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Marti

One man’s treasure, other man’s junk?

By Animals

I’ve always loved the bowerbird, not only striking in plumage (regent bowerbird) but incredibly artistic. They are the DaVinci’s of the bird world with beautifully composed bower object layout, attention to colour variation (even if limited to a palette of blue or white typically) and shape. Here are just a few images I found on the web.

PS. I can feel a Friday freebie coming up.  What a great way to kick start the weekend.

March 14, 2012
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Culture shock

By Pot Luck

It’s the beginning of a new week. Why not set a challenge for yourself?

Yes, I’m leading you somewhere, I wonder where. Possibly somewhere you don’t want to go. Are you still reading? Well maybe I’ve got you hooked. Are you ready for it?

Why not challenge yourself to coming up with a cartoon caption for the March cartoon caption competition?  Enter here.

March 12, 2012
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One step forward, two steps back

By That's life

It is commonly said that kangaroos can’t walk (or hop in their case) backwards.  Further to this, it also has led to the story that this was why the kangaroo and emu (who also has been accused with the inability to walk backwards) were chosen to represent the emblems for Australia’s coat of arms. The story continues, with the initial 1908 writing on the coat of arms being ‘Advance Australia’.  It is rumoured that this was the reason for choosing a kangaroo and emu – they were symbolic of our nation moving forwards, due to their inability to move backwards.

Well, I’ll let you determine the truth of both stories. For my bit of tinsey, winsey, highly scientific research into the area of ‘can kangaroos and emus walk backwards’ I set my daughters onto the task. They recently visited the zoo and diligently interviewed (more like an interrogation) the zoo keepers on their real life sightings. The conclusion was that kangaroos can’t move backwards, but emus can.

March 9, 2012
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Snake charming

By Animals

Ever heard of the ‘Snake charmer song’? I hadn’t heard it’s name, but when I played the melody, I remembered it from old black and white movies gone by.  Wiki gives you a brief history of the song and let’s you play it too.  Warning: You might end up like me, and find yourself annoyingly humming the melody over and over again in your head for the next few hours, so click here if you dare.

March 8, 2012
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Cunning elephants

By Animals

Well really, you can hardly blame Ed Elephant for researching on the web how best to plan an escape from prison.

A quick Google will inform you that not only is dynamite made from peanuts, but the inventor of this explosive was Alfred Nobel who applied for a patent in 1866 (I love old documents so had to add the link). He made his wealth from this invention, amongst various other inventions totalling an astonishing 355. On his death, he died extremely wealthy and this enabled him to set up the Nobel Peace prize (must be a way of offsetting the bad name one could get from creating something that can be both useful or extremely destructive when in the wrong hands). For a basic chemistry lesson on the derivation from peanut to dynamite, check out this link.

March 7, 2012
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Swim between the flags

By Animals

This photo was taken on a less than beautiful Melbourne day. Deceptively you would think it was cold and miserable, but in reality it was low 30’s, mild breeze and easy on the eyes due to the overcast of clouds (which later on that day spilled their guts – in a good kind of way – our garden was grateful).  I like this beach in Melbourne because we can take the dogs (24 hour dog beach, 7 days a week).  If you’d like to see what’s happening on the beach right now, check out the Zu’s live webcam by clicking here.

March 6, 2012
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Darwin 4 : Dinosaurs 0

By Dinosaurs

I’ve always had a soft spot for dinosaurs – cute, green giants is how I imagine them to be. I’m sure if I was around 200 million years ago I’d think otherwise.

This is another in the series of ‘Why dinosaurs became extinct’. The moral is, don’t mess with Darwin.  If you missed the first three, here they are: Dino take 1, Dino take 2, Dino take 3.

March 5, 2012
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