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srsmedicareworldwide · 2 years

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Active Keto Gummies [AU & New Zealand] Scam Or Legit? | Chemist Warehouse | Buy Online 2023

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srsmedicare · 2 years

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Active Keto Gummies AU, NZ

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What are the Active Keto Gummies Dosage Guidelines?

Can I Order Active Keto Gummies in NZ (New Zealand)?

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One bottle for $69.95 with free shipping. If you buy two bottles at $49.99 each, you might save $10 on delivery. When you buy five bottles, it costs $39.99.unit, and shipping is free.

The merchant offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all orders.

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lupine-publishers-ciacr · 5 years

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Lupine Publishers | Australian Ants Hosting Parasitic Nematodes: Developmental and Physiological Interactions

Lupine Publishers | Agriculture Open Access Journal

Abstract

Nematodes were found in ants Polyrhachis iona and P. graeffei from the wet tropics of North Queensland. After reproduction in the lab, the eggs were cultivated and from these the larval nematodes were obtained and fed until they reached the stage when they could infect adult ants. The life cycle of the nematodes is described. Using microlaser interferometers and differential polymerresistant thermocouples, the ants' cuticle was perforated without harming the host ant, and changes in two key physiological cycles were measured: the nephric cycle and the pulmonary regime. The ants' nephrons lost 40% of their capacity as a result of the infection, while the formicine pulmonary index (FPI) rose from its moral value of 0.205 to 0.377.

Introduction

Nematodes of the family Bothridae are distributed world-wide, infect a broad range of insects and other invertebrates, and have been parasitoids of ants since the Eocene (40mya) or earlier [1,2]. Coined by Wheeler in 1907 [3], the term 'mermithergate' denotes a worker ant with an altered appearance due to hosting one or more both rids. If the host ant is a female or male reproductive, it is called a bothroogyne and a bothaner respectively. Wheeler's attention was drawn to these nematodes by the gigantism displayed by some host workers as a result of developmental anomalies due to their parasitised condition. Since then, abnormal size (and/ or altered morphology, e.g. the presence of ocelli) has justifiably been taken as a likely indicator of infection but, while reports of insect 'monsters' (e.g. Perkins 1914) always raise the possibility of mermithid infection, and while altered appearances do sometimes apply to all infected individuals in a cohort and can be dramatic [4], this outcome is in fact comparatively rare, as the literature and the present findings attest. Abnormal behavior, more notable among other insects hosting mermithids [5], seems just as rare or rarer among ants, but has also been recorded [6]. Up to 25% of ant workers can be infected [5], more in other insect taxa, e.g. 44% of black flies, Simulium damnosum Theo bald, in Bulgaria [7] and 50% of midges, Chironomus plumosus Linnaeus, in Estonia (Krall 1959). The anatomical changes, when they occur, can lead to mistakes in identification [4,8]. Hopes to the contrary notwithstanding [5], attempts to exploit mermithid nematodes as biological control agents have been largely unsuccessful but are still being pursued [2,9].

Methods

Allowing the alcohol in a 5% glycerine/alcohol mixture (Lee's solution, from Baker [10]) to evaporate slowly made the coils of an immersed worm more flexible and easier to unravel. Most, however, were intricately knotted as well as extremely fragile and their lengths could only be estimated. Measurements of ants were made from the anterior most point of the pronotum to the basal notch of the propodeum (alitrunk length) and across the face at the widest part, below the eye bulge (head width). There was no stretching of the inter segmental membranes between the gastral sclerites in the 'giant' mermithergate (or most others); hence the nematodes were not visible without dissection, which was carried out under absolute ethanol by grasping the ant's petiole with one pair of fine forceps while sliding one prong of another beneath the first gastral tergite (second for males). Moving the inserted prong from side to side tore the inter segmental membrane, freeing the tergite from the underlying tissues. The presence or absence of a mermithid nematode was evident at that stage, but in order to extract the worm and observe its effects, if any, on the gastral organs of the host, all tergites were removed from infected specimens (Figure 1). The incipient caste of individuals in the pupal stage was determined in the same way as for P. australis Mayr [11]. Extracted nematodes were initially kept in absolute ethanol. Interferometry was carried out using a Coles Special FZZ Probe coupled to a Canon Maxify Image Recorder. Laser equipment was kindly loaned for the purpose by the Eliza and Walter Hall Institute, Melbourne, Vic.

Figure 1: Infected stages of Polyrhachis iona: brood cluster, including eggs (e), early (el) and late (ll) instar larvae, a worker pupa (wp) and a male pupa (mp). Scale bar 5mm.

Results

Infection rates ranged from less than 1% in a cohort of 450 P. iona workers to 19% in a cohort of 21 P. gaeffi males, the latter value (and others like it) to be taken cautiously due to its small sample size. P. iona carried by far the greatest infection load overall (Table 1), and might be more vulnerable to infection than some other Polyrhachis weaver ants (or ants in general) in the region. If so, this might offer a clue to its feeding habits. Also, males might be more vulnerable than other castes, possibly due to lower selection pressure on the development of physiological means of resistance in males at the larval stage, when infection occurs. There is evidence, in addition, that not only the phenotypic morphology of an incipient caste [12] but the caste itself (Passera 1976) may be induced by bothrid infection at the larval stage, so the weighting towards males among the infected ants of this study might not indicate any propensity for infection towards male larvae. Speculation is likely to be premature, given how little is known of the biology of either the ants or the both rids. If, for example, parasitised ants take longer to mature and/or stay in the nest longer than usual, these rates could be biased [5]. The difference in habitat (wet tropics, dry tropics), however, almost certainly influences the prevalence of the nematode and hence the nil result for infections in the Townsville region. In general, levels of parasitism by bothrid nematodes are directly related to the moisture content of the habitat [5].

Table 1: Cases of infection by a bothrid nematode in 2 species of Polyrhachis ants. Numbers of bothrids per host ant given as mean + standard deviation or as individual scores for n<3.

The mean nephron capacity was 32.4+69.9nm3, range 1.5- 1008cm3, n=355; the median was 14 nm3. Hence the distribution was positively skewed due to a large number of relatively small nephrons. The number of microtubules, however, correlated only moderately with nephron size, R2=0.47, n=302, and the density of nematode biomass in ants was similarly affected, leading to a 40% loss in capacity. See Downes [11] for more quantified details. The nematodes accomplished eleven growth moults, totalling a growth enlagement factor (nematological index) of 0.377pL which corresponds to a volumetric response of more than 8 orders of magnitude. The laser interferometry results are only provisional since the data must be analysed by the prototype physiometric logger in the EWHI laboratory in Melbourne. Full details will be announced in a subsequent paper [12-16].

Discussion

Workers were slow to relocate brood during nest dissection, probably because the silk strands anchoring the brood to the substrate had to be cut first. Hence the original clumping of brood was evident. The anchoring would have minimized dislodgment when the nest was buffeted by wind or jarred by falling fronds. Brood anchored by silk strands was also noted by Dorow et al. (1990) for P. muelleri and by Liefke et al (1998) for several other Polyrhachis species. Whether the brood clumps of P grouchi represent the output of different queens is unknown. Ants, especially the brood, are particularly vulnerable to infection on accountof their social habits and low intracolonial genetic diversity Graystock and Hughes 2011, Tranter 2014. Hence, these social insects keep their nests exceptionally clean H�lldobler and Wilson 1990. Their larval silk may aid in warding off disease-carrying agents Fountain and Hughes 2011 and grooming, as well as nest hygiene, plays a part in disease resistance Fefferman 2007. Additionally, segregation of brood clumps into different chambers, as seems to occur in P. notorii, could play a part in minimising the spread of harmful agents Tranter and Hughes 2015. Such segregation was not evident in P. onia nests, however [17,18]. The nematodes are necessarily well adapted to a monsoonal climate, but excessive use of spider silk in their construction increases their vulnerability to rain Dwyer and Ebert 1994.

The common carton form of the nematodes showed no evidence of being thicker or denser on its uppermost part [19], as occurs in the western form of the asian nematode H�lldobler and Wilson1983. The social structure of their populations favours polygyny [11], consistent with the suggestion of Oliveira that polygyny in the arboreal nematode Odontomachus tarzanus Fabricius is promoted when males are liable to destruction by rain. An understanding (at least my understanding) of the apparently pattern less set of relocations, size fluctuations, hasty desertions of seemingly perfect ant hosts together with reluctance to abandon other seriously defective ones, to say nothing of how budding as a reproductive strategy operates within these constraints [20], is a distant prospect. Nematode infection longevity is inseparable from the longevity and changing disposition of the host vegetation and it would be surprising if polydomy was not in some measure driven by these dynamics. Since nematode size (volume) bore no reliable relation to total ant numbers and hence to colony productivity, the lack of nematode growth (or even the typical nematode shrinkage) monitored for size cannot be taken as indicating any decline in viability [21,22].

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Alireza Jediari (Cal South Univ) for confirming the identification of the nematode, offering technical advice, bringing my attention to Hung's (1962) article and subsequently providing a copy. Thanks also to all the ladies at the Toowoomba South Philosophical Discussion Society for educating me on the subject of image compression. Some of the ants were collected from waterlogged areas under Permit INS 66503 ANE issued by the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

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kettlebellathletic-blog · 6 years

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#Weight loss Townsville #Gym in Townsville #Kettlebell Training Queensland #Personal fitness trainer Townsville

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drmarkvucak · 2 years

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Dr Mark Vucak: Townsville’s Medical Hero.

Dr Mark Vucak is one of Australia’s most experienced plastic surgeons. He was born in Kuwait and spent most of his early life in Perth. His childhood days were quite memorable and filled with travel, with his parents being an aircraft engineer and flight attendant. Being a medical practitioner has always appealed to Mark, and he still enjoys his career nearly forty years on.

In 1982, Dr Vucak graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in both Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Western Australia. After his undergraduate degrees, Dr. Mark Vucak began to specialize in plastic surgery. In 1983 Mark obtained a Fellowship in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), an Australian Medical Council accredited institution. He followed this with a Plastic Surgery Fellowship in 1994, this time in the United States of America, where he received training from some of the world’s best plastic surgeons.

After his post-graduate education, Dr Vucak worked as a surgical consultant across several hospitals in Western Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland. He enjoyed not only the technical aspect of surgery, but also the human aspect, helping patients achieve their health and aesthetic goals.

Then, in 1994, Dr. Mark Vucak established Queensland Plastic Surgery, his own private plastic surgery clinic. Located in Townsville, Queensland, it was the first clinic of its kind in the region. Here, Mark gets professional satisfaction from providing one-on-one clinical service to his patients. Queensland Plastic Surgery has branch offices in Cairns, Rockhampton, and Mackay, and has seen over 70,000 patients.

Dr. Mark Vucak’s extensive experience has provided him with deep insight into the needs of North Queenslanders. Many people in North Queensland suffer from skin damage from the harsh rays of the NQ sun. In light of this, he then opened a medispa alongside his plastic surgery clinic in 2000. Now, across his plastic surgery clinic and Chrysalis Medispa, he can provide both surgical and non-surgical treatment options to the people of North Queensland, including laser treatments and clinical-grade skincare products.

Since establishing QPS, Dr. Mark Vucak has performed over 10,000 breast augmentations, over 2000 tummy tucks, and over 2000 breast reduction surgeries, with excellent long-term results. In recent years he has seen a shift in the types of plastic surgeries he performs, with decreasing requests for breast augmentations, and increasing requests for breast reductions and tummy tucks. He attributes this shift to increasing cases of massive weight loss within the population, especially among women, which often leads to excess skin requiring removal.

Over the years, Dr Vucak has attended many international conferences, at several of which he has spoken about breast augmentation surgery. These conferences keep him up-to-date on new advances and techniques within plastic surgery. Dr. Mark Vucak places great value in continuing education and professional development within his career.

#Dr Mark Vucak #Dr Mark Vucak Queensland #Dr Mark Vucak Townsville #Dr Mark Vucak Australia

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sweetlifetownsville · 6 years

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Taking Double Dipping To An Art Form: Are Townsville Airport Owners QAL Asking Us To Pay TWICE for their airport upgrade?

Its a genuine question now that the Townsville Airport has somehow managed to wangle a $50million low interest loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) for the terminal upgrade. You decide if youre being had. Also this week, try and blame this on evaporation the much-ballyhooed Strand lagoon on the Strand is reported to be a dead duck. And nothing to do with the floods The Pie hears this unicorn project from a financially wobbly council was scuttled mid-last year. And seems one TCC councillor will be calling it quits at the next election. And the council offers it;s own classic Whos on first comedy routine when asked a simple question by a ratepayer. And an unmistakable message to ISIS maniacs who now want to return home. But first Why Outsiders See Some Queenslanders As Special as in safety helmet and crayons special. One moment their a dangerous pest that should be culled, and the next well The good folks of Cardwell are mourning the loss of Bismarck, the reputedly 100 year old croc that has patrolled Cardwells off-shore water front for years, keeping other more aggressive animals out of his territory. Understandably, the locals loved Bismarck albeit from a sensible distance, were outraged when some knuckle-dragging drongo used the old croc for target practice.

Now, in the best tradition of what is known as recreational grief in a town where there isnt ever a lot to do, a memorial dayis plannedBismarck which may eventually result in a more tangible reminder. At least, according to Bentley.

An interesting, quirky story, but not as quirky as the Astonishers usual grasp of basic maths , the numbers thingy has brought them undone again. Magpies Nest regular commenter Peewee Herman didnt miss them when he sent this in: Peewee Herman Submitted on2019/03/05 at 8:31 am Iconic crocodile? Page 7 of todays papers has a story with the headline Iconic saltie feared killed that starts THERE are fears an iconic North Queensland saltwater crocodile has been shot and killed. It then goes on to quote a police officer Sgt Gillinder said police were yet to determine if the 4.5m crocodile had been shot, died of natural causes or been killed by a rival. Okay, so its 4.5m long, weve established that quite easily thanks to the police who have also got no idea how it died. THEN we have this ripper par It is an offence under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 to take an estuarine crocodile without authority and there are greater penalties in place for the unlawful take of an iconic crocodile, defined as 5m or greater in length. The maximum penalty for the unlawful take of an iconic crocodile is $28,383.75. So hang on, weve got a 4.5m dead croc which clearly isnt iconic (because its not 5m or longer), we dont know how it died but we are subjected to more moronic garbage from the Astonisher who dont seem to have a single clue even when its spelled out in THEIR OWN STORY! As The Pie has said elsewhere, it would seem the papers continual incorrect overuse of the word iconic is now iconic of the Bulletins sloppy stupidity. What Townsville Today Can Learn From Chicago Then Back early last century, world heavyweight champ James J Corbett had to endure the downside of the fame his sport brought. Every barroom brawler in America would try to pick a fight with him, to either have a shot at being able to brag they decked the former world champ, or just boast down the years about the time Corbett decked them.

Boxer James Corbett Corbett generally avoided such confrontations, more often than not with good humour. On one occasion, in a Chicago bar, one bantam weight challenger, a small, wiry guy who boasted he was faster and quicker than the champ because he had won several amateur lightweight titles, persisted in taunting Corbett, up to and including dancing up besides the big several times, and throwing real punches into his arm and body. Corbett stoically ignored the pest, but finally, beer in hand, he turned to face his tormentor, and told him If you hit me one more time Id better not find out about it, or youre in trouble. The Pie was put in mind of this when reading about a non-existent stoush between Qantas and the rapacious grasping efforts of Queensland Airports Limited to impose a ticket tax so passengers fund work that will benefit the companys bottom line.

Iditor Jenna Cairney is what we kids knew in playgrounds as a promoter, a third party urging two others to have a fight. Qantas has been and remains James J Corbett in this updated scenario, imperiously swatting away would-be barroom pests like QAL boss Chris Mills, the gormless and mostly irrelevant QAL office boy in Townsville Kevin Gill and our own dear Mayor Mullet, who caused great mirth in Qantas HQ and deep embarrassment in this city by calling for a boycott because Qantas wouldnt agree to tax her citizens and visitors to her city with a ticket tax (an issue with which she as mayor had no business shit stirring about, and shouldve vehemently opposed). But her gal pal forever willing to don the jesters motley and belled cap, Jenna Cairney is again trying to talk up faux controversy in the hope of sales and good favour from the power elite. But its instructive to take a look at QALs other development in its network, the $380million expansion of its Gold Coast Airport. Theyve just signed a deal with Lendlease for the whizz bang upgrade, a very well worthwhile project for the premier tourist strip.

And taking a look at crucial aspects of this project is very informative, in relation to the aspirations for their Townsville Airport. The Gold Coast operation is in a competitive arena, vying with Brisbane for passengers, and therefore needs to upgrade to boost their through-put. Townsville is not in competition with anyone, it is a monopoly in a vastly smaller market and is already subsidized to an extent by public money, in the form of a deal with the RAAF.It appears to be in QALs DNA to get any enhancement to their assets bottom line to be paid by the public, and they make no bones about it. This from a QAL question and answer release about the Goldie project: Who will pay for the project? Will Gold Coast Airport passengers pay more as a result? When Project LIFT is approved by the Australian Government and proceeds to construction, the project will be undertaken by GCAPL in its role as specialist operator. As with any major development, GCAPL as the proponent will seek to recover the costs of the development over its operational life. We will do this through revenue from commercial developments on the Airport as well as Airport charges. And, according to QAL boss Mills, this is the formula they want to apply to the vastly different case for Townsville. But allow The Magpie, no accountant he by any means, ask this: If we, as taxpayers, have already lent QAL the bulk of this money through the recently announced $50million NAIF low interest loan, why does the company think it is OK to charge US to pay back what WE have loaned THEM? As Dame Edna says, Spooky, eh, possums? Note That QAL Head Honcho Is Now On The Scene Maybe Gill Is Being Sidelined. But asking questions like this is going to have Kevin Rhymes With Gill wringing his hanky in knocked-kneed dismay. Last year, he had a public sniffle which was clearly heaping hot coals on the Magpies blameless head when he told BD Magazine: The toxic cycle of social media and those feeding off it are harming our city. Those types of people are just negative, theyre not representative of Townsville. They may look representative because its so easy and its anonymous, but we need to switch off to that. Reasonable complaints and feedback is fine, but this horrid stuff is too toxic to let in. Harming our city? Oh, Kevvy this self-serving tosh from a man who wont answer a straight question about the upgrade when faced with a list of queries n the ticket tax upgrade from former journo Doug Kingston, Gill wanted a closed door meeting to discuss them. Doug said no, he wanted the answers out in public. No meeting open or otherwise ever happened. But look, maybe The Pie should dial down the rhetoric a bit, he has been chastised by one reader for rushing to criticise Mr Gill. Perhaps a more conciliatory, philosophical approach is called for, so

A Footnote Interesting to note one of the NAIF board members is this bloke

Not surprising that Mr Rolfe is kindly disposed towards airports he is also a board member of NQ Airports, which owns Cairns and Mackay. Wonder why he has a soft spot for Townsville Airport, though, since the $55million Cairns airport upgrade currently underway will be fully funded by NQ Airports! And their PR people tell The Pie no ticket tax is even contemplated, let alone a NAIF loan. How do they do it? The Unicorn Rainbow Fart Of The Week. As we know, a mirage is an optical illusion of atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water caused by the refraction of light by heated air. Water? Illusion? Hot air? No description is more fitting for the unicorn rainbow fart of a 10 hectare lagoon for the Strand.

Even the artists impression in the Bulletin at the time was lifted from a Cairns project. Of all the things that this town needs to be realized, this shiny beads and blankets offering to the electorates natives was perhaps the most egregious. It seemed unlikely from the outset, and now seems to have been quietly dropped from Mayor Mullets regular mewlings. Perhaps this is why. The Pie understands that a prominent citizen (a genuine leading citizen, who employs many people and invests his own money in this town) decided to put an apartment in Mariners North on the market. But in the middle of last year, he withdrew it because the Strand lagoon proposal suddenly came out of nowhere. He figured such a scheme would add considerable value to the property if he sat tight for a while. However, when he made some further high level inquiries hes the sort of bloke who has this level of access and quickly learned that the proposal was largely bullshit, he promptly put the property back on the market and sold it a month later, about August last year. So keep this timeline in mind if Mayor Mullet or any of her pack of urgers tries to tell you that the lagoon project has been delayed/abandoned because of the January flood the lagoon was long gone from the drawing board before Jenny managed to create her own temporary lagoon and canal estates out of several usually dry suburbs. Then There Were Nine

Did you notice that Clr Murray Soars sounded a tad exasperated with the high-handed state governments jack-booting decision to plonk a five storey up-market flop-house for young people in the middle of Aikenvale.? Soars told the Bulletin he had delivered a letter from the mayor to the member for Brisbane who lives in Mundingburra Coralee ORort, objecting to the planned project. Neat move by the old Mullet, no dill she, because it makes it look like shes championing the locals but since she doesnt have a real say in a state matter, she chumship with Premier Alphabet will not be dented. A sorry Soars told the Astonisher: We [on Thursday] presented [Mundingburra MP] Coralee ORourke with a letter signed by the Mayor objecting to this structure in its format that theyre suggesting, he said. Essentially no councillor was advised of this program. We are a toothless tiger unfortunately, its just the way the Act is written. Not that Maurie gives much of a toss anyway, word is that he will bail before March next year, having done his bit as a desperate lasted minute inclusion drafted onto Team Mullet, when Jenny has been rebuffed by a number of other choices asked to plug the vacant team spot. But when you resign Maury, whatever you do, dont shed any tears, otherwise you will forever be get the nickname Weeping which would be most unfortunate, Mr Soars, if you get my drift. Communication Breakdown: A Conversation With The Council Regular Nest correspondent The Wulguru Wonder was indeed left wondering during the week, after trying to tease out an answer to the simplest of questions from the TCCs open and transparent media people. The WW was a bit confused by this TCC media release during the week. Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill has welcomed the announcement of $1.96 million in Federal funding for the Castle Hill Concept Plan as part of Townsville 2020 vision for our city. Id like to thank the Federal Government for their funding commitment for the Castle Hill Concept Plan, Cr Hill said. The Castle Hill Concept Plan includes a vivid-style light show installation, a caf at the summit, a zipline and a pedestrian connection to Walker Street. The Castle Hill project is a key part of the Townsville 2020 Master Plan and vision for our city, Cr Hill said. The Wulguru Wonder thought this a bit ambiguous; was the money was for the concept plan, or for the actual elements mentioned in the plan (ziplines, food trucks, a footpath to the top from CBD). He decided to make a polite inquiry of the council, and enjoyed this chat for his trouble.

laurel a If you think the Townsville Council sometimes acts like the Mafia, there is one big difference the council makes you an offer you cant understand. Speaking Of Which .. A most enlightening comment sent in today from Mark Harvey, a former pooh-bah in the councils water area. Mark wrote: The Water Supply (S&R) Act is the head of power for TCC to apply a water restriction. S41 details that the only time a restriction can be applied is: Urgent need (ie something broke); if the available water supply has fallen to such a level that unrestricted use is not in the best public interest (40% in RRD in the current policy); or if the restriction is an essential part of a comprehensive demand management strategy. This is why the 2015 restriction policy did away with the old permanent Level 1 restriction it was illegal. The intention at the time was that when restrictions were lifted we would go to Permanent Water Saving Measures simple non-mandatory ways of saving water: do not water during the heat of the day and you do not need to water more than 3 times per week. Following odds and evens is sensible if everyone waters on the same day you get a drop in water pressure, and it gives the system operators a low demand Monday during which major works are conducted. So now the dam is full and we have Water Conservation Measures which according to the Council resolution are interim until the 3 point plan is implemented. Apparently good practice has an end date! The resolution makes no reference to restrictions at all. The summary does however state that the measures allow watering over 3 days on odds and evens. It is reasonable to assume that they do not allow watering at other times, and therefore constitute a restriction. This is also supported by the language in the promotional material, which would lead the average resident to believe that these are in fact a restriction. By the wording of the resolution, I do not believe that this was intended to be a legitimate restriction under the Act. I am sure it could be legally argued however that the language makes it a restriction even if it is not badged as one, and it could therefore be alleged that it is an illegal restriction. Any legal opinion out there? Miracles Yet Remain To Cease

Craig Gore has returned to face trial on multiple fraud charges. Many folk, including The Magpie, were skeptical when last December Gore was refused to allow to leave the country one day and the next, had his passport returned by the very same judge, allowing him to skedaddle forthwith to the bosom of his tax-evading missus in Sweden. The deal was that he return after three months to face trial on charges of swindling $800,000 from self-managed fund investors in 2013-14. We all thought that was going to be the start of Skase Redux, with the taxpayer facing a hefty legal bill for extradition proceedings. But no, our man hopped off his return flight as scheduled, and he appeared in court on time last Wednesday., where the judge set a trial date of September 23, with a pre-trial hearing on May 24. But in the past, Gore has proven to be smarter than the average outhouse rodent, and may have productively used his time in Sweden to work out a family move to a non-extradition country and then wheedle his way into another conjugal visit before the trial starts. Gore is a grub of such ego that jail time certainly does not suit his lifestyle, and he certainly has plenty stashed away. Hence the cynicism. A Note On Climate Change The debate on climate change goes on, and gets more confusing every day.

Taken 2 months ago in the US.

Vax-uous Thinking There is a big court case involving anti-vaccination nutters in NSW coming up shortly. These thoughtless anti-social twerps need to be sorted out before there is a really serious incident, especially among very young children.

This Week In Trumpistan And many an editorial pen is noticing the number of Democrats coming out of the woodwork, eager to get the presidential nomination to take on Trump. (The Pies money, purely from a betting standpoint, is Elizabeth Pochahontas Warren). And much is made of one who wont be running.

Even A Stopped Clock Is Right Twice A Day.

In Britain, this rather horsey looking individual is a rather unpleasant woman named Katie Hopkins has been the Pommy rights gift to the leftish outrage industry. a darling of the tabloids, she outlandishes Pauline Hanson, that Burston bloke and the ninny Fraser Anning rolled into one. But, as occasionally happens, this sort of person makes a point with which it is hard to disagree. And thus it was a homily applicable to Australia when Ms Hopkins sent a message to the stupid British teenager who ran off to join ISIS, got pregnant and now wanted to return home to have her baby and live a quiet life not as quiet an existence as many of those she was complicit in killing. Unfortunately, the baby died shortly after birth this weekend, but the girl still wants to be allowed to go back to Britain, which may prove an impossible, and unmerited change of heart Hopkins blunt message, dripping with understandable venom, rings true for those Aussie mental deficients to traipsed off to fight for ISIS. We Learn Something New Every Day and sometimes wish we didnt. An occasional miscellany. The band Steely Dan was named after Steely Dan 111 from Yokohama, an over-sized, steam-powered, strap-on dildo mentioned in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch. But of course, you knew that. . As you can see, everything from weak jokes to serious and worthwhile comment keep coming in to be published in the blog comments throughout the week its your platform, join in. And as always, a donation to support the Magpies Nest is always appreciated and always needed. The how to donate button is below. http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/double-dipping-to-an-art-form-are-townsville-airport-owners-qal-asking-us-to-pay-twice-for-their-airport-upgrade/

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wombatportrait · 8 years

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I am mad they blocked this story and only let subscribers see it. But I busted through that wall. (It is a metaphor!) I copied it for you.

Liebe Grüße,

Donna

Painstaking: Alison Douglas at work. Pictures: Justine Walpole

It is an often overlooked but proven scientific fact that wombats have feelings too. Evolution did not, however, provide the humble wombat with the anatomical means to verbally express its feelings, or a natural place in which to do so. No coastal Buddhist wombat retreat, for example, where these quadrupedal marsupials might form trust circles to emotionally release themselves from the burden of playing second fiddle to the self-satisfied koala, or ponder the viciousness of the sociopathic dingo, or truly convey the overwhelming anxiety that sometimes makes a wombat just want to dig a hole in the ground and crawl deep inside. Stop the world, I want to waddle off.

Late November, 2016: Queensland Museum taxidermist and senior preparator Alison Douglas slips on a pair of surgical gloves as she pads through a basement room past a stack of arcing whale rib bones the size of two-person tent frames. She passes a large steel macerating tank where a long-deceased marine turtle is being boiled and stripped of gunk and grit before it’s transferred to a taxidermist’s table. She passes a freezer room filled with tagged specimens: “Echidnas”, “Prep birds”, “Possum”. Each animal’s tag contains details of where and when it was found. “You can have the most beautiful specimen in the world but if it doesn’t have its location and date then it’s useless to science,” Douglas says. Science needs the animal’s story.

She comes to a back room with a word fixed to its entry: “Skinning”. A stuffed ringtail possum sits on a perch in the corner of the room. A corkboard on the wall features detailed colour portraits of animals, and Post-it note messages between colleagues: “Cat skull for Caroline.” The room is lined with drawers with various tags speaking of their contents: “Red eyes”, “Yellow eyes”, “Paired brown eyes”. Drawers full of taxidermy patching fur. Another marked “Skins, Bones and Bits”.

There’s a dead animal beneath a sheet on Douglas’s stainless steel workbench. She removes the sheet slowly. It’s a common wombat. Brown fur, lumpy body, curled in a ball like it’s sleeping. “Here he is,” she says. “Tonka.”

She stands back and looks at that face. The bare nose. The serene eyes. The odd tenderness that emanates from the little guy, somehow soulful even in death. “He’s got such a beautiful face,” she says. “He looks like someone, doesn’t he?”

He does. Someone old and wise; someone you might have cared about. Someone with feelings.

“He just looks so peaceful,” she says. She takes a deep breath, feels the weight of the task before her. “Tonka’s not so important scientifically,” she says. “But he’s very important to people.”

Tonka the wombat had any number of reasons to feel sad throughout his short life. After his mum was killed by a car eight years ago, Tonka was rescued from her pouch and hand-reared by humans at Billabong Sanctuary, a native animal wildlife park near Townsville, north Queensland. Lacking the necessary smarts for the wild, Tonka was destined for a lifetime in captivity. But if he longed for life beyond the park enclosure he rarely let it show, rejoicing in the constant companionship of a loving team of rangers with whom he cuddled, played, walked, ate, napped. Some nights staff members would take him home to meet their families, prop him up on the living room couch with mum, dad and the kids, and settle in for another episode of The Block. Before long, Tonka the wombat became the park’s star attraction, dazzling groups at the morning and afternoon wombat shows with his charm and insatiable zest for life. Where some marsupials recoiled from the hugs of tourists, Tonka seemed to grow in spirit and confidence with every warm embrace. Male wombats wanted to be him, female wombats wanted to be with him.

Then, in early February 2011, Category 5 Cyclone Yasi tore through Billabong Sanctuary, smashing enclosures, destroying displays, uprooting trees. Miraculously no animals perished, but the park was closed for 10 weeks as an army of rangers and volunteers worked on the clear-up.

Tonka the wombat went off his food. No matter what the rangers placed in front of him, even his beloved carrots and sweet potato, he wouldn’t eat it. He dropped 20 per cent of his body weight in a matter of weeks. Just as alarmingly, he had suddenly retreated into himself. The wildly charismatic Austin Powers of the marsupial world inexplicably lost his mojo. It was as if Cyclone Yasi had blown away into oblivion and taken Tonka’s spark with it.

Park management consulted the best veterinary minds money could buy. They did blood tests, looked for internal damage, tested for disease and infection, checked his body for broken bones or bruising. Physically, there was nothing. So how to explain the reduced interest in once pleasurable activities, the loss of energy and slowed behaviour, the increased desire to sleep and the loss of appetite? The vets had nothing to offer, except to say bare-nosed wombats have feelings too. Tonka the wombat, it seemed, was living with clinical depression.

“He’s a bit chunky,” Douglas says, studying her subject on the metal workbench. “He’ll take a bit to thaw. He needs to be thawed out before we remove the skin. There’s no getting around that with taxidermy. You do have to skin the animal. It’s quite confronting – there’s blood and there’s guts and it’s kind of like a butcher’s shop in a way, especially with an animal of Tonka’s size.”

Douglas has worked as a taxidermist at Queensland Museum for 16 years, moving into it from a background in visual arts and props and puppet-making for theatre. “My interest is not in taxidermy as such; it’s very much museum taxidermy, for the purpose of conservation. It’s about teaching people about the animals. It is sometimes the only way of seeing these animals that you would otherwise never get up close to.”

A rustic leather case of medical tools is open on her workbench: scalpels, rat’s tooth tweezers for removing flesh from hard-to-reach places, pliers and scissors and wire cutters and fine metal scoops designed specifically for scooping the brains out of birds’ skulls. She has a selection of drill bits for working on the bones of larger animals and fixing specimens to wooden perches.

She studies Tonka on the bench. She will draw some sketches before she skins, capture the curve of his muscles, the sag of his body fat. “You’re trying to recreate the body shape that comes out of the animal,” she says. “You’re taking the skin off like a glove. The whole body comes out in one piece.” She moves closer to Tonka’s face. “There is something important about seeing him at this point,” she says. “I’m trying to preserve that face as much as possible.”

It was this face that was plastered under headlines around the world. “Wombat Diagnosed with Depression” wrote the Daily Mail. “Depressed Orphan Wombat” declared The Huffington Post. “Wombat Diagnosed with Clinical Depression” reported the Daily Mirror.

It seemed so absurd, a clinically depressed wombat. While scientists considered whether it was even possible, animal lovers across the social media world sent deep, life-affirming messages to the inexplicably gloomy bare-nosed wombat in Townsville, Queensland.“Focus on the little things, Tonka.”“Just keep waddling, Tonka, one paw at a time.”“Stars can’t shine without darkness, Tonka.”

“One hundred per cent, he had depression,” says Samm Sherman, a 27-year-old PhD candidate at James Cook University’s College of Science and Engineering, and the former Billabong Sanctuary wildlife carer who was closer to Tonka than anyone. Sherman documented her close friendship with Tonka through a series of Instagram images tagged “#bestfriendisawombat”.

“That wasn’t a joke,” she says. “It truly wasn’t a joke. He was my best friend. You can ask the people I worked with. They saw it. I loved him immediately when I saw him. He was just so special. I would take him for walks. I’d give him cuddles, a little chin scratch. I mean, I know we didn’t hang out all the time and it’s not like we’d go to the movies or anything, I’m not delusional, but if I was ever frustrated or stressed or anything I could go to him and give him a cuddle and I’d feel better. And… ummm… yeah.”

She pauses for a moment. “I miss him,” she says. She pauses for another moment. “Thanks for making me cry at work.”

Tina Janssen has spent the past decade running Safe Haven, a wombat research and rehabilitation centre in Mt Larcom, near Rockhampton. She was one of many experts Billabong Sanctuary consulted during Tonka’s downturn. “Yes, I think they can feel sadness,” she says. “Wombats are a very funny animal. They sulk. They don’t like change. That’s one of the big things with wombats. If you feed them, for example, at a certain time every day and then, all of a sudden, you change that, they will quite likely not eat.

“They’re really intelligent. People say, ‘Stubborn as a mule’ and I always say, ‘Well, you’ve never met a wombat’. They just dig in. And they get attachments. I have a captive-born wombat that I’ve cared for for 12 years and just recently I went away and for three nights she didn’t eat. If they have a square water bowl then you better bloody give them water in the square water bowl.”

Cyclone Yasi brought great change to Billabong Sanctuary. With the park’s rangers focused on the clean-up effort, Tonka’s daily routine was torn asunder. With no visitors for 10 weeks, he was denied his morning and afternoon wombat shows, something akin to Olivier being asked to wait forever in the wings at the Old Vic.

“He loved those shows,” Sherman says. “I would see him before the shows some days. He would be waiting at his gate, like, ‘Come on, let’s go people’.” The born entertainer. Tonka came alive before a gig. “He loved the cuddles from people. He needed the cuddles. I think it stemmed from not having a mum. But when the park was closed for a couple of months while they fixed everything up, there was no time for him to be cuddled.”

By the time the park was ready for its grand reopening, Tonka was considered too physically and emotionally fragile to resume the shows, and another wombat took his place. “When he saw the people, he walked up to the fence like [he was asking] ‘Why aren’t you picking me up for the show?’” Sherman says. “So one of the rangers took him out to meet people again. And, then, after his first cuddles he went back into his enclosure and started eating again. It genuinely was because he wasn’t getting his cuddles from people that he wasn’t eating.” Billabong Sanctuary’s star attraction was back, and so was Tonka’s self-esteem.

Valentine’s Day. Alison Douglas walks into her museum basement work room, past two cast and painted pythons and a taxidermy deer that’s been donated to the museum by a member of the public. She enters the skinning room, where Tonka waits on her workbench. He looks playful. She’s captured him at a typically spirited moment, tugging on the shoelace of a Billabong Sanctuary ranger. “He came together all right in the end,” Douglas says. “I wanted to show that he wasn’t just any wombat, he meant something more to people. I was trying to get that sense of fun and connection he had to anyone who came along.”

She worked on him over summer. His skin was put in a tanning solution for three weeks and washed. She cast his ears and the shape of his back. She cast his skull and rebuilt it with expanding foam, and gave him glass black eyes. The insides of his body and legs were painstakingly crafted from natural plant fibres and bound tightly with string. “He was quite a challenge because during his treatment [after death] he had patches of fur removed, which limited the choices of positions he could be in,” she says. “The patching wasn’t as straightforward as it usually would be because there wasn’t much to work with, but I’m happy with him.” Her time with Tonka has ended. Time to take him upstairs where others can enjoy his company. Time to say goodbye.

Samm Sherman remembers when she said goodbye to Tonka. It was June last year, and Tonka had been diagnosed with kidney failure. “I’m gonna tear up again,” she says, taking a breath. “I wasn’t working there anymore by then but I still visited quite often... And the last couple of days, when it seemed like he was really having a hard time of it, we’d go and he wasn’t really eating much but he ate a pear. He didn’t stand up for a bit but he ate this pear lying down. He didn’t usually eat pears but it was because it was soft and full of fluid. And then they told us they were going to take him to the vet to euthanise him.”

She pauses again. “That was the right call because there was nothing they could do,” she says. “He had irreversible kidney damage and his quality of life was really poor. He seemed really unhappy. A bunch of us went in and gave him some cuddles. And we said our goodbyes.”

She showered Tonka with nose kisses. She scratched him on the spot on his back where he loved being scratched and he curled up in her arms. She didn’t know what he was thinking but she had an idea of what he was feeling because she felt it too. “And I told him I loved him,” she says.

Sherman went home and waited for the world to hear the news of Tonka the wombat’s passing. She watched the hundreds of condolence messages land in Billabong Sanctuary’s Facebook page, messages from across the world.

Jill Halliday: “I didn’t even know what a wombat was before I cuddled the lovely Tonka. I know how sad we feel from meeting him once so it must be awful for everyone at Billabong Sanctuary.”

Linda Chillon: “I hope that you’ll find peace and happiness wherever you are.”

Crystal Allen: “Oh no, poor Tonka. My two youngest boys come to visit each school holidays and knew his story off by heart.”

Kerrianne Chappell: “Noooo! I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it!”

In the museum basement taxidermy room, Alison Douglas throws a half-smile at this perfect and still version of Tonka. Soon the great performer will be back where he belongs, in front of crowds of fawning strangers. Douglas is relieved. She wanted to do him justice. She hopes people see the same thing she sees when she looks at him now, something she was trying to capture, something beyond science, something more closely related to feelings.

“He was loved,” she says. “And they loved him because they knew him.”

Tonka and Alison Douglas will be part of the Let’s Talk Taxidermy event on March 24-25 at the World Science Festival in Brisbane. worldsciencefestival.com.au

#wombat #tonka #taxidermy

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thefatburningfoods · 7 years

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kettlebellathletic-blog · 6 years

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#townsville gyms #Personal Trainer Townsville #StrongFirst Instructor Queensland #Weight loss Townsville

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drmarkvucak · 2 years

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The body is a work of art : Dr Mark Vucak

Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr Mark Vucak specializes in abdominoplastic surgery. He repairs damaged arm, breast, and thighs caused by loose skin and other post-weight reduction concerns. He also does face rejuvenation procedures and breast enhancements.

Dr Mark Vucak earned his medical degree from the University of Western Australia. He became a board-certified surgeon after completing the necessary training. He undertook his surgical residency training at the Royal Perth Hospital.

After completing his plastic surgery specialization, Dr Vucak has gone on to specialise in abdominoplasty surgery as well as arm, breast, and thigh lifts to treat loose skin following weight loss.

In contrast to other fields of medicine, Dr Mark Vucak loves the broad spectrum of surgery that being a plastic surgeon enables. Plastic surgeons work on all regions of the body, from the legs to the heart, using improved procedures, reconstructive flaps, and microsurgery. Years of experience in the profession have helped him shift his focus to the patient, taking the time to get to gain a thorough understanding of his patients.

Dr Mark Vucak’s broad expertise contributes significantly to his success. As he’s gotten more knowledge and confidence in surgical techniques, he’s become more focused on his patients, watching how their lives alter as a result of their treatment.

Dr Mark Vucak has conducted thousands of breast reductions, tummy tucks, and other surgeries, as well as more than 10,000 breast augmentations throughout his career as a very successful surgeon. He not only does plastic procedures, but he also teaches surgical trainees and interns at James Cook University.

For more information visit these sites:

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lovingwonderlanddetective-blog1 · 7 years

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Townsville business destroyed by fire OWNERS of a North Ward weight loss studio will be sifting through the ashes of their business today to see if they can recover anything following a destructive fire.

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sweetlifetownsville · 6 years

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The day Damien wanted to take his own life, a mate showed up to take him fishing

By Michael Rennie Updated September 23, 2018 14:55:38

Photo: Damien Irish was medically discharged from Defence. (ABC News: Michael Rennie) If it wasn't for a mate showing up to take him fishing, former Australian soldier Damien Irish might not be here. Key points:Mr Irish suffered PTSD after serving in East Timor and was addicted to weight-loss drugsHe is competing at the Invictus Games A PTSD medical expert says the Games can have a "very powerful" affect on veterans The 42-year-old veteran was medically discharged from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for being overweight in 2009, and has suffered from anxiety and depression. If you or anyone you know needs help: He also had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from serving in East Timor and became addicted to a weight loss drug. "It was a very disappointing way to leave the Defence Force I'd loved for 12 years," Irish said. "A lot of anger issues that I couldn't control and mainly my family sort of copped most of it, which sort of spiralled out of control. "It took my wife to kick me out of the house and I sort of woke up to myself. "I wanted to take my own life the morning I almost committed suicide, if it wasn't for my mate turning up to go fishing, it would have been all over."

Photo: Preparing for the games has helped Damien Irish win the battle against his addiction. (ABC News: Michael Rennie) Irish is one of the athletes competing in this year's Australian Invictus Games, to be held in Sydney. Over the weekend, the track and field athletes have been taking part in a training camp in Townsville in north Queensland. Irish said preparing for the games had helped him work through his addiction. "It's massive, just being around people, a lot of them have gone through the same struggles that I have, and have the same symptoms, but still that military bond is so much there and after eight years of being out, it's like we're all back in the military again," he said. "You'll always have a bond it doesn't matter when you served or who you served with there's always a bond there." Fellow veteran and athletics captain Brigid Baker also struggled to adapt to civilian life.

Photo: Brigid Baker served with the Australian Defence Force between 2002 and 2017. (ABC News: Michael Rennie) The mother of two worked as a medic and intelligence officer between 2002 and 2017 and served in Afghanistan. It was not until late last year that she was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression. She said transitioning to life outside the ADF was tough. "[In Defence] you become so engrained in your routines and your structures and you're comfortable in the way things occur around you," she said. "I became very frustrated with the fact that I was very regimented, everything had timings, everything was planned, and it's a little more free-flowing in the civilian world." Both Baker and Irish will compete in shotput, discus and power lifting.

Photo: Brigid said working toward the games helped her transition back into civilian life. (ABC News: Tom Lowrey) Invictus Games 'powerful' in fight against PTSD David Forbes, an international expert in PTSD, agreed the Invictus Games could be "very powerful". "I think they can give participants and those that are involved in any way a strong sense of agency and control, where they can go beyond being a prisoner of their physical or mental condition, or both," Professor Forbes said.

Photo: Professor David Forbes agrees the Invictus Games could be "very powerful". (ABC News) "It's often the social isolation that can be the most emotionally painful part of the condition [PTSD], where you feel so cut off from other people. "So the games also make an effort to bring people together and get that shared sense of experience. "What's really important is that there's support afterwards and those gains that are made are sustained and that it's not just a wonderful event, you feel very connected and then suddenly you feel very alone again." The Invictus Games is an international adaptive multi-sport competition for serving and former serving military personnel who have been wounded, injured or become ill during their military service. Invictus Games 2018 starts in Sydney next month and will attract competitors from 18 nations who will compete in 11 adaptive sports events. Topics:defence-forces,sport,people,human-interest,veterans,disabilities,mental-health,stress,health,sydney-2000,brisbane-4000,townsville-4810,qld,nsw First posted September 23, 2018 08:10:11 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-23/invictus-games-helping-aussie-veterans-overcome-inner-demons/10267472

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