"Boo!" Funny Animal Photos
-------Australian Blog-------
Donkeys and Mules Are Celebrated
Donkeys and mules are not forgotten. There are people out there who care a lot for these animals. They have established the Donkey All Breeds Society of Australia National Donkey and Mule Show. They deserve a medal for creating such a long title for the celebratory weekend.
Entrants were brought in from all over Australia. The tiny Mediterean Miniature donkey was the cutest in the show. Very large animals were represented like the 16 hands high American Mammoth donkey.
Many animals performed for the spectators. It is a myth about the independent, angry mule. Indeed, they like to be trained. Donkeys really put on show in the trail, driven, sulky, halter and snigging classes. Trainers were as young as five years old. Some donkey entrants were elderly, in their mid-twenties. The show was such a success that it will continue. It is affectionately called the long ears show.
Society
Australian Blog★
Imaging More Advanced Than MRI
The MRI was the most advanced way of diagnosing what patients were suffering from. It was cutting edge technology that gave very detailed images of the human body. Technology moves forward and advances are made.
Macquarie University with CSIC and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have found a way of producing images even clearer than MRI. It is done by using artificial atoms and nitrogen doped diamond nanoparticles. Extremely weak magnetic fields in the human body can now be detected. MRI resolution is millimetric. The new system "sees" down to a millionth of a millimeter.
This technique is not invasive. It will provide an understanding of intracellular processes. The problem with the new diagnostic system is that very temperatures are required to make it work. Artificial atoms are encapsulated in a diamond crystal. They can be manipulated by lasers, dragging atoms above the surface for medical diagnosis.
Health
Australian Blog★
Models Show Lasers Can Produce Energy Using Hydrogen-Boron as Fuel
Energy created by lasers could be the way of the future. Researchers have used models and they show that lasers can produce "cold" energy by nuclear fusion. A new generation of fast, powerful lasers makes this possible. To achieve fusion a short, carefully controlled pulse is required. The pulse target is hydrogen and boron. Creating neutrons is not the objective because they cause radioactivity.
The Australian research is duplicating what is going on at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, but they are using deuterium-tritium fuel.
A single laser pulse can generate 500 times more electricity than all the power stations in the US. At first the research team did not believe hydrogen-boron fuel would work. However, models indicated that it was only ten times more difficult than deuterium-tritium. For it to work the laser pulse must be clean, that is, lasting only a million, millionth of a second. Optical energy is then converted to mechanical energy.
It is not commonly known but coal power stations actually emit radioactivity - it is a problem in Germany where they are considering burying polluted material. Producing energy by laser pulsing hydrogen-boron creates less radioactivity than using deuterium-tritium. Coal generation is very dirty compared to hydrogen-boron. The waste product is helium gas. Hydrogen-boron is also plentiful. Team leader Professor Hora say it could be some time before the research becomes reality.
The Australian research is duplicating what is going on at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, but they are using deuterium-tritium fuel.
A single laser pulse can generate 500 times more electricity than all the power stations in the US. At first the research team did not believe hydrogen-boron fuel would work. However, models indicated that it was only ten times more difficult than deuterium-tritium. For it to work the laser pulse must be clean, that is, lasting only a million, millionth of a second. Optical energy is then converted to mechanical energy.
It is not commonly known but coal power stations actually emit radioactivity - it is a problem in Germany where they are considering burying polluted material. Producing energy by laser pulsing hydrogen-boron creates less radioactivity than using deuterium-tritium. Coal generation is very dirty compared to hydrogen-boron. The waste product is helium gas. Hydrogen-boron is also plentiful. Team leader Professor Hora say it could be some time before the research becomes reality.
Society
Australian Blog★
Return on Savings to Fall
Banks are to significantly cut the return on money invested. This is not surprising considering the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is cutting interest rates. As the banks follow the RBA down, which they are not obliged to do, they must cut outgoings on term deposits for example.
Considering banks make 60 per cent of their funds from various savings products, it is no wonder cutting what they pay out is on the horizon. If rates fall much lower people will be drawing out their savings and hiding their "loot" under the bed.
Customers are borrowing less because the bar for loans has been pushed too high. Well, perhaps that is a good thing. Australians were condemned for not saving enough; now they are criticized for not borrowing enough.
With an election date already set the government will push for full RBA flow-ons in the popular media. This does not look good for retirees who rely on money put aside in investments for their retirement. Money is getting cheaper in the wholesale market so fewer deposit options will be offered by the banks.
Economics
Australian Blog★
"If someone doesn't adopt me soon, I'm going to break out." Spicy Food Stimulates the Same Endorphin Centers as Alcohol
It is well known that alcohol increases one's desire for spicy snacks. The personal drive not to eat is also weakened. This is why it is widely acceptable to head for the local curry shop after a drinking session.
It is believed that the two drives support each other. Those who like spicy food when they are sober tend to be heavy drinkers of alcohol. Both spicy food and alcohol stimulate the same centers in the brain. There is hope: spice lovers respond better to medication that reduces alcohol dependency.
It is all to do with the feel-good chemicals put out by the brain when stimulated. More endorphins are released by both substances. Because many people do not experience raised endorphins when consuming alcohol, drugs that lessens this affect do not work to stop alcohol consumption in them.
It was found that making "alcohol endorphin high" mice eat spicy food before offering them alcohol stopped them drinking as they were already getting the spicy high.
Apparently, there are two forms of alcohol dependency. One that is driven by endorphin highs and another in genetically 'low endorphin' people who crave alcohol for an unknown reason.
Society
Australian Blog★
New Zealand Wants Drivers to Wear Gloves
Calls from New Zealand to cover up one's hand by wearing gloves when driving a car is silly to say the least. This may be something to think about if one is a delivery van or a truck driver but ordinary people don't drive enough to warrant it. They say the belief that glass provides protection from ultraviolet radiation is a myth.
Sunscreen maker "Oasis Beauty" has suggested putting sunscreen on hands before driving. This is sound advice, coming from a producer of sunscreen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says drivers should wear gloves, long sleeved shirts and sun glasses. Unless one is a professional driver this is a bit much.
Car producers state that laminated windscreens do block UV radiation: 80 percent of UV-a. It is side windows that are dangerous, though 37 percent of UV-a and 97 percent of UV-b are blocked. From these data obviously the New Zealand Cancer Society and Oasis Beauty are wrong and car glass does offer protection. Furthermore, most countries do allow side windows to be tinted which helps.
Sunscreen maker "Oasis Beauty" has suggested putting sunscreen on hands before driving. This is sound advice, coming from a producer of sunscreen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says drivers should wear gloves, long sleeved shirts and sun glasses. Unless one is a professional driver this is a bit much.
Car producers state that laminated windscreens do block UV radiation: 80 percent of UV-a. It is side windows that are dangerous, though 37 percent of UV-a and 97 percent of UV-b are blocked. From these data obviously the New Zealand Cancer Society and Oasis Beauty are wrong and car glass does offer protection. Furthermore, most countries do allow side windows to be tinted which helps.
Society
Binge Drinking Causes Type 2 Diabetes
Drinking alcohol is not an innocent pastime. We know it damages the liver. However, a link has been found between binge drinking and the onset of type 2 diabetes. How it does this is not fully understood.
Rats were put on a "diet" of 3 g/kg of alcohol for only three days. Even when the alcohol had completely left their systems insulin resistance was still occurring. The effect lasted 54 hours after ingestion of alcohol had ceased.
Impaired adipose tissue and hepatic functions were believed to be the cause. There was more hypothalamic inflammation affecting insulin signaling.
There is hope for a treatment. Inhibiting brain protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) can block the detrimental action on insulin of binge drinking,
Society
Breakthrough in Artifical Intelligence
For a century now people have been assuming that robots will arrive and become commonplace in the home. Manufacturing has its industrial robots but helping robots in the home have not become reality. The problem is not so much being able to construct the physical aspects of a robot, it is the intelligence, the "brain", that is the big issue.
By doing 25,000 runs on a computer to build up experience, it was found that biological intelligence was structure into a network of modules. This is a breakthrough finding for artificial intelligence. Modules means alternatives can be chosen to meet a problem. This is what makes humans and animals so difficult to understand.
Apparently, all things evolve via modules. Such networks have not solely appeared out of intellectual necessity. Modules can be joined together with shorter network connections, using less to make more. Evolution is not wasteful.
In the computer simulation, once a cost for network connections was added modules were formed. Without the cost variable, there was no order to the simulation. In animals modules are seen in the brain, metabolic networks, gene regulation, protein-protein interaction and the vascular system. Even the Internet is modular.
Society
Cane Toad Survives a Plane Flight Across Australia
Australian cane toads really get around, in most unlikely ways. A cane toad got into a golf shoe then survived a plane trip from Brisbane to Perth. It stayed in the shoe six days before being discovered by the shoe's owner.
Apparently, this is not unusual. The pests are very tough and resilient.
In the above case, quarantine authorities would not comment, though a spokesperson did try to make out that it was a tree frog. The owner of the shoe lived in Brisbane for many years and said it was definitely a cane toad.
It seems cane toads won't have to walk across the top of Australia (as they steadily are). Crossing the country is far easier by plane.
Cane toads are intelligent as well. It is known that if water is scarce they will follow a cow drawing moisture from cow pats until the cow eventually reaches a river or dam.
Apparently, this is not unusual. The pests are very tough and resilient.
In the above case, quarantine authorities would not comment, though a spokesperson did try to make out that it was a tree frog. The owner of the shoe lived in Brisbane for many years and said it was definitely a cane toad.
It seems cane toads won't have to walk across the top of Australia (as they steadily are). Crossing the country is far easier by plane.
Cane toads are intelligent as well. It is known that if water is scarce they will follow a cow drawing moisture from cow pats until the cow eventually reaches a river or dam.
Society
UK Is Dishonest Not Paying Pensions
The battle goes on between Australia and the UK about the shortchanging of British people who were born, lived and worked in their homeland before emigrating. They paid their taxes and crucially paid there "stamp" every working week toward the state pension. However, the UK does not align payments with inflation for ex-pats living in "wealthy" countries, only those retiring in developing nations. UK governments, indeed previous governments of all political shades, have "stole" from these elderly people.
Today the British pension paid to those who emigrated permanently to Australia is worth a pittance. There is no way they could live on it. Australia has to make up the shortfall even if ex-Brits have lived in Australia for only a few years before retiring. This is disgraceful behavior from a supposedly civilized country. It certainly fails the Australian norm of a fair go.
On average the rate of pension paid to those living in the UK is more than double what ex-pats receive. Each recipient gets the British rate upon the day of retirement. This means those who live to an old age get a few pound a week.
The rule is not even consistent. Brits retiring in the US and Israel get inflationary increases. As Jim Tilley chairman of British Pensions in Australia (BPiA) says: "These guys are a bunch of hypocrites."
Society
Nullarbor Created by Many Small Rivers
The Nullarbor plain in the central-southern part of Australia is one of the driest regions on Earth. It is called the Ceduna Delta. The Murray-Darling further to the east is the largest river system extant today. It is difficult to accept that the Nullarbor was created by many small rivers flowing southward into the ocean. These rivers flowed very fast cutting through hills which were formed by the land rising between Australia and Antarctica. Ultimately, sediment was deposited in the drying riverbeds.
Analysis of sediment from drillings in the delta showed rivers flowed there 80 million years ago. Sources of gas and oil have been identified which could be tapped in the future. The Ceduna Delta is as large as the Niger Delta in Africa. It contains half a million cubic kilometers of sedimentary sandstome and shales. Hydrocarbon reserves are already being exploited in the Niger Delta.
Because the "destination" of the rivers was close to the Great Australian Bight large amounts of other minerals such as zircon are also located there. It seems predictions about carbon fuels running out are not well founded. Pollution of the planet will continue into the near future irrespective of the damage it causes.
Geology
Bull Ants Feed at Twilight
Bull ants do not feed during all daylight hours. Observation has shown that they feed at twilight. When the sun is brighter for longer for example in summer, or there is no cloud cover, bull ants forage for food later in the day. When the sun is darker, earlier, they search for food sooner in the day. It was believed that all insects fed according to circadian rhythms, but this does not seem to be the case.
Activity in the nest was affected by cloud cover. Outside activity that involves feeding occurs at twilight. Obviously, they are feeding during these short intervals to avoid predators: most animals that eat ants would be inactive at twilight.
Tests were done at ANU in Canberra. Bull ants were put in containers where diffused light was altered. It was found they only fed when the light was set at a particular low level. Evolution does take some winding paths. This shows though that evolution develops in a rational way.
Activity in the nest was affected by cloud cover. Outside activity that involves feeding occurs at twilight. Obviously, they are feeding during these short intervals to avoid predators: most animals that eat ants would be inactive at twilight.
Tests were done at ANU in Canberra. Bull ants were put in containers where diffused light was altered. It was found they only fed when the light was set at a particular low level. Evolution does take some winding paths. This shows though that evolution develops in a rational way.
Entomology
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