Adventure Ausrama Blog

Watch out Caribs: your reputation could be under threat. This group of tribal people found in the West Indies when explorers first arrived there were given the "badge" of real cannibals. It now seems cannibalism was practiced elsewhere, in Britain as a matter of fact. Yes, in jolly old blighty. Ancient Britons sat around the fire enjoying bloody drinks from skulls. They reached out to grab pieces of human flesh from the spit. Human remains from a dig at Glough's Cave show dismemberment of some bodies. There is evidence of butchering with bone marrow being removed. This is the most nutritious substance that can be obtained from a body. The edges of skulls were also made smooth to make them more comfortable to drink from. While using skulls as drinking vessels is not evidence in itself that ancient Britons drank human blood from craniums - some non-meat eating people in Asia used them - prying damage on the skeletons does clearly point to cannibalism occurring   His

One of the most difficult things to do is to develop a computer brain that operates like a human brain. Intelligence that evolved by nature is very complex. A computer "thinks" linearly with one activity followed by another. The human brain works outward from a central point, spreading out to different areas depending on the particular task. To say that Australia should concentrate on making the world's first bionic brain is a leap too far. Saying that $250m over ten years will get the job done is way off the mark. There are many scientists already working with much more money than that and they haven't achieved much. Pioneering the bionic ear and eye is kid stuff compared to replicating the brain. Using nerve activity to make artificial limbs move is also far from understanding human intelligence. Even after all these years measuring intelligence is beyond us. The IQ test only gives a score for rating cultural knowledge. It is misused by so many peo

The crowd wave at sporting events in not an entirely human thing. Prairie dogs do the "jump-yip". This keeps others involved and tells an individual how alert others are. It begins like the human wave. One or two will start doing it and at first it is ignored. Then it takes on a mind of its own and soon all are doing it. The wave is just as noisy as the human wave with loud yips coming from everywhere. Prairie dogs use their whole body to make the sound. They raise there front legs then lower them with a "wee-oo" call in sequence. Like humans prairie dogs live in towns. It was believed to be a warning call of the presence of predators, but prairie dogs continue the wave whether a predator is there or not. It is a social activity to test the alertness of others. If fellow animals do not respond a prairie dogs will not forage very much. On the other hand, if everyone is at it, they assume they can eat in safety. Somehow they are making a judgement about

"You humans are disgusting!". Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vista Computer Solutions Blog        Australian Blog ★                          ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE) Share Article

"Don't judge me Man!" http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan Vista Computer Solutions Blog        Australian Blog ★                          ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE) Share Article

  "You mean I'm not human?" http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan Vista Computer Solutions Blog        Australian Blog ★                          ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE) Share Article

When is human advancement and achievement not necessarily so? When improvement leads to deleterious side effects. There are theories that protection of children from the environment by medication and physical intervention causes such things as hay fever and autism. These are only theories and not proven. Another issue is the massive intake of carbohydrates humans have taken into their bodies over the last ten thousand years. We have not evolved to digest the diet. For most of our evolution we lived on meat and fruit with tubers in small amounts.  Societies have changed a great deal. There are now strong indications that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by people keeping the environment too clean when children are toddling around. "Good" bacteria and viruses do not get into our bodies. It should be noted that the rate of Alzheimer's is rising only in wealthy nations. Lack of microbes could also be increasing strokes. This seems to be an insurmountable prob

The Announcement that skeletons found in South Africa belong to a new species of Man is premature.  They were found in a cave near Johannesburg. The "new species" was named Australopithecus sediba . It was claimed to be the "rosetta stone" into the past. They were also the most complete skeletons ever discovered. The creatures walked upright, had long arms and powerful hands. Unfortunately, they were small brained. Paleoanthropologists not involved in the find say the name chosen is just a "wastebasket" category. They are not ancestors of Man. Furthermore, some animals in the species could have had larger or smaller brains. It could still be transitional in evolution to Man, but very distant. It may fit into Homo . Perhaps it is a sister species to Homo habilis . The brain size of Australopithecus sediba is the same as Homo floresiensis , the Hobbit, of Indonesia. The features in sediba are similar to those in other Homo species. Paleoanthropologi

Gorillas caused it. Scientists say mosquitoes split into a new form capable of infecting humans when Man and chimpanzees had a common ancestor. This is a myth. It is not based on fact. Bonobos have also been singled out for blame despite no parasites being found in bonobos or western gorillas, though some parasites were found in chimpanzees and eastern gorillas. Before conclusions can be drawn on such research evidence of this mystery ancestor must be found first. This is all hearsay. How can present day apes be responsible for current malaria infection. Gorillas are only found in very small parts of Africa, not all around the world. This wreaks of leaps of faith not science. It is no better than religious beliefs based on prophets who probably never existed. It is scientific fact that evil spirits do not cause disease, yet millions of people believe that a man, Jesus, cured illness by casting out spirits.  Note, everyone is entitled to follow a religion. http://www.adventure--

Darwin got it right. Well actually he may not have. Fossils of early humans do not alter basic scientific thought in relation to evolution, Finds do not show a linear development toward advanced Man. Evolution though does tend to predict what new discoveries show. Claims that a particular fossil find is a breakthrough are just not true. New dinosaur fossils, however, tend to be groundbreaking with regular identification of new type of dinosaurs. Indeed, they seem to have roamed on every continent. The whole book on dinosaur evolution has not yet been written. Time will tell how clear an understanding of it we can get.  It seems evolution of dinosaurs is clearer than that of humans. New research teams need to be formed to go to all parts of the world and seek answers to evolution of mammals and reptiles, if indeed dinosaurs were reptiles. Some specialists today even question this view. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventu

New cancer "curing" medications are announced to the public all the time. Unfortunately, what you are not told is when they will be available. It isn't much use if you have to wait ten years - if you have cancer you could be dead before then. It is not so much chemicals that attack dangerous "bugs" that are coming to the fore : modified molecules are increasingly being tested. In prostate cancer testosterone attaches to androgen receptors. Activation in this manner allows cancer growth to take place. A helix-mimicking molecule attaches to the particular docking point thus preventing the ideal cancer condition occurring. In animal and human tests protein supporting cancer growth was not produced when the molecules attached. Moreover, it was not found to be toxic to the body. This research opens up a completely new area of treatment. The future looks bright in the fight against cancer - it we can afford to pay for it. http://www.adventure--australia.blo

Humans aren't that special. It was once thought that people were superior to chimpanzees because humans had feelings and showed love. We all know now that chimps do have these propensities. Other animals weren't even considered in the "advanced" creature stakes. Time has shown that many animals use tools to find food. Pets such as dogs tend to mimic their owners. They say you grow like your partner and if your companion is a dog then the dog copies you, and heaven forbid you copy the dog. So strong is this bond that dogs will actually give up food rewards to do what their owners do. Researchers had two groups of pet dogs. Their owners went on hands and knees and opened a sliding door with their heads and closed hands. One group of dogs was rewarded for opening the door. The other group was reward with food for not doing what their owners did. All dogs opened the door after their owners - foregoing the food reward. Clearly dogs learn like humans. They copy. Dogs

Human impact on native flora and fauna is real. There seems to be no way the detrimental affects can be ameliorated. Aboriginals have been in Australia for 40,000 years. apart from the unanswered question about extinction of mega fauna Aboriginals did not alter the external environment at all. Sedentary agriculture is the major contributing factor to habitat damage. Planting mono-crops seriously changes land features. In Western Australia, for example, water points are located at 50 sq km on average. In its pre-European natural state water holes could be found 2.5 sq km apart. This is serious change with species of native birds declining. Unless we set areas aside as pristine, protected sectors only introduced pest species will remain. Even without the pest birds, the proportion of native birds is altered. Some die out while others increase in number. The ecosystem is no longer in balance. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.bl

The MRI was the most advanced way of diagnosing what patients were suffering from. It was cutting edge technology that gave very detailed images of the human body. Technology moves forward and advances are made. Macquarie University with CSIC and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have found a way of producing images even clearer than MRI. It is done by using artificial atoms and nitrogen doped diamond nanoparticles. Extremely weak magnetic fields in the human body can now be detected. MRI resolution is millimetric. The new system "sees" down to a millionth of a millimeter. This technique is not invasive. It will provide an understanding of intracellular processes. The problem with the new diagnostic system is that very temperatures are required to make it work. Artificial atoms are encapsulated in a diamond crystal. They can be manipulated by lasers, dragging atoms above the surface for medical diagnosis. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http:

There must be a dearth of things to study. Scientists are now researching the odd sounds that people make. It may seem weird but its true. Those who can make odd sounds are called beatboxers. Scientists are interested in percussion sounds. These are expressed in Celtic, Chinese, North American and Indian cultures. Hip-hop is an area of great interest. A young "practitioner" had MRI scans done on his mouth while he created percussion sounds. The conclusion reached is that a lot of brainpower is involved in imitating percussion. It "is a small part of the larger puzzle," experts say. In my view it takes little mental concentration. Just put your tongue behind you top teeth a "tap" away. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Society Vista C