Beached Beaked Whale in Australia

Many animals have not been seen for a long time. Indeed, it is not known whether they have become extinct. Some, of course, live in places not usually visited by humans. Recently a beaked whale was washed up on a beach Australia. It is rare and lives deep in the sea.

The actual species cannot be verified by manual examination of the body, Part of the body will be sent to the Australian Science Museum in Sydney for DNA tests and X-ray scans to determine the correct species.

Not much is known about beaked whales because they live so far down in the sea. Only stranded and beached specimens have been found. They do come to the surface to breath but do not linger there for very long.

Many scientists have never seen a live beaked whale. A beaching of this kind is very rare indeed. Parts of the body will be thoroughly examined to shed more light on how the mammal lives.  We will never know everything about fellow animals.  The more we know the better.
Science by Ty Buchanan
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Door Cat

"Yeah, close the door on your way out."
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Australia Makes Quantum Computer Chip Breakthrough -Twice!

Australian scientists are still working feverishly toward producing a quantum computer. Two kinds of qubits, the building clocks of a quantum computer, have been made. Silicon is the base material which is the normal chip mineral.

Below the silicon base, atoms are the working parts. They are the storage medium. More data can be manipulated than in traditional computers. The error rate for quantum computers has been dramatically reduced.

Because two teams have made different chips and working computers, it means major production is imminent. Silicon is plentiful and relatively cheap so cost is not a major problem.  There will be a rush to make a working computer and mass produce it.

The two systems are different. One uses an embedded phosphorus atom, the other an artificial atom. The Dzurak chip can be made in existing factories as it imitates normal transistors. Both chips can hold memory for 30 seconds which is sufficient to do complex work. Obviously one system will be adopted. Which chip will it be?
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Loaf Dog

"I'm just loafing around."
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Millions of years ago kangaroos were much different than they are today. The sthenurine kangaroo once dominated Australia. It became extinct only 30,000 years ago when the maga fauna era ended. They were two meters tall, much too large to hop. It is surmised that they walked like humans.

Their face was flat and they looked like a rabbit with a large tail. They were a side branch of the kangaroo family. The main line continued to become modern kangaroos. Procoptodon golliah grew to three meters tall and weighed about 240kg.

Scientists had assumed that they hopped like modern kangaroos. The most obvious conclusion is usually the best, but in this case it was wrong. Their bone structure points to them walking. Having a large tail was a bonus: it improved balance.

The mega fauna period has been painted as a time of happy giants. For humans it would have been frightening. These oversized creatures would have been difficult to hunt. Indeed, humans probably had a policy of keeping their distance. Just because most did not eat meat does not mean they weren't dangerous.
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Cat Hold

"Get out of that!"
"You can't can you?"
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Skill Gap in Western Countries

Western countries are heading for a crisis. Young people are not being taught skills that are of use in the workforce. Australia under Prime Minister Tony Abbott is moving back to the three "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. However, it will take at least a decade for this to take effect.

It looks unlikely that future Australian governments will keep this change going. More and more irrelevant subjects are being introduced into an already crowded curriculum. Students are studying different things. There is no uniformity in education.

Will we reach a stage where machines run the world and there are no technicians with the skills to repair them? This is a strong possibility. It is just a short step back to primitivism, back to the stone age.

Students are not applying to enter the scientific field. Scientists are an aging bunch. Much research funding is channelled to them because they have proven themselves. Bodies with funds do not have any faith in new science graduates.

The skill shortage is not only in science. It is not possible for everyone to be employed at the checkout where computerized tills do the adding up and show the exact change to give. This is now an unskilled job. When the older generation of tradees retire there will be no young eager people to do the work. The government is not listening. Funding on TAFE education has fallen dramatically.
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Water Dogs

"Way-hay!"  Turn the water down."
 Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan 
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Australian Laws Lag Behind Technological Change

Culture changes steadily with technological development. Some values have their own inertia which means that they stay around for much longer. Legal adaptation to a new environment is very slow. We are living with laws suited to a pre-internet era.

The Uber app took the world by storm. It spread through many countries and clashed with legal restrictions which were made for the benefit of taxi drivers and the public. Unfortunately, people do not like rapid change to the legal system. It upsets the way they live.

Like the Chinese, Australians embrace new technology, much to the frustration of government. Whether it is legal or not we adopt new things. They "get in" because their is some legal framework that benefits some participants in the market place. New systems get under the barrier, so to speak.

Australians seems to lead the world on illegal movie downloads. This is because the market is distorted. We pay over the odds for the latest films due to overpricing by American companies: they obviously do not understand that they lose money in the long run.

Some market distortions are being dismantled by Companies who have had the market to themselves for years. The pay TV business Foxtel has halved its small packages largely due to the appearance of Netflix Australia. Unfortunately, Teltra partly owns Foxtel and sells the premium Foxtel service with their broadband bundles. The Foxtel subscription remains the same but with two free movies a month given now. Some companies will never learn! This is why consumers move to new products, legal or not.
Science by Ty Buchanan
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