This week is a mixed lolly bag for you lovely readers…pick out the bits you like (mint leaves) and leave the bits you don’t (skittles)…just don’t skip the really important information on how to keep your money safe under ‘credit cards’.
Tasmania
Last weekend I got my ‘map o’ Tassie‘ out a few times.
Why does this place proudly use an animal sent extinct by humans as its logo? 
Talk about flogging a dead tiger.
We saw salmon farms and a salmon hatchery. There was a Four Corners report on these recently and there letters to the editor in The Mercury Newspaper (5 Dec 2016) about this.
Another person talked about the horrors of fishing in general:
Poor fish really are the forgotten ones. Even I’ve got to week 50 and didn’t have them as a category. Many people choose to eat fish but not land meats. Then they call themselves vegetarian. They are not vegetarian. (And neither was Hitler, just FYI.)
Fish are animals. Vegetarians don’t eat animals.
Domain>Kingdom>Phyllum (or Division)>Class>Order>Family>Genus>Species
Like us, fish are in the Eukaryte Domain, Animalia Kingdom and the Chordata Phyllum. Like us they have intelligence and personalities and feel pain and fear.
We focus too much on their differences and not their similarities. Nobody likes the idea of drowning but that is effectively what happens to every landed fish. There is nothing sporting about fishing.
Christmas
More on this next week, but if you know of anyone who is thinking it is a great idea to ‘gift an animal in the name of charity’…please refer them here.
10 Reasons to Say NO to Farmed Animals as ‘Gifts’
(This was the charity way back in week 45)
Credit Cards
Visa PayWave and Mastercard PayPass ‘tap and go’ technology is being foisted on everyone in Australia with a credit card. You can’t opt out. I asked my bank, and got a ‘no’. So I called the head office of the card manufacturer itself to ask if I can disable it or if there are any banks that offer an opt out. I got a big ‘negatory’ in response, which frankly, is bullshit. It is my money, how dare they make it so easy to steal.
Google was much more helpful:
…my Visa cards (issued in 2016) looked a bit different on the inside to his, but were both the same as each other even though from different banks.
I held it over a bright lamp and marked a spot near the chip where I could see two antenna lines running close to each other….
…
.then I used a 3mm bit and drilled it out…then took it and tried at self check out…voila…The Chip/PIN still works but PayWave is a goner. No more free-for-all for criminals. If you don’t have a drill I have read that you could cut in from the side with scissors up to the same place and it should do the same thing.
They removed credit card signing in favour of PIN for our ‘protection’, then force this on us instead. Why? It is a big profit generator for Visa and Mastercard.
If your card gets stolen or skimmed, your account could be emptied before you even realise you have a problem.
This is a disgusting breach of our security, you wouldn’t walk around with wallet full of cash, but this is effectively the same thing.
Please protect yourself and spread the word! I have made a separate post just for this topic here.
Mower
If your normally reliable mower doesn’t start (or stop) as it should and it doesn’t seem to be the fuel or the spark plug, check that the cable going from the on/off lever is actually working and moving the part which goes into to engine properly :).
I nearly had to leave the Chordata Phyllum as I blew out my back while wrenching on the starter cord 5,400 times, pretending it was the tie of a credit card exec.
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Not many fish-specific charities to be found, though I did really appreciate the person who took it into her own hands way back around 1989 to print off postcards talking about the cruelty of the live gold fish prizes they had at the Brisbane Show back then. In my heart I knew it was bad, but I still wanted to do it. That caring individual helped raise my consciousness a level, and I will never forget it.
Speaking of acquistion of animals, watch the following documentary to see what the ‘land of the free’ does with its freedom to buy anything…I am proud of Australia’s restrictions on exotic (and native) animal ownership.
(Alternative working title…World’s Most Selfish Owners)
And last, but not least
http://fishrescueandwelfare.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Fish-Rescue-and-Welfare-FRW-Fundraising-page-483902061677336/about/
We follow the guidelines and practices of BIAZA, (The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums).
The aim of the FRW is to help fish and fish keepers with any concerns they may have with any fish being incompatible with their living conditions, by growing too big, becoming aggressive etc. We will do our best to make better any situation that your fish and you find your selves in.
The FRW are happy to offer advice on fish keeping to individuals and groups and also, loan out emergency equipment to those in need. We rehome everything from Neons to Tank Busters.
The rescue makes no judgement on the aquariums we take fish in from, we just get them out of an unsuitable situation.
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I told you this week was a mixed bag!
52 charities - 52 weeks 