occidentalis

I know a few friends that have spent time in PNG as tourists/backpackers or working on scientific projects. It does sound like a pretty rough country but I think some of the horror stories above may have painted an extreme picture. None of my friends reported violence of any kind, just a few of the normal hassles you get in any poor country - bad transport, scammers, and dodgy food and accommodation. I'm not questioning the veracity of any of those stories, just saying they are probably isolated and extreme examples that wouldn't happen to most people. Personally I would not move there with kids, especially without knowing the place pretty well first, but it's high on my list of places to travel.

It seems like it's getting safer every year to me. I didn't make it to Colombia due to time and money constraints, but I had planned to. My trip was from Argentina to Ecuador and everywhere in between. I met lots of travellers who had been through Colombia. The dangerous areas are fairly well delineated and as long as you avoid them you will only face the same dangers you would face elsewhere in South America - mostly scams, rip offs, and mugging. Personally I found Peru to be the most dodgy country, but YMMV. From what I heard, I developed a picture of Colombia as actually safer than Peru.

Interesting stuff, I shared this on. Thanks.

Those rats are specially bred to be highly susceptible to those types of tumours, so what they 'look' like is meaningless. What matters it the experimental design and statistical analysis which separates out the effects of the treatment from the background rates of tumour formation. In the case of that study, the design and analysis were not really adequate to convincingly show that the GM food or glyphosate had any effect. The fact that that photo was even included in the study (it has no scientific value) suggests that the authors had a political point they wanted to make; and the fact that it is endlessly posted, shared, and retweeted suggests that they succeeded in making it. I am all for examining the health effects of GM foods, and I am particularly concerned about the close relationship of Big Ag and regulators as seen in the image above, however I think that rational concern about those issues needs to distance itself from that very poor study.

Interesting stuff many Pityrodias here in WA > any reports of activity from other species?

You can listen to the podcast here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/was-australia-intended-as-a-hemp-colony3f/4240480 Or here is the transcript:

That was Dawkins. But yeah, it was good to see that he had an open mind about it.

I actually don't think there is too much too worry about from a pure conservation perspective; the species is widespread, abundant, and continually being planted in roadside revegetation and landcare programs. You're right, there is no problem in buying and selling seeds. However I do appreciate your concern Mindperformer.

Interestingly the roots of the seedlings produce B-carbolines: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12409020

LOL, I love your paranoia, but I don't think so. The sandalwood market globally is just as big as the other one you're thinking of, and it's been around for much longer The main host species is really only so in agriculture - in the wild, Santalums grow on whatever is nearby.

I strongly recommend installing Wordpress on a test server and learning the basics; also have a look at the many and varied plugins that are available. When you want to customise a Wordpress theme, then you can bother digging into the code in Dreamweaver (although... that's close to the bottom of my list of preferred text editors... try Coda, Textmate, or Notepad++). But you could spend a year building the framework for a site in php (I just have!) and then find that there's a WP plugin+theme that does almost the same thing. Don't reinvent the wheel. If you want a forum, then software such as the one we are in right now, or there are many others (some free), that handle it all for you. Use what's available .

I think GoT has it right But note difference between rights and limitations/restrictions/conditions. The rights conferred by this section do not take away from any of the rights conferred by common law But those rights can be restricted by other things in this act or in any act.

Would love to join you but I think I'll be away for work. Not confirmed yet though, so there's a chance I'll pop my head in.

I wear Steel Blues which are pretty comfortable although I think lacking some support. Because I work outdoors in rough terrain I tend to do be hard on my boots, and the leather at the front of my Steel Blues has been stripped away. So I'm not that impressed with the quality, but they are comfortable. Regarding the 'toes chopping off' story, I was under the impression that this was a requirement of the Australian standard for safety boots. The logic being that it is easier to reattach a cleanly amputated toe than attempt to reconstruct a crushed one. But I have just done a quick google and can't find anything about that - except the Mythbusters story which seems like a pretty good test.

I agree - but I think you're confused. This has nothing to do with Zionism (the modern political movement). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

You may not realise it, but this quote gives away the fact that this document is thinly veiled antisemitic nonsense. It's also completely in-credible, considering the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is very well established to be an antisemitic hoax to serious conspiracy researchers. Australia may or may not be a corporation, and it's status as a corporation may or may not have any relevance to anything of import, but typing in ALL CAPS and quoting relics of historical racism are not proof of anything except for the fact that this document is not worth the bits it's written on.

Actually I think they are confused - when I travelled in South America, I found that the plant we call Tamarillo (Solanum betaceum) is widely called Tomatillo.

Yep, I think that's what we've all been trying to hint at ;)

No, a carbon filter is not a HEPA filter HEPA filters are very fine mesh filters that remove particulate matter. Carbon filters just remove odours and chemicals from the air, not small particles (well, they may remove some particles, but it's not their main purpose).

I just bought some loph seeds from http://www.seedsaustralia.net/shop/ They came through with no problems.

Hi everyone, and welcome Permatony, good to see you here. I have O. nidiformis and will try and revive some cultures. I was the person who originally got it into culture (with assistance from another SAB member, who then provided it to Sporeworks, from where it has gone global ). If anyone finds any fruiting this year, or other interesting (legal) wild fungi that they would like to cultivate, I have a laminar flow, and I invite established members to come play in the lab with me in return for cultures. Also, how do WA people get cactus seeds these days? I'm hoping to do a big loph grow this spring. Earth Alchemy has moved to Indo which I imagine makes it more difficult to get things into WA, and SAB is no longer sending to WA... who can help us now?

Palma. you might also be interesting in looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachellia_farnesiana since it is a north American species and does well in a dry climate (even weedy in northern Aus)

I'm keen for one if they are available too.

You don't really believe that do you?

WD drive ranges are named after colours - Green is the cheapest (and supposedly more eco-friendly) range, then there's blue, then there's black. The blue and the black ones are good. Most people buy the green ones (including me) because they are VERY cheap compared to the others. http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120