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THIS ARTICLE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY ME., IT COMES FROM ONE OF THE MANY DIGITAL NEWSPAPERS I AM SUBSCRIBED TO.
The Halloween costume ideas every Melburnian needs
Department of Internet, Herald Sun
October 31, 2016 10:03am
Subscriber only
HALLOWEEN, once only celebrated by yanks and Europeans, is now pretty hot in Melbourne.
So before you resign to a bland ghost, vampire or boy band member, here are a few ideas you should consider, especially if you want to be embarrassed or remanded on October 31.
Underworld kingpin Carl Williams makes a great costume.
CARL WILLIAMS
For all those Underbelly fans, a red hoodie with jeans, ritzy sunnies and a stack of pineapples is all you need to look like the late pill kingpin Carl Williams.
And for that real dealer look, chuck some vitamin tablets in a zip-lock bag. But don’t leave it on the front seat of the car when you’re going through a booze bus.
.
Perhaps the scariest costume ever.
PARKING INSPECTOR
Nothing — nothing — is scarier than a costume like this, especially if you stand next to your friend’s car and look like you’re writing a ticket.
A long-sleeved black shirt with high-vis, a radio and a notepad will make you the scariest person to stalk the darkened streets of inner Melbourne.
Don’t forget it’s illegal to impersonate parking inspectors, kids, so don’t ever wear this.
EVEN SPOOKIER: MEET GEOFFREY EDELSTEN’S NEW SQUEEZE
The zombie cyclist costume.
ZOMBIE CYCLIST
So many cyclists these days! And if you think they’re annoying already, imagine if they were trying to eat your brain.
What a nightmare.
A busted bike wheel with some fake blood, a ripped-up Lycra suit, helmet and a little makeup and bam. You’ll be staggering two abreast into hell.
The Julian Assange costume.
JULIAN ASSANGE
Even if your internet isn’t working anymore, you can still have plenty of fun playing solitaire on your laptop while perusing thousands of classified documents while you wait for those pesky charges to expire.
Get one of your friends to dress as a British police officer and you can play a fun spooky game of ‘don’t go outside or you’ll get extradited’.
The mad clown costume.
MAD CLOWN
It seems like just yesterday kids were all caught up in cargo pants and tipped hair.
Now it’s all the rage to dress up as a clown and commit violent crime.
At least it makes the clown costume a hot item for this year’s Halloween — imagine how scary you’ll be if people genuinely think you might bash and rob them.
If you don’t have your own Victoria Police penalty notice for public nuisance, don’t worry.
You’ll likely get one within half an hour of tormenting strangers with this outfit.
The skipping girl costume.
SKIPPING GIRL
Light up the night and impress your Richmond friends by embodying the skipping vinegar neon sign.
A skipping rope, red dress and patent leather shoes should do it. Stand on a chair or table for the full effect.
Then wrap it all up with fairy lights and you’ll be as majestic as the Melbourne icon itself.
Just try not to get too cosy with the electric cords.
The Chloe costume.
CHLOE
This is a really easy one if you’re stuck. Just put yourself in the frame and let nature do the rest.
Then stand in the corner like Chloe at Young and Jackon’s and you’ll be the life of the party.
Everyone reacts differently to public nudity, but police generally react by arresting you.
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY A JOURNALIST FROM ONE OF THE MANY DIGITAL NEWSPAPERS I SUBSCRIBE TO.
Study traces first domestic cats back 9000 years, and their world domination to the Vikings
AP, staff writers, News Corp Australia Network
June 20, 2017 9:43am
LONG before cats conquered Facebook and YouTube, they spread through the ancient human world.
A DNA study reached back thousands of years to track that conquest and found evidence of two major dispersals from the Middle East, in which people evidently took cats with them. Genetic signatures the felines had on those journeys are still seen in most modern-day breeds.
Researchers analysed DNA from 209 ancient cats as old as 9000 years from Europe, Africa and Asia, including some ancient Egyptian cat mummies.
“They are direct witnesses of the situation in the past,” said Eva-Maria Geigl of the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris. She and colleagues also looked at 28 modern feral cats from Bulgaria and East Africa.
CATS DOMESTICATED THEMSELVES
It’s the latest glimpse into the complicated story of domesticated cats.
They are descendants of wild ancestors that learned to live with people and became relatively tame — though some cat owners would say that nowadays, they don’t always seem enthusiastic about our company.
The domestication process may have begun around 10,000 years ago when people settled in the Fertile Crescent, the arch-shaped region that includes the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and land around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The sarcophagus for Prince Thutmose's cat. Some of the earliest evidence of domestic cats is found in Egyptian artwork from about 4000 years ago. But a wild cat was buried with a human on Cyprus 9,500 years ago, indicating some kind of close relationship existed then. Between those two points, experts say. Picture: AP / Elaine Thompson
They stored grain, which drew rodents, which in turn attracted wild cats.
Animal remains in trash heaps might have attracted them too.
Over time, these wild felines adapted to this man-made environment and got used to freeloading off people.
ANCIENT ORIGINS
A previous study had found a cat buried alongside a human some 9500 years ago in Cyprus, an island without any native population of felines. That indicates the cat was brought by boat and it had some special relationship to that person, researchers say.
It was also an early indication of its strategy for world domination.
Cats were clearly tame by about 3500 years ago in Egypt, where paintings often placed them beneath chairs. That shows by that time, “the cat makes its way to the household,” said Geigl.
But the overall domestication process has been hard for scientists to track, in part because fossil skeletons don’t reveal whether a cat was wild or domesticated.
Self-invited guests ... Cats moved in and became family pets to get a free lunch.
It’s easier to distinguish dogs, our first domesticated animal, from their wolf ancestors. Dogs evolved from wolves that had begun to associate with people even before farming began, perhaps drawn by the food the humans left behind.
The new study tracked the spread of specific cat DNA markers over long distances through time, a sign that people had taken cats with them.
Results were released Monday by the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The study “strengthens and refines previous work,” said Carlos Driscoll of the Wildlife Institute of India. The extensive sampling of cat DNA going back so far in time is unprecedented, he said.
MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINY
It seems that for thousands of years, people didn’t really care much about what their cats looked like. They were there to deter vermin, and for the odd chin rub.
There is also evidence domestic cats continued to interbreed with their wild cousins much longer than domesticated dogs.
But they became more of a household feature in the 14th Century, which is when the first evidence of controlled breeding appears.
Researcher Eva-Maria Geigl works in her laboratory, in Paris, France. Researchers analyzed DNA from 209 ancient cats as old as 9000 years from Europe, Africa and Asia, including some ancient Egyptian cat mummies. Picture: AP / Thibault Camus
Researchers looked for a genetic variant that produces the blotchy coat pattern typical of modern-day domestic cats, rather than the tigerlike stripes seen in their wild cousins. It showed up more often in samples from after the year 1300 than earlier ones, which fits with other evidence that the tabby cat markings became common by the 1700s and that people started intensively breeding cats for their appearance in the 1800s.
That’s late in the domestication of cats, in contrast to horses, which were bred for their appearance early on, Geigl said.
Most of the study focused on the ancient dispersals of cats.
RELENTLESS MARCH
It was the cats’ ability to convince humans they were useful that saw them so rapidly advance across the world. Favourite ‘mousers’ and ‘ratters’ were likely adopted by many ancient civilisations — even the Vikings — as vermin control aboard their trading ships.
And being aboard ships meant cats would end up anywhere humans did.
In the DNA samples analysed, one genetic signature found first in the Asian portion of Turkey — and perhaps once carried by some Fertile Crescent cats — showed up more than 6000 years ago in Bulgaria.
A seaman with a cat and kitten aboard ship in about 1910. Convincing ships crews they were useful enabled cats to conquer the world. Samuel J Hood Studio/ANMM Collection.
That indicates cats had been taken there by boat with the first farmers colonising Europe, Geigl said. It also appeared more than 5000 years ago in Romania, as well as around 3000 years ago in Greece.
A second genetic signature, first seen in Egypt, had reached Europe between the first and fifth centuries, as shown by a sample from Bulgaria. It was found in a seventh-century sample from a Viking trading port in northern Europe, and an eighth-century sample from Iran.
The dispersal of the cats across the Mediterranean was probably encouraged by their usefulness in controlling rodents and other pests on ships, the researchers said.
FOR YOUR ANIMAL YOU ARE THEIR ENTIRE WORLD AND EVERYTHING TO THEM
10:30 Oct 14 2018 Times Read: 1,464
IN MY HOME ALL OUR ANIMALS CELEBRATE THEIR BIRTHDAY AND ALL THE HOLIDAYS WITH OUR FAMILY. IF WE DONT HAVE THEIR ACTUAL BIRTHDAY , THE DAY THEY CAME HOME TO US, IS THEIR BIRTHDAY. THEY GET CARDS TREATS THEIR FAVOURITE MEAL AND LOTS OF LOVE KISSES AND CUDDLES. MY KIDS LOVE SHOPPING FOR THEM ON THEIR BIRTHDAY OR CHRISTMAS OR THE OTHER HOLIDAYS. IT TYEACHES THEM TO BE KIND LOVIGN CARING AND TO SHOW EMPATHY ND THEY ARE VERY SAD WHEN ANY OF OUR ANIMALS PASS HOME TO SPIRIT. THEY ALSO DONATE SOME OMEN EVERY MONTH TO AN ANIMAL SHELTER AND TAKE TREATS BLANKETS ETC IN ONCE PER MONTH TO THE SHELTERS WE SUPPORT. WE WILL NEVER FINANCIALLY A SHELTER THAT PREFERS TO EUTHANISE THEN RTY ADN ER HOME FOR THE ANIMALS, AND SEVERAL OF OUR ANIMALS WERE DEEMED UNSUITABLE FOR ADOPTION. SO WE TOOK THEM ADN THEY ARE THE MOST SWEET KIND LOVING AND GRATEFUL ANIMALS YOU COULD EVER OWN, AND WE HAVE NEVER BEEN HURT OR ATTACKED BY THESE LAST CHANCE ANIMALS.
THIS COMES FROM FROM ONE OF THE MANY DIGITAL NEWSPAPERS I SUBSCRIBE TO I DIDNT WRITE THIS ARTICLE. THE ARTICLE IS FROM THE HERALD SUN.
Coles’ wants you to serve up prosecco paté, brocoslaw and meat and veg wreaths on Christmas Day
Benedict Brook, news.com.au
an hour ago
SOMEBODY might want to check if there’s something in the flat whites at Coles’ Melbourne headquarters because the supermarket has come up with some seriously weird new products.
But despite the textbook disaster that was the launch of Vegemite iSnack 2.0, the retailer is unfazed and has said customers can’t get enough of “creative and innovative” food ideas.
On Wednesday, celebrity chef and Coles spokesman Curtis Stone launched the store’s 2018 Christmas range in Sydney’s inner west.
In the $10 billion battle for our yuletide spending, the supermarket is keen to entice us in with its new ham topped with crispy crackling, lime and chilli flavoured prawns and Christmas pudding ice cream. So far, so normal.
Coles has launched its new Christmas range, some of which is already heading into stores.
But there are some real festive food head-scratchers it wants us to warm to including “brocoslaw”, prosecco-infused paté and even a Christmas wreath made entirely of sausage rolls.
That’s right, a meat Christmas wreath. So just the like the ones you put on the front door to spread a bit of seasonal joy but with the pine cones replaced with beef mince, ham, roast vegies and cranberries wrapped inside crispy pastry.
The edible wreath was developed by former MasterChef contestant Michael Weldon who has found a new role as Coles’ development chef. He said he came up with the idea of creating something novel that people could put in the centre of their festive table.
“Christmas is a time for fun, and that’s what the sausage roll wreath is all about. For me it invokes a lot of childhood memories, and all you need to top it off is a bowl of tomato sauce.”
The wreath will be available in stores from late November.
Strictly just for the Christmas table. Don’t forget the sauce.
BROCOSLAW
And who knew coleslaw needed a makeover? Well it’s happened with “brocoslaw” which is a combination of broccoli, kale and cranberries alongside the usual coleslaw ingredients plus a dressing.
PROSECCO PATÉ
The global march of prosecco continues and has now made the jump from liquor store to supermarket and into the store’s Finest branded paté. Not into bubbles? Well go for the paté with gin instead.
“Brandy is a flavour usually associated with paté, but over the summer months we know Aussies like something a little more colourful, bubbly and exciting so we thought we’d introduce prosecco. It’s lovely and light, and the flavour profile of prosecco matches perfectly with paté,” Mr Weldon said.
Coles chief operating officer Greg Davis said people were a bit more daring during the holidays.
“Our Christmas range is a great example of how we are expanding and creating innovative products that customers can’t get anywhere else.”
Something gooey and oozy from the Coles Christmas range.
It may be only October, but prepare yourself for the Christmas food onslaught. Coles said it expected to sell more than 10 million mangoes this yuletide as well as an ocean load of prawns, with 70 per cent of all the crustaceans sold annually scooped up in the three days leading up to Christmas Day.
Last year, the retailer’s Finest butterscotch and gingerbread pudding was the big hitter. It’s coming back this year, but the supermarket chain is hoping a Christmas pudding flavoured ice-cream and a luxury toffee apple wreath pudding will be equally as popular as Australians throw the pedometer out of the window and sink into a festive vat of calorific indulgence.
Coles needs a very profitable Christmas as it will be its first for over a decade as an independent company. Bought by Wesfarmers in 2007, the Western Australian conglomerate is set to float Australia’s second largest supermarket on the stockmarket in November, raising as much as $10 billion.
Need more broccoli in your Christmas? No? Well try ‘brocoslaw’ anyway.
$10 BILLION BATTLE
Christmas is critical time for retailers, and supermarkets are no exception. Market researchers IBISWorld estimated consumers put $10 billion through the registers of food shops in 2017, a 2.5 per cent increase on the previous year.
Consumer spending is around 35 per cent stronger during the festive period, according to IBISWorld, with Woolies, Coles and Aldi fighting a cutthroat battle to persuade shoppers to step into their store to buy their puds and prawns.
However food shopping, like any retail sector, is prone to the peaks and troughs of consumer confidence. If there are less pennies in people’s pockets they may be less inclined to reach for the paté with prosecco.
To be fair, a wreath fashioned from a sausage roll may be the most Australian Christmas food ever though. Just don’t accidentally put it on the front door or the possums will think it’s a present just for them.
OH MY GOD, WHAT BLOODY NEXT. LOKE FAIR DINKUM IMAGINE THE ANIMALS HAVING A FEAST ON THE MEAT WREATH, SOME CHEFS HAVE NO FRIKEN BRAINS, AND THE SMELL AS THE MEAT GOES OFF, EWWWW
TREATS FOR CATS
11:35 Oct 03 2018 Times Read: 1,533
I SENT THESE RECIPES BY FAX TO MY VET SARAH AND SHE SAID THEY WERE OK FOR MY CATS TO HAVE VERY OCCASIONALLY. I DID NOT CREATE THEM THEY CAME FROM A WEB PAGE CALLED WWW.ANIMALWISED.COM
ALWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR VET FIRST BEFORE GIVING YOUR CATS OR ANY OTHER ANIMALS ANY NEW FOODS JUST TO BE SAFE. I AM A INTENSIVE CARE PARAMEDIC NOT A VET.
Tuna cakes for cats
Most cats love fish but can they eat it? Of course, they can, provided it is offered properly. Thus, this type of food should not become the only ingredient in your cat's feed, but can be part of their diet in moderate quantities. Fish provides a large amount of proteins, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and multiple benefits that your cat will appreciate if you offer them fish from time to time. This is why you can choose to either cook or grill it, since giving raw tuna to them is not advisable, or use it to prepare homemade recipes for cats like this one.
Ingredients
• 1 cup of wholemeal flour
• 2 cans of tuna
• 60 ml olive oil
• 1 capsule of fish oil (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of catnip
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
Preparation
1. Take a bowl and beat the eggs with the olive oil and fish. In addition, preheat the oven to 180 °C (356°F), with heat on the top and bottom of the oven.
2. Drain the tuna cans, and mix the fish with the previous preparation.
3. Now, add the catnip and keep beating. This product, in addition to providing all its benefits (such as a calming effect), will make the animal even more eager to devour the cake.
4. Sift the flour with the baking soda and add it in the dough making smooth enveloping movements. It is essential that the flour is wholemeal to ensure that the animal can digest it without problems.
5. Grease a mold with oil, pour the dough and bake the cake for 30-45 minutes, or until it is ready, with heat only down.
6. When it is ready, remove it from the oven, let it cool, take it out of the mold and offer it to your cat.
With the indicated amounts we will obtain a small birthday cake for cats, since, despite being made with products suitable for cats, too much of it could cause vomiting or diarrhea, especially if the animal tends to eat quickly.
Meat cakes for cats
As these animals are mainly carnivorous, both meat and fish are suitable to add in their daily diet, always respecting the animal's nutritional needs. But what kind of meat is best suited for them? In general, chicken, veal and turkey meat, cooked on the grill or boiled to ensure their safety. So, to prepare this birthday cake for cats you can select any of these products.
Ingredients
• 1 cup of wholemeal flour
• 60 grams of boiled and well chopped meat
• 60 ml olive oil
• Half grated carrot
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (356°F) with heat on top and bottom.
2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the oil.
3. Then, add the meat and carrot, and keep mixing until integrating. If possible, grind the meat beforehand or top it up as much as possible.
4. Now, add the sifted flour with the baking soda and add it with a spoon or spatula, making enveloping movements.
5. Pour the dough into a mold greased with oil and bake the cake for 30-45 minutes, depending on the power of your oven, with heat only on the bottom.
6. Remove it from the oven when it is ready, let it cool and eat!
Again, the measurements are for a small cat meat pie, about 10-15 cm in diameter.
Vegetarian cat recipe
We said in the previous section that cats are mainly carnivores, but not strictly or only, so they can also eat vegetables and fruits occasionally. Due to the domestication of the species, they have evolved and adapted their digestive system to tolerate food such as pumpkin, carrots, peas, strawberries, watermelon or apple, among many others without difficulty. So, we have selected certain products, but if you prefer, or they are not to your cat's liking, you have the option of replacing them with others. This is why we recommend checking out our article on recommended fruits and vegetables for cats.
Ingredients
• 1 and a half cups of wholemeal flour
• 1 peach
• 1 pear
• 1 egg
• 60 ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
Preparation
1. In a bowl, beat the egg with oil and honey. On the other hand, preheat the oven at 180° C (356°F) with heat on top and bottom
2. On the other hand, peel the fruit, remove the seeds, bone and heart, and blend both pieces, or chop them as small as possible.
3. Mix the fruit puree with the dough and mix well. Remember that you can substitute these fruits for others indicated above, and even use vegetables.
4. Now, add the sifted flour with bicarbonate soda and add them while making enveloping movements.
5. Pour the dough into a mold greased with oil and bake the cake for cats for 30-45 minutes, with heat only on the bottom.
6. Let it cool and serve.
Honey is a product that has multiple benefits for cats, which is why we have decided to include it in our vegetarian recipe. Among them, we'd like to highlight the high energy input and its high bactericidal power, which is why you can also offer it to your best friend directly from a spoon.
Recommendations to feed your cat some cake
As we have already pointed out throughout this article full of delicious homemade birthday cakes for cats, despite these cakes being made out of natural foods that suitable for cats, we must bear in mind some recommendations:
• Observe your cat and discover their tastes in food. Cats are selective and very exquisite animals, with a palate much more delicate than the dog, so it is not surprising that some of them refuse certain foods. Also, not all cats are the same and, therefore, not all of them tolerate all foods in the same way.Knowing the tastes of your pussycat and knowing if they have any allergy or intolerance, is essential to ensure they enjoy their cake.
• Watch the portions. A cake for cats should not be a usual food of your diet for the amount of flour and eggs it contains. Yes it can represent a good prize or food to celebrate a special day, like their birthday, so you can prepare a cake every now and then but not every day.
COMMENTS
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