- the male Ring Tailed Possum in the tree was looking at seed on the back verandah I left out for the birds. My dog, sitting on the verandah, was looking at the possum. They do this at every opportunity and soundlessly. Nothing seems to ever come of this. Nature red in laser beam and drool, I guess.
- the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine is all but myth now, so a museum is a good/bad place to see a stuffed specimen. Rumor has it of recent sightings, but wisely these have not been followed up. If it's alive leave the poor thing alone. Other than that a sketch or old footage from last century.
- Tassie Devils are small, vicious bastards with a blood curdling night-time cry. Having been recently heavily depopulated ( over 90 % in the wild ) due to a meotic drive gene for facial cancer, it is being successfully re-introduced from captive breeding programs involving several zoos. Initially on offshore islands now in various north eastern Tassie forests. The weird gene is from a single known female, spontaneous mutation, yielding it's presence in most reproductive/germinal cells of either gender in descendants. This is why I worry about human 'cleverness' with genes, we know precious little of the gotchas that await us. The common cold sore is a 'tamed' DNA retrovirus now pretty harmless ( if host is not immuno-suppressed ). One wonders how it hit the first hosts way, way back. Remember smallpox in Meso-America.
Yesterday was so cloudy that it felt like twilight all day. I spent some time rat hunting under the house amongst the central heating ducts it uses as an internal highway. A bait has been taken though, a haemorrhagic death awaits ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I spent some time rat hunting under the house amongst the central heating ducts it uses as an internal highway. A bait has been taken though, a haemorrhagic death awaits ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
Ah yes. Same stuff we give humans who might have blockages.
As to the rate of posts, went out of town for a few days and no one had posted. Didn't know you were all waiting on me.
Yesterday was so cloudy that it felt like twilight all day. I spent some time rat hunting under the house amongst the central heating ducts it uses as an internal highway. A bait has been taken though, a haemorrhagic death awaits ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
The City I used to work in had rats, most US Cities do and I'm guessing most other Cities too, we had sewers and the rats lived in them so someone came up with the idea to bait and kill them in the sewers. The company they hired got free day or more old donuts and tied them to a chain under each sewer cover just long enough so the rats could reach them but the donuts would not get wet, they fed the rats donuts every day for 3 weeks, then they swapped out the donuts for bait blocks, that look identical to donuts, and the rat population got decimated!! Now they check the bait blocks once a month and only change about a dozen or so in a 10 square mile city as those are the ones being chewed on. Yes they do go back to donuts after 3 months of no chewing of the bait blocks, but 99% of the donuts go uneaten and there is no sign of rats either.
On the side it seems rats are cannibals too, so if one rat eats the bait block and dies his buddies that eat him die too, so it's not just the rats that eat the bait blocks that die aiding further to the depopulation of the disease carrying vermin. Medical Science can be a wonderful thing if used appropriately!!
RandyC wrote:what is a Poncy
A couple of other 'P' words spring to mind - 'Posh' or perhaps 'Pretentious' :-).
Cheers,
Gary.
RandyC wrote:mikey wrote:Dr
Sorry typo, I meant tiger and typed devil!!
mikey wrote:Sorry typo, I
Don't worry. I did the same for years, and I live here! :-)
Put it this way : when I actually met one of them, the confusion subsided.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Mike Hewson wrote:mikey
I'm very glad you met one, I hope you took pictures and had earplugs for the little Devils. :-))
It has been over 3 days since
It has been over 3 days since anyone has posted here, so I decided to see if I can wake this thread up.
*grumble grumble* You woke
*grumble grumble* You woke me up.
Kathryn :o)
Einstein@Home Moderator
Fair enough. Some answers
Fair enough. Some answers :
- the male Ring Tailed Possum in the tree was looking at seed on the back verandah I left out for the birds. My dog, sitting on the verandah, was looking at the possum. They do this at every opportunity and soundlessly. Nothing seems to ever come of this. Nature red in laser beam and drool, I guess.
- the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine is all but myth now, so a museum is a good/bad place to see a stuffed specimen. Rumor has it of recent sightings, but wisely these have not been followed up. If it's alive leave the poor thing alone. Other than that a sketch or old footage from last century.
- Tassie Devils are small, vicious bastards with a blood curdling night-time cry. Having been recently heavily depopulated ( over 90 % in the wild ) due to a meotic drive gene for facial cancer, it is being successfully re-introduced from captive breeding programs involving several zoos. Initially on offshore islands now in various north eastern Tassie forests. The weird gene is from a single known female, spontaneous mutation, yielding it's presence in most reproductive/germinal cells of either gender in descendants. This is why I worry about human 'cleverness' with genes, we know precious little of the gotchas that await us. The common cold sore is a 'tamed' DNA retrovirus now pretty harmless ( if host is not immuno-suppressed ). One wonders how it hit the first hosts way, way back. Remember smallpox in Meso-America.
Yesterday was so cloudy that it felt like twilight all day. I spent some time rat hunting under the house amongst the central heating ducts it uses as an internal highway. A bait has been taken though, a haemorrhagic death awaits ..... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Mike Hewson wrote:I spent
Ah yes. Same stuff we give humans who might have blockages.
As to the rate of posts, went out of town for a few days and no one had posted. Didn't know you were all waiting on me.
Mike Hewson wrote:Yesterday
The City I used to work in had rats, most US Cities do and I'm guessing most other Cities too, we had sewers and the rats lived in them so someone came up with the idea to bait and kill them in the sewers. The company they hired got free day or more old donuts and tied them to a chain under each sewer cover just long enough so the rats could reach them but the donuts would not get wet, they fed the rats donuts every day for 3 weeks, then they swapped out the donuts for bait blocks, that look identical to donuts, and the rat population got decimated!! Now they check the bait blocks once a month and only change about a dozen or so in a 10 square mile city as those are the ones being chewed on. Yes they do go back to donuts after 3 months of no chewing of the bait blocks, but 99% of the donuts go uneaten and there is no sign of rats either.
On the side it seems rats are cannibals too, so if one rat eats the bait block and dies his buddies that eat him die too, so it's not just the rats that eat the bait blocks that die aiding further to the depopulation of the disease carrying vermin. Medical Science can be a wonderful thing if used appropriately!!
That's a lovely tale.
That's a lovely story.