Adventure Ausrama Blog

There are calls from many quarters for keeping Australia's car industry alive. I am not so sure that a country needs its own motor industry anymore. Times have changed. No vehicle is made entirely in one country today. The days of getting prestige from it are long gone. Propping up a floundering car sector is against all practical economic and social theory. It doesn't make sense to spend taxpayers money in such a wasteful way. Holden and Ford continue to take handouts while still not making any profit. Ford has already gone. The days for Holden are numbered. Holden was never a truly Australian car. It was an old General Motors design left in a drawer collecting dust until it was thrown on the table at a meeting in Australia. Australia has never been a manufacturing country. It is not like Britain which has very in the way of natural resources so must generate income somehow from industry. Large businesses have only been in the primary sector. Exporting wh

Drilling techniques in industry have not changed for decades. Oil rigs are built in he same old way. Now something has come along that will improve drilling enormously. The Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide has announced a new type of drill. It is constructed with coiled tubing. Costs will fall dramatically as drilling is faster . Australia's mines are mostly over 30 years old. New mines have to be established. We can only rely on the old mines for another 20 years. No longer is it necessary to keep stopping to add a new drilling section. The new drill is a continuous coil of tubing. Being smaller and lighter transportation is easy. The motor is at the bottom of the shaft, not at the top. The tubing no longer twists during drilling. Any twisting will occur in the other direction as the motor pulls the tubing around. Less drilling power is needed as the tubing is being pulled around in already drilled space. A lot

The decision by the American Psychological Association to strike narcissism out as a mental disease is a mistake. Physicians in others countries continue to see it has a disorder many people suffer from. Even the lay person can identify those in society with the malady. The most blatant characteristic is an exaggerated love of self, particularly the continual preening of one's body and dress. Just why the association has made such a drastic decision is not clear. Perhaps those in authority in the psychological body have been offended because they have been identified with the complaint. This would be a logical conclusion. Some see those who moved West to new lives with new ways as having been unfairly marked as being narcissistic. This interpretation is quite without foundation. Rockefeller, Jefferson, Edison and even Bill Clinton have had narcissistic claims made against them. A little thought will give the reason why, but it is drawing a very long bow to say all migra

There are problems in the cattle yard due a non-caring board. Richard Ogilve was voted off the Herefords Australia Limited (HAL) board. This infuriated members of the society because they believe Mr Ogilvie is the only one who knows what they want. Richard Ogilvie owns a 5,000 strong cow herd in Millicent, South Australia. He says 10,000 of HAL members will leave and form their own association. This is nearly half the total membership of HAL. Present members are upset by the board arguing political differences and passing time by running cattle shows, not concentrating on improving the Hereford industry. The industry for Angus cattle is booming. Many feel the Hereford market is not being managed properly. Mr Ogilvie is seen as a strong leader who can improve matters for Hereford breeders. This is another case of those at the top fighting each other and concentrating on irrelevant issues while not doing what they are paid to do. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http:/

Why bother to be hygienic. We can feed cattle all sorts of filthy stuff, and when we eat it we still remain fit and healthy. This is the message being sent by the president of company Bioniche. In order to promote his new product the president is making dramatic claims. Cattle can all be vaccinated against e.coli, can eat anything and wander around in rubbish, apparently. Such is Mr Rick Culbert's faith in the success rate of his product. The e.coli "bug" lives in all of us both humans and animals. Only dangerous species make us sick. This vaccine will kill all e.coli in the body. Wait a minute! Don't antibiotics kill useful flora in the gut, so we must not take them regularly? What happens to a cow with no e.coli in its system is unknown. Eating such "clean" meat could be dangerous to our health. Outbreaks of food poisoning occur in every country. The fight for cleanliness in food handling must continue. If beef is guaranteed free of e.coli wo

The concept of building one and two bedroom houses instead of the traditional three and four bedroom homes seems doomed to failure.  More adult children than ever are going back home to live with their parents.  A single person simply cannot earn enough  to get a loan for a house.  If you are a labourer or a TAFE trained worker this is  increasingly the case.  As many as 70 per cent of people aged under 35 cannot buy a  home of their own. While specialists say tax incentives are needed to enable young people to buy this is not the problem.  Australia will have a housing shortage for decades because there are not enough qualified builders in outback Australia.  This is particularly the case in  booming Western Australia with mineral companies being forced to have accommodation  built at great cost. Giving the young tax breaks and just giving them handouts is not a solution.  It is a bottom up issue not a top down problem.  Getting trades persons from other countries will not ma

It is claimed by "specialists" that Australian business failed to plan for the high dollar. They carried on without cutting basic running costs. With over 60 per cent of businesses being involved in international trade this is deemed to be a "sin". The American Express FX International found less than 40 per cent did nothing. The research body said it was surprised at this. It is hardly surprising in the real world where costs are kept as low as possible on a constant basis. How can a business have a program to tackle this problem when it is a daily matter of trading? Common sense would inform you that not much can be done. The market sets the price. The high dollar means firms get less profit when they receive payment in foreign currency. Running costs inside the international barrier in Australia continue to rise. Most international trade is done in US dollars and this has become very weak. It isn't much good longing for days passed when the exchang

Coles has chosen not to sell beef enhanced by Hormone Growth Promotants (HGP). For making this stand it has been condemned by Animal Health Alliance (AHA). Note that AHA is financed by pharmaceutical companies. Elanco and Pfizer are members of this organization. Saying that Coles ignores scientifically based findings that HGP beef is safe is unscientific in itself. No number of tests will ever prove it to be safe because it hasn't been in use long enough to ascertain its dangers. CSIRO has found HGP beef to be of poor eating quality, and as Coles makes a quality related buying decision is will not be purchased by them. This is a free country and producers "jumping up and down" will not make consumers buy their product. HGPs make cattle grow faster so it should be cheaper. Unfortunately, this saving is not passed on to the buyer. Indeed, consumers will pay more for non-HGP beef. Sales of HGP meat is declining and it won't be around for much longer. How can Coles action

Consumers will have to learn to do without. If we want our children to enjoy seafood we will have to eat less of it now. That means paying a higher price. A guide has been put out by the Australian Conservation Society to make people aware of what species are in danger. This Christmas consumers have bought lobster, bugs and mackerel. It is debatable as to whether all of these are actually threatened. Not everyone is in favor of informing the general public about the need for change in the seafood industry. The Queensland Seafood Industry Association, in particular retailers the body represents, are angry because they fear a fall in income. They are saying the industry is already struggling. Yes, it is struggling because seafood is becoming more difficult to supply. It is really a case of " someone has to pay and it won't be us ". They say fishing boats have been bought and licensing fees have been paid. The reality is, however, that if fishing is not cut back there will n

Dangle, Dingle, Dongle. They are all out according to the Great God Google. It has taken a business "minnow" offering alcohol price comparisons to court and beaten it to death, well into submission, until it agreed not to use the name "Groggle". This means that Google owns by default all new business names that contain "gle". The result of this courtroom debacle is disgraceful. There should be some way where the little man has the resources to fight a giant like Google. The little business cowered in the corner and quietly murmured " Drinkle! That is what we will call our service ." Only then would Google put the big stick down. What is the world coming to when there is no protection from economic monsters like Google. Though this business wasn't even in the same industry as Google, financial muscle won the day. He had to make an out of court agreement of SILENCE! The owner of the business said he couldn't afford to go on with the court c