Adventure Ausrama Blog

Australia begins production of potash. It is a large consumer of the salt, but until now has not produced any of its own. Though resources of the compound have always been available to Australian companies they have never processed it. The Australian Potash company has obtained 3 tonnes of potassium-rich feeder salts from the Lake Wells SOP (sulphate of potash) project. The process facility is near Perth. Production of more of it will be carried out over the next three months. Two Chinese MuO off-take partners have joined the parent company. Lake Wells 180km from Laverton is the source of the compound. There is a chain of evaporative ponds that filter it out of raw material. A research project has been set up by Australian Potash with the School of Agriculture and Environment at the University of Western Australia. The newly produced Australian potash will be tested on various WA soil types. The university product will enable the company to engage with the consumer, namely,...

Mystery egg of the Night Parrot in Tanami Desert? A mystery egg was found in the Tanami Desert of northern Australia 30 years ago. Many latched on to this specimen as being from the Night Parrot, thought to be extinct. DNA from the egg was compared to DNA of Night Parrot specimens in the Queensland Museum. The Brown Quail was found to be the "mother" of the Tanami egg. All hope was not lost, however. In 2013 the Night Parrot was found to be still with us. A small population was discovered living in Western Australia, far away from Queensland. Much has been leaned about the environmental requirements for the rare bird's survival. This shows that human hope is very strong. We will attribute links to things that are very weak. The egg does have unusual characteristics : it is sand white, not like the quail egg which is pale but speckled brown. It is pointed at one end though, typical of the quail. ◆ Ornithology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Tys Country Amusing Animal Photos...

Science - Research in Western Australia shows super volcanoes erupted zircon gemstones. The surface of Earth was once covered in diamonds, well a very close imposter anyway. Australian scientists have just found out that a super volcano spewed out zircon crystals all over Australia.  It is a gem stone in many more colors than diamond. Samples from drilling in Western Australia showed particular crystals should have not been there. They were different from naturally occurring ones eroded from rocks. The "strangers" were 2,300km from their volcanic source. The great distance from erupting volcanoes indicates that the volcanic explosions 106 million years ago were much larger than previously thought. Australia must have been a very violent place in the past. Many animals would have died out because of the eruptions. ◆ science  CScience by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Tys Country Amusing Animal Photos Odd Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● Vista Computer Solutions  ...

Anthropology: Cat mummy in Western Australian Museum a fake. It is known that ancient Egyptians made counterfeit mummies, particularly of birds and cats who were given as offerings to the gods. In 1982 an X-ray of a cat mummy showed that it was a fake, probably made in the early 20th century. Staff of the Western Australia Museum who were custodians of the "mummy" were shocked and disappointed by the discovery. A recent CT scan of the "mummy" highlights a human femur broken in the middle then molded to take the shape of a cat. The scan has been sent to Cairo for further study. To solve this problem once and for all a determination of its real age needs to be done. Why waste time looking and re-interpreting?  The WA Museum is still so ashamed of the issue that is has never released a photo of the fake cat mummy nor will show the X-ray or scan to the public. Genuine fake-cat mummy from Saqqara in  Egyp Genuine mummies are on display today at the WA M...

Biology: Red reef lobster caught in Western Australia. It is common knowledge that lobsters do not have hair. We all know this. However, hairy lobsters do exist and one has been caught in Western Australia. The red reef lobster is common in the waters of Madagascar, Hawaii, and African countries. Finding it off WA is a real surprise. The fisherman who caught it has never seen anything like it in his life. It seemed to be a prawn, lobster, scampi hybrid. The hairy red is much different from Australian lobsters: it has crab-like claws. Biologists do not believe that it came all the way from Africa, at least not in recent times. They hold that it has been here all along living and breeding in a localized, remote spot. The one caught probably strayed away from its locality. Obviously, its normal range must be reasonably close. Being elusive, scientists are not going on a hunt. The creature will be left alone. ◆ Biology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australi...

Chemistry: Weeds are becoming resistant to selective herbicides. Herbicides have officially been used since 1890, though common salt could have used to kill weeds for possibly a thousand years before. The first selective herbicide was identified in 1940. It later became 2,4-D compound and was released in 1946.  Seventy years later we face the problem of weed resistance to selective chemicals. Western Australia can no longer get significant kill of weeds growing around crops. It is costing farmers a fortune. Project Kangaroo has been initiated. It is managed by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and receives assistance from Bayer of Germany. Money from growers is funding it: they are paying $45 million in levies. The Federal Government is promising money. Knowing how government has behaved recently the project might get a dollar! Wild radish and ryegrass are the main culprits affecting crops. Glyphosphate was used widely to control these weed...

Scientists know everything! Unfortunately, they don't. Much is still being discovered. The Kimberley in Western Australia should be called the place of the unknown because new species are being found there all the time. New Gudgeon Species Forays into the Kimberley rivers area have brought to light 16 new species of grunter ( Terapontidae ), three gudgeons ( Electridae ) and a hardy head ( Atherinidae ). Twelve were found during the first three weeks. Hardyhead from the Kimberley Famous people become more famous because they are - well, famous it seems: one of the new species is to be named after the writer Tim Winton. The rest will be given Aboriginal names, after all, there is the little thing about them being the first on this continent. Kimberley Grunter ◆  Biology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australia Funny Animal Photos Funny Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● Vista Computer Solutions Blog        ...

The big debate - has Man evolved to eat anything? Of course, eating everything is a huge claim. Human beings have only lived in large groups for 10,000 years. Is this time enough to evolve to eat processed foods? Personally, I would say no. Even scientists who claim this are misguided. They are believing their own propaganda. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk says evolution over the last few thousand years has allowed us to digest milk. Don't be fooled by the expertise claimed by this scientist. It should be remembered that many people especially Asians still cannot consume milk without becoming sick. This evolutionary "benefit" is not yet complete. She also says that the hunter-gatherer diet is not known. This is wrong. A great deal is known about the diet of primitive Man. Study of isolated African tribes shows that women collected tubers and berries while men brought home meat every few days. This did not change for hundreds of thousands of years. ...

The conclusion reached by Bill Schopf that tiny carbon-rich filaments in Pilbara rock of Western Australia show the presence of fossils is now proved to be incorrect. There has been debate about the issue since Bill Schopf made his announcement. Tests indicate that they are just rocks. Professor Martin Brasier first highlighted the problem in 2002, when he claimed that the rocks were part of a high-temperature thermal vein. In other words they were not sedimentary in nature. New high-spacial resolution examination indicates stacks of clay-like mineral plates in the rocks' structure. Carbon has been absorbed into the worm-like chains giving the impression of cell walls.  Carbon distribution was completely wrong for microfossils. The "mischievous" clay plates are the culprit in leading scientists astray in their findings. Authentic microfossils just as old as the Shopf example have recently been found in Western Australia, so the claim for the oldest fossi...

Something has been living out there without our knowledge. Yes, it could be called a monster - a very small one. It is in fact a new species of lizard. A team of scientists from the University of Adelaide has discovered a new kind of Varanus lizard. It was found living in a remote part of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia. Consequently, it has named the Dampier Peninsula goanna ( Varanus sparnus ). There are now a total of 77 species of the "genus Varanus ". Sparnus is the smallest found so far. The lizard burrows under the ground beneath hard surface objects like stone and wood. Not much is known about its living habits because it moves very fast. The new species seems to be localized, existing only on the Dampier Peninsula. There are no doubt more currently unknown animals in the region. ✴ Biology by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.co...