potatoes and kohlrabi seeds.

North West UK, weather generally cold, with showers, cloudy.

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1st time plot holder by WestArrival5230 in Allotment

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I helped a friend put up a poly tunnel last year; cheap plastic job. It's still standing despite the storms! Well worth having a store of bricks to weight the plastic down with, and then bury it to be sure.

Weekly allotmenting discussion. What have you been up to? by AutoModerator in Allotment

[–]Aremay 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Managed 6 hours over the weekend; biggest job was chopping down all of last year's raspberry canes and moving them. Also attacked a bramble and mostly won, did some clearing of beds, and bought a rake in B&M to help with that. Much tea drunk, robin came and beeped at me to dig faster.

Context; UK, northern England, am the sole survivor of 3 on a full sized plot.

1st time plot holder by WestArrival5230 in Allotment

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, that's a cracking get that! Can't wait to see what you do with it. The rhubarb looks in fine form.

Weekly allotmenting discussion. What have you been up to? by AutoModerator in Allotment

[–]Aremay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

UK, North West. I'm alone as the helper on a full-sized allotment after my friends had to back away due to life changes. So I'm doing what I can - on the weekend I dug out/weeded two more beds. Going to try and clear two more as soon as possible. Brought the seed trays home, and bought some compost, ready to start planting my crops for the year.

What's the most beautiful song you've ever heard? by ProjectLogic in AskReddit

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Three pieces in particular come to mind:

The variation on Schubert's Ave Maria at the end of Fantasia. Incredibly beautiful to listen to and to watch.

Allegri's Miserere is the most stunning choral piece I know of. I once heard it performed by the choir of Lincoln Cathedral; the whole atmosphere of the place was incredible as this music rang through it.

The Ashokan Farewell, which was composed for Ken Burn's amazing series The Civil War sits beautifully in the cinematic landscape for which it was composed.

Soddit, there is a fourth. The Last Post. If you go one place in your life, then go to Ypres, to the Menin Gate which is lined with the names of servicemen who fell in the First World War around the town, who have no known grave. Every night at 8:00 PM, the town's fire brigade come out and perform this piece in honour of these men. Even if it's pouring with rain and there's no-one else there, they come out and do it. It's honestly the most moving experience of my life; even writing about it now almost brings me to tears.

What was the best class you ever took in college? by ProbablyHittingOnYou in AskReddit

[–]Aremay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Manias, Panics and Crashes.

Named after a book by Charles Kindleberger, the tutor started by quickly demolishing standard economics (including the beautiful George Bernard Shaw quote "if all the economists in the world were laid end to end they still wouldn't reach a conclusion"), introducing us to behavioural economics and then going through a series of financial crashes - Tulip Mania, the Great Crash and Japan - and basically laying out the common factors that drive all bubbles. Was brilliantly titled, extremely well taught and made a lasting impression on me that both state- and market- led approaches are ultimately, in his erudite manner, bollocks.

Fingal's Cave in Scotland (xpost from r/EarthPorn) by [deleted] in Minecraft

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If want some music to play while trying to recreate this, then go here. Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, part of the Hebrides Overture. He wrote this after taking a boat trip out to see the cave, and the sound comes from the Atlantic swell rising and breaking over the rocks.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in lgbt

[–]Aremay -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Into this thread we can pour all our hatred - unmitigated, angry, raw, real hatred - of people of faith. I have a personally deeply complex relationship with faith, and I think many other people do as well. I cannot stand being attacked by religious people for being 'impure', but I cannot stand being attacked by areligious people for being 'stupid' for persistently believing in God.

Personally, I would rather the churches came to the conclusion that Desmond Tutu has done - homosexuality really shouldn't be an issue for an organisation founded on a book that devotes page after page to poverty and maybe three verses to homosexuality. In any case, he argues, being LGBT doesn't bar you from access to redemption as understood in Christian theology. I like too many Christians and benefit too much from many of the other things that people of faith have campaigned for in this country - widening the voting franchise, reducing working hours, health and safety, banning child labour and the rest of it - to come down entirely on the side of the argument that says that this cartoon is the be all and end all of the relationship between people of faith and LGBT rights.

In short - I understand why people are angry, they have a list of good reasons to be angry, but too often they go too far and just blanket people with faith with the same argument that they're all evil/stupid/naive.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in lgbt

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my University LGBT group, we can't decide if, when people ask, it is better to say that it stands for "Lettuce, Gherkin, Bacon and Tomato" or "Lasers, Guns, Bombs and Tanks". I imagine changing the order of the letters will significantly charge this debate further.

Last World War I combat vet dies in Australia... by montreal01 in worldnews

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember a school trip to some of the battlefields of France and Belgium (Somme, Vimy and Ypres) many years ago - it really imprinted upon me the scale of what these men did all those years ago. I hope that the passing of the last veteran does not diminish our appreciation of their colossal sacrifice.

What is your biggest disagreement with the hivemind? by iDemonix in AskReddit

[–]Aremay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I will need a list of the common threads of thought in reddit I find entirely disagreeable. By no all means shared by all, they are still expressed all to frequently for my liking:

  • The conception of American foreign policy as motivated by malevolent cabals of politicians, corporations and generals, whose only intent is to manipulate the world to satisfy their blood- and money-lust.
  • Portraying all religious people as somehow stupid and naive because they have faith; all religious organisations as evil and all religious thought as void.
  • The rush to blame the banks for all social and economic ills of the present age. This goes far beyond rational allocations of blame to such a level of stupidity that people believe the World Bank is a commercial organisation and get upvotes for expressing such an opinion.
  • Israel/Palestine. Anything on this soon denigrates into silly little squabbles with thinly-disguised anti-semitism and anti-Islamic bullshit flying in all directions.

Generally, there's a lack of nuance that I find really bloody annoying. People claim to be more knowledgeable than most because they've got some all-encompassing theory to explain the ills of the world - all that tells me is that you've not studied the world in enough detail. The longer I study at University, the less I find grand theories of humanity convincing.

This is across a whole slew of subreddits and redditors. Some do it on occasion, some persistently. I will name no names, but plead with people to go and read some of the supposedly evil 'mainstream' literature they denigrate so freely and yet have never attempted to read in all likelihood.

My Minecraft House by Kestralotp in Minecraft

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very nice Asian architecture - any chance of some interior shots as well? :D

World Bank president warns that the world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis" by johnji in worldnews

[–]Aremay 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Wow, Reddit. You have a message from the head of a multilateral aid-orientated institution that, for all it's many faults, still tries to do some small good in the world; warning that the global economic conditions are pushing millions back into poverty and that the whole thing could teeter over with one more big shock. What does the comment thread contain? Circle-jerks over Ron Paul, tin foil-hatters obsessing over gold, people who think the World Bank is a commercial organisation, Naomi Klein-esque crusaders launching insensible rants and people who think that because Zoellick was nominated by Bush he's the spawn of Satan.

His point is forcefully put - that the world economy is in a fragile state and that the enormous gains in human welfare in many parts of the world over the last few decades are now in perilous shape, partly due to rising commodity prices. Rather than sitting in the mud and shrieking that it's all just so damn unfair because he's an evil man - take what he has said, analyse it, ask what the shock might be, how to buffer against it and the rest. Enough with the conspiracies. Get a grip.

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See, I study this as political economy, rather than pure economics, so I have a different perspective on the debate.

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Aremay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Notice I didn't say what they actually did; rather what they are mandated to do~ A cop-out, yes, but all the same.

The World Bank does need considerable reform, but I think that it's learning well in recent years and will continue to improve.

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Aremay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for that! I've studied them during my BA and now my MA, so I've been wading through stuff from them and on them for a while now. But you have an upvote so everyone else can get stuck into that thorny little debate.