Adventure Ausrama Blog

"Nah, I don't care. Snap me." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Coral reefs may look okay but on closer examination they may be dying. Overfishing, particularly in the Indian Ocean, causes eight steps that lead to reef collapse. Each step is a stage toward the end of a reef. Keeping fish numbers up is important. When the level falls below 1000 kilograms of fish per hectare seaweed growth increases as well as urchin activity. This is a major indication of a problem. If fish density falls below 300 kilograms a crisis is reached. Until now, coral cover has been used as a measure of coral health. This research shows that coral cover is the last threshold: the reef is heading toward ecosystem collapse. It is during the first three stages that constructive change will save a reef. Fishing should be regulated. If a reef is in the final five stages, it is near impossible to save it. Only marine reserves have really healthy coral reefs because fishing is restricted. Unmonitored reefs fare the worst. A management system for each reef needs to be

"Just follow the landmarks." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Many animals have been saved from extinction by captive breeding programs. A creature of the desert, the Arabian oryx, became extinct in the wild in 1972. It has symbolic significance for Arabian people. Individual animals were brought together from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. A watershed occurred in 1982 when some oryx were released into the wild. By 2011 the number of wild oryx reached more than 1,000. The species is no longer endangered. It is now classed as vulnerable. Much has been learned from this successful intervention. This has been done before. In the 19th century the American bison was saved. Today there are 30,000 in the wild and another 30,000 have been bred for meat. In Australia only 50 helmeted honeyeaters were alive in 1990. The Healesville Sanctuary has bred these birds releasing about 20 every year. Australia has adopted a policy of releasing endangered animals onto islands because cats and foxes easily kill native species. The greater stick-nest

"Just enjoy the wildlife son." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Though some scientists still hold onto the "myth" that coastal water will rise only a few centimeters, In a thousand years land area will be much smaller in comparison with the ocean. Some estimates put sea rise as high as 40 meters. This will devastate low-lying land. Countries as we know them today will be unrecognisable. Research is in train to find out sea height 3 million years ago by studying coral reefs, sand dunes and fossils. This will enable more accurate forecasts to be made. The extent of ice sheets that will be left with global warning and higher greenhouse gases will be ascertained. A collection of sediment in the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository, the world's largest, is being used in the study. The frequency of ice ages has already been identified more accurately. They occurred every 41,000 years. It had been believed that the time frame was every 100,000 years. Furthermore, rising mountain ranges cool the Earth's temperature. It is now obvious

"It wasn't there last night." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Nazca lines are not only in South America. Similar lines have been found in the Middle East. Satellite-mapping brought the lines to light in Jordan. The lines are not composed of base desert cleared of stones. They are made of stone and go from Saudi Arabia to Syria. Many designs can be seen, the most common being spoked wheels. They go through lava fields and are 2,000 years old. This is much older than the Nazca lines. The area covered is more extensive than Nazca. The sections with the spoked wheels have a function. They are part of kites which "funnel" animals thus trapping them. Other lines are cairns that run from burial sites. Walls and other structures have no apparent purpose. Some areas have clusters of spoked wheels. They are believed to have ritual significance linked to the seasons as in Nazca. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.co

"It sure is windy." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

It is now common knowledge that the propensity to get high blood pressure is genetic. A billion people in the world suffer from it. Persistent high blood pressure ultimately leads to heart disease and stroke. The genetic work is complicated. Sixteen new genetic variations have been identified. These genetic factors can be counted: the greater the number people have the more likely they are to suffer from high blood pressure. There are three kinds of genetic variants predisposing hypertension. One regulates blood pressure. Another affects pulse. The third type controls arterial pressure. It appears that the modern diet has happened too fast for humans to stop the selection of these gene variants. Children are now suffering from this complaint. The variants will only be "selected-out" if these children do not reach child bearing age. This is a hard fact to accept, but this is the way natural selection works. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tys

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

It is amazing that a species of dolphin has been living along the coast of Australia and scientists did not know it - until now. The Burrunan dolphin is the third new species to be identified since the 1800s. Named Tursiops australis , the new mammal is represented by two small groups living among bottle-nosed and common dolphins living off the Victorian coast. They are quite distinct from other dolphins having different body shape, skulls and DNA sequence. The discovery came as quite a shock and shows that new species of other animals could be living unidentified in regions already extensively examined. Man may be going into space but much of our planet still remains unexplored. New species still need to be classified in South America. The behavior of some creatures is not yet fully understood. For example, giant catfish in Asia are suspected of taking people swimming across rivers. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.f

"This looks like a safe place to hide." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Australian wild cockatoos have been "infiltrated" by domesticated cockatoos who have escaped. Wild birds are copying words learned by escaped household pets. Cockatoos are not the only wild birds being affected in this way. Galahs and corellas shout out words that startle people. Escaped birds breed with their wild counterparts and chicks learn to talk from parents. The parrot family is extremely good at mimicking sounds they hear. Songbirds and hummingbirds can also do this to a degree. The problem is cockatoos and parakeets are social animals. To wild birds a word is just a new sound to be learned and used socially. Human babbling to learn language is called subsong in birds, where chicks learn by trial and error. Like humans, cockatoos continue to learn "words" all through their lives. "Natural" cockatoo sounds go together to form a language which has its own grammar. Human words are being integrated into this language. A pet bird may only hea

"I'm ready to come in now." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Penguins are funny little creatures though they are interesting to study. They first made landfall in Africa millions of year ago but they went extinct. They had a second go at colonization. This failed as well. They preferred Antarctica, South America and Australia living there for a very long time. There are two ocean currents that could have brought penguins to Africa. Neither goes further north than the equator so colonization would have occurred only in south west Africa. The third or perhaps fourth intrusion onto the African continent was successful. Blackfooted Penguins live their today. They are related to other banded penguins found in South America and the Pacific. There is evidence that four other types of penguins once existed in Africa. These were analysed to see if they were related. Two of the four were sufficiently complete for this. They were found not to be related to Blackfooted penguins or to each other, so colonization happened many times. http://www.

"I'm leaving as soon as the postman arrives." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Men become more effeminate after marriage. When men marry, particularly when they have children, the level of testosterone in men's bodies falls. Tests on Filipino men highlighted this phenomenon. It appears that the more men care for children, adopting female behavior, the lower their testosterone. Research subjects were 21 years old on average. They were tested at the beginning and after 4 years. At the latter time 50 per cent were married. These married men had very high testosterone levels initially, which indicates that testosterone makes men more attractive as marriage partners. Very low testosterone was found in married men with a child less than one month old. Males who cared directly for a child had 80 per cent of the testosterone level of men who left childcare to mothers. Obviously behavior drives hormone level. This is a new discovery. If testosterone is affected by behavior it is possible that other hormones levels are determined by the way people act. http://

"I meditate then I float." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Law is just pedantic. Legal proceedings are to be undertaken to define the precise meaning of "free to roam" chicken. Can chicken roam freely when they are packed into barns? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is arguing that the high population density of barn chicken prevents them roaming freely. Turi Foods, Baiada Poultry and the Australian Chicken Meat Federation are accused of misleading advertising. The court case could fall either way. There is no doubt television adds showing chicken wandering with large spaces between them are not showing the true condition. However, a chicken is free to move if another chicken moves out of the way first in normal barn chicken egg production. Of course free-range chicken supporters are in favor of the ACCC action. There isn't much doubt that the real truth about barn production is not being shown in the advertisements. Other products are also not telling the truth in advertising either and the ACC

"I'll take just one." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

It was believed that Australia's dingo dog arrived here via Southeast Asian or Chinese seafarers. Then an overland journey was proposed through Taiwan and the Philippines. Genetic evidence now shows that they originated in South China and got to Australia by way of Indonesia. How they crossed the ocean is still a mystery. The oldest evidence for the presence of the dingo in Australia is 3,500. This is a long time after the ice age and sea levels were about the same then as they are today. The dingo is really an ordinary dog. It "split" from the pre-modern domestic dog 5,000 years ago. This older domestic dog spread out from South China 16,000 years ago. The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog. Genetic evidence shows that these two variants moved into Southeast Asia before ordinary domestic dogs accompanied humans as far as Polynesia 3,000 years ago. Whether dingoes travelled with humans is not clear. Dingos have a different genetic mutatio

"I'll have one more for the road." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Authorities and individuals need to be careful about adopting a lauded new invention because a new concept can be a real furphy. Dean Cameron developed a sewerage system that was claimed to be the greenest yet. Biolytix won the 2007 Asia Innovation Award, EPA Sustainable Industries Award, Clunies Award, Premier's Smart Business Award and the Global Environmental Award, such was the euphoria generated by the new system. Though a lifetime guarantee was given it was known from the beginning that if anything went wrong a complete rebuild became necessary. The product was sold in all Australian states with 80 per cent of them not working correctly. Joe Langford of Everhard Aqua Nova warned of the potential problems from Biolytix from the start. Mr Langford even lobbied government, to no avail. He said the concept was sound. The problem was in its construction - it was poorly made. The National Parks and Wildlife Service spent a lot of money installing them. It has absorbed the lo

"I'll be safe in here." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

California may be a great place to live with its good weather, but it is the source of a dangerous tree-killing fungus. Seiridium cardinal e actually began its spread across the world from the San Joaquin Valley. Cypress trees are dying by the thousands from cypress canker disease. Ninety five per cent of pine plantations primarily of cedars and junipers are affected. The fungus jumped the Atlantic to France about 80 years ago when seedlings were imported from California. Italian cypress planted there were devastated. This pretty tree occurs all over southern Europe. Landscapes have been changed irreversibly. Cracks in the bark are entry points for the disease that produces toxins obstructing the flow of sap, water and nutrients. The fungus clones itself asexually as well as reproducing sexually. There are two variants of the fungus. Only one of these variants is found in Europe. The second variant has found its way to the southern hemisphere. Work to develop resistan

"I know, you know I'm here!" http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Australia has the highest skin cancer rate in the world. This is because the population of this country is composed mainly of fair-skinned northern Europeans and Australia is very hot in summer. Despite advertising campaigns citing the dangers of sun bathing men still go around with no shirts and women bake in their back gardens or at the beach. If only people could take a pill to stop skin cancer. Tests on a coral indicate that a tablet to prevent eye and skin damage from exposure to the sun may be within reach. The coral contains natural UV blockers. Though the coral is on the Australian Great Barrier reef, research is being done by the British government. Paul Long of King's College London is taking samples from Acropora microphthalma coral on night dives. Walter Dunlap of the Australian Institute for Marine Science noticed the attribute in 1986. While the coral contains the UV protector, a base chemical is created by algae living nearby. The coral absorbs this

"You can't see me can you?" http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

It has recently been discovered that the way to fight the intrusive cane toad in Australia is to fence off all waterholes and dams. Without water they die. Another method has also been identified. A chemical that is in the toad itself is used against it. Tadpoles contain this chemical that kills toad eggs on contact. Those that survive grow at a slower rate than normal, so they are more vulnerable to predators. The chemical is harmless to native species. Ways of implementing this strategy nationwide need to be developed, but this is only a matter of time. The pest has just reached the far west coast of Australia, leaping its way across the whole country. West Australians are on search and destroy missions into the night. Queenslanders gave up on this years ago at it had no impact on their numbers. The fight continues. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.te