Wiki World

High Rents Put Pressure on Low-Income Earners and the Poor

A fall in house prices is a good thing for first home buyers, but it puts a squeeze on the rental market. With lower property values investors invest in other things, the bank or the share market. You would think that rents would move up and down with the price of housing, believing that monthly rents are tied to monthly mortgage repayments. This is a generality that is not always true.

The reality is that as house prices fall, rents go up as investment to built more rental properties declines. In Canberra rents increased by 2.2 per cent last year. Perth continues to experience a drain of money to mining areas from Perth city itself. Consequently, new rental properties have not been built and rents have also increased.

Those on low incomes who do not earn enough to get a mortgage are at the mercy of the rental market. As rents rise they have to pay more. Furthermore, students from poor families cannot afford to pay high rents.

Despite the mining boom in Australia, many are doing it tough. Unemployment in the non-mining sectors is starting to rise. A high Aussie dollars makes it difficult for manufacturing to compete. The big question is: Should Government support non-mining industries?" Economic rationalist would say no. The market should determine who should survive and who should go under. Nonetheless, pensioners have rents subsidized. Should this support be taken away?

http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/

http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/
http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Poor Dog

"What a poor example of a dog."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Scout Bees Have "Curious" Brains Like Humans

It was thought that bees were like robots who went about their work on instinct alone, but some bees have "curious" genes. The scouts who find sources of food are actually mischievous seekers. Their genes give them a brain structure similar to humans.

Scout bees are independent creatures who don't go along with the mob. They find new food sources by intuition and pure skill. Being female, they go back to the hive do a wiggle dance to pass on directions, then go out again to find a new source.

Tests were done on a hive of bees. The hive was put into an enclosure and food was put out in different colored jars. Bees that located the jars were collected and marked with a dot of paint. Later the brains of these scout bees were removed and compared with the brains of normal hive bees. Brain activity in the genes of the two types of bees differed by 16 per cent. The brains of scouts could change the levels of neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate. Another test was done with the scouts being fed sugar water laced with a neurotransmitter "booster", The scouts became more active in their search.

This proves that dopamine and glutamate are responsible for curiosity in humans. The common ancestor of bees and Man was a marine flatworm. These basic animals would not have had scouts, so the "curious" genes developed in both lines, bees and Man, separately. It is also probable that the gene variant can become active in any animal: it is latent in the gene toolkit.

http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/
http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/
http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Biology

Cat Eats Grass

"Um.....Can I eat that?"

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Development Is Tied to the Availability of Water

Karl Marx said that Mankind developed through political and economic stages. Scientists have proved that he may have been partially correct, but the key to human progress is water.

Professor Terje Tvedt of Norway says "that water has played a unique and fundamental role in shaping societies throughout human history." Scientists have made a mistake by ignoring the presence and impact of natural resources on human development. All societies need water. A society cannot operate without it. You can try to control it. Yet water appears and disappears as it pleases according to the flow of nature.

Why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain and not in China or India? The reason it occurred was the capacity to move goods via canals. Furthermore, production of grains and cotton products by the power of water mills created a need for bulk transport of goods. British rivers were clear. Boats could move quickly through them. Unlike rivers elsewhere which were silted up.

There-in lies the problem of economic development. Not all countries today have developed transportation and water supply systems. A concept called the "water footprint" is being examined. The footprint is the amount of water required to make the goods and services in an area plus water polluted and evaporated per unit of time. Under this system Australia becomes the world's largest exporter of virtual water, with Europe being the greatest importer.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Gymnast Cat

A magnificent landing from the parallel bars

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Financial Encouragement Is Needed in Computing and Maths

Despite the widespread use of computers, Australia is not producing enough qualified computer specialists. Although the computer related economy is equal to mining, and the extractive industry is what is driving the Australian economy and keeping the dollar strong, too few young people are willing to study for employment in the digital industry.

This is probably because everyone is a little computer "savvy" and most believe that there is not much more to learn. Of course this is a mistake. You may have a website and know a trick or two, but there is a barrier that you cannot jump over if you are to truly understand the whole area, unless you are a born computer geek where you soak up all the knowledge like a sponge.

What academics fail to understand though is that computer study is very much like learning mathematics. Students are avoiding maths like the "plague" because there are much easier subjects to do. For example, English and History teachers are a dime a dozen. This has been caused by governments wrongly allocating funds in the past. Universities and colleges are also to blame as they try to maximize student numbers irrespective of subject area.

Financial encouragement needs to be in place to tempt students into the "difficult" kinds of study. Some people have a gift for maths. Ironically, today many of these are girls. In the past boys believed maths was a boys' thing and they took pride in studying it. Cutting tertiary fees in the maths and computers areas is absolutely necessary to bring numbers up to the nation's requirements.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Education

Dog Poses For Camera

"Who does he think he is - it's only a photo."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Japanese Fast Food Chain Storms Australia

Just what Australia wants - another fast food chain. The Japanese are invading Australia with a burger chain, MOS Burger, which is a copy of McDonalds. The fourth store has opened in Booval, Brisbane. For some reason the chain is targeting Queensland for its new outlets.

The company claims, of course, that their offering is different than McDonalds. Project manager Vincent Cheng says they offer better service. This is difficult to justify considering service at McDonalds is second to none. When was the last time you waited for more than five minutes to order and another five minutes to get your food?

What potential customers really want to hear is lower prices not better service. The market place shows that when customers have a choice between paying extra for service or a lower price for the product they overwhelmingly choose the cheaper price. With another 10 stores opening in Queensland this year and further developments in Sydney and Melbourne time will tell if their massive investment is worth it.

If they sell food which is basically Asian they will be doomed to failure. Aussies don't like change.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Hot Dog

"Gawd. It's hot in 'ere."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Labels: blue , boot , car , dog , down , gawd , here , hot , motor , trunk

Bacillus subtilis a Useful Bacterium

New work on old bacterium shows promise. Bacillus subtilis has been used as a base organism to make vitamins and enzymes for washing powder. Nine countries including Australia have taken an in-depth look at Bacillus subtilis and the way it can survive in different environments.

Evolution has made B. subtilis thrive and have a strong metabolism. The findings will enable the creation of metabolites for chemical and pharmaceutical industries. There is greater understanding of how bacteria survive when infection changes the environment. This bacterium is now much more useful in producing enzymes.

In the study 512 new genes were identified in B. subtilis. These were added to the 4,200 previously known genes. It was believed that only a few genes needed to be modified to makes changes, but it was found that up to half of the genes needed to be targeted. Despite this it has been a great leap forward in science.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Health

TV Animal

"Great shot! I think I'll have another snack."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Dogs Eats Car in Australia

Keep an eye on your car - there are wild dogs about! Clayton Dwyer's girlfriend called him and told him to look at his car. The front bumper had been torn from the car and gnawed into bits. Dogs had even bitten into steel front panels.

Mr Dwyer found it hard to believe that wild dogs would do such a thing. He had seen the pack wandering around the neighborhood.

His girlfriend admitted to him that the dogs had attacked her car some months before. At first it was thought that someone had done the damage with a hammer. But panel beaters could make out teeth marks on torn parts of her car.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Society

Bear Apology

"C'mon, apologize!"

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Tranferring Human Minds to Robots Is a Pipe Dream

Some people assume too much. This applies to the scientific sphere where people can "get ahead of themselves" and make claims about achievements that are only in the "possible" stage. Science is advancing very fast, but some things are still out of reach. People in positions of power due to wealth or public office can make the wrong decision.

A group of 100 scientists have been put together by Dmitry Itskov a Russian entrepreneur to download, or upload depending how you look at it, human minds into robots. This is fairy tale stuff. They expect to complete this within 10 years. This is probably at least 30 years away.

These human/robot "things" Itskov has called Avatars. He claims it will mean immortality for humans who agree to have their minds "implanted" into robots. This is a silly point of view. Unless consciousness is transferred as well there is no immortality. Claims that consciousness will be transferred with the mind are nonsense. Neither scientists nor theologians know what consciousness is anyway.

The idea has of course been taken from the movie Avatar. Why Itskov should depart from the script and presume consciousness can be moved with the mind but the body must die is not clear. In the movie humans return to their bodies after cohabiting alien bodies on a colonized planet.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Science

Won't Come Out

"I don't care what you say - I am not coming out."

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Tyrannosaurus rex Had a Tremendous Bite

Knowledge about ancient animals is going in leaps and bounds. Every month or so something new is discovered. Tyrannosaurus rex, for example, had a bite far stronger than imagined previously. The "Terminator" pig-like Archaeotherium was assumed to have the strongest bite of all. This view has now changed.

Tyrannosaurus rex was no wimp. It could take chunks of meat out of living victims. In-depth research was done on the head of the ancient beast. A computer simulation with skeleton and muscles showed a tremendous bite of 1350 kilograms of force. This was at the back of the mouth where the bite was strongest.

To put this into perspective, modern crocodiles and alligators have a bite of about 1,200 kilogram. The shark is feared, but it has a bite of only 300 kilograms. Dinosaurs were really frightening animals when all animals were very large. Man would have been out of place in such an environment. With animals having tremendous biting power humans would not have survived for long.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Paleontology

Not Funny Cat

"This ain't funny!"

http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Funny Animal Photos

Australia Bans Swearing

Swearing is part of Australian culture. Indeed, to be accepted as truly Australian, you have to swear a lot. So it is with great surprise that Australia is bringing in a swearing ban!

The furore has been caused by the airing of Gordan Ramsey's programs on televisions. In 40 minutes he did say the "f" word more than 80 times. This may be excessive. But if one goes into a public bar, particularly when there are men who have done a hard day's grueling labor, such as shearers, the "f" word will be expressed a lot.

The Australian Government has made recommendations to Australian television networks advising them to review the way they set program guidelines "to stop" coarse language. Just how they are going to do this is a mystery considering Ramsey's programs are very popular, swearing or not.

It is said there is a culture of crudeness. Well, This is Australia and this is part of Australian culture.