Instant Wetland. The Caption under T's  post reads "I always wanted a Garden with a Pond."

It seems they are getting webbed feet up there in Canberra too. Having a frogpond is not such a bad idea. As well as creating a refuge for frogs, tadpoles keep algae down and the frogs get rid of mosquitoes and other pestiferous insects without the need for pesticides.

Just a couple of Updates now as I have to go out, but before I do, I just want to give palaeontologists a plug too. (That's what T. does). It is through them that we know that Antarctica has been a refuge for animals and plants during past climatic upheavals and extinctions, what conditions were like and how things have been changing. I'm sure you never knew paleontology was as sexy as this.
Could be an idea to get the crowds in at other museums.

Victoria (as in the Australian State, not the long dead monarch or the Lingerie Mail Order place) has just turned down bottle deposit legislation. This is a shame, because according to the article in today's Age, almost a  quarter of the 16,000 tonnes of rubbish picked up on Clean Up Australia Day in Victoria consisted of plastic bottles. Apparently national legislation is on its way later this year, so please make sure you let our elected representatives know that we don't need this scourge. And what about prosecuting the morons that still can't pick up after themselves? Way back in the seventies I was amazed how clean the streets of Singapore were. It turns out they had $500 fines for dropping so much as a cigarette butt. Could be good for consolidated revenue. Maybe then the federal government could afford to give up its unfortunate addiction to the revenue generated by problem gamblers and honour one of its other election promises.

To the the sportfishing person who commented anonymously on the proposal to establish marine reserves in Antarctic Waters, let me say that you should get behind this proposal because by the time those factory ships with their tracking devices and enormous capacity have finished with them, there will be nothing left for anyone including you, much less future generations. You have obviously not read the literature. Just by way of an introduction, please read this brief excerpt from the Earth Policy Institute's "Plan B Signs of stress - Collapsing fisheries" and you will see that fisheries are in decline from Iceland to South Africa and on the other side of the world as well. More on that tomorrow.

Speaking of so called 'sports,' Beryl Brennan's article about bullfighting can be viewed here. Being an animal lover, she has told me about a number of other cruel and unnecessary customs, which we'll discuss further on another occasion. I don't like criticising other people's hobbies or traditions, but many of them look so pointless as well as causing unnecessary suffering. I am always curious especially with some of the more bizarre and cruel ones, as to how they came into being and whether there is any justification for them today, now that we understand better how things work; e.g. that eating powdered rhino horn doesn't make you hornier, that bile from bears can actually make you sick and that sacrificing virgins to Moloch, will not result in rain. On the other hand one Islamic tradition makes good sense. According to a respondent in Sylvia Smith's article about the Mediterranean Wetland Conference in Morocco, "Overuse and pollution of water is forbidden in the Qu'ran and the Sharia." Now there is a custom worth keeping, though I am not too happy about some of the others.

On a lighter note, I have a few more entries for Do People Look Like their Dogs? When I looked for the web address of my post on this topic, there were now supposedly 1,140,000 entries. The latest one, by The Telegraph on March 5th, 2012 says psychologists do believe that they do. However, it does not tell us anything about their personalities. I am always fascinated by the synergy between dog owners and their furry friends. Take a look, especially if I have taken your picture lately.

Cheers for now,
-V