Post something Weird or Random

[Mary Terry]

I’ve seen the trailer but can’t see the show without spending a lot of money.

Australian opals are far superior in quality to any others. Within Australia there are different mines and the characteristics of the opals varies from mine to mine.

I am partial to the vibrant blues, but some opals like those from the Cooper-Pedy mines are mostly white. Apparently reds are considered the most valuable.

Learning skeletons and fossils could be opalised was new to me. Also just rocks.

I had to stop going to the opal websites because I was spending too much money on opals. I just can’t buy every opal I see just because they are pretty.

I love fire opals from Mexico. They can be red, yellow or orange. A large deposit of opal was found in Ethiopia just a couple decades ago, challenging Australia's long dominance of the opal market. Opals are also mined in the USA but I think they are of lesser quality than those which can be found elsewhere. In fact, opals are found all over the world.

 

[Kayla55]

To be frank, it would very much depend on which organs!

I would imagine a lot of it would be things like kidney's - e.g. patients on dialysis (with deep wallets and amoral attitudes)

There's been a lot of changing trends in Australia the last few decades. Farmers are starting to realise the benefits of more eco-friendly practices, some for idealistic reasons but many simply forced to accept it through climate change and adversity. Maintaining a certain percentage of native bush on their properties because this reduces the amount of insecticides they need to use by attracting natural predators, etc.

There's also been a big shift in people's attitudes towards food in Australia for the last few decades. You'll see different products advertising everywhere - No Added Colours, No Added Preservatives, No Artificial Ingredients, etc. Most of us just won't eat that chemical rubbish any more. We always had pretty strict laws regarding what was allowed to be in foods here and a lot of products from other countries are banned here, but what's really driving the market is simply people's preference for fresh food.

Supply chains around the rest of the world are pretty tight though. Australia has a population of 27 million people but on an average year we grow enough to feed 180 million people. In a bad year we still feed ourselves with barely a second thought about it but other countries lose out.

Some countries are going to have to start seriously considering controlling the numbers of people they have because current situations aren't going to be sustainable for much longer. For every 1 million more people we get in our own population there's 3 million less people in the rest of the world that we can feed, land and water taken away from farming as well as domestic food consumption increasing.

Yip, this reality is hitting everyone. We used to buy chopped up chicken bags (imported from us) but while back I changed and affording organic is insane. So we only eat meat 3x times a week and my boys are not vegetarian and doubt they ever will be.

I don't mean to be snob or grant that intellect sets us above others, but honestly mass production of people isn't mass productivity, however mass numbers is strength in voting or influence. Since most people repeating similar experiences, do we need so many people, really? In sense we have 1 amazing schitso artist and many copying so is cost of populations really justified. Obviously culling people isn't nice topic, not are viruses but birth control isn't effective.
The methane effect from meat eating is recognised for damages to environ, and poor countries barely eat meat despite having larger families. This could explain rise in epilepsy from poverty.
I'm glad you share my views. Lamb chops are still firm favourite when we have money, but I like Karoo and once had it then regular lamb just isn't same. Apparently it's diet of Kurd the animals eat.

 

[Boogs]

In the UK we haven't seen that trend beyond fringe movements and some of the more left wing media. IN the end we've ended up asset stripped as a whole country pretty much. When you deregulate across so many different but connected industries (much of which has been done on the quiet) the effects are multiplied up, not additive, and in an exponential fashion.
As much of our deregulation pivoted on Thatcher's reign, and Thatcher has been worshipped by the previous government, they couldn't go back on her policies, but the only answer was to do just that, repudiate the whole ideology, or double down on a failed and still failing architecture.

So it seems the main way Brexit has 'brought back control' is in the control to degrade our environment and ourselves more than the EU would ever tolerate...
The UK environmental protections dropped since Brexit

And a report just out shows that Brexit (despite promises to the contrary) has resulted in a massive increase in the amount allowed of pesticides in our food at a time when many of those chemicals are being reduced further or banned outright in the EU. Even nicotinoids are being allowed by using 'emergency' legislation as a loophole and in so doing destroying our pollinating insects.

As for food additives etc. the last figure I recall is something like 80% of food readily available is categorised as ultra processed to some degree or other (and interestingly/disturbingly, the worse offenders are focussed on children's diets). In addition, many/most people are priced out of the more healthy options which have become a point of profiteering in themselves.

 

[Outdated]

Obviously culling people isn't nice topic, not are viruses but birth control isn't effective.

Money is the best form of control. Give them a tax incentive to have one child, take that tax incentive away when they have a second, tax them extra if they have a third. If they have a fourth child tax them so heavily that they have to work two full time jobs and are too tired and stressed to have sex.

Lamb chops are still firm favourite when we have money, but I like Karoo and once had it then regular lamb just isn't same. Apparently it's diet of Kurd the animals eat.

Here we have lamb that's fed on salt bush and that's really nice, but not something I buy very often. I eat a lot of meat but it's all the cheaper stuff.

As for food additives etc. the last figure I recall is something like 80% of food readily available is categorised as ultra processed to some degree or other (and interestingly/disturbingly, the worse offenders are focussed on children's diets).

We stuck to our guns on restrictions, and they turned out to not be all that restrictive. M&Ms are very popular here but importing them is illegal, instead they have to be manufactured here according to our food regulations. The ones made in the US are illegal here because of the chemicals used but the Aussie ones look the same and taste slightly better and sell for around the same price. You can also buy Mountain Dew here but once again not the imported version that's the colour of over-rich urine.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I love fire opals from Mexico. They can be red, yellow or orange. A large deposit of opal was found in Ethiopia just a couple decades ago, challenging Australia's long dominance of the opal market. Opals are also mined in the USA but I think they are of lesser quality than those which can be found elsewhere. In fact, opals are found all over the world.

I know about the Mexican opals; they are brilliant but I prefer the blues. Just a personal preference.

The Ethiopian opals have more water in them. If you get them wet, they lose all their color and luster. It comes back when they dry out, or not. I have a ring with Ethiopian opals and got it wet and some of the stones have never come back.

There are pink opals from Brazil.

But the Australian opals are far superior in terms of the inner fire, which is why I like them. Personal preference, of course.

 

[Outdated]

But the Australian opals are far superior in terms of the inner fire, which is why I like them. Personal preference, of course.

When I was a kid I had an aunt and uncle that used to go on fossicking holidays around Coober Pedy and Andamooka. They collected Poch, that's he outer crusty bits of opal that the miners chip away and discard. My aunt used to make cheap jewelery out of it and sell it in local markets.

Most of it was just a very thin slice of opal with a clear glass bead over the top that magnified it and made it look bigger. Occasionally they'd find nice bits of opal for more expensive pieces.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

When I was a kid I had an aunt and uncle that used to go on fossicking holidays around Coober Pedy and Andamooka. They collected Poch, that's he outer crusty bits of opal that the miners chip away and discard. My aunt used to make cheap jewelery out of it and sell it in local markets.

Most of it was just a very thin slice of opal with a clear glass bead over the top that magnified it and made it look bigger. Occasionally they'd find nice bits of opal for more expensive pieces.

I would have loved going fossicking when I was younger and had more energy.

I think what you are referring to is called doublets, or triplets, depending on how many slices of supportive rock there is. They tend to be less expensive than the full thickness opals, but strangely, I often find the doublets to be more beautiful.

 

[Outdated]

I would have loved going fossicking when I was younger and had more energy.

They also collected gems and interesting stones and polished them and sold them. It was interesting to see how they did that. They had an industrial paint shaker machine like you see in hardware stores but a bit bigger. They'd put all the gems and stones in a 20 litre metal bucket, fill it with water and strap the lid on tight, then leave it on the shaker for 24 hours. All the stones polished each other.

 

[Kayla55]

Money is the best form of control. Give them a tax incentive to have one child, take that tax incentive away when they have a second, tax them extra if they have a third. If they have a fourth child tax them so heavily that they have to work two full time jobs and are too tired and stressed to have sex.


Here we have lamb that's fed on salt bush and that's really nice, but not something I buy very often. I eat a lot of meat but it's all the cheaper stuff.


We stuck to our guns on restrictions, and they turned out to not be all that restrictive. M&Ms are very popular here but importing them is illegal, instead they have to be manufactured here according to our food regulations. The ones made in the US are illegal here because of the chemicals used but the Aussie ones look the same and taste slightly better and sell for around the same price. You can also buy Mountain Dew here but once again not the imported version that's the colour of over-rich urine.

Remember years ago China had birth controls, and looking at model we see delemas. People in normal countries don't realise population is actually still too high, but it's touchy to tell people what to do. Countries in Netherlands and Japan have declining populations.
Cost of living affects educated or sensitive people to not over breed, but some people just don't get it. My ex for example evaded forms about school fees and got away with it despite laws stating both parents responsible. It's something I'm sick of and changed as when I was child I was in half class side who didn't get reports. If you have half wits know education is not free, let alone university access if you don't reside in France

 

[tree]

 

[Forest Cat]

Some countries are going to have to start seriously considering controlling the numbers of people they have because current situations aren't going to be sustainable for much longer.

We actually have the opposite problem here, the authorities are telling us we need to have more kids right now. They have been saying that for a few years. That is the situation in several european countries, the birth rates have never been lower.

 

[Crossbreed]

(I would hate to be that ".4" or ".1" kid...!)

 

[Outdated]

We actually have the opposite problem here, the authorities are telling us we need to have more kids right now. They have been saying that for a few years. That is the situation in several european countries, the birth rates have never been lower.

Birth rates are very low here too but our population has been climbing rapidly with immigration and refugee intake. Too rapidly, infrastructure expansion isn't even close to keeping up.

25 years ago we had an idiot Prime Minister that said if we want to become a true commercial power we have to increase our population to 46 million. A lot of politicians today still believe that and are still pushing for it even though we started suffering water shortages when we got to 23 million. It's the driest habitable continent on the planet.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

We actually have the opposite problem here, the authorities are telling us we need to have more kids right now. They have been saying that for a few years. That is the situation in several european countries, the birth rates have never been lower.

Clearly we need to ship babies from Australia to Norway.

(Just teasing! I’m not in favor of shipping babies anywhere.)

 

[tree]

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

View attachment 135261

I’m not sure, tree, but I think you are suggesting this baby sleeping in a toy boat is on his way to Norway?

 

[Mary Terry]

I’m not sure, tree, but I think you are suggesting this baby sleeping in a toy boat is on his way to Norway?

It's a baby Viking.

 

[Judge]

It's a baby Viking.

Could be. I mean, they all start out without any horns, right?

 

[Forest Cat]

It's a baby Viking.

Norwegian babies look like this:

 

[Judge]

Norwegian babies look like this:

View attachment 135285

That's not a baby...has to be a toddler. Note the hornettes...

Gotta love those Vikings though. They really know how to ring someone's bell.

And party!