Toffs-and-Toughs

Brother and sister find opals worth $1.2million in Australian outback

A brother and sister have found opals in the Outback worth $1.2 million on their first attempt at digging for the precious stones. Isaac and Sofia Andreou teamed up with two others to try their luck near the tiny town of Yorah, population 141, west of Brisbane. One of the most luminous stones they found is museum-quality and the size of a man’s fist. It is even shaped like a giant egg, just in time for Easter. Some 90 percent of the world’s opals found in the Australian outback and they are worth to 500 times more than gold ‘It’s literally every single colour of a rainbow you can imagine to hold within your hand,’ Sofia said. To their astonishment, on their last day of searching, an actual rainbow appeared from nowhere in the middle of the desert. Describing the emotions they felt in finding such treasures, Sofia said: ‘It was a mixture of shock and just pure amazement.’ ‘Words cannot describe the way the heart beats, hairs standing up on end,’ Isaac added. Their incredible discovery is life-changing, the siblings say. They can even afford to buy their very own mine. ‘It will make life a hell of a lot easier and more enjoyable,’ Isaac said. Their friend David Darby has spent decades searching for opals but has never found anything as fabulous as this He is an opal cutter and seller based in Byron Bay, a single dad to five-year-old daughter Xalianna. Sofia, who has an opal shop in the Whitsunday Islands, teaches yoga and music. Both decided to fulfil their dream of getting their hands dirty in mining for opal. They were joined by Sofia’s partner, Chris Daff, and their friend David Darby, who has spent decades searching for opals, but who has never found anything as fabulous as this. They teamed up with local miner Rod Griffin. With 90 percent of the world’s opals found in the Australian outback, and worth up to 500 times more than gold, opal is a prized gem. Most opal miners are excited by the prospect of one day striking it rich and becoming an overnight millionaire. Opal nuts are a type of matrix boulder opal valued for their unique pattern of coloured gem found within cracks intersecting the ironstone in which it has formed Opal fever is at an all-time high, but the risks are real, and the brutal, rugged Australian outback is as unforgiving as ever — with scorching summer heat, tropical storms and some of the deadliest snakes. ‘Australia is such a barren and tough country that all the animals that have managed to survive until now have had to evolve to be dangerous to protect themselves,’ Sofia said. ‘So you’re not just dealing with super-harsh elements, but some of the most dangerous species of animals in the entire world.’ The discovery will be shown on the television series, Outback Opal Hunters, which features miners searching for opals and which is so popular that it is now into its fourth season. In Koroit opal, the prized gem colours are green, blue, purple, and flashes of red peeking through a dark brown backing None of the discoveries in the previous seasons have come close in value. The average find was worth about $18,000, although there were a handful up to $250,000, depending on the colour, clarity, patterning and size. The Andreou siblings were mining for Yowah and Koroit nuts, a specific type of opal found in the region. Opal nuts are a type of matrix boulder opal valued for their unique pattern of coloured gem found within cracks intersecting the ironstone in which it has formed. In Koroit opal, the prized gem colours are green, blue, purple, and flashes of red peeking through a dark brown backing. Source: DailyMail.co.uk
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An Essential Guide to Rough-In Plumbing in Toronto: What You Should Know

Every plumbing setup in a home begins with the rough-in phase. This critical step involves meticulous planning and expert installation of plumbing lines, ensuring the new structure is seamlessly connected to the local waste and supply systems. Whether for a commercial or residential project, the rough-in is an integral part of the construction journey. If the term “plumbing rough-in” sounds unfamiliar or its intricacies elude you, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll demystify the concept, breaking it down from the fundamentals. Let’s get started. Understanding the plumbing rough phase, as alluded to earlier, refers to the stage of construction where the waste and supply networks for a building or home are established. Planning a home renovation in Toronto? Don’t overlook the importance of quality plumbing plumbing rough-in Toronto. It’s the foundation of your plumbing system. For expert plumbing services, trust the professionals who know how to get the job done right. This phase demands careful planning, especially when determining the locations for bathrooms, kitchens, basements, and laundry rooms. A successful rough-in process ensures that all water supply and drain pipes are appropriately positioned through holes drilled in the studs, and all these pipes are interconnected. However, it’s worth noting that during this stage, fittings such as faucets, sinks, and other fixtures are not installed yet. Testing the Plumbing Rough-In Every rough-in plumbing system undergoes a pressure test to ensure there are no leaks. This step is crucial to guarantee the system’s efficiency and readiness for the next construction phase. Typically, this testing involves using pressure gauges connected to an air compressor. If the system displays signs of leakage during the test, one can trace the source by walking along the installed pipes and listening for any hissing noises. Confirming a leak can be done by applying a soap solution to the suspected joint; the presence of bubbles indicates a leak. Once any leaks are rectified, the rough-in pressure test is conducted once more. Once an inspector confirms the rough-ins reliability, the building process proceeds. Step-by-Step Guide to Rough-In Plumbing Here’s a breakdown of the critical steps in the rough-in plumbing process: Determining Key Locations: The initial step involves pinpointing where the toilets will be positioned. Measurements are taken from the planned toilet site. Creating the Drain Hole: With the flange set over the marked spot, the designated area is cut to allow the flange to fit snugly. Fitting the Drainpipe: Following this, it’s time for the drainpipe installation. This involves placing the trap and vent structures beneath the floor, ensuring the drain is directed towards the main wastewater conduit. Supply Line Installation: The final step involves fitting the supply line, which typically runs through the wall or floor. Advantages of Rough-In Plumbing Rough-in plumbing offers several notable advantages: Cost-Effective Solution Rough-in plumbing can be seen as a step-by-step financial approach. If you’re considering a basement renovation but are currently constrained by budget, you can allocate a smaller amount initially for the rough-in. This allows you to pause and resume the project at a later date when finances permit. Remarkably, rough-ins can remain in a paused state for extended periods without disrupting the overall renovation. Enhances Construction Quality Proper rough-ins enhance the quality of construction and fixture installations. By ensuring accurate plumbing groundwork, you can avoid potential maintenance hassles down the line. Moreover, they contribute to the extended lifespan of fixtures, especially those designed for water conservation, once they’re in place. A Forward-Thinking Investment Rough-ins symbolize a vision for future home enhancements. Taking the basement as an example again, initiating a rough-in demonstrates a dedication to fully revamp the area in due course. It serves as a consistent nudge, urging homeowners towards maximizing their living spaces. In the long run, such improvements can significantly boost a property’s market value. Plumbing Basics for Toilet Rough-Ins The plumbing framework beneath a bathroom’s toilet is pivotal. Sometimes, these setups are ingeniously tucked behind walls to make the water supply lines less conspicuous, an aesthetic preference for many. Emphasizing the rough-in is important when you’re either upgrading your existing toilet or introducing a new one. It’s all too common for homeowners to procure an elegant new toilet, only to discover it’s incompatible with the existing plumbing setup. Attempting to force-fit it can lead to even more intricate plumbing conundrums. From the outset, precision in measuring the toilet rough-in is imperative. Generally, the benchmark rough-in measurement for toilets — whether two-piece or one-piece variants — is 12 inches. However, in certain cases, especially in older residences, dimensions can vary between 10 to 14 inches. It’s feasible to modify a 14-inch rough-in to a 12-inch one, but this would create a noticeable 2-inch gap between your toilet tank and the wall. While there’s an abundance of DIY guides, entrusting this task to seasoned plumbing professionals ensures accuracy and peace of mind. Basement Bathroom Rough-In Essentials Bathrooms have emerged as one of the top renovation priorities for Canadian homeowners. Consequently, the demand for toilet rough-ins, integral for both ground-level and basement restrooms, has skyrocketed. Historically, older residences don’t come pre-equipped with rough-ins. Hence, if your basement lacks essential systems such as plumbing or venting for drainage, retrofitting them becomes imperative. Though the basement bathroom rough-in process is comprehensive, it’s a strategic investment. By transforming basements into functional spaces replete with bathrooms and kitchens, homeowners not only amplify living quarters but also enhance the property’s market value. However, archaic or unrefined bathrooms might need foundational plumbing adjustments, including but not limited to rough-ins, waterproofing, and pipeline refurbishments. Drawing parallels with toilet rough-ins, the foundational work for a basement bathroom revolves around channeling the necessary pipelines into the room, priming them for future attachments to the respective fixtures. Book Expert Rough-In Assistance Basement and toilet rough-ins stand as pivotal elements for a seamless plumbing framework within a home. In the age of DIY guides, a considerable number of Canadians opt to embark on these projects themselves. Yet, without the right expertise, homeowners stand a chance of >>Read more
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Dinosaurs may have suffered from respiratory diseases like pneumonia, fossil neck bones show

As if dodging carnivorous predators in the Jurassic swamp was not stressful enough, life would have been miserable for “Dolly” the dinosaur. Key points: Paleontologists scanned the neck bones of a large plant-eating dinosaur that lived around 150 million years ago Lesions suggest the dinosaur had a respiratory illness that caused a secondary infection in its bones These types of infections are common in birds today but have not been seen in fossils of non-avian dinosaurs before The large plant-eater probably suffered from a respiratory illness that triggered a bone infection, a new study of its neck bones suggests. If the diagnosis is correct, Dolly would have been plagued by pneumonia-like symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, headaches, weight loss, and fever. Cary Woodruff of the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Montana said Dolly would have looked visibly sick. “If you could get in a time machine and go back to when Dolly was alive, you would have very easily been able to tell that something was not right,” Dr. Woodruff said. This kind of infection, known as airsacculitis, is very common today in dinosaur descendants — birds. But this is the first evidence of respiratory infection in a non-avian dinosaur, Dr. Woodruff and his colleagues report today in the journal Scientific Reports. Well, hello Dolly Dolly — officially known as MOR 7029 — was a hefty long-necked type of dinosaur known as a diplodocid. When it roamed Montana about 150 million years ago, the area was a warm, humid coastal river system packed with plant-eating and carnivorous dinosaurs large and small. About 18 meters long, Dolly still had a lot of growing to do and half its life to live when it died at around 15 years of age. In 1990, a team of paleontologists dug up the front half of its fossilized skeleton, including its skull, some of its neck, shoulder, and rib bones. Thinking it was diplodocus, the classic long-necked dinosaur, they nicknamed it “Dolly the diplodocus”. This is a type of sauropod, a creature that belonged to the branch of the dino family tree that eventually evolved into birds. “From an evolutionary perspective, Dolly is more closely related to a pigeon than it is to triceratops,” Dr. Woodruff said. Given this lineage, paleontologists have long believed that sauropods and birds share anatomical traits including a complex respiratory system. Just like birds, sauropods had a series of air sacs near and in their bones, said Stephen Poropat, an Australian sauropod expert not involved in the study. “Sauropod dinosaurs are generally huge as adults. They have long necks, they have long tails,” Dr. Poropat of the Swinburne University of Technology and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum said. “If all of their bones were solid, their skeletons would have been immensely heavy.” ‘This has got to be a respiratory infection’ In 2014, Dr. Woodruff decided to dust off the fossil, which had been stashed away in a museum storeroom. After scraping away the hard rock encasing the skull, he realized that Dolly was actually a different species related to diplodocus. Then he decided to look at its neck bones. Strangely, the CT scans revealed the edges of the bone that would have been attached to air sacs were lumpy and bumpy. “But I don’t work on injuries and traumas in the fossil record, it was out of my wheelhouse, so I literally just posted a picture on social media and just asked my colleagues, ‘What is this?'” He immediately got responses from other paleontologists as well as anatomists and vets around the world. “The group answer was basically, ‘Holy cow, this has got to be a respiratory infection.'” There’s lots of evidence in the fossil record of dinosaurs suffering from injuries and bone diseases such as cancer, arthritis and infections like osteomyelitis, Dr. Poropat said. But, he said, finding evidence of a soft tissue disease such as a respiratory disease was “pretty amazing”. “A lot of the times when any disease or trauma is found in a dinosaur skeleton, it’s often in limb bones where you expect it to happen,” Dr Poropat said. “Seeing it where the air sacs penetrate the vertebrae in a sauropod is quite unusual.” And something was definitely amiss with the dinosaur’s neck bones, he said. Instead of having a thin plate of solid bone running through the center of each vertebra, the middle of the bones was infiltrated by air sacs and telltale signs of disease. “That’s abnormal; that’s not what we’d expect to see in a healthy sauropod.” So what did Dolly in? Looking closely at Dolly’s scans. Dr. Woodruff and the team quickly ruled out volcanoes as a culprit. Inhalation of volcanic ash can cause a disease similar to mesothelioma. “When these animals breathe in ash, the internal aspect of the bone is perfectly fine, they just develop weird growths on the outside,” Dr. Woodruff said. They also found no evidence of volcanic ash in the sediment from where Dolly was extracted all those years ago. The pattern of lesions also didn’t fit with lung cancer. Instead, Dr. Woodruff and his colleagues think bacterial or fungal infections such as chlamydiosis and aspergillosis are prime suspects. These respiratory infections are common in birds today. “We didn’t find anything that was 100 percent perfect match,” Dr. Woodruff said. “[But] if living dinosaurs get these symptoms when they have respiratory infections, evolutionarily a dinosaur in the past with a respiratory infection very likely could have had the same types of symptoms.” We don’t know for sure if the infection was bad enough to ultimately do Dolly in. “In the entire dinosaur record, there really maybe only just a few fossils that we can say what killed the animal,” Dr. Woodruff said. The Jurassic swamp would have been a very lonely place for a sick sauropod. If Dolly was anything like herd animals today, it may have tried to isolate to recover, or just simply fallen behind the pack, Dr. Woodruff said. “We don’t know whether Dolly could’ve just tipped over dead one day or was on its own and so visibly sick, making an easy target for a predator. “But either >>Read more
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8 smart steps for buying life insurance

How to find coverage that meets your needs and budget Life insurance can form a vital part of your family’s financial stability and well-being but, if you’re like most people, you may find the thought of shopping for the right type of coverage a little daunting. Fortunately, these eight simple steps can guide you along the way. 1. Determine whether you actually need life insurance Most people do, but not everyone. If no one depends on you financially, if you have no debt and would leave an estate with enough cash to pay its own taxes and expenses, you probably don’t need life insurance. If you do not meet these criteria, you probably will need individual life insurance. 2. Calculate how much life insurance you need There are two important questions to ask: What financial resources will be available to survivors after your death? For simplicity, consider three categories of resources: (1) Social security and other retirement-related survivor benefits; (2) group life insurance; and (3) other assets and resources. It is also important to know when these resources will become available—for example, social security survivor benefits are payable immediately to a surviving spouse with dependent children, but only after age 60 if there are no children. What financial needs will your survivors have after your death? For simplicity, consider three categories of requirements: (1) final expenses; (2) debts; and (3) income needs. Then subtract your survivors’ financial resources (step #2) from their financial needs (step #3) to determine how large a policy to buy. Many people are underinsured, often because they skip these steps or take a shortcut (such as simply buying a multiple of annual income). For more help in determining the right amount of life insurance, see: How Much Life Insurance Do I Need? 3. Consider other objectives you may have for your life insurance Some types of life insurance policies include a savings feature that can be used for purposes other than paying death benefits. 4. Determine what type of life insurance best meets your needs Essentially, there are three types of life insurance policies—term life, whole life and universal life. If you need the insurance for only a specific period of time, or are on a limited budget, a term policy, which has lower premiums, may be a good fit. If, however, you need the insurance for as long as you live and want to accumulate savings, a whole or universal policy may be a better choice. 5. Find out if you need to add any “riders” to the policy There are two that you should consider—waiver of premium and guaranteed insurability. Some policies come with one or both included with the basic contract but, if not, it is generally a good idea to add them. Waiver of premium pays the life insurance policy premium for you if you are disabled. Guaranteed insurability permits you to add to the death benefit without providing additional evidence that you are in acceptable health. 6. Shop around There are many ways to save money when buying life insurance, but they don’t always entail paying a lower premium immediately. That said, life insurance is a very competitive business so quotes can vary significantly between companies. 7. Decide whether to pay premiums annually In most cases, it is better to pay annually rather than in installments because there is often a relatively large additional charge for paying smaller amounts more frequently. 8. Tell your beneficiaries about your life insurance policy Once the policy is issued, inform your beneficiaries the company that issued it, where to find the paper copy of the policy and any specifics about what you want them to do with the death benefit. While is rare for people to be unaware they are the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, it does happen and you want to make sure that the benefit will not go unclaimed. And store your documents so that they can be easily accessed by your beneficiaries.
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Free Voice Message Transcription and Other Services of Gem4me Messenger

Gem4me messenger’s main news of August is the introduction of free service for audio message transcription in several languages. The functionality is universal and quite straightforward: simply press the button next to an audio file and the transcribed text version will be depicted directly below. Moreover, transcription in additional languages will be added shortly. From now on Gem4me users are able to extract information from voice messages with more convenience, as the option of listening to them is not always available, yet reading a text is accessible in any situation. Furthermore, this option is either absent from other messengers or is offered as part of a paid subscription as Telegram Premium does. These are by far not all of the unique capabilities that Gem4me offers to its users. In modern days, people tend to spend more and more time in the virtual environment of the internet and various gadgets. This isn’t surprising, as a wide range of services, activities, and processes can now be done electronically. As a result, Gem4me strives to promptly react to the emerging needs of modern users. All communication formats with no limits Messages, voice calls, and transferring files — are all the formats of interaction and data transfers available to all the users of the messenger. Moreover, there are no limits on the speed or on the size of files. Unlimited capabilities surpass what other messengers currently offer; for instance, Telegram allows increasing the size of a file being transferred up to 4Gb only with a paid premium subscription. On the contrary, Gem4me allows file transfers with no limits on size or amounts. Full-scale work beyond the office Various services are necessary for completing work-related tasks remotely — from simple tasks like creating work chats or sending an extensive number of files, to hosting video conferences with a large number of participants, including moderated conferences, conducting live presentations, and recording all calls and conferences. Gem4me offers a complete package of all these services free of charge. The most comprehensive virtual workspace is offered to those who are registered in the messenger. One can truly focus on core work tasks and creatively approach presentations of new ideas or promptly resolve urgent tasks as there is no reason to be concerned about the technical portion of interacting with colleagues and partners when all the technical notions and processes are perfectly tuned. Remote work becomes much more hassle-free and convenient with a good connection and a high internet speed compared to other work formats. Space for blogger creativity Gem4me also offers bloggers their own space for their creativity. A separate section of the application is devoted to information channels. There are numerous public channels in the messenger already and they are structured by convenient thematic widgets. The feature allows choosing the most suitable channels from both the most popular and recently added ones. Developers give the opportunity for new channels to showcase their content to a broad audience by placing them in collections of interesting channels. Additionally, a new function of dynamic user behavior analysis was introduced in August for the purpose of recommending best-fitting channels and topics. The mechanism of gathering information is not complicated – upon the initial launch of the application a user selects his or her preferences, after which the system conducts an analysis of the user’s behavior: what he or she reads, which channels are most frequently visited, which ones are being subscribed to and more. There are extensive capabilities for bloggers as well. They are now able to receive feedback from their readers in terms of comments and donations, as both of these functions were integrated into the application in April of this year. Furthermore, Gem4me also has its own editor for article creation in the “Channels” section. There is no need to complicate the publication process by transferring all the materials from another editing tool – the application allows users to add pictures and links, edit headings and publish the ready material thereafter. A Marketplace that inspires entrepreneurs Gem4me ecosystem has its own global MarketSpace commercial platform integrated into it. Users can find products from all over the world there. Moreover, the built-in translator in 17 languages makes communicating with international sellers much more convenient. Continuous addition of acquirers in various countries is implemented for convenient payment and delivery solutions, as the shipping service will be unveiled in the nearest time. Launching your own business on MarketSpace is simple — just register your account and choose the product or service you intend to sell. Moreover, the capability of integrating all of the product positions at once is provided for those entities who would prefer to transfer their operational online store as a whole, instead of doing so with one individual item. The application’s commercial platform encourages entrepreneurs not only to start their own businesses but also to produce and creation of items for selling on MarketSpace. The international user base will gladly utilize products from all over the world and other hand-made items. Technologies are continuously helping people attain their set goals, that is their true value and purpose. Gem4me messenger allows one to unleash their creative potential, conduct business, work, and much more – an abundance of reasons to get acquainted with such a well-versed communication assistant.
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