Australians Are the Most Sinful on Earth - According to the Brits

Trust the Brits to judge the world - they invented the hoity-toity foppish English accent that meant people who spoke that way were superior to the rest of us. Acting "posh" doesn't mean you are better! A BBC magazine says that Australians are the most sinful on earth. Yeah, we have heard it all before every since the day we first won a cricket match against them. According to them we envy everybody else. What rubbish! We couldn't give a damn about anyone else. Live life to the full that is our motto. If you don't like it live somewhere else.

They have lampooned other countries as well though. Americans are gluttonous and greedy. South Africans are angry with everyone. Japanese and Koreans lust after everything.

The magazine attached values to things we do, for example, plastic surgery (pride), violent crime (wrath), theft (envy), holidays (sloth), food (gluttony), salary (greed) and porn (lust).

Australians are busy little creatures. Apparently we do all of these. Think what everyone else is missing out on! We always thought the Brits were envious of us. Now we know why. Start a barbecue, open the beer, and Aussies will be there. Of course we like to indulge. That is what life is about.

You see the real problem in the world is actually, well, the Brits. They stick their noses into other people's business - without being asked.  Do Australians hate the Brits?  We do have a tall poppy syndrome where those at the top are knocked off.
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Society
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Rocking Cat

"Rockabilly, rockabilly. Rock, rock,rock!"
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Funny Animal Photos
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More Expensive Eggs - "End" of Battery Hens

Coles and Woolworths promise no support for battery chickens and pork grown in like manner. They say they will only purchase from "green" suppliers. Is this being good citizens on their part? Well frankly, it is not. Controlling 80 per cent of the market they have the power to force low prices on more expensive production.

We will see small operations go to the wall and a future oligopoly forming. When this is finalized, like in the paint market, buyers will have to pay the price offered by the few gigantic producers. For example, Bunnings has to take prices of the few paint manufacturers. Furthermore, there is nothing to stop backyard battery operations selling at weekend markets.

Legislated changes have unintended consequences. The result will be more expensive eggs. This has to be the case. Higher costs mean higher prices overall. This is economic fact. Get ready to see cardboard signs nailed to front fences of houses selling "home grown" eggs.
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Society
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Hello Tiger

"Hi Bill!. How are you doing mate?"
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Funny Animal Photos
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Life Began on Land

Life may have begun on land not in the sea, Multicellular fossils, ancestors of marine life, lived on land. These were microbial colonies like lichen. Ediacaron fossils over 600 million years old have been found in South Australia.

High-tech investigative technology showed the ancient forebears lived on land. The soil they were in had "old elephant skin' over it. This phenomenon forms in sandstone beds. It is much like the surface of modern sandy deserts with close wavy lines.

Ediacaran fossils were direct ancestors of marine animals, not mammals. The chain of life leading to humans came during the Cambrian era long after these old multicellular fossils. Apparently, the presence of salt and even too much water are barriers to initial life formation. There was more animals diversity on land than in the sea during the Cambrian.
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Evolution
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To Be Or Not To Be a Guinea Pig

"Are you sure you're not a guinea pig, lass?"
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Funny Animal Photos
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After Years of Incubation - Sleeping Sickness

A Frenchman was taken by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tortured. He escaped and a few years later emigrated to Canada with his wife and children. He began hearing voices and became paranoid fearing someone was trying to kill him.

Post traumatic stress disorder was diagnosed by a doctor. Antidepressants did not work. He got headaches and pain in his back. He deteriorated lost his appetite, became weak and dizzy, and contemplated suicide.

X-rays showed enlarged lymph nodes. An MRI indicated abnormality in the brain. A spinal tap found a very high white blood cell count and most importantly, eel-like protozoa - trypanosomes. After years of incubation, the man had developed sleeping sickness.

This disease is endemic in Africa. It is contracted by being bitten by the tsetse fly which carries the trypanosomiasis protozoa. Death occurs with extreme exhaustion. It can have a myriad of conflicting symptoms. Treatment by a few drugs is possible but also dangerous. The usual outcome is death from the disease or from the treatment.
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Health
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Pup in Safe Paws

"I'll keep you safe, son."
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Funny Animal Photos
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Fish Are Intelligent and Can Remember

For years scientists told us what we wanted to believe - that fish have short memories only lasting one lap of the fish bowl. Now the truth has got out. They are intelligent creatures who can learn to do things and can even deceive other animals. Once attacked, if they escape, they remember which predator tried to kill them. Unlike humans, however, there is a cost when they use their intelligence. If they are given one fish for food they are very efficient in catching it, but if given two types of prey they apparently become confused and their effectiveness declines.

Fish interact in a social way. They recognize familiar others and modify their behavior accordingly. Siamese fighting fish will take advantage of a weak fighter by observing fish fights and readily attacking the weaker fish. Fish that clean others act busy when potential "customers' are watching. In a way they advertise.

The myth about fish having no memory or even intelligence is most likely promulgated to justify fishing, when fishermen say it is alright to jab in a hook or gut a fish because they "don't feel any pain".

An example of fish learning occurred when Professor Charles Erikson fed fish after calling to them by saying "fish-fish". When he returned five years later he called to them and some fish came to the surface expecting food. Examples of smart thinkers are trigger fish which use tools to trick prey that hunt them, and frillfin which jump back into rock pools to avoid birds.
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Environment
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Great View Dog

"Wow! What a great view."
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Funny Animal Photos
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City Spiders Are Larger

Many animals do better when they live alongside humans. One seldom thinks of spiders though. If you travel overseas you soon discover the huge spiders in rented accommodation. Research has shown that these frightening but usually friendly creatures do grow larger in warm homes.

They don't have to be living inside the houses either. Just staying close to warm building is sufficient. The golden orb spider was placed in particular external environment and data were collected. Those near buildings were larger and fatter than their bush cousins. Living in the middle of a car park with the heat given off by cars made them bigger as well.

Though many people fear them, urban spiders are harmless. They keep pest insects in check. If they weren't there, we would probably be "eaten alive" by flies and gnats. Rather than spraying and crushing them, put them outside and send them on their way.
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Society
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Hot Dog, Dog

"Come oooon..n..n..n..n... Give me one! Give me one!"
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Funny Animal Photos
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Oldest Dinosaur Is Found

Dinosaurs did not start out being large. Probably the oldest dinosaur ever found going back 243 million years was only as big as the average dog. This is only supposition of course. Some scientists say this animal, the Asilisaurus, was only a relative of dinosaurs.

Research into the matter is difficult. Only fossil fragments have been found. The specimen in question called the Asilisaurus lived in Tanzania. Another similar animal was found in the Tanzanian Manda Beds in the 1930s. Named a Nyasasaurus, it had a crest of bone along 30 per cent of its upper arm where large chest muscles would have been attached. This is a major feature of dinosaurs.

Many kinds of dinosaur seem to have suddenly appeared 10 million years after the Tanzanian fossils. This indicates a common origin from one creature. This ancestor could have been the early dinosaur Nyasasaurus or its relative the Asilisaurus.
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Paleontology
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"It's a bit of a squeeze, but it will be comfy."
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Funny Animal Photos
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Caterpillars Are Changing into Butterflies Earler

Climate change is making butterflies more active. They are coming out 10 days earlier than they used to in spring. The change has been caused by a 0.91ºC increase in temperature in Melbourne. All species that interrelate with the Common Brown butterfly (Heteronymph Merope) breed earlier as well.

A group of academics funded by the Australian Research Council has researched this issue. Members of the group studied caterpillars bred at the old and new temperature in the laboratory and noted the change. Observation of the butterfly in the wild has confirmed that caterpillars are changing into butterflies earlier.

If butterflies are coming out sooner then other insects must be doing so as well. This means that crops will have to be planted earlier to be fertilized by insects. Bees are not the only insects needed to grow crops.  People in cities do not understand the importance of pollination on food crops.
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Entomology
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