"You humans are disgusting!".
Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan
The NBN Needs Private Enterprise Not Bureaucracy
If the National Broadband Network ever gets finished health care for rural Australians will improve. The Abbott Government has sacked the NBN board. It has also began an inquiry. When will this end and real completion goals be set? The previous government made the mistake of not having goals. This is what led to its demise in the last election - it had lost its way on most issues.
An inquiry is seen as more "pussy-footing around". We need a clearly defined schedule. All major construction projects have dates set out for finalization of each stage. Why does the NBN have to be any different? Surely they know how much time it takes to lay "X" amount of fiber optic cable. This is the problem with monopolies: they consume time and money. Why not put stages out for competitive tenders? Surely real competition can get things moving.
The inquiry must come up with positive workable solutions. We cannot have another government mess up. Get rid of the bureaucrats. These are the expensive hangers on. Get private enterprise in on the job. Of course, the problem is - Has the Labor government locked us into unbreakable contracts? Getting out of these contracts could prove to be very expensive. However, something needs to be done, and fast!
Economics by Ty Buchanan
Keeping Australia's Car Industry Afloat Is Not Economically Rational
There are calls from many quarters for keeping Australia's car industry alive. I am not so sure that a country needs its own motor industry anymore. Times have changed. No vehicle is made entirely in one country today. The days of getting prestige from it are long gone.
Propping up a floundering car sector is against all practical economic and social theory. It doesn't make sense to spend taxpayers money in such a wasteful way. Holden and Ford continue to take handouts while still not making any profit. Ford has already gone. The days for Holden are numbered. Holden was never a truly Australian car. It was an old General Motors design left in a drawer collecting dust until it was thrown on the table at a meeting in Australia.
Australia has never been a manufacturing country. It is not like Britain which has very in the way of natural resources so must generate income somehow from industry. Large businesses have only been in the primary sector. Exporting what comes out of the ground has always been the way Australia survives.
Those who hang on to so called Australian icons are sentimentalists. Things do change and old things fall away. Vegemite and Billy Tea are foreign owned. This doesn't stop us from claiming these icons. If Holden dies in this country that will be it. The car is not composed completely of Australian parts anyway. We can always rebadge an American designed car and race it at Bathurst.
Economics by Ty Buchanan
Society by Ty Buchanan
Eucalytus Trees Store Gold in Their Leaves
A way of detecting gold deposits beneath the ground has been right in front of our eyes for years. Eucalyptus trees take up gold particles into their leaves. X-ray imaging could replace test drilling.
Eucalyptus roots go down a very long way in search of water. Some sinker roots reach 40 meters below the surface. If there is gold in the ground it is concentrated in the leaves. It is pushed to extremities of the tree because gold is toxic.
Research has proven the theory. Trees above gold deposits store gold, but in gold-free areas there is no stored gold. It is place specific as well: the amount of gold particles varies with the level of gold deposits in the ground.
There is no threat to the trees as the amount of stored gold is minuscule. All types of plants store minerals besides eucalyptus. However, the overwhelming number of plant species in Australia are eucalyptus.
It is no longer necessary to drill in difficult, rocky places. Taking a few leaves for analysis does not damage the trees. This will make the search for gold much easier and cheaper.
Society by Ty Buchanan
Police to Identify People by Nose Shape
Police are upgrading detective work from fingerprints to "nose prints". It seems we all have different noses, so we can be identified by surveillance cameras. While fingerprints and iris scans are being used for "signing in" and entry to premises, work on identification by nose shape is being ramped up. A lot has been done on ear shape, which also differs quite markedly from person to person.
People tend to cover everything but their noses when they are up to no good. Another thing is, if a suspect does not cooperate he/she can be identified by the shape of their nose.
Plastic surgeon Dr Peter Callan says some noses are easy in determining a person's identity. For example, there is the classic Roman nose, Greek nose, turned-up, snub and hawk nose. Cameras that film in 3D give a very accurate picture of nose shape. However, to take a picture this way a person has to be moving quite slowly. It would be okay for prisoners. For general camera surveillance, when a person walks briskly at airports and train stations, only a basic shot can be taken.
It seems pinning a person down by nose shape will remain a backup system. It certainly does have its uses. Iris, face recognition and finger printing will still be the main ways of identifying a possible felon. There is a problem with fingerprints. A US citizen was recently arrested for a crime in the Middle East when a computer made a positive match. However, the real perpetrator was caught and had a fingerprint virtually identical to the American man.
People tend to cover everything but their noses when they are up to no good. Another thing is, if a suspect does not cooperate he/she can be identified by the shape of their nose.
Plastic surgeon Dr Peter Callan says some noses are easy in determining a person's identity. For example, there is the classic Roman nose, Greek nose, turned-up, snub and hawk nose. Cameras that film in 3D give a very accurate picture of nose shape. However, to take a picture this way a person has to be moving quite slowly. It would be okay for prisoners. For general camera surveillance, when a person walks briskly at airports and train stations, only a basic shot can be taken.
It seems pinning a person down by nose shape will remain a backup system. It certainly does have its uses. Iris, face recognition and finger printing will still be the main ways of identifying a possible felon. There is a problem with fingerprints. A US citizen was recently arrested for a crime in the Middle East when a computer made a positive match. However, the real perpetrator was caught and had a fingerprint virtually identical to the American man.
Society by Ty Buchanan
Revolutionary Mineral Drill Rig Announced
Drilling techniques in industry have not changed for decades. Oil rigs are built in he same old way. Now something has come along that will improve drilling enormously. The Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide has announced a new type of drill. It is constructed with coiled tubing.
Costs will fall dramatically as drilling is faster. Australia's mines are mostly over 30 years old. New mines have to be established. We can only rely on the old mines for another 20 years.
No longer is it necessary to keep stopping to add a new drilling section. The new drill is a continuous coil of tubing. Being smaller and lighter transportation is easy. The motor is at the bottom of the shaft, not at the top. The tubing no longer twists during drilling. Any twisting will occur in the other direction as the motor pulls the tubing around.
Less drilling power is needed as the tubing is being pulled around in already drilled space. A lot of torque was lost with the old system as the engine had to force the whole length of the drill around. Drilling will continue with fewer drill breakages. Thus, downtime will be reduced.
Technology by Ty Buchanan
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