Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

Davesnave

Well, it seems there are still a few things to learn in the world of horticulture....

'Commercial Mon Thong durians are the most digestion-friendly sub-species. By this, I don't mean that in general, durians would be hard to digest. No stomach cramps and no excessive winds as with cabbage, and no discharge pain as with chillies. But with non-Mon Thong durians, there will be burping, and burps do smell like the durian fruit... socially not acceptable even in counties where durians are grown. Mon Thong is clearly the mildest kind of durian fruit. (But even in Thailand, durians are usually banned in offices and hospitals.) '

For now, I'll stick with comfrey, but thanks for the suggestion. :A

misskool

Davesnave wrote: »

Well, it seems there are still a few things to learn in the world of horticulture....

'Commercial Mon Thong durians are the most digestion-friendly sub-species. By this, I don't mean that in general, durians would be hard to digest. No stomach cramps and no excessive winds as with cabbage, and no discharge pain as with chillies. But with non-Mon Thong durians, there will be burping, and burps do smell like the durian fruit... socially not acceptable even in counties where durians are grown. Mon Thong is clearly the mildest kind of durian fruit. (But even in Thailand, durians are usually banned in offices and hospitals.) '

For now, I'll stick with comfrey, but thanks for the suggestion. :A

you get different varieties as well. But as they take 10 years to fruit and tropical weather, it would be one challenge too far. They also grow up to 25 meters tall.

And you have to wear a helmet when you harvest the fruit.

Generali

Does anyone else remember number stations? I heard a brief bit of a piece of music this am that sounded just like the Lincolnshire Poacher and it reminded me of this (sorry about the sound quality). I used to have a short wave radio as a kid and there were loads of stations like this.

Supposedly they were used to transmit secret messages. I have no idea whether that's true or not but the stations certainly existed.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

Supposedly they were used to transmit secret messages. I have no idea whether that's true or not but the stations certainly existed.

The Lincolnshire Poacher was the ID precursor for SIS one-time-number key broadcasts on shortwave from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus until the late 1990's, and was intended for various SIS operatives in the Middle East.

The French DGSE also used number broadcasts for the MENAS regions, and at one time used Jean Michel Jarre' s "Magnetic Fields" as an identifier.

The Mossad used to broadcast numbers stations to North Africa in the 4880 khz range, which notoriously interfered with South African Radio, to ongoing protests.

By the late 1990's random frequency burst transmission technology had mostly taken over but the old numbers stations kept broadcasting gibberish until the mid 2000's as a cover.

Even today, some of the numbers stations contain legitimate coded messages for high risk assets who cannot afford to be found with anything more complex or incriminating than a standard multi band radio tuner.

It's a fascinating aspect of some of the few old HUMINT fieldcraft techniques that maintain some relevance today, along with blind passes, dead drops (although now sadly mostly of the wireless electronic variety) , and other cut-out devices.

Of more relevance for you Generali, is the Lincolnshire Poachers sister station, "Cherry Ripe", which broadcast from Guam originally and then from Australia until 2009. LP covered the MENA region, CR covered Asia. Although both were supplanted by random burst tech in the late 90's and early 00's, and almost all of the transmissions from then on until the mid to late 00's were for emergency backup and disinformation reasons.

Generali

ISTR that there were loads of them. My radio was just a little transistor radio, nothing flashy.

JonnyBravo

All news to me. Fascinating though.
Bit like durians - never heard of them either.

The catchy jingle was a bonus too!

lostinrates

I've got really bad pains in both feet this morning, the sun has come out and I'm skulking and sulking inside unable to walk very well at all. DH is trying to move the horses without me and without putting any headcollars on them. He's been out there about half an hour now. *sigh*.

We watched a film on line through love film last night on the lap top in bed, it was easy, but it did say it was charging us, despite setting up the free trial. I'd like to spend today in bed watching films really, if I can't get about. And, last night, we opened a bottle of what turned out to be ghastly wine. Its a shame you can't give dodgy wine to dogs when they get left overs.

StevieJ

What are your chances of making the ton?

Those fun-loving statisticians over at the Department of Work and Pensions have produced data showing the chances for men and women of reaching age 100. So we know for example, which age group is least likely to reach age 100. If you want to have a guess, the answer is at the bottom of this article. Other intriguing stats thrown up by this research are the fact a man of 37 has as much chance of reaching age 100 as a woman of 93 and a two year old girl has a greater chance of reaching age 100 than a 97 year old man.

Looks like the statisticians don't expect Armageddon any time soon I wonder why there is an anomaly at ages 82-83?

http://www.hl.co.uk/news/feature-articles/want-to-know-your-chances-of-living-to-100

michaels

Oh dear - the linked pensions calculator suggests never retiring is probably the only option. I think my pension is going to have to be my inheritance.

Back to the original article - seems to be another of those extrapolation things without taking in to account any of the knowns (like obesity) unknowns (like global warming, peak oil induced fuel poverty) and unknown unknowns (new viruses, nuclear accidents, cancer cures etc) that may all affect what actually happens.

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

We watched a film on line through love film last night on the lap top in bed, it was easy, but it did say it was charging us, despite setting up the free trial. I'd like to spend today in bed watching films really, if I can't get about. )

I think the trial subscription only covers films that arrive in the post, not downloads.