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I've had bad experiences with posting links to things. Basically I make a statement, a sea lion asks for a link. I provide one.

The sea lion says "Oh, that's a liberal link, got any non biased (read conservative) sources?"

I may after some searching find a conservative site article and post it. The sea lion ignores it, declares victory and has the joy of wasting my time twice and still claiming he's right.

So, no, sometimes i don't post links to known news stories. Sue me.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
As a gardener I really want to know what the seeds are, out of sheer curiosity.

They’re a somewhat random variety of different things to different people. Cucumbers, cauliflowers, some weeds, just kind of whatever, not any one specific thing.

 Matt Swain wrote:
I've had bad experiences with posting links to things. Basically I make a statement, a sea lion asks for a link. I provide one.

The sea lion says "Oh, that's a liberal link, got any non biased (read conservative) sources?"

I may after some searching find a conservative site article and post it. The sea lion ignores it, declares victory and has the joy of wasting my time twice and still claiming he's right.

So, no, sometimes i don't post links to known news stories. Sue me.

It is at that point you go into the "verbal " offensive and attack his credibility, integrity and his credit rating.
Then you encircle his pride and position, to deliver the final blow via a barrage of memes ridiculing his ignorance and complacency and behaviour in the face of with facts propped up information.

Or you ignore the Troll......



I have heard it is part of some reviewing scam, but have no idea how that would even work. Not my area of expertise.

Well, if I was China and I wanted to send something harmful I surely wouldn't send it directly from my own country.

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/5555404002

TLDR they just seeds. Random flower and vegetable. Now they *might* be some sort of non fertile fertile plants, able to hybridize with fertile plants and make them non-fertile but the coverage is too low for that. A single Cathay heavy with a dump system of some sort would get way better coverage and penetration.

It's pretty much just a review scam as the most likely culprit.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Given it’s a pretty wild claim, it’s on OP to support.

It's not "a pretty wild claim". It's been a mainstream news item in multiple countries for 3 days now. The USDA had already put out a statement about it when this thread was started.

Anyone who wants a source can do a Google search for "unsolicited seeds china" and just skim through the results until they find a news source they trust. Because the story is in damn near every major news source you could think of. In the US, I think you'd have to be purposely avoiding the news to have not heard about it by now.

It's a bit bigger than first thought - they've been delivered in "US, EU, Japan, UK, Canada, Taiwan and Australia", and China says they didn't send them ("a Chinese government spokesman said in July that addresses had been forged)".

People around the world are getting sent mystery seeds - here's why (Evening Standard)

The odd thing is i've ordered from chinese companies. (Yes, if you're wondering.) and haven't got one of these yet.

I like how despite being told not to and common sense saying not to a dude from Arkansas was like, nope screw everyone I'm planting them!

Hopefully the plants aren't anything aggressive, though I guess it's not the stupidest ploy if you want to damage other countries ecosystem. Especially Western countries where reactions would be slower. I suppose in retaliation you could send over Thistles or Prickly Pears perhaps?

Well they are seeds, if you plant them in a pot in a greenhouse they'd be perfectly safe. The only time they'd be dangerous is when they come into seed if they become viably fertilised (remembering that some plants can self fertilise) and then dispersed (esp if its wind or similar).

Granted some plants can be toxic or dangerous to handle and I'd not advise eating any fruits; but you could certainly grow them without huge risk if you took simple precautions.





Of course I suspect a lot of people might not concern themselves with the proper precautions. Plus I'd wager whilst the news report makes a big deal about it; I suspect many others have also put them in a pot to grow out of curiosity.

cody.d. wrote:
I like how despite being told not to and common sense saying not to a dude from Arkansas was like, nope screw everyone I'm planting them!

Hopefully the plants aren't anything aggressive, though I guess it's not the stupidest ploy if you want to damage other countries ecosystem. Especially Western countries where reactions would be slower. I suppose in retaliation you could send over Thistles or Prickly Pears perhaps?

Poppy seeds.

The seeds could carry diseases or parasites which then serve as the invasive agent.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
The seeds could carry diseases or parasites which then serve as the invasive agent.

Some people might say you're straying into conspiracy theory there, guy.

I say the only thing I'd put past the chinese government is knowing what a single shred of human decency or compassion felt like.

Against All Warnings, People Have Planted The Forbidden Seeds. Here's What Grew - IFLS

I'll be setting up the salt water sprayer...

 Easy E wrote:
I have heard it is part of some reviewing scam, but have no idea how that would even work. Not my area of expertise.

It's a technique called brushing, and it's actually fairly simple.

Lets say I sell a product, and I'm in a competitive market where positive reviews can make me look like a better supplier than my peers and consequently drum up more business.

Do I work my hardest, package my products the best I can, ensure I use only the best packing materials and shipping companies, and politely (but not intrustively) ask the customer to leave a positive review if they're satisfied - vowing to help resolve their complaints if they have any problems?

Or...

Do I buy the product myself, and give myself a good review over and over and over until the average goes up?

Well, of course if I wanted to do the latter I would need to take precautions to ensure I wasn't caught. I can't send everything to one location or I'll be found out - and I can't send it to someone who'll complain to the website about receiving an unsolicited package for the same reason.

So: I buy one order of the smallest, lightest product I produce - the one that will cost the least to ship - then in the order I claim to be from address X in country Y where they don't speak language Z. The order gets shipped, I leave a glowing review of the product, the service, and the company on this online storefront - and all that review cost me was said online storefront's cut of the sale and shipping.

Repeat 100 times and I suddenly have 100 5-star reviews, or however many more I need than my nearest competitor so that my company shows up first when people search that same online storefront for whatever it is I'm selling.

 Captain Joystick wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
I have heard it is part of some reviewing scam, but have no idea how that would even work. Not my area of expertise.

It's a technique called brushing, and it's actually fairly simple.

Lets say I sell a product, and I'm in a competitive market where positive reviews can make me look like a better supplier than my peers and consequently drum up more business.

Do I work my hardest, package my products the best I can, ensure I use only the best packing materials and shipping companies, and politely (but not intrustively) ask the customer to leave a positive review if they're satisfied - vowing to help resolve their complaints if they have any problems?

Or...

Do I buy the product myself, and give myself a good review over and over and over until the average goes up?

Well, of course if I wanted to do the latter I would need to take precautions to ensure I wasn't caught. I can't send everything to one location or I'll be found out - and I can't send it to someone who'll complain to the website about receiving an unsolicited package for the same reason.

So: I buy one order of the smallest, lightest product I produce - the one that will cost the least to ship - then in the order I claim to be from address X in country Y where they don't speak language Z. The order gets shipped, I leave a glowing review of the product, the service, and the company on this online storefront - and all that review cost me was said online storefront's cut of the sale and shipping.

Repeat 100 times and I suddenly have 100 5-star reviews, or however many more I need than my nearest competitor so that my company shows up first when people search that same online storefront for whatever it is I'm selling.

So, it's basically like those Amazon self-published "best-seller" books.

Thanks.

The BBC are late to the story - Gardeners warned not to plant mystery seeds.

I once received an unexpected package from China. Inside was a single, old, pokemon card (alas, not a valuable one!). I was very confused, and I did a bit of digging. I found that one of the places I'd ordered from in the past had a post on their page saying that they were testing a new, automated system for dealing with their orders, so they were shipping thousands of individual pokemon cards to people on their list as a test to ensure that the system worked.

I imaging a small bag of seeds might have been considered a nice cheap surprise - some squash, or some flowers for your one-time customer to grow whilst you test out your new mailing system on the cheap. Imaging their surprise when their quiet system test hit the headlines as some sort of bio-seed attack on the US! If I were them, I wouldn't fess up to it either...

 Matt Swain wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
The seeds could carry diseases or parasites which then serve as the invasive agent.

Some people might say you're straying into conspiracy theory there, guy.

Well, those unnamed people would be fools, because of course seeds are absolutely capable of carrying pathogens, parasites, invasive species, or BEING invasive plants. I thought this was pretty common knowledge.

That seems a bit harsh on the wording even if the logic is valid, Ouze.

cody.d. wrote:
I like how despite being told not to and common sense saying not to a dude from Arkansas was like, nope screw everyone I'm planting them!

Hopefully the plants aren't anything aggressive, though I guess it's not the stupidest ploy if you want to damage other countries ecosystem. Especially Western countries where reactions would be slower. I suppose in retaliation you could send over Thistles or Prickly Pears perhaps?

From what I've seen, "common sense" and Arkansas are not even distantly acquainted. The closest Arkansasians (what is the collective name for them? Apart from "rednecks"?) get to "common sense" is "not being dumber than a box of rocks".

 chromedog wrote:

cody.d. wrote:
I like how despite being told not to and common sense saying not to a dude from Arkansas was like, nope screw everyone I'm planting them!

Hopefully the plants aren't anything aggressive, though I guess it's not the stupidest ploy if you want to damage other countries ecosystem. Especially Western countries where reactions would be slower. I suppose in retaliation you could send over Thistles or Prickly Pears perhaps?

From what I've seen, "common sense" and Arkansas are not even distantly acquainted. The closest Arkansasians (what is the collective name for them? Apart from "rednecks"?) get to "common sense" is "not being dumber than a box of rocks".

Legitimately the creepiest place I've ever been inside the US (and never found anything to compare it to in Europe or Japan, not even in Hungary when it was still Soviet-controlled).
Just the main highway freaked me out. There were several (5 or 6) spots on the highway itself that were burned down to the rock base. And by 'spots,' I mean patches roughly the size and shape of car. So several cars, miles apart, had burned so hot and fierce that they burned away the asphalt (or it had to be scraped off to move the car) and the roadway was just... left unpatched.

The kicker, however, was the billboard that greeted me as I entered the state.
It was the picture of a preteen boy, with the caption 'Spare the rod, save his life.'

It immediately struck me that I was confronted by two major issues.

One, advocacy for child abuse as my first impression of the state.
Two, girl children were apparently considered either unsave-able or not worth saving.

I made a lot of effort not to stop anywhere in the state and just drive through. Didn't quite make it- had to stop for gas (but not food) at one of the nastier truck stops I've ever seen.
Had to pay inside though, as apparently card reader technology on gas pumps hadn't spread that far.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
That seems a bit harsh on the wording even if the logic is valid, Ouze.

Yeah, you're right. I just have markedly little patience for dumb conspiracy theories these days. When I was a kid they were sorta fun, but now they're... well, beyond the scope of this thread. Which I wonder if I have helped nudge tonally in a rather offensive direction, sorry for that as well.

 chromedog wrote:

cody.d. wrote:
I like how despite being told not to and common sense saying not to a dude from Arkansas was like, nope screw everyone I'm planting them!

Hopefully the plants aren't anything aggressive, though I guess it's not the stupidest ploy if you want to damage other countries ecosystem. Especially Western countries where reactions would be slower. I suppose in retaliation you could send over Thistles or Prickly Pears perhaps?

From what I've seen, "common sense" and Arkansas are not even distantly acquainted. The closest Arkansasians (what is the collective name for them? Apart from "rednecks"?) get to "common sense" is "not being dumber than a box of rocks".

A common misconception is that they are all Rednecks. This is not true at all....

There are:

1. Hill Billies
2. Rednecks
3. Carpetbaggers
4. Lost Causers
and
5. Those People

As you can see, Arkansas has a very diverse population based on historical migration patterns. To lump them all in as simply Rednecks is a product of purely being uninformed!*



*= Note, this post is made in jest. The good people of Arkansas are no different than the good people from everywhere else. They have their own unique heritage and culture as a state.

My biggest problem with Arkansas is best explained by this kind woman on youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZi51GL3cs

And hey, at least it isn't Alabama.

So has anyone learned anything about this? I heard people actually planted the damn things so might as well see what grew. Any news?

Mostly a random selection of vegetables and flowers. Some grasses. Nothing obviously nefarious

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
My biggest problem with Arkansas is best explained by this kind woman on youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZi51GL3cs

And hey, at least it isn't Alabama.

As an american I'd have to say if I had to pick the worst state in it, i'd probably say alabama.

Their "justice" system down there is so racist the judges should wear white robes. The case of lakeith smith pretty much proves that.