Science, Wildlife

How a simple implant could make native animals toxic to feral cats

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14 April 2017
2 min read
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A new approach to target and kill destructive feral cats is being developed in South Australia, in a bid to help save threatened native animals.

The task of reducing the feral cat population has been difficult due to the lack of effective and humane broad-scale control techniques.

In a lab at the University of South Australia, researchers have created a rice-sized implant that can be injected into native animals, making them toxic to feral cats.

Anton Blencowe, polymer chemistry expert at the university, said it was a unique approach that could help safeguard a range of endangered species.

It’s got a toxin in the middle, and then it’s got a special coating around the outside so that we can make the animals toxic to cats, he said.

But at the same time make sure the implant is not toxic to native animals.

The implant contains a natural poison from seeds of native plants and is covered by protective coating.

It remains inert until it comes into contact with the feral cat, and while it’s harmless to the native animal, to the predator it’s highly deadly once ingested — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Craft

Mid-Century Modern Slatted Bench / Crafted Workshop

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14 April 2017
42 second read
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In this video, Johnny Brooke builds a mid-century modern slatted bench modelled after the iconic Nelson Platform Bench, designed by George Nelson for Herman Miller. This is a timeless mid-century modern design that makes for a fairly simple yet rewarding woodworking project. The bench can be built from easily attainable materials, including a handful of 1×2 and 1×3 boards from any home centre — via Youtube

Wildlife

Mishmi Takin / Kolmården Wildlife Park

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13 April 2017
54 second read
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A Mishmi Takin calf, named Nanook, was born on 19 February at Kolmården Wildlife Park. Mother to the handsome male calf is Aisha, and his father is Hobbit.

Nanook is the first successful Takin birth for the Swedish zoo. He was born in the early morning of a cold, snowy day. The name Nanook was chosen by the keepers, in honour of his day of birth, and means polar bear in Inuit. At birth, Nanook weighed-in at a healthy 7 kilos — via ZooBorns

Entertainment, Politics

Obituary: John Clarke

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10 April 2017
1 min read
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In Entertainment, Politics
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Celebrated satirist and comedian John Clarke has died suddenly, aged 68. Your favourite Clarke and Dawe sketches

Iconic comedy duo John Clarke and Bryan Dawe entertained audiences with their political satire skits for over 25 years. We’ve collated some of their most loved segments and classic exchanges.

Clarke died from natural causes while bushwalking in Victoria over the weekend.

John died doing one of the things he loved the most in the world, taking photos of birds in beautiful bushland with his wife and friends. He is forever in our hearts, his family said in a statement issued by the ABC.

We are aware of what he has meant to so many for so many years, throughout the world but especially in Australia and New Zealand.

We are very grateful for all expressions of sympathy and love which John would have greatly appreciated — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Wildlife

Meet the designer cats with wild blood / Vox

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10 April 2017
1 min read
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Bengals, Savannahs, and Toygers, explained.

By breeding house cats with wild animals, humans developed hybrid cats that look like little leopards. Bengal cats are a breed that was developed by breeding domestic cats with Asian Leopard Cats. The first American Bengal breeder is a woman named Jean Mill, but her work has continued through other breeders. We met one of those breeders, Anthony Hutcherson, when we went to film the cats at the Westminster Dog Show. Besides Bengals, we also saw another hybrid breed: Savannahs. Instead of Asian Leopard Cats, Savannahs were developed by breeding house cats with Servals. Unlike the other two breeds, the last breed we met, Toygers, are not hybrid cats. Breeder Judy Sugden created the breed by carefully breeding domestic cats with qualities that resemble wild tigers — via Youtube

Technology

Google invests in new undersea cable from Australia to Southeast Asia

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9 April 2017
1 min read
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Google announced Wednesday that it’s investing in a new subsea cable system that will run between Australia and Asia. The investment is Google’s latest move to strengthen its ties to the APAC region.

Called Indigo, the cable will connect Perth, Sydney, and Singapore, with a branch to Jakarta. To build the cable, Google is partnering with AARNet, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra, while Alcatel Submarine Networks will construct the cable. Span approximately 9,000km, it’s expected to be completed by mid-2019.

Indigo will initially have two fibre pairs with a design capacity of around 18 terabits per second — enough capacity for people in Singapore and Sydney to join 8 million simultaneous high-definition Google Hangout video conference calls — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Art

Micro-Scale Modeling / Joshua Smith

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6 April 2017
53 second read
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Joshua Smith, a miniaturist and former stencil artist based in South Australia, constructs tiny, intricate worlds for a living. His work, which exhibits astonishing observational and representational skills, focuses on the overlooked aspects of the urban environment — such as grime, rust and decay to discarded cigarettes and graffiti, all recreated at a scale of 1:20. Smith, who has been making model kits for around a decade, only recently chose to move away from a 16-year-long career creating stencil art — via ArchDaily

Mediaeval Yorkshirefolk mutilated, burned t’dead to prevent reanimation

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4 April 2017
1 min read
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In History, Science
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Archaeologists investigating human bones excavated from the deserted mediaeval village of Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire have suggested that the villagers burned and mutilated corpses to prevent the dead from rising from their graves to terrorise the living.

Although starvation cannibalism often accounts for the mutilation of corpses during the Middle Ages, when famines were common, researchers from Historic England and the University of Southampton have found that the ways in which the Wharram Perry remains had been dismembered suggested actions more significant of folk beliefs about preventing the dead from going walkabout.

Their paper, titled A multidisciplinary study of a burnt and mutilated assemblage of human remains from a deserted mediaeval village in England, is published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Science

Fungi Fantastic / Steve Axford

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3 April 2017
37 second read
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Enter the magical miniature world of fungi in these time-lapses by fungi photographer Stephen Axford.

Two photographers, Steve Axford and Catherine Marciniak, only one intervalometer and a forecast of a stormy Sunday afternoon resulted in the story of a forest to go with the fabulous time-lapse photography Steve has been doing of fungi growing — via Youtube

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