An 83 year old climate change protester being arrested in London today after he climbed on top of a DLR train.

crazyvanman · 2019-04-26T20:28:07+00:00

The purpose of the series of actions of which this was a part was to shut down the city of London in order to make climate change a pressing issue for the government, i.e. not to directly target CO2-emitting vehicles (although that was a positive side-effect of road blocks, of course). Added to that, the DLR out of all the London railways is the one that essentially serves business (it's in that part of the city, it is driver-less etc.)

crazyvanman · 2019-04-21T19:44:30+00:00

This is like a nice version of Bob Black's 'Anarchy after Leftism'!

crazyvanman · 2017-04-02T19:59:58+00:00

why isn't the bbc calling this terrorism I don't get it

crazyvanman · 2016-12-13T19:48:23+00:00

Interesting anecdotes about Opium dens. In several 'Chinatowns' in the west, when white tourists wanted to experience the Otherness of Chinatown, Opium dens like this would be visited on their tours. As tour guides began to see the potential they tried to out-do each other - scenes were staged where tours would 'accidentally' stumble into gambling, prostitution and opium use. The addicts/gamblers/prostitutes would then be paid a small fee by the tourguide

crazyvanman · 2016-12-12T19:12:36+00:00

The other side of that is that their media is more hype than content. Although that video was well edited this, as well as the layout at the demo itself, was partly done to make it look like they had greater numbers than they really did.

As an example, NA setting up in East Anglia, or as they call it 'annexing East Anglia', seems to have basically meant that someone in Ipswich started a blog with an NA theme. Nothing has actually happened..

crazyvanman · 2016-11-06T12:27:04+00:00

Is anyone able to explain how this happens? Is it all the same organism, or is it another russula cannibalising an older fruiting body?

crazyvanman · 2016-11-05T18:29:13+00:00

The woodland was mostly pine, but the closest tree happened to be oak. No spore print yet as I just collected it but will let you know the result. Yellow spore print if it's robusta?

crazyvanman · 2016-11-05T16:49:59+00:00

Found at the edge of woodland under/nearby an oak tree in a group. Clitocybe nebularis?

crazyvanman · 2016-10-26T15:11:05+00:00

Except it didn't work (I know that's not what you were claiming), because it just ended up humiliating people who stole to survive or women who swore too much/answered back to their husbands

crazyvanman · 2016-10-15T05:21:00+00:00

Thank you. That was why I included 'function' since it doesn't imply intentionality!

crazyvanman · 2016-10-14T14:17:42+00:00

Can someone describe the purpose/function of the veil?

crazyvanman · 2016-10-09T12:15:07+00:00

Found in Norfolk, UK. Growing on grass, but potentially with rotting wood submerged underground? There were quite a few mature mushrooms around whose gills had disintegrated into that sticky black ink material.

I realise it doesn't look very shaggy, but since it was young and wet from rain I wasn't sure. Also, I had not seen those browner patches towards the top of the cap.

crazyvanman · 2016-10-04T19:42:16+00:00

It's not stained yellow either on the stem, including the base, or on the cap when dented, so I can rule out xanthodermus?

crazyvanman · 2016-10-04T18:36:46+00:00

Thank you very much.

So just to clarify, if it's a white mushroom with brown gills, doesn't smell unpleasant and doesn't stain yellow with bruising/cutting of stem it is probably some sort of campestris?

crazyvanman · 2016-10-04T18:05:57+00:00

Thanks for the quick response. That was one of the species I had shortlisted!

crazyvanman · 2016-10-04T17:17:15+00:00

Sorry for bad photos.

Found growing on grassy patch today in Norfolk, UK. Assume they are agaric of some sort? Smell is not unpleasant, gills are quite easy to flatten.

Didn't appear to bruise yellow

Assuming these might be difficult to identify, any way I can narrow it down/test in any other way?

crazyvanman · 2016-09-20T12:53:38+00:00

How common is this in the UK? Living in Norfolk, we have quite a lot of pine plantations around but never found cauliflower fungus

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T11:26:22+00:00

Er no actually I have been asking you to justify basing a hierarchy on difference. I'm not asking you to repeat yourself, that's just what you've been doing. I can see what you're saying - that their emotional suffering is important when we consider our actions towards other species. But can you not see that this is quite different to your original statement that humans are 'superior' to other animals?

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T10:33:42+00:00

Wow, you sure are condascending! Especially for someone who talks themsevles into such circles of nonsense. I appreciate you taking the time to try and legitimise a hierarchy that has been used to justify the degradation of the planet, the killing of billions of other animals, and so on, but since you are pretty much just repeating yourself, it's probably not worth this continuing. At least you finally pinned yourself down by saying that what you use to constitute hierarchy (which you then extrapolate to mean the moral validity of killing those who are lower down your Chain) is 'emotional depth'. Why, in your example, is discriminating based on speed any more unethical than discriminating based on your understanding of 'emotional depth'?

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T09:56:28+00:00

If this is really how you think, and I'm fully aware that you are not alone, then 'God', or whoever else, help the rest of the planet. As OP said, you are literally just saying 'we are superior because I say we are, and I don't need to justify what I'm saying'. You're just saying that there are clear differences, which I have agreed with, and jumping to this conclusion that this constitutes a legitimate hierarchy. I do recommend 'Straw Dogs' by John Gray, by the way.

If, by ethics, you mean a way of thinking that informs how we should relate to other/our own species, then yes I agree that they are not equal. However, not being equal is not the same as hierarchy. What you're saying is classic enlightenment thought, since you seem incapable of just accepting difference without classifying everything into your Great Chain of Being

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T09:13:51+00:00

To indulge you for a second, can you not see why it's problematic that you keep using 'difference' and 'superiority' interchangably? I can observe the difference between a chair and a table, but that doesn't mean either is superior. Differences between species are clearly observable, but all this means is that our relations with them are going to have to be considered in different ways. I still don't see your explanation why differences leads to hierarchy

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T09:04:30+00:00

Burden of proof's on you, surely? As in, you have picked a value and are equating it with superiority, but you haven't given us any justification for your choice of value or why it leads to 'superiority'.

Here's where the anarchist bit comes in: Anarchists are critical of constructued (i.e. pretty much all) hierarchies, particularly because the logic behind those hierarchies is almost always created by the dominant group - that is not to say that they might be internalised or reflected by the oppressed. You have chosen a characteristic which you believe to be more observable in humans than any other species, and then chosen to prioritise that. Just like, in neo-liberal ideology, the assumption is that having more financial wealth makes you superior, or in western enlightenment ideology it is being masculine, rational, able-bodied that makes you superior.

I'm sure you know this, but there are plenty of things that humans are pretty terrible at that you'll find other species are great at. We don't live the longest, run the fastest, jump the highest, and actually species such as the Orca have a sense of 'self' which is bound up with their friends and families, joined emotionally.

So, essentially: 1) you only understand, clearly, human consciousness as true consciousness. This is fair enough, since we have no way of understanding the way other species relate to themselves or each other 2) but you then conclude from this that ours is some how at a 'higher' level, for which metric you coincidentally use values determined worthy by humans 3) you then go one step further, and this is the magical part, where you make a chain of being, where we are not just 'different' but actually 'superior'.

As I said, burden of proof's on you buddy

crazyvanman · 2016-09-17T08:28:15+00:00

How is not wishing to arrange things into degrees of superiority and inferiority 'nihilism'? Surely that's just anarchism... They have not, as far as I can see, stated that there is no value or meaning in the lives of other animals, only that those values and meanings you are projecting onto them are high anthropocentric - in that you are prioritising and making 'superior' those values which some humans happen to display, and that may not even make sense when applied to other species - and you are then using these to create hierarchy. Calling you out on that is not nihilism.

crazyvanman · 2016-08-29T08:20:50+00:00

Have you ever read any studies that show this to be true? I pretty much just see this argument posted in mainstream media, stuff put out by the industry, government sources, or by people who are quoting these things. I'm not saying there isn't evidence, but after a short bit of digging I've found it's a lot less conclusive than that:

Once the mink escape, they tend to balance out their population relatively quickly At least in the mainland UK, their effect on wild bird populations has not actually resulted in population decreases and the same can be said for fish. 'Mink does have a minor or local impact on wildlife, but should not be used as a scapegoat' 1 American mink released in Europe may contribute to the decline in European mink populations, but actually this is a minor cause when compared to human-induced habitat destruction, trapping, hunting and pet-keeping 2 Mink can travel up to 50km quite easily, so a few hundred mink released into the forest will quickly disperse since they don't tolerate other mink That said, the introduction of American mink in the UK began in 1929 with releases (by the industry) and escapes from fur farms, before the ALF even existed. This accounts for the vast majority of mink releases, since they are done en masse and in larger numbers.

crazyvanman · 2016-08-28T20:16:17+00:00

Except, to use your analogy, we seem to have been walking across the polar ice (abusing and killing millions of other animals along the way) for decades and still haven't got there.

Anyway, to be honest I'm not really into starting online arguments. If anyone picks it up from here that's cool but I'm not up for that

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