Rev

aw shucks

I think its interesting that Mitragyna is in the unique position of being entirely undetectable amongst rainforest vegetation given the enormous number of other species that look so similar to it how the thais intend to eradicate it is beyond me

I think the notion of being invaded in Australia is a fantastic farce, one that has its roots far back in the political propaganda machinebeing a sparesly populated country so far from the 'mother country' made us paranoid to begin with. Then Britain needed our help in WW1 and to make the threat seem real they created the propaganda machine to terrify us with the prospect of the 'Invading Huns' And again in WW2 with the propaganda about the yellow hordes descending on us from the north each time there is aconflict the Australian government / media machine freaks us out by bringing up this threat Its bullshit A japanese submersible in sydney harbour a nd afew dozen air raids on a shanty town called darwin did not constitute and invasion threat The japanese were doomed from the start. they tried to bulid an empire of islands with no industrialised states except their own they were very effective at taking islands - especially as the native populations were at first thought the prospects of another asian power as being perhaps a vehicle of liberation - asia for the asians and all that - but they soon found the japanese were worse masters than the brits and french( perhaps not so much the dutch though). Almost as soon as they took the place be it singapore or bali - the native populations turned against them I think we as a nation have to come to terms with the fact that we have the most modern and highly equipped armed forces in the region and are in no threay of inavsion of our sovereignty - rather we have become neo-colonial aggressors - the US deputy - make me almost long to be 'the arse end of the world' again instead - at least that can be said with a laugh the only country in the region with a decent army by numbers is Indonesia and despite the propagnda that sometimes comes up im sure they have absolutely no intention of colonising this country. Any conflict would surely be over the timor oil fields which Australia sent in troops to 'liberate' - why else wait 24 years? the pendulum has now swung the opposite way with islands (near nusa tenggara) that are legitimately indonesian caught in a zone that timor and australia are carving up amongst oil interests. And theyre pissed off at being ignored President megawati is ignoring them for the time being for political reasons (not wanting to dent further indonesias appearance after the timor atrocities) - as is the aussie media (not wanting attention to our own oil grabbing antics) - but its going to have to be dealt with sooner or later - and hopefully sooner before it becomes a festering point of animosity between 2 countries whose people really do prefer peace and trade but so far seem to have been prevented developing this relationship because of awful governance there is no way Australia could be held by an invading force - were too spread out, depend on oil imports to fuel our unsustainable cities and cant even look after our own rural infrastructure in peace time (telstra in the bush?) we're an administrative and stratgic nightmare. about the last place on earth youd want to invade with military force

I was hoping to find M speciosa or M javanica given their ranges - not the sample from new guinea http://www.undcp.org/odccp/bulletin/bullet...ge005.html#s160 the plant was very very similar - even to the red colouration on the new growth however Pak arinas from the botanic gardens in Bali is certain it is a Nauclea sp called bungkel - which is the name i was given by 2 locals independently heres the native sp. (Australia) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/297...970/nauclea.htm and Mitragyna javanica http://w3y.pharm.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/plant/p...photo_uid1=1702 And now i find this - Mitragyna parvifolia is synonymous with Nauclea parvifolia- mmm. can anyone tell me more about the taxonomic relationship between the 2? Physiologically it seems very close http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea...asp?SpecID=2305 also on this site http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea...asp?SpecID=2308 a new name for M speciosa - Kedemba and this http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea...asp?SpecID=2363 The native species to Australia seems also to be found in asia and goes by the names Mambog and krathum khlong very interesting If anyone in Adelaide wants to bioassay there is one growing in the conservatorium and the leaves are quite large and accessible treat with caution

as a sideline while in Bali i spotted a plant that to me looked identical to Mitrgyna speciosa It wasnt in flower and had no seed pods the cutting began to strik after 2 weeks in perlite I was later advised that it was a species of Nauclea and the native name is 'Bungkel' now im back ill take a look and see if the web can help. I may be able to get herb and seed at a later date.

nope he was right. murdoch does have them - near the student village as escapees elsewhere on capmup you may mistakenly pick a saligna and A cyclops , probaly another couple of species though A longifolia seems to be much more widespread in the lower southwest either in jarrah forest - usually associated with the movement of soil ie on the edges of roads or near human habitation where it has escaped into bushland or wasteland

having just passed through Australian Customs on an international flight i have to say that these guys are the most intrusive and rude bunch of officials i have ever met When i gave my new address in NSW as a contact address they quickly siezed on it to grill me about why i was coming to perth then when i said i was moving to find work they grilled me about being a student (listed occupation) so why was i looking for work the guy behind me got it worse , a chinese guy here on business - not only did the customs officer grill him about why he was in australia she gave him ethe third degree over the particulars of exactly who he worked for , where he was going etc considering not a single piece of this ionformation was recorded for any official purpose i think it amounts to simple petty harrassment Im actually really disappointed about australia on my return. People have always said that when i went overseas it'd impress on me how good australia was and how lucky i was to live here Well since ive been back ive had mostly negative experiences and i seriously wish i could go back O/S. maybe its just been a bad day. Theres a few excellent qualities to this society but these seem to be under serious threat of erosion and for the apparent liberties we do possess (mostly material ones) we pay a high cognitive, social and economic price

doesnt this exemplify this whole problem thoughSaddam might be a bastard but he is still the leader of Iraq, even though he wasnt elected in a democratric fashion , neither was bush Call me strange but you cant go round invading countries and killing people just because you dont like them. There are many way to make a positive difference in the world but assasination isnt one of them, wherever its been done it doesnt seem to have had a positive effect The UN, international solidarity movements and boycotts be much more powerful and bloodless tools of change. When people unite we win, when governments fight we, the little people, always lose.

<small>[ 23. November 2004, 01:21: Message edited by: reville ]</small>

Reville on hols? nope revs trekking about bali aaah

No but scops do I was sent some pollen and my scop flowered the night before i flew out - ha! so its been pollinated with pach pollen from 2 sources Hopefully scop/pach hybrids will flower more easily in perth

Ive got bothe the plants you are talking about Planthelper The yellow one wont fruit in perth but the red skin red flesh one does much nicer IMHO than the white fleshed one Ive also got the pulp from one of these white ones fermenting here now for easy removal of seed

It comments like that that cause 'asianisation' instead of accepting new immigrants into our suburban society it only serves to marginalise people into collective ghettos This is bad now and worse later Even his choice of language targets fear. asianised? what Indian? vietnamese? Hong kong? japan? indonesian? a quick analysis of this riduculuous comment shows how little meaning it actually holds maybe he should have just reprinted the old 'yellow peril' posters As a kid there was a lot of second and third generation kids from non-english speaking backgrounds at my primary school (greek, italian, maltese, Slavic) and we all learnt and played together. There were a few chinese (hong kong) kids too. We had the same education so i think we accepted one another - and our school had an annual ' multicultural day' where the parents all brought ethnic dishes and it was a fundraiser/fete for the school. Fried rice, yiros, traditional costumes etc... surely if you slow down cultural interaction you dramatically increase the effect that immigration has in polarising society It stops us all adjusting to one another- which has been an immensely gratifying experience so far given the cosmopolitan culture we now enjoy

Well in hindsight you could probably come up with a better line than grunt I get so wriled up by pushy invasive and incompetent 'authorities' We all do our best to follow their rules, crappy as they may be, and to have the added insult of them looking over your shoulder like your a child totally pisses me off Especially when they havent been bothered to even acquaint themsselves with the true nature of those same rules they are supposedly enforcing while severely wasting my time - imagine the frequency of encounters i have like this with the AFSR and O/S orders. If government was Intelligent, accountable and competent it would be half acceptable but its none of these things.

If its only a letter then just grunt F them Since when is it their business to know yours - so long as you truthfully sign the dangerous good declaration - tell them nothing Id tell them theyre a useless prick and just go buy the same stamp from the newsagent next door

Ill have to report a negative on cube snuff...