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Gorilla Wearing a Helmet

"How do I look?"

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✿Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan ✿

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Australian Blog ★ Adventure Australia
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Petrichor the Smell Before Rain

Man like other animals has inherited a fine sense of smell from ancestors who did not have technology to know things that would help them survive. The environment gives out smells when something changes. Because we now mostly live indoors these smells do not come to our attention. However, they still exist.

Before it begins to rain the air falls and oil is released from the earth. A special odour is notable. CSIRO has named this smell "petrichor". It seems no one had given it a named before. The particular smell was made public in 1964 when Isabel Bear wrote a paper which was published in Nature journal. Mineralogists were first aware of it and mentioned the odour in text books but little was made of the smell.

Aboriginals would have know of it because oils given off before rain are stronger after drought. The word "mattiak ka attar" is used in Asia to describe the odour trapped in sandalwood oil to enhance the perfume.

Scientists at CSIRO identified a yellowish colored oil on soil and rocks that was created by moisture. Humidity is the trigger: water droplets form in crevices thus leaching the oil. It becomes stronger when it actually rains. The smell gets into the wind and is picked up by mammals.

✴ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Maremma Dogs to Look After Bandicoots

The Maremma Sheepdog guards sheep in Italy. Dogs are intelligent and are trained for many things. They are now being trained to protect the endangered eastern barred bandicoot. Whoever came up with the idea should be given an award. In hindsight it would be seen as obvious, but it was smart thinking.

Maremma dogs will be selected for the specific job. The bandicoot will be released into the wild with the dogs. Protected release locations will be closely monitored. Their welfare is important: there are no eastern barred bandicoots currently living free.

Landowners will be asked to feed the dogs. This will reduce funding requirements. The bandcoots will be given freedom to live as naturally as they can - living alongside a dog. Ironically, the animals that kill bandicoots are imports from Europe like the wolf and feral cat.

As well as training the dogs to look after the bandicoot, they have to be taught not to hunt natural wildlife themselves. It is easy for dogs to turn wild if left alone. Australia has already had success with teaching dogs to protect penguins on Middle Island, Warnambool. No doubt the enterprise will work.

✴ Environment by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Aboriginal Subsistence Fires Benefit the Ecosystem

Bush fires are natural in Australia. Far from being a curse, they benefit the environment and wildlife generally. Of course this has to be qualified by houses being destroyed and injuries to people. Aboriginals have been intentionally lighting fires for thousands of years.

Actually, it has a positive impact on kangaroo evolution. A fire promotes an increase in kangaroo numbers. To get the greatest benefit the best time for a burn-off can be identified. Human subsistence is crucial in managing this. It compliments the ecosystem.

Modern farming is detrimental to the way wildlife functions. The system is thrown off-balance. Stopping the burn-off and mono cropping changes everything. Australia needs more burning, not less. Authorities are following the wrong policy. Leaving native trees to grow tall can only lead to eventual disaster as a massive fire results as time passes.

Managed fires provide more food for animals as new shoots appear. Animals can also hide from predators in patches of older growth in the flatter landscape. It is only in farming areas that kangaroos increase to pest proportions. There is a natural peak in regions still controlled in the traditional way by Aboriginals.

Anthropology by Ty Buchanan

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Dingo is Just an Asian Dog

New research tells us that the dingo is a uniquely Australian dog. This is despite the strong evidence of Asian dogs looking exactly the same and in Asia they are domesticated. This silly "mythification" of animals in Australia says something about Australians generally. Are they seeking something to make themselves unique?

Australian academics have revived the name Canis dingo a term coined in 1793 by German naturalist Friedrich Meyer. Skulls examined by researchers showed the dingo had a long snout and a broad head. A look at a modern dingo in the bush shows it to be exactly the same as Asian specimens living today. There is nothing special about them. Because they are inter fertile with ordinary dogs shows that they cannot possibly be a different species. Their offspring in this case are also fertile. Unlike the donkey which when mated with a horse gives birth to an infertile mule.

Saying they are not descended from wolves is total rubbish - all dogs are descended from wolves! How can they be "distinct from dogs" when they clearly are dogs? They come in all colors: tan, black and tan, black and white, just like domestic dogs.

It is accepted that dingoes were brought here by Asian seafarers five thousand years ago. It cannot be a separate breed. Some European breeds were brought to distant lands centuries ago with no further input from European stock and they have remained the same.

There is not much doubt that academics are for the most part "dreamers'. They do not do much that is practical. Dr Crowther is "on" something, or should be!

Evolution by Ty Buchanan

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Australia's Chinese Bushranger - Sam Pu (Poo)

Australian bushrangers (outlaws for those in other countries) were all believed to be Caucasian. They were of mostly of Irish heritage with a few of English and Scottish heritage thrown in. Oddly, I cannot seem to find any Welsh bushrangers, but I will stand corrected on this. There was a Jewish offender, of English origin.

The one exception to this "rule" was a Chinese bushranger. His life is being made into a movie. Named Sam Pu, he came to Australia in the early 19th century in the search for gold, like many fellow Chinese.

His spirit was raised to hostility at the riots of Lambing Flats, where white immigrants fought against the Chinese as they worked in large groups and moved into sites abandoned by whites, who usually worked on finding the alluvial gold in small groups. The greatest problem was "running costs" - they ate less than Europeans!

Sam Pu had two quirks. Firstly, he had a white girlfriend. Secondly, he couldn't ride a horse. His mistake was shooting and killing a policeman. The hunt was on. He was caught and hanged.

Like most movies, Aodaliya Gold will not be true to this boring end. Pu joins famous bushrangers Frank Gardiner, Johnny Hall and Ben Hall. He also finds an itinerant Chinese girl along the way. They all ride (or walk) out into the sunset to lead a multicultural life.

Ah well, that's life, or maybe it isn't!

History by Ty Buchanan

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Society by Ty Buchanan

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Climate Change - Buildings Down and the Surf

Australia has always been a harsh place to live. Despite the luxury living on the coast with all the latest modern services, inland there is a desert. Many people who are born in the harsh center remain there all their lives. A fewer number choose to live there moving from coastal cities. Let's face it many prefer the heat over the cold and they have personal reasons for choosing to do this.

We do yet know what lies ahead for us in this vast continent. Climate change is happening at this very moment most definitely. El Niño and La Niña are the major factors influencing the weather on the east coast. Scientists forecast more extremes from these usually opposite climate impacting factors. The intermediate stage between these cycles has lasted for several years now. Weather is very unpredictable ranging from drought inland to too much rain on the coast. It seems we experience one or the other extreme with changeable in between.

The level of the ocean is rising. Coastal buildings will be inundated and lost forever. Oddly, this is bad news for surfers. As the sea rises the surface becomes smoother. This means smaller waves on the beaches. The era of Australia being a surfing nation could come to an end. Storms along the coast will decrease further exacerbating the problem. With more water volume, temperature differences in the ocean even out leading to calmer weather. The few storms that will occur will be very large indeed. High-rise buildings on the Gold Coast in Queensland will fall into the sea. We will lose our tourist mecca.

Climate by Ty Buchanan

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Be Consistent Mr Abbott

The age of entitlement is over for Australia - unless of course you vote for the Coalition. This is the the message of the A$324 million drought package comes across to Australians living in cities. The motor industry got not support, neither did SPC. Eighty per cent of Queensland is suffering drought. It is a serious crisis. However, a government must be seen to be consistent.

Taking the hammer to trade unions is to be expected from a conservative government. The Liberal-National Government is not in the center politically in Australia. It is definitely conservative: plainly an anachronism that we have to live with. The National Party would bring back tariffs if they had the power, but they will remain Liberal Party lap dogs forever.

Of course, other countries put up barriers against agricultural imports, so Australia should do the same. However, how can a government say one thing and act in a contrary manner. It cannot be taken seriously. A turn here, a flip there - What will we get next?

The government is putting disability pensioners on the dole while giving businessmen, namely farmers, unemployment benefits. This is very odd behavior. Put everyone on welfare and be done with it. If Tony Abbott follow the aggressive cuts carried out by the Queensland premier none of us will have jobs.

None are so blind as those who will not see. The "free" market will not provide the essentials that people require to live decent lives. They won't build roads, distribute water or provide adequate communication technology to everyone. Conservatives still believe that the market reigns supreme. It is their religion. Reality is that the free market is grossly distorted in the world, with monopolies and oligopolies running roughshod over smaller businesses.

Politics by Ty Buchanan

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