I would have expected better than this foggy thinking from a Sydney Morning Herald article:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/mouse-diet-improves-appetite-research-20090323-97go.html?sssdmh=dm16.367804

"The spinifex hopping mouse, which weighs no more than 30 grams, can suppress its appetite for up to six days when not eating in order to survive for long periods without water.

Associate Professor John Donald, from Deakin University's school of life and environmental sciences, said this ability made the mouse an ideal animal to study when trying to better understand appetite control in people."

Could we understand more about human flight by studying the albatross?

Could we understand more about human sleep by studying the hibernation of bears?

We could say, "We might be able to apply some of these studies to human weight loss." (which is inevitably where it will go- some drug to suppress appetite and induce fat burning).

But you can't say that studying, in a rodent, an ability that we do not have will help us understand ourselves.

Unfortunately the paper seems to be quoting the scientist himself and not just misquoting or misapplying his conclusions.

This fuzzy thinking seems to me to be the end result of human inquiry divorced from understanding the human situation, as the Bible shows us.

Neanderthal Neeson

Just a quick comment, somewhat tongue in cheek.

I flicked the TV on for a couple of minutes the other night, nothing worth watching as usual. But there was a show on SBS about Neanderthal man.

The bit I saw had a reconstruction of the face of a Neanderthal over the bones. A lot of very interesting assumptions there. But the really interesting thing was that when they had finished the model looked like Liam Neeson. I'm not kidding.



It kinda reinforced (unscientifically of course) a little question I have had for a while...

Is the difference between Neanderthal and me, for example, any greater than the difference between a Kalahari Bushman and a Scandinavian, or between an African and a Japanese person?

I think we tend to assume that Neanderthal were stupid and backward because they didn't have the tools we have. But 99.9% of us don't develop any new technologies either.

I think there is more proof needed before we can conclude that man has evolved since Neanderthal and not merely developed new technologies.

Garvans Lane (15 March 2009)

Garvans Lane (15 March 2009)
In the paddock East of Garvan's Lane just North of the Old Temora Road I spotted two very nice bottles lying on the surface and some shards in the earth. Worth getting permission and probing for a tip.





















Upon digging I found the remains of many nice bottles, all broken. Apart from the two on the surface (Dinneford's and a probable Empire bottle) the only other bottle retrieved undamaged was a very plain amethyst bottle.


DINNEFORD"S MAGNESIA (very good condition)

A very plain amethyst bottle with 116 or 11b in a triangle on the base.


An unmarked ink bottle with the neck broken (Mick tells me some ink bottles were manufactured sealed and had to be broken to open them)
A triangular shaped bottle unmarked and chipped in several places that may be an Empire bottle as shards of a similar shape and colour were clearly marked EMPIRE Co.

Arthur's 70th Birthday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UicAYwCM3e0



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evEfGeT2fYQ

Camps Lane Revisited

Steel, tins and shards indicate two small tips, possibly only surface tips about 350 and 650 m from the Burley Griffin Corner on the Northern side at the West end of Camps Lane. Very small tips, the Eastern one yielded a small Brylcream bottle.

Just west of the Easternmost corner on Camps lane I left a bottle neck at the base of a tree to indicate a possible tip that has a very few shards but yielded a Parramatta bottle from the surface.


When I went back to have a good scratch around...
The larger tip (650m) yielded a few bottles from the fifties (at a guess). Cough Medicine bottles were overrepresented, possibly because larger bottles were all broken.


THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF
TAYLOR CHEMICAL CO SYDNEY (1960's)

PECKS

BONNINGTON'S
IRISH MOSS
COUGHS & COLDS (1960's)

At the eastern corner I was unable to find a tip. There was, however, on the opposite side of the road an interesting shaped bottle, probably from the twenties.

A G M

S

T462

Some Ariah Park Wildlife

This morning we saw an emu not 5km from town.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsenkGupCDI

And there's funnier critters than that around...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mce80g5eGM

My First Amethyst

Peels Road
About 400 m 425m and 475m east of the Trevaskis lane corner there is slight evidence of a tip on the south side. A couple of tins and very little glass. It could be a wash down the hill, or it could be so old that it is hard to find or it could have been disturbed by roadworks. Or there could be very little there and it was only an isolated dumping. At any rate the first spot gave me my first amethyst bottle.

A pick Me Up sauce bottle with the date, 1918 on the bottle. Must be one of the latest Manganese bottles made in Australia.

"PICK ME UP"

(REG'D TRADE MARK)

CONDIMENT Co Ltd

SAUCE

THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF

PICK ME UP CONDIMENT Co Ltd

SYDNEY 1918

(I found it pretty easy to date this one)

On Rogers Road I found a clear bottle, again, without much evidence of any other bottles around.

THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF

H JONES & Co (SYDNEY) LTD

Camps Lane Litter

A decent selection of fairly ordinary bottles was found on a ride down Camps Lane on 26 February 2009. All bottles were found in ones or twos down the length of the lane. My best guess is that these bottles were the result of occasional litter from moving vehicles and remain undisturbed as the roadway is virtually obsolete.



(Left to Right)
Very Pretty VINEGAR Bottle from AGM
A H WEBSTER ARDLETHAN
Sharpe Brothers Centenary 1968 (Which may become a collector if I bury it for another 100yrs)
TUCKER & CO. PTY. LTD
A small Brylcreem

And the best one
SUMMONS & GRAHAM PTY LIMITED PARRAMATTA.
(A little worn with an impact mark at the bottom but still intact and very nice.)

Bottle Collecting

Garvans Lane

Just South of Mirrool Creek rubbish is tipped into a couple of small erosion gullies to stabilise the banks just inside the paddock on the eastern side of the road. Most of it is new heavy fill. There is evidence of a couple of bottles, nothing early or spectacular. It is unlikely the farmer would like his erosion work to be dug up, nor is it likely to yield any great finds. One interesting if newish bottle had tumbled through the fence.

THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF HALLOWES PTY LTD

Dads n Lads Trip February 2009

James and I went to Abercrombie caves with some other men and little men from church.

Here are the highlights of the trip.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3_lk72CLjw