The essay on ‘GROWING etc’ goes from strength to strength. Every day, there are more and more viewers. So much so, that the essay now appears of the first page of a simple google search ‘growing tobacco’. A few months ago, it was several pages in, although a search entitled ‘curing tobacco’ brought the essay up on the first page. This is despite the (presumably paid for) adverts for seeds etc.
What does it take for a particular post to be considered to ‘have gone viral’? Clearly, stuff about celebs might grab a million view, but does ‘a million’ apply to more niche subjects like growing your own? Consider this: a newspaper might have 500 comments on a specific article. That is a lot. How many views might that article have? 1,000? 5,000? 10,000? But once the article has become history, there are no more views. Now suppose that there is a specific article which gains 100 views day after day for a year? That’s 36,500 views. And supposing that that article gains 500 views per day for a year? That’s about 180,000 views. Is that viral?
I came across one of these ‘how to’ sites tonight – ‘how to grow tobacco’. It would not surprise me if it were not one devised by Tobacco Control to lead people astray. It was junk ‘science’. For example, as regards curing, it recommended waiting until the whole plant had grown fully and then cutting the whole plant at the base and hanging it (and, presumably, the rest) in a warm room with a constant airflow. Erm…. Who has such a room, which can take 50 full plants, hanging from whatever, and is warm and has a (presumably warm) constant airflow?
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Today, I thinned out the seedlings. There are now at least two and at most four seedlings in each cell of the propagator. Average 3 x 40 cells equals some 120 seedlings. I need about 60 at most, but it is worth nurturing all of them until later into spring. As I have said before, there is no point in even considering planting out until the soil temperature outside is at least 15°C. The important thing for the next couple of months, is to avoid catastrophies. I hope that my plan (which has worked before) to leave the seedlings in the propagator for some time and place the propagator on the bedroom window ledge in the spare bedroom at about 20°C will suffice.
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Academics
Just a quicky. I have long wondered why the Government makes such stupid mistakes, and I have come to realise something. It is the Government’s reliance on ACADEMICS as advisors.
Think about it. What could be worse? Almost all the ‘Drivers’ of Tobacco Control are academics. The same is true of climate control, and the same is true of alcohol control. What makes things worse is that most of the academics have no expertise in the field upon which they are advising. For example, Gilmore (Doctor of nothing and Professor of junk) claims to be able to advise the Government on Taxation of International Tobacco Companies. She thinks that it would be wonderful to limit their profits and to snatch profits over a certain figure by using some sort of windfall tax (in this case, called ‘a waterfall tax’ because that academic envisages this theft as an annual one). But the woman clearly has no comprehension at all. For example, how many pension funds are invested in tobacco companies to some extent? What would she have pension funds invest in? Pubcos?
When these academics step outside their own areas of expertise, they are even more ignorant that ordinary people. That is because the have no experience of using ‘common sense’. In their minds, everything is ordered and predictable. Nothing can go wrong.
But it gets even worse when you consider that these academic advisors can walk away unscathed when things go wrong. And, do you know what, it is entirely because politicians (who know nothing) are so conceited that they believe that they are actually deciding things that the academics can walk away unscathed!
I am coming round to the belief that ordinary citizens have no power at all whatsoever to change our filthy, disgusting, stinking political system. But it is possible that Big International Corporations could. If Big International Corporations allied themselves with Ordinary Citizens, then the whole corrupt mass of Government Waste could be swept away. By WASTE, I do not mean front line health services – I mean accountants, lawyers, bean counters, wellbeing advisors, nicotine patch makers and such like leaches. Put THEM on the dole, and hire ordinary workers to keep the bloody streets clean.
22/01/2013 at 01:02
…waiting until the whole plant had grown fully and then cutting the whole plant at the base and hanging it (and, presumably, the rest) in a warm room with a constant airflow.
It is possible to make such a room, but it would be very easy to find when tobacco growing is banned. A box on top of the water tank would be far harder to find.
Growing tobacco must be on the ban list. The plants aren’t as distinctive as married-iguana plants so they’d need us to set up some easily-spotted processing facilities. Something an IR camera could see, or something that would use unusual amounts of electricity.
It could well be some kind of fifth column attempt. Then again, it could just be someone with more money than sense.
22/01/2013 at 04:11
I don’t really think that Zealots are involved! It is more likely that whoever wrote the screed was talking about the situation that might exist in the best circumstances. Some people might have the space. Good luck to them. But, for most of us, in the UK, such plans would be pie in the sky –
No!!! In the UK, harvest the leaves as soon as possible!
24/01/2013 at 11:33
Congratulations on having the top search result, J, you are doing stellar work, just goes to show that we smokers have some discernment!
The outlined method of harvesting and curing is a cheap and efficient one, in terms of cut-throat, commercial farming.
Obviously, with us knowing what we know about wadding and towelling, it would be an utter waste of top quality, organic tobacco to flue-dry our plants, not to mention unnecessary expenditure in equipment, energy and space.
I’m with you on the subject of wild-horses etc.