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Ambergris

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Posts posted by Ambergris

  1. I came across this in a non-US video while trying to find out how to can with the jars available to me.  I found a ton of videos explaining it as effective, almost all of them coming from India, sounds like.  

    Knowledgeable canners, what is the consensus on this?

    • Like 1
  2. Remember that Yukon Gold and most other early potatoes won't grow layers and layers of spuds like so many of the videos and illustrations show.  You only hill them once or twice.  

    Using pure straw to hill up after planting the seed potato in dirt supposedly works great for some people, but didn't for me.

    I got mostly marble-sized potatoes (a few golf balls) in buckets under 5 gal size, mostly golf balls and a couple of plums in five gallon buckets, and fist-sized potatoes in 10-gallon felt grow bags.  Consistent watering is a big deal, considering the water content of a potato. 

     

    My best results were with the roundish red-skinned potatoes from the grocery store.  Wash them in bleach to kill some of the pathogens they came with, then stick them where they will grow long spider-legs, chop the larger potatoes in chunks and let the cut edges dry overnight (preferably in front of a fan), then plant.

     

    Don't forget to run your soil through a colander at harvest to find all the marbles and M&Ms to use for soups.  This is WAY easier with containers than rows.

    • Like 2
  3. Another article:

     

    Urgent health threat? Passenger drops dead mid-flight after 'liters of blood erupts from his mouth and nose’
    by: Pat Droney 2024-02-10 Source: Law Enforcement Today Editorial
    Editor note: There are a lot of questions still open surrounding this story.  At this time, our sources tell us that not a single one of the passengers was believed to have been quarantined - but rather went on to travel on other planes shortly after.

    Although officials have not released ANY information about what caused the man's death - healthcare experts who are sources of Law Enforcement Today have raised concerns about exactly what it may have been - and encouraged us to read up about hemorrhagic fevers.  We'd encourage you to do the same.  Education is the best tool we have to protect our families - no matter what this turns out to be.

    Bangkok, Thailand- A disturbing story in the New York Post tells of a passenger on board a flight from Thailand to Germany who suddenly had blood begin gushing out of his mouth and nose. That passenger died from the massive loss of blood. 

    The passenger, a 63-year-old German man, boarded the Lufthansa Airlines flight in Bangkok shortly before midnight. According to sources, the man was visibly sick as he boarded the aircraft, with “cold sweats” and “breathing much too quickly,” according to Swiss German outlet Blick. 

    Initial reports say the man’s wife claimed they had been in a rush to catch the flight, explaining why he wasn’t feeling well. 


    However, that didn’t sit well with Karin Missfelder, a nursing specialist at the University Hospital in Zurich, who told a flight attendant that the man needed to be examined by a doctor. That led a young Polish man, who claimed to be a doctor, to examine the man, who asked the male how he was feeling. Told he was ok and only checking his pulse, the “doctor” claimed the man was okay. 

    “They gave him a little chamomile tea, but he already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him,” said Martin Missfelder, Karin’s husband. 

    That was only the beginning of the horrific episode, as blood soon started streaming from the man’s mouth and nose. 

    “It was absolute horror; everyone was screaming,” Martin Missfelder said. 

    Missfelder believed the man lost “liters” of blood, with much of it splattering on the cabin of the Airbus A-380. The man soon went into cardiac arrest, and flight attendants performed CPR for about a half-hour on the man, even as Karin Missfelder knew it was hopeless. 

    After attempts to revive the man failed, the captain announced the passenger had passed away. The cabin crew carried him to the aft galley of the plane, and the airliner turned and headed back to Thailand. 

    In a statement, Lufthansa Airlines praised the cabin crew and those who assisted the stricken passenger. 

    “Although immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken by the crew and a doctor on board, the passenger died during the flight,” the statement read. 

    “Our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased passenger. We also regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers of this flight,” the statement continued. 

    According to flight data, the airliner departed Bangkok at 11:50 pm local time on Thursday and landed in Thailand at 8:28 am Friday. Passengers said they waited approximately two hours after landing back in Bangkok before getting rebooked on another flight to Germany. 

    Kristin Missfelder regretted not intervening earlier, although it is unknown if that would have made a difference. 

    “I should have intervened, but I saw that a doctor was looking after him, so I didn’t want to get involved,” she said, admitting that “the man looked so bad, I don’t understand why the captain took off.” 

    Lufthansa was criticized for their handling of passengers, including the victim’s wife, after the incident. 

    Martin Missfelder said Lufthansa staff left passengers to fend for themselves upon returning to Thailand. 

    “She stood there all alone and apathetic and had to endure all the formalities,” Missfelder told Blick, according to the Daily Mail. The airline offered the traumatized passengers only the equivalent of a $12 voucher for their inconvenience. 

    It is unknown what caused the sudden loss of blood of the victim. No further details have been released, including the name of the victim or if an autopsy was performed. 

    • Like 1
    • Sad 1
  4. No quarantine. 

     

    Here's from another article:

     

    After the plane landed in Bangkok, it took 2 hours before anyone from Lufthansa showed up to assist.

    Passengers were allowed to leave the plane. No discussion about isolation was overheard, raising the question about what the cause was for this passenger to have been spitting up so much blood.

    Passengers received a $10 meal voucher, and some passengers were booked to Hong Kong to connect on another Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.

    No one at Lufthansa assisted the grief-stricken wife.
    The deceased grief-stricken wife was left unattended by the airline and airport staff. She had to clear customs and immigration on her own, looking heartbroken, confused, and lost.

    More than 30 passengers witnessed the event on board and were equally traumatized and were also left alone after this 2-hour wait.

    A Swiss passenger told the Swiss news outlet Blick that he was expecting an apology or more from Lufthansa on how this emergency which should never have gotten to this stage was handled.

    In a detailed statement, Lufthansa said:
    “We confirm that on 8 February 2024, on flight LH773 (Airbus A380) from Bangkok to Munich, a medical emergency of a passenger occurred on board. 

    “Although immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken by the crew and a doctor on board, the passenger died during the flight. After 1.5 hours of flight time, the crew decided to return to Bangkok, where the aircraft landed normally and safely.

    “There, the instructions of the medical emergency services and the Thai authorities were followed. The passengers on this flight have since been rebooked on other alternative flights, as it has been canceled.

    “Our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased passenger. We also regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers of this flight.”

    Airlines have different policies in place on how to proceed after a passengers dies on a flight.

    • Sad 2
  5. Man dies mid-flight after breaking out in 'cold sweats' and losing 'liters of blood,' scaring his fellow passengers
    Lauren Edmonds Feb 10, 2024, 2:19 PM GMT-5


    A 63-year-old man died during a Lufthansa flight this week after losing "liters of blood' in a scene that terrified passengers.

    The unidentified man boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich with his wife on Thursday, according to Swiss-German outlet Blick.

    Witnesses Martin and Karin Missfelder told Blick that they sat in the row diagonally behind the male passenger and his wife. Karin Missfelder said the man looked unwell when he boarded the plane.

    Airline cabin
    Airline cabin. iStock/Getty Images
    "He had cold sweats" and "was breathing much too quickly," Karin Missfelder said in a translated quote. 

    The man's wife said his breathing and appearance looked off because they rushed to catch the flight, but the symptoms worried the crew. Despite their initial hesitations, the crew allowed the man to remain on the flight.

    Karin Missfelder, a nursing specialist at the University Hospital in Switzerland, told Blick that her concerns for the man persisted, prompting her to tell a flight attendant that a doctor should examine the man. At this point, the plane's captain arrived and briefly spoke to the man. 

    "He then called for a doctor over the loudspeaker and a young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German," Karin Missfelder said.

    Martin Missfelder said the doctor however did little to treat the man beyond checking his pulse and asking how he felt. Soon, the man's health drastically deteriorated.

    "They then gave him a little chamomile tea, but he already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him," Martin Missfelder said. 

    At one point, Martin Missfelder said blood gushed out of the man's nose and mouth. He said the man lost "liters of blood," some of which splattered onto the aircraft's walls.

    "It was absolute horror. Everyone was screaming," Martin Missfelder told Blick.

    Flight attendants immediately jumped in and attempted to resuscitate the man, Blick reported.

    "It was dead quiet on board," Karin Missfelder said. 

    Data from flightradar24, an online air traffic tracker, showed that the flight departed from the Bangkok International Airport at 12:07 a.m. before diverting back amid the chaos. Karin Missfelder told Blick the man, now dead, was carried into the galley as the plane returned to the airport. 

    A Lufthansa representative confirmed the death to Blick. 

    • Thanks 1
    • Sad 3
  6. A blueray/DVD/CD player is on my list of things to look at in Loja today.  They were $130 at the local store in Florida, are $45-$75 on Amazon.  Some of the things I want are already only available on blueray, as I missed my chance to get them on DVD.

    • Like 1
  7. Who identifies?

     

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Cottagecore (sometimes referred to as Countrycore or Farmcore)[1][2] is an internet aesthetic idealising rural life. Originally based on a rural European life,[3] it was developed throughout the 2010s and was first named cottagecore on Tumblr in 2018.[4] The aesthetic centres on traditional rural clothing, interior design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery, and is related to similar aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, goblincore, gnomecore and fairycore.

    Some sources describe cottagecore as a subculture of Millennials and Generation Z. Economic forces and other challenges facing these young people may be a significant driver of this trend, along with these generations' emphasis on sustainability, and the trend to work from home (initially during the COVID-19 pandemic).

     

    Aesthetic and lifestyle elements


    The tenets of cottagecore can help its proponents satisfy a desire for "an aspirational form of nostalgia" as well as an escape from many forms of stress and trauma.[5] The New York Times described it as a reaction to hustle culture and the advent of personal branding.[5] The Guardian called it a "visual and lifestyle movement designed to fetishize the wholesome purity of the outdoors."[6] Cottagecore emphasizes simplicity and the soft peacefulness of the pastoral life as an escape from the dangers of the modern world.[7] It became highly popular on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][6][9]

     

    ***

     

    Food and gardening

    Self-sufficiency, such as baking one's own bread, is integral to cottagecore.
    Growing one's own food in one's own garden and baking one's own bread all reflect the philosophy of self-sufficiency of cottagecore, though the aesthetic does not demand living in the countryside.[9][18] Cottagecore gardening is intended to be environmentally friendly, often including permacultural farming practices.[19][20] For example, the cultivation of a variety of perennial and annual native plants (i.e. plants endemic to the areas near one's home) helps attract insects, including bees, and as such promotes biodiversity and increases pollination of food-producing crops.[20]

     

    Other aspects
    The aesthetic encourages taking care of oneself physically and mentally.[9] Followers of cottagecore typically purchase secondhand or vintage furniture.[18][21] They may take up hobbies including knitting, crochet, painting, and reading.[22]

     

     

    These are bits from the Wikipedia article.  Go there if you want more.  I had been hearing about Cottagecore and got curious...now I know.  

    • Like 5
  8. I saw the neatest explanation and had to bring it here.

     

     

     

    How-To

    The Science of Pruning

    When and where you do it can mean the difference between a happy plant and a dead plant—but why?

    By Paul Cappiello Fine Gardening - Issue 185
    ***

    Energy balance drives the pruning plan

    The most frequent question asked about pruning is “When should you do it?” The traditional recommendation is to prune a flowering plant depending on when the plant flowers. If it flowers on old wood (growth from the previous season), prune after flowering to avoid cutting off spring blooms before you have a chance to enjoy them. But if the plant in question flowers on new wood (the current season’s growth), prune in late winter.

    While this is sound advice to ensure maximum flower enjoyment during a single season, it completely ignores the physiology of the plant. Rather than obsess about a few blooms in one season, it’s better to consider the overall energy balance of the plant.

    The engines that drive plant growth and ­vigor are (1) carbohydrates and nutrients mobilized from stored reserves, (2) current photo­synthate production, and (3) water absorp­tion (see illus­tration below). The first two engines fuel production of new plant tissue (they build new cells), while the third drives cell expansion and shoot elongation. The energy balance in a plant is set by the size of the engine(s) divided by the quantity of growing points that will use those energy resources.

    diagram showing what drives plant growth
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy

    A plant’s energy balance governs the vigor of the plant’s response to major pruning. In other­wise healthy plants, pruning in the dormant season is invigorating to the plant, while pruning in the late spring and summer results in reduced vigor (see “Pruning outcomes depend on energy,” below).


    Pruning outcomes depend on energy

    diagram of a tree before pruning
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy

    The old adage “Prune when the shears are sharp” is often followed by “and when the plant is sleeping.” While making a few minor cuts here and there at any time of year is fine, more major pruning needs to be timed according to a plant’s energy balance.

    diagram showing stored reserves at their peaks
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy

    Late winter pruning spurs lots of new growth

    Take a healthy apple tree that’s been ignored for years—one that’s filled with crossing and rubbing branches, weak branch angles, and too dense a crown for its own good. A major winter thinning of the tree allows most of the stored reserves to remain intact (reserves are stored in roots, the crown, and the main trunk) but drastically reduces the number of growing points that will use those stored ­reserves to fuel growth the following spring. The result is more-vigorous spring growth from those remaining growing points. Think of winter pruning like holding your thumb over the end of a garden hose. With the same amount of pressure, but a reduced opening, you get a much more forceful spray.

    diagram showing reduced quantity of growing points
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy

    Late spring pruning limits new growth

    Take that same apple tree and wait until late spring to do the same pruning, and you have a completely different story. With this timing, the plant will have used up its stored reserves and you will have gone in and reduced the photosynthate engine (the leaf area) that would fuel recovery and regrowth. You’ve reduced the quantity of growing points, but you’ve also reduced the size of the engine. The result is not a whole lot of regrowth after pruning. So you need to decide what response you want to encourage in your plant and then use the plant’s energy balance to choose your timing.


    Timing plays a critical role in cold tolerance

    [photo of sad boxwood deleted]

    Two detrimental things can happen if the timing of your pruning is off (done in late summer or early winter): induced loss of cold tolerance and late-season pruning-induced ­regrowth that has insufficient time to harden off before winter. For example, it’s the middle of August and you’ve just realized that you never got around to shearing your boxwood hedge. Now it looks like an uncoiffed Old English sheepdog. You drag out the electric shears and turn all your boxwoods into perfect Platonic solids. The problem is, there’s probably still plenty of warmth left in the season to encourage a nice crop of soft, fluffy new growth, but there’s not enough time for that growth to harden off before winter sets in. The result is likely to be the easily recognizable shaggy brown top that shows up later in winter from shoots damaged by the onset of cold temperatures.

    [photo of black-ended twigs deleted]

    Another problem can occur even if you wait to prune in winter, as many books ­advise. Research has shown that the energizing ­impact of heavy pruning can drastically reduce the low-temperature tolerance of the remaining plant tissue, even when pruning is done well into winter. You may notice blackening of the tissues around the pruning wound. This loss of cold tolerance occurs even though the plant hasn’t yet put out any new growth. Of course, this is particularly problematic if the plant is already somewhat marginal in your garden’s climate. So if you’re growing a Zone 7 hedge in Zone 6, you might want to wait until late winter to do that heavy shearing, after the threat of extreme low temperatures has passed.

    Hormones dictate plant response

    Plant hormone levels play a major role in a plant’s response to pruning. Auxins are key plant hormones that are produced in expanding shoot tips and move down the stem. The higher concentrations closest to the tip tend to suppress the opening of buds below. This is called apical dominance and serves a valuable purpose in promoting the growth of the shoot tip at the expense of the growing points ­located lower down the stem. If a plant is competing for sunlight with its neighbors, it is much better to have a few strong shoots reaching for the sky than a thousand shoots com­peting for limited nutritional resources within the plant. However, when you prune and ­remove a growing tip, you remove the source of the bud-break-suppressing auxin, allowing the lower bud(s) to break and grow (see “How apical dominance works,” below).


    How apical dominance works

    diagram showing shoot tips and dominant buds
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy
    [photo of garden-center mums deleted]
    Everyone loves a tight, compact mum. Fall chrysanthemums are often sprayed with hormone suppressants, which is why in the nursery they look like clipped little balls. Next year in the garden they will likely be larger and more gangly. Photo: Danielle Sherry

    Another group of plant hormones, cytokinins, are produced in the young, growing roots and then move up into the shoots, where they work to stimulate bud break. The currently accepted hypothesis is that auxins suppress the action of cytokinins. Remove the auxin, and the cytokinin can do its thing. That’s the science behind growers using cytokinin sprays to induce more lateral branching and bushier plants. The sprays increase the ratio of cytokinin to auxin, allowing buds to break and grow. There are even “chemical pinching” sprays that enhance lateral branching by killing the rapidly growing shoot tip—just as if you had pinched out the shoot tip with your fingers.

    The strength of this apical dominance contributes significantly to a plant’s characteristic shape (see “Hormones affect habit,” below). Strong apical dominance yields a single-leader growth type and narrow conical shape—think bald cypress (Taxodium distichum, Zones 4–9) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea, Zones 3–6). Weak apical dominance yields more diffuse branching, such as that seen in flowering dogwood (Cornus florida, Zones 5–9) and golden rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata, Zones 5–9).


    Hormones affect habit

    tree diagrams
    Illustration: Elara Tanguy

    Healing is both immediate and delayed

    No matter how well we plan, there’s no getting around the fact that all pruning results in mechanical injury to the plant. When injured, plants have both immediate and delayed responses. The immediate response involves a mind-numbing cascade of signals being bounced around the plant to activate genes related to production of defense compounds—all designed to reduce the ability of pathogens to gain a foothold in the new, open wound. What takes a much longer time is for pruning wounds on woody plants to heal over completely. This occurs with the slow development of tissue that forms around the perimeter of a pruning cut. As gardeners, our task is to ensure that we do all we can to minimize the injury-related threat to the plant. The best way to do that is by encouraging the wound to heal as quickly as possible with a proper cut.

    a perfect pruning tree
    A “perfect” pruning cut has three characteristics. It is under 3/4 inch, it is done in spring or fall, and it has clean, not jagged, edges outside the branch collar. Photo: millettephotomedia.com

    First, keep your pruning cuts as small as possible. With young trees, if you keep your cuts to under ¾ inch, generally they will heal in a single growing season. This is easy to do in a perfect world, but it’s hard to do when planning corrective pruning on an older plant.

    Next, plan to prune when the tree is most active in trunk development—spring and fall. Wound closure and healing are accomplished by the cambium layer (that ultrathin layer of live cells just below the protective, outer bark), and spring and fall are the two times of the year that cambial activity is at its peak. One reason so much tree pruning is done in winter is because, with the leaves gone, arborists can actually see what they are doing. Of course, there is also little in the way of pathogen attack going on in the depth of winter.

    Finally, make a smooth cut in the right place, since smooth cuts heal much faster than rough or jagged cuts. Understanding the science ­behind pruning can help you become a better pruner, with an even better garden.


    Paul Cappiello is executive director of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens in Crestwood, Kentucky.

     

     

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

     

    So, in summary:

    If your aim is to reduce the overall size of your tree, prune it after it has spent its energy growing.  If your aim is to guide the growth of your tree, prune it before it has spent its energy growing.

     

    Note that citrus has weak apical dominance.  Brandy at Just Fruits used to say you can practically shear those things, and they just get happier.  

     

    • Thanks 2
  9. Ambergris makes a good point and it is a subject that should be explored further.  So as not to steal MT3B’s great thread I have started a new thread in the Edge for this topic and copied Ambergris’s post there.  Please make your replies to her there!  Mother

    Here's a hard fact: You asked for the high grocery prices.  Remember a few years back, when the farmers had ripe crops rotting in the fields because no one would come pick them?  You've seen the same farmers not planting or planting machine-harvestable crops since?   That's the price of the get-tough immigration policies y'all have been talking about in other posts.  Hard-bodied illegals with super-low pay expectations put groceries on your table at a reasonable cost.  You close borders and make the price of getting caught too high, it cuts off the tap of super-cheap labor.

     

    Here's another hard fact:  American farmers deserve to make a decent living.  When you squeeze their margins until they can't make any living, you invite Chinese investors to buy them out.  

     

    And when you regulate the price of food to less than the price of producing the food, farmers stop producing.  That's Venezuela.

    • Like 2
  10. I checked the ingredients online.  I can't eat it without consequences, but it looks like a thing to store for normal people.  A reasonably good source of fats, quality proteins, and flavor.  Keep an eye on the dates, of course.  Wal-Mart is not always good at rotating stock.

     

     

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving Size:
     
     
    cup (62ggrams)
     
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories50
     
    % Daily Value*
    Total Fat 3.5ggrams4%Daily Value
    Saturated Fat 1ggrams5%Daily Value
    Trans Fat 0ggrams
    Cholesterol 15mgmilligrams5%Daily Value
    Sodium 340mgmilligrams15%Daily Value
    Total Carbohydrates 4ggrams1%Daily Value
    Dietary Fiber 0ggrams0%Daily Value
    Sugars 1ggrams
    Includes 0ggrams Added Sugars0%Daily Value
    Protein 1ggrams
     
    Vitamin D 0mcgmicrograms0%Daily Value
    Calcium 30mgmilligrams2%Daily Value
    Iron 0.2mgmilligrams1%Daily Value
    Potassium 40mgmilligrams1%Daily Value
     
    The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
    INGREDIENTS: WATER, CREAM, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUNFLOWER OIL, PARMESAN CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), DAIRY PRODUCT SOLIDS, MODIFIED EGG YOLK (EGG YOLKS, SALT, PHOSPHOLIPASE), SALT, CONTAINS 0.5% OR LESS OF THE FOLLOWING: ROMANO CHEESE (MILK, CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES), NATURAL FLAVORS, ROASTED GARLIC POWDER, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, XANTHAN GUM, BLUE CHEESE (MILK, CHEESE CULTURES, SALT, ENZYMES, CALCIUM CHLORIDE), SPICES, LACTIC ACID, ONION POWDER.
    • Like 2
  11. Went to a one-year-old's birthday party.  Wow.  I don't know what that clown got paid, but I bet she's underpaid.  Then got home and got stabbed in the throat by a wasp.  Am now on three Benadryl and not noticeably swelling.  Going to bed.

    • Sad 6
  12. Nobody except (sometimes) UPS and USPS would deliver to my Florida house.  And both of them had contract delivery people who routinely lied about attempts to deliver.  This is part of why the house became untenable once I could no longer drive.

    • Like 1
    • Sad 2
  13. I used to have an old torn army blanket for this--my thinking was that wool would not scorch, and I was afraid of melting a polyester or nylon-filled quilt/blanket.  Now a days, the army blankets are "woobies" and you have to go vintage or foreign to get better than a 30 percent wool.  Sigh.  

    • Like 4
  14. Went to Publix the other night and gagged when I saw $28 a pound for regular (not prime or anything special) boneless rib eyes.  They were running half that a year ago.  Greenwise was cheaper.  I asked DS1 how he's been handling that.  He said, "not eating steak."  I'm not the only one exploring a different world, I guess. 

    (DS2, on the other hand, never was into steak, which is to his advantage in times like this.)

    DS1 spent a few months living out of the freezers and pantry.  There's still a ton of stuff to throw away because he didn't and won't touch it.

     

    • Like 1
    • Sad 4
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