Adventure Ausrama Blog

It is not only humans that are becoming resistant to drugs developed to fight disease, chemicals used by farmers to combat crop destroyers are also not working so well. The world's supply of grain is at risk. The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in Australia is signing a deal with Bayer CropScience. This Herbicide Innovation Partnership aims to find more effective weed-fighting chemicals. More than 40 Australian researchers will be taken on board at the Bayer’s global centre of excellence in Germany. Australian is a major grain producer and Bayer will target agriculture in this country.  Benefits will spread to other countries. Australian farmers spend $3.25 billion on weed control every year. This is the largest input cost, greater than fertilizer. Resistance to herbicides is pushing the cost higher as growers spray more to defeat weeds. ✴ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.bl...

The Internet has disrupted the security of ordinary money. The economic system controlled by the banks for centuries is now under threat. Bitcoin is an example of new money. Its mere presence in feared by the banks. Money, or at least its value, depends on people having faith that it can easily be exchanged for different goods. In Germany before WWII security in money was severely challenged. There was rampant inflation, so much so that people had to push barrow loads of  cash to a shop to get a loaf of bread. New money is everywhere: PayPal has taken the banking world by storm. These bank-like services are being offered by Google, Apple and eBay. To get Followers on Twitter, many sites are offering seeds. Though the websites deny trading for followers, this is exactly what it is. Google's Wallet is really a bank service. Smartphones can be swiped in store terminals to buy goods. The problem is most money does not really exist it is just recorded in books as they used...

Let us wish the Japanese well in their bid to explore space. The US has had great success with their missions. It seems odd why Japan would spend money on space exploration when the economy is in such bad shape. Nonetheless, all people in the world benefit from new knowledge, After success with its first attempt to retrieve samples from the Itokowa space rock, the second spacecraft Hayabusa2 will be launched in 2014 and closely examine asteroid 1999 JU3. The rendezvous will take place in 2018. Valuable samples will be brought back to Earth in 2020. Japan is doing the work with assistance from other nations. The probe will be tracked by NASA's Deep Space Network. Like the first project the spacecraft will land in Australia. Powered by ion engines the craft will make a small crater in 1999 JU3. In the past this asteroid may have come into contact with water. A German made lander called MASCOT will move over the rock's surface. Intense examination will hopefully bring...

Research shows that capitalism is bad for us. Since the 1970s there has been an increase in mental illness of adults and children. Indications are that it is due to capitalism because the rise has been noted in English speaking capitalist countries and not in non-English speaking non-capitalist nations. An average 23% of Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians suffered from mental illness in the last 12 months, but only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and Dutch which have more restrictive trading systems. Selfish Capitalism has massively increased the wealth of the wealthy, robbing the average earner to give to the rich. But there is no "trickle-down effect". Real wages have decreased in the US over the last three decades. Governments have reduced tax payments of the rich, placing responsibility for payment on low income earners. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/   http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http:...

Raising the ire of scientists, mysteries continue to happen. A year ago people in Arkansas experienced an omen for the new year. Thousands of redwing blackbirds fell from the sky, dead. Investigators came to the odd conclusion that fireworks scared them to death. Apparently they flew around blindly in the night, crashing into the walls of buildings. In Altona, Germany, a large number of toads were found dead in a strange way. They had holes in their backs and their livers had been removed. It was concluded that crows had developed a way of getting at the nutritious livers without consuming poison from the toads. Taking the "myth" a little further "experts" said with livers removed the toads' lungs had inflated causing them to explode. Darn clever these scientists. They always have an answer. They do seem to get some things right, however. In Alaska 55 musk oxen were frozen to death despite having two layers of fur. A tidal surge followed a storm a...

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...