tripsis

A. auricula-judae.

Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. They're fine, leave them be.

That's really strange. Mine starting showing signs of weirdness at around 3 - 4 weeks.

I love this thread. So much pumpkin epicness.

Well, I actually decided to keep them. They meant too much to me to go through with it and the money does not. Sorry to all and sundry for wasting anyone's time!

.......

Might join you guys this year. <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

You're a degenerate incog. And I have no interest in your seeds. But allow me to leave you with this parting poem. Incog dreams of bukkake from goats. “Especially those of Hillbilly’s”, he notes. To steal those goats he hatches a plan, Using ninjas shipped straight from Japan. “None of this is superfluous!”, he crows. Mad with desire until his load blows.

As much as you can spare, but if you only have a small amount, then that suffice to propagate with at least. <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

Anyone got any to trade? PM me. Cheers!

Awesome job, Stillman! Your daughter looks suitably delighted in her handiwork. The Pumpkin Princess!

15 December 2013 Last updated at 00:29 GMT The return of the female condom?By William Kremer BBC World Service /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71735000/jpg/_71735148_origami_624_deep.jpg&key=5763a20bee5197894d2f5595b8875cbf252ee2cb44ba460bc08357c34b81e06c The female condom flopped when it was launched some 20 years ago, but it never disappeared entirely and now a number of companies are entering the fray with new products. Could its time have come? Its formal name was the FC1, though many of us knew it as the Femidom, or Reality, and jokers called it all sorts of names - plastic bag, windsock, hot air balloon... Two decades on, Mary Ann Leeper has yet to see the funny side of such quips. "I so believed in that product," she says. "I so believed that women would want to be able to take care of themselves. We were naive, or I certainly was naive." Mary Ann Leeper Female Health Company Leeper was the president of Chartex, the company that made the FC1. Before the launch, there was an atmosphere of curiosity and anticipation, but those involved underestimated just how unfamiliar the large, slippery device would look and feel to customers in Europe and the US. Leeper traces the backlash to a single negative article in an influential US women's glossy magazine. "That story was the pivotal story that became like a domino effect," she says. "It was a shock to me, to tell you the truth. Why would you make fun of a product that was going to help young women stay healthy, that was going to protect them from sexually transmitted infections as well as unintended pregnancy?" /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71705000/jpg/_71705868_apdc_3932.jpg&key=bad35f9170f972c00c8354a6c0498f9dcd5f5509d7e15d84f1e57d9bd413107fThe FC2 is 17cm (6.5ins) long - the smaller ring is flexible for easy insertion To be fair, the FC1 had something of a design flaw. Made of polyurethane, it was a bit noisy during sex, and it was inevitable that comic stories of rustling under the bedclothes would be told and re-told. In the early years, Chartex's successor, the Female Health Company, considered folding, but instead it set about developing an education programme. Then one day in 1995, Leeper received a telephone call from a woman called Daisy, responsible for Zimbabwe's HIV and Aids programme. "She said, 'I have a petition here on my desk signed by 30,000 women demanding that we bring in the female condom,'" recalls Leeper. It was the start of a set of partnerships that took the female condom to women in large parts of the developing world. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71705000/jpg/_71705870_cupidsocialmarketinginhairsalon_mozambique_ryanw.daniels.jpg&key=cad331faf63a6a5b786f1335522a89e2a7f5b784429066a93dfc66942f0c0012Projects in Nigeria, Cameroon and Mozambique distribute female condoms via women's hair salons, which sell them at a small mark-up, after explaining how they are used The FC1's successor, the FC2 - made of non-rustling synthetic latex - is far more successful than many in the West realise. It is available in 138 countries, sales have more than doubled since 2007, and the Female Health Company has been turning a profit for eight years. The vast majority of sales are to four customers - the US aid agency (USAID), the UN and the ministries of health in Brazil and South Africa. Donors and public health officials are keen on anything that gives women the upper hand in what they call "condom negotiation" with men. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71709000/jpg/_71709707_condom.jpg&key=925a34764da0104934a7bfeb78225e01c058b7efb00b935486e5cf32794cdd87Footage of condom activists from Pathfinder International Female condoms have other advantages too. They can be inserted hours before sex, meaning that there is no distraction at the crucial moment, and they don't need to be removed immediately afterwards. For women, there is better protection from sexually transmitted infections, since the vulva is partially covered by an outer ring that keeps the device in place. User feedback is also pretty good. A 2011 survey found that 86% of women were interested in using the method again and 95% would recommend trying them to friends. "Many people report that female condoms heighten sexual pleasure," says Saskia Husken from the Universal Access to Female Condom Joint Program (UAFC). For men, they are less tight than male condoms. For women, the large ring of the condom - which remains outside the vagina - can also be stimulating. In Africa, the free availability of female condoms at clinics has led to an unexpected fashion trend. Women have taken to removing the flexible ring from the device and using it as a bangle. "If you are [romantically] available you have a new bangle on," says Marion Stevens from the female health campaigning body Wish Associates. "If you are in a long-term relationship your bangle is old and faded." /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71720000/jpg/_71720270_fc2demoatthemarket_nigeria_robbertbodegraven.jpg&key=001c48ecddc96d374b542726d9cc975a9ace77dcef23bd9d04377a1d74a83d48A demonstration of the female condom in a marketplace in Nigeria Meyiwa Ede, from the Society of Family Health in Nigeria, says that while men are often excited by the prospect of sex without having to wear a regular condom, women are taken aback by their first glimpse of the device. "They look at it and say 'OK - are you saying I have to put that in myself?'" she says. Ede's team of demonstrators use a mannequin to show the condom is inserted and compare the task to using a new phone - bewildering at first, but second nature after a while. In most developed countries there is still that 20-year-old image problem to overcome. "I think the issue is when you open the package they're already open - they're not like male condoms that are in these neat little packages and then they're unrolled," says Mags Beksinska from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. "In fact, they're the same length as a male condom so if you hold the two together open, they're not that different." /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71735000/jpg/_71735152_condom_composite_464.jpg&key=e67502f43b74b2ecbc90b0284296c9b693aed5794cae049e2e6f8b1d90f99663Clockwise from top, the Woman's Condom, Cupid and VA Wow Beksinska is the lead author of a clinical trial recently published in the journal Lancet Global Health of three new models of female condom: The Woman's Condom, already available in China and soon to be distributed in South Africa, is the fruit of a 17-year project by Path - an NGO that specialises in health innovation - which has tested more than 50 versions. Out of the packet, it's smaller than the FC2. It looks like a tampon, with most of the condom gathered into a rounded polyvinyl capsule, which dissolves inside the vagina. Once it has expanded, dots of foam help keep it in place.The Cupid is available in India, South Africa and Brazil. It is vanilla scented and comes in pink or natural colours. It is currently the only model besides the FC2 to have been qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO) for public-sector purchase. A smaller version aimed at the Asian market is in trial.The VA Wow, like the Cupid, contains a sponge which helps users to insert the condom and prevents it slipping.The Lancet study, which showed that all were no less reliable than the FC2, improves their chances of gaining wide acceptance internationally. Other radically redesigned female condoms are either available now, or will be soon. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71697000/jpg/_71697870_panty_air_condom.jpg&key=175a37039170d1a46dc8ccafbd9a01f38699c6279d9bffd0d79d473ca44f22f4Two female condoms from Innova QualityThe Air Condom, on sale in Colombia, features a little pocket of air to aid insertion. The Panty Condom, made by the same Colombian manufacturer, Innova Quality, is packaged with a special pair of knickers, which keep the condom in place, though this product currently lacks a distributor. Meanwhile, a female condom known as the Origami is about a year away from market launch in the US. Its designer, Danny Resnic, who started to work in this area after contracting HIV because of a broken condom in 1993, paid close attention to the jokes about the FC1. "There's a reason it looks like a plastic bag - it is a plastic bag," he says. "It's putting a round peg into a different-shaped hole." His female condom is oval-shaped, which mirrors the female anatomy he says. It is packaged as a teat-shaped capsule (see image at the top of this story), and once inserted it expands like the bellows of a concertina. The outer ring of the condom is designed to sit flat against the labia, rather than dangling as some others do. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71735000/jpg/_71735150_origami_open_464.jpg&key=d03562f9982c9ac8b513b2c885e739451022876bab7361307155a1fd08d59842"It's an intimate product and a shared experience, for two people," he says. "So our female condom is intended to be attractive for both men and women." Since the Origami condom is made from silicone, it has the added benefit of being reusable - it can be washed in a dishwasher. Saskia Husken of UAFC says it's important for couples to have a choice of products if the female condom is to achieve its potential. "There is a need for variety," says Husken. "Some women prefer one product and some prefer another, and men as well. We are not all the same." A 2010 study bears this out. Researchers asked 170 South African women to try out three different female condoms five times. After nine weeks, they could choose to stop the research or continue, using the female condom of their choice. Eighty-seven percent chose to continue, and by this time almost all of them had a definite preference (44% opted for the women's condom, while 37% went for the FC2 and 19% for the VA Wow). The fact that 20 years have passed and the female condom has not matched the success of the male condom - it still accounts for only 0.19% of global condom procurement, and costs about 10 times as much - does not dent the confidence of these entrepreneurs. Mary Ann Leeper explains how she came to realise that it could be a very long game. Several years after the disastrous launch of the FC1, a man from Tampax came to talk to her. He said it had taken not years but decades before doctors put their faith in tampons, and women stopped seeing them as weird and gross. "He showed me the learning curve," Leeper recalls. "I said 'Oh God, don't tell me! Have I got to wait all this time? I don't know if I can last that long!'" But the female condom evangelists may yet have the last laugh. Source. ------------------------------------- Curious as to what people's thought are on female condoms? Would any females here be willing to try them? What do the males here think? Discuss!

OPP, it's tomorrow!

Abbott government strips environmental legal centres of federal funding December 17, 2013 - 6:42PM Tom Arup Environment editor, The Age The release of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook marks the start of Coalition and Labor selling competing economic narratives to the public. Australia’s environmental legal centres have lost their federal funding in a move that could see the closure of some of the nine offices around the country. The federal government has immediately cut an estimated $10 million boost over four years quietly given to Environmental Defender’s Offices in the dying days of the former Labor government. The government is also planning to end a long-standing annual payment – which for all but one office was around $90,000 – from July 1, meaning the legal centres will no longer receive any federal funding from mid-next year. The impact of the cuts will differ around the country with each office having a different reliance on federal funding, with some receiving state government contributions and private donations. But the move is expected to put real pressure on smaller offices in places such as Darwin, Cairns, Perth and Hobart to stay open. Environment Defender’s Offices provide legal advice and representation to individuals and groups on conservation issues, while also advocating law reform. In Victoria the Environmental Defender’s Office recently took the state government to court to force it to prepare recovery plans for four endangered species, which it was required to do under threatened species laws, but had failed to do so over many years. Defender’s Offices are also often used by community and environment groups fighting major developments. Brendan Sydes, chief executive of the Victorian office, said the cuts would mean about a 45 to 50 per cent reduction in his organisation’s funding. He said the office was set to receive its next payment under the former federal government’s boosted funding next week, but instead had received a call from the Attorney-General’s department on Tuesday afternoon saying the Coalition government was not honouring the commitment. ‘‘This decision by the federal government demonstrates the hostility that this government has for the many Australian communities using the law to stand up for the places they love,’’ Mr Sydes said. ‘‘We are extremely disappointed that they are terminating a four-year funding agreement only six months into the term.’’ A spokesman for the NSW Environmental Defender’s Office said the decision would mean a reduction of 20 to 30 per cent in its funding. In October the NSW Minerals Council publicly called for Attorney–General George Brandis to stop funding the NSW Defender’s Office, saying it had always been concerned about the way it had helped stall project approvals. Environmental Defender's Office NSW executive director Jeff Smith said: "Many Australians who care about protecting the environment will be alarmed about losing their EDOs." He pointed to the high profile case in which NSW office represented residents of Bulga in the Hunter Valley who won a court challenge against the expansion of a nearby coal mine. The cuts to environment legal services came as part of the government's mid-year budget update released in Tuesday. In the budget update there is an overall cut of $43.1 million over four years to ''Legal Policy Reform and Advocacy Funding''. That includes reductions of $6.5 million to Legal Aid Commissions, $13.3 million to National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, $3.66 million to Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, and $19.6 million to the Community Legal Service Program, out of the Environment Defender's Offices were funded. In the budget papers the government says the funding cuts would not affect the provision of frontline services. Fairfax Media has sought comment from Senator Brandis’ office. Senator Brandis told a senate committee last week federal government funding should be focused on frontline legal-aid services, not legal advocacy work. Source.

Very interesting article, thanks for posting. Stable isotopes are incredibly useful and are revealing a great deal about the past.

Need I point out that whey comes from milk? If milk's only use is putting fat on baby cows, then you should be using a different type of protein powder.

Damn...those two plants I used to have were obtained pretty easily. Guess I lucked out.

Only cinnamon. Never seen it with seed, but then again, I've never even considered that it could have any. Muskrat heard of a guy in QLD with a private nutmeg orchard, so that may be an avenue worth investigating. If I were you, I would contact Rev and see if he can help.

He does. So he may be able to send over fresh seed if there is something in it for him. Cinnamon is available in Australia, it's just difficult to get and erratically available. Nutmeg is a different story. You may want to PM Muskrat and see if he ever ended up having luck sourcing it. You already know my story with my attempts to get it. It is also understandable why it is so difficult to get. Seeds are only viable for approximately 15 days, during which they can't dry out. Getting them into Australia, still viable and not covered with mould, is challenging.

Shameless plug for an awesome event (and a cross post from the rock climbing thread). For anyone in Sydney and interested in all things adventure related, you should come to Adventure Time on Thursday. The event is run by friends in their warehouse just up the road from the St Peters climbing gym and is free! Adventure Time! It's a great little event, has some really interesting people come to talk. Last month Mike Law gave a talk about Sydney seacliff climbing. <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

For anyone in Sydney and interested in all things adventure related, you should come to Adventure Time on Thursday. The event is run by friends in their warehouse just up the road from the St Peters climbing gym and is free! Adventure Time! It's a great little event, has some really interesting people come to talk. Last month Mike Law gave a talk about Sydney seacliff climbing. <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

Abbott is hell bent on damaging this country to the full extent of his ability. Very sad. Anyone that gives half a shit should be bombarding their local MPs with letters and/or emails about this.

/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/08_22_2012_fractal-life.gif?w=500&key=d5e8187cbea1fad5098875e1ebda65a0e827477ddab7fa32e0133e84309b264a

Is it possible to do this, or implement this feature? Would be useful in a number of instances.

Photos: Orange Octopus, More Creatures Found Deep in Antarctic SeaPosted by Liz Langley in Weird & Wild on December 6, 2013 A sea snail feeding off a dead octopus’ beak is among the 30 new species found during an expedition to Antarctica‘s Amundsen Sea (map), according to the first study to shed light on the sea’s bottom dwellers. The newfound sea snail, or limpet, is from a group that specializes in feeding on the decaying beaks of squid, octopi, and their relatives, according to study leader Katrin Linse of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). (Also see “New Species of Naked Bone-Eating Worms in Antarctica.”) /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/1-antarctic-amundsen-sea-new-species-s2048x1485-p-600x435.jpg&key=7b1184e5af4160e742cce62f5bf82b456560cee9ef962d1b603ac0304d0814bdA young king crab, Neolithodes yaldwyni. Photograph courtesy British Antarctic Survey Linse and a team of marine biologists from BAS and other institutions hauled up 5,469 specimens belonging to 275 species from the depths of the little-explored sea of the Southern Ocean during a 2008 research cruise. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/Octopus-as-Smart-Object-1-copy-600x436.jpg&key=09829fafbd0305a39aeafb6b7b82045e1b8edaa95fa62e63663bb171c3628a24An Antarctic octopus, Pareledone turqueti. Photograph courtesy British Antarctic Survey That year, scientists on the RSS James Clark Ross took advantage of the thin summer ice to get close to the edge of the ice shelf and bring up the thousands of specimens, including some newly discovered in Antarctic waters. At least 10 percent of all the species collected are new to science, and the figure is likely to rise, Linse said. It’s taken a global team years to identify and categorize only a small fraction of the species, which are described October 1 in the journal Continental Shelf Research. Cool Critters Many of the species new to Antarctica are echinoderms, a group that includes starfish and sea cucumbers. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/Limpet-as-Smart-Object-1-copy-600x401.jpg&key=848fa124e5c14cacdae1fdf8c994e3dbe0f1213883de6def030e815729b9c17aA new species of limpet, or sea snail. Photograph courtesy British Antarctic Survey Some of the other finds from the expedition: —A funky, fuzzy bristle-cage worm, so called because of the long bristles on their heads. The critters thrive at a depth of over 3,000 feet (1,000 meters). —Pareledone turqueti, or Turquet’s octopus, which has provided evidence for “cryptic speciation,” in which species appear the same from the outside but have a different form and structure inside. (See “‘Lost World’ of Odd Species Found Off Antarctica (Pictures).”) —A sea lily or stalked crinoid, found nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) down. Polar Refuge The Amundsen Sea has troughs and basins that can be over 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) deep. /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/Common-heart-urchin-as-Smart-Object-1-copy-600x423.jpg&key=33d69dbbe8e130f7f76d0313da35d256ef3d7049dc7e7242795af0acdc05e129A common heart urchin, found for the first time in the Amundsen Sea. Photograph courtesy British Antarctic Survey These geological structures are left over from previous ice ages; animals, some of which persist today, might have taken refuge there. The creatures found in the Amundsen Sea—such as starfish, urchins, and brittle stars—are surprisingly more mobile than those found in other seas around Antarctica, which are generally dominated by large, sedentary sponges, she said. This suggests that in the past, the sea creatures could have moved to more habitable environments when needed. (Also see “Sea Lilies Evolved Escape Strategy From Predators Over 200 Million Years.”) /applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/12/Bristle-cage-worm-as-Smart-Object-1-copy-600x398.jpg&key=22b7f2edaf0f6f2ad827e495163a2f92d79a057723e9bdd912cc0fc03ad79c2bA bristle-cage worm has a spiky head. Photograph courtesy British Antarctic Survey But more changes are coming to the Amundsen due to the breakup of the ice shelf caused by warming waters, so studying the animals now is crucial. “Until now we knew nothing” about the animals that inhabit the Amundsen seafloor, Linse said. “Our recent study gives us a first insight into the biodiversity of this region and can serve as a baseline to observe future changes.” Source.