"What do you mean the game is off?"
✿
✴Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan✴
Pheidole Ants Rule the World
There are 1,200 species of the genus Pheidole. Each has developed to exist in a particular niche of the ecosystem. In a study of 300 species it has been found that certain species evolved similar characteristics independently.
Species proliferated dramatically - from one to 600 species in the Americas. The evolutionary goal was to dominate all niches, first in the New World then in the Old. Expansion across one was independent of the other. Evolution took its own course.
Ants are essential for healthy ecosystems. They aerate the soil, disperse seeds and help move nutrients. In biomass they equate with all vertebrates. Their study is indeed important
✴ Biology by Ty Buchanan ✴
Homeopathy Claims by Firm are False
Homeopathy Plus claimed that the whooping cough vaccine didn't work, but its homeopathic treatment was a substitute that did the job. This of course was all lies. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken the company to court on the grounds that the claims are misleading and deceptive.
The firm also made claims about cures for meningococcal disease, Japanese encephalitis, malaria and dengue fever. All these claims are mythical. Protests came from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration ordering the claims be taken down. Homeopathy Plus ignored this.
More than a year after the advertising program has been completed a court has found in favor of the ACCC. The homeopathy company will not get away absolutely free. Penalties will be decided in February.
✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴
Netflix Will Have Problems Setting Up in Australia, 4K Notwithstanding
Netflix will provide 4K streaming services in Australia from March next year. Just how successful this will be is questionable Broadband is poor for the majority of Australians with suburban Aussies mostly on 200 GB of download space at ADSL2 speed. This is insufficient for 4K. You will have to pay a high premium to Netflix to get it as well.
Few will pay more for less, so few will buy 4K televisions to get it. Personally, I feel it is a bad business judgement. You can't sell travel tickets before the railway is built and it will be at least a decade before Australian broadband is even adequate.
Like all the other Internet companies Netflix will spy on you, offering new content based on your history of movies watched. You will not be able to turn this "feature" off. Just about everything is available on Foxtel now and the price is falling. Spying is not possible on the Foxtel satellite TV service.
In the US, Netflix has been accused of crowding out other Internet users. This will happen in Australia. There is no way all the houses in a street can be using Netflix at the same time. It will come to a sudden halt. Cable is a poor investment in Australia with its sparse population and high cost of cable laying. The NBN is struggling with laying fibre optic.
The only company with the resources to effectively offer a profitable streaming movie business is Telstra. If it chooses to obstruct Netflix the new service will not get very far. A partnership is absolutely necessary. Furthermore, Telstra owns 50 per cent of Foxtel.
Technology by Ty Buchanan
Storm Damage Will Affect Australia's Economy
Insurance will become unaffordable as claims get bigger and disasters happen more often. Just one incident on November 27 caused a half a billion dollars of damage in Brisbane. At present, crises seem to be occurring more often. We are told this isn't yet the case, but they are getting stronger. Hotter more humid conditions are causing this.
Water will surely lead to some damage. Strong winds will be the greatest danger. Only strong storms hitting populated areas are reported, yet they happen all over the country. There is a concentration on the Eastern Seaboard, however. Another increasing problem is hail. More of it means a higher number cars will be written off.
Storms are predicted to double by the end of the century. Of course, we will not be here then. Our children though will have to cope with whatever the weather is at that time. The frequency of storms is just an estimate. Stronger storm are a certainty.
✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴
Old Photos Located in Scotland
A cache of old photographs has been put on display in Scotland. It is not known who took them, but the person must have been an ardent world traveller. There are pictures taken in Bolivia, Argentina, India and New Zealand. The images are of very high quality.
The collection had been stored at the Roslin Institute for many years. This is where Dolly the Sheep was born. Photos of animals were probably taken during research at the institute. It is possible the "culprits" were James Cossar Ewart (who did travel widely) and Robert Wallace who were professors there from 1882. The rest of the photographs are a mystery.
The animal pictures are interesting enough, though the images of people in other countries are illuminating. In one, a leper is carried by two boys with a hanging container for alms. The boys use a carrying pole to distance themselves from the leper. Another picture shows a child with a lamb.
The most significant scene shows a Maori Girl in full dress of the day standing on a canoe. Two cliffs rise from a river's edge vertically upward. Dense vegetation can be seen in the background. Subjects are generally posing in the shots. However, this does not denigrate the images in any way.
✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴
Platypus Ancestor Found
When a platypus specimen was first viewed in England it was a sensation, Many people including scientists said that it was a fake: it was a combination of parts from other animals. However, it did exist in the Australian niche where it evolved.
I should be noted that this was in an era when the English were still struggling with Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest. The majority of the population still believed that God created Man. The Garden of Eden was foremost in their minds.
Today, the platypus' existence is accepted without question. There has not been a lot of fossil evidence about how it came to be. Recently, this gap has been filled by a fossil of an ancient duck-billed marine reptile. Like most fossils which illuminate family trees it was found in China.
Eohupehsuchus brevicollis lived 248 million years ago. Only two other examples of this creature have been brought to light, both in other parts of China. Like the platypus it was small for its time. It lived in an inland sea.
While its body proportions were different from the platypus, clear parallels can be seen: a broad body, no teeth and paddle arms for swimming. Eohupehsuchus brevicollis had a very short neck like the platypus. The fossil is an excellent specimen for research being nearly complete. It has evidence of being attacked, though it did survive this and lived for some time afterwards. The animal was a survivor of the mass extinction of the Permian era 252 million years ago.
✴ Evolution by Ty Buchanan ✴
Subscribe to:
Comments
(
Atom
)
