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The Corroboree

occidentalis

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Posts posted by occidentalis


  1. The ants often do farm sap sucking insects. I find I get a lot of the black scale type insects on my caapi and other plants put there by the ants.

    The glands in question are called extrafloral nectaries. Many plants have them.


  2. I don't know of any data on the alkaloid content of the seeds, but I don't think it would be worth while collecting the seeds for that purpose even if it was legal.

    I suspect the label indicates that the parent trees that the seeds were collected from had high alkaloid content (given that many maidenii populations have very low content), rather than saying anything about the seeds themselves.

    • Like 1

  3. this thread is kinda degraded, but I'll throw in my 2c anyway...

    Curious what those that say it too risky think of shamans making up big batches in South America and leaving it in plastic bottles for ages in the tropical heat?

     

    yeah those bottles get pretty fizzy with fermentation. they just sit on shelves in people's houses or in markets without any refrigeration.

    playing it safe is good advice for when one is exploring the outer regions, but I think you'll probably be ok.

    start very small and work your way up. my guess is that stomach problems from bacterial infection would start at lower doses than strong psychedelic effects, so you'll be able to test the safety of it without tripping.

    but don't let me talk you into putting your health at risk. just chuck it and start again. in peru.


  4. Yeah Micromegas has it down

    Cusco is touristy, but still enjoyable (at least for me, when I was there 2 years ago), and your time is limited. From Cusco you'll have access to mountains and jungles, as well as Machu Picchu and the other inca ruins in the Sacred Valley, and fairly luxurious living compared to the rest of Peru.


  5. I've been a soy milk drinker for about ten years (only organic, whole bean soy milk - not 'so good' or any of the other cheap soy protein isolate stuff)

    I've also had GERD for about 10 years, recently becoming quite bad. Funny, usually I wake up in the morning feeling kinda ok. It's only after I have my morning coffee loaded with soy that I start to feel shit. I quit coffee for a while (but not soy) and still had problems. It never crossed my mind that soy milk might be the problem.

    Recently I noticed a correlation with this, and so I've stopped drinking soy milk. It's only been a week or so, but I'm definitely feeling better. Still having some problems, but haven't had to take Somac (the PPI I take when my stomach gets bad) at all.

    So no definite conclusions yet, but I'm definitely going to continue with my soy milk embargo for a bit longer...


  6. Why is it only SA that has a container deposit fee?

    Because the soft drink industry sponsors local governments in other states to do kerb side recycling.

    The soft drink companies believe that it is actually cheaper for them to subsidise local governments to collect your recycling and recycle it than it would be to have a container deposit, and they lobby hard at the state gov. level to ensure this stays the case.

    Here's an example of a soft drink industry website set up to fight the idea in the NT http://www.responsiblerecycling.org.au/

    There are plenty more. There was a four corners doco about this a while ago.


  7. Santiago, as I understand this it's not the pilots that are striking - it's the baggage handlers. Who are on less than 50K pa and are likely to be less educated and have fewer options open to them than a pilot.

    Eatfoo, I've worked in the public service in the last few years and with the agreement I was under had around 3% per year and slightly more some years. I don't know when these qantas staff had their last payrise, so hard to compare.

    I'm not a big fan of unions, but my position is more like that of the pilot. I'm educated, work as a professional in an industry that is in high demand. I don't have debts or kids so I basically get to choose when and how often I work. It's easy for me to be pissed off with unions, which serve little purpose for someone in my position (I saw the baggage handlers walk out of Perth airport on friday while I was waiting for my luggage - slightly worrying - I was on possibly the last Qantas flight to land at Perth before they stopped flying). But unions are made of people, and in this situation I reckon that these people are aware of the fact that they are having an extreme impact on the Australian economy and must feel that their demands are important enough to have that impact. I trust that sentiment more than I trust the CEO who thinks he needs an extra $2 million.


  8. Going too far?

    They asked for a 4.5% pay increase - just slightly more than inflation since they had their last pay increase.

    Doesn't seem like they were asking for that much to me.

    But I think the issue goes much deeper. Many people are saying this is a deliberate act of sabotage by Alan Joyce to create his vision of an 'Asian Qantas' rather than an Australian Qantas. He has intentionally destroyed Qantas by refusing to negotiate. This has been planned for some time, as shown by the fact that Qantas already had thousands of extra hotel rooms booked around the world to accommodate stranded travellers. The unions are just doing what they are paid to do - protect people's jobs and interests.

    • Like 1

  9. All in all there is nothing to be apologetic about Occi, if you are unconvinced that is simply for everyone else to accept & for you continue on in your journey in life, nothing in any of the posts is stated to convince anyone of anything, it is simply hypothesis, opinions & theories, it is the end user to believe or not

     

    You're right. Everything in life is up to the end user to believe or not.

    There are a couple of problems with that attitude in practice - firstly, as I said, I like the freeman philosophy. I want to believe it. Unfortunately it is usually so poorly articulated that I just can't. Far too many plot holes, and when you point them out, you just get responses like this. I have a fairly good basic understanding of pretty much every major branch of science and many branches of philosophy and other human thought. I understand the universe to be fairly self consistent, and at most levels, to be based on logic of different types. This means that when I find something that is illogical, I question it. I definitely question the legal system, because it is based on fear and intimidation, is often completely illogical, and in my opinion does not serve the advancement of human society very often. That's why the freeman stuff appeals to me. However, you can't replace an illogical crock of shit with a magical fantasy where you make up the rules as you go along, and when caught out, claim that it's too complex for most people to understand. Without wanting to sound too full of myself, there aren't actually many things that are too complex for me to understand. So when I find something that appears to be, it becomes an intellectual challenge. Either I figure it out, or decide it's not my cup of tea and leave it alone, or decide that it can't be understood, because it is nonsense. That's the stage I've got to with the freeman stuff.

    Secondly, I know from previous experience that I am one of the most skeptical and critical out of my friends and the people in this community. That means that there's a whole lot of people who are reading this stuff and thinking how awesome it sounds, without bothering to check the facts. It worries me that someone might get themselves into real trouble by trying some freeman stuff out next time they get pulled over or taken to court. I don't discourage these people from exploring the possibilities. I have no doubt that there are 'back doors' in the legal system, that if one has enough understanding of, may allow true freedom or forms thereof. I hope that someone will discover one of these. However I suspect that the freeman system is not one of them, or is perhaps based on one of them but has missed the point.

    I asked you the simple question about 'advise' because I saw it as a potential weak spot. A simple, testable fact, that must be well documented somewhere. I know that it must be well documented, because that is how the legal system works. As I said, in every Act of legislation, when words are used in a special way, those words are always carefully and thoroughly defined at the start of the document. If words such as understand and advise are being used in special ways, those definitions must also exist, on paper somewhere, for magistrates and lawyers to study before they are admitted into the secret cabal.

    I did read your response - and understood it perfectly. I know what a vice is, and I knew what you were getting at the very first time you mentioned 'ad-vice'. The thing is, I reckon that use of the word would still need to be defined somewhere, otherwise, as Sheather says, every single word would have alternate meanings based on the sub-words that make it up, like Psycho the Rapist. Even lawyers wouldn't understand each other.

    I asked if anyone knew where they were defined, and was told Black's Law Dictionary (I knew that would be the answer, but I was hoping someone would surprise me). It didn't take me very long to prove that wrong. If you would like to provide any further sources where they are defined in unusual ways, I am genuinely interested.

    • Like 2

  10. And here's the page for Register

    http://blacks.worldfreemansociety.org/1/R/r-1013.jpg

    Where it seems to have a very simple common English meaning, to me.

    So have any of you actually read Black's Law Dictionary or any other legal dictionaries or do you just believe what's told to you by other people who are into this stuff?

    Isn't Freeman philosophy all about questioning everything? Because I'm not seeing much questioning going on.

    Or is the World Freeman Society a front organisation for the anti-Freeman Powers That Be, who have published a false BLD in order to fool people like me?


  11. OK, I found a copy of Black's Law Dictionary (at the rather interesting URL http://blacks.worldfreemansociety.org/1/A/a-0045.jpg)

    I'm assuming that since it is the copy held at worldfreemansociety.org it is probably most likely to be biased towards the Freeman claims (if it is biased at all). Since I don't have a real copy of the dictionary (and it's quite expensive to buy), I'll just have to trust that that is the real thing.

    The page I linked to is the one with Advise on it. The meaning given is exactly as I understand the word to mean in common English.

    I'm sorry to be nitpicky about this - I'm just using this as an example.

    I genuinely like the idea of the freeman stuff and think a lot of it has real validity philosophically. However much of the material that I have read on the topic, and the people that I have spoken to, has/have been very poorly researched, full of poor logic, strange assumptions, and uncritical thinking. Unfortunately that makes me distrust the whole thing.

    Just out of interest, here is the image of the page for 'understand'. You'll note that although vaguely defined, it has its common english meaning too.

    http://blacks.worldfreemansociety.org/1/U/u-1199.jpg

    So yeah. Totally unconvinced by your playful use of 'ad-vice'.


  12. While I can understand the understand thing, I'll need more advice regarding advice :wink:

    I don't find it convincing. If the authorities have particular non-English definitions for words, they would need to publish those definitions somewhere.

    In most legislation the definitions for words which have unusual meanings in the context of the legislation are published at the start of the Act, usually in extreme detail.

    Where are the definitions for the unusual meanings of words like understand and advise published?


  13. Spend some time on these websites:

    http://worldwidewattle.com/

    http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/

    and learn a bit more generally about the botany of the Acacia genus and the WA flora.

    You can also go into the reference herbarium at DEC in Kensington to use the keys and examine the reference specimens. King's Park is also a good place to go. They have an Acacia garden where you can see many species.

    Show that you have put some effort into understanding the plants. It's a matter of respect. You will get much better results from your field trips and also better response from the more experienced members here.


  14. incog, I still haven't figured out how I'm going to get out there

    I will be transporting some equipment for the workshop, so I'll definitely need a vehicle... still figuring out if I will hire one or try and jump in someone else's

    If you're interested in sharing hire costs then we could get a few people together for the journey.

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