Fair trade coffee explained..

[piscator]

Back to caffeine. The synthesis is a lot of work:
http://intranet.tdmu.edu.te.ua/data/kaf ... tives..htm

I suspect caffeine in colas etc comes from decaffeinated coffee production.

Looks like lysergic acid is easier to synthesize, certainly from ergot:

https://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/ ... -buzz.html

[mistermack]

Hossflies are bad but they're usually solitary.

Goddamn deer flies hurt just as bad, but come by the dozen. And they're territorial -you can't swat them away. They'll keep coming until one of you is dead.





They're bad in the Roseau cane in S. Louisiana...Only critter that ever made me button up in rubber Grunden's raingear in 95degree heat.

That looks very like the horseflies that you get in Ireland, and the rest of Britain I guess.
They do bother horses, but I'm not sure if they can do the same to cattle.
The first time one bit me, I couldn't believe how much it hurt, for what was a bite.
Like a wasp's sting, but it doesn't keep stinging for hours, which is just as well.
They are very crafty. They make hardly any sound, and land on your skin incredibly softly, for a big fly.
They look much like a bigger house fly, so if you've never been bitten, you wouldn't suspect that they were after your blood.
If I see one, I stand still with my hand out, and the other hand poised.
When it lands, it gets squashed. It's a better tactic than shooing them away, because, if you do that, they just go a few yards, and then sneak back and try again.

[piscator]

You're pretty much right. But if you get in a bunch of deer flies, you won't be standing around...

[mistermack]

You're pretty much right. But if you get in a bunch of deer flies, you won't be standing around...

One thing I have got is an electric zapper. Like a very small, lightweight tennis racket.
It takes one single aa cell battery, and you swat flies with it, and it really zaps them. It really does work. They crackle and smoke, and never come back. I've only ever used it indoors, but it would be ideal for deerfly and blackfly. I got it in the pound shop, so you can guess the price.

Like this :

[pErvinalia]

That's fucking awesome! Can you electrocute people with it?

[mistermack]

That's fucking awesome! Can you electrocute people with it?

You can certainly get a shock off it, if you mess about.
But I believe it's safe. You have to short out the inner mesh to the outer mesh to create a circuit. So when you swat a fly, it goes through the outer, sticks on the inner, which is finer, and then shorts out and goes pop.

It has a little button, which you have to press for a few seconds, to charge the capacitor I guess. So you probably only get one single shock off it, like those novelty shock guns.
You have to keep the button pressed while you are waiting to swat the fly so it's perfectly safe anyway, when the button isn't being pressed.

[pErvinalia]

I want one (for flies and mosquitoes, not humans).

[laklak]

I've got one of those. Ooooo - I've been a very naughty boy, mistress.

[JimC]

I want one (for flies and mosquitoes, not humans).

Me too!

Hours of fun in Oz, given our fly population!

(BTW, I just love this perfect example of a Ratzian derail, from fair trade coffee to biting insects...)

[mistermack]

You can get em off Amazon or Ebay, if you haven't got em in the pound shops equivalent.
I'm surprised everyone hasn't got em in Oz. You might think a hornets nest would be a bit ambitious for it, so did I, but take a look :