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Thread: passion... TOP 10

  1. #1
    Bell
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    passion... TOP 10

    passion...

    not necissarily the sexual type passion - but passion in
    general... what are you passionate about ??


    I've been giving that some thought lately...

    it's surprising how one's mind can wander off when they start
    to really STOP and THINK about what they are passionate about...

    sure there are one or two that easily come to mind for each of us...
    different passions for different people... but if you needed to
    come up with a minimum of 10 things in your lifetime that you
    can clearly see where you were passionate about something -
    what were they ??

    and do you foresee that 5, 10, 20 years from now those passions
    will still be foremost for you - or do you feel that as you
    age those passions will be replaced by something else ??

    there are some passions tbat run so deep that no matter how
    old we get - we know we will always be passionate about...

    I'm still thinking about my TOP 10...

    I want to get to know you better though - - - what are your
    TOP 10 Passions ?? (and if you have more than 10 - that's
    totally fine - share as many as you'd like to)

    to start - here are a few of mine:


    1. Freedom of Speech

    2. Compassion for the Elderly - in sharing time with them...
    reading to them, playing cards, listening, talking, movies,
    crafts, walking, assisting them with doing greeting cards for
    their loved ones - birthdays etc...

    3. Raggedy Ann - I can't help it I have a passion for her red
    hair and freckled face...

    4. Relaxation Techiques - Stress Relief Options - Sharing
    Information - Gathering Information - Experiementation

    5. Nurturing Friendships - Meeting New People - Networking -
    helping people to feel comfortable in unusual surroundings or
    circumstances...

    ok...

    your turn...

    ~Bell


  2. #2
    Bell
    Guest
    I can't believe I forgot this one...
    trival but one of those core deep ones:

    6. Chocolate


    ~Bell


  3. #3
    Bell
    Guest
    I see you reading this...



    you can at least post one of your passions...

    can't you ??

    LOL !!!

    ~Bell


  4. #4
    Jasun
    Guest
    1. Metal. Hard Rock... loud, screaming screeching music with loud agressive riffs. Slayer, Priest, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, God Forbid, Judas Priest, Mnemic, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir.

    2. Motorcycles. Riding at night, through the country side... going north on country roads very late in the middle of the summer, seeing fire flies and smelling the dew.

    3. Beer.

    4. Harry Potter books. It's a sickness. I can't stop reading them over and over again.

    5. Batman.


  5. #5
    RainGurl
    Guest
    i think that my passions change over the years. For a while, I was taking sailing lessons and everything was about sailing. Then it was golf, and that was all i wanted to do. In college, I was passionate about politics and justice...

    I'm an obsessive person, so when I latch on to something, look out. For example, when I decided I wanted to learn how to snowboard, I went out and bough ALL the gear, clothes, handwarmers, boots, and of course, a snowboard (which is now collecting dust in my phoenix home.)

    Lately, i'm into penny stocks.

    There have been times when I have been passionate about causes and get really active such as gay rights, the death penalty, etc.

    I'm also very passionate about my dogs. They are definitely my kids.

    I'm always passionate about family and friends...afterall, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about for me.


  6. #6
    DigitalJay
    Guest
    Great post Bell! Everyone's passions say a lot about them, so this is a good way to get to know people
    Here are the ones that pop into my head;

    1. Being in love
    2. Composing digital music
    3. Trying to become a successful entreprenuer
    4. Reading (especially Stephen King)
    5. Bitching about not having enough time/money to do 2-4
    6. Cooking
    7. Creating beautiful things from scratch
    8. Shopping for bargains
    9. Helping other people
    10. Hoping and praying for a better world to live in


  7. #7
    Bell
    Guest
    Originally posted by Jasun
    1. Metal. Hard Rock... loud, screaming screeching music with loud agressive riffs. Slayer, Priest, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, God Forbid, Judas Priest, Mnemic, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir.

    2. Motorcycles. Riding at night, through the country side... going north on country roads very late in the middle of the summer, seeing fire flies and smelling the dew.

    3. Beer.

    4. Harry Potter books. It's a sickness. I can't stop reading them over and over again.

    5. Batman.


    thanks for sharing...

    I wonder how Harry Patter and Raggedy Ann would get along...
    both have freckles (I think he does... doesn't he???)


    ~Bell


  8. #8
    Bell
    Guest
    Originally posted by RainGurl
    I'm always passionate about family and friends...afterall, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about for me.

    thanks for sharing...

    I wholeheartedly agree and identify with the last one (above)...

    ~Bell


  9. #9
    Bell
    Guest
    Originally posted by DigitalJay
    Great post Bell! Everyone's passions say a lot about them, so this is a good way to get to know people
    Here are the ones that pop into my head;

    1. Being in love
    2. Composing digital music
    3. Trying to become a successful entreprenuer
    4. Reading (especially Stephen King)
    5. Bitching about not having enough time/money to do 2-4
    6. Cooking
    7. Creating beautiful things from scratch
    8. Shopping for bargains
    9. Helping other people
    10. Hoping and praying for a better world to live in
    thanks for sharing...

    first of all - I am most interested in asking you
    about number 7

    please give me an example of something that you consider
    to be something beautiful that you created from scratch...

    I'm anxious to know more about you...

    ~Bell


  10. #10
    chick with a bass basschick's Avatar
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    hmmm... interesting topic for some soul searching...

    1. playing the bass
    2. all sorts of music
    3. my family (including the small furry members) and friends
    5. kindness to all, human and animal, in real ways that count
    6. reading books
    7. choosing and eating good food
    8. *
    9. *
    10. checking my stats ;-)


  11. #11
    DigitalJay
    Guest
    Originally posted by Bell
    thanks for sharing...

    first of all - I am most interested in asking you
    about number 7

    please give me an example of something that you consider
    to be something beautiful that you created from scratch...

    I'm anxious to know more about you...

    ~Bell
    Well, this may sound lame, but an example is; at this time of year there is an absolutely beautiful local tree, I think it might be called Mimosa (sic?), that smells like passion fruit and blooms beautiful fuzzy hot pink buds, I love to pick them and fill a triangular glass dish i have with them, making a sort of gay-pride centerpiece that fills the room with a delicious smell.

    This week I took a bunch of scrap wood I found in an abandoned rock query and made a quite nice dog house for two adorable stray puppies that found a home under my house hehe.

    I have a friend into Native American stuff, so I took a really pretty peice of drift wood I found and sawed it, ran it through a plainer and, you know those ads for those collectible plates? I cut one out of an indian chief, burned it around the edges, put it and a clock face onto the wood and laminated the whole thing with thick-coating varnish, I think it made a beatiful-if-somewhat-tacky gift for only the price of a clock face.

    Yesterday I picked blackberries from a bush outside and made one of the best cobblers i've ever had from scratch with them, does that count? It looked beautiful to me hehe.

    Also, I consider some of my musical compositions to be beautiful, and made from scratch.

    there are a million other examples but those are the most recent, I have too much time on my hands so stuff like this keeps me somewhat entertained.


  12. #12
    AusCoding Allan
    Guest
    Hey Bell,

    So these are my passions

    1. First and foremost - plants
    2. Quality in everything I do
    3. To succeed
    4. Making the world a better place for everyone!

    Cheers,

    Allan


  13. #13
    Moderator Bec's Avatar
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    Motorcycles. Riding at night, through the country side... going north on country roads very late in the middle of the summer, seeing fire flies and smelling the dew.
    Oh I could so FEEL that!! Just makes me want to run out and DO it!!


  14. #14
    Moderator Bec's Avatar
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    I'm also very passionate about my dogs. They are definitely my kids.
    Ah, someone else who understands about that!! I'm the same way about my "kids" .... most think they're just pets, but it's much more than that for me. I think having to get up and care for them and feed them helped get me back on my feet a lot faster after my surgery. Of course, they weren't about to leave me in peace when the food bowl got empty either LOL I swear they count every friggin piece of food in the canisters and KNOW when I'm about to run out... they get obnoxious as hell and are right at the door inspecting every bag I bring in!


  15. #15
    AusCoding Allan
    Guest
    Originally posted by DigitalJay
    Well, this may sound lame, but an example is; at this time of year there is an absolutely beautiful local tree, I think it might be called Mimosa (sic?), that smells like passion fruit and blooms beautiful fuzzy hot pink buds, I love to pick them and fill a triangular glass dish i have with them, making a sort of gay-pride centerpiece that fills the room with a delicious smell.
    In just 30 years, one weed has taken over vast stretches of the Northern Territory. Mimosa pigra, a native of tropical America, has consumed more than 800 square kilometres of wetlands and now threatens Kakadu National Park. Full-time search-and-destroy teams patrol the World Heritage area, guarding against an invader that has resisted every chemical and mechanical offensive. Brad Collis asks is an armory of insects the answer to this growing problem?

    A distant shot of a vast Mimosa thicket on the Adelaide River, Darwin.
    A green forest, stretching to the horizon, draws camera-toting travellers to a tourist stop overlooking the Adelaide River flood plain south-east of Darwin. The sudden green swathe is an alluring contrast to the red northern landscape.

    Few, however, realise they are photographing an alien; a tree-like weed that in just 30 years has consumed more than 800 square kilometres of wetlands and presses threateningly against the Kakadu National Park. Full-time search-and-destroy teams now have to patrol the World Heritage area, guarding against an invader that has resisted every chemical and mechanical offensive.

    The invading weed is called Mimosa pigra, a native of tropical America, and its capacity to double its territory every year gives it the potential to completely redraw the northern landscape.

    The day of the thickets

    Mimosa pigra was introduced into the Darwin Botanical Gardens in the late 1800s as a curiosity plant. A few 'escapees' were discovered near the Adelaide River township in the 1950s, but it was several big wet seasons in the 1970s that washed seeds downstream to the Adelaide River floodplain, which gave the weed its big break.

    A single Mimosa plant can produce over two hundred thousand seeds each year, and the seed pods float, enabling them to spread rapidly during the wet.

    The Mimosa pigra problem is be the subject of an International Scientific Symposium in Darwin on 27 September. Scientists from around the world, including the USA where the weed has also invaded the Florida Everglades, will pool their knowledge.
    If Mimosa was to establish itself in Kakadu National Park, some have predicted it could turn this unique natural treasure into an alien landscape in a decade.

    The worry for scientists, national parks managers and pastoralists is that if the weed isn't stopped it will inevitably spread across the entire tropical north, from WA to Queensland.

    The main strategy, now, is to use insect and fungal control agents to reduce infestations levels that might then be manageable with fire and mechanical clearing.

    Weed warfare


    Sensitive New Age Weed - the Mimosa leaves close when touched.
    In Central America, Mimosa is called "the giant sensitive plant" because the leaves close when touched, but it is clearly no shrinking violet. Its impenetrable forests have resisted chemicals, fire and bulldozers, and even some of the biological weapons deployed against it.

    In the mid-1980s a few thousand seed-eating beetles, painstakingly collected in the Americas and bred-up in quarantine, were sent in against the weed-and disappeared. Nonetheless, scientists and wildlife officials believe biological control is still their main hope, especially since the weed is often in areas that are flooded for long periods and therefore inaccessible for ground control.

    Experience has also shown that mechanical control rarely kills the plants; healthy Mimosa is difficult to burn and the plants usually re-sprout. The quest, therefore, has been to find more determined or resilient insects.

    Insects to the rescue?

    In recent years, 12 insect species and two fungal pathogens have been reared and released and according to the researcher leading the ground assault, Dr Quentin Paynter, six of the insect species have managed to establish themselves in the Mimosa infestations and seem to be having an effect.

    The insects' initial impact has been on the weed's seed production, which has fallen dramatically, and some trees around the perimeter of Mimosa thickets have started to die.


    Dr Paytner examines a stem for evidence of infestation by the stem-mining moth Neurostrota gunniella.
    Dr Paynter, a Darwin-based biological control specialist with CSIRO, says one of the difficulties facing researchers is the highly seasonal northern Australian climate. Mimosa doesn't flower during the dry season, which means the flower and seed-feeding insects run out of food and usually expire by the time the Mimosa begins to flower again.

    "So, not surprisingly, the most successful insects have been those that can feed on the Mimosa all year round - leaf feeders and stem miners," he said.

    "We've deployed two stem miners, one that attacks the growing tips and small green stems, and another that can get into the thicker stems and woody parts of the plant. Working together they can be pretty damaging."

    The trouble is, these insects are slow workers: "Even if they can begin to shrink an outer perimeter by, say, five metres a year it would take a century for a 100-hectare infestation to disappear-and we've got 80,000 hectares to tackle," said Dr Paynter.



    An experimental campaign

    The campaign to stop the spread of Mimosa, and one day hopefully control it, is a joint program between the CSIRO and the Northern Territory Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment. The two agencies have been running experiments on a 130 hectare patch of Mimosa within an Aboriginal reserve that has lost more than 8000 hectares of its wetlands to Mimosa.


    A curious plant, the Mimosa pigra was planted in the Darwin Botanical Gardens in the late 1800s.
    A combination of bio-control, bulldozing and chemical spraying has cleared stands on some sites - but this has raised another problem. The Mimosa thickets are so dense that even where the plant has been killed it leaves behind impenetrable stands of dead wood, preventing mop-up work needed to destroy regenerating seedlings.

    The obvious solution is to burn the thickets, except fire is becoming another environmental issue for northern Australia. Other researchers are trying to reduce the amount of annual burning which is damaging ecosystems and significantly adding to Australia's Greenhouse debits.

    It is yet another illustration of how complex landscape repair work is, once the damage is done, and while scientists are starting to become more confident they can get on top of Mimosa pigra, their ultimate victory is likely to be far into the future.



    Other weedy threats

    Mimosa has so far attracted the most attention because of its threat to Kakadu National Park, however, other parts of the north are also under siege from different weeds, such as Mesquite and Parkinsonia.

    Mesquite is the generic term for four species of thorny shrubs and trees, and like Mimosa have the capacity to transform the northern landscape - in this case into dense thorn forests. The thorns on some plants are 10cm long.

    The plant was introduced into Australia as an ornamental tree around 1900 and now infests all the mainland states, although the most serious infestation is in WA where about 150,000 hectares of the Pilbara has become choked by Mesquite.

    As with Mimosa, biological controls appear to offer the only long-term answer, and two insects were released in 1998 after extensive assessment under strict quarantine.

    One is a sap-sucking bug called a Psyllid (Prosopidopsylla flava) and a leaf tying moth (Evippe sp.), which ties the plant's leaves together, causing defoliation.


    Dr Rieks van Klinken examines the thorns of a Mimosa bush.
    The researcher running the Mesquite and Parkinsonia programs, Dr Rieks van Klinken, said Mesquite had managed to establish itself in different climate zones, which made it difficult to find a control which worked everywhere.

    "So, for example, the insects we've released so far aren't working that well in northern Queensland, but have been effective in the Pilbara-which is fortunate because that's where the biggest infestation is."

    Dr van Klinken said the dense thorn forests formed by Mesquite had both an environmental and a commercial impact. The weed pushed out native vegetation and its deep roots lowered water tables. Once it had formed into thickets it also severely hindered livestock operations in pastoral country.

    A Pilbarra mesquite Management Committee has now been formed with the backing of agricultural and mining groups, and the National Heritage Trust.

    Dr van Klinken said the intended strategy was to use insects to weaken the weed to the point that thickets were more susceptible to other controls such as fire.

    Research into Parkinsonia is in its early stages with Dr van Klinken concentrating on understanding the plant's ecology and how it is able to grow in a wide variety of landscapes and climates. This is the basic information needed before looking for suitable biological controls.
    http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/mimosa/default.htm

    Sorry but I hate Mimosa
    it is an environmental weed in Aus.

    Cheers,

    Allan


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