Ask the Mods Thread

it isn't a matter of where one wants to live, it is the matter of restricting derogatory comments.

 

There's no rule against what I said - anyone can give their opinion on a country. That's why this forum exists. If you don't want people to be able to express opinions freely then move to a place that kills dissenters. Like Russia for example. Avoid the tea.

 

that means you should have a knowledge of the subject, however you have none and wilfully demonstrate it.

 

I know about Russia. I know not to drink the tea and that even when Russians are drinking something other than tea it doesn't go well for them.

 

no, you don't... as for 'the tea' - it hasn't proved any Russian involvement, other than the dead was Russian.

the orgainsation which gave data for the study - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_Development - has no Russia among its members, thus they had no access to the statistics concerning this country; in other words, they thought it all up.

 

http://qz.com/403307/russia-is-quite-literally-drinking-itself-to-death/ - besides, the very tone of this artical suggests not a study, but merely a propagandist attempt to portray the country in a bad light, and nothing else.

 

Russians were invited to participate in the study but were too hungover and slept in.

 

You allow members to talk to Mods? Are you serious? It is so very nice that we peasants get permission to express ourselves openly.

You Mods sure do admire yourselves.

 

I know!!!

And I have been telling members on this form for YEARS that Supplements not regulated or researched by the FDA are RISKY!!

But the only thing I take every day is a Multivitamin like Centrum....and Joint Lubricants which I have checked out!!

I know a great deal about Pharmacology and every now and then some member tells me..."OH....I stopped taking this drug or that drug prescribed by my Doctor because I watched a 2 hour INFOMERCIAL and they said that their Supplements do the same thing and are ALL NATURAL!!!

Then they tell me what supplements they are taking and what Rx's they are prescribed and I freak out and tell them....something like....YOU ARE ON A BETA-BLOCKER!!! YOU CAN'T JUST STOP TAKING IT!!!

Or I tell them....you don't understand that the Rx is made from a Plant that the Drug Company found in the Amazon and that because this plant is rare it took decades for the Drug Company to be able to CHEMICALLY RECREATE THE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT MOLECULE that exists in the plant and they spent BILLIONS developing this!!!

Then the member will say....."Yeah but I am taking the all natural REAL PLANT!!"

Then I will say..."Don't you get it? If this plant found in the Amazon existed in great numbers and was not difficult in the extreme to grow the Drug Companies would have simply grown these plants in MASSIVE CROPS....then harvested them and ground them up and purified them to a PROPER DOSAGE!!!"

They the member will say....."Yeah but that's what I got right here in my bottle as it only costs me 3 easy payments of $29.95 each for 90 days supply!.....and it's all NATURAL!!"

Then I say...."YOU DON'T GET IT!!! THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH OF THESE PLANTS IN THE WORLD TO SUPPLY THE STATED COMMERCIALS....over 1 MILLION SATISFIED CUSTOMERS!!! YOU ARE GETTING SOMETHING YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S INSIDE THOSE BOTTLES AND RARE PLAT'S LIKE THIS SUCH AS VARIOUS Vermilliads AND Bromeliads OR ORCHIDS THAT ARE ENDANGERED AND GROW WITHIN SMALL HOLLOWS ON TREES WHERE A BRANCH EXTENDS OUT ARE ILLEGAL TO REMOVE!!!"


THAT'S WHY THE DRUG COMPANIES WHICH FOUND THAT A CERTAIN RARE PLANT HAD MOLECULAR COMPLEXITY THAT WAS THE ACTIVE DRUG INGREDIENT AND WORKED TO CURE A DISEASE BUT COULD NOT BE AT THAT TIME ARTIFICIALLY SYNTHESIZED THUS THEY SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORKING TO REPRODUCE THE COMPLEX MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF THIS NATURALLY OCCURRING MOLECULE OR COMPOUND..........SO THAT THEY COULD SELL IT TO HELP PEOPLE AND MAKE MONEY!!!


I swear......many people just can't seem to understand simple chemistry in that for example....NPK.....as Fertilizers have 3 numbers for each that determine percentage of an

N stands for NITROGEN and in FERTILIZERS first number is the percentage of Nitrogen in the bag. So a bag of 24-8-4 has 24 percent total Nitrogen. Nitrogen provides plants with the ability to produce more chlorophyll, which in turn allows plants to grow quickly. With each additional nitrogen application, plants will grow taller and develop a darker green color. So if you want a dark green lawn, use a lawn fertilizer that’s high in nitrogen.

The second number in the analysis is the percentage of Phosphorus in the mix. For example, a bag of 24-8-4 would contain 8 percent phosphorus. Phosphorous aids in root development and increases flowering ability and bloom size. The fertilizer industry smartly markets high phosphorus fertilizer as “Bloom Booster.” High-phosphorous fertilizer should be used when plants are being established in your garden – when sowing a new lawn or planting a new tree, for instance.

The third number represents the percentage of Potassium found in the product. A bag of 24-8-4 has 4 percent potassium in the mix. Potassium has many functions: It guards the plant against diseases and aids in drought protection and cold tolerance. It also serves a role in improving root development and helps in the process of photosynthesis. You might consider using a high-potassium fertilizer at the start of winter and summer to protect crops from temperature extremes or when insects and disease have caused damage to your plants.

Now if you notice the 3 percentages don't total 100% and this is because they use fillers to make the Nutrients easy to distribute and not stick together...etc.

N is the designated Periodic Table representative letter for NITROGEN.
P designates Phosphorus.
K designates Potassium.....and depending on your soil mix in New England it is acidic so I add Lyme to my garden every year to balance out the Soil ph.

ANYWAYS......I have an ORGANIC GARDEN but I do use FERTILIZERS but no pesticides.

A friend of the girls asked me if my huge tomatoes I grew were Organic and I said yes and gave her a bag full.

She came back a week later and thanked me and I gave he more as I grow enough for everyone and I donate my extra 's to the local Food Bank.

Now I make my own COMPOST and I burn every spring all the branch and weed buildup that has not composted and this helps the soil.

She saw me using FERTILIZER...this girl who is a friend of the girls and FREAKED OUT saying that my garden was not organic and I was poisoning her!!!

I tried to explain to her that NPK.....Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are the SAME whether they are from composted plants or from a Bag of guaranteed no pesticide, no toxins FERTILIZER!!!

But she had it ingrained in her head that Nitrogen in grass clippings was different than Nitrogen in a bag!!!

People think the same thing as far as Supplements but at least I KNOW HOW MUCH NPK I AM PUTTING IN MY GARDEN!!!

AboveAlpha

 

Don't you just love the job marketers can do brainwashing people? "All natural" does not equal safe, or effective. Cyanide is natural, as are botulism, mercury and arsenic.

 

Shouldn't fertilize tomatoes after they are producing fruit.


Back to the subject of the thread, however, sometimes it seems that spreading news out over so may subforums results in duplicate posts. One thing I do on a news story is try to search for a keyword in the story (and the search returns suck donkey balls in that regard) and then look in the forum where I think the thread should be before I post, and then after I start a thread, I see someone else has in a different section. Makes me feel like the kid 3 subjects behind in the conversation

 

Absolutely. I agree 100% with this. There is website software where a member can see the content of his report anytime he wants to.

 

Hey MOM!!! LOOK WHAT I JUST BOUGHT!!! GRAIN ALCOHOL!!!

JIMMY!!! STOP DRINKING THAT!!!

BUT MOM!!! IT'S ALL NATURAL!!!

So is a massive Thermonuclear Solar Coronal Ejection but that does not mean I want to get an ALL NATURAL TAN being up closer in the ISS when it happens!!! LOL!!!

AboveAlpha

 

I have a number of suggestions for the next software update, whenever that will be.

1.) There should be a way to mark a posting as having been reported and that could be a sign to other members to back off before responding so that at least the mods can decide what to do. Otherwise, I have already noticed than an unneccessary pile-up can happen. I saw one forum where a striped vertical line, purple in color and more transparent than opaque, went from upper right to lower left of the posting. That was simply an indication that the posting had been reported, nothing more. Were it to have been the case that the report was not justified, then the striped line was simply removed.

2.) I wrote this once to the mods and now I will write it here: this forum needs a non-public section that is like a sandbox, where very few rules apply and people can just have at it, with the express understanding that none of what they write is allowed to bleed over into the open forum. I have witnessed forums where this sort of ventile is very helpful. I could also be possible to program the software so that while a member is playing in the sandbox (or dirt zone, or banned camp or flame zone or whatever you want to call it), he cannot post on the open forum and must re-log-in in order to be on the open forum, just to avoid mixups.

Those are two ideas right there...

 

Your right about the Tomatoes.

I grow about 10 different variety of Tomatoes including a few heirloom varieties and I started this year planting a growing a new SUPER SIZED BEEF STEAK Tomato that was just incredible!!

Now Beef Steak Tomatoes are large as it is but these were massive and sweet and they are a bit more rounded than the usually flat on top and bottom but large beef steaks.

I also grew a New Giant Black Cherry Tomato that comes in Blackish/Red but is so sweet!

AboveAlpha.

 

The black russian ones are good as well.

Speaking of black things, if I get suspended, does it say "suspended" under my avatar. If not, it should. A little public shaming might do some good--all scarlet letter like.

 

I think it says 'banned' while you're suspended.

 

Honestly I don't know.

AboveAlpha

 

Personally I agree with the policy of not having a "rants zone" because it will be nothing but rule violations and from there it will escalate. I came here from another board that had turned into a "free flame zone" because the mods allowed anything as long as you included an inane comment about the OP in the same post. I would hate to see PF go down that same road.

The rules requiring that we must be respectful of others at all times might seem onerous when someone ticks us off but the alternative is not worth the price. Having to wade through screeds of flame posts just to find something worth reading quickly becomes tiresome. Putting 75% of the posters on ignore because they were contributing nothing of any value is a waste of bandwidth.

So yes, I greatly appreciate PF, the rules, the respectful posters and their posts and the mods who are volunteering to keep this forum as a place where it is possible to have an adult discussion about guns, religion, politics, abortion, etc, etc.

As far as having a religion zone with heightened rules than you already have I am opposed. If the OP doesn't want the topic derailed then be very specific about what is to be discussed and what is excluded. Then report the posts that are derailing the OP topic. That will clean it up faster than trying to come with new "zones" with different sets of rules. The current rules are fine and it is up to the OP to decide what they consider to on topic and to report any violations.

Being a mod is difficult enough in my opinion without haven't to remember which zone rules have to apply to which posts. One set of rules across the board and, as Nightmare pointed out, it is up to us members to police each other via the report function.

Yes, I would like more feedback on posts that I have reported but I can live without it given everything else that makes this a great forum.

To all of the mods who give up their time let me just say...

 

While I was half joking about Smarties Bar and Grill it really did have a lot of meaning a few years ago before Winter Bear. New leadership has done a good job thinning out "The Clique" but the bigger question is how such a small group of friends from an off topic thread in a small off-topic sub-forum managed to take over the leadership of the entire Political Forum and hold that control for years save for a few hold outs like Flounder. As a political wonk were it not so frustrating having to deal with it and fight against it The Clique was a fascinating micro example of bureaucratic capture.

My question is, is there ever going to be some basic requirements for choosing mods? Things like

Must be active political poster (5000+ posts in Smarties Bar and Grill does not count)

Existing Mods cant simply nominate their friends

Input form the membership

Mods rotate out if they are no longer active posters

We really cant go back to what we had with friends appointing friends leading to a monolithic like minded staff that really didn't care that any objective metric of web-stats showed the forum was on life support.

 

already reported yesterday.