CβL

I have a tiny plant, that has been hanging on for ages and grown 2 leaves. Hopefully it survives. The damn chickens stomped on it! I just don't seem to be very good with Pipers. Must be a secret I haven't figured out. Maybe they love sand or something in the soil (their roots are quite fine).

Thanks Getafix and Jox (and everyone else). I'm really proud of it, it took a lot of planning and such, even though it doesn't really look like it now. Since the photo, I've managed to squeeze another 2 plants into there, and a 3rd is one the way haha. :D

Cactus garden Front on view Most of the bridgesiis The spiny side of the garden Moneyshot :D

Nemisty (epically) came round today, and gave a huge hand in planting my cacti garden. We planted about 2/3 of the plants (all the biggest and spiniest ones), and got the arrangement sorted nice and tightly. The rest will be done tomorrow. Once it's done and tidied, I'll chuck up some photos.

Oh that's cool. If you're in NZ, you might want to try the same thing with the native supplejack - apparently a similar thing.

It's not ofen you seen an ofen that good. Looks great, and I'm glad it all worked out!

Well I'm not planning on living there forever. I don't have a wife and kids to bring over, so it's just me, and a few possessions. I just need to last a single year (otherwise I owe back the relocation money), and then I can come running back if I so desire. The job is mostly to get work experience (it's fairly cutting edge, but also very rigorous - both good skills to learn), which can then either lead to a more enjoyable job somewhere else (research or so), or I'll just appropriate my skills and work privately on my research with a less stressful job and home-businesses to run the finances. I'll also treat it as a learning experience, and a personal development exercise (learning new habits, becoming way better at guitar, getting rid of old ones (=procrastination) ). I might even end up living in continental Europe, such as the Netherlands later on ( ) . I've researched many of the nature areas in London, and there are actually a few. And if all else fails, I'll pretend I'm an extra-terrestrial, and study these "human societies" from the inside by blending in. My cacti will be looked after too, and hopefully in the following years when there are flowers and such, then I will be able to send out hybrid seeds from my garden. If all goes to plan, the hybrids will be epic!

May as well mention it here - but I'll be heading to London-town to live for a while. All in the name of new experiences and getting use of my degree. We'll see how long I'll last. In the mean-time, I'm making my garden here at my folks place, nice and robust so that if I do come back, I still have a garden. Seems silly to sell everything or let it die, if you have the option to leave it in the ground.

Yes that's probably quite correct. But I don't see how it changes anything, it just means the US could be picking a bigger battle than usual. Maybe we'll see a new type of invasion that has no troops on the ground, and is just an ever-increasing drone presence over the coming years - with no actual fighting for 10 years. Maybe it'll be a carbon copy of what we had before (I somehow doubt it'll be exactly the same). Secondly, there's this I saw now: http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/video-shows-rebels-launching-gas-attack-in-syria/ As is often the case, there seems to be a deliberate effort to lay red herrings. This is a decades old propaganda tactic to sow confusion (I think Goebbels was the one who tried to qualify and codify it). A lot of the evidence is certainly convenient. What will the US official line on these videos be? At the end of the day, I'm not sure if it matters whether the rebels or the government deployed the sarin IF both serve as excuses for the US to enter.

After reading the Fox news report (lol), I got the feeling that even the US's most stalwart supporter couldn't hide the convenience of it all. A quick read showed that sarin isn't too hard to make, but it's quite hard to make well. Have a gander at the qualifications of the Aum Shinrikyo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway All physicists and geniuses - and yet they fucked it up and only killed 13 people, on a crowded subway, in rush hour. Now with 355 people killed in Syria, this would ostensibly take at least that level of intelligence to manufacture and distribute (I still can't find an account what actually happened, and where). So I think it's fairly likely that one of the bigger nations arranged the sarin. The modus operandi for this kind of false flag event is usually that locals are recruited, and told lies about what they're doing (there are accounts of this for the London bombings). Maybe they thought they were being donated some tear gas canisters, and hoped to use them at an opportune time. Unfortunately those people are probably dead, and thus won't be forthcoming with testimonies. It's very interesting that the US has been planning to enter Syria for at least a year, and said that chemical weapons would be the red line they would then cross to enter into Syria. Nothing about other forms of genocide, straight to the chemical weapons (they seem to have deliberately avoided their previous favourite catch-all - weapons of mass destruction, which covered biological and nuclear weaponry too). Of course these are all just circumstantial pieces. Again we have the US calling for the UN (which the UN rarely has any clout these days anyway) to intervene. From memory the weapons inspectors in Iraq were UN (don't quote me). Now if the US created the sarin, then that would allow them to intervene and enter the country. Russia would probably not have the balls to say that the US orchestrated this thing - that would quite likely put a swift end to US/Russia diplomatic relations. So Russia's only other option is to claim that the rebels did it (and maybe later say that the rebels were assisted, and leave it at that). It seems Russia already was balls deep in Syria, and doesn't need a war. In which case, why would they orchestrate a chemical weapons attack - the only stated thing that will draw the US into the country? Makes absolutely no sense to me. Based on these premises: 1) Sarin was made too well and too successfully to have been home-brewed, thus a world superpower or ally created or assisted it. 2) The attack was motive-driven, and all motives of the superpowers are known. I think it's obvious the US has orchestrated this to enter Syria.

I'll lump together the last few days. FINALLY!!!! Finished my potting mix box. It's friggin' so hardcore, and strong, I could fill it with sinkers and it'd be all good. Has removable front slats so that it can be accessed, or go all the way to the top and it can store 0.88m3 of potting mix (would've been more, but I had to decrease the width so it would fit where I wanted to , when I measured originally and got the number 80cm, I forgot that that's the total maximum width, not member length). So yeah, getting a lot of potting mix in the next few days, can finally repot my army of seedlings into bigger pots. Today I dug out my Scop... but because the soil it had been in wasn't tops, it was quite weak, and the main arm snapped off :S Then I worked further on designing my cacti garden, shifting plants around and getting that all sorted. Bought rope earlier in the day so I can shift the spiny bastards a bit better. I'll move a Taq tomorrow, and start getting the rest of it all sorted. Should be finished in a few days (in light of my imminent move to the northern hemisphere).

Don't ya love it when you go to the gym, and lift more weight than you did last time, and you get all sore, but you're like "ahhh, feels good, I can just relax now". Don't ya love it when you're going on an aeroplane soon :D

As long as you can pick them up, they're yours. Only problem is that the trans Australia-New Zealand highway hasn't been finished yet. ;)

Hello guys. I'll be selling off a lot of Trichocereus plants in the next few days. Just taking expressions of interest at this point, as I'll photograph what people want to see, first. Lots of bridgesii, some perus, some other things. The only conditions of sale are that the purchaser A] Keeps the lineage alive B] Keeps the labelling information (if any) with the plant In about 3 weeks I'll be in the Northern Hemisphere indefinitely. Details to follow as they happen.

OMG! That plant is awesome (a different plant, and originally from getafix)! I dunno aye, we'll see how much space is in the ground for the wee laddies. And from the ones in the ground, I'm happy for you to take cuttings later on of plants that I don't especially want to flower. Hopefully I just have a bunch of plants that ANY hybrid between would be epic. Then you can camp on the lawn and hybridize them for me :D (only semi-joking)

Darn hehe. I wonder how such a mixup occured in the first place?

You must want it badly if you cropped the photo of it. Don't worry, I'll PM you soon. I do believe I have two plants of that clone growing too which is good. You and Nemisty will have to fight over who gets the good one ;) I do have a Martin base that has a tiny pup, but probably too small to nip off. I have another piece that didn't root too, might be able to top him.

Welcome to NZ! I'm sure you'll find it great to live where you're living. There's a lot of hiking and nature in that area, and I'm sure that'll be one of the best parts. In terms of growing your own plants, I think you'll probably need a greenhouse, not certain though. Maybe Trichos could still live outside there.

I once almost took some mushrooms before boarding the plane, but figured my gigantic pupils would've landed me in the interrogation chamber, as well as the uncomfortable feeling of needing to piss all the time on a plane being impractical.

I worked further on building my gigantic potting mix bin. It's slowly, slowly, coming together. I have the base beginning to form. I overestimated the strength of a single screw, and found that the partial structure wasn't fully rigid. So where there was one screw per connection on the bottom, there's now 3. This is mainly to allow the partial pieces to be moved without breaking, rather than later structural integrity. I'm still going over in my head about the order of things remaining, and then it will be solely a function of time, materials (running out of one cut of timber), and how well my hands can survive screwing screws in before my skin rips off (already had some rip off just before). Further problems are where to actually build the damn thing, as it's so big it won't fit out the shed door, and whether to drill all holes first, or drill incrementally in-case there's a drift in measurements.

I was under the impression he was planning on being quiet for a while, after the WA state-sponsored goons cracked down on another community member. I think most of you guys know that though, but I thought I'd mention it in case.

I have a good mate who's been busking for years, he has said variously before: 1) Amplification. If you can't be heard, then you won't make much. 2) A permit is required to busk over here, check with your state to see if you need one. Otherwise the council goons may pay a visit. 3) Smile and eye contact 4) Make a mistake? Play on as if it was meant to happen. 5) Talk to other buskers, get to know them.

Great advice botanika. I'll add a few things (even though the date's already occurred): 1) Try and get good mileage out of some topics - it shows you've got depth. Covering everything summary-style on the first date is a little bit like premature ejaculation. 2) Don't be afraid of looking down OCCASIONALLY at her body while she's talking (and don't be afraid of getting caught, in fact you want to get caught) - it shows you're physically attracted to her. Dating is about sending signals, and sometimes clear signals work wayyyyy better than extremely subtle ones. 3) Eye contact is like, your secret weapon. Long bouts of maintained eye contact have scientifically been proven to make people like you more. 4) Steer the conversation into subjects she feels good about (for the first few dates, later on once you've gained a measure of her trust you can steer into subjects she finds difficult). Know when to terminate threads and begin new ones. Ask her a few 'why did you'/'how did that make you feel'/ questions - if you can get her to be talking 50-70% of the time that's a great amount. Don't ask too many questions (interview style), and don't pry on the first date. If you can relate one of your experiences to hers, then do so. If there's a period of silence, use it to smile at her and be relaxed (being a master of the comfortable silence will get you very far).

Not quite. It is possible to reach little loops at the end, such as word A defines word B, but we need word B to define word A (in practice it's going to be a much bigger circle than just 2 elements, and it'll be a network rather than a circle). It's infinite in the sense it's never-ending, but finite in the sense there's only finite information contained in this manner. Words like 'a', 'the', 'is' are kind of like this. But I think the conclusion is more or less intact.

I don't understand any of this kissing on cheeks business. Kissing is for amorous purposes in my book. (European countries also have a standard certain number of kisses on the cheek they do, some it's one, some it's two, some it's three). I also find the handshake with women uncomfortable. For the longest time, I didn't go lightly either, haha. I give firm (but not overly tight) to men. In many cultures it's rude to squeeze the other person's hand hard, and a light handshake is considered polite (might be Middle-eastern and Indian cultures). I hug friends sometimes, but they do tend to feel awkward. It's just me though I suppose. I find many things mildly awkward.