Adventure Ausrama Blog

Culture: Gold demand falls with the rise of artificially whitened teeth. Have you wondered why bystanders interviewed by TV news crews all seem to have terribly bad teeth. The yukky yellow makes it look as thought they have not cleaned their teeth for a year. However, the natural color for teeth is a yellow off-white, not dazzling white. Movie stars and nearly all celebrities in the public eye have their teeth artificially whitened. When they choose the shade of white they all obviously choose the brightest white they can get. A great boon for dentists but bad for the mineral industry. The demand for gold for filling teeth has fallen by 60 per cent in the last decade. Gold "amalgam" is no longer popular. People with gold fillings looked disgusting anyway. The dark color looked too much like tooth decay. New ceramic filling materials in many shaded of white triggered the initial dislike of gold. Whiter than white is the "here to stay" fad. ...

Your general outlook of is genetically linked, Whether you suffer from depression or are happy. Depression can be an inherited trait. Research has shown this to be the case, so could a happy personality also be genetic? Of course, it will have not effect on creativity. Many high achievers through history has suffered from dark periods in their lives. It could be said that perpetually happy people have nothing to strive for and are less likely to leave their mark, unless they have careers as comedians. Happy people do seem to have certain genes, however. Three gene variants are linked to a happy outlook, while two are causative factors for depression. A whopping 11 variants are responsible for neuroticism. If you are a pain in the .... to everyone else it could be those dozen or so genes - there is bound to be another gene in there somewhere. The above findings were identified in a major study involving 3,000 participants. It was concluded that genetic causation was weak. ...

SAnthropology: we have evolved to be on guard on the first night when sleeping in a new place. Man is still a hunter. We may live in cities and believe we are advanced but our genes have evolved to survive in the wild outdoors beneath the starlit night sky. If we move into a new environment getting a good night's sleep on the first night is a problem. Our brain is "on-guard" against unknown dangers. This phenomenon is in all animals. One hemisphere of the brain will sleep while the other remains on sentry duty. This "first-night-effect" is permanent. There is no cure because it isn't an illness. After the first night the brain adapts, records the new environment and deems it to be safe. Tests show that the left hemisphere sleeps lighter in a new situation. Slow-wave activity is weaker than the right hemisphere. Furthermore, the default-mode network which involves mind wandering is more active. This indicates that the brain is checking th...

Conservation: Overfishing is just as toxic as pollution. G+ We are already running out of food.  If carbon dioxide doesn't kill us diminishing fish stocks will.  Soon, the humble fish and chips will cost too much for most people.  When the crunch comes the decline will be sudden over a period of five years.  It will not be possible to increase fish stocks in the medium term and some fish species will disappear forever. People must eat and in Asia in particular daily fishing is part of everyday life.  There will be little chance of a freeze on fishing.  It they are allowed to keep fishing and Western countries stop they will export to the lucrative fishing markets and nothing will change. Manufacturers like Birds Eye are alreading putting "rubbish" fish in their food products rather than the old reliable species.  When you get a fishy taste that is the second rate fish formally called baitfish.  It is so bad that major predators have fallen by ...

Science: Dingo dog came to Australia via Southeast Asian seafarers. Archaeological evidence shows that dingoes arrived in Australia 4,000 years ago.  There is no mystery as to who brought them.  Southeast Asian seafarers did land in Australia to get fresh water and herbs to treat constipation. The dingo is common across the world today, all the way from India to the Pacific islands.  In news videos you see dogs roaming about the street in the background that are absolutely identical to the dingo, same tail, same color coat. People chosen as the distributor of the dingo are the Lapita who moved eastward out into the pacific.  This choice is just for convenience.  It is definitely wrong.  The dog is common everywhere.  Let's face it, Timor is so close to Australia that sailors obviously landed here, often. Genetic evidence places the origin of dingoes in China.  This is only where the breed began.  It rapidly spread to every ...

Technology: people lose inter social skills, flat batter mobile phone, running writing, lost in outback bush. Technology is breaking the bond of people to the natural environment.  Communication involves not just reading and posting snippets on Twitter.  Language skills are still paramount to our survival. Hardly anyone writes in long-hand these days. Ask a twenty year old to write something said to them in a grammatical or mathematical phrase/sentence with a pen and they cannot do it. Take for example "Fifty-eight thousand dollars a year over five years". This is a grammatical phrase. A mathematical sentence is "$58,000 x 1year x 5years" To take it to its logical conclusion it is "$58,000 x 1 x 5 = $290,000".   Many young adults are completely at a loss to do this. She is alone! Not only are we losing communication skills, many would not survive outside of cities if they had to get sustenance that did not come from a supermarket. Though coo...

Genetics: genetic predisposition makes girls or nboys good at maths. The money poured into education to encourage girls and more boys to study maths and science could be a waste.  Research on twins shows that numerical aptitude is 75 per cent genetic.  Either both twin children are good at dealing with numbers or both are not.  There is also a 50 per cent genetic predilection for writing skills. Despite parents helping their children with homework and the like, it had little influence on academic achievement.  Furthermore, teachers and the schools attended whether private or public had no impact.  Children took to maths or English according to their genetic makeup. It is not clear if teachers are evenly well trained so students are benefiting evenly across the nation.  However, this is clutching at straws.  We all remember the lazy, bad teachers who threw a chapter of a book at use to scribble the lesson away while he/she played around at th...