Public Service Announcement - Fireworks

No, not the dead graphics software, and not as humorous as a couple of previous Public Service Announcements here, with an added gentle, yes, I think 'gentle rant' attached!

DeBrett's Peerage 1886

I love fireworks, don't ever think I don't, I have loved them all my life, and have let-off more than I care to remember, but as the planet burns and we quietly go extinct due to our own complacency in Capital's rape of that same planet, it is imperative we learn to ask (of every existing human 'thing' and every new innovation); "Just because we can, does it mean we should?"

Every firework heats up the planet just a little bit more, every sparkler, every wick/squib, every struck-match or flicked-lighter, every accompanying bonfire or BBQ. And anyone who's retained the lessons of the 'energy cycle' rules from their school days (E=MC² and all that!) knows that that heat remains where it is until it is turned into something else.

But then there is the pollution? The above graphic (which has been around for a few years and may-well have been rendered in Fireworks!) gives some idea of the damage coming from fireworks, and as we all learn to wheeze and cough from traffic pollution (way over published limits) at this damp, still, time of year, we don't need to be adding to that invisible cloud with even more toxic gasses and particles. Some UN figures put air-pollution as main culprit in 2-million* deaths a year.

* Sorry - 4.2-million deaths: https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution

Another pollutant these days are all the plastic elements of modern fireworks, all the features and effects used to be achieved with card tubes, card and paper pistons, paper wraps and cotton, wool, hair or kapok wadding, and that was still the case, for most fireworks, only ten or twenty years ago.

But now it's all done with low-grade plastics (frangible polystyrenes and crumbly polyethylenes) which rain down, hundreds of yards from the firing point, or which get fired through/over the boundary into neighbouring properties where they join fast-food wrappers, shopping-bags, vehicle parts, old clothing, condoms and helium balloons in laying-down a new geology; the 'Anthropocene' sedimentary (or 'discardery') layer.

Pets and wildlife also suffer from our conceited desire to entertain ourselves with frivolous high-explosives - for many years I had a cat (Munchkin) who could handle 'Guy Fawkes', as the local yobbo's would always provide a week or two of build-up, so she'd get acclimatized, but midnight on the 31st December/1st of January always saw her piss the carpet and/or my lap and disappear under to wardrobe for a few hours in abject terror.

Now, I've been planning this post for a few years but never got round to doing it, partially because the timing's never right; if you do it in the summer everyone's forgotten by now, if you do it now, it's probably too late! So I'll try to repeat it regularly as we have to change the way we live, the way we organise our societies and the way we interact with everything else. If we don't we may be going extinct as soon as 2055?

But in the meantime, there are quiet alternatives which tend toward the 'traffic-light', 'golden rain' or 'silver fountain' type, which will still generate the heat/particulate/chemical pollution, but do - at least - minimise both noise and the distribution of crumbly, recycled/raw plastic widgets.

Some of the small 'family' packs will give a very pretty show with minimal 'collateral' damage and simplified woosh- or wheeish-rockets without crappy plastic-parts .

But remember, it's not just dogs, cats or damaged veterans that might suffer, all pets are in the firing line, hedgehogs are only now going to sleep for four months, birds (who lose enough sleep to street-lights as it is?) moths, bats . . . it's just not our right to disturb, frighten, injure or kill them and still call ourselves 'sapiens'.

https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/

And congratulations to Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer who have started to get some momentum behind the inevitable phaseing-out of fireworks by not selling or stocking them this year. While Co-Op haven't been selling them for five years, Sainsbury's joining that stance in 2019. Tesco, Aldi and ASDA are offering low-noise ranges.

Public Service Announcement - on behalf of the Do we Really Need a 'Royalty' Party

What colour will their blood turn-out to be?

Blue as a monkey's arse - apparently.

Andrew hiding from paedo-investigations (in Woking's Pizza Express! They won't be putting that on their flyers!), the Duke dying at 99 but no one actually admitting it, Anne on girlfr . . . err . . . husband number four? Or is she single these days? Charles, well, there's that whole Diana thing before Camilla, no, after Camilla, no, before . . . oops! Edward, a right Royal stand-up, on husban . . .  err. . . wife number 1, the horrible anus thing, isn't it time we were shot of the whole freeloading, dysfunctional lot of 'em?

And the whorey old excuse that a President would be worse (the 'horrific' example used to be Berlusconi, became Farage (rhymes with c**t) and is now Trump!)* belies the fact that we don't need two heads of state, we have a Prime Minister who does all the leading-function stuff and biggly-wiggly meetings, just keep him representing us as he represents us, we ARE after-all a representative democracy, or we're supposed to be!

*Giuliani would be a better stand-in for Berlusconi! I wonder if they go to the same guy to get their hair done?

Public Service Announcement - On Trump's Progeny

 

Someone - who shall remain nameless to save him from being associated with my disrespectful shenanigans! - sent this as a follow up;

I've also seen some mock-ups of a My First Presidency (in Mattel branding?) which came with artwork suggesting further 'collectable' play sets! Personally I think he's losing his mind; Trump, not the contributor, him AND that nuttly-nuts lawyer of his!

Public Service Announcement - On Lockdown

PW7 is for Public Information Announcement - Notifyable Pests

No, not TJF and his sidekick; proper, serious, climate-change related, existential pests!

One of the weirdest things at the PW show was the obvious state of the little box-hedge (more of a shrubbery . . . Ni! Ni!) out the back of the venue, which upon closer inspection turned out to be an infestation of the previously scheduled and notifyable pest; the box tree moth (cydalima perspectalis), or - at least - its caterpillars/larvae.

You will read all sorts of horror stories about these triggering fatal allergy reactions and such like, but as far as I am aware no Toy Soldier enthusiasts were harmed in the course of the day's event, while even handling them only results in mild skin-irritation from the hairs, if you are susceptible to such things; nevertheless - caution is the better part of valour in these cases, so  . . . photograph from a safe distance and leave well-alone!

An infestation used to have be reported (which the management at the Wining Post said they'd done), but there have been so many reports in the last couple of years, and so little is known of the full life-cycle/lifestyle of the animal, the war's rather been lost for now; still, some attempt to end the infestation also needs to be carried out, which - by/to the date of the show - clearly hadn't been. One hopes 'contractors' were due on the Monday?

This is the little critter in close-up, looking like some of our native caterpillars (you have to have a higher degree of expertise than I have to sort some, especially all the plain-green ones!), or, specifically, the saw-fly larvae who attack roses - mercifully they've not appeared this year, probably due to all that rain at the start of the month (June)? Although the failure of any species, however seasonal, or 'one off', is bad news in the long term and it's the same rain that probably killed the old Brambly?

Those of you who suffer an attack like this at home can solve the problem before it escalates by putting on gardening gloves and squishing every caterpillar you can find, before spraying the infected plant with a strong mix of washing-up liquid and water. Check the site for the next few days to catch any survivors/stragglers!

But you should still report the incident so it can be plotted on some secret map in the RHS 'war rooms'! If you catch it in time, the plant will survive, but damage this severe can prove fatal, maybe the rains which came a couple of weeks later will have saved the plants, but had this damage occurred before the recent heat-wave (or continued into the heat-wave), the plants may have been lost - I'll try to remember to look next year!

Below are the rest of the shots I took for those of you who may be more interested in the subject . . .

These are rose saw-fly larvae, relatively harmless (not for the rose!) which are among those native caterpillars who could be mistaken for the box tree moth. Their head and bum colouring are reversed from the invader though, with a yellow head and much smaller area of black at the other end, while their markings are quite different; less stripy, more spotty.

They congregate gregariously in sibling groups - like the invader - but don't leave the mass of dead-material (only because rose is softer than box, so they eat it all!), nor do they produce the fine haze/shroud of 'spider-web' strands.

Another gregarious-feeding native which could be mistaken for the problem incomer is the buff-tipped moth's caterpillars, but they are much furrier, black at both ends and more checkered in the markings.

Box Tree Moth (cydalima perspectalis)

Large or Lesser Rose Sawfly (arge pagana or arge ochropus)

Buff Tipped Moth (phalera bucephala)