"Bothans (pronounced /'bɑθɪn/) were furry mammalian anthropoids, about 1.5 meters tall. Hailing from Bothawui and several colonies, Bothans differed in facial appearance and body structure with canine, feline, and equine features. They were known for being master politicians and spies, craving intrigue and subterfuge.

So... where are all the Bothans who died to get this information?

Whitewashing in Star Wars? For shame.

I tried lemons in the ground here....it lived almost 3 years, but never had a lemon.
I have peach, nectarine, and plumbs in 1/2 barrels now, doing OK, but the peach and nectarine could use more room, they're both around 8-10 ft tall. The nectarines might need more cold than we get to bear fruit, but it's happy so far a year in.
I also started a trio of Asian pears in a 1/2 barrel about 10 years back, twisted together in a spiral, then planted the whole thing a few years ago, barrel and all (with the bottom pulled out). A year later I pulled all the staves and hoops up and it's been pretty happy ever since. I've had hit and miss luck just planting smaller trees directly in our ground, so I try to get the trees pretty established these days before putting them out.
If I try an orange tree, I'll probably put it in a 40 gallon pot (I like the air pots now over 1/2 barrels, they seem to make a difference in growth speed and are far cheaper) and move it inside during winter for at least the first 4-5 years, and definitely bonsai it to keep it around 8 ft.
I have a small orchard of apple trees now....around 30, and a few other fruits. At least I know they do great in our climate.

EDIT: We have had years with over a week at 20°F in the past, so I'll definitely have to cover an orange tree at times once I put it outside. If I keep it small, no problem.

I understand and agree that asking anyone to fact-check in real-time is a tall order. Sure, we might expect it of properly prepared professionals, but even then knowing every possible relevant citation is nigh impossible.

But if you're a major news network running a debate, with a horde of staff at your disposal, I would love to see a debate that at least calls out the bullshit in near-real-time.

"We're going to fact check that within the next 5 minutes, are you sure that's your answer?"
(5 minutes later)
"It turns out your statements on your attitude toward the Iraq war were rather inaccurate according to these specific citations: ..."

I was hoping it was a troll-meme, because i've seen a prevalence of people believing this shit lately.

Ask them how a sundial works. It's one of those things that's simple to think about or even draw. Get them to tell you how the sun rises and sets, and then ask about sundials - and why do 2 sundials separated by a significant distance read how they do.

If you make them 1000 ft tall sundials, you can use the horizon line of sight argument on them too.

Yep, that smell was on a whole new level, and created the worst headaches. When the wind would shift, the sea breeze carried that stench to where I used to live. Made me dispise being there even more, and had blocked it out until I read this. I first saw it at night and asked if I was looking at a bunch of tall buildings, shocked that it was a refinery, had never seen one so large. I'm sure it is not healthy to live near it, I know MD Anderson conducts studies on the workers there. Thank Geezus I got out of Texas!!!

I get it, hating on the game is super popular right now. I'm no fanboi, I certainly didn't pre-order the game (I only pre-order from a select few developers, those I know will put out great products, like CD Project Red). I'm quite enjoying the game. It's not the type of game you play on rails or with a strong linear narrative or that holds your hand through the experience. I'm on PC and have had not a single issue or crash. I have to put graphics at medium when they should be maxed out, but that shows the age of the engine and that it isn't as streamlined or polished as it could be.

Also the game 'does' have a story, it's just rather basic and while I'm not sure the game is worth $60 (I got it for $45 and think it's worth that) I look forward to future content and the fact that they've said 'no paid DLC' makes me happy as well.

When people ask me if I recommend the game, I tell them first that it's worth waiting for a price drop or the issues with AMD and top-end nVidia to be worked out. I use the analogy that it's like Early Access Starbound. Fun, with an open universe to explore, some interesting races and things to find and crafting but not a whole lot going on in it or directed content to experience. That's No Man's Sky, at $20-30 it's a great Early Access title. I'm glad that it sold very well as that will fund future development and hopefully we'll see new content and fan requested stuff soon.

And for the record I've seen equal numbers awesome wildlife as I've seen crazy shit like in this video lol. The craziest was on this cold, radiated world that was none-the-less flush with exotic life. There were these 1m tall blobs of jelly with elephant ears and like mice faces that bounced around like a bouncy ball all over the place. Hilarious!

Lambast it all you want but it's clearly still popular. Mid-day on a wednesday and it's #3 on steam with 70k users atm. And it's not like it wasn't super easy to find out what the gameplay was like in those 3 days it was on PS4 before PC. So anyone who still bought and is bitching about it is being hypocritical.

I think corn would be doable, but the advantages would be less efficient compared to short plants.

At some level of efficiency, there is a break even point (which can also take into consideration shipping costs and fossil fuel usage to major metro areas). I'm pretty convinced that vertical farming could be a significantly good / efficient idea for those plants that it is best suited for, but I do think there would be some early-adoption issues that would make it less practical for tall stuff like corn. At least until it has been done enough to work out the kinks and economy of scale kicks in.

So at least for the time being, I think we'll see it first be applied to leafy plants and tuber / root plants. But I could definitely be a biased opinion since my family revolves around conventional corn farming on irrigated fields...

Good questions. My family operates farms for wheat and corn, and I've been involved in that process, so I can take a stab at answering the last bit:

Corn stalks get quite tall -- 6 feet / 2 meters or so. Each stalk usually has 1 or 2 ears of corn. On our farm, the experience I had suggests that each plant needs quite a lot of healthy leaves for Photosynthesis as well as quite a lot of available ground water. Irrigated corn often produces 2-3 times as many bushels per acre as compared to "dryland" / non-irrigated corn.

So the issues I can see potentially clashing between corn production and vertical farming are:

1) You'd have a greater space requirement for layers of corn since you'd need probably 8-10 feet per layer, as compared to what looks like 2-3 feet per layer for leafy vegetables in the video. Approximately one story per layer wouldn't allow for the massive footprint savings like in leafy plants without getting extremely tall, which would be expensive for water pumping etc.

2) Corn root systems are pretty deep to support a tall and relatively bulky stalk. Getting that to bite into a thin layer of fabric / recycled plastic to provide structural support for the plant would be difficult. I think you'd need to have a thicker bottom layer *and* to manually place further support lines on the stalks as the plants grow, which would get very labor intensive and therefore expensive.

3) The vertical nature of a corn stalk suggests that the overhead motion of the sun might be pretty important for getting light exposure onto all of the leaves. Fixed overhead lights might mean that the top leaves get plenty of light but the ones lower on the stalk would be shaded by those above and get nothing -- which isn't a problem if the sun progresses through low angles at sunrise/set to overhead at noon throughout a day. So you might have to have lighting that hits from all sides to account for that with corn, which would again add expense.

4) To maximize the output, corn needs a LOT of water. Pumping that up the vertical expanse to get lots of levels could easily get problematic. Corn will grow without optimal / abundant watering, and their misting system would likely be more efficient than irrigating to add ground water, but the main benefit of vertical farming seems to be high output in a small land footprint on the ground. So without LOTS of water, you'd be limiting that benefit.


So basically, my guess is that vertical farms are a fantastic idea for squat, spread out plants like lettuce, but a lot of the advantages disappear when you're talking about something tall like corn. I could easily be wrong about any/all of that though.

How about a tall sign on the homeowners property, in clear view of all golf course guests, that says, "Donald Trump is a Douche"?

My God is better than yours
And the walls of my house are so thick
I hear nothing at all

I followed you out in the storm
But it carried you off
And I burned every picture of yours
Was that not enough?

My gun is bigger than yours
So let's arm the masses
And see what the bastards do then
Walking tall once set us apart
Now we're down on all fours
Do you cry my name in the dark
Like I do yours?

These storms are getting stronger now
Trusses all bend and sway
Lightning hits, the power goes out in the fray
As the waves crash high
And the shoreline disappears
I will scream to the sky
"Hey, people live here."

My dreams are not unlike yours
They long for the safety
And break like a glass chandelier
But there's laughter and oh there is love
Just past the edge of our fears
And there's chaos when push comes to shove
But it's music to my ears

May you be in Heaven before the Devil knows you're dead
May these winds be always at your back

'Cause when we're all just ghosts
And the madness overtakes us
We will look at the ashes
And say, "People lived here."

From the penthouse to the holy martyr
Sea to shining sea
From the coffins full of kindergarteners
Is this what you call free?
From the hate that drips from all your crosses
Are your hands so clean?

There's a wildfire and it's spreading far
From sea to shining sea

When we're all just ghosts
And the madness overtakes us
I will scream to the sky, yeah I'll scream to the sky
Yeah I'll scream to the sky
"Hey, people live here."

Sure, but I drive a Bronco with a full roll cage....not a bel air. I would crush that bel air too, and the Malibu. Bronco's are tough enough to do both, they have a thick full tube frame and heavy metal body, not a weakened C-channel or less covered in plastic. Mine has a >300lb industrial steel bumper as well.
My other car is a 73 CJ-5, also with full roll cage and with 4 point seat belts, that is tall enough to drive right over both of those cars or, if not, turn them into convertibles. ;-)

So yeah, I still think I'll do WAY better in a crash than an average new car.

I'm impressed you have been there. Fraser Island is an incredible natural wonder, worlds largest sand island, has accessible fresh water, lovely white beaches, very tall sand dunes, even rain forests. I hope it gets preserved forever.

Check out some photos:
https://www.google.com/search?q=fraser+island&tbm=isch&tbo=u

@ahimsa

seriously?
quoting to rebutt an obvious sarcastic comment?
is it that hard to even attempt to be even a tad original?
do you REALLY think i am promoting actual violence?
really?
and you respond with a level of pretentious twattery that you should be ashamed of.

are you even remotely aware you literally made my point on how some vegans lack the basic self-awareness to realize they are being massive hypocrites and tools?

you trot out those tired,and boring,self-effacing morality/ethics tropes as if they were written on mount sinai,and then have the audacity to not even own your own egocentric bullshit.

jesus..vegans are such intolerable pussies.

because YOUR vegan philosophy is egocentricism on narcissistic steroids,and you lack the basic self-awareness to even have the skills to acknowledge that you are literally smelling your own farts,and calling it wisdom.

there is another vegan on this site that i really wish would put his two cents in,because he at least is aware of the hypocrisy and is an absolute delight to engage with.

but YOU...
self-awareness may be too tall an order it seems.
as you rant and rail against the inhumanity and suffering of the agri-animal on a fucking machine that 10 yr olds assembled to put together in a country where they dont even have the most basic of necessities met.

sitting at a desk dressed in clothes that ANOTHER 8 yr old sewed together,working 18 hr days at 23 cents an hr and is beaten if she slacks,is late..or complains.

the list of human oppression,slave labor and human trafficking that YOU benefit from is legion,and your lack of your own hubris,privilege and hypocrisy is,quite frankly,offensive.

so you can sit there in your own little smug fart cloud and self-righteously condemn the rest of us for choosing to enjoy bacon and convince yourself of your own superior morality and purity of ethics,but the reality is this:

you don't give two fucks.
you are an over-privileged,over indulged little shit and is no better nor worse than the rest of who travel through this life..making our own choices and being responsible for them.

the ONLY thing you truly care about is your little habitat and how others behavior affects your tiny,precious little world.so you go ahead an be a vegan for "moral" and "ethical" reasons,because it gives you the "feel goods".

and i say this with all humanity and honesty:
if you are vegan for moral and ethical reasons,then good for you mate.you made a conscious choice and have stuck to it.bravo my friend.

but don't try to push your own little inane philosophy on the rest of us.we may be assholes for eating meat,but at least we are not hypocritical,contradictory assholes.

now if you want to discuss the benefits of a vegan diet.
great...i am down.
if you wish to share why being a vegan for YOU is a philosophy that works for YOU and is a choice YOU made...then great.i love understanding why people chose to do what they do.

but if you keep attempting to make this purely a morality and ethical dilemma,while ignoring YOUR own philosophical and moral inconsistencies.

well..then we have nothing more to speak about.
enjoy the smell of your own farts.

/cockpunched

it looks so simple! I still can't believe that tall thing doesn't tip over from the rocking back and forth.

That's pretty endearing how oblivious all of them are to the issue initially.

The more I think about it, Scarlett Johansson does have qualities that match the character well. In the Arise series you see that the major once had a much more sensible body prosthetic that was physically more like an average Japanese woman. And you get the sense that the choice of her new body was an ostentatious and personal one. She didn't need to be tall, statuesque and impractically sexy, but that's the persona she choose.

Check out the only still from the movie and tell me she's not physically pretty close, race aside.

http://opus.fm/_assets/entries/scarlett-johanson-ghost-in-the-shell.jpg