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The now-enacted will of (some of) the people


blandy

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1 hour ago, Genie said:

The HGV begging letter

1-AAC4-EED-25-D9-4-F59-80-A9-0445484-FD5

It’s pathetic that they didn’t predict this and put something in place and then only reacted* when the **** shelves were empty.

*reaction is still almost nothing

I thought Boris was going to personally write this? Not interested Baroness of something or other.

Can we also reflect on what a wonderful job title that is. Minister for Roads, buses and...places. But not foreign places, that falls under the foreign office. And not security of local places, that's the home office. No hospitals, clinics, or GPs offices (that's health), no museums, music venues or sports stadiums (that's culture). No environments, that's a whole thing. And obviously not jobs, infrastructure or justice within any remaining places. Minister for unspecified things in a restricted list of places. Exclusions apply.

Edited by Davkaus
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4 minutes ago, bickster said:

Fuel situation seems to be easing around here. I put a tenner in, in one garage last night and I was the only vehicle on the forecourt getting fuel

Also a good number of garages now have fuel

Yes, the inevitable end to this.  Lots of garages with lots of petrol and lots of idiots with full tanks and full jerry cans and buckets of petrol sloshing around in dangerous locations probably waiting to burn down their homes.

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16 hours ago, Genie said:

Are the government doing anything to help them clear it? It seems like an obvious opportunity.

They won't help as they've been on partial strike for the last 6 months, and the government won't want to be seen working with unions

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Just now, limpid said:

Only people who've never known any of them.

My Uncle is German.  He's a lovely bloke, but he's never going to be the center of attention regaling the room with jokes and amusing anecdotes. 

However as he's spent most of his life in California it's easy to get him make the room laugh by telling him to say "I'll be back" 

Then he will go off on one in a completely natural Schwarzenegger accent saying stuff like "why do you always asked me to say I'll be back, it's not even funny, why are you all laughing, stupid English, stop that"

I'm not making any of this up. It's the only reason why I look forward to family gatherings. 

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14 minutes ago, limpid said:

The EU's stance on GMOs is anti-science.

Partly. But it kind of depends.

GM crops altered to be more resistant to herbicides and pesticides may be scientifically "safe" for humans, but the increased use of herbicides with these crops isn't so good for the environment, scientifically. And GM crops modified to contain pesticides are again, safe for humans, but they are not safe for pollinators.

So, yeah, pretty safe for humans, increased crop yields....create varieties that can tolerate more droughts, or hotter temperatures - smart. But there's a massive downside for wildlife and the environment, which ultimately maters every bit as much. Then there's the big pharma seizing of the market and control of seed markets and stuff, for mega profit at the expense of farmers being able to collect the seed from the crops they grow and use that (low cost).

 

 

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24 minutes ago, blandy said:

Partly. But it kind of depends.

GM crops altered to be more resistant to herbicides and pesticides may be scientifically "safe" for humans, but the increased use of herbicides with these crops isn't so good for the environment, scientifically. And GM crops modified to contain pesticides are again, safe for humans, but they are not safe for pollinators.

So, yeah, pretty safe for humans, increased crop yields....create varieties that can tolerate more droughts, or hotter temperatures - smart. But there's a massive downside for wildlife and the environment, which ultimately maters every bit as much. Then there's the big pharma seizing of the market and control of seed markets and stuff, for mega profit at the expense of farmers being able to collect the seed from the crops they grow and use that (low cost).

That's one very specific form of modification though. Reduced water requirements. Improved resistance to any predation. Improved yield.

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4 minutes ago, limpid said:

That's one very specific form of modification though. Reduced water requirements. Improved resistance to any predation. Improved yield.

It's two, to be exact. One of which you mention (bolded) is the modified to include a pesticide. The other (modified to increase tolerance to herbicides) means that "weeds" amongst the crop can be doused heavily with herbicides, killing them, poisoning the soil and the crops that insects feed upon, flowing into waterways, causing further harm.

Yes, crops modified to tolerate drought or hot temperatures (as I said)  - smart. But unfortunately big Pharma is as interested in controlling seed usage and allowing more of their chemicals to be sold to douse the crops with.

I suspect that the tories would love to use Brexit to free up Big Pharma to further eff up one of the more nature depleted countries in the world. 

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1 hour ago, blandy said:

It's two, to be exact. One of which you mention (bolded) is the modified to include a pesticide. The other (modified to increase tolerance to herbicides) means that "weeds" amongst the crop can be doused heavily with herbicides, killing them, poisoning the soil and the crops that insects feed upon, flowing into waterways, causing further harm.

Yes, crops modified to tolerate drought or hot temperatures (as I said)  - smart. But unfortunately big Pharma is as interested in controlling seed usage and allowing more of their chemicals to be sold to douse the crops with.

I suspect that the tories would love to use Brexit to free up Big Pharma to further eff up one of the more nature depleted countries in the world. 

GMOs have reduced the use of chemical pesticides - both herbicides and insecticides - by 37%. (Qaim et al. 2014).

The "controlling seeds" bit is an odd claim. Farmers have been required to buy conventionally modified seed stock for at least the last 50 years. It's a trend which has increased with GMOs, but only because useful new varieties appear more often.

Much large scale GMO research is government funded and seed stock available royalty free. Off the top of my head insect resistant eggplant in Bangladesh and virus resistant papaya in Hawaii.

Can you point me to something showing a negative impact on nature caused by GMO? It's repeated so often that there must be something out there.

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