Australians (and John) Only Thread

[DeadLinesman]

55 minutes ago, Spike said:

Remember the saying 'don't throw stone in glass houses'?

That would make sense if I had ever said United were progressing.

C- Must try harder.

[Spike]

5 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

That would make sense if I had ever said United were progressing.

C- Must try harder.

The implication being that you don't have to say a thing when Manchester '£100,000,000 transfer war chest' United says everything about their own progress when they spend a large fortune on a flashy European.

D+ pedantry failure

[DeadLinesman]

29 minutes ago, Spike said:

The implication being that you don't have to say a thing when Manchester '£100,000,000 transfer war chest' United says everything about their own progress when they spend a large fortune on a flashy European.

D+ pedantry failure

Again, comeback when I’m lauding that the team are great and don’t despise them. 
 

F- bore off

[Spike]

Just now, DeadLinesman said:

Again, comeback when I’m lauding that the team are great and don’t despise them. 
 

F- bore off

oh behave mr.cranky

[Toinho]

8 hours ago, Cazza said:

If it's got better then I'll start complaining about the cold and if my husband loves me then he'll do what's right for me and the baby.... And for his own health!!!!

What's better since 2007?

 

 

 

 

Are we still shit in the Shield?

Haha.

Our bar and restaurant scene has exploded and is so much better than 07-08.

Shops are open on Sundays.

Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square usually have events on.

Optus Stadium. 

Labor government.

Wages continue to be great.

Just some things I can think of at 6am. Probably more changes? It’s not the most perfect city (perfect doesn’t exist), but it’s so easy to live here. 

As for cricket I don’t follow the shield much anymore, but we were probably decent in 07 from memory. Not great now, I don’t think. 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Toinho

[Toinho]

Just checked, we’re 3rd. Not bad since we haven’t won the shield since 1999. 

[Spike]

I think as a culture our humour is quite strange. I just came across a facebook group of working class men taking photos of themselves afterwork earing ice cream and telling eachother to cream on. What other nation has a culture where brick layers look like hipsters have a self aware ironic sense of humour? its fucken queer but probably explains why my generation has an obsession with the simpsons seasons 3-8

 

@Toinho @Devil-Dick Willie

[CaaC (John)+]

I can just imagine @Spike or @Devil-Dick Willie doing something like this 

 

Quote

The man who posted himself to Australia.

 

In the mid-1960s, Australian athlete Reg Spiers found himself stranded in London with no money to buy a plane ticket home. Desperate to get back to Australia in time for his daughter's birthday, he decided to post himself in a wooden crate.

"I just got in the thing and went. What was there to be frightened of? I'm not frightened of the dark so I just sat there.

"It's like when I travel now if I go overseas. There's the seat. Sit in it, and go."

Reg Spiers makes it sound very straightforward more than half a century later, but it caused a media storm in Australia at the time.

He explains his attitude like this: "I've come up with this mad scheme to get back to Australia in a box. Who can say it won't work? Let's give it a shot."

Spiers had come to the UK to try to recover from an injury that had interrupted his athletics career. A promising javelin thrower, he had been on course to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

But when it became clear he would not make the games, Spiers set his mind to raising enough money to fly back to Australia and took an airport job to earn some cash.

But his plans changed when his wallet, containing all his savings, was stolen. With a wife and daughter back home, Spiers wanted to get back to Adelaide, but "there was one catch," he explains. "I didn't have any money."

And with his daughter's birthday looming, he was in a hurry.

"I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight. I'd seen animals come through all the time and I thought, 'If they can do it I can do it.'"

FULL REPORT

 

 

[Spike]

1 hour ago, CaaC (John) said:

I can just imagine @Spike or @Devil-Dick Willie doing something like this 

 

 

This story should help the Aussies that the goverment has abandoned overseas out. Gotta get home somehow

[Toinho]

4 hours ago, Spike said:

This story should help the Aussies that the goverment has abandoned overseas out. Gotta get home somehow

Tell me more? We got loads of flights coming in these days. 

[Spike]

8 hours ago, Toinho said:

Tell me more? We got loads of flights coming in these days. 

There are still like 3000 overseas,, just because there are flights doesn't mean they are flights from everywhere, nor can everyone afford it.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Spike

[Devil-Dick Willie]

On 07/12/2020 at 06:41, Spike said:

There are still like 3000 overseas,, just because there are flights doesn't mean they are flights from everywhere, nor can everyone afford it.

You can sleep on my couch. Leave the yank. 

[Toinho]

On 07/12/2020 at 03:41, Spike said:

There are still like 3000 overseas,, just because there are flights doesn't mean they are flights from everywhere, nor can everyone afford it.

Fair points. 

[Spike]

7 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

You can sleep on my couch. Leave the yank. 

mate flights are getting close to ten grand the last i checked, put that on top the quarantine fee and I will be waiting for a vaccine

[Toinho]

6 hours ago, Spike said:

mate flights are getting close to ten grand the last i checked, put that on top the quarantine fee and I will be waiting for a vaccine

Is that how high? Jesus last I heard was around 5k from Europe. And yeh arriving in WA you need to self fund two weeks in a hotel (another 2 or so grand). 

[Spike]

49 minutes ago, Toinho said:

Is that how high? Jesus last I heard was around 5k from Europe. And yeh arriving in WA you need to self fund two weeks in a hotel (another 2 or so grand). 

I just checked expedia, ,at least $7k to get from Chicago to Sydney, with two stops. Then I'd have to get to QLD, so that'd be four weeks of isolation, right? I don't even think the QLD borders are open to NSW. So many people are screwed right now, ABC seeming reporting daily on someone stuck overseas.

Edited December 8, 2020 by Spike

[Spike]

China is running 'human rights abuse' campaigns against Australia because of the incident with the SAS soldiers. The absolute nerve of those cunts, a white flag of peace in one hand while the other holds a knife in the back of their own citizens. If only we had a strong leadership that could tell China to get fucked without looking like a cowering bully talking under their breath.

[Azeem]

On 12/12/2020 at 23:55, Spike said:

If only we had a strong leadership that could tell China to get fucked without looking like a cowering bully talking under their breath.

Everyone will chicken out to them, eventually.

I wish the global geopolitics stays like this in my lifetime. US partially fucked on downhill, China quite ahead but still not at the top, Russia being Russia. So no one can just go screwing around the world with impunity. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by McAzeem

[CaaC (John)+]

Quote

Australia launches WTO appeal against China's barley tariff

Australia will challenge China's tariff on its barley exports in an appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

It marks the first defensive action from Australia in response to a number of China's sanctions on a range of goods this year.

Beijing has imposed blockages or levies to dairy, meat, wine and others as political tensions have worsened.

This has caused alarm in Australia as China is its biggest trading partner, accounting for close to 40% of exports.

Earlier this week, Chinese state-controlled media reported that Australian exports of thermal coal - the third biggest export to China - would face restrictions.

Beijing declined to confirm the reports. It has previously accused Australia of "unfriendly" and "hostile" attitudes towards it.

• How a Twitter spat brought China-Australia relations to new lows
• Why did China really go cold turkey on Australian wine?

Tensions have grown over China's alleged foreign interference and influence in Australian affairs.

'Taking it to the umpire'

China's 80% tariff on barley - imposed in May - was the first Australian agricultural export to be sanctioned this year, and came after Chinese trade officials alleged illegal dumping practices.

The Australian government has denied this, and said its repeated requests to Beijing for dialogue on the trade blows have been ignored.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55328102

More on Australia and China:

 

[CaaC (John)+]

Quote

So tell us, what is up Skip?

Kangaroos try to communicate, research suggests.

Fans of the iconic television show Skippy (and that oft-repeated question, “what’s up Skip?”) will be pleased to know that kangaroos do in fact try to communicate with humans. 

While they can’t capture crooks or play the drums like the star of the show, a new study reveals that kangaroos gaze at humans to ask for help after trying and failing to open a food container. 

The research from the University of Sydney (USyd) and the University of Roehampton, UK, adds to the hypothesis that the effects of domestication on animal cognition may expand beyond the usual domestic species such as dogs and horses.

“Their gaze was pretty intense,” says USyd’s Alexandra Green. “If they can’t open the box, they look at the human and back to the container. Some of them used their nose to nudge the human and some approached the human and started scratching at him asking for assistance.” 

Green and Roehampton’s Alan McElligott focused on Kangaroo Island roos (Macropus fuliginosus), which are known to be docile and interactive with humans, but also tested some Eastern Greys (Macropus giganteus) and Reds (Macropus rufus), which are not.

“Through this study, we were able to see that communication between animals can be learnt and that the behaviour of gazing at humans to access food is not related to domestication,” says McElligott, who is the lead author of a paper in Biology Letters. 

“Kangaroos are the first marsupials to be studied in this manner and the positive results should lead to more cognitive research beyond the usual domestic species.” 

Future research on kangaroos, the authors suggest, should focus on the visual cues and behaviours they use for social interactions within their own species to determine whether they are the same as used to interact with humans.

Neither researcher is new to the field of animal communication skills.

McElligott’s previous work includes shedding light on the ability of goats to perceive human-given cues to find hidden food in buckets, while in a study last year Green found that cows maintain individual vocalisation in the herd.  

The cows were shown to have individual cues in a variety of situations to express excitement, arousal, engagement and distress. 

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/so-tell-us-what-is-up-skip/

 

[Azeem]

Do Kangaroos really try to drown people ? 

[CaaC (John)+]

58 minutes ago, McAzeem said:

Do Kangaroos really try to drown people ? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo

[CaaC (John)+]

Quote

Deadly weapon: frog peptide

Skin secretion of Australian toadlet combats bacterial infections

Credit: Paul Starosta/Getty Images.

An unassuming Australian amphibian may inspire novel synthetic drugs to combat bacterial infections, according to European researchers.

In a paper published in the journal PNAS, the team – led by the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – discovered intriguing molecular properties of an antimicrobial peptide that is secreted on the skin of Mjoberg’s toadlet (Uperoleia mjobergi).

This tiny critter, the size of a dollar coin, is native to the Kimberley region in WA. It received its cute moniker because it looks “toad-like”, despite having no relation to true toads – it’s actually a frog.

Frog expert Jodi Rowley, the curator of amphibian and reptile conservation biology at the Australian Museum in Sydney, explains that many of Australia’s 240 native frog species secrete a cocktail of chemical compounds on their skin. These protect the frogs from pathogens like bacteria and fungi – not to mention predators.

“We are increasingly realising that us humans can also benefit from understanding and potentially synthesising these peptides for our own use, particularly in the medical field,” says Rowley, who was not involved in the study.

“Many of these peptides – such as that demonstrated in this new research – act in strange or unexpected ways, and may inspire new tools in our fight against aggressive or even antibiotic-resistant infections.”

In the new study, the team solved the 3D molecular structure of the peptide secreted by Mjober’s toadlet and found that it self-assembles into a unique fibrous structure.

This structure appears to serve as a dormant reserve of “attacker” molecules: when faced with different bacteria, it can tailor its molecular configuration to transform into a deadly weapon, thus protecting the toadlet from infection.

“This is a sophisticated protective mechanism of the toadlet, induced by the attacking bacteria themselves,” says structural biologist Meytal Landau, lead author from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. “This is a unique example of an evolutionary design of switchable supramolecular structures to control activity.”

Interestingly, the fibrous structure is reminiscent of amyloid fibrils – aggregations of proteins that are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So this research may add to our understanding of the physiological properties of these fibrils.

For many decades, amyloid fibrils were thought to be pathogenic (that is, cause disease), but recently researchers have realised that they can also benefit the organisms that produce them.

The researchers, therefore, hope that their discovery of the toadlet’s antibacterial peptides will lead to medical and technological applications, including developing drugs based on synthetic peptides that only activate when in the presence of certain bacteria. In addition, such peptides could be used as a stable coating for medical devices, implants, or even industrial equipment.

Rowley says this new research is also an important addition to our understanding of the natural world.

“It highlights just how much we have to learn – and gain – from plants and animals,” she says.

“All over the world, frogs are facing enormous threats, and hundreds of species of frog are already been driven to extinction. The fact that frogs may hold the clue to saving our own lives is yet another reason to halt the loss of frog species, and the loss of biodiversity more generally.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/deadly-weapon-frog-peptide/

 

 

 

[Azeem]

My TF365 Australians hierarchy list 2021

1. Harry

2. DDW

3. John 

4. Cazza

Everybody else

[Mpache]

7 minutes ago, McAzeem said:

My TF365 Australians hierarchy list 2021

1. Harry

2. DDW

3. John 

4. Cazza

Everybody else

@Toinho disagrees