Race Caller's Night Mare: howdoyoulikemenow?

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney. Australia.

Spare a thought for New Zealand’s harness race caller, when he was confronted by the name of one of the horses: howdoyoulikemenow? It must be one of the longest and strangest names ever bestowed on a horse.

Bred in New Zealand by R E Bright, the nag last started in 2003, after winning three first, three second and one third prizes.

Thousands of miles from New Zealand, in Webster, Florida, another horse sported the same strange name. He was bred by Circle C Farms Ltd. From 28 starts, he won seven first prizes, three seconds and three thirds, with earnings totalling $43,214.

How did those horses get such a funny monicker? A girl calling herself Sinsational wrote: “What is the longest name for a horse? My cousin had a 1/4 Arabian, 1/4 TB, 1/4 TB, 1/4 QH, 1/4 App. She named the poor thing ‘Sheton Mississippi of Brandy Cloud’. She called him Sheton for short.”

The mystry was quicklysolved. “Howdoyoulikemenow?” is the name of a pop song that appeals to horselovers around the globe. You can listen to it on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM

"How Do You Like Me Now"I was always the crazy one
I broke into the stadium
And I wrote your number on the 50 yard line
You were always the perfect one
And the valadictorian so
Under your number I wrote "call for a good time"

I only wanted to catch your attention
But you overlooked me somehow
Besides you had too many boyfriends to mention
And I played my guitar too loud.

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standin here today?
I couldnt make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

When I took off to Tennessee
I heard that you made fun of me
Never imagined I'd make it this far
Then you married into money girl
Aint it a cruel and funny world?
He took your dreams and tore them apart.

He never comes home
And youre always alone
And your kids hear you cryin down the hall
Alarm clock starts ringin
Who could that be singin
Its me baby, with your wake up call!

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standin here today?
I couldnt make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

Tell me baby...
I will preach on...



 

Stone the Crows!

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.

We have always thought that Stone the crows! and Stiffen the crows! were typical Australian exclamations, but it seems they come from Wales (not New South Wales).

British MP Sir George Edwards called his autobiography From Crow Scaring to Westminster and told of his childhood when, like many children in rural districts, he was sent out to the fields to throw stones and scare the crows away from crops.

He explained that this was once common practice in country areas, and children were paid sixpence a day for crop scaring. They were, in fact, living scarecrows.

Brits seem to have a soft spot in their hearts for scarecrows. Earlier this month (October 2012) the Nottingham Post reported that home-made scarecrows went on display in Toton, a Nottingham suburb.

“The stuffed creations” the paper reported, “ were kitted out in a variety of outfits from purple tights to lab coats, some of them relaxing in deck chairs or perched on walls at the village’s first scarecrow festival.” Here in Sydney we have just had an enjoyable Bushlands Festival, with people dressing up as scarecrows to aid local charities.

Max Cryer, possibly the best-known New Zealander, discusses scarecrows in his blog (see link below). He is a TV producer, broadcaster, entertainment producer, singer, cabaret performer and author. Educated in Italy and New Zealand, he has appeared in films and made 19 tours of the US. He was the kiwis’ first TV quizmaster.

LINKS

Scarecrows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow

Nottingham http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Stone-crows-Madcap-creations-unite-community/story-17084843-detail/story.html Post:

Max Cryer interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P1uRWSlsgw

       Bushlands  Festival: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hornsbycouncil/5010196370/

Stone the Crows!

.

_.

 

 

 

Man on the $50 Aussie Note

Clicking on the Google banner the other day I was pleased to find that it paid homage to a remarkable indigenous Australian who was born 150 years ago.

 David Unaipon (1872-1967), is portrayed on Australia’s $50 bill. He was a preacher, inventor and writer.

In 1909 he obtained a Commonwealth patent for the modification to existing, mechanical sheep-shears. He applied his understanding of curvilinear motion to change the motion of the cutting shear from circular to straight. This greatly improved the efficiency of the mechanical sheep-shears.From 1909 to 1944 David Unaipon made a number of other patent applications for inventions including a centrifugal motor.

His main passion, was however, the search for perpetual motion. He conducted experiments and made models in an attempt to discover the 'secrets' of perpetual motion. He wrote in his 1951 Life Story:

"Even if I never arrive, I shall always recall with pleasure the hours I have spent and the experiments I have tried in endeavouring to solve a scientific problem."

 
 

 

 

David Unaipon College: http://www.unisa.edu.au/Education-Arts-and-Social-Sciences/David-Unaipon-College-of-Indigenous-Education-and-Research/

From  ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.

Napoleon gave Josephine kangaroos, emus, black swans

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney,Australia.

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine stocked their Versailles palace garden with gum trees, kangaroos, emus and black swans.
Those little-known facets of history
must have surprised many viewers of Gardening Australia on TV-1 the other day. Melbourne garden guru Jane Edmanson interviewed Amanda Dunsmore, one of the curators of an exhibition. “Napoleon: Revolution to Empire”, at the Melbourne National Gallery:

_{The interview went like this:}

_{JANE: I think everyone's very well aware of how famous Napoleon was for his military battles in Europe and conquests, but perhaps people are not quite so aware of his interest in Australia and the scientific interest that he held for Australia since he was a young boy and reading Captain Cook's Voyages. He was a man of taste and scientific interests.
Josephine, his wife, had a passion for exotic flora and fauna and she brought of Australian plants to France for the first time where they are still growing today.}

Napoleon's interest in Australia seemed to begin early. The explorer, La Perouse was sent to New Holland by the King of France, Louis XVI in 1785 and Napoleon, as a teenage cadet, tried to join the expedition, but was knocked back.

It's incredible to think that La Perouse landed at Botany Bay just days after the First Fleet and I like to think just how excited he would have been in jumping out and seeing our Australian flora and fauna for the very first time.

Amanda, La Perouse died at sea - that we know - and if Napoleon had been on that expedition, history would have been really different.

AMANDA: Oh indeed, indeed. They sent out another expedition to look for La Perouse - they still didn't necessarily believe that he was actually dead. It was led by a man called d'Entrecasteaux.

JANE: So what did he discover?

AMANDA: La Perouse, who was, in fact, lost at sea, but he did undertake scientific explorations of the south-east of Australia and particularly Tasmania and with his botanists and gardeners and scientists, collected thousands of specimens of flora, but also fauna - Australian animals as well.

One of the publications of the d'Entrecasteaux mission is his book by his botanist Labillardière and the book is the most significant publication on Australian flora to this date.

JANE: While Labillardière gathered plants in Australia, back home, the French Revolution was in full swing. Napoleon's battlefield victories saw him rise decisively to power and he married Josephine. Together they set up house at Malmaison - an extravagant home just outside of Paris. It was in Malmaison's vast grounds that Josephine was able to indulge her love and passion for plants from all around the world, including many from Australia.

AMANDA: Malmaison was where she really stamped her mark and people, both explorers and collectors and naturalists, would send her specimens from all over the world.

JANE: So she was a real 'plantoholic'?

AMANDA: Oh undoubtedly.

JANE: So what kind of Australian plants did she end up with?

AMANDA: She had over 200 species of Australian flora growing. She was cultivating all thirteen known varieties of Eucalypts, she grew Mimosa of course, she had the banksia - these are all published in her very famous book Jardin De La Malmaison.'JANE: And a third of this book includes species from Australia.

It was published in 1804 and these are the examples of the first Australian plant in her garden - named after her, Josephinia imperatricis. Amanda, that's an amazing illustration of Josephine's hothouse.

Was that her secret weapon to growing Austr: I suppose you could put it that way. She built this hothouse within the first five years of moving to Malmaison and it really would have been one of the largest hothouses in Europe. That, of course, is where she was able to cultivate so many plants that otherwise wouldn't have survived out in the gardens of Malmaison.

JANE: A further French expedition in 1800 saw Nicolas Baudin not only finishing the final piece of Australian coastline mapping from Wilson's Promontory to Adelaide, but also providing fresh supplies of thousands more Australian plants - not just for the natural history museum, but specifically for Josephine's beloved garden.

Did Josephine continue to love her plants and garden?

AMANDA: Yes absolutely. She lived at Malmaison till the day she died in 1814. By this stage though of course, she'd divorced from Napoleon. He's remarried Marie Louise and then of course, we know the rest of the story. He's defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and he's sent to exile in St Helena where he dies in 1821.

JANE: There's a touching poetic epilogue to this story. When Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, he took with him a collection of Australian plants as a constant reminder of Josephine and they are still growing there today.

While Labillardière gathered plants in Australia, back home, the French Revolution was in full swing. Napoleon's battlefield victories saw him rise decisively to power and he married Josephine. Together they set up house at Malmaison - an extravagant home just outside Paris.

It was in Malmaison's vast grounds that Josephine was able to indulge her love and passion for plants from all around the world, including many from Australia. A third <sub>of the book includes species from Australia. It was published in 1804 and these are the examples of the first Australian plant in her garden - named after her, Josephinia imperatricis.

Jane asked Amanda if Josephine's enormous hothouse was her secret weapon when growing Australian plants. I suppose you could put it that way. She built the hothouse within the first five years of moving to Malmaison and it would have been one of the largest hothouses in Europe. That, of course, is where she was able to cultivate so many plants that otherwise wouldn't have survived out in the gardens of Malmaison."

A further French expedition in 1800 saw Nicolas Baudin not only finishing the final piece of Australian coastline mapping from Wilson's Promontory to Adelaide, but also providing fresh supplies of thousands more Australian plants - not just for the natural history museum, but specifically for Josephine's beloved garden’</sub>

_{JANE: So what did he discover?}

_AMANDA: d'Entrecasteaux didn't discover La Perouse, who was, in fact, lost at sea, but he did undertake scientific explorations of the south-east of Australia and particularly Tasmania and with his botanists and gardeners and scientists, collected thousands of specimens of flora, but also fauna - Australian animals as well.

One of the publications of the d'Entrecasteaux mission is his book by his botanist Labillardière and the book is the most significant publication on Australian flora to this date.

JANE: While Labillardière gathered plants in Australia, back home, the French Revolution was in full swing. Napoleon's battlefield victories saw him rise decisively to power and he married Josephine.

Together they set up house at Malmaison - an extravagant home just outside of Paris. It was in Malmaison's vast grounds that Josephine was able to indulge her love and passion for plants from all around the world, including many from Australia.

AMANDA: Malmaison was where she really stamped her mark and people, both explorers and collectors and naturalists, would send her specimens from all over the world.

JANE: So she was a real 'plantoholic'?

AMANDA: Oh undoubtedly.

JANE : So what kind of Australian plants did she end up with?

AMANDA: She had over 200 species of Australian flora growing. She was cultivating all thirteen known varieties of Eucalypts, she grew Mimosa of course, she had the banksia - these are all published in her very famous book 'Jardin De La Malmaison.'JANE: And a third of this book includes species from Australia.

It was published in 1804 and these are the examples of the first Australian plant in her garden - named after her, Josephinia imperatricis.

Amanda, that's an amazing illustration of Josephine's hothouse. Was that her secret weapon to growing Australian plants?

AMANDA: I suppose you could put it that way. She built this hothouse within the first five years of moving to Malmaison and it really would have been one of the largest hothouses in Europe. That, of course, is where she was able to cultivate so many plants that otherwise wouldn't have survived out in the gardens of Malmaison.

JANE: A further French expedition in 1800 saw Nicolas Baudin not only finishing the final piece of Australian coastline mapping from Wilson's Promontory to Adelaide, but also providing fresh supplies of thousands more Australian plants - not just for the natural history museum, but specifically for Josephine's beloved garden.

Did Josephine continue to love her plants and garden?

AMANDA: Yes absolutely. She lived at Malmaison till the day she died in 1814. By this stage though of course, she's divorced from Napoleon. He's remarried to Marie Louise and then of course, we know the rest of the story. He's defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and he's sent to exile in St Helena where he dies in 1821.

JANE: There's a touching poetic epilogue to this story. When Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, he took with him a collection of Australian plants as a constant reminder of Josephine and they are still growing there today.
 

<sub>One of the publications of the d'Entrecasteaux mission is his book by his botanist Labillardière and the book is the most significant publication on Australian flora to this date.
While Labillardière gathered plants in Australia, back home, the French Revolution was in full swing. Napoleon's battlefield victories saw him rise decisively to power and he married Josephine.

Together they set up house at Malmaison - an extravagant home just outside of Paris. It was in Malmaison's vast grounds that Josephine was able to indulge her love and passion for plants from all around the world, including many from Australia.

AMANDA: Malmaison was where she really stamped her mark and people, both explorers and collectors and naturalists, would send her specimens from all over the world.

JANE: So she was a real 'plantoholic'?

AMANDA: Oh undoubtedly.</sub>

JANE: So what kind of Australian plants did she end up with?

AMANDA: She had over 200 species of Australian flora growing. She was cultivating all thirteen known varieties of Eucalypts, she grew Mimosa of course, she had the banksia - these are all published in her very famous book Jardin De La Malmaison.

JANE: And a third of this book includes species from Australia. It was published in 1804 and these are the examples of the first Australian plant in her garden - named after her, Josephinia imperatricis.

Amanda, that's an amazing illustration of Josephine's hothouse. Was that her secret weapon to growing Australian plants?

AMANDA: I suppose you could put it that way. She built this hothouse within the first five years of moving to Malmaison and it really would have been one of the largest hothouses in Europe. That, of course, is where she was able to cultivate so many plants that otherwise wouldn't have survived out in the gardens of Malmaison.

JANE: A further French expedition in 1800 saw Nicolas Baudin not only finishing the final piece of Australian coastline mapping from Wilson's Promontory to Adelaide, but also providing fresh supplies of thousands more Australian plants - not just for the natural history museum, but specifically for Josephine's beloved garden. Did Josephine continued to love her plants and garden?

AMANDA : Yes absolutely. She lived at Malmaison till the day she died in 1814. By this stage though of course, she's divorced from Napoleon. He's remarried to Marie Louise and then of course, we know the rest of the story. He's defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and he's sent to exile in St Helena where he dies in 1821.

JANE: There's a touching poetic epilogue to this story. When Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, he took with him a collection of Australian plants as a constant reminder of Josephine and they are still growing there today.

LINKS

Napoleon: Revolution to Empire: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/napoleon

Video:

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s3587668.htm

Geothermal Power Is HOT!

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.

If you drill a deep well in several areas of Australia, and then pour water down it, the water turns to steam, and returns in a jet fierce enough to drive a turbine to generate electrical power. It’s an exciting concept called geothermal power.

It’s in its infancy in Australia, but several companies are actively developing it. There are known and potential locations near the centre of the country that have been shown to contain hot granites at depth which hold good potential for development. Exploratory geothermal wells have been drilled to test for the presence of high temperature geothermal reservoir rocks and such hot granites were detected. As a result, projects will eventuate in the coming years and more exploration is expected to find new locations. 

For the British company specialising in the development of geothermal resources, see Geothermal Engineering Ltd.

At the core of the Earth, thermal energy is created by radioactive decay and temperatures may reach over 5000 degrees Celsius (9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat conducts from the core to surrounding cooler rock. The high temperature and pressure cause some rock to melt, creating magma convection upward since it is lighter than the solid rock. The magma heats rock and water in the crust, sometimes up to 370 degrees Celsius (700 degrees Fahrenheit).

Exploratory geothermal wells have been drilled to test for the presence of high temperature geothermal reservoir rocks and such hot granites were detected.

As a result, projects will eventuate in the coming years and more exploration is expected to find new locations. From hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for electricity generation.

Worldwide, about 10,715 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power is online in 24 countries. An additional 28 gigawatts of direct geothermal heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial processes, desalination and agricultural applications.

Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, opening a potential for widespread exploitation.

Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, but these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those of fossil fuels.

As a result, geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global warming if widely deployed in place of fossil fuels. The Earth's geothermal resources are theoretically more than adequate to supply humanity's energy needs, but only a very small fraction may be profitably exploited.

Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive. Forecasts for the future of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices, subsidies, and interest rates. Polls show that customers would be willing to pay a little more for a renewable energy source like geothermal. 

But as a result of government assisted research and industry experience, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25% over the past two decades.

In 2001, geothermal energy cost between two and ten cents per kilowatt. The 30 MW Paralana project is located adjacent to the Beverley Uranium Mine. It is an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) project, based on Petratherm’s "heat exchanger within insulator" model. 

The 25 MW Cooper Basin demonstration project will demonstrate the potential of hot-rock geothermal energy for zero-emission, base-load power. 

The project is owned by Geodynamics and will be the world’s first multi-well hot fractured rock power project. Geodynamics has assessed its resource as holding geothermal energy sufficient to support several thousand megawatts of electricity generating capacity. The Jurien-Woodada project, owned by New World Energy Limited, is the most advanced geothermal play in Western Australia for electricity production.

The project is adjacent to transmission infrastructure and large resource-driven energy markets in the mid-west region. The project area has the potential to contain both hot sedimentary aquifer and EGS styles and is being assessed for delivery of electricity into Western Australia's South West Interconnected System. [ The Penola Project is part of Panax’s Limestone Coast Project and is the largest of only three known Measured Geothermal Resources in Australia. An independent assessment has estimated the geothermal resource potential at 11,000 petajoules.

The Penola Project has an extensive database with 28 petroleum wells. The deepest petroleum exploration well is approximately 4,000 metres and intersects more than 1,000 metres of the target reservoir, the Pretty Hill Sandstone.

Panax’s Salamander-1 well, drilled in 2010 is the first deep geothermal well drilled in the Otway Basin. It was completed in record time and is the first to demonstrate conventional geothermal technology in Australia. First steam was produced and the well-testing program was also completed on the project in 2010. The Salamander-1 well met its primary objectives.

At 4,000 metres projected geothermal temperatures were exceeded by more than 10oC and target reservoir rocks met the requirements for the development of a geothermal demonstration plant. An in-house pre-feasibility study found the project has the potential to generate power at $83 per megawatt hour, which is cheaper than wind power.

Complication with the well were found during well-testing. Reservoir engineers have been engaged to examine the well and carry out remediation works. Panax is pioneering conventional geothermal technology in Australia with its Salamander-1 well and is securing funding from the Australian Federal Government to progress the

Penola Project. Video: http://www.rtbot.net/Geothermal_power_in_Australia