r/Glasgow Tools

archon88

Reddit URLhttps://www.reddit.com/user/archon88
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r/Glasgow posts200
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Interests:

  • Would definitely associate this more with manky auld men by archon88 (Fri 28th Feb 2020 12:39am)
  • There is such a thing as mindlessly following the letter of the law, and such a thing as being an educated adult with agency. FWIW, every reliable piece of evidence I have come across suggests that all forms of outdoors transmission account for a small to negligible proportion of transmissions of the virus. Which suggests that this is actually a canard. The comparison to crackpots who are obsessed with 5G is even more telling. by archon88 (Mon 8th Jun 2020 2:54pm)
  • People protesting racism are "disgusting". Great. What other searing takes do you have to share with us? by archon88 (Mon 8th Jun 2020 2:56pm)
  • And not everything you have a legal right to do is equally meritorious, which was obviously the point. by archon88 (Tue 9th Jun 2020 4:48pm)
  • Yeah, I noticed some of them around the stretch where the M74 crosses the Clyde looked like they might have been poisoned with something. But I wonder if doing it this late in the season is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. The stalks are already drying out and spreading their seeds, which is the real danger at this time of year. And IIRC, just harming the parts of the plant above ground is pretty ineffective, as they're extremely resilient and will just come back in a year or two. If you want to kill it, you basically need to uproot the whole thing. by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 7:29pm)
  • Yes, I seem to remember this too! There was one not far from the main entrance (this was many years ago, maybe even the 90s) and one that loomed right next to the bridge across the Kelvin behind the gardens, as I recall. by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 7:32pm)
  • Which works fine until, say, we have a kid who wants to play with the big funny-looking plants by the river while their parents' backs are turned (or the parents, like probably >90% of folk, don't know how dangerous giant hogweed is). by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 7:30pm)
  • TBH from an environmental perspective (and I am a paid-up member of the Scottish Green Party lol), I think the damage has already been done, and allowing that land to recover free from contamination by hogweed (even if it takes years and involves significant other environmental harms) would be by far the better option. The triffids completely dominate the land that they take over, killing off other plants and ruining the habitats of lots of animals. by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 7:47pm)
  • As residents of the city, we pay the council our taxes to take responsibility for public issues such as this, so in my view it would be "shifting the responsibility" to charge individuals with managing this situation. Which, as has been pointed out, is of a scale that requires a large coordinated response. I think you overestimate the benefits of contacting councillors. I've a friend who is involved in tenant rights advocacy, and the sheer uselessness of GCC and their cravenness in the face of landlords and developers cannot be overstated. Meaning, that if it's not causing a personal problem for the people who sit on the council, do not expect a meaningful response. If it was a possibility, yeah I'd volunteer to try to control/exterminate them. For example, I've taken part in litter picking by the canal in the past. I don't think folk should be arranging this stuff spontaneously, especially since we're literally paying the council to do it for us, but people naturally get fucked off when the council spends years doing very little, and end up trying to do it themselves. TBH it's the thing that fucks me off the most about Glasgow. People just do not care enough about the city's environment and infrastructure. Housing, public transport, cycling infrastructure, our architectural heritage, our public spaces. We create public bodies nominally to manage these things, they turn out to be incompetent and/or corrupt, so we just look the other way and excuse them, and try to pretend that everything's fine, even when the problems are obvious to everyone. (Also, posting this on Reddit is quite literally raising awareness of the issue 😉) by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 8:48pm)
  • From the state of the riverbanks, it seems that giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed get along pretty well with each other. (And in fact, tho it doesn't look the tastiest, knotweed is actually edible). by archon88 (Mon 15th Aug 2022 8:52pm)
  • Are you talking about [purple loosestrife](https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/10645/lythrum-salicaria/details)? I don't think it's toxic, but it is quite invasive and tends to crowd other plants out, especially around waterways. by archon88 (Tue 16th Aug 2022 11:57am)
  • There are several related species all belonging a family of plants called [Apiaceae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apiaceae), which also includes carrots, parsnips, and parsley. Some of them naturally produce phototoxic chemicals, including Queen Anne's lace, or wild carrot. The species you'd commonly see around Scotland is common hogweed or cow's parsnip, which is several times smaller than the giant species and doesn't produce toxic chemicals (it's actually edible, and people sometimes forage its shoots, but you have to be *extremely* sure you know which species you're harvesting). Giant hogweed is a problem because all parts of the plant, including the hairs on the stalks and leaves, have very high concentrations of these toxic chemicals, and the fact that the plants are so large and spread so rapidly makes contact with them more likely. People have often been injured by brushing against the leaves while cycling or walking, or worse, by trying to remove the plants themselves without knowing about the danger and so not wearing any PPE. It's the reason why cutting them down and uprooting them are not recommended for controlling them: either of those methods will release large amounts of the (extremely toxic) sap into the air. by archon88 (Tue 16th Aug 2022 12:08pm)