Senseless Banter...

This gives a whole new meaning to the words, 'They are only seeds'.

Nikolai Vavilov's Seeds and the Siege of Leningrad

"The Vavilov Institute's seed collecting activity began in 1894, when its scientists brought back the oldest, most resistant varieties from all over the world. One major trauma in the history of St Petersburg/Leningrad was the German siege from September 1941 to January 1944, when the city remained without food for 900 days. It is invariably the first thing to cross the lips of its citizens, whatever they do and whoever they are. Thousands of people died of hunger and the only place in the city where there was something to eat was the Vavilov Institute. But the researchers religiously guarded the cultivated plant collection and the seeds: no one ate them. When rats tried, they ended up as food for the researchers. The determination not to harm the institute’s treasures was such that nine people died of hunger there. At home and elsewhere, the families of researchers also died. In those months researchers found the strength to withstand the siege without profaning the collection. In 1940, Vavilov, who was then the director of the institute, was arrested by the KGB and died in a concentration camp in 1943".

"Tending the earth's edible future reached its most poignant moment--certainly its most courageous--during the Nazis' World War II siege of Leningrad. The site of the world's largest seed bank--at which Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov and his army of ethno-botanists had stockpiled an astonishing 200,000 species--Leningrad endured 900 days of attack during which over half a million people starved to death. Surrounded by harvested seed crops, the collectors martyred themselves rather than consume the botanical future. And when liberators finally entered the besieged facility, they found the emaciated bodies of the botanists lying next to full, untouched sacks of potatoes, corn and wheat--a priceless genetic legacy for which they paid with their lives." Christina Waters, Sep. 5-11, 1996, "Seeding the Future" in Metro Santa Cruz.

Wow is all I can say to that article Camp!

Yesterday I was washing some dishes and was thinking I needed to get more pallets to use as more compost enclosures. I was looking out the window about a minute later and a truck drove by with a load of pallets. So freaky!

plantoid wrote:Nah... She wants to become a vetinary surgeon and end up with her own business of more than six practices , a 25 room hotel and a Stabling facility employing around 60 people .
Once she reaches 34 ish she says she is looking to sell it all and move onto childern of her own as well as keeping her loving husband who will also have several practices in animal welfare.

I think she has realized that owing your own business allows you to write your own tax bills and gives you much more freedom than being a CEO etc. plus she's a decent sweet kiddy ( well ........ most of the time )

That was a better program than if it went off without a hitch! She sounds like one amazing girl!

Happy Birthday Alan!


llama momma/Gina W.

Wow the ancient educational derelics that constitute the UK's academic side of life have finally crawled out from under their inflation proofed stones and decided to offer decent online courses in university education .

About time too , I was castigated for saying this 3 yrs ago , my detractors saying students needed to go to uni to learn their social skills & get an education .

I wondered which planet these people were really from till I saw their salaries .
This current massive financial down turn has forced the universities to rethink their fees & situation which have in many cases doubled in cost over night to a mimum of £9,000.

They have thousands of empty places to try and fill in ancient dusty cold old buildings trying to use worthless courses which the government used to pay 100% of the cost for without questioning the value of course for the country..
It had become learning for learnings sake , hundreds of thousands of degree qualified ex students on the scrap heaps because no employer needed their useless qualifications . Most qualified students refused to look for work outside of their educational qualifications so no one bothered trying to help most of them out .

What is the USA offering for university qualifications , where the majority of the course is being done under home study conditions using the internet ??
( sounds like a good useful education can now be had anywhere in the world that you can get an internet connection .)

Just got a hilarious slant on the original book from my lass , for 20 pence and put onto my kindle as a late birthday / christmas present .

Forty Sheds of Grey .... really a very funny read , unless your more straight laced than Queen Victoria

Oh, Plantoid, doesn't it make you want to visit Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA? Nonna

I'm in the dark on that one Papa .. I appear to have missed something in the historic translation your civil war ? ... grey coats ?????
Explain by PM or on the thread please .

The part of 40 Shades of Grey I read was set in Portland/Seattle area of Pacific Northwest. Does it read differently in Britain/Europe? Nonna/PapaVino

And, on another Senseless Banter note, my sister sent this: http://www.farmallcub.com/dcms/?q=turkey about a wonderful turkey pet. Funny and heartwarming, especially for any of us who have raised "food" that became a pet. Nonna

I wouldn't know Papa ,
" We don't use such books , we're british "

It is forty SHED's of grey , not Forty shades of grey
and makes fun of the book you mention apparently

With that correction to my limited literary knowledge, I shall have to look it up. Sounds better than the 3/4 of the original title I read. (I keep threatening to turn the little log cabin at the edge of the back pasture into a combination hen house, potting shed.) Nonna

gopro trombone

I found this video on youtube and thought it was delightful for us gardeners of the SfG movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_254748&feature=iv&src_vid=yPMYhGEihYM&v=CjvLPSkKOyk

Austin

OH SNAP!

I'm refreshing this thread for newer members and those who may have forgotten that it's here. At times it gets a bit overwhelming keeping track of posts and keeping things organized. Organization isn't only for staff, but also for members and the foundation so that searching for things can be carried out easier. Let's all try to keep our chit chat here or in one of our great chat boxes. Simple one answer, or yes no questions can usually be put here to if it's simple enough.
I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, we're all guilty of getting off track here and there...it happens, but let's try to work together on this.

I am guilty of sensesless banter all the time so here's some more. My son wa supposed to wrestle tonight at a preregistered tourney. All the boys weighed in this week and the person in charge never sent the registration email. So we all showed up and they remade the brackets so everyboddy could wrestle except... My son and the head coaches son... I am a little peeved. Not to mention we got a hotel room to stay at for tomorrows tourney that we wouldn't have needed if he wasn't supposed to wrestle tonight... Grrrr.

Are you making anything for Superbowl with little gems out of your garden?

Great big salad with home grown lettuce, raddishes and tomatoes that were harvested green (when they died) in early January and have been feeding us all winter :-)

This topic has been sent to the "Senseless Banter" thread.

Rooster, why? I dont like senseless banter. The moving around of stuff is driving people kinda crazy. I posted this in food, and it deals with food.

Why? Because we already have a "what are you eating from your garden today" thread and don't really need another one for just the superbowl.
Also, sorry if folks are offended when posts get moved. Don't know why really. What's the big deal? It really makes it hard keeping things organized on this end when everything is all over the place. You need to realize organization goes a long way for folks who aren't necessarily here every single day and just looking for something specific. It helps me, moderators, rh, the foundation and other staff find things much easier when someone needs help looking for something.
I'll give you a perfect example, ( and I don't mean to put anyone on the spot here this is just a fitting example) Someone posted about using peanut shells today in compost. I did a quick search and found another topic asking the same thing. I merged the two. Now the person inquiring has the information readily available and anyone who adds on to it will just make that thread more informative. It's much, much easier and simpler than having 5-6 threads or more, on the same thing. Organization is key and it's part of my job here.

An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a Hawaiian and an Alaskan), an Argentinean, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovak, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, an Iranian, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Syrian, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, an Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahamian, a Belorussian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Canadian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukrainian, a Dutchman, a Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian and two South Africans……walk into a fine restaurant. . .


“I'm sorry," says the maître d', after scrutinizing the group. "You can't come in here without a Thai."