The Demise of Species Will Have to be Prioritized

Not much can be done about saving endangered species when the great majority of people "don't give a damn". Like global warming many just do not want to hear the truth. Money is not forthcoming for conservation. Stopping animals from going extinct is only being done on a piecemeal basis. We have to choose what to save.

This really means that the blame for the loss of some animals lies solely with Mankind. Just who is to decide the fate of creatures is not yet known. It will have to be bodies that receive funding for such purposes. They are probably doing the selection process as we speak. If what is to be saved and what is to be lost was publicly known there would probably be an outcry - everyone has their favorites.

More funding is the answer of course. Whether times be good or bad giving money for conservation has never been popular. Other things seem more important. It is really inevitable that prioritizing what goes extinct will occur. The global warming issue shows that people only care about their present welfare. Environmental damage continues.

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Conservation

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Animal Watching

"I'm watching you! Heh, heh, heh.

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Funny Animal Photos

Dieting After Christmas

Many people have a guilt complex about Christmas. It is a time to eat to excess. Overeaters plan to suffer later to rip away the pounds gained by Christmas. Unfortunately, future suffering from fasting and exercise won't work. Perhaps people do it to reduce the guilt while knowing that weight reduction will only be temporary.

Detox diets are really myths. They can harm your body damaging the liver. Eating a lot doesn't necessarily build up toxins anyway. One's weight is genetically determined. If you reduce what you generally eat your body will slow the metabolism making weight loss more difficult. Ironically, eating less will increase your appetite as the body feels you need to go up to your determined weight level.

The best you can hope for is to change the balance of fat and muscle while accepting that your overall weight will not change. Cut out the carbs and eat more vegetables, fruit and lean meat. The real problem today is not really food intake. It is the high consumption of soft drinks packed with sugar. Sugar is pure carbohydrate which is transformed into fat by the body. While many will not accept the fact, consuming soft drinks seems to be addictive.

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Society

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I'm Not Here!

"I'm not here!"

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Funny Animal Photos

Elephants Play Football

Not only humans enjoy a game of soccer. Elephants have a good time playing it too. Despite their size they are very fast and agile.

The fifth annual Chitwan festival in Nepal organized a soccer match for elephants in the region. Competition was rough with masters and elephants playing hard. The Wai Wai noodles team won the event. They dominated the final against the Hotel Association winning 3-0.

Riders sit on the backs of elephants while the animals really kick the ball around. An international elephant race has been included to bring more people (and elephants) to the festival.

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Sport

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Just Hanging Around

"Look, no hands or feet."

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Funny Animal Photos

Northern Territory Mammals Endangered

The Northern Territory has a low population density, so it could expected that natural fauna would remain dominant over human destruction of the environment. Apparently, this is not the case. A study observed Aboriginal elders and their interaction with wildlife. Comparing findings with previous records showed a decline in the mammal population.

Only small numbers of quoll, black-footed rat and golden bandicoot survive. Nearly 50 new animals have been included in the endangered list this year. Two mammals and a bird have now been declared extinct. Small and medium size animals are affected most. Large animals are unaffected. It seems large animals such as kangaroos benefit from the presence of humans.

Planned action is proving beneficial. Improved fire control has raised the number of gouldian finches. Reptiles are doing well. Specimens of the bronzeback lizard have been found. They were thought to be extinct in the Northern Territory.

Damage has been done by the influx of animals foreign to Australia such as cats, foxes and cane toads. Farming is thought to have less impact. A major problem is that fewer fires occur in some areas. Aboriginals did practise traditional patch burning. This was good for native flora and fauna. Aboriginals should be encouraged to go back to the old ways before the skills are lost.

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Environment

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Dogs Take Life Easy

"I reckon we should take life real easy."

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Funny Animal Photos

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New Mustering System to Revolutionize Farming

Cattle mustering has always been a manual labor enterprise.  Little has changed for centuries.  Some minor improvements have occurred but the new Remote Livestock Management System (RLMS) developed by Precision Pastoral Pty Ltd is a leap forward to more efficiency. 

Computer Hardware and software are combined in a practical control method.  All animals have to drink.  When Cattle drink at a watering point they are guided through a pathway that identifies, weighs and drafts animals into particular holding pens.  Those who are not ready for market are automatically released back into the paddock.  The system is solar powered so there are virtually no running costs.  Cattle tags are easily read.

Growth rates, calving and fertility are all monitored.  Feed supplements can also be effectively regulated.  This will improve profitability for farmers.  They have been waiting a long time for something like this.  Degradation in rangeland can be solved by relocation into new pastures via the gates.

The new computer mustering system is seen as a revolution in cattle and sheep production.  There are strong prospects for its adoption in north and south America, Asia and Africa.

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Agriculture

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Basket of Cats

"It was made for the both of us."
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Funny Animal Photos

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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

Rocking Cat

"Rockabilly, rockabilly. Rock, rock,rock!"

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Funny Animal Photos

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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