Posts tagged with "Australia"

Above, U.S. President Joe Biden planned a joint announcement with the leaders of Australia and Britain on Monday. (Photo source: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Biden to announce landmark nuclear-powered submarine deal with Australia and Britain

March 14, 2023

On Monday, March 13, President Joe Biden reportedly planned to announce a landmark agreement with the leaders of Britain and Australia to develop fleets of nuclear-powered attack submarines that the three nations would use to strengthen their naval forces across the Asia-Pacific region as China bolsters its own navy, according to The New York Times.

The purchase and training agreements on the submarines amount to the first concrete steps taken by the three English-speaking nations to deepen the ambitious strategic partnership called AUKUS that they announced 18 months ago.

The military deal, centered on Australia first buying the attack submarines from the United States and then from Britain, before making its own, marks the first time that the United States is sharing the nuclear technology for such vessels in 65 years.

The move is a sign of the degree to which Biden and his aides are investing in strategic military planning with allies and partners to counter China’s growing capabilities and to prepare for a potential armed crisis over Taiwan, the democratic island with de facto independence that Chinese leaders claim is their territory.

Biden and the other two leaders, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain, were scheduled to visit a U.S. naval base at Point Loma in San Diego to make the announcement on Monday afternoon.

The plan involves the three nations expanding—or, in the case of Australia, starting from scratch building—their industrial production capacity for nuclear-powered submarines; and sharing technology and training with each other, a process that will present many operational challenges.

The arming of Australia with nuclear-powered submarines is part of a broadening by the Biden Administration of the U.S. military’s presence in the Pacific. In recent months, Biden and his aides have announced they will help Japan build up its military after decades of a pacifist stance by Tokyo, and that they will deploy American troops and equipment at more non-U.S. military bases in the Philippines.

The Biden Administration has also worked to strengthen cooperation among the nations in the Quad, a nonmilitary partnership that includes the United States, India, Japan, and Australia —all nations that are increasingly anxious about China’s expansive territorial claims and strategic intentions in Asia.

Chinese officials say the United States is trying to encircle China by working with allies and partners to constrain its rise. In a rare explicit remark on this, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said last week during an annual political meeting in Beijing that the United States was leading Western countries to engage in “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China,” the Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, reported.

Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said last Thursday at a news conference in Beijing that the agreement on the submarines “constitutes serious nuclear proliferation risks, undermines the international nonproliferation system, exacerbates arms race, and hurts peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”

Australia will first buy three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the United States—with the option to add two more—that would be delivered starting in 2032. American ship builders and weapons makers are already producing those submarines for the United States on a tight schedule.

Australia is then expected to buy a new class of nuclear-powered submarines to be manufactured by Britain. Those vessels would use some technology from the American Virginia-class submarines. All the while, Australian officials, executives and engineers will be learning about the construction process from American and British counterparts, with the aim of making their own such vessels for delivery to their navy in the 2040s.

As part of the agreement, the United States and Britain will rotate nuclear-powered submarines into port in Perth, Australia, by 2027. The rotations will give Australian naval commanders and sailors a chance to train on the submarines.

Research contact: @nytimes

Above, Twitter Blue. (Photo source: Twitter)

Introducing Twitter Blue, which comes with more bells and whistles—and a subscription price

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July 14, 2021

Twitter is rolling out its first-ever subscription product this week in Australia and Canada, the social media site has announced on its blog.

“We’ve heard from the people that use Twitter a lot, and we mean a lot, that we don’t always build power features that meet their needs. Well, that’s about to change,” the blog states, adding, “We took this feedback to heart, and are developing and iterating upon a solution that will give the people who use Twitter the most what they are looking for: access to exclusive features and perks that will take their experience on Twitter to the next level.”

And for those wondering, no, a free Twitter is not going away, and never will. This subscription offering is simply meant to add enhanced and complementary features to the already existing Twitter experience for those who want it.

Those who sign up for a Twitter Blue subscription will get a set of features and perks that include the following:

Bookmark Folders:Want an easy way to better organize your saved content? Bookmark Folders let you organize the Tweets you’ve saved by letting you manage content so when you need it, you can find it easily and efficiently.
Reader Mode:Reader Mode provides a more beautiful reading experience by getting rid of the noise. Twitter is making it easier for you to keep up with long threads on Twitter by turning them into easy-to-read text so you can read all the latest content seamlessly.
Perks: Subscribers will get access to perks, such as customizable app icons for their device’s home screen and fun color themes for their Twitter app; andwill have access to dedicated subscription customer support.

The current monthly price in Canada and Australia, respectively, is CAD $3.49 or AUD $4.49 (or about $2.75 in U.S. dollars).

Research contact: @Twitter

Above, poor Baarack could barely see. (Photo source: Edgar's Mission Farm Sanctuary)

Baarack, a sheep found in the wild, loses 78 pounds of fleece in a much-needed shearing

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Febraury 26, 2021

The pandemic lockdown has been hard on many of us, who have not been able to get a professional haircut in 12 months or more. Bu just imagine the relief—and the “shear” joy—of one plucky sheep who recently got his first trim in what could have been many, many years.

The wild and struggling animal was found in a forest in Australia with a fleece that was so overgrown he could barely see, reports Sky News. When it was fully remove, his fleece weighed more than 78 pounds—or about half his body weight.

The sheep, which has been named Baarack, was found by a member of the public who contacted the Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary near

Lancefield, Victoria, about 37 miles north of Melbourne.

Above, Baarack actually was quite thin underneath all of that fleece. (Photo source: Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary)

“It would appear Baarack was once an owned sheep,” said the Mission’s Kyle Behrend.”He had at one time been ear-tagged, however these appear to have been torn out by the thick matted fleece around his face.

“Sheep need to be shorn at least annually otherwise the fleece continues to grow and grow, as happened here,” said Behrend,

adding, “Whilst [Baarack’s] hooves were in great condition from running over the rocks in the forest, he was in a bit of a bad way. He was underweight, and due to all of the wool around his face he could barely see.”

Baarack is now settling in with other rescued sheep at Edgar’s Mission.

Behrend told Sky News, “It all goes to show what incredibly resilient and brave animals sheep really are and we could not love them any more if we tried.”

Research contact: @SkyNews

Above, Arnold and Frank. (Photo source: #brothers/Instagram)

Meet Frank, a pup’s emotional support dog

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October 19, 2020

It turns out that humans are not the only creatures who need emotional support animals (ESAs) or specially trained therapy dogs: Just as sighted dogs step up to help their blind canine friends; so, too, can high-spirited confident pooches give timid dogs a sense of equanimity and aplomb.

According to a report by Goodnet, Arnold—a two-year-old Weimaraner who lives in Perth, Australia, with his owner Carolyn Manalis—was mauled by a German Shepherd when he was just a pup. Although Arnold already was a bit insecure, after the incident with the German Shepherd, he started suffering from separation anxiety and was afraid of large dogs.

Worried pet parent Manalis then met Frank, a miniature dachshund who was up for adoption, according to Tanks Good News. Despite his tiny stature—he weighed 66 fewer pounds than Arnold—Manalis recognized Frank’s upbeat, confident nature right away. She decided that Arnold needed an emotional support animal—and Frank was the ideal candidate for the job.

In an interview with Metro, Manalis described how the dogs reacted when they met: “It was love at first sight! Frank gave Arnold the confidence boost he so needed. “Frank has helped Arnold regain his confidence to be able to play and wrestle, whilst learning that this doesn’t always mean he’s going to get hurt or attacked. Having a little friend to play with has been the perfect therapy for Arnold to heal,” she said.

“Everywhere Arnold walks, Frank will follow. The bond these two dogs have is just insanely beautiful.”

Arnold is convinced he is Frank’s big brother, or maybe his dad. Just like older siblings show the younger ones the ways of the world, Arnold has taught Frank house training etiquette, barking-at-strangers decorum, and even safety rules, such as how to remain still at a road crossing.

Manalis told Metro, “We swear Frank thinks Arnold is his Dad. Being the second child, he definitely didn’t get as much training and attention as the first. Most of what he has learnt, he has learnt from Arnold. Frank copies everything Arnold does, to the point where if Arnold barks or makes a sound, Frank will mimic it directly after, almost like a parrot!”

This is one beautiful reciprocal relationship and it demonstrates how beneficial having more than one dog can be. According toDogs Health, dogs were once pack animals. Since they used to live in the wild in large family groups, they are social and enjoy companionship. And, as Arnold and Frank have shown, two heads may be better than one, but two tails are simply adorable!

Research contact: @goodnet

Photo source: White Shark Diving Company

‘Meat and greet’: White sharks meet up with ‘pals’ regularly for dinner parties

November 5, 2019

Ever since the release of the movie, Jaws, in 1975, great white sharks have become a cultural icon—representing vicious, scary manhunters. But at the end of the day, they just want to get together with some friends and socialize like the rest of us, according to results of research recently conducted in Australia.

In fact, Study Finds reports, although they hunt and travel alone, white sharks get together a few times each year with the same group of friends for a hearty meal of baby seals.

Scientists have known for some time that large groups of white sharks feast together on prey sporadically, but up until now they had assumed these dinner parties were a completely random result of individual sharks traveling to areas filled with food.

Now, a research team led by behavioral ecologist Stephan Leu of Macquarie University in Sydney has discovered that many of these sharks actually know each other and have been getting together for years.

Working in collaboration with researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide, the Fox Shark Research Foundation in Port Lincoln, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, France; Leu and his team took photographs of nearly 300 white sharks for four and a half years, according to Study Finds.. The sharks were photographed meeting close to a seal nursery off the coast of the Neptune Islands in the Great Australian Bight.

Through the use of photo identification and network analysis technology, researchers were able to identify and keep track of each individual shark that visited the area. To their surprise, they noted that many of the same sharks were observed in close proximity to each other time and time again over the course of the observation period. So much so, that researchers say there is no way it was simply a coincidence.

“Rather than just being around randomly, the sharks formed four distinct communities, which showed that some sharks were more likely to use the site simultaneously than expected by chance,” Dr Leu comments in a release.

“The numbers varied across time, and we suggest that sex-dependent patterns of visitation at the Neptune Islands drive the observed community structure. Our findings show that white sharks don’t gather just by chance, but more research is needed to find out why.”

On a related note, it seems sharks aren’t the only aquatic animals with a penchant for get-togethers; another recent study conducted at Macquarie University found that manta rays regularly form close-knit and structured relationships that could also be described as communities.

The study findings have been published in the journal, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Research contact: @StudyFinds

Photo source: Telegraph UK

‘Sensational’ study: Coffee’s bitter taste gives drinkers a ‘buzz’

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November 19, 2018

While the aroma of coffee is enticing and pleasurable, most people find the taste to be bitter. However, a study published in Scientific Reports this month—and covered in a report by NPR—has found that, the more sensitive you are to the bitter taste of coffee, the more of it you tend to drink.

A team of researchers from the Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States conducted the investigation using data stored in the UK Biobank, a major global health resource established over a decade ago by the Wellcome Trust medical charity, Medical Research Council, Department of Health, and the Scottish Government—and supported by the National Health Service..

More than 500,000 residents of England , Scotland, and Wales between the ages of 37 and 73 contributed blood, urine, and saliva samples to the Biobank between 2006 and 2010—and agreed to have their health status tracked, in order to determine which diseases and health conditions they would develop during the remainder of their lives.

The same volunteers also filled out questionnaires asking a variety of health-related questions—including how much coffee, tea, and alcohol they drank on a daily basis.

Since most of us inherit our taste preferences from our parents, the researchers used genetic analysis of samples from the Biobank to find people who were more or less sensitive to three bitter substances: caffeine, quinine (think tonic water) and a chemical called propylthiouracil that is frequently used in genetic tests of people’s ability to taste bitter compounds.

The objective was to determine whether people sensitive to one or more of these three substances drank more or less coffee than other drinkers. Surprising, NPR reports, people who exhibited greater sensitivity to caffeine reported higher coffee consumption, compared with people who did not strongly perceive the bitter taste. Strangely enough, the researchers said, “opposite relationships were observed for tea consumption.”

Conversely, those who were sensitive to quinine and propylthiouracil—neither of which is in coffee—tended to drink less coffee on a daily basis. For alcohol, a higher perceived intensity of propylthiouracil (bitterness) was associated with lower overall consumption.

How to explain these results? NPR reports that Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of Preventative Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and one of the study authors, says people may “learn to associate that bitter taste with the stimulation that coffee can provide.” In other words, they get hooked on the buzz.

And it turns out those who drink two or three cups a day just might live longer, too.

Research contact: @joesbigidea

San Forgetica is a font that helps you to recall the content you just read. (Photo source: RMIT University)

Font of wisdom: A new typeface called ‘Sans Forgetica’ boosts memory

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October 5, 2018

Does your memory serve you well? If so, then you probably have what it takes to succeed in school and in many business specialties—where retaining facts, rules, and ideas is an essential skill. However, if you need a GPS to get down memory lane, then you just might be interested in the latest research findings out of Australia.

At Melbourne-based RMIT University , academics from different disciplines announced on October 3 that they have collaborated on the development, and testing of a text font called Sans Forgetica that is scientifically designed to help readers remember their study notes.

About 400 RMIT students recently participated in a study of fonts that found a small increase in the amount of material they retained, depending upon how it appeared on the page—57% of text written in Sans Forgetica compared with 50% in a plain Arial.

Stephen Banham, an RMIT lecturer in Typography, said in a university release, “It was great working on a project that combined research from typography and Psychology; as well as the experts from the university‘s Behavioural Business Lab.

“This cross pollination of thinking has led to the creation of a new font that is fundamentally different from all other font. It is also a clear application of theory into practice, something we strive for at RMIT,” he said.

The new font slants to the left and has gaps in each letter—creating a level of difficulty that jogs the memory. Indeed, the font was developed using a learning principle called ‘desirable difficulty’, in which an obstruction is added to the learning process that requires readers to put in just enough effort, leading to better memory retention to promote deeper cognitive processing.

Senior Marketing Lecturer (Experimental Methods and Design Thinking) and founding member of the RMIT Behavioural Business Lab Dr. Janneke Blijlevens said typical fonts were very familiar.

“Readers often glance over them and no memory trace is created,” she noted.

However, if a font is too different, the brain can’t process it and the information is not retained.

“Sans Forgetica lies at a sweet spot where just enough obstruction has been added to create that memory retention.”

She notes that Sans Forgetica has varying degrees of ‘distinctiveness’ built in that subvert many of the design principles normally associated with conventional typography.

These degrees of distinctiveness cause readers to dwell longer on each word, giving the brain more time to engage in deeper cognitive processing, to enhance information retention.

Banham, who has created about 20 fonts, told the Guardian that the typeface would be best used for short texts.

“God no, you wouldn’t want novels printed in it, it would probably induce a headache,” he said.

The font took about six months to develop and there were three different versions tested.

Now, the university said, Sans Forgetica is available free to download as a font and Chrome browser extension at sansforgetica.rmit.

Research contact: stephen.banham@rmit.edu.au