#anti pesticides

[solarpunkani]

Hot 4am take but I feel like if we want to get people more interested in making their yards a more habitable space for wildlife like insects, we have to acknowledge that ‘Don’t want bugs in your house’ is still a 100% fair and valid point of view. ‘Loves nature’ and ‘doesn’t want roaches spiders and mosquitoes in the house’ aren’t opposites.

And with that in mind, when we propose to people that spraying pesticides around houses is Not A Good Idea, Actually, I feel like we need to give an alternative asides from ‘deal with it.’

[woodsfae]

it is infinitely nicer to hang out in the garden than it was to have a lawn.

[whetstonefires]

apropos of another weird anti-grass post is that one thing i feel like should be common knowledge, but know very well isn't, is that mowing your lawn is an act simulating the symbiotic relationship grass has with grazing animals.

like. grass is eaten by grazing animals; it's one of the primary foodstuffs of creatures with teeth and stomachs that are up to the job, because it's so plentiful. a cow is a grass-predator. you'd think that would make cow the enemy of grass.

but grass is optimized to be browsed and walked on. it absorbs that shit like it's nothing, up to the point that these activities start either damaging the root-mat or cutting back the new growth so early that the plant doesn't have enough leaves to eat with.

but the rivals of grass are not so much so optimized. most non-grass meadow plants that don't pretty much lie flat (i'm generalizing wildly here obvs) have stems they depend on, that can be snapped much more easily than the vascular systems of most grasses, especially short ones, and have to start all over again if you compromise the stem an inch off the ground.

and trees, whew. a tree sprout that gets bitten off is just done. it shot its shot.

which means that grass benefits from grazing animals about as much as those animals benefit from grass. they maintain each other.

grass doesn't grow because it inherently wants to be tall. it is, fundamentally, indifferent to tall. it wants sun access, so it can eat, and if it stops growing it'll be in the shade of everybody else, so it goes for it. if everyone is getting sheared off a little above the ground, grass is winning. because grass copes with that like a champion.

and grass-dominated meadow is absolutely a valid biome, and one of the most natural environments for humans.

so mowing a lawn in order to keep it conveniently walkable and mostly-grass is like. technically inferior to hiring some goats like the Mortifying Ordeal guy, if only that could be made a convenient routine transaction and if you were willing to endure the botanically desirable side effect of goat shit. but a perfectly reasonable maintenance method for a small patch of earth you aren't actively cultivating to any other purpose. and cultivating all land all the time is a dumb unsustainable goal and i don't like it.

mowing is fine. grass, ideally local grass, basically anywhere not a desert is splendid.

it's the poisons that are literally just an offense against man and nature.

[natsikka]

I hate pest control so much...

Have a mildly annoying insect on your lawn? Don't worry! Just spray 1 dose of 'kill-all-life' to your plants every 90 days and kill just about anything that feeds off of or live on those plants!

God, I hate lawn culture

[benicebefunny]

As someone born in Illinois, Beard being from Peoria just makes sense.

[your-average-faygo-enjoyer]

The fact that almond farming causes infanatley more harm to bees than making honey and almonds are vegan and honey is not drives me insane.

[angsttronaut]

there's something depressing about how in spring a bunch of interesting wild plants start growing in the grass and flowering, then it gets dry long enough that people whip out the lawnmowers and most of it is gone.

[mokshalifestyleinternational]

PURE MENTHA PIPERITA ESSENTIAL OIL

It has been used to relieve bodily discomfort and muscular pains due to its anti-spasmodic qualities. It is used to treat open wounds and sore areas due to its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic characteristics. It is used to treat rheumatism and aching joints. It also relieves menstrual cramps, intestinal knots, headaches, and muscular spasms when rubbed topically, providing instant cooling to the afflicted area. Organic Mentha Piperita Essential Oil has a pleasant and refreshing smell that is renowned to lighten the atmosphere and bring serenity to tense situations. Its lovely scent is utilized in aromatherapy to soothe the body and mind. It is also used to increase alertness and concentration. It is a natural pesticide that also repels mosquitos, insects, and rats.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A taxonomy of corporate bullshit

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

There are six lies that corporations have told since time immemorial, and Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen's new book Corporate Bullsht: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America* provides an essential taxonomy of this dirty six:

https://thenewpress.com/books/corporate-bullsht

In his review for The American Prospect, David Dayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-10-27-lies-my-corporation-told-me-hanauer-walsh-cohen-review/

I. Pure denial

As far back as the slave trade, corporate apologists and mouthpieces have led by asserting that true things are false, and vice-versa. In 1837, John Calhoun asserted that "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." George Fitzhugh called enslaved Africans in America "the freest people in the world."

This tactic never went away. Children sent to work in factories are "perfectly happy." Polluted water is "purer than the water that came from the river before we used it." Poor families "don't really exist." Pesticides don't lead to "illness or death." Climate change is "beneficial." Lead "helps guard your health."

II. Markets can solve problems, governments can't

Alan Greenspan made a career out of blithely asserting that markets self-correct. It was only after the world economy imploded in 2008 that he admitted that his doctrine had a "flaw":

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/greenspan-admits-flaw-to-congress-predicts-more-economic-problems

No matter how serious a problem is, the market will fix it. In 1973, the US Chamber of Commerce railed against safety regulations, because "safety is good business," and could be left to the market. If unsafe products persist in the market, it's because consumers choose to trade safety off "for a lower price tag" (Chamber spox Laurence Kraus). Racism can't be corrected with anti-discrimination laws. It's only when "the market" realizes that racism is bad for business that it will finally be abolished.

III. Consumers and workers are to blame

In 1946, the National Coal Association blamed rampant deaths and maimings in the country's coal-mines on "carelessness on the part of men." In 2003, the National Restaurant Association sang the same tune, condemning nutritional labels because "there are not good or bad foods. There are good and bad diets." Reagan's interior secretary Donald Hodel counseled personal responsibility to address a thinning ozone layer: "people who don’t stand out in the sun—it doesn’t affect them."

IV. Government cures are always worse than the disease

Lee Iacocca called 1970's Clean Air Act "a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America." Every labor and consumer protection before and since has been damned as a plague on American jobs and prosperity. The incentive to work can't survive Social Security, welfare or unemployment insurance. Minimum wages kill jobs, etc etc.

V. Helping people only hurts them

Medicare will "destroy private initiative for our aged to protect themselves with insurance" (Republican Senator Milward Simpson, 1965). Covid relief is unfair to people that are currently in the workforce" (Republican Governor Brian Kemp, 2021). Welfare produces "learned helplessness."

VI. Everyone who disagrees with me is a socialist

Grover Cleveland's 2% on top incomes is "communistic warfare against rights of property" (NY Tribune, 1895). "Socialized medicine" will leave "our children and our children’s children [asking] what it once was like in America when men were free" (Reagan, 1961).

Everything is "socialism": anti-child labor laws, Social Security, minimum wages, family and medical leave. Even fascism is socialism! In 1938, the National Association of Manufacturers called labor rights "communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism."

As Dayen says, it's refreshing to see how the right hasn't had an original idea in 150 years, and simply relies on repeating the same nonsense with minor updates. Right wing ideological innovation consists of finding new ways to say, "actually, your boss is right."

The left's great curse is object permanence: the ability to remember things, like the fact that it used to be possible for a worker to support a family of five on a single income, or that the economy once experienced decades of growth with a 90%+ top rate of income tax (other things the left manages to remember: the "intelligence community" are sociopathic monsters, not Trump-slaying heroes).

When the business lobby rails against long-overdue antitrust action against Amazon and Google, object permanence puts it all in perspective. The talking points about this being job-destroying socialism are the same warmed-over nonsense used to defend rail-barons and Rockefeller. "If you don't like it, shop elsewhere," has been the corporate apologist's line since slavery times.

As Dayen says, Corporate Bullshit is a "reference book for conservative debating points, in an attempt to rob them of their rhetorical power." It will be out on Halloween:

https://bookshop.org/a/54985/9781620977514

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong

[kiefbowl]

I was reading an opinion piece on Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis on CNN by Jamal Baig about the increasing rates of cancer in patients under 50. As far as 5 minutes of googling and JSTORing can lend me to believe, there's nothing illegitimate about Dr. Baig. However, I found this bit in his opinion interesting:

Now, I'm always dubious when reading anything that attributes a very broad generalized idea that changes in diets have caused an increased in cancer, because more often than not it's not pointing to an exploration of, say, increased pesticide use, but the author's personal bias against the quote unquote "unhealthy", especially those who are deemed "fat" by the medical industry.

That being said, I was curious what source he linked, half expecting it to lead to just another op-ed from some other doctor from who knows when, but I was pleasantly surprised! Written by a man named Michael Donaldson, it was an evidentiary review published in a scientific journal called "Nutrition and cancer: A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet."

Now I wasn't going to give the whole thing a read, but I stopped in each section, gave a quick skim to get a general vibe, moved on to the next section, etc. I was immediately suspicious that the very first line in the abstract was "It has been estimated that 30–40 percent of all cancers can be prevented by lifestyle and dietary measures alone" as that seems to be a bananas statistic to just posit, but it still had the air of scientific integrity, so I did my skim.

The first handful of sections had things that gave me some moments of pause, that this article was in fact another doctor simply cherry picking data to confirm his own biases, but nothing so egregious as to do a spit take. That comes in a few minutes. The first section that made really go hold the phone was when we got to his Flax Seed section.

Compare how he writes about Red Meat...:

(that's all he wrote, btw)

...with how he starts writing about Flax Seed:

Did I just enter a Flax Seed commercial? Does this guy work for BIG FLAX SEED? on and on he writes about Flax Seed, and I start getting a sense that perhaps this man has a Flax Seed Agenda. In any case, he eventually moves on and I quickly skim to get to the end (because it's boring among other things).

So, who exactly is Michael Donaldson?

Girl are you kidding me

The Hallelujah Acres Foundation is a FOR PROFIT company that sells a """biblical""" based diet program called the hallelujah diet and also sells supplements on said site.

Now, in case you forgot where I started with this, this was the link provided as a "source" to a legitimate doctor's claim in an op-ed about cancer that "at least part of the answer" of why cancer is increasing in under 50 patients are the "changes to nutrition and lifestyle that took hold in middle of the last century." Dr. Baig did not read this article, or if he did was not concerned that it was written by the employee of a company that profits from unscientific research it uses to sell supplements and diets. Which is worse, I don't know.

The point I'm making is that you absolutely need to be vigilant all the time. You need to understand that doctors can not only have biases, but agendas. Researchers can have biases and agendas. Scientists can have biases and agendas. And that magical thinking about real health issues that can affect your future can permeate the scientific community because weirdos write convincing enough evidence that support their already determined world view.

This kind of shit is the reason why women go into doctor offices complaining about pain in their abdomen and get told to go lose weight and come back in 6 months. This is why ideas like moralizing eating have huge effects on women's health and influence medical misogyny, and why it's a feminist issue.

[noirgl0w]

Give JJ one of your hair ties and from then on no girl approaches him because they all know he's 'taken'.

"Hey, baby." He would approach you, pointing to the rubber band on his wrist. "I don't know if this tie has some kind of anti-girl pesticide or something..."

And you would just smile at him like a fool because he seriously has no idea.

[alpaca-clouds]

"Save the Bees" is not enough

Yo, Solarpunks. Let us talk bees. And yes, everyone else, too. Like, yeah, bees.

See, whenever we are talking about insects dying, people will go "save the bees". And whenever I hear "save the bees", I will just go and say: "You don't get it, do you?"

People like bees. Because bees make honey, right? Yeah, only they don't. No, really. The honey bee is just one species of bees, while other bee species do in fact not make honey. Which is why we domesticated the honey bee, but not those other species. Duh. Because one was useful to us, while the others were not. As such we love the honey bee, but do not care about the other insects that are dying off.

Meme culture tells me, that you have probably seen Bee Movie. And I will now shock you. The movie lies to you! ("No!" - "YES!") And with that I do not mean, that actual bees are unable to speak. Or the fact that most bees are female (if we really wanna impose genders on bees). No, with that I mean the big thing that happens in the finale of the movie of all plants and what not dying off.

For those, who somehow have not seen that 90 minute meme: In the movie the honey bees sue the humans for stealing their honey. They win. Have their own honey and stop working. (Boy, lots to unpack there, eh?) and because of it all the flowers and crops die.

Well, here is the thing: Honey bees are actually not that important as polinators. Like, sure, they polinate a lot of crops and flowers, but... normally they are not the big pollinators, even though we kinda make them to, by shipping all those honey bees around. Other bee species pollinate a lot of plants, too. And so do other animals, like bats and birds for example. And that is without going into the less liked animals that pollinate, like flys. And then we also have all those self-pollinating crops and flowers, as well as air polinating plants.

Let me make one thing clear: You should care about bees. All the bees. (Because hint, the honey bees have the least of a problem.) But you should also care about the other insects that are dying off. Not only because of the pollination, but also because insects play a bigger role than just pollination.

Insects, for example, are important as prey animals for lots of birds and smaller animals. Just as some insects might actually play a role in dealing with natural waste. So, the dying off of insects is a bigger problem of "plants don't get pollinated".

So, why do the insects die?

Yes, part of the reason is habitat loss. You know, your lawn is a fucking desert to most insects. They not only need a bigger variety of plants around (not just flowers), but maybe also some old wood to borrow into and some loose earth on the ground. Stuff like that.

Insects usually also do not deal very well with the climate change. Be it with the growing heat or with the more erratic weather patterns of draught and then just quick and sudden rainfall, that does not linger.

And, of course, there is also the fact that we use a lot of anti-insect pesticides in agriculture. Which does not only hit those pests, but basically any other insect around.

And then... there is the invasive species. We kinda spread a lot of invasive insect species around, that also kill a ton of the local insect species.

So... What can you do? Well, if you have a garden, you can make it more insect friendly. Duh. You also can leave out some water for insects and birds. They all need it.

But most of all: Become politically active. Make sure that pesticides are used less. It is maybe the most important.

[codenamesazanka]

Dabi:

General backstory given in Chapter 301 and 302 - the specifics of the breakdown of the Todoroki household, how Touya ended up developing Blue Flames, and what led to the inferno at Sekoto Peak.

Then gets one more backstory reveal in Chapter 350 when he reveals to Shouto how he became Dabi - how coming home after three years and seeing the "same old story" of Endeavor's selfishness and abuse was the thing that truly broke him.

Spinner (and Heteromorphs):

General backstory given in Chapter 220 - that heteromorphs are discriminated against, to the point there's anti-heteromorph hate groups; Chapter 233 tells us Spinner was bullied into becoming a shut-in.

Then more details are reveal in Chapters 370-373 - how widespread and entrenched anti-heteromorph sentiments are in the countryside, how heteromorph children are "forced to bear scars"; Spinner tells us a specific thing - he was sprayed with pesticides just for walking outside. Lots of Heteromorphs in general hold a grudge against Heroes for not doing anything about this.

Toga:

General backstory given in Chapter 225 and 226 - she had a quirk that had her instinctively associate affection with blood-drinking, her parents yelled at her and she went through quirk counseling but it didn't work, and later she snapped and stabbed a kid.

Gets more detailed backstory flashbacks in Chapter 391 - the extent of the emotional abuse her parents dealt, the conformity and alienation that quirk counseling forced upon her, and just how inhuman she's felt living on the current world.

In all the above, we have the villain; their backstory pointing to a problem, established in Act II of the story; and as they confront the Hero in a final battle in Act III, a second part to the backstory is revealed - one that shows how the problem is actually worse than previously shown. (To validate the genuineness of the villain's pain and anger at just how Heroes have failed them; final emphasis that the villains really do deserve saving and the Hero is correct for wanting to save them.)

So. Shigaraki:

His general backstory given in Chapter 222 and Chapter 235-237 - the dysfunctions of Shimura family that can be traced back to Nana's decision to pick heroics over family; how Tenko had been repeatedly rejected and ignored by people who should've helped him; the Decay quirk manifesting; and how AFO took advantage of this accumulation of tragedies to groom Tomura into the Symbol of Fear.

All that, but following the possible pattern, I think we might just get one more backstory reveal for Shigaraki, especially given the memory share between him and Deku. A new flashback to his time growing up with AFO.

Place your bets on what it is. Me, I think we'll finally learn why All Might ticks him off so bad.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers discover eco-friendly fungicide alternative

A material that could replace current fungicides (i.e., anti-fungal pesticides), increase food security, and help protect wildlife has been discovered. A recent investigation undertaken by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) revealed that the UK is still using 36 harmful pesticides that have been banned in other European countries, with 13 described as "highly hazardous" that have links to water contamination, cancer, infertility, and other illnesses. Published in Green Chemistry, researchers at the University of Nottingham have completed a successful field trial of a material they have developed to help to protect crops from fungi. Simon Avery, professor of eukaryotic microbiology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, said, "The test material is not toxic but works by passively resisting attachment of fungal spores to protect surfaces from fungal infection, including crop surfaces. Results from this first field trial with wheat are particularly encouraging as there is a lot of scope to optimize further the material properties for crop protection."

Read more.

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

❗️SUICIDE DRONE FROM IRAQ… at the Golan Heights, fired by an Iraqi based Iranian Shia Militia.  “Exposives-laden” drone crashed and was located by IDF troops.

❗️3 SUICIDE DRONES from LEBANON… fell in open areas of Mt. Dov.

▪️LEBANON… Hezbollah announces it fired 30 Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shmona.  Hezbollah launched about 150 rockets, PGMs and anti-tank missiles at IDF positions and towns in the north of the country yesterday.

▪️MORE WAR POLITICS… the argument grows.  Says Min. of National Security MK Ben Gvir: “My disagreement with (National Unity leader) MK Benny Gantz is much deeper than the extension of the term of office of the Prison Commissioner.

The same commissioner who conducted negotiations with Hamas to whom I told her that my policy was the opposite. Who gave positive terms to Kotier, a prisoner from a crime family, and I forbade her and told her that it was terrible, who hid entire events from me, as was the case in Ramonim prison when she told me that there were tensions in the wing and in the end it turned out that they tried to murder a warden.

My dispute with MK Gantz is over the fact that he is in favor of fueling Hamas and I oppose this, he is in favor of giving humanitarian aid without any conditions, and I say humanitarian for humanitarian.”

(Amit Segal) Gantz withdrew from the compromise he agreed to today after the cabinet meeting. Part of the plan is to come up with excuses even though the war will last for many months per the chief of staff last night and despite Gantz’s commitment to stay until the end of the war.  The next excuse will be the 2024 budget. It's all a show to escape from committing to stay until the end of the war.

▪️JUDICIAL REAONSABLE-NESS DECISION LEAKS… this would be an earthquake if not for the war.  High Court overturns the Knesset Basic Law: Judicial Reasonableness:

(1) It’s unreasonable for the Knesset to require the court to control their reasonableness unless by broad agreement, not a narrow coalition.

(2) An exemption is given for the full high court only, and by not making the reasonableness a blanket standard by giving the high court full panel more flexibility, it became unreasonable.

(3) Two of the judges in the decision are past their required retirement date, without them it would be a 7-6 decision allowing, with them it is an 8-7 decision overturning.

To summarize:  Former High Court Lead Judge Hayut is going to cancel a basic law on the pretext that it was accepted "by a narrow majority”.

The court says: The writing of the judgment has not yet been completed. We take unauthorized leaks very seriously and will not address it. The judgment will be published after its writing is completed.

▪️ARAB WORKERS TRY TO POISON CHILDREN?  Central district police officers detained 3 gardening workers in a city for questioning, on suspicion of spraying pesticide on playground equipment in the park (with the intent to poison the children).

▪️RELATED: ARAB WORKERS AUTHORIZED?  Sahar Saad, chairman of the Palestinian Workers Association:  "Israel has issued ten thousand work permits to Palestinians in the field of construction. These permits are limited by time of day for the work - from five in the morning to five in the evening. They allow the entry of workers from Judea-Samaria in Israeli territory. They will come into effect on Jan. 6, 2024.  The Israeli contractor ordering the work will guarantee the pick up of the workers from the checkpoint.

[magellanicclouds]

Tell me something about you

I had two pet slugs for several years. They have since made their way over the rainbow bridge - one last year, one earlier this year. Gaia rest their slurmy little souls.

Their names were Sluggsy Bogues and Kevin and they were Dusky slugs. I loved them very dearly. They fled into my house one very cold winter when their little burrow was disrupted by maintenance workers outside. They somehow squoozed through a small crack at the flooring by an exterior wall and popped into our place through a closet, haha. I found them and could not in my heart put them back outside because it was snowing! So I thought- "I'll just keep them inside until it thaws." but of course that didn't happen because I became so so attached and they quickly become fully reliant on me.

Anon, I'd like to tell you more about them. I just loved them so much.

So, many people may not know this, but let me tell you that slugs have behaviours. They have preferences and habits. My boys had their favourite foods - cooked lima beans (cooled and peeled), tomatoes, and butter lettuce. For treats they would go crazy for cucumbers and raspberries, munching away until they fell asleep in them, only to wake up and eat more.

Lettuce-time from when they were still small enough to share a tank together.

When I first took them in, I was not able to fill their humidified tanks with soil from outside, as all the top soil was frozen over (and had likely been sprayed with pesticides from gardeners) so I instead lined their tank (they initially shared one when they were small) with an unbleached organic brown paper toweling that held moisture well and was soft on their foot while not sticking. It was loosely piled so they could still dig and tunnel. When the soil thawed enough some months later, I tried to transition them back to a safe deep soil dirt that had been baked clean, but they refused to touch it. They would pull their foot back and turn away quickly. They had become very accustomed to the soft paper bedding. It of course needed cleaning and changing more often, but that was okay. It was a pleasure to care for them and it was just more time spent together.

They eventually had to move out from each other and have their own tanks because they got very big! Both boys measured about 7.0" total length when Long, but they could still squinch up to about an inch when going into 'dot' mode. Dot is 'no no, I don't want that', something they'd do when I would have to carefully lift and move them to a isolate spot while cleaning their tanks. Slugs are very anti-lifting, you can imagine. I always tried to do it with a little platform of paper for them to stand on to reduce the stress, and they didn't stay dot-mad long as soon as they smelled the cucumber nearby. When they went back to their nice clean tanks they would be long and happy and get immediately to digging new tunnels and adventuring. Slugs have "home-ing" behaviours, meaning that they pick a specific place to return to each day to sleep. Somewhere they feel safe. Kevin had a small log. Sluggsy a hollow rock. When they sleep, they often like to curl up into a small doughnut or circle-like shape, like little dogs. Though occasionally, especially in summer, they might've laid out flat to stay cooler.

Sluggsy did this much more than Kevin-

-but he did still prefer his rock more often

Good morning, Kevin!

When they woke, sometimes they would still be very tired and slow to raise their eye stalks, moving around their little mouthparts and rasps to rehydrate them a bit after 13 hours of sleep. Their vision was simple, but they would follow me across a room, watching from the clear walls of their tanks. Hoping for treats no doubt. (they got a lot of them > v < )

Live slug reaction (featuring Kevin)

Kevin getting LONG. Long is a happy state of being, and feels good on the foot.

They both lived for years beyond their species general lifespan and I'd like to think they were happy in their own way. When I lost them each, I took them from their tanks in my bare hand - something I was not able to do for the most of their lives because our skin oils are not good for their bodies - I wrapped them gently in leaves of their favourite butter lettuce, and carefully buried them in our garden next to one another. Having them in my life for the short time that I did was meaningful and beautiful and I will remember them always.