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Sonic Sea Screening At Avalon Cinema
Living Ocean has initiated a GoFundMe campaign to hire Avalon Cinema for a screening of Sonic Sea.
LO have initiated this campaign to raise awareness that seismic testing is mooted for early next year off our coastline and the public needs to be made aware asap to realise what is at stake.
They will have a balanced panel of experts to discuss the movie and also the issues for all life in the area from any effects of the testing. Also the reality of offshore gas fields and how it could impact fishing, tourism, whale watching plus the hazards that failure of any equipment resulting from the industrialisation of rigs just offshore could produce.
Living Ocean successfully campaigned with NOPSEMA against 2D testing offshore scheduled for peak northern migration of Humpback whales last year. However small scale 2D testing went ahead anyway early this year.
Please share and donate or if you wish to sponsor the screening please contact us.We have charitable tax deductible status.
Commencement Of The Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval
Polling Shows Major Concern In North Queensland Over Adani Water Impacts
November 20, 2018: Media Release - Lock the Gate
Reachtel polling conducted on 17th October has revealed more than two thirds of respondents in key Queensland regional electorates support action on the Adani mine in order to protect water resources.
The survey showed that in Herbert, Dawson and Capricornia in north Queensland, 70%, 65% and 73% of respondents agreed that ‘Research recommended by Federal Government scientists should be completed before Adani are allowed to commence work on their mine’.
Results also showed the majority of those surveyed supported a Federal Government review into Adani’s environmental approvals and the cancellation of the mining giant’s water licences by the Queensland Government to safeguard water for Central Queensland farmers.
Support for these measures spanned the political spectrum, with notable support amongst minor party voters including One Nation and Katter Australia Party voters, as well as Labor and the Greens.
Central Queensland grazier Bruce Currie said “It’s clear from these surveys that the production of healthy food and the provision of clean water are still the biggest priority for central and north Queenslanders.
“We don’t accept a mining project that puts our future at risk, and we will not support a government who’s prepared to jeopardise our water for no good reason.
“These poll results send a message to politicians, no matter who they are, that we expect them to protect our water.
“For the Federal Labor party, who have been ambivalent about the Adani project, it’s time to support regional Queenslanders and step up against the project on water grounds” he said.
Carmel Flint, National Coordinator with Lock the Gate Alliance said “Adani have been spruiking that they are nearing financial close for the project, but they are still lacking a very crucial water management plan - the Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan.
“The community clearly has major concerns about the impact of the Adani project on water resources and they want to see more research conducted.
“In light of this poll, we’re calling on the Queensland Government to refuse the water management plan and ensure additional research that is needed is conducted as a matter of urgency” she said.
The poll results are available here.
Scientists Explain How And Why Wombats Drop Cubed Faeces
November 19, 2018: American Physical Society
Wombats, the chubby and beloved, short-legged marsupials native to Australia, are central to a biological mystery in the animal kingdom: How do they produce cube-shaped poop? Patricia Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, set out to investigate.
Yang studies the hydrodynamics of fluids, including blood, processed food and urine, in the bodies of animals. She was curious how the differences in wombats' digestive processes and soft tissue structures might explain their oddly shaped scat.
During the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, which took place Nov. 18-20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Yang and her co-authors, Scott Carver, David Hu and undergraduate student Miles Chan, will explained their findings from dissecting the alimentary systems, or digestive tracts, of wombats.
"The first thing that drove me to this is that I have never seen anything this weird in biology. That was a mystery," said Yang. "I didn't even believe it was true at the beginning. I Googled it and saw a lot about cube-shaped wombat poop, but I was skeptical."
Yang and her co-authors studied the digestive tracts of wombats that had been euthanized following motor vehicle collisions in Tasmania, Australia. Carver, the biologist and Australian counterpart to the group of American mechanical engineers, supplied the wombat intestinal specimens.
Near the end of the intestine, they found that faeces changed from liquid-like states to solid states made up of small, separated cubes. The group concluded that the varying elastic properties of wombats' intestinal walls allowed for the cube formation.
In the built world, cubic structures -- sugar cubes, sculptures, and architectural features -- are common, and produced by injection moulding or extrusion. Cubes, however, are rare in the natural world. Currently, wombats are the only known species capable of producing cubes organically.
"We currently have only two methods to manufacture cubes: We mould it, or we cut it. Now we have this third method," Yang said. "It would be a cool method to apply to the manufacturing process -- how to make a cube with soft tissue instead of just moulding it."
So, why do wombats poop cubes? Wombats pile their faeces to mark their home ranges and communicate with one anotherthrough scent. They pile their faeces in prominent places (e.g., next to burrows, or on logs, rocks and small raises) because they have poor eye sight. The higher and more prominently placed the pile of faeces, the more visually distinctive it is to attract other wombats to smell and engage in communication. Therefore, it is important that their droppings do not roll away, and cube-shaped poop solves this problem.
Yang hopes that the group's research on wombats will contribute to current understandings of soft tissue transportation, or how the gut moves. She also emphasised that the group's research involved mechanical engineering and biology, and their findings are valuable to both fields. "We can learn from wombats and hopefully apply this novel method to our manufacturing process," Yang said. "We can understand how to move this stuff in a very efficient way."
Carver added, "There is much general interest from the public, both in Australia and internationally, about how and why wombats create cube-shaped faeces. Many ideas, some more entertaining than others, have been put forward to explain this, but until this study nobody had ever investigated the cause. This has been a fantastic collaboration which shows the value of interdisciplinary research for making new scientific discoveries."
Materials provided by American Physical Society.
Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) on Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia. The entire island is a national park, Maria Island National Park. The adult is just under a metre in length on average.
Powerful Owl Release
Productivity Commission Inquiry Into Mental Health Terms Of Reference
The Hon. Josh Frydenberg MP
Treasurer
The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health
23 November 2018
- Examining the effect of supporting mental health on economic and social participation, productivity and the Australian economy;
- Examining how sectors beyond health, including education, employment, social services, housing and justice can contribute to improving mental health and economic participation and productivity;
- Examining the effectiveness of current programs and initiatives across all jurisdictions to improve mental health, suicide prevention and participation, including by governments, employers and professional groups;
- Assessing whether the current investment in mental health is delivering value for money and the best outcomes for individuals, their families, society and the economy;
- Drawing on domestic and international policies and experience, where appropriate; and
- Developing a framework to measure and report the outcomes of mental health policies and investment on participation, productivity and economic growth over the long term.
Dolly’s Law Puts Safety And Wellbeing Of Children First
NORTHERN BEACHES SURFERS TO TACKLE UPCOMING AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR SURFING TITLES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Friday, 23 November 2018
From Surfing NSW
Eleven of the northern beaches' finest young surfers will battle it out for an Australian Title when the Surf Dive n' Ski Australian Junior Titles kicks off from 1 - 8 December 2018 on Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia.
Van Whiteman (Avalon), Ethan Jackson (Seaforth), Xavier Bryce (Mona Vale), Jamie Thomson (Narrabeen), Jack Bannister (Narrabeen), Tru Starling (Narrabeen), Kyla Whitfield (Narrabeen), Bohdi and Cedar Leigh-Jones (Whale Beach), Gabi Spake (Collaroy), Lily MacDonald (Freshwater) will represent Sydney's northern beaches region when the event gets underway.
Divisions -
Under-14 Boys
Xavier Bryce
Under-16 Girls
Cedar Leigh-Jones and Lily MacDonald
Under-16 Boys
Ethan Jackson
Under-18 Girls
Bohdi Leigh-Jones and Tru Starling
Under-18 Boys
Jamie Thomson and Van Whiteman
Schools
Under-19 Boys All-Stars
Jack Bannister
Under-16 Girls All-Stars
Lily MacDonald
Under-16 Girls MR Shield
Narrabeen Sports High
Gabi Spake
Kyla Whitfield
More event information can be found here
Pictures: Tru Starling (Narrabeen), Lily Macdonald (Freshwater) and Van Whiteman (Avalon) will be competing in the upcoming Surf Dive 'n Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles in South Australia. Photos by Ethan Smith / Surfing NSW
Students Launch School Strike Nationally On Parliament Steps
Melbourne, Victoria, 7th November.
School students from central Victoria have begun striking from school to protest political inaction on climate change and the Adani coal mine, kicking off a month of action across the nation during November.
School students aged 5-18 are now organising school walk out events in cities and towns across Australia, including Cairns, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Sydney, Albury, Lismore, Bowral, the Southern Highlands, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and more.
Today students have been gathering with other kids on the steps of Victorian Parliament to announce that strike actions will culminate in a Big Walk Out day of action in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney on 30 November 2018.
Harriet O'Shea Carre, Milou Albrecht, Callum Bridgefoot and classmates in central Victoria kicked off the month of action, inspired by 15 year old Swedish student Greta who started striking this year and strikes with other kids every Friday. The idea for the Australian strikes came from the Castlemaine students, who contacted the Australian Youth Climate Coalition for help.
14 year old High School student Harriet O'Shea Carre said “As young people, we will inherit the decisions that our politicians are making about climate change. When they approve giant new coal mines like Adani’s, are they thinking about how this will affect us?
“We learn in school that scientists think we have just a decade to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and yet our politicians are busy helping rich companies mine and burn more coal that will only make this worse.
“Education is immensely important, and a key way for us to learn how to make a difference in the world. But we already know we need to do more to stop climate change and still our politicians aren’t doing anything. That’s why we are striking. We are temporarily sacrificing our education to tell our politicians to save our futures from projects like the Adani coal mine that will make climate change, bushfires, droughts and cyclones worse.”
Callum Bridgefoot, 11 years old, said “Some of us are striking for a day, others a week, others one day each week. While we’re on strike, we’ll be visiting our Federal politicians to let them know what we are doing and why. We can’t vote yet, but we will one day and our views are important. We will be speaking with other young people in our areas too.
“On November 30, many of us will strike together in capital cities as part of Big School Walk Out events. We are inspired by how many students are keen to join us. We are going to keep taking action until our politicians start acting and stop digging up more fossil fuels.
“We will make politicians care about our futures. They they need to start taking urgent action to move Australia beyond fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy.”
Jean Hinchliffe, 14 years old, said “As young people, we have spent our whole lives hearing about climate change and its disastrous impacts. We know that it is a real problem that needs urgent action taken against it, and we can clearly see that almost nothing is being done about it by our politicians.”
“As a generation, we are sick of this mass inaction. This is our future that is on the line, and sitting around waiting until we can vote and lead the country just isn’t enough.”
“We are striking to demand that the government will stop approving any new sources of fossil fuels (such as the Adani coal mine), and will take immediate action to move Australia past unsustainably sourced power to fully renewable energy.”
The Sydney School Strike 4 Climate Change Big School Walk Out takes place on Friday November 30th with students meeting outside Parliament House, Macquarie Street. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/352019415545363/
For more information: www.schoolstrike4climate.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/StrikeClimate
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1933369976972843/ (for the strikers and their parents)
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/climatestrike/
Day 1 of the campaign - at Bendigo
4,000-Year-Old Termite Mounds Found In Brazil Are Visible From Space
November 20, 2018
Researchers reporting in Current Biology on November 19 have found that a vast array of regularly spaced, still-inhabited termite mounds in northeastern Brazil -- covering an area the size of Great Britain -- are up to about 4,000 years old.
The mounds, which are easily visible on Google Earth, are not nests. Rather, they are the result of the insects' slow and steady excavation of a network of interconnected underground tunnels. The termites' activities over thousands of years has resulted in huge quantities of soil deposited in approximately 200 million cone-shaped mounds, each about 2.5 meters tall and 9 meters across.
This image shows mound fields. The mounds are found in dense, low, dry forest caatinga vegetation and can be seen when the land is cleared for pasture. Credit: Roy Funch
"These mounds were formed by a single termite species that excavated a massive network of tunnels to allow them to access dead leaves to eat safely and directly from the forest floor," says Stephen Martin of the University of Salford in the UK. "The amount of soil excavated is over 10 cubic kilometres, equivalent to 4,000 great pyramids of Giza, and represents one of the biggest structures built by a single insect species."
"This is apparently the world's most extensive bioengineering effort by a single insect species," adds Roy Funch of Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana in Brazil. "Perhaps most exciting of all -- the mounds are extremely old -- up to 4,000 years, similar to the ages of the pyramids."
The mounds are largely hidden from view in the fully deciduous, semiarid, thorny-scrub caatinga forests unique to northeastern Brazil. They'd only really come into view by "outsiders," including scientists, when some of the lands were cleared for pasture in recent decades.
Soil samples collected from the centres of 11 mounds and dated indicated that the mounds were filled 690 to 3,820 years ago. That makes them about as old as the world's oldest known termite mounds in Africa.
The researchers investigated whether the strangely regular spatial pattern of the mounds was driven by competition amongst termites in neighbouring mounds. Their behavioural tests found little aggression at the mound level. That's compared to obvious aggression amongst termites collected at greater distances from one another.
The findings lead the researchers to suggest that the over-dispersed spatial mound pattern isn't generated by aggressive interactions. Instead, Martin and his colleagues propose that the mound pattern arose through self-organisational processes facilitated by the increased connectivity of the tunnel network and driven by episodic leaf-fall in the dry forest.
They say that a pheromone map might allow the termites to minimise their travel time from any location in the colony to the nearest waste mound. The vast tunnel network apparently allows safe access to a sporadic food supply, similar to what's been seen in naked mole-rats, which also live in arid regions and construct very extensive burrow networks to obtain food, the researchers report.
"It's incredible that, in this day and age, you can find an 'unknown' biological wonder of this sheer size and age still existing, with the occupants still present," Martin says.
The researchers say there are many questions still to pursue. For instance, no one knows how these termite colonies are physically structured because a queen chamber of the species has never been found.
Stephen J. Martin, Roy R. Funch, Paul R. Hanson, Eun-Hye Yoo. A vast 4,000-year-old spatial pattern of termite mounds. Current Biology, 2018; 28 (22): R1292 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.061
Evolution: South Africa's Hominin Record Is A Fair-Weather Friend
Ben Lexcen Scholarships Celebrate 30 Years Of Sporting Achievement
Evolution: South Africa's Hominin Record Is A Fair-Weather Friend
