Remnants of Everest - 7 now

Looks interesting... it'll be on while I have my cuppa.

Strewth, it started at 11am and finishes at 1:30pm!

Seen on the way to work on Tuesday

Photos from thismorning. Red-tailed black cockatoos

Caught these chaps in a low tree at the end of the street thismorning.

They are hard to catch when near my place because my trees are too high and it's hard to see them.

Magnificent birds. More info here. Google red-tailed black cockatoo for more images.

Diggings

Some diggings from my yard....

These are from the front yard, I think they're bandicoots'.

These are from the backyard, no wonder Floyd's started barking at night with all these animals around!

Then there's these diggings....

However, I caught the culprit on camera.... smiling!

Update:
Now I wish I'd shelled out for the wireless video camera which I saw in Aldi the other week... I'd like to get some film of those bandicoot critters in the yard. I've seen them scampering around in the dark only once or twice.

Whale protest boat cut in two

Boo-feckin'-hoo.

Update:
Oh, and apparently the Japanese whalers have been hiring spy planes in Australia to let them know where the Sea Sheptard and Co. is. Imagine, there's the Acting PM, no, not Kevin acting like his definition of the PM, but Julia Gargle at a doorstop interview bleating that this is just not on and she's got the government's legal people looking into it. Here you go:

JULIA GILLARD: We don't condone this at all, we do not condone this action by the Japanese Government at all, and we are certainly urgently seeking legal advice about this conduct, but we certainly do not condone it in any way.

Since when has it been illegal to charter a plane in Australia to check out the, um, sights whales?

And Bob Brown's an even bigger fool:

JENNIFER MACEY: But the Greens Leader Bob Brown wants the Federal Government to ban Japanese whalers from having access to Australian airports.

BOB BROWN: The Australian Government is facilitating the innovative whaling interests from Tokyo in getting at the whales, it's as simple as that. We need legislation to stop that. This county has the ability to legislate to prevent any further surveillance taking place. It does it for example to prevent terrorism and it can do the same to prevent the slaughter of the whales.

If it can be stopped to prevent terrorism what on earth is what the occupants of the Sea Sheptard do if not terrorism and harassment of the Japanese. That the Australian government allows these "activists" to refuel and refit their vessels in Australia is on par with aiding and abetting in illegal activities.

Update:
See Tim Blair for more - Bob Brown wants the Aus Government to replace the Batboat and send the bill to the Japanese Government. He's kidding, isn't he? No. Brown never jokes.

Bat attacks three men

Please!

The flying fox didn't attack the men, it just bit them because they should have left it alone.

The flying fox has tested positive for lyssavirus and there are concerns for the three men's safety.

I can't find anything about the bat bite on the net, it's just been on the television news.

So called

Just caught a piece on the late TEN news. About a bloke who "wrangles" sharks. WTF? It's a study about sharks and they "lasso" them and then they tire them out by fluffing around with them on the end of a rope, then they attach some radio transmitter thing to... do whatever the hell they want to do.

I'm sure that aggravating animals wouldn't be condoned by the powers that be who control the Ethics Committee... and I know how some of them work, too. The rules, etc.

Anyway, the news announcer talking head was rabbitting on about the sharks and the danger, and she called them "so-called killers of the sea" or some such. Do these idiots realise that the "so-called" before naming something really means that the something isn't widely known or referred to as whatever the name/term is they're using? It drives me nuts. Right now I can't remember an example, but there are so many grating references to "so-called" whatevers, and it's a widely known and used scientific name or terminology.

Oh, now, Mt Everest is melting at an alarming rate, proof of Glowball Warming - someone needs to wake these wankers up! Oh, we're doomed. The ice at the top of the world is melting. The Himalayas are melting... arrgh! They found what was obviously an stream of water, frozen solid, and this was proof that the ice was melting. HELLO? Glaciers don't last forever, they do melt... the underneath of a glacier is moving, dragging all under it down the mountain... they should remember the hanging valleys caused by glaciers. And now some knob is saying that the melt is causing the crevasses which are opening up on the glacier... HELLO? Crevasses open up on glaciers everywhere because the glacier IS MOVING.

Bloody hell. I'll have to dig up the comment by Wand about how the ice melts at the poles and in cold, mountainous climes - it happens all the time. The sun comes out, it's hot, it melts the ice, then the sun goes down, the water freezes again, until the sun comes out again... ARRRGH!

Channel billed bloody cuckoo

They make this God-awful racket at night. Go here and click on the call for the Channel-Billed Cuckoo. This is some info on the blighter, and there's a pic. (I have a couple of pics, but they are not close-up and you can't see them in the tree too well.)

They've come back to pick up their young which they deposited in the nests of crows a few months back...

Jennie George - king tides caused by AGW

Jennie George is clueless, and the "expert" speaking with her is not much better.

JENNIE GEORGE, PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON CLIMATE CHANGE: People have to realise it's not just the issue of sea level rise, it's the extreme weather events - the king tides, the storm-surges, the cyclones that compound the problem.

MATT PEACOCK: Around Australia, the Insurance Council estimates nearly 900,000 properties are at risk from rising sea levels, which is why a bi-partisan parliamentary committee has recommended immediate action.

JENNIE GEORGE: We saw it first-hand as we travel around the nation, the early signs of the negative consequences. We saw beaches that had been washed away. We saw other beaches only existing because of sand renourishment. We saw beaches that were sandbagged, we saw houses precariously perched on top of the primary dunes - only a matter of time before they collapse. And it really opened our eyes to the need for urgent action.

Have these people never seen the news? When there are king tides and storm surges, or even just a big storm a lot of beach sand is moved off beaches... and deposited elsewhere. Many beaches rebuild themselves without intervention from people. It's just the way that the ocean works. It erodes. Look at the sandstone cliffs outside Sydney Heads.

Check out these beautiful photographs of the sandstone cliffs at Botany, just south of Sydney, at sunrise.

See all the rocks at the bottom of this picture? (sorry about quality, but it illustrates my point) They are part of the cliff which has been eroded by the ocean... eventually they will become grains of sand in the ocean and be washed wherever the ocean carries them from there. The ocean can do this to sandstone cliffs, and it does it to sand. Happens all the time. The councils should have restricted building on the ocean a long time ago because of the natural, non-agw erosion which has ever and always been taking place.

The world's tallest horse... not caused by AGW, er Climate Change

20 hands

He's in Canada.

Thanks to Minicapt.

Where's PETA when a lion needs them?

Amazing video.

Gore excells

Look!

Oh wait... (with map).

Found! Very good news

Mr Neale's father, Richard Cass, was at Sydney Airport and about to fly home to Britain this afternoon, a police spokesman said.

"My understanding is he's now being flown [by helicopter] from the airport to the Blue Mountains ... he was at the airport to fly out of the country," he said.

Mr Neale, 19, from North London, had been missing since July 3, and was last seen above Ruined Castle, a rock formation in the Jamison Valley, about midday, police said.

A massive search had been mounted for Mr Neale, who had left many of his possessions, including a mobile phone, at the youth hostel in Katoomba where he had been staying.

More here, photo here.

AN English bushwalker who has been missing for 11 days in the freezing cold of the Blue Mountains has walked out of the bush "a bit crook" but alive.

NSW Police recovered Jamie Neale near Narrow Neck plateau, around 15 kilometres from Katoomba, following a phone call from bushwalkers.

The 19-year-old, who went missing while bushwalking near Katoomba on July 4, has been taken to Katoomba hospital for treatment.

Missing for 11 days, I imagine that Jamie's family is very relieved that he has been found alive - in the weather conditions in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney at this time of year (winter), temperatures often fall below zero and it can snow.

The golden rule when bushwalking in, or travelling in the outback of, Australia, is that you MUST let people know where you are going and how long you expect to be, particularly if you are travelling where there isn't much human traffic.

This is a photograph by Yegor Korzh at redbubble of the Ruined Castle, Blue Mountains National Park, NSW, Australia.

Many years ago my aunt and uncle visited the UK on an exchange visit. A gentleman came out to Australia and stayed in their house. My parents and the rest of the family showed this fellow around. One of the trips Mum, Dad, brother and I took this fellow on was to Bungonia Caves Reserve, about 2 hours south of Sydney.

The UK visitor was amazed that we drove for two hours to go for a "bush walk". When asked where he'd be if he drove two hours from his home he replied, "About the middle of France." This fellow did a lot of bushwalking (rambling?), so my parents decided that he should be fit enough to walk down to Bungona Gorge. And back.

When we arrived at the top of the walk into The Gorge and parked the cars our visitor asked what he should take with him. He wanted to take his wallet. Mum and Dad said he wouldn't be neeeding his wallet. He asked "But surely we'll be passing some inns on the way so that we can stop to have a drink?" The parents explained that even on a four hour bushwalk we'd not be passing any human habitation, let alone an inn.

He was a little gobsmacked. I don't think he believed my parents.

I also remember when the visitor left my Uncle and Aunt's place. He turned off the power. About a month or so later, about five days before the family was due back in Australia, my Mum and I went over to their place so that mum could air the house and make sure it was nice and clean for them, they'd been away several months. Mum didn't know that the power had been turned off until we went inside the house and there was a strong pong. Malodorous.

Think liquified chicken in the fridge freezer. Frost free fridge freezer. Running down the drain for the melted ice...

That's enough of that. Mum cleaned it up. I was only a kid, and it was so strong that I wanted to vom.

Procrastination. I must do a job application. I must rewrite/clean up my CV.

Dread. Job app isn't a problem, it's rewriting the CV that is the big job!

Sunset (almost) 4:10pm 1 July 2009

This caught my eye... and I'm over uploading pix...

Mice

Mice are not really that smart.

The mouse traps under the pergola have caught several mice while baited, and seem to continue to work, somehow, without bait. The peanut butter is gone, but the mice are still getting caught.

That's amazing.

I must put more peanut butter on them, if they're catching a mouse every three days without bait, how good would they be baited!

Now that's interesting...

I guess his time wasn't up.

What's a dunnart?

My question when speaking with one of the students in the school I'm now in.

Apparently dunnarts are quite cute, marsupial mice, with the personality of a Tasmanian devil. She assured me that if they were larger there'd be no humans in Australia!

Dunnarts are endangered.

Here, read the article about dunnarts.

I hear that there's a study about to begin on bandicoots. They might be coming to my place to catch them. They've discovered a lot about bandicoots reproductive habits from the last lot which was studied for a student's PhD.

Outrage at mouse attack

There is outrage after a report of an 86 year old war veteran in a nursing home in Dalby, Queensland, was found to have been bitten on the ears, face and neck by mice.

There is a mouse plague on the Darling Downs at the moment. It's quite common, about every four years. Good rains and a lot of new growth mean that conditions are great for mice to breed, I'm having problems with mice where I live, they're living on the first floor* of my home.

Just so you know what a mouse plague in grain country looks like, here's a video I found on the net:



An old fellow, a local, phoned the radio station today (in the city), and told the host that he was clueless about mouse plagues and how many mice you get and how much damage they do.
He was right. This old bloke said that the mice climb up your sheets and blankets and into your bed and you can wake up with them chewing your hair.

*My home is a single storey house on a slab, the little beasties are living in the ceiling!

Fire Rainbow

This is a fire rainbow, the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena.

The picture was captured on the Idaho/Washington border. The event lasted about one hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20,000 feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

God's handiwork. Beautiful sight! Pass along for others to see!!

See Snopes for more.