h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hate slugs.

Last time I tried lettuce family plants, the slugs attacked and I had to discard the entire crop.

I simply cannot eat any part of a plant that's been attacked by slugs.

Slugs vector the chlamidia pneumonia bacterium that causes atherosclerosis, too.




Thankfully, the little monsters cannot survive the rigors of my current desert environment.

AHA, sometimes greed is good. Sorry that I mislabeled the ale smiley.

Morning gardeners!Good info on slugs and gardening tips galore! This is good. The hootoo gardeners corner. (unfolds deck chair, has a nice siesta in the hootoo gardeners corner) . I shall consult you as oracles.

(thinks about hedgehogs)

I think if I become a gardener eventually, I think I'll plant everything in pots.

Although our four plants are currently thriving, the slugs haven't discovered them yet. I've watered them and tried out my recent creations on them. They weren't sure about the stream of consciousness dawn greeting, in fact they visibly wilted , but they're into my synth sounds.

I wonder what it's like to be a slug?

(attempts to become one, heads for dish of Guinness. Now I'm a hot and drunken slug. haha)

Now you're a hot, drunken and DROWNED slug.

haha. glug glug glug. Going under in style.

Hey, Bel, did you see the Netherlands/Spain game last night? What happened to Spain? . Still, it's early days.

England tonight. I think I'll stay drowned. haha

Yes, the Spain-Netherlands match was amazing.

England today? Must watch.

Won't watch. I've just seen t5hat it only starts at midnight. That's way too late.

I'm glad the move went well, cc. Enjoy your new house.

We've come back from France, where we have snakes in the garden, rather than slugs. One was a grass snake, the other might have been a whip snake: http://www.planetepassion.eu/snakes-in-france/western-whip-snake-france.html. I don't mind snakes as long as they don't bite.

Here, I found slugs had eaten the growing points off my courgette plants. My theory about courgette plants was that, if I left them in pots until they were well grown, they could cope with slugs, but it doesn't seem to have worked this year. I've got one potato plant that planted itself. Anyone for potatoes?

Hehe, check out DG's potato entry in Peer Review and new is up for your reading pleasure with Manchester meet news if anyone wants to see it.

Hello MVP good to see you home.

I am always quite excited to see a snake, just because it is quite a novelty. It has been a long while since I have seen any in the wild. I think when my nephew was small on the holiday in which I won him over, my nephew liked me well enough but fact was that sun shone out of his older cousins backside and I never got a look in really.

On this holiday I found the most enormous crab that he ever did see and picked it up so they could have a good look, then I found a grass snake in the garden, picked that up too, so they could look and touch The small portion sizes of ice cream in the shop were very generous, Mum would say 'just a scoop full please' but Aunty Peanut just took them as they came. I was finally a Aunty.

Hiccup remained in top spot, I'm fine with that just a little more acknowledgment rather than the person that brought Hiccup to visit was what I was after

I've got a resident desert racer serpent that's been here since before the place was purchased, back in the late 70s, a harmless little cricket eater that occasionally varies her diet with other insects in the same size range.

She's a handsome uniform bronze color, like old copper, has an annual litter under the front porch.

Her kits are often a much lighter color that blends almost perfectly into the color of the local desert sand and often striped alternately in sand and bronze.

Hi - not sure where to post this. H2g2 seems to be in transition - not yet having fully "reinvented itself" after leaving the BBC. What seems clear is that it has seen a significant number of day to day "contributors" disappear while the "volunteers and Pastey" focus on adapting the code and re-imaging the site. I hope that their efforts are rewarded with H2G2 finding some sort of long term stability. With contributors falling and not being replaced with active new members then vulnerabilities appear - where H2G2 becomes overly dependent on individuals for its long term health. For example if Pastey was to accidentally fall in front of the No 67 bus to Didcot next Saturday would that be curtains for H2G2?

Anyway I actually came here to make a comment about my concern with the use of language on the BBC. I would have normally posted it on the askh2g2 forum but I will post it here. It concerns the World Cup 2014 and a BBC commentator called Gary Neville. They say he was boring in his delivery and their original headline was along the lines of "Gary Neville criticised for his drone attack" - although they may have changed it since. Basically my concern is the way the phrase "drone attack" has been bleached of its meaning as per Orwellian double speak. For me drone attacks often means dead people in remote villages with little information given. For me it was an entirely inappropriate metaphor to use.

This I fear is symptomatic. I find there are less and less news services that can be relied upon to provide agenda free and unbiased news coverage.

I am not sure you meant to post it here, did you? and a pint of Perculiar

just a mo be back, I think with link to community soapbox, if you are looking for a starting point

phew, that took some rummaging, dusts off soapbox,

A452125

Is the soapbox still active, or is it among the various forums that will be axed in favour of the so-called 'Lounge'?

I think it is still subbed too and the conversation will also show up in recent activity

Evening all!

Welcome home, mvp! And hullo SA and ITIWBS!

Snakes?? I have had little contact with snakes in my adult life, but my childhood was somehow quite snaky. . I remember seeing grass snakes and being fascinated by them. I told them things. Then I somehow acquired some rubber snakes, about grass snake size, and kept them in a shoebox with my trolls and plastic spiders, and fed them all hay, which they didn't eat. Ahhh, the delights of childhood.

Back later I hope. Been still soooo busy, and having internet problems. BT engineer tomorrow, he might rearrange our wiring. So if I disappear again.....

I hope all will go well with your internet. I'm watching the footie.

For anyone interested in the results so far: A87832164

snakes? When I was a child I used to see them, mostly smashed on the road of my village.
I also remember the shepherd who took care of my goats, wearing the shirt/blouse of a snake around his head. How do you call in english when snakes change their skin? we say they get rid of their shirt.

well, the shepherd used to wear the dried skin of the snake around his head, like a garland or a crown, because it was good to remove the headache.
yes, I know it sounds weird, but country people do or used to do this kind of things. I guess that the placebo effect has to do with the analgesic properties of the snake´s blouse.

Usually one just says that the snake has shed its skin or refers to it a 'shed snakeskin'.

Alternatively, one can say that the snake has moulted, or refer to the shed skin as a 'moulted snake skin'. (preferred usage)

The word 'moult' is used also for other creature is that shed, whether it is feather, fur or any other natural skin covering.

Simply saying 'snakeskin' implies the snake has been skinned for leather. Rattlesnake skin leather hatbands are very popular with the with the wi!d west crowd in American southwest and Mexico.