Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Animals do, in general, give birth a lot more easily than humans. But there are, of course, exceptions.

Horses are also spectacularly poorly-adapted for survival, I reckon - lots of them would've become extinct if they'd not been domesticated, I think!

They would be spectacularly shorter lived. But there is a huge diversity with in horse. Sme are still 'normal' in natures terms. Many are not. Something I should share is that many tb mares in this country have a little procedure called a caslicks to remain viable breeding animals. This essentially means stitching up the opening because its so poorly 'conformed' in the modern type of thoroughbred often that poop drops right into the vagina. Mmmmmmmm...never mind, they run fast right?

(Actually, emaciation can have the same result, old girl is like that now too)

tomterm8

Whatever the reason, pearls can go brown when heated.

Also, on the giving birth debate, evolution can tolerate a certain percentage of bad births. Maybe that's nasty to say, but if I were an animal I would prefer to be a domestic animal with a competant vet / owner than a wild one who most likely dies after the simplest complication.

neverdespairgirl

lostinrates wrote: »

Gold coloured, would consider plated. As a non pearl expert open to opinion. Generally prefer pearlier pearls to that one. But open minded! ( apart from gold coloured...ring is a nice rich buttery 18 k)

There are essentially 4 types of cultured pearls. There are other tiny productions of different sorts, but these tend to be wildly expensive.

In ascending order of cost:

1. Freshwater pearls. Usually they are tissue-nucleated, so are all nacre. Coin-shaped pearls, such as those in your link, are nucleated, so you need to be careful that the nacre is thick enough and not damaged. These are much the cheapest, but have less lustre, on the whole, than sea water pearls. Almost all are from China. Natural colours include white, cream, pale silver, pinks of various shades, lavender, and peach;

2. Akoya pearls. These are sea water pearls, mostly from Japan and China. They are never massive, because the shells aren't that big. These are the classic white round pearls, on the whole, that most people think of as "pearls". They are varying colours naturally, but the vast majority of production is bleached and then "pinked". Natural colours include white, cream, pale gold, pale pink, and blue-grey. They have higher lustre, on average, but they are nucleated and often have quite thin layers of nacre;

3. Tahitian pearls. Sea water, so called "black pearls", they come in a variety of natural colours, from pretty much black, to pale silver, including greens and greys. Many have overtones of silver, pink, red and green. They are bigger than Akoyas, and the minimum standard for export is 0.8mm of nacre, thicker than most Akoyas.

4. South Sea pearls. These are much larger, and the natural colours are mostly white, cream and gold, with a few silver and pale pink. These are serious pricey.

michaels

lostinrates wrote: »

Similar joke.....two english girls (I believe the original joke is ladies from Essex) in France go to buy tickets for the theatre on their French trip. One turns to the other and asks 'what's French for matinee?'

Don't the Americans claim that the French don't have a word for entrepreneur?

lostinrates wrote: »

De plan is a posh alert in the parts of England where the tooth thing is stereotypically true.

Is that the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth?


I have discovered the brand new (to me) world of ballet performances today, not the class stays on late for 10 mins after the last lesson of term and show the parents what they have been doing but 3-400 gels and their mother's all mill around for hours and hours and hours doing hair, make-up and costumes before they go on stage for a rehearsal of their 90 second dance, mostly in a group of about 30 identically clad gels, this is repeated twice over the day, again one night this week and then there are two performances next weekend.

DD2 looked like I would, she spent a lot of the time very obviously watching the other dancers to see what she should be doing.

I spent a lot of time chatting too one mum who wanted to talk about how she couldn't wait to go back to being a structural engineer and if this is what being a sahm is all about then I could easily see why. Then in the afternoon session one of the older gels started talking to me, flattering, but her life seemed to entirly revolve around different sorts of dance classes and no wonder she had to talk to anyone willing to listen as it didn't sound like there was any time for friends and I suspect her family were probably no longer able to pretend to be that interested in 'dance'....

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

There are essentially 4 types of cultured pearls. There are other tiny productions of different sorts, but these tend to be wildly expensive.

In ascending order of cost:

1. Freshwater pearls. Usually they are tissue-nucleated, so are all nacre. Coin-shaped pearls, such as those in your link, are nucleated, so you need to be careful that the nacre is thick enough and not damaged. These are much the cheapest, but have less lustre, on the whole, than sea water pearls. Almost all are from China. Natural colours include white, cream, pale silver, pinks of various shades, lavender, and peach;

2. Akoya pearls. These are sea water pearls, mostly from Japan and China. They are never massive, because the shells aren't that big. These are the classic white round pearls, on the whole, that most people think of as "pearls". They are varying colours naturally, but the vast majority of production is bleached and then "pinked". Natural colours include white, cream, pale gold, pale pink, and blue-grey. They have higher lustre, on average, but they are nucleated and often have quite thin layers of nacre;

3. Tahitian pearls. Sea water, so called "black pearls", they come in a variety of natural colours, from pretty much black, to pale silver, including greens and greys. Many have overtones of silver, pink, red and green. They are bigger than Akoyas, and the minimum standard for export is 0.8mm of nacre, thicker than most Akoyas.

4. South Sea pearls. These are much larger, and the natural colours are mostly white, cream and gold, with a few silver and pale pink. These are serious pricey.

Ndg, when people ask me about cars and I sort of don't get it I just say the colour of the nice car.

Is cream an acceptable answer here?:o:). I have some pearls, ones that sound like number 2 in your list. and some flat gold ones. (Necklace and earrings). I don't think I would 'appreciate' expensive pearls, but I just don't know. Pearls to me have been what one wears for decency until the evening. Oh, I have string f seed pearls too, forgot them....never wear them.

zagubov

GDB2222 wrote: »

Is that to protect the diamond crystals from splitting along fault lines? Or just to protect the mountings?

To prevent it just burning to carbon dioxide. Like the original diamond oxidation experiments carried out by Dutch chemists who put a diamond in a bell jar behind a magnifying glass and found it turned into the same gas they breathed out at very little cost.:eek:

I'm from a musical family (but talentless myself) and lived for over 80% of my life in cities with opera and ballet and have to say I just don't get it. Okay opera a bit - but ballet?:eek:

Unlike pearls, I'm just not cultured!

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

To prevent it just burning to carbon dioxide. Like the original diamond oxidation experiments carried out by Dutch chemists who put a diamond in a bell jar behind a magnifying glass and found it turned into the same gas they breathed out at very little cost.:eek:

I'm from a musical family (but talentless myself) and lived for over 80% of my life in cities with opera and ballet and have to say I just don't get it. Okay opera a bit - but ballet?:eek:

Unlike pearls, I'm just not cultured!

I used to go to a lot of ballet. Believe it or not, just like one can mature into tastes for some things of culture, one can also mature out of them. I last went to a dance performance (that I recall) for a modern dance company and that was in 2003 I think. Dance was part of my upbringing and I loved it (my sibling got a place at but did not attend a ballet school, was better than me but wanted to stay in mainstream education) so it was always 'important'. Now I justlook at some movements and think....'actually, that's pretty unattractive'.

chewmylegoff

Friend put his flat in balham on the market a few days ago for about 20% more than he paid for it 2 years ago. Already under offer at asking before the agent could even get it on to rightmove. Nuts. It's not as if there is a shortage of 2 bed flats in that area either...

LydiaJ

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that, but It's turned my world view upside down. I'd always had the idea that humans have trouble giving birth because we only started walking upright fairly recently, and I presumed animals just manage splendidly because they've had millions of years to adapt.

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I thought there was an issue with human births due to our relatively large brains meaning that heads are too big meaning that human babies are born earlier in development terms than other species. This obviously doesn't explain why my birth took longer than normal though...

I thought it was the contradictory requirements for the design of the human female pelvis of large baby head and bipedalism. I was under the impression that it wasn't to do with bipedalism being recent, though, and that the compromise was already about as good as it was likely to get.

zagubov wrote: »

Death rates are very much higher in some species.

As a first-born I'm glad I'm not a spotted hyena.

First-born-death rates are 60%.

NPs read if you dare. Actually maybe better not.:)

As a mother, I am also extremely glad I'm not a spotted hyena either, after reading that. :eek:

LydiaJ

GDB2222 wrote: »

Is that to protect the diamond crystals from splitting along fault lines? Or just to protect the mountings?

zagubov wrote: »

To prevent it just burning to carbon dioxide. Like the original diamond oxidation experiments carried out by Dutch chemists who put a diamond in a bell jar behind a magnifying glass and found it turned into the same gas they breathed out at very little cost.:eek:

I just looked up the temperature. Diamond will ignite at around [FONT=&quot]800°C.[/FONT]

tomterm8 wrote: »

Also, on the giving birth debate, evolution can tolerate a certain percentage of bad births. Maybe that's nasty to say, but if I were an animal I would prefer to be a domestic animal with a competant vet / owner than a wild one who most likely dies after the simplest complication.

Very true. And actually, we are animals, and without competent and well equipped [STRIKE]vets[/STRIKE] doctors, we too have a scarily high maternal death rate. It makes me very glad I'm [STRIKE]a domesticated animal[/STRIKE] living in a developed country. It's not just maternal mortality, either - there's a nasty rate of incidence of hideous childbirth injuries in places like Ethiopia, where [STRIKE]women[/STRIKE] girls tend to be rather small, having been malnourished when growing, and to get married off and start reproducing at an obscenely young age. It's not a good thing to go into labour with a large baby, a small pelvis, and the nearest doctor five day's walk away.