Jason Hernandez

There is some species of native guppy in the Rio Magante, although I have yet to identify it exactly. The dominant male of each group has orange fins, but otherwise, they are not colorful. I have been thinking that I would like to try them in an aquarium, and since they are native, they should be well adapted to conditions.

Well, you could try the experiment with just one -- one that you wouldn't mind losing if it turns out not to work.

There's that word "should" again, I know. I saw an article on Mongabay: Can Palm Oil Be Grown Sustainably? Research Suggests It Can, and Without Chemicals. Well, okay -- but then there is the question of whether oil palm, even if grown sustainably and without chemicals, is an appropriate crop to be growing, considering its uses. Junk food and the chemical substances people put on their bodies?

On the other hand, it does have potential as a biofuel, too, which would help to cut down on carbon emissions?

So what do you all think? Do you see oil palm having a place in tropical permaculture? Or is this a side track we could do without?

Data can be problematic around here, I know, because it creates a temptation to use that forbidden f-word. Still, data (and that forbidden word) are what I understand. And as research mounts, it turns out that there is increasing data to support our Permie principles. Mongabay ran a story on cacao farming in Indonesia, comparing hand-pollination with the more usual toxic-gick methods, and as it turns out, hand pollination, even with the increased labor cost, outperformed toxic gick in generating income.

Getting Hands-on with Pollination Can Boost Cocoa Yields

To summarize: usually, only 5-10% of cacao flowers are pollinated. By pollinating by hand, cacao farmers find that yields increase anywhere from 51% to 161%, which is enough to make the labor-intensive technique worthwhile. The Indonesian chocolate-growing region is already a fertile soil area, so it no real surprise that chemical fertilizers make little difference there. It makes me wonder why chemical fertilizers became prominent in the first place; but I suppose a likely explanation is that such products are presented to farmers as being necessary, and they might not look beyond "received wisdom."

Hopefully, this will spread to other cacao-growing regions of the world.

I could post a link, but those of you who can answer the question do not need one. The website is trying to sell product, so of course it is going to post the rave reviews. I am looking for perspectives from people who have no vested interest in selling this product. Those of you who have used the Almond Cow, is it worth it?

Karl Treen wrote:

Thank you so much for your support! Please make sure to note that these cards can be used to play many games, NOT just one. This is the most common point that people miss.

The cards are intended as an open-ended invitation to game creators and regenerative gardening enthusiasts. While I have developed several games for the cards, and will be working on more this fall, I really hope that a community or people will evolve to create more games for these cards.

So the idea is for them to be on a par with the traditional playing cards, with the four suits, Aces, Kings, etc. Those would not be nearly as well known if there was only one game that could be played with them. One kind of cards for poker, a completely different set for rummy, yet a third for bridge; I doubt there would be as much interest in card games if it was like that. I do find that idea to be in keeping with our values -- multipurpose as opposed to a separate thing for each single purpose.

I like this idea a lot better than the (Your-City's-Name)-opoly phenomenon. A game about predatory capitalism, with advertising incorporated into the game board. How many who buy those games are aware of the inherent propaganda?

echo minarosa wrote:
But there are clearly times when feeding is detrimental. Look no further than public feeding spots for ducks and geese. People usually bring junk food...bread to feed them. You almost never see grains, fish parts, etc (depending on what your recipient is). One place in my area is between 5 restaurants and people bring out their doggy bags for the ducks and geese. All they get is inappropriate food all the time. The birds are there in such huge numbers and in such a small area that diseases quickly spread and they get large population buildups which then crash. The diseases like avian botulism are horrible ways to die. People mean well but don't understand the implications of their actions.

This made me think of what might well be called unintentional bird feeding. In coastal cities, gulls learn to scavenge out of public trash cans; an area like a food court, where the trash cans get heavy use and are not always emptied before they overflow, people may be feeding the gulls without even being aware of it, by throwing unfinished food in the trash cans. Hamburger buns are made of white bread, just like the bread being fed to the ducks in your scenario, and then there are the heavily salted French fries, greasy pizza remnants, and suchlike.

I don't have any stories as wild as these. But I cat I used to have in my youth... he came up to me one day, and I noticed a tiny bit of grass, no more than a centimeter, stuck in his nose. I took hold of it, very gently, to see if I could pull it out, but he did the job for me, yanking his head away -- and leaving me holding a six-inch long blade of grass. How he managed that, I can't begin to imagine.

Erick Miller wrote:
Also I  agree with the whole random “fact”/“citation needed” problems that people now seem to hinge their comments on (generally speaking) it’s annoying and imo it’s because of people’s methods of speaking or thinking and as mentioned a need to “convert” other thinking’s to match ... how boring 🤣

Your point is well taken. But on the other hand, I don't see going to the opposite extreme as any better.

Recently, several social media companies began partnering with PolitiFact to label whether statements made in a post or tweet can be verified as true. And I often check Snopes before passing something along. Are PolitiFact and Snopes doing a bad thing? Are their activities the same as shutting down discussion?

It seems to me that we can foster and facilitate discussion without going to the extreme of denying that some things really are true, and some things really are not.