"I've got to stay warm somehow."
Funny Animal Pictures
●
✤
Diseases From the Past, Return
It seems diseases that were thought to be long gone are reappearing. The medical community are not prepared for this and do not know how to respond. Scarlet fever is being communicated again from person to person.
Oddly, this is in the UK and countries in Asia. China is the hotspot with 100,000 cases. Hong Kong has had 5,000. The UK reported 12,000 instances of infection.
Scarlet fever is a childhood disease. Symptoms include a very sore throat, skin rash, headache and vomiting. Antibiotics are the favored treatment. However, bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an issue. The great "fall-back", penicillin, is the most effective. Fears are that it will not work as its use continues.
◆ Health by Ty Buchanan ◆
●
The Great Ghan Rail Journey South to North
The Ghan, running from Adelaide to Darwin, is our most luxurious train. Its forerunners were the Afghan camel drivers. In 1840, drivers and their animals were introduced to transport goods, even pianos and furniture, to settlements of the great dry inland. They were brought into the country from Afghanistan because their home country’s climate was as hot and dry as Australia's. The camel drivers’ nationality was shortened to ‘Ghan’ and the route has been called by this name ever since.
In 1860 24 camels were imported for the Burke and Wills expedition that was endeavouring to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They reached the fringe of the Gulf in February 1861. However, Burke and Wills died on the way back south on the banks of Cooper Creek, just by a tree that has the word "dig" carved in its trunk. Provisions had been buried there for the explorers, but they failed to dig and died of malnutrition. This tree is now known as the Dig Tree and you can still read the inscription today.
The Ghan is a modern, fast passenger and freight train going all the way to Darwin. The section of the line from Alice Springs to Darwin is proving to be a great tourist attraction. The journey starts in Adelaide, South Australia. An important station midway on the route is Alice Springs, known as The Alice. It was named after Lady Alice Todd, the wife of Sir Charles Todd who was in charge of the building of the Overland Telegraph Line. The station at the northern end of the line is Darwin, named by the Captain of HMS Beagle in honor of Charles Darwin.
◆ Technology by Ty Buchanan ◆
●
Australia's Bird the Emu
Early European settlers were amazed by the emu. Governor Lachlan Macquarie was so impressed that, in 1822, he sent two emus as gifts to the Governor-General of India, the Marquis of Hastings. When Macquarie set sail from Australia back to England on the ship Surry, he wrote that voyaging with the passengers were "pets" that included six emus, travelling in roomy well aired pens well-aired pens. The animals were to be given as gifts to friends and patrons of Governor Macquarie back in England. Unfortunately many of the pets, including one of the largest emus died on the trip.
In l791 John Harris, who arrived in the new colony as a surgeon, wrote that emus were swifter than the fleetest of greyhounds. Emu eggs were described as dark Green with little black specks the of pins. It is a little larger than goose eggs. The emu is Australia’s largest bird standing up to 2 metres high. lt has wings but it can°t fly. lt can run really quickly around 50 kilometres per hour. The legs are also yery powerful and used for fighting, especially if males are fighting over females. Emus are common throughout mainland Australia but not in dense rainforest and urbanised areas. They are highly nomadic, which means they must move as they need in search of food, water and shelter.
An emu°s courtship is a boisterous affair. There ISs lots of bobbing up and down, weaying and dipping, throat drumming, grunting and fluffing of feathers. Mating begins late in December: The female flattens a platform of grass into a large nest and lays her clutch of between 7 and 11 dark green eggs lthough it could be as high as 20. lf it is a good season and there is plenty of rain she might lay one or two more clutches with different males.
After laying her eggs she leaves. The male has the sole responsibility for parenting. When the eggs are laid, the male gets broody and begins incubation before the clutch is completed. The female stops mating with the male but might continue to lay eggs in the nest. which are fertilised by other males. It takes 56 days of incubation before the eggs hatch and striped chicks appear, usually in early spring. During this time the male emu sits on the eggs. rarely leaying the nest and only standing to turn the eggs every few hours. He doesn't eat or drink. Drawing on fat reserves, he looses about eight kilograms.
An emu°s courtship is a boisterous affair. There ISs lots of bobbing up and down, weaying and dipping, throat drumming, grunting and fluffing of feathers. Mating begins late in December: The female flattens a platform of grass into a large nest and lays her clutch of between 7 and 11 dark green eggs lthough it could be as high as 20. lf it is a good season and there is plenty of rain she might lay one or two more clutches with different males.
After laying her eggs she leaves. The male has the sole responsibility for parenting. When the eggs are laid, the male gets broody and begins incubation before the clutch is completed. The female stops mating with the male but might continue to lay eggs in the nest. which are fertilised by other males. It takes 56 days of incubation before the eggs hatch and striped chicks appear, usually in early spring. During this time the male emu sits on the eggs. rarely leaying the nest and only standing to turn the eggs every few hours. He doesn't eat or drink. Drawing on fat reserves, he looses about eight kilograms.
◆ Biology by Ty Buchanan ◆
●
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
