Adventure Ausrama Blog

Ants smell. Yes they do! An ant specialist informs us that ants smell, well, funny. Edward Wilson crushes ants then puts them to his nose to smell them. Some ants smell like citrus fruit, while others give off the aroma of armpits. Mr Wilson is a Pulitzer prize winning author and he was out to celebrate Biodiversity Day, where a hundred scientists tried to identify as many organisms as they could in 24 hours. Educating people and appreciating diversity is an aim of the day out. Noah Siegel spent the day looking for mushrooms. In the past even a wandering moose was included in the species sited. This year they hope to exceed the record of 1,905 organisms identified. At the event this year turtles and a toad were counted. http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com

Like the US, Australia is a young country, where even native born people have ancestors from overseas. This makes Australians "predisposed" to accept others, even though the new Australians have different norms of behavior. For example, they may not like Australian food. This is alright. Australians can live with that - as long as immigrants try to fit in and do their best to alter their values to some extent, in order for Australians to accept them. This is the problem. Some newcomers hear of the better life in this country and come here for this reason only. They want to live here and expect Australians to adopt to their way of living. This is wrong. In the fifties and sixties Europeans were encouraged to move to this country. They came from Greece, Italy, Spain and so on. Most of them moved to en cleaves . For example, Melbourne had the largest population of ex-pat Greeks than anywhere else in the world. They lived mainly in one part of Melbourne. In Adelaide where was a c

Xplorer2 Pro will enter "markers" into your registry if you enter the serial incorrectly the first time, then uninstall it and reinstall the program. From then on if you right click the "xplorer2_UC.exe" file then click on "Run as Administrator' the program will turn itself on and an error window will display saying that you do not have administrator privileges. If you enter the serial again at this point the program will not accept it. It is no good contacting the company that sells Xplorer2 Pro. They are only interested in getting your money. They have your money so they will not help you if you enter the serial incorrectly the first time. The only answer is to go to "Start". Then in the enter box that will appear in the lower left hand corner type in "regedit". Go to "Edit" then "Find" in the registry window. Type in "xplorer2". Click "Find Next", then delete the file or folder at the point wher

"Don't worry buddy. It's tough out there, but you got me." Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan   http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://tysaustralia.com/

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) says that banks are "dragging their feet" trying to hold on to old ways of running payments by card. Banks need to catch up with the rest of the world. Instead of installing new systems they are concentrating on making more money. If they do not act soon the RBA will intervene and use its regulatory powers. The existing system is costly for the consumer and business to use. Even though computerization has been adopted the actual methods used are over 3o years old in some cases. The RBA had to force banks to make their charges known when giving them the right to set their own rates for ATM usage. Furthermore, charges for interchange of funds paid by credit card to businesses had to be capped. The problem is that the RBA is only a "watchdog". Other countries have bodies that run the private sector banking system. Coalition Governments have made the market too free. Every corporation is doing its own thing. A Labor Government should

Bigfoot or yeti? Australia has its own "monster" living in the outback. It is called the bunyip. Most Australians live on the coast. But people continually travel this broad brown land all the time. With few dense areas to hide in why isn't the bunyip seen more often - if it exists. Aboriginals firmly believe in the existence of the bunyip, and many white people do as well. Though Aboriginals describe the creature in physical terms saying that it has dark fur, horse-like tail, tusks and a dog-like face, they do say it is a spirit, which can disappear when it wants to. Those who claim to have seen the animal invariably see it near water such as streams, rivers, lakes or wetlands. A mysterious booming sound does seem to have been a reality in the past. Many people went searching for the source of the sound in the mid 19th century. When wet areas where the sound came from were drained for human habitation a dull silence remained, very disappointing. An explorer actually clai

Perhaps heavy taxation is not the answer to a nation's economic problems. The idea has been to introduce new tax systems such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is much like the European Value Added Tax. This gives government a lot of money to spend on infrastructure and welfare. But has time proved this economic model to be flawed? Until the 1970s Australia was a place where individuals struck out on their own. People believed that to work hard, long hours would provide enough income to buy a house, pay for groceries and home wares, and pay for private health insurance. This concept of living has been detrimentally affected by higher taxes which has taken individual choice away. Now many cannot earn enough on the minimum wage to put a roof over their heads or pay for private health insurance. Even on the minimum wage income tax is taken out, which is ridiculous considering it is so low. The very poor also pay tax when they spend via the GST. The main cause of the failing hi