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Maybe it is only specific species of oak that are a problem. Or maybe it depends on how well the wood is seasoned, as you will be losing volatiles from the minute the tree is cut down.

In many ways I understand the terrible problems that faced by any charitable process. Sadly human nature is more often than not focused on "I want my slice of the pie", even if that means that someone elses family is trodden on along the line. The relatively less power you have to be around the table eating the pie the more likely you are to be the one in greatest needs. , The seating arrangements at these these "tables within tables" pass along the line which means the most disenfranchised stand to lose all chances of even crumbs off the table. . What then do we do about the problem? perhaps that is the key issue. Even if there is corruption ,should we always decide by default that we should do nothing? making the individual get very little at all to suffer twice , once in the whatever the difficulty is and then secondly by our decision to withdraw support. Humans when they act as a group tend to respond very differently to the way they act as individuals, sadly most people act to put self first and foremost no matter what the issues is or where the group is. I have also seen it on both ends charity workers manipulate , such people are highly motivated divisive personalities and they develop their skills like parasites feeding off those who want to see those in need supported in some way. The same with the extraordinarily rich who want to have their own little stories to chat with their other very rich friends around their own dinner tables. I have seen the very rich charter personal jets to travel to the charities because it saved them the inconvenience of getting scheduled flights at inconvenient times of the day. It is hard when you see both these types of behaviour , from rich to poor , officials at all levels and governments exploit some of the few good people and again it's important to remember those kids in those schools or disenfranchised from the table. To be honest I do not know how humans cope with the things they do to each other I am sure apes do the same as do other pack animals (but then humans do like to see themselves as better than animals ) . I think what each person must do is to identify some project they can feel will guarantee their personal commitment. The only problem is that a large percentage would rather support a cat or a dog than another human so we rely on an elected oligarchy to take the decisions for us with international development as most of us do not have full appreciation of the facts, You will not be surprised to hear I have very little faith in the ability of populations to make serious decisions outside the self interest of their own little tribes which would rarely take into account those from tribes less fortunate. But of course we seem to like these popular powers to the people to make decisions when governments and leaders are too weak to deal with their own tribes internally . I am not sure why I am defending this it just feels right to try even if I don't succeed.

I keep my duplicate coins in an old oak cabinet and never noticed any sign of enhanced toning of silver coins. In fact I was hoping in might.

Il vient chez-ils, vient chez-ils, enfin football vient chez-ils

Nickcleggss are nasty things parasitic in their nature the latch on to bigger things ie labour or conservative till thier work is done then they fall off the host and die as a party

only yorkshire folk don't count then

OMG - how old are you now???

To all those who decry the value and effectiveness of charities - another example I could quote is 'micro-economics'. This is where absurdly small - by our Western standards - loans are made to people in Third World economies to start up a very small business, often something like selling street food. The transformative effect of this not only on the people directly involved, but also the wider community, cannot be overestimated.

I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it !!!