"How long do I have to stay like this?"
Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan
A New Mineral Called Putnisite is Found in Australia
Minerals are classified into species like animals. You would think that all minerals had been identified by scientists. This is not the case. A completely new mineral has been found in Australia at Polar Bear peninsula, Southern Lake Cowan. It is named after the two scientists who discovered it, Christine and Andrew Putnis based at the University of Münster in Germany.
Putnisite is now among the 4,000 known minerals. It was found on the surface of Lake Cowan in Western Australia. The mineral is composed of tiny 0.5 mm diameter crystals in volcanic rock. Its crystals are square and in a range of colors: white, pink, purple and dark green. The mineral is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, calcium, strontium and chromium. It glistens as light can penetrate the substance.
Unlike other minerals which belong to families similar in structure, putnisite is unique. Nature joins things together to form minerals. Scientist did not believe a blend of these bases could be joined together as a unit. Researchers are clearly not as clever as nature itself.
Mineralogy by Ty Buchanan
"Drone Lands on Athlete - Injuries
Companies are announcing delivery of parcels and takeaway food by drone. This is all advertising bling. It cannot possibly happen. Strict aviation rules will apply and this will completely rule them out. They are too dangerous. Imagine one landing on a crowd of people. Its rotors would cut flesh everywhere.
At the moment there is no restriction on their use in most countries because not many are in use. As accidents happen there will be strong calls for limitations on who can fly them. An athlete in an Australian triathlon was hit by a drone carrying a camera. She suffered lacerations to her
head. The owners of the drone said he was not hurt. In other words they denied responsibility. The first thing that must be implemented is insurance for these "flying attack vehicles". Wire protectors covering the rotors is another option. Part of a propeller was stuck in the runners head. To say she was making up her injuries is rubbish - she had three stitches.
The owner of the machine said that the drone had been hacked. This is not possible as few knew a drone with a camera was going to cover the event. Another problem is the question of licencing. The person flying the drone had a licence but the company who hired him did not. This is a gray area in the law. Oddly, the controller held a plane flying licence which does not cover drones.
CASA the official aviation authority is investigating the incident. Apparently many drones have crashed with few being reported. They are powerful machines and can quickly leave a controllers line of sight. Accurate landing software does not exist. A GPS or radar type landing system is absolutely necessary as soon as possible. Until this is done all drones should be banned from highly populated areas.
Technology by Ty Buchanan
AMD Concentrates on Australia
The Personal Computer is dead. We have seen this many times in the media. This, of course, is not true. businesses rely on PCs. Tablets and mobile phones just don't cut the mustard when it comes to high output data and Internet usage. Try typing a report on a tablet whether it has an attachable keyboard or not and you will be doing it all day. Those tiny keys are just not realistic for most people.
AMD is ratcheting up investment in the Australian commercial computer market. It sees boom times ahead with its new quadruple chip. The company sees Australia as a test market for "differentiation and better value." Australia is now known as a "channel" for AMD.
Many companies are selling AMD products including HP, Dell and Lenovo. AMD is becoming the server of choice in the market. India is a huge market for AMD particularly in education. Its main target is government contracts. The sheer range of offerings by AMD outranks all its rivals. Indeed, its first ARM 64-bit processor came out this year.
In 2013 sales in Australia and New Zealand more than doubled. Using Oceania as a test market makes sense. It costs less to see mistakes made. They can chose what is really successful and promote that in the rest of the world. At last, a company that is doing the job properly.
Computing by Ty Buchanan
Whale Culture in Japan
Japan plans to resume whaling in the Antarctic next year. It will modify its "scientific"research system to fit in to what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) wants, although the court stated that scientific whaling per se was illegal and would always be illegal.
Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) says it will take the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) to the ICJ to stop it harassing Japanese whaling ships when they carry out future legal scientific whale hunting in the Antarctic, in short the resumption of killing of whales for food.
Just why Japan is so pig-headed about continuing to wastefully kill whales says something about Japanese culture - they are arrogant. Japanese consumers want whaling despite not actually buying whale meat. This nation has tonnes of whale meat in storage because it doesn't sell, despite being highly subsidized.
I am about to get personal about this issue. Those readers easily offended should stop reading now..........
Cultures do not change suddenly. It takes centuries for societies to change. The way people think and what they believe in continue, even though rational circumstance prove that things cannot possibly be as people believe.
Because a war ended and countries apparently got back to normal didn't mean societies changed their ways. Japanese culture is the same today as it was in the 1930s. Arrogance prevails despite bowing to this, bowing to that. This bowing custom came about because Japanese were terrified of samurai - frightened of losing a head or half body.
The truth of the matter is that Japan will continue to hunt whales because of the silly custom of saving-face. They perceive a court order as a blemish on their character. People of other countries do not see it this way at all.
Conservation by Ty Buchanan
Dingo is Just an Asian Dog
New research tells us that the dingo is a uniquely Australian dog. This is despite the strong evidence of Asian dogs looking exactly the same and in Asia they are domesticated. This silly "mythification" of animals in Australia says something about Australians generally. Are they seeking something to make themselves unique?
Australian academics have revived the name Canis dingo a term coined in 1793 by German naturalist Friedrich Meyer. Skulls examined by researchers showed the dingo had a long snout and a broad head. A look at a modern dingo in the bush shows it to be exactly the same as Asian specimens living today. There is nothing special about them. Because they are inter fertile with ordinary dogs shows that they cannot possibly be a different species. Their offspring in this case are also fertile. Unlike the donkey which when mated with a horse gives birth to an infertile mule.
Saying they are not descended from wolves is total rubbish - all dogs are descended from wolves! How can they be "distinct from dogs" when they clearly are dogs? They come in all colors: tan, black and tan, black and white, just like domestic dogs.
It is accepted that dingoes were brought here by Asian seafarers five thousand years ago. It cannot be a separate breed. Some European breeds were brought to distant lands centuries ago with no further input from European stock and they have remained the same.
There is not much doubt that academics are for the most part "dreamers'. They do not do much that is practical. Dr Crowther is "on" something, or should be!
Evolution by Ty Buchanan
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
