PBS Forum

Quote from: Lee Poulsen on December 07, 2023, 05:21:38 PMAs for the winter vs summer clone, I also have heard stories from various people that the "summer" clone reverts to winter growing after a few seasons. This may have happened to me too. However, I now have an example of a clone, which is sourced to New Zealand, that I was told was winter growing, like my others, that over the space of two additional seasons "reverted" to summer growing.

Thanks Lee for your very informative and helpful reply. I appreciate it. 

This is the first instance I have heard of a winter growing clone of Paramongaia weberbaueri switching seasons and became a summer growing plant. Perhaps the two forms of these plants were cross pollinated, either naturally or intentionally, and some of the ones in cultivation have genes for growth in both seasons.  Individual plants may therefore respond to the environmental cues where they are currently being grown and select the season they see fit at the particular point in time. It's quite curious and interesting.

And thanks for the taxonomic updates on the genus.  Let's hope the one with bright tomato red flowers makes it into cultivation.

Finally, thanks for pointing out Ismene amancaes.  It's a beautiful plant and the PBS Wiki assures me that it is a summer grower.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Ismene

In the meantime, I will continue my quest for a summer growing clone of Paramongaia weberbaueri and will cherish it even if it decides to misbehave and become a winter grower.  Or, I'll capitulate and acquire a winter growing clone and let it do its own thing.

Thanks again.

Quote from: David Pilling on December 07, 2023, 10:53:15 AMJohn Cleese beat me to it

Cleese has had his moments for sure. He had a very funny TV show called Fawlty Towers that was well done and highly enjoyable. Much of the humor would not make it on regular American TV at the time. I think it was shown on the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS).

Another great English favorite was Are You Being Served.  It had no connection to the Monty Python gang, but it was very funny and entertaining. 

Finally, there was a series called The Irish Resident Magistrate on PBS that was very worthwhile.

Ah, the good old days.....................

Quote from: David Pilling on December 07, 2023, 10:53:15 AM"Old bloke losing his rag"

Healthy emotional management is a good habit to cultivate.  Pity it is so difficult to do......  Bad habits are so much easier to acquire and maintain.

I've had to add air pressure to my car's tires with a bicycle pump.  It takes 10 to 20 vigorous "pumps" with the handle to put a pound of pressure in the tire. It's good exercise and it does work, but it's not ideal for sure.

Quote from: David Pilling on December 04, 2023, 03:48:11 AMI was left inflating the tyres using a foot pump. Great leg exercise.

You should make a YouTube video of this.  Coach Naomi would be quite pleased!

Paramongaia weberbaueri (aka Giant Peruvian Daffodil) is a beautiful plant supposedly with forms that either grow in the summer or the winter, depending on the location and elevation of where the source plants were originally collected. I have been told by people growing these plants that the summer growing form "reverts" to a winter growing form in a few years.  Another person has told me that he has a plant that reliably starts growing in late August, but I don't think that this really classifies it as a summer growing form. 

Here's my question.  Is there anyone growing this plant that has a form that is reliably a summer grower? 

And my follow-up question.  Is there a commercial source for this summer growing variety?

Apparently, based on my communication with folks growing this plant in the USA, their summer growing forms (now winter growers) were originally sourced from Australia.

Here's the link to the PBS wiki site for this plant.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Paramongaia

Finally, you'll note that the PBS wiki states that there is a Paramongaia superba Ravenna from Bolivia that is a winter dormant plant (summer grower).  The name is accepted by Kew.  However, I can not locate any instances of this plant in cultivation.

Thanks for your help.

Dr. Adam Fields is a Doctor of Chiropractic medicine and he has a YouTube channel that is chock full of exercise videos to help with a plethora of medical issues.  " Doctors of chiropractic (D.C.s) are primary healthcare professionals focused on the diagnosis, care, and prevention of disorders of the spine, and other parts of the musculoskeletal system, and the associated effects of these disorders on the nervous system and general health."

He has one exercise video that I heartily recommend.  It's the 15 Minute Leg Burner Workout with Squats and Lunges for Strong Legs.  He's hosting Coach Naomi who developed this regimen and she leads the routine. The video is a bit over the top with the tempo, but the routine is easily customizable to a sane pace.  One hour a week, that is 4 sets of fifteen minutes duration will bring noted results within several weeks.  Remember, Coach Naomi says: "Legs are important."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBGCqteooE

Here's the main site for his YouTube Channel to see all of the exercise videos he posts.

https://www.youtube.com/@dradamfields/videos

Enjoy!

Tomorrow, November 11th is Veteran's Day, Armistice Day, Poppy Day, or Remembrance Day, depending on where you live.
This day is observed on November 11 to recall the end of First World War hostilities. Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918, in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Allies between earlier that morning.

To commemorate this day, let's consider something that is life affirming and potentially life saving.  There's a little known medical test that can diagnose heart disease before symptoms are experienced. It is known by various names such as "Coronary Calcium Scan" and "CT Calcium Test Score." I have read that both former US Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush had their heart disease discovered by this test and that led to life saving surgical treatment. 

"A coronary calcium scan is a special computerized tomography (CT) scan of the heart. It looks for calcium deposits in the heart arteries. A buildup of calcium can narrow the arteries and reduce blood flow to the heart. A coronary calcium scan may show coronary artery disease before you have symptoms." 

"A positive test means the scan found evidence of calcium in your coronary arteries. This means you have coronary artery disease. You'll also get a number that tells you how much calcium they found.

Your calcium test score tells how much calcium is in your coronary arteries. If you have calcium in your heart's arteries, the computer will create a calcium score that estimates the extent of coronary artery disease. Your calcium test score can range from zero to more than 1,000. Anything above zero means there's some evidence of coronary artery disease (CAD)."

Higher scores indicate that you could be at risk for a heart attack. Score cutoffs are:

• 100 or less (mild proof of coronary artery disease).
• Up to 400 (moderate amount of proof that you have CAD).
• Above 400 (strong proof of CAD).

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/16824-calcium-score-screening-heart-scan

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/heart-scan/about/pac-20384686

I have two friends that had high cholesterol levels and I recommended this test to them. One friend procrastinated and went on to have a heart attack.  My other friend took the test and received a test score over 400, and this let to further diagnostic tests and treatment with a statin drug and closer monitoring of his condition by his physician.

In Virginia, this test is not covered by insurance, but it costs only $60.  A doctor's order is need to have the test performed.

I get this test done every 5 years, and fortunately, my tests have produced a score of 0 - a very gratifying result given how pervasive heart disease is in the US.

Enjoy the November 11th commemorations, and consider getting a CT calcium test done to help you stay healthy.

Quote from: David Pilling on November 03, 2023, 03:16:52 PMMaybe he is destined for legend like the old bank robbers.

It seems to me that only the unsuccessful financial criminals go to jail.

Quote from: David Pilling on November 02, 2023, 03:37:19 PMThe weather is mild for now. Perhaps we will get away with it for another year. Perhaps the Straits of Hormuz will be closed tomorrow and oil will go to $150 a barrel.

Take your pick. Will it be a cold winter or another hot war?

On another note, it seems that Sam Bankman-Fried was treated to some rather swift justice.  Money always seems to take priority these days, especially over peace. 

From CBS news. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/morning-rundown-november-3-rcna123460

Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty in FTX fraud trial

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of the digital currency exchange FTX, faces up to 110 years in prison after a federal jury found him guilty on all counts in his fraud trial, a year after FTX imploded and practically wiped out the funds of thousands of customers.

Bankman-Fried "perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history," Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said after the verdict. "The cryptocurrency industry might be new; the players like Bankman-Fried might be new. But this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time."

A jury took about four hours to find Bankman-Fried guilty on seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering that swindled customers of FTX and lenders to its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research.

While Storm Ciaran is battering the UK and France, here's a quote from the past regarding another battering and its consequences; this quote from Churchill.  This is timely as we are about a week away from Armistice Day.

Winston Churchill. statement to William Griffen, editor of the New York Enquirer in August of 1936

"America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these 'isms' wouldn't to-day be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government, and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives."

Here's the article with Churchill's quote and a few others on the same topic.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/elite-arrogance-incompetence-and-willful-ignorance-leading-to-unintended-consequences/

These quotes and the attitudes they represent were never taught in the history courses I took in school. 

For now, I'm sticking with the History of Goodness......

Quote from: David Pilling on October 21, 2023, 03:54:27 AMTeaching 20th century history would have been controversial.

Here's a recent quote from the German Libertarian scholar Hans-Herman Hoppe regarding his beliefs on the teaching of history.

"The claims made by my various critics, that I just don't sufficiently know Putin, the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Poles, the Lithuanians, etc. even the Germans and the Americans and their various particular histories, typically appear little more than regurgitations of some official, national or nationalistic, and invariably statist, school-book history and historical narrative as it is taught and promoted everywhere, at all times and in all countries."

Quote from: David Pilling on October 21, 2023, 03:54:27 AMsecondary modern, which was conceived as a place were the "dull middle class" could be allowed to sink.

Is history taught the same in all countries so that it dumbs people down to make them passive subjects?  Or, as people are referred to now in the US, as consumers?

Quote from: David Pilling on October 21, 2023, 03:54:27 AMThe only gun I have ever been in close proximity to was one produced in school by a fellow pupil whose father had brought it back from the war, and subsequently he did fire it.

Guns are everywhere in the US. At a later date, I'll post a few pics of gun toting Americans taken during the Covid pandemic, a time here where some people appeared to have become even crazier than in "regular" times.

Will and Ariel Durant, a husband and wife team, are most famous for their writing The Story of Civilization, an 11-volume set of books covering both Eastern and Western civilizations for the general reader, with a particular emphasis on European history. The series was written over a span of four decades.

Lesser know is their short book on the lessons of history.  It contained some surprisingly optimistic words about history, and I wanted to post them.  The daily news is sometimes the present tense of history, and the Durant's observations are helpful in maintaining a more positive outlook on events, especially during troubling times.

(Quotes From: The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. Chapter 6, Morals and History, page 41. MJF Books, 1968.)

The Truth about History: History as written has been heavily mentally filtered.  The historian writes about whom or what they think is exceptional and/or interesting and as a result, most of written history has a negative bias.  History as usually written (peccavimus) is a "register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes" (Edward Gibbon) of mankind.  Therefore, written history is quite different from history as usually lived by most people.  A History of Goodness has yet to be written.  Untold millions of good people have lived and have not had their Boswell to tell their story.  If this had been the case, History as we know it would be much more complete and accurate. "If all of those individuals who had no Boswell had found their numerically proportionate place in the pages of historians, we should have a duller but juster view of the past and of mankind." "Behind the red (bloody and violent) façade of war and politics, misfortune and poverty, adultery and divorce, murder and suicide, were (and are) millions of orderly homes, devoted marriages, men and women kindly and affectionate, troubled and happy with children."  "Even in recorded history we find many instances of goodness, even of nobility, so that we can forgive, though not forget the sins."  "The gifts of charity have almost equaled the cruelties of battlefields and jails." 

Quote from: David Pilling on October 16, 2023, 03:09:56 PMSo the popup is not necessarily coming from Google.

Hi David, thanks very much for your insights and suggestions. I tried uBlock Origin, but Firefox has been updated and I was no longer able to find where to insert the script to block the pop ups. Interestingly, I cleared the cache and they went away for the time being.  I've done this before, and they have always come back.  I'll continue my attempts with uBlock Origin today.  But, if these annoying pop ups continue, I'm going to change by browser to Chrome, open a new Google account, and disable the pop ups there.  Hopefully, it will resolve the problem.  Thanks again! I appreciate it.

What's going on with google sign in pop ups on my computer?  I'm sure I'm not the only person having this very annoying problem.  Whenever I try to sign in a website that needs my username and password, I get a google pop up asking me if I want to sign in with them instead.  I've done everything I could think of and followed every bit of advice I could find on my computer about correcting this problem, including instructions from google themselves - and nothing works!  I even closed my google account several months ago because I was disgusted with them for doing this. I use Firefox as my browser and I have disabled pop ups there.  I added an ad blocker and this has not helped either.  Does anyone have any ideas how to correct this problem?

Thanks much!

Quote from: Robert_Parks on October 10, 2023, 09:15:40 PMUnless you have half a billion US$ to play with

Ticket sold in California wins Powerball jackpot of $1.73 billion

" One ticket had all the numbers. It was sold in Frasier Park, California, which is located between Los Angeles and Bakersfield in Kern County."

"The grand prize, had an estimated lump sum payout of $756.6 million."

The after tax amount is staggering.  Someone in CA is very happy today.