This is good news from first pictures of live giant squid in its natural habitat. The article says:
Working with a cheap camera and a fishing boat, the two Japanese researchers have succeeded where millions of dollars and international film crews have failed.
Interesting story from the Australian ABC, scientists have found native plant that repels termites, the report says:
The University of Western Sydney says a team studied a fence post that was left standing in a Queensland paddock, where all the others were eaten by the pest.
The university’s Associate Professor Robert Spooner-Hart says an Australian native plant called the desert sandalwood was growing around the fence post.
Given the alternatives are all pretty noxious, this could be really good news!
We’re sitting under a big thunderstorm at the moment, so I went and had a look at the Bureau of Meterology rain radar map of Melbourne, and saw an amazing image of what was going over the top of us.
After months of work (on and off) with my wife Donna and the rest of the Auties.Org committee I’m proud to announce that an innovative new website has just been launched.
Auties.org is for people on the Autistic Spectrum who are ready to dare reach out, open the doors to the community and market their abilities directly to the public and for those interested in supporting these pioneers.
So if you are on the Autistic Spectrum and stagnating whilst waiting for society to create something for you, why not go ahead and look at what you CAN do and CAN manage, what you ARE interested in and ARE doing now, and begin creating your own opportunities. Even more, if you haven’t got a clue where to start, take a look at what others on the Autistic Spectrum are doing in their own self employment and employable hobbies/skills and see if it inspires you to dare such things with your own unique style, in your own unique way.
All you need is a website or an email and the desire to take that leap.
They say the greatest risk in life is taking no risks at all.
Auties.org has two sides to it, the entrpreneurial/self employment side, and the ‘autie-friendly’ establishments side where you can check out all kinds of places, spaces, faces and activities that are advertising themselves for one reason or another as ‘autie-friendly’ establishments… who knows they might even respect us enough to give us jobs if they have any! From accomodation and eating spaces, to entertainments, travel, social opportunities, goods and therapies, we hope, in time you may find these things here.
By using Auties.org and Autie-Friendly establishments you are supporting a vision of equality regardless of difference, celebration of diversity, ability within disABILITY, and of active empowerment of one of the most disempowered and also underemployed communities in society.
Here’s an example reported by the ABC via the AFP of how unexpected acts can preserve delicate remains from the past, in this case using the shoulder blade of a dead mammoth as a shelter for the grave of two very young children, 27,000 years ago.
For those who are watching what’s going on in Iraq at the moment, this article from the BBC History Department on British relations with Iraq will give you a very necessary historical background on the history and creation of what is actually a very young country.
How many people realise that Iraq was created in the dividing up of the Austro-Hungarian empire between the victorious allied powers of the First World War ?
By gluing three separate provinces (Mosul, Baghdad and Basra) of the Ottoman empire together under the Arabic name for part of the region Iraq was created and then handed over to the British under a mandate from the League of Nations. Much the same happened to the area that then became Palestine.
The British made some bad mistakes in Iraq during their mandate, quoting the BBC:
There was immediate resentment amongst Iraq’s inhabitants at what they saw as a charade, and in 1920 a strong revolt spread through the country – a revolt that was put down only with great difficulty and by methods that do not bear close scrutiny. The situation was so bad that the British commander, General Sir Aylmer Haldane, at one time called for supplies of poisonous gas.
Indiscriminate air power was used to quell the revolt of the region’s tribesmen, methods the British admitted did not win them friends and, as one of them said, implanted undying hatred of the British among the people of the area, and a desire for revenge.
There is also a good Wikipedia article on the British Mandate of Iraq which is well worth a read.
Sorry James, but Simon’s use of ‘Errorism’ isn’t that new, according to Google, not to mention the Sleek Geeks 2003/2004 National Science Week tour called The War On Error. 🙂
The world is going barmy through fear – here’s someone getting arrested for wearing a rain jacket, carrying a rucksack with a laptop inside, looking down at the steps while going into a tube station and checking his phone for messages. I guess he probably considers himself lucky not to have been shot on suspicion.
The reason he quotes for being detained are:
- they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
- I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
- two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
- I am wearing a jacket “too warm for the season”;
- I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
- I looked at people coming on the platform;
- I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket.
Found via Simon Rumble.
Our ABC is just reporting that North Korea is to stop its nuclear program.
Under the terms of the agreement, North Korea will have the right to a civilian nuclear program if it regains international trust, resolving the main sticking point between Pyongyang and Washington.
Here’s hoping it lasts..
When you can’t beat them..