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Also see My life |
What is precious to me?
Truth is of huge importance and it is under siege in this age perhaps more than any other, particularly from people like US President Donald Trump, and Australian Prime Ministers
Abbott and
Morrison.
Among the enemies of truth are
religion
and other
superstitions.
These are
delusions.
We must all (certainly including myself) examine ourselves and our beliefs, searching for possible delusions.
Science has much in common with truth; it is a method of discovering the truth. The scientific method is probably the greatest discovery of Mankind. Science has shown us how the Universe works and has brought us most of what is good about our present civilisation; it has brought us knowledge. But science is under attack from those who do not like what it is showing us; in particular those religious people who deny evolution and from climate science deniers. Philosophy teaches us to evaluate arguments and to critically look at all beliefs and opinions. Moral philosophy, ethics, informs us of how we should live. Philosophy places everything, including science and truth, into context.
Islam's antipathy to the arts is one reason I loathe and fear that religion. Friends; I don't have a lot. I haven't met many people who think like me. Those I have are precious. A Walk for Solar Power in 2012 and the Climate Walk, two years later, significantly increased the number of people I know who think like me, and, I would like to think, the number of my friends. Freedom; The freedom to do whatever one wants to do, within ethical limits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of belief, freedom of the media (under threat as I write in Australia and elsewhere), freedom to pursue knowledge; freedom from institutionalised misinformation as exists in places like China, North Korea and increasingly in the USA and Australia; freedom from discrimination; the freedom to die if and when I want to. Freedom cannot exist under a theocratic government as in Iran and some other countries and states under the yoke of the Islamic delusion. Freedom did not exist in Europe while Christianity dominated thought there. What is loathsome to me?
Lies from people who cannot support their arguments with valid and rational evidence, or who simply don't bother trying to discover the truth. I hold that those in a position of power who lie (rather than make false statements through ignorance) in order to support the fossil fuel industry or to hold back climate change action are among the greatest criminals in history. Delusion and superstition; the beliefs held without supporting evidence; including minor delusions such as divination and that great delusion, religion. (Of course there are many very good people who are deluded; but they are good in spite of their delusions rather than because of them.) There is little difference between self deception and delusion. Ignorance allows the anti-science forces and the liars to get away with their activities. "Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse." African proverb Greed; the greed of those who can never have enough money (and the power that comes with wealth) is doing great harm to the world. Society should condemn such people, instead there seems to be a twisted form of hero-worship. Governments should be working toward redistributing the wealth that is in so few hands; instead they seem content to allow the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer. (I've written pages on corporate greed and contribution to society.)
Why do I write these pages?Since about 1985 I've been writing letters to the editors of local, state, and Australian national newspapers because I felt an obligation to at least try to dispel lies, delusions and self-deception, and to make the world a better place.
In 2002 I wrote a page on 'The Real USA' because the pandering to the US by Australian governments, both Labor and Liberal, sickened me. I wanted to show that much of what various US administrations had been up to was far from honourable. This was for a few years one of the most visited of my pages. With the election of Donald Trump the USA has certainly deteriorated further than its position in 2002. In 2020 Australian governments continue their shameful pandering to the USA. Early in 2004 I started writing the pages that have become "Wind in the Bush"; my Net pages on wind power. (I had followed the development of wind and solar power with interest since before the construction of Australia's first wind farm at Esperance in 1987.) The aim of these particular pages is to give the facts, and make an effort to dispel the myths, about wind power. I am convinced that the greatest single threat facing the world in the early twenty-first century is climate change and one thing we can do to greatly slow climate change is to replace fossil fuel electricity generation with renewable energy as quickly as possible. In terms of achievement, I suspect that spreading the facts about wind power is the best thing I've ever done.
Many of those who are opposed to wind power also deny climate science because they see that climate change demands moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. To oppose wind power is to support the coal industry by default; air pollution from the mining, transport and particularly the burning of coal kills millions of people world wide each year. People like Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Ian Plimer who make a very lucrative (although hardly a respectable) living out of opposing action on climate change, probably don't believe much of what they write and say; they are simply cynically working for the fossil fuel industry and pandering to the ignorant. I believe that it is necessary to show that much of what they claim is false by giving the evidence behind the truth. On 'the same side' as Jones, Bolt and Plimer (perhaps the employers of Jones, Bolt and Plimer, in a sense) are Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer and Gautam Adani, who are probably only interested in the money that they can make out of anything at all, it just happens that they have chosen coal; they are motivated by greed, they simply don't care about the future of the planet. Similarly, Rupert Murdoch has done enormous damage to the world by his purveying of lies about climate change, fossil fuels and renewable energy. A paraphrasing of Mark 8:36 is appropriate here: "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world if it means forfeiting his self respect and earning the contempt of decent people." Then there are the well meaning, but deluded people, like (ex Dr) Sarah Laurie, who believe most of what they say, but do a great deal of harm. Their claims need to be debunked. Finally there are the many who are best characterised as ignorant, ill-informed and/or selfish and those who are simply undecided but open-minded. I have no expectation of changing the ways of the Bolts and Joneses of this world, I write in the hope of getting through to at least a few of those whose minds are not closed.
My Internet pages serve me as a reference, I often look back at things I've written to fill in some detail I had forgotten, or check on where the information came from. They have helped me, by allowing me to put thoughts into writing, decide what I believe to be right and wrong, reasonable and unreasonable; and decide on 'my view of the world'. Whether my pages are useful to others is something I know little about, but writing them is very important to me for several reasons:
The Internet is an ideal tool for doing this, it is ideal for spreading different subjects on different pages, it is easily searchable and one can use hyperlinks to provide connectivity. The fact that the Internet makes my thoughts public concerns me little. The fact that it might be useful to others provides added incentive for writing. It is interesting that something I wrote years earlier generally fits with my current knowledge and beliefs. This could mean that I make few mistakes, or is it more likely that it means I am old and fixed in my ideas?
It seems that the world is run by madmen (in January 2010, when the stresses that Mankind is placing on this planet should be obvious to all, the leaders of the two dominant political parties in Australia have both said that they believe Australia needs substantially more people, and quickly. Perhaps it is more than coincidence that these two men, Rudd and Abbott, are deeply religious.) The election of Donald Trump as President of the USA in 2016 greatly strengthened the impression that the world is run by madmen; and that many voters were remarkably stupid. My writing talents are ordinary, my intelligence likewise, my public speaking abilities nil; but if, by these pages, I can influence half a dozen people to give up superstition or try a bit harder to move the world away from its present race to environmental disaster, or even just to examine the world from a more rational or less selfish point of view, all the writing might have been worth-while. I feel I must try anyway; I dream of a better world. A disability:
I have never been a good speaker.
I have always hated public speaking and always have trouble thinking of the
words that I need at the time I need them.
When I am debating something I often think of what I should have said about
ten minutes after I needed to say it.
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Travelling overseas for eight months, returning from Europe by the overland rout via Yugoslavia (as it was then), Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore was another once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The last thirty years of my 'working' life was in the hydrogeology (groundwater) field for the South Australian public service.
I married at the age of 32; my wife and I soon after had two children. We have been a close family ever since. (As of 2020 I have three grandchildren, aged 9, 7 and 4.)
Hobbies in this time included cutting and polishing gemstones (including faceting), making silver (and a little gold) jewellery, building telescopes (first a 200mm diameter reflector, followed by a 300mm and finally a 400mm), and establishing and running the Bowman Park Astronomical Association.
In this period I taught myself computer programming, first in BASIC and then Pascal; applied this to hydrogeology and wrote two books in Elsevier's Developments in Groundwater Science series: "Microcomputer Programs for Groundwater Studies" and "Groundwater Discharge Tests: Simulation and Analysis".
The Public Service in South Australia at that time discouraged technical officers in hydrogeology from computer programming; computer specialists were employed to do that. (Of course they new nothing about hydrogeology and would have been quite incapable of doing the more important of the work that I did. Such is the public service.) However, I was lucky enough to have encouragement from several superiors (who I have listed under Influences).
Since 'retiring' most of my time is taken up with gardening and looking after the family property, Elysium, and working on this Internet site, especially the wind energy pages.
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Since September 2013 I've also been removing rubbish from roadsides. (The dumping of rubbish on roadsides is similar to the dumping of waste – greenhouse gasses – into the atmosphere.)
In June 2017, after being blocked from posting on a Facebook page opposing a local wind farm, I started a page explaining why I supported the project.
For a short time starting in March 2018 campaigned to make cafes more responsible in handing out 'disposable' cups, that often finish up littering roadsides.
In mid 2019 I started revegetating Crystal Brook's Central Park. I've written a little more on this elsewhere on this page.
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Of course it is not only humanity that will suffer due to the errors of humanity; climate change will cause the extinction of many species; not, I suspect, including humanity.
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All the over-50s who did the walk |
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From left to right: Margaret Hender (of CORENA), Pete Gorton, John Bowman, Marty O'Hare, Gaby Jung, Me (Dave Clarke), Bill Gresham, Les Webb. More than two years later I am still in touch with all of them. Note the smoke plume from the Port Augusta coal-fired power station on the left. |
I don't have many close friends; I have come across very few people who think like me. The oldies on the walk did think like me! To meet six people who (are roughly my age and) think like me in a group of 60 or so was a revelation! They wanted to see the planet run on ethical principles! They wanted to see serious action on climate change!
The walkers came from all over Australia. There seemed about as many from NSW or Victoria as there were from SA. Others came from WA, Queensland and Tasmania.
How did I handle the walk? (By the way, I was the oldest by about six months.) The first day was only 16km, while the average day was around 23km. I walked the first day with no problems. On the next three days I drove a support car (I was one of the few to have my own car and trailer on the walk) about half the day and walked half the day. From then on I walked all day every day. Raised a couple of blisters on about the ninth day, but apart from that had no problems. Many of the younger people had big problems with blisters and had to take days off.
We met (State) Minister (Energy and Infrastructure?) Tom Coutsantonus on the road. He was very positive about agreeing with our aims, but said that a solar power station at Pt. A. was too big a project for the State Government; money would have to come from the Feds.
There was a lot of media coverage before, during and after the walk. Everyone in SA who had any interest in renewable energy, or in the Port Augusta area, would have heard about it. After two weeks we arrived in Adelaide and there was a rally that started in Rundle Park (Dr Karl Krusetnitski as the main speaker), from there to the steps of Parliament House, then on to Victoria Square. Again, a big media presence.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and it showed me that I am not
alone in caring about the world!
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Early morning mist, winter, Elysium |
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The family property, 'Elysium', in the Clare Valley of 'Mid North' South Australia has a total area of 46ha. We bought it in 1993, when, apart from a small pine forest, it had on it about 50 gum trees and nothing else of note.
It now includes 2ha of shiraz wine-grape vines, about 5ha of olive trees, several plantations of closely spaced eucalypt hardwood trees, and a number of fruit and nut trees. Most of the remainder is now covered with open woodland that I have planted; there would have to be over a thousand gums in total. When these trees mature they will begin to be sustainably harvested for firewood. In 2012 I have noticed for the first time that there is quite a lot of natural propagation of 'my trees' happening. The area beneath and between the trees will be available for grazing animals.
There are several photos of Elysium elsewhere on this site. Clare trees is a page I have written detailing my efforts at tree growing on Elysium.
Tyres floating on my dam to reduce evaporation |
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This photo was taken on a frosty morning in July 2012 before the dam filled. |
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Climate change and the related ocean acidification are the greatest disasters Man has ever faced. Most Australians seem not to care enough to change their greenhouse gas producing habits. I must admit that in the past I have been content to do more about reducing CO2 emissions than most other people; partly due to Monbiot's statement mentioned above I have come to believe that being a little more responsible than most is not enough, one should do as much as one can.
I would like the Earth of the future to be not greatly inferior to the one that I know and love.
The list below I compiled partly because I wanted to make a list for my
own interest, and partly in the hope that it might give others some ideas
that they may not have already thought of.
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My wife and I use a total of about 12 kWh/day electricity (three meters, figures for 2010); this is 100% green power so would equate to about 13 kWh/day at the generators (wind or hydro) allowing for transmission losses. (If we used fossil fuel generated power then the total energy in the fossil fuels burned to supply our 12 kWh/day would be about 53 kWh/day (12 × 1.1 / 0.25, allowing for transmission losses of 10% and conversion efficiency of 25%).
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I recommend this exercise to everyone. I learned a lot from doing it. (Most of the figures are at least to some extent estimates; of course now [December 2012] they are dated.)
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Activity | kg CO2 | ||
Holiday in Vietnam | Air travel | 4600 | |
Internal travel | 1000 | Vietnam total 5600 | |
Holiday in Western Australia | Air travel | 840 | |
Car travel | 720 | WA total 1560 | |
Use of cars | Toyota Corona | 500 | |
Mazda 121 | 1800 | Vehicles total 2300 | |
Electricity consumption | At home | 2900 | |
At Elysium | 1100 | Elec. consumption total 4000 | |
Building concrete cellar | Cement | 4500 | |
Steel | 1000 | Cellar total 5500 | |
Miscellaneous | (Guess) | 500 | |
Gross total | 19 460 | ||
Renewable electricity credits | Photovoltaic panels | -1825 | |
AGL green electricity | -3450 | Elec. credit total -5275 | |
Net total | 14 185 | =14.2 tonnes |
Note on the cellar, above. We built a large
cellar based on a buried
concrete tank in 2006. Producing the cement and steel for the cellar released
something like five and a half tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
My page on
Wind power problems discusses the
CO2 implications of cement manufacture a bit more and contains some
references.
This is a big, one-off, boost to our greenhouse gas
production, but should cut our annual greenhouse production from now on by
reducing the need for air conditioning. It will also provide a large cool
storage space that will not require energy and therefore will not be
responsible for producing CO2 for many years.
There is more on this cellar in the
Australian section of this site.
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Activity | kg CO2 | ||
Use of cars | Honda Jazz | 1800 | |
Mazda 121 | 600 | Vehicles total 2400 | |
Electricity consumption | At home | 2900 | |
At Elysium | 1100 | Elec. consumption total 4000 | |
Miscellaneous | (Guess) | 500 | |
Gross total | 6 900 | ||
Renewable electricity credits | Photovoltaic panels | -1800 | |
AGL green electricity | -3500 | Elec. credit total -5300 | |
Net total | 1 600 | =1.6 tonnes | |
Since writing this, it has been pointed out to me that the amount of the generation of the photovoltaic panels should not have been subtracted from the total. |
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I have only considered the CO2 that my wife and I are more
directly responsible for here.
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Plantation | No. trees | Ave. mass | Annual % increase | kg CO2 |
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Bore | 150 | 100 | 40 | 5500 |
One Hectare | 600 | 40 | 40 | 8800 |
Bog | 100 | 60 | 40 | 2200 |
Dam paddock | 150 | 5 | 200 | 1375 |
25 | 300 | 40 | 2750 | |
New paddock | 300 | 1 | 250 | 690 |
Open Woodland | 400 | 1 | 250 | 920 |
80 | 300 | 40 | 8800 | |
Totals | 1805 | 31 035 |
These calculation do not include trees and shrubs that I have planted on roadsides; nor the feral pepper trees that I have killed (they will release CO2 to the atmosphere as they rot, but then they will eventually be replaced by native trees).
The CO2 absorbed by the 'Open Woodland' planting will increase quickly as more
trees are planted and their average mass increases. These trees are spread
over about 35ha.
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Other roads planted were Nurom Road between the creek and highway, Frith Road, Darbon Terrace, (and the apparently unnamed road on the western side of town that run between Greig Road and Darbon Darbon Terrace), parts of Huddleston Road east of the cemetery, Bowman Park Road, Gadd Avenue south-west of town, and Brook Park Lane.
In the first year I planted Australian native trees that were mainly
endemic to Western Australia (along the south-western side of Greig Road); after that I only planted species that were endemic to the local area.
In August 2003 I started killing pepper trees along the Crystal Brook at Bowman Park. I kept the local council (Port Pirie Regional Council) fully informed of what I was doing. To say the least, Council has not been supportive, although they have agreed that the pepper trees should be removed. I have discussed this in my blog. I intend to continue this project until all the pepper trees along the creek in Bowman Park are dead.
When the pepper trees are gone the native red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) will be able to take their place. Many red gums along the Crystal Brook have suffered greatly from a lack of water in recent years. Killing the pepper trees will make many thousands of litres of groundwater available to the gum trees each year.
The method I have used to kill the pepper trees is drilling and
injecting
with Garlon. This is done by drilling 6mm diameter holes at least to the
cambium layer at about 5cm spacing around the trunk of the tree and then
immediately filling the holes with neat Garlon. The holes should slope
downward and should be as close to the base of the tree as possible.
I have been informed that glyphosate is just as effective as Garlon, but
have not yet tested this.
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In early 2005 I got permission from the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council to begin removing feral trees and revegetating with natives along a length of the Clare to Blyth road. The section I am working on runs from the top of the hill overlooking Blyth (Lat. S33.84039, Long. E138.55978) about a kilometre down the hill (to Lat. S33.83981, Long. E138.54965).
Blyth Road east of this point is crowded with ferrel trees, mainly aleppo pines, but also olive trees and others; there is very little native roadside vegetation remaining between Scobie Road and the top of the hill. There is a lot of native vegetation remaining along the section that I'm working on, but there is also many ferrels: mainly aleppo pines, olives and briars.
As of April 2006 I have killed most of the aleppo pines. They are easy to kill. The smallest are easiest handled by pulling them out, larger ones can be cut off at ground level, and the biggest can be ring-barked.
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A small part of the Gleeson Wetlands |
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Starting in June 2014 the Clare Lions Club took part responsibility for looking after the Gleeson Wetlands. I have spent many hours, and obtained great satisfaction, working at killing weeds, planting, mulching and generally looking after the gardens at the Wetlands.
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Yet it seems to be human nature to crave a purpose, so what purpose can one give to one's life? Apart from the day-to-day necessities of living, can we feel that we have some value? How can we have any self-respect if we see our existence as useless and pointless?
In the first few decades of our lives we are occupied with our education, finding our place in life, and probably finding a partner. Once we have children (supposing we are among those who do have children) we have a purpose in giving them the best possible start in life that we can. (Abraham Maslow produced a hierarchy of needs, which is very relevant to this subject, but too complicated for me to go into on this page.)
But when our children have left home and become independent, and supposing that we are sufficiently financially secure that our immediate needs are taken care of, what purpose remains to life?
My musings on ethics and compassion have convinced me that I can and should make an effort to do what little I can to make the world a better place in my remaining years. (I have written at some length about my general background elsewhere on this page.)
I am convinced that climate change and ocean acidification are the greatest threats to the future of life on Earth and also that humanity could greatly reduce the harm that we are doing to the planet with relatively little effort. Yet we are not making that required effort, and the Earth continues to suffer from our misuse. So I feel that my primary purpose at this point of my life (2017) is to do what I can to try to get action on greenhouse emissions. At the same time I will do what I can to try to improve my local environment.
It happens that the region in which I live is well suited for wind farms, which reduce greenhouse emissions by displacing fossil fuel generated electricity. Some of the local wind farms that are present have been built with little or no opposition, others have had determined and vocal opposition. Many of the arguments put forward by the opponents are either ill-informed, dishonest, or misleading. No one else in my region, apart for those who are building the wind farms, have made much effort to try to counter the misinformation from the wind farm opponents, so I have found a purpose in doing so myself as an independent voice. On other pages on this site I have written about wind power in Australia, have discussed why I support a proposed local wind farm which is suffering from selfish, short-sighted opposition and mused on the contrast between the opposition movements to wind and to coal.
I have largely concentrated on the problems relating to climate change; one can't do everything, one must choose one's battles, but I try not to loose sight of the great many other problems and injustices that we see all around us.
Apart from action on climate change, in recent years (up to mid 2020 at least) much of my spare time has been put into improving
Gleeson Wetlands in Clare, Crystal Brook's
Bowman Park and
Central Park and
cleaning up rubbish on roadsides.
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Where I have had a significant impact is in providing factual information about wind power and exposing the lies of those who have dishonestly opposed its development.
Being independent of the wind industry gave my writing more credibility than the information provided by the industry, because that could be perceived as being biased. An Internet search on many subjects relating to wind power will find one or another of my pages. Not only have my pages given the public access to facts, but they have given opponents an incentive to take more care in their claims, or be exposed as liars.
By showing wind power to be generally environmentally friendly, harmless to health and welfare, and effective in reducing greenhouse emissions, I feel I have achieved something in the fight to limit anthropogenic climate change.
Having good intentions and trying to do good is great, but to feel that you have achieved some significant good is very satisfying.
The land in the middle of Crystal Brook had for many years been under the control of the body that controlled the railway line that runs through it. More recently it has come under the state Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. Both organisations have provided some resistance to the improvement of the land, but I have made progress in spite of this.
Until very recently I have called the land the 'railway reserve'. I intend calling it in future Crystal Brook's Central Park.
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This continues in my old age. When I work at the Gleeson Wetlands or Crystal Brook's Central Park the work that I decide to do is based on what seems to be the work that will achieve the most for the amount of time and effort available. Perhaps the drive to achieve has even increased in my old age; I feel the need to use the time and energy left to me productively rather than wastefully. If I didn't contribute something to society in my declining years I would feel that I was useless.
Certainly the drive for achievement does not occupy my mind all the time, when I am tired in the evening I usually relax in front of the television. Like most people I enjoy a relaxing touring holiday.
If I ever mentally deteriorate, or suffer an injury which causes loss of mental function, to the point that I am no longer recognisably the same person, I want to be euthanised. If that is not legal, I do not want to be kept alive by any means whatever; if I am not capable of feeding and looking after myself, I want to be allowed to die.
I do not want or intend to go into a nursing home. If I become incapable of looking after myself I intend to kill myself. My current thinking is that I will do this by placing a plastic bag over my head and injecting into this bag a flow of an inert gas (such as argon or helium). I believe that the inert gas works to displace the carbon dioxide which would otherwise build up and cause the feeling of suffocation. Anyone killing themselves by this means, I believe, will slip into unconsciousness in a very few minutes and die shortly after.
In October 2012 I signed a form donating my body to science by the University of Adelaide.
"No fuss or bother. Above all, minimal cost. If you can get away with digging a shallow hole in the garden at Elysium then do so, I might do the plants some good. Alternatively, have me stuffed and placed in your living room as a conversation piece. (If I am holding a tray, people can put things on me.)"From Pithy sayings; there is great wisdom on that page.
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