Adventure Ausrama Blog

Genetic modification is favored in health but not for food. Convincing people to eat genetically modified food still has a long way to go to gain majority acceptance. Yet, just about everyone is in favor of using gene technology to treat health problems. This is a strange anomaly. Gene manipulation of any kind will change the world we live in. Once a change has been made and it spreads through the environment it is there forever. Drug companies admit they have lost the war in Europe. There is no way that GM food will ever be accepted there. It is largely an emotional decision, not scientifically based. Possibly, in the near future, Europe will ban DNA experimentation in health as well. This will be counter-productive. If money is invested in nations that welcome gene science then the environment will change anyway because we all live in the same world. There is a major problem looming, however, on the real future of genetically modified crops. To be profitable far...

Lincoln red cattle are genetically strong, ideal for farmers. Lincoln Red cattle are large. They provide a lot of meat. However, many consumers have never heard of the breed, mainly because investment in marketing has been minimal. A marketing program is planned. In many ways the meat is superior to the much vaunted Angus. Admittedly, only a thousand head are produced each year in Western Australia. If consumers knew of the quality meat more could be ready for market very quickly. The breed comes from the cold and windy east coast county of Lincolnshire in England. There true origin is the Bos urus cattle of Scandinavia. While not currently popular with consumers in Australia, they have "taken-off" in Europe. It has pluses for farmers. It efficiently converts feed to meat and grows rapidly. Crossbreeds in particular grow very fast. Unusually for meat animals they make good milkers as well. ◆ Genetics by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australia Funny Animal ...

Cats are cuddly pets, but if they get into the wild they can cause native animals to become extinct. This has been the case in Australia. They hunt little marsupials until there are none left to eat then move on to consume something else. growing larger in the wild certainly help cats to survive very well indeed. Where did the cats originally come from? It was thought that Asia was the most likely place as Asian fishermen came to Australia's northern shores well before Europeans. However, research shows that they did come on boats from European countries whether as "stowaways" or more likely brought as pets to remind new arrivals of home. Moreover, having cats to hunt rodents on European ships was common in the early 1800s. Island cats were tested as they had not crossed with new cats imported from countries across the world, so the findings were accurate and Europeans are the culprits for spreading this pest. Keep your cat in the house and don't let it roam. ...

History is based on artifacts with huge gaps in the timeline. Academics fill in the spaces and tell us that this is absolute truth. Of course, we are not stupid : we know that much of what happened in the past will never be found. However, real history is in our genes. The "modern" world has only been here for a couple of centuries. we have not changed much from our ancestors when they came out of Africa perhaps 90,000 years ago. Sure, many of us have become paler than those who remained in Africa. Some genes coincidentally related to this have become more prominent in Europeans and Asians. The ability to more easily digest dairy products in an example of related genes. By tracing these genes the human mixing process has become clearer. Times of conflict increase the mixing process. Tough times in medieval Europe and the Crusades in north Africa were such eras. A reverse mix occurred when north Africans moved into Spain. It has come to light that immigrat...

Important discoveries have been made in regard to early farming in Europe. DNA evidence shows that invaders from Turkey brought farming skills to western regions 8,000 years ago. They were not hunter gatherers from Germany as was originally believed. Hunter gatherers didn't suddenly take up farming. It was a learned skill that was passed on to the younger generation. The research has been so informative that the route invaders took is clear. An earlier movement of eastern people has also been identified. It took place 11,000 years ago. invaders moved through south-eastern Europe via the Carpathian Basin near present day Hungary into central Europe. The history of Man is fascinating and we do not have all the answers yet. Perhaps in the past a civilization equal to our own existed and all the knowledge they had has been lost. There are many mysterious things we do not know about ancient Egyptians.  Their culture faded only in recent times. http://www.adventure--australia.b...

The European economic situation is becoming a world problem. There seems to be no way the Euro can be saved. There will definitely be a flow-on effect to the world economy. Despite the new agreement, without the UK, nothing has really changed. The regulation and punishment for spending too much is too late for Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. When these countries ultimately default, and they will, France and Germany will be drawn into Depression with them because their banks have continued to lend to these deficit countries. There will be another problem in Europe that no one has highlighted. When unemployment gets too high in the struggling countries life will be unbearable. Labor is free to move across borders in the EC. Workers will move to where the work this. That is Germany and to a lesser extent France. Economic refugees will flood across the borders. The UK will not be exempt from this. For centuries England, Scotland and Wales have been destinations for w...

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...

Big insects once roamed the US. They were very big. Ants were the size of small birds 50 million years ago. They are thought to have crossed the arctic land bridge that once existed between Europe and the US. The Green River site in Wyoming has given up many new finds in the past. Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia noted that the fossil was similar to one found in Germany. Only the queen of the Dorylus wilverthi species of ant living today reaches this size. Fittingly, the new ant has been named Titanomyrma lubei . Louis Lube found the specimen. While this ant is big for North America, big ants probably lived in other parts of the world because large fossils of other creatures have been found there. Large ants only live a tropical climate in the present so North America was tropical millions of years ago. It is a mystery how they crossed the temperate Arctic region then. For brief periods this area became quite warm, up to 8 degrees Celsius, th...

With the US printing paper dollars by the truckload the American currency cannot remain the world's gold standard. Can something akin to gold be created to act as the measure of value for world trade? China's call for a new stand alone currency for international trade will not work. The difficulties of the Euro has highlighted this. Putting the world's "strong" currencies in a pot with gold then calculating out a value for transactions is also problematical. Wouldn't this be a partial return to the gold standard? The gold standard worked for a long time mainly because is was a scarce commodity and new finds of the mineral were increasing the gold "pot" at about the same rate as the world growth in trade. A new gold standard would probably not work now because there would be a rush to invest in gold companies which could flood the market. This would not solve the problem of nations openly trying to weaken their currency to gain a market edge. Quantita...