Adventure Ausrama Blog

A new type of crocodile now extinct has been found in northern Africa. It had three sets of fangs like wild boar tusks for killing other animals. Another kind of crocodile was found nearby. This one used a flat, wide snout to catch fish. A third species of crocodile also located close by was only three feet long. This had "buckteeth" for eating plants. It was a rich find with two other known kinds of crocodile being dug up there. The National Geographic Society sponsored the successful project. The new crocodiles show that the region had unique animals 100 million years ago. much different than in surrounding regions. These reptiles could run along at quite a fast pace then dive into the water and swim off. Unlike modern crocodiles which have legs on the side of their bodies these had longer legs set underneath. Luckily there were no people around for them to chase and eat. The three new species are as follows: 1) BoarCroc (Kaprosuchus saharicus) 20 feet in length wit

People want to come to Australia. They get on a leaky old boat, paying their life savings to the traffickers, thinking they will soon be in the promised land. However, if they did not leave as genuine refugees they will be on the boat back home. Only a few days ago those who were not refugees were forcibly removed. A riot recently broke out between Afghans and Sri Lankans when the Afghans said the Sri L ankans didn't have a chance of getting residency. The truth is the war is over in Sri Lanka and two boats have just been stopped by Sri lankan Government vessels. Why do they want to live here? Well, social services and health now employ more people than retail. The mining industry is booming. People in developing countries hear that life is easy in Australia and the state looks after you. But do they know that coastal cities are short of houses and water runs out, often. Electricity is rapidly increasing in price. Council rates are rising faster than the rate of inflation

How could the experts get it so wrong. For many years we were told that Australia should populate or perish. The Bureau of Statistics has released data showing that 296,00 births occurred in 2008. This is 10,000 more that 2007 and 1971, earlier record years. The fertility rate for women is high at 1.97 babies for every female. Tasmanians are really getting on with it (must be the cold climate) with a fertility rate of 2.24. Hot Darwin had a lower rate of 1.76. Not only are women having more babies, but the proportion of women in the population is rising. And the reason for this increase is financial. The Government pays $5,000 to a woman to have a baby. Women are getting pregnant in some cases just to get the money. If they want a big ticket item they see this as the way to get it, irrespective of the lifetime cost of bringing up a child. Another thing is that women who have put off having babies are now reaching the point of no return where they must act or never have children. http:

There is an answer to the refugee problem. A the moment the Australian Federal Government is in talks with the Sri Lankan Government. Hopefully, some bright spark will have the courage to stand up and say it: Australian ships should take them back home and let them apply for refugee status through the usual means, if the country of origin agrees. And indeed there should be pressure to make them agree. There is a long queue to attain citizenship status. Boat people should be patient. In countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, perhaps people fear going home, but these countries should take them back and give them protection. This may be simplistic. Nonetheless, it is the only answer when people are leaving to gain a better life and not running from oppression. The Tamils are clearly not running from oppression. The war is over. They should not be allowed to demand Australian citizenship and win. If they do win, we can expect all boat people from now on to refuse to get off ships taken to

Some people are extremely arrogant. In the present economic downturn it is not the poor who believe that the world owes them a living. Like many banks who continue to pay their executives high salaries despite accepting money from government, some wealthy people expect to live the high life at someone else's expense. Karin Upton Baker (her double barrelled name should give her away for a start) expects companies she has borrowed money from to leave her alone and let her live well despite owing them $18 million. In court she is saying that the claim against her is "unjust". She says that she did not read the contracts. Furthermore, she lied to financiers telling them that she had taken legal advice before signing the documents. Assuming that companies will leave her with the five apartments, living in them and collecting rent, is a bit much when you consider she hasn't paid any moneys back since July last year. Despite earning $7,000 a week she claims she cannot to af

Australia goes "politically correct" mad! The Federal Police has set up a new division that will monitor Australians telling jokes about cyclists, fat people, sex, Jews and Blacks. If you snigger at a fat person in a street you will be locked up. What is ridiculous is the punishment - a year in detention at the home of a member of the Australian Family Association. If someone gives the finger in response to this, what will police do? It is hard to believe that this is true. But it is in fact taking place. We will see stages raided when an actor makes a racist remark. He will be be cuffed and taken away. Magda Szubanski (a fat comedienne) will be arrested for making jokes about Jews, or even Germans: she is of Polish descent after all. Another joke artist will be arrested for making fun of her. In short, Australia has banned satire. Anything with a dual meaning will now be a prime target for police. It was the skit on Hey Hey Its Saturday that did it. A man with white make up

Ants smell. Yes they do! An ant specialist informs us that ants smell, well, funny. Edward Wilson crushes ants then puts them to his nose to smell them. Some ants smell like citrus fruit, while others give off the aroma of armpits. Mr Wilson is a Pulitzer prize winning author and he was out to celebrate Biodiversity Day, where a hundred scientists tried to identify as many organisms as they could in 24 hours. Educating people and appreciating diversity is an aim of the day out. Noah Siegel spent the day looking for mushrooms. In the past even a wandering moose was included in the species sited. This year they hope to exceed the record of 1,905 organisms identified. At the event this year turtles and a toad were counted. http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

Like the US, Australia is a young country, where even native born people have ancestors from overseas. This makes Australians "predisposed" to accept others, even though the new Australians have different norms of behavior. For example, they may not like Australian food. This is alright. Australians can live with that - as long as immigrants try to fit in and do their best to alter their values to some extent, in order for Australians to accept them. This is the problem. Some newcomers hear of the better life in this country and come here for this reason only. They want to live here and expect Australians to adopt to their way of living. This is wrong. In the fifties and sixties Europeans were encouraged to move to this country. They came from Greece, Italy, Spain and so on. Most of them moved to en cleaves . For example, Melbourne had the largest population of ex-pat Greeks than anywhere else in the world. They lived mainly in one part of Melbourne. In Adelaide where was a c

Xplorer2 Pro will enter "markers" into your registry if you enter the serial incorrectly the first time, then uninstall it and reinstall the program. From then on if you right click the "xplorer2_UC.exe" file then click on "Run as Administrator' the program will turn itself on and an error window will display saying that you do not have administrator privileges. If you enter the serial again at this point the program will not accept it. It is no good contacting the company that sells Xplorer2 Pro. They are only interested in getting your money. They have your money so they will not help you if you enter the serial incorrectly the first time. The only answer is to go to "Start". Then in the enter box that will appear in the lower left hand corner type in "regedit". Go to "Edit" then "Find" in the registry window. Type in "xplorer2". Click "Find Next", then delete the file or folder at the point wher

"Don't worry buddy. It's tough out there, but you got me." Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan   http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://tysaustralia.com/

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) says that banks are "dragging their feet" trying to hold on to old ways of running payments by card. Banks need to catch up with the rest of the world. Instead of installing new systems they are concentrating on making more money. If they do not act soon the RBA will intervene and use its regulatory powers. The existing system is costly for the consumer and business to use. Even though computerization has been adopted the actual methods used are over 3o years old in some cases. The RBA had to force banks to make their charges known when giving them the right to set their own rates for ATM usage. Furthermore, charges for interchange of funds paid by credit card to businesses had to be capped. The problem is that the RBA is only a "watchdog". Other countries have bodies that run the private sector banking system. Coalition Governments have made the market too free. Every corporation is doing its own thing. A Labor Government should

Bigfoot or yeti? Australia has its own "monster" living in the outback. It is called the bunyip. Most Australians live on the coast. But people continually travel this broad brown land all the time. With few dense areas to hide in why isn't the bunyip seen more often - if it exists. Aboriginals firmly believe in the existence of the bunyip, and many white people do as well. Though Aboriginals describe the creature in physical terms saying that it has dark fur, horse-like tail, tusks and a dog-like face, they do say it is a spirit, which can disappear when it wants to. Those who claim to have seen the animal invariably see it near water such as streams, rivers, lakes or wetlands. A mysterious booming sound does seem to have been a reality in the past. Many people went searching for the source of the sound in the mid 19th century. When wet areas where the sound came from were drained for human habitation a dull silence remained, very disappointing. An explorer actually clai

Perhaps heavy taxation is not the answer to a nation's economic problems. The idea has been to introduce new tax systems such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is much like the European Value Added Tax. This gives government a lot of money to spend on infrastructure and welfare. But has time proved this economic model to be flawed? Until the 1970s Australia was a place where individuals struck out on their own. People believed that to work hard, long hours would provide enough income to buy a house, pay for groceries and home wares, and pay for private health insurance. This concept of living has been detrimentally affected by higher taxes which has taken individual choice away. Now many cannot earn enough on the minimum wage to put a roof over their heads or pay for private health insurance. Even on the minimum wage income tax is taken out, which is ridiculous considering it is so low. The very poor also pay tax when they spend via the GST. The main cause of the failing hi