Interesting Links for 05-06-2012

[andrewducker]

• Interested in giving feedback on democracy in Scotland?
  (tags: reform democracy scotland )
• This is something I love about Britain.
  (tags: SexPistols queen society freespeech uk )
• Rooftop fish farms to feed Germany's sprawling urban population
  (tags: cities food fish germany )

Comments

"This is something I love about Britain"

[teresafloyd]

I think that's something everyone loves about Britain. We like to think we emulate it in here in Canada, but I'm not sure we fully achieve the casual ease of it.

[inamac]

Tim Worstal must have missed the recent edition of Gardener's Question Time when a member of the public reflected that it was all very well having bedding plants in red, white and blue to celebrate the Jubilee, but could the panel recommend yellow and black plants as he was planning a display to commemorate the Sex Pistol's 'God Save The Queen'.

(Only on Radio 4...)

[andrewducker]

Hah, that's fantastic!

[usmu.livejournal.com]

Roofop fish farms: didn't Wiliam Gibson mention somehting similar in Count Zero?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I was sure Asimov had some worlds roofed in and covered in algea farms as well, although not Trantor since they (arguably implausibly) imported everything.

"As long as you add water, electricity and fish food these hi-tech gardens will last indefinitely"

ROFL.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

To be fair God Save The Queen wasn't that accepted when it came out.

John Lydon got beat up in the street by pro-monarchist thugs over it, the UK version of Billboard refused to print that the song was #1 and in fact left the #1 spot blank that week and because various religious and other right wing groups were threatening to burn down any venue that hosted them they had to tour under the name SPOTS (sex pistols on tour) because the fans would know what that meant but the lunatics wouldn't.

The only place that welcomed them was a prison that was looking for some entertainment to help the prisoners blow off steam.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Also Virgin Records normal factory refused to print the record and it was banned by not only the BBC but by every other radio station in the UK.

McClaren and Westwood were actually arrested when the band played the song on a boat on the Thames (Lydon only just barely managed to get away)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

No rooftop fish farms here (that I'm aware of), but rooftop gardens are certainly gaining popularity. (We recently procured a Tower Garden which is parked beside our driveway, despite plenty of real estate for a "real" garden, as we had limited success with the real garden. One of the success stories on their website is from a NYC restaurateur who has several of them on the roof of his restaurant, supplying all the vegetables he needs.)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Argh! These fish farms are not going to help the overfishing problem. What are the fish eating? Fish food. Where does that come from? Fish from the ocean.

There's a fundamental difference in growing plants or algae in cities - where the primary production happens on site - and bussing in the nutrients to wastefully shift it up the trophic chain a level or two in situ.