Random Thoughts II

[CCS]

Sit on a beer crate!

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by caffiend

Or, if you have money - just get this: http://www.pharmacydirect.co.nz/defa...x?t=668&p=2997

No complain of product

or if you have no money, ask your GP if he has any free samples left

[Rivertrog]

http://www.cosmiccorner.co.nz/partypills/saliva/

[Erazhure]

Originally Posted by Jonas Undrawing

... shit drummer's stool.

you need to have more confidence in your drumming Jonas

[Ritalin]

Originally Posted by Rivertrog

http://www.cosmiccorner.co.nz/partypills/saliva/

From all I've heard and read, Salvia divinorum is not a very fun trip.
A guy I know had some tea once, and spent three hours thinking he was a chair leg, and was terrified of moving.
The mechanism by which is works on your brain is a good one for hallucinations, but the same mechanism also produces negative and aversive side effects too.
But hey! It's legal!


Although, perhaps you were merely pointing out the typo in the URL...

[DrTiTus]

Originally Posted by Ritalin

From all I've heard and read, Salvia divinorum is not a very fun trip.

Emailed! (profile addy)

You won't know what it feels like until you try it...

[Beccara]

Doing e for the first time on friday (whilist we are on drugs here) and words fail me, its just WOW

[Redneck]

grats bro, lovely ain't it

[JP]

Anyone else just watch that bit on the news about the Saudis considering increasing oil production to drop the price a bit? Raised two interesting points.

One. The price is being artificially inflated. It's not just supply and demand. It's some cunts fucking with the price. Take it off the stock market, do something, I don't know, but it's way too important a resource to allow it exploited by greed.

Two. Mobil and other cunts who are currently ripping us off, may be posting record profits currently. But they're also effectively subsidising alternative fuels, because they become more attractive the more expensive oil gets. If we do manage to become far less reliant on oil, then they've just shit hundreds of billions of future profits down the drain. Here's hoping.

I don't know. Does it fuck anyone else off? I mean supply and demand, fair enough. But this isn't supply and demand. This is artificially increased prices due to speculators. Doesn't seem right to me.

[Solvent]

Why should the owners of oil resources benefit less from their property simply because we 'really need' their resource and it's costing more?

[JP]

Originally Posted by Solvent

Why should the owners of oil resources benefit less from their property simply because we 'really need' their resource and it's costing more?

It's not the saudi's driving up the price. It's speculators buying into it. I won't pretend to understand or explain how that works.

All I know is a resource as important as oil (the stock market can go nuts on most resources for all I care) shouldn't be so influenced simply by people buying and selling stocks/bonds/whatever.

The cost the petrol companies buy it for, plus their margin, should be the cost. Which would be many cents lower than it currently is. Apparently (from the news for all its worth) oil should be around 80-100 a barrel.

edit- also 'sif make out the owners of oil to be vulnerable to unfair treatment. Can you imagine a better resource to own? Somehow I doubt exxon is having a hard time making profits. Fuckers barely pay to fix their spills either.

[JP]

Damn 5 minute edit!

Was going to say. If anyone actually knows how speculating works and why it would drive up the price of oil, please explain.

[Solvent]

I don't know if I could think of a more unlikely event than the decommodification (in a sense) of petrol in a neoliberal, or even third way nation.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Hazmat

About as much as there was when it was under $1 / L.
Petrol tanks don't hold more fuel just because petrol is cheaper.
There'll be more people *filling* their tanks, but that will also mean less frequent visits.
*shrug*

not the answer i was thinking of. more likely there'd be next to no fuel at the pump because all the oil would be consumed for cheap heating and cheap power generation and cheap manufacturing - all of which would pay a better price for the oil, preventing petrol companies from being able to get any.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by JP

Somehow I doubt exxon is having a hard time making profits. Fuckers barely pay to fix their spills either.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/s...9/daily96.html

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it plans to shed its U.S. retail gasoline business, like other major oil companies who've seen profit margins squeezed by high crude oil prices.

The Irving, Texas-based oil giant said it wants to sell the 820 service stations it operates and another 1,400 company-owned outlets over the next several years, according to media reports.

That's only about 25 percent of the roughly 12,000 Exxon Mobil-branded stations in the United States. The other 75 percent are owned by distributors who sell Exxon Mobil products and pay to use the name.

The company will keep the Exxon and Mobil brands, so consumers can still buy gasoline at stations that carry the Exxon and Mobil names.

Although U.S. gasoline prices have topped $4 a gallon, gas stations have still struggled with keeping costs down amid record crude oil prices.

"We are in a very, very challenging market. Margins are reduced," Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Prem Nair told Reuters. "We feel the best way for us to grow and compete is through our distributor network."

Other oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP PLC have announced similar moves to sell their lower-return retail business.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) made $11 billion in profits during its first quarter, buoyed by its exploration and production business which notched nearly $9 billion in profits, up 45 percent. Earnings of the company's downstream, or refining and marketing, segment fell 39 percent to $1.2 billion.

i guess privatisation of service stations wont help the price, either.

and on a slightly related note, midnight oil vs exxon http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=F1HWripf6zE

[Sp0nge]

Originally Posted by JP

If anyone actually knows how speculating works and why it would drive up the price of oil, please explain.

'speculating' is just a catchy word for trading stuff for the sole purpose of making a profit, not because you are going to use what you are purchasing.

so when speculators buy barrels of crude oil, they are not doing it to stock it in their basement or put in their lawnmower...
all they are doing is buying it so that they can sell it to someone at a higher price.

if enough speculators do that, and its a scarce resource like oil, the price goes up because the people that really need to buy oil to actually use it have no choice but to buy it at the higher prices.

then you have the problem of greed:

the speculators start to get greedy and some buy at the higher prices hoping to sell even higher
...and the price starts to skyrocket.
sometimes it gets to ridiculous prices that have no relevance to the real scarcity of the resource.

eventually the price peaks...either because the buyers find alternatives, or more resource is discovered, or the speculators start thinking that the price is too high and fear starts creeping in that they might not be able to sell it any higher.

usually after it peaks you get a steep decline because the speculators that still have oil still need to sell it...

imo, oil is expensive now mainly because of greed and not because it is running out anytime soon....

[crocos]

Yarr harrr, fiddle-dee-dee
Being a pirate is alright to be
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free
You Are a Pirate!

[::Shocker]

Originally Posted by Sp0nge

so when speculators buy barrels of crude oil, they are not doing it to stock it in their basement or put in their lawnmower...

Speculators trade oil futures, not barrels of the stuff.

[cyc]

It's Sponge. Don't let the truth get in his way.

And you can be sure that his reply will be some fucked up attempt at poetry.

[Ab]

I've just found something that improves a re-watching of The Matrix Revolutions. Watching The Matrix Revolutions while reading the nzgames The Matrix Revolutions discussion thread.

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Ab

I've just found something that improves a re-watching of The Matrix Revolutions. Watching The Matrix Revolutions while reading the nzgames The Matrix Revolutions discussion thread.

Masochist!

[Redneck]

humans can't be batteries

[dead goon]

the track 'Revolve' by Melvins is one of the most kick ass rock songs ever.

[Draco T Bastard]

Originally Posted by JP

Anyone else just watch that bit on the news about the Saudis considering increasing oil production to drop the price a bit? Raised two interesting points.

Interesting fact: The oil reserves that Saudi Arabia say they have hasn't gone down in the last 10 to 15 years even though they've been pumping out hundreds of millions of barrels every year.

The Saudis increasing their oil production? I'll believe it when I see it.
ATM, I'd say that they're trying to scare the speculators who are betting on Peak Oil already being here or being very close.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Redneck

humans can't be batteries

But perhaps they could be co-processors?

Originally Posted by Draco T Bastard

Interesting fact: The oil reserves that Saudi Arabia say they have hasn't gone down in the last 10 to 15 years even though they've been pumping out hundreds of millions of barrels every year.

That's a fact?

[ePi]

woods just nailed a birdie putt on the last hole to force a playoff, westwoods putt to force a playoff went right.

this is awesome

[cEvin]

Originally Posted by Rivertrog

http://www.cosmiccorner.co.nz/partypills/saliva/

lol @ typo in url

[Reformed_Quint]

Originally Posted by cEvin

lol @ typo in url

When i worked at a bottle store many moons again, It was always a laugh to hear people come in and ask "You guys got any saliva?"

Yes, you can imagine the comical comments we used to make.

[Sp0nge]

Originally Posted by ::Shocker

Speculators trade oil futures, not barrels of the stuff.

my explanation was in layman's language
so that even cyc could understand
even though i didnt even mention asians
and the chinese

if you want to be pedantically anal
futures are only one way to speculate in oil
i do it via contracts for difference
and even futures are based on the price
of actual barrels at a future date

and ffs this is not bad poetry:
it is aweful prose

[StN]

When i worked at a bottle store many moons ago, a rather large girl came in asking for what I was sure was Tyrell's Non-Fat Red. She should have spoken more clearly, and I would have found it faster.

[Jonas Undrawing]

I'll spit in your mouth for $20 a hit.

[Draco T Bastard]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

That's a fact?

From what I've read and the docos I've seen - yes.

[doppelgänger of someone]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118903788315518780.html

YouTube singing sensation, the chick who covered Rihanna's Umbrella, is as prefab as my love towards the music industry.

[[BT]MikeMan]

OK so I have just read an article that outlines to me the symptoms of what is wrong in NZ. (Source: NZ Herald)

So a 15 and 16 year old spend "All afternoon and evening" drinking and smoking pot, they decide that tagging the area they are in is a good idea, go out and tag at least 5 properties that the survivor admits to, they run into a guy who decides for whatever reason to do something about it and in an admittedly stupid move stabs one of these punks, killing him. Now I have no issue with our stabber being charged, but why is the 16 year old back on the streets and not locked after admitting to several crimes that I can see?

I will bet that the 16 year old never gets charged with the crimes that he has admitted to in court.

[JP]

He's hardly going to get locked up for drinking/smoking pot/tagging. I hope he is held responsible for his actions.

But that whole situation is just one big example of an unnecessary fucking tragedy that's sadly too common.

I feel bad for all involved. The victim didn't deserved to be murdered. But the defendant hardly seems like the murdering type, and is a pretty good example of most 'normal' people being able to end up in jail over one freak occurrence in their life. He made a fucking huge mistake, and is fucked now.

[Epox]

Just looking at that guys pic in the herald I know that dude he used to make spa pool covers and what not didn't look like the kinda guy who would snap an stab a tagger.

[crocos]

http://www.simplygoodfood.co.nz/

Joined up after attending one of their free community dinner things, a presentation, and seeing what a fairly typical delivery looks like (due to a co-worker placing an order). It's a community supported agriculture initiative based in the Wairarapa, along the same lines as the ones in the US (which are set up to service about 1000-ish people), though similar to the UK and European ones I've seen mentioned on this board before.

Check it out if you're interested in good quality organic food fresh from the farm at supermarket-competitive prices.

[Rince]

Originally Posted by JP

a pretty good example of most 'normal' people being able to end up in jail over one freak occurrence in their life.

http://www.nzgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80422

[Kryten]

Icehouse's back catalogue isn't available via iTunes - I mean seriously, Iva fucking Davies is holding out? What the hell for?

[StN]

Playing with a robot arm online.




http://www.kennedytechnology.co.nz/en/live_control

From Jaycar