Help, Dog Needed

"Get me out."
"I'm sorry.  I can't help you."
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Euthanasia and Dying at Home Should be on the Agenda

Euthanasia should be legal. When you are ill and feel that your life is no longer worth living, you should be given access to drugs that can be self-administered. It is of no help to society or anyone for that matter to continue painful existence.

Even when doctors know you are dying, in Australia you are not taken home to die. Eighty six per cent of Australians die outside of their home. This is despite 70 per cent of people wanting to die at home. There is high demand for medical facilities. Nonetheless, the critically ill are kept in hospitals and residential care against their wishes.

More home care is made available in other Western countries to look after dying people at home. Why is this not done in Australia? At present more die at an old age. This state of affairs could change as the young adopt poor lifestyles and medical treatment becomes more privatised.

Making wishes known will not alter the state of affairs, because the key to improving matters lies with government. Government policy driven by uncaring third parties is at fault. A social structure supportive of choosing how one dies is needed.
Health by Ty Buchanan
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Big Cat!

Beware of fat cat on the mat
"Well I could sit on you."
Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan
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Biomass is the Wrong Way forward

Much has been said about the adoption of biomass technology to replace wind and solar energy production. Biomass involves the burning of sugars, starches and oils from crops to make biodiesel and ethanol. The cost of gathering this waste has not been factored in. Wind and solar need maintenance but for the most part they just sit there and do their job.

Farmers have simply left waste in the fields - ultimately burning or plowing them in. They do not see money in gathering up the left overs from crops. Environmentally, biomass looks good. However, financially they are a no-go. Who will pay a higher price for electricity? Charges are already extremely high using coal which is just dug from the ground.

The biggest problem is that biomass involves burning while wind and solar do not. Just substituting biomass for widely available conventional fossil fuels is not a an ideal move forward. This is like electric cars which are only substitutes for petrol motor vehicles - a poor and inefficient one at that.

Saying that biomass can be made from wood and straw and could reduce the use of normal fossil fuels is a mistake. It is not as if oil is running out: it isn't. Australia is a "bowl" of natural resources. We do not have to be efficient with industrial waste like European countries which have to import oil.

To make biomass productive will take capital that Australia does not have. This country has a large deficit. It caused the Coalition government to abandon the carbon tax and redistribute savings back to the consumer. After tax collection costs, the government got very little income from the tax. It is simply not rational for Australia to abandon coal in power generation when other countries do nothing to reduce carbon emissions.
Technology by Ty Buchanan
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In Camera Dog

"Boo!"
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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No One Can Claim Ancestry to Native Tasmanian Aboriginals

There is a problem in Australia in regard to claims that one is an Aboriginal. In the past, part Aboriginals have identified themselves as native Australians, so they are entitled to welfare benefits that white Australians cannot access.

The Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie has ignited the debate by claiming she is Aboriginal. This is questioned by other Aboriginals. Sure she does look a little bit different than "pure" white Europeans, but the difference is minuscule. She actually claims that she is a descendant of Mannalargenna, a famous Tasmanian Aboriginal leader.

Her offer of a DNA test to substantiate her claim is not of much use. Aboriginals originally came from Africa, as we all did. No genes have been identified as being unique to Australian Aboriginals. DNA testing was suggested in 2002 at the Tasmanian ATSIC elections.

The issue is that Tasmanian Aboriginals were a different "race" than mainlanders. They were all killed by European immigrants to Tasmania. The original Tasmanians had a very primitive culture. They believed that fire was mysterious and magical. They did not know how to light fire. If the fire went out they had to steal it from a neighbor.

All Aboriginals living in Tasmania today are Imports from the mainland. They left their cultural bases on the mainland more than a century ago so their lineage cannot be traced. The theory that mainland Aboriginals were the first people to leave Africa is brought into question by the earlier presence of Tasmanian Aboriginals.
Culture by Ty Buchanan
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Penguin Problem

"Yeah!  What?  Move where?"
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Australian Teachers Do Not Need to Copy Asia

There is nothing wrong with the quality of Australian teachers. Saying that we can learn a lot from Asian teachers is absolutely wrong. It is the culture of the student that determines whether he/she will be successful in becoming educationally proficient.

Children of Chinese immigrants to Australia do much better than offspring of many other subcultures. Native third generation Australians do worst of all. This is because their parents get on with living their own lives and leave their kids to learn by themselves. There is nothing wrong with this policy. Chinese parents do similarly, but they do help much more financially with education.

Mao Tse-tung was once asked by a Western reporter what was the most difficult thing about governing China. He replied it was teaching children to believe in Communism when Chinese are born Capitalists. Trading has been an important part of Chinese culture for thousands of years so calculating and finance are important.

To be successful in life high academic achievement is paramount. Children of immigrants know this as well as their parents, particularly those from Asia. There is one issue that is problematic for even these children. That is the paranoia about rote learning in the West, even though rote is still held to the fore in Asia. Independent thinking is necessary. However, if you wait for a child to understand everything naturally without explaining the answers you will wait forever.

East Asians will pay for their children to "cram" learn with private coaches. This is not part of Australian culture. Nonetheless, this service is available in Australia. The Asian mother drives her offspring forward no matter where they live in the world. This drive is "absorbed" by the child.

Chinese also know that core subjects like maths are more important than choice subjects like surfing for example. The number of Australians who make a living at surfing can be counted on one hand. It is clear that Australian education is not managed well. Some decisions are not rational at all.
Education by Ty Buchanan
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Dolphin Chat

"Yeah, we like it here too."
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Galactic Theory

New scientific theories are cropping up all the time. And that is just what they are - theories. So the Higgs boson particle has been seen. What a lot of tripe this is. It has only been shown to exist mathematically. The particle itself is still not proven to exist.

Large galaxies eat up smaller ones. It would have been thought that this had been believed for some time. Apparently it hasn't been generally accepted. New findings show that the Milky way will be absorbed into larger galaxies billions of years from now.

The Milky Way did expand by taking in smaller galaxies. Now it has peaked and this slowing down will allow Andromeda to absorb our home galaxy. When the Magellanic Clouds become part of the Milky Way that will be about it.

As galaxies become larger they produce less stars. The reason for this is not known. There are a lot of conflicting theories about this. Research by the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey done by Australian observatories is ongoing. We can expect either new theories or selection of the most probable one.
 Science by Ty Buchanan 
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