Amelanchier

Left that job over a year ago but I kept my sunny disposition.

Incitement to commit an illegal act is an offence under UK law (and therefore we don’t need a separate forum rule). However, I’m not sure that remark would meet the tests of the legislation; I would imagine that there needs to be a real and actual possibility of harm occurring as a direct result of the incitement. If you want more borderline stuff try some of the theft related threads…

It's perfectly clear who you were referring to and your justification is even weaker than I expected. Refrain from the use of the term in future - I consider it to breach the forum rules.

Interesting idea. I doubt you would be activating dormant buds through small wounds but you would be initiating the formation of callus which is itself meristematic and capable of differentiating into shoot primordia.

Could you please explain the specific purpose of this name as per the following post on another thread? http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/lounge/28883-bye-bye-bin-laden-3.html#post475303

Rather against my better judgement I let this slide last time - I was too overworked and I dropped the ball. However, is there any particular reason why you use the name of a cartoon monkey to identify the first black president of the USA?

Why?

In what way is CAVAT more objective than Helliwell?

Don't know about that - I wouldn't be so sure, it depends on what is in your waste and whose waste it is... See below; http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/21950-waste-tansfer-notes-fingers-crossed-2.html#post378205

Apologies for the delay!!! Congratulations to all our winners including (in no particular order) Darryl Platton, Robert Bell, Oli Husar, Hayden Platton, Ian Flatters, Alex Laver, Chris Willis, Peter Haine, Dave Keylock, Ben Mercer, James Hoddy, Joe Mercer, Alan Garnham and Martin Paggett. Many thanks to Nick Pott and Nigel @ Fletcher Stewart, Spider and Kev @ Rouse Power, Husquvana, Oregon and Mr Bullman for donating prizes. Also many thanks to all those that helped us set it all up and take it all down, to those that judged and busied themselves in the background, an of course, to all our competitors for making the long trek to the norfolk badlands. Biggest thanks to Chalky and Gillian for making it happen!!! Hope to see you all next year EoE C&C 2011 Scores.xls

I like these polls. It gives us an idea of the overall population of the membership One thing I would say is that ideally, the categories would be at equal intervals (say four years) and any overlap should be avoided. so 16-20 / 21-25 / 26-30 etc. I'm thirty-one next this may.

The info gets sent to Apple twice a day - it wouldn't worry me too much but i'd probably like the option to turn it off. Has anyone downloaded the viewing tool to see where they've been?

Well phones can geotag a camera image without recording your every move! Just thought it was interesting given the shreiks of protest about the google streetview car and the wifi sampling. Apparently, pundits predict the first iphone subpoena in the states by the end of the week. Should be interesting.

iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go | Technology | guardian.co.uk People would have gone mental if it were google... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY]YouTube - Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me[/ame]

Well lets put the emotive scare mongering language to one side and ask what has actually been proposed? Red Tape Challenge So no-one is scrapping anything unless it needs scrapping - there is no need for panic or hyperbole. As I haven't read all 159 regulations I don't consider that I am in a sufficiently knowledgable position to plainly state that they should all be kept - I wonder if those signing up to the petition are? Quite aside for the fact that quite a lot of our environmental laws derive from EU directives (and therefore must be implemented in one way or another), the actual point of the review is to simplify and streamline the legislation and to remove parts that don't work. The questions posed by the above consultation are [my emphasis in bold]: "Biodiversity, wildlife management, landscape, countryside and recreation These regulations are designed to conserve vulnerable or rare species and habitats and protect important wildlife sites. They also include regulations on rights of way and protecting national parks. You can find all 159 regulations that relate to biodiversity, wildlife management, landscape, countryside and recreation here [opens in new window]. "Tell us what you think should happen to these regulations and why, being specific where possible: •Should they be scrapped altogether? •Can they be merged with existing regulations? •Can we simplify them – or reduce the bureaucracy associated with them? •Have you got any ideas to make these regulations better? •Do you think they should be left as they are?" So as you can see, the scrapping of some regulations is just one option amongst many (less newsworthy of course). Also the Govt. want specific reasons for any comments or suggestions - this is a constructive process. IMO just saying that we should keep all environment legislation because the environment is threatened and we should keep the world nice for our children misses the point entirely. It is symptomatic of a fundamental error; that of shallow gut reaction over a proper detailed consideration of the situation. Of course if you don't actually understand what's being asked it might well be easier to scream NOOOOOOOOOOO at the top of your voice without any justification (Attn; TCD - the well used full smiley at the end of my post indicates a degree of playful mocking, specifically to be associated with the comedic depiction of ignorance in the last paragraph. This is clearly not to say that I consider those persons involved to be generally ignorant, because as we all know, omniscience is logically paradoxical and everyone must necessarily be ignorant of something (including myself). If there are any other parts of any of my comments that are not immediately clear in their purpose and meaning then I can provide a full and detailed analysis of their entire subtext but would be forced by our cryptofascist overlords to demand a nominal fee.)

But soul destroying for me - I had to talk 40 climbers through the process of changeover! If you have to explain something to Alex Laver it's too complicated...

Nice pics Ian. Platform ending is beautiful Ian was just doing a glamour run and so didn't quite tick all the boxes - the second line was for a redirect station but the desired approach got lost a little in translation. Our limbwalk is fixed at the tree and then rigged through two 100m sets of bungee / shock cord - it moves a lot... This year it was about twice as long and developed some weird oscillations from heavy movements. The sensor (a butchered smoke alarm) is adjusted to their weight and the climbers have a depressingly duff anchor point to make things painful.

Yawn. Look gang, this is how it is. Tim is probably laughing his arse off at the consequences of his thread. If you don't realise that, then you ain't been around here long enough. I have and we share a certin point of view on these matters. No-ones falling out. The toys are still in the pram (well, my pram at least). As for me flaming? Seriously? I suspect there'd be more than one person notice it. Maybe I should just stick to editing duff thread titles and deleting spam right? I'm just here to police the crowd not join in. Forget than the business of actually using the site to discuss things with people I know in a context that we both understand. How could I have been so stupid...

I'd be interested to see you back that up with examples when you've calmed down.

Well unfortunatley for you, the validity of my arguement is not diminuished by your refusal to agree with it. Though your outrage might obscure the fact that you're changing the subject as usual. Specifications need to be specific - by definition. Why don't we just spec 'pruning' and just hope that the guy with the saw knows what to do? Because then it isn't a spec. Operative intelligence is irrelevant. I think the issue here is that a lot of people write specs for themselves or their staff. Bottom line is if you are recommending tree work for third party completion and you actually care about what is done to the tree, then you must use precise terms. Crown clean is not a precise term.

If you've ever had to undertake a crown clean on a mature beech, i'd guess that you didn't remove ALL the crossing branches. If so, then why use the term crown clean? This is about professionals using precise langage (its lazy not to), not treeworkers removing dangerous branches.

The entire point of a specification is that it is specific. Crown clean is a generic term that encompasses a range of specific activities - some of which may not be appropriate to the tree. It therefore does not belong in a tree work specification. In that context, it is a crap term.

Its a crap term. Good for lazy arbos and bad for trees. If you want the deadwood out - specify it. If you want the crossing branches out - specify it. If you want the damaged branches out - specify it. If you want to faff around doing nothing useful and get paid for it - tough. Loving the fact you've only just noticed this Tim. Good job you complained about the americanized grammer when the draft was under consultation. Its so much better to leave these smaller issues til later...

I would add that further to my edit, any subsequent claims regarding your opinion on this matter be phrased in more moderate language and preferrably supported by evidence. As long as you follow those guidelines - I commend your soul to the fire of the membership, let if purify and cleanse your reasoning.

A valid debate no doubt but my concern was for distance learning in particular and specifically for a course which has helped me immeasurably over the past half decade (hence the title). Regardless of opinion on whether the right to an education imposes a duty on the state to provide it at any cost, there is an unique implication of govt. policy for distance learning. Namely that it is likely to extinguish it in niche subjects like arboriculture. I don't necessarily mind the derail though. At least it makes one of my threads look interesting...