Australian and Mediterranean Great White Shark Evolution

Luck plays a large part in evolution. Climate suddenly changes and if by chance a species of animal carries suitable genes to flourish in the new environment that animal lives on. Other species die off because they cannot cope.

New findings about the great white shark highlights this. Australian great whites and the Mediterranean type have genes that point to common ancestry. It is believed that a few related female sharks split up. Some going north to the Mediterranean from the larger gene pool in the south, or they peeled off from the main group in the Atlantic some going north the others going south. Narrow channels in the Mediterranean stopped this group from rejoining the Australian gene pool.

This happened 450,000 years ago. Mutations since that time make the timeline clear. It is believed that swordfish and tuna the main food of the great white also split off from the their main groups. Great white sharks followed the food supply.

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Cash Reward for Whistleblowers

Australia has a culture of a fair go and don't dob your mates in. The question is, are your coworkers mates? In England, for example, the government encourages people to dob their neighbors in for fleacing social security. It is accepted there. But in Australia there has been an outcry against offering cash to dob others in to the authorities.

This kind of offer could backfire. Dobbers could just make things up to get cash. Who is to monitor this? It is hoped that companies will jump in to catch employees stealing from the business. Dodgy financial traders should watch out. Some rewards offered in the US have gone as high as $US104 million: though a court case resulted and fines were paid, this is a huge amount.

Tax authorities are examining the possibility of reward for information that brings to light tax evasion. It seems though that those in high places will still not be caught. The Australian government turned a blind eye to Kerry Packer paying hardly any tax at all. He once said it is my duty as an Australian to pay no tax at all and I hope others do this as well. If no one paid tax there would be no schools or hospitals, except perhaps, for the very wealthy - those who pay no tax.

It should be noted, however, that in Australia whistleblowers are victimized. Australians have a culture of ask no questions about a person's past or private activities. This probably goes right back to convict days when prisoners of the crown rose to prominent places in Australian society after serving their sentence. Perhaps Australians really are different.

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Fame Can Shorten Life

If you want to be famous or are driven to it, there may be a cost. Though, I am still not sure if it is statistically proven, it seems that being well know shortens life. Obituaries were examined and they showed that celebrities lives were shorter by a few years.

People in physically or mentally stressful occupations such as ex-sportsman and performers had the shortest lives. This was followed by academics and those in medicine. The next group was composers, writers and artists. Those in business and politics lived longer.

It is surmised that having fame at a young age then losing it later in life is a burden that shortens lives. This is questionable because many famous celebrities remain so even when they officially retire. It could be that the drive for fame remains into old age and this destroys life. This is closely aligned with a risk taking personality. Life could be shorter due to self-destruction.

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DNA Shows How Farming Reached Western Europe

Important discoveries have been made in regard to early farming in Europe. DNA evidence shows that invaders from Turkey brought farming skills to western regions 8,000 years ago. They were not hunter gatherers from Germany as was originally believed. Hunter gatherers didn't suddenly take up farming. It was a learned skill that was passed on to the younger generation.

The research has been so informative that the route invaders took is clear. An earlier movement of eastern people has also been identified. It took place 11,000 years ago. invaders moved through south-eastern Europe via the Carpathian Basin near present day Hungary into central Europe.

The history of Man is fascinating and we do not have all the answers yet. Perhaps in the past a civilization equal to our own existed and all the knowledge they had has been lost. There are many mysterious things we do not know about ancient Egyptians.  Their culture faded only in recent times.

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The Aged Are Not Employed

Developed country are heading toward a crisis of not enough people to do the work. Baby boomers have reached retirement age and with such a large section of society no longer contributing there will be fewer taxpayers to fund economies. Government revenues will fall. Workers can only pay so much tax. Beyond a certain level incentive to work decreases.

Despite the problem, employers still persist in seeking young employees when there are plenty of elderly people who can hold down jobs. Old legislation covering those in public service force retirement on perfectly capable workers. Some Australian states are planning to change this.

The private sector has no restrictions. Many doctors, for example, work into their 80s. This is because they are self-employed, so they can decided when to stop. Fewer retirees are offering their service free in voluntary work. This means their lives just slow down and they spend their time doing very little. Their lives would be more interesting if they were given the opportunity to work.

Life expectancy has improved. There is no rational reason to refuse work to those who want it. The retirement age will be raised to 67, but this is ten years away. Governments are now heading into a funding crises. Australian businesses are bringing in skilled workers from overseas to fill vacancies that are really are not there. Government needs to give real incentives to businesses to encourage them to offer employment to mature workers.

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Aboriginals Arrived in Thousand on First Arrival - Questionable

An archaeologist, Alan Williams, has a controversial theory. He believes that people first arrived in Australia from Asia in their thousands. It was not a small group. There is no proof for this. It is just his belief.

There is a problem with this: How did "Asians" know that land was over the horizon? It must have been first discovered by a few people in one or even two boats. It also presumes that they made the return journey to Asia to tell everyone - very unlikely.

His estimate puts the Aboriginal founding population at 3000 people. This would have been a virtual "armada" of new arrivals all at one time. This premise is too far fetched to believe.

Making estimates about how the Aboriginal population grew is prone to distortion because the general population declined after the arrival of Macassans and Europeans. The highest population level is "pulled out of the air" and put at 1.2 million before the opening-up of the continent. This is not a proven figure. Determining population growth to this level can only be supposition.

Professor Joe Dutch says that European arrival did not impact that much on Aboriginals as they were mainly in the north. Europeans moved into the south of the country.

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Australia's Economy Would "Stop" if Oil Imports Ceased

Some countries are moving toward other fuels such as coal gas. However, public opinion about it polluting the environment could bring an end to the trend of companies running roughshod over properties belonging to others. The search is driven by potential profit not for any long-term goal.

People are complacent. Australia is dependent on fuel from mainly Middle Eastern countries. If a major conflagration occurred there the Australian economy would come to a standstill in a matter of weeks. Rationing would have to be introduced immediately. Health and food would be the main priorities. Distribution would be hit hard as it uses most of the oil imported, apart from private use of motor vehicles.

Australia does not keep an oil reserve. Even though some countries have reserves. It would put off the economic hit for a few months. What is shocking is that even dried food in this country would last only nine days.

Using solar power for transport is not possible. If such a scenario did happen there would be a quick move to other resources like using sunlight to turn algae into a usable oil substitute. It has been calculated that algae would produce a minimum of 60 tonnes of oil from each hectare of pond surface. Streamlined systems could increase yield to over 600 tonnes.

At the moment there is no need to "manufacture" oil from algae. Natural oil remains the cheapest form of energy. Many universities are working on algae. Like everything else in this world new opportunities are only taken when it becomes necessary. Personally, I believe that there are solutions to a cut in oil supplies. Obviously there would be a world economic downturn, but Man has survived due to adaptation to changing environments. An oil crisis would be no different.

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Power Generation Via Hydrogen Is Not Taking Off

It is amazing how people will see something new, then run with it to the extreme saying this will change the world. This is true for virtually all non-fossil energy producing systems, but all of them have drawbacks and none have revolutionized the power sector. The two major problems have been high cost and non constant energy production during the 24 hour period.

Scientists have worked on hydrogen systems for decades and success seems very distant. It is not being accepted for widespread use. Actually, hydrogen is a "byproduct" of energy production. When electricity is generated by any method the excess not used at a point in time is passed through water. It splits into oxygen and hydrogen via electrolysis with the fuel stored to be used in the future. When hydrogen is recombined with oxygen, electricity is generate. Heat from the process can also be used directly for heating purposes.

As with other environmentally friendly electricity producing methods time will tell if hydrogen is accepted for general use. Perhaps hydrogen can be made in significant quantities from solar and wind generation. It could potentially make for a hybrid system producing electricity 24 hours a day. Until now, governments have been the main source of funding for hydrogen experiments. Apparently, the private sector sees little future in it. For non-fossil energy systems to flourish it is necessary for the community to work together. Unfortunately, individualism is the norm. Perhaps this is why there is very little progress.

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Fish Oil Prevents Premature Birth

Over recent years there has been a host of controversial claims about fish oil, calcium and glucosamine. The questions are do these supplements do any good and do they all have to be taken? Some doctors say take them and other GPs say claims about them are nonsense.

Some tests have been done. It has still not been proven that taking calcium prevents deterioration of bones in old age. And there is no proof that glucosamine gets into joints thus reducing pain. Tests on fish oil offer some hope of benefit.

During research into omega 3 (which is in fish oil) on young children a potential benefit came to light. It seems that premature birth is delayed when fish oil is taken. Omega 3 prolongs pregnancy. Subjects who took the supplement also had larger babies. Their birth date was later than predicted. Of course, this brings up another question: Are heavier babies healthier? As the cause of premature birth is unknown perhaps this benefit overrides the perceived consequences of larger babies.

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