Interesting Little Facts … Scientific and others

(you cannot board a plane without documentation, therefore these ppl are here on visa's and overstay their visa. COMPLETELY different they are still deported  asap)

But the other 10 percent take the perilous journey from Indonesia in dangerous, unseaworthy boats which frequently sink on the way. What does Australia do with these boat arrivals, some of the most vulnerable people in the world?
Mandatory, indefinite detention (i.e. prison).

The UN calls Australia’s treatment of refugees “cruel, inhuman and degrading.” At Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre, pregnant women reported constant bullying, including being forced to stand for hours in the heat and being underfed to the point of constant hunger. A woman whose newborn child is in hospital has been sent back to her detention center rather than being allowed to stay with the child. The father, also in detention, has not been allowed to visit the child at all. Remember that these people have not broken any laws.

Perhaps the saddest story of the Australian immigration system is that of Cornelia Rau. Cornelia was found on the street in a delusional state, muttering in German. Immigration officials, assuming she was a German who had overstayed her visa, locked her up in Brisbane Women’s Prison.

In 1880, many different fences had been built by individual farmers, which offered a sort of patchwork protection. In 1946, Australia passed legislation that brought all the fences together into one enormous barricade. New fences were built and old ones joined together to stretch across all of Southern Australia including New South Wales and Queensland.

But without all those dingoes around, kangaroos have proliferated to the extent that culling is often called for. Kangaroo meat is very low in fat and has a rich, gamey flavor. It gets very tough when overcooked, but with a little care, it’s a delicious meat.

But until recently, most Australians wouldn’t touch the stuff. One reason is the much-talked about “cultural cringe”—the prejudice held by Australians that Australian culture is intrinsically inferior to others, particularly European. Australian music, art, and cuisine were held in low regard. Fortunately this is beginning to change.

The other, stranger reason is a kids’ TV show called Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, which was incredibly popular. Skippy would make little kangaroo sounds, and the other characters would reply “What’s that, Skippy? Someone’s in trouble?” So many people have an emotional connection now that it makes eating kangaroo difficult for them. It’d be like eating Lassie or Air Bud.

However, with the increase in environmental awareness, kangaroo meat is gaining local appeal. Unlike cows, kangaroos don’t have hooves which churn up the ground, destroying the topsoil, and they consume far, far less water, which is important in a drought-ridden country like Australia. They also don’t produce anything like the amount of methane that cows do, so their impact on global warming is smaller.

Kangaroo meat has gone from being only fit for dog food, to being haute cuisine. Now most upmarket restaurants will have at least one kangaroo dish on the menu, while kangaroo sausages are commonplace at barbecues.

In Australia, the law takes the former stance: Euthanasia is a crime. Australia does not have a bill of rights, so although freedom of speech is a guiding legal principal, it is not actually enshrined. This has made it difficult for the country to even have a public conversation about euthanasia.

A pro-euthanasia group in Australia was going to air a TV ad using an actor to express the difficulties of terminal illness, including the quote: “I didn’t choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades.” The ad was blocked by the censors, who felt that it promoted suicide. Of course, promoting assisted suicide for the terminally ill who desired it was the entire point of the ad, so that would make it sort of difficult to satisfy the regulatory agency.

Australia has strong laws against assisting anyone with suicide or giving them advice on the matter; despite this, polls have shown that most Australians are on the side of those who wish to voluntarily end their suffering. In the 1990s, the Northern Territory of Australia legalized euthanasia, but it was overturned by a bill passed at the federal level.

The second fleet of soldiers, known as the New South Wales Corps, was now basically completely in control of the new colony, and began abusing their power. Rum became the main currency and was used to pay prisoners for menial labor. By keeping a tight hold on the rum trade, the newly nicknamed Rum Corps had control over swaths of land, supplies, and labor.

Eventually England had enough of this nonsense and sent Admiral William Bligh to destroy the power of the Rum Corps and its leader John Macarthur. Admiral Bligh had dealt with a mutiny aboard his ship the HMS Bounty only 15 years prior, but was still not quite ready for further traitorous behavior. The Rum Corps refused to go down easy, and after putting up with interference for a couple years, they staged a takeover. Bligh was found cowering under his bed and imprisoned.

When the boots landed on American shores, a company named Decker decided to copyright them, and after a marketing blitz in which some celebrities endorsed the product, they became a runaway hit. Decker got greedy, and quickly started trying to shut down Australian manufacturers of ugg boots, for using the now-trademarked name.

To the Australian manufacturers the claim was ludicrous, as they had been selling the boots for many years already. The Australian manufacturers took their claim to court, explaining that “ugg” was actually just a slang word for “ugly,” and thus the trademark was invalid. Fortunately for the Australians, the court sided with them.

Some of the accounts of that day could point to a possible nuclear explosion. Now, if you have any confidence in the Australian government (though you may not after reading about their treatment of immigrants), you might not worry about this. Only problem is, the government had nothing to do with it. In fact, the group most commonly fingered for possible responsibility for the event is none other than the Aum Shinrikyo cult of Japan, famous for their 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo’s commuters.

The disturbance in question was a measurable seismic event, detected by multiple government seismometers in the area. Several isolated eyewitnesses claimed to hear an extremely loud boom and said they’d seen one (or multiple) fireballs streaking down from the sky at the same time. The New York Times ran a story in 1997 investigating the possibility of Aum Shinrikyo’s involvement based on the cult’s ownership of 500,000 nearby acres of farmland and their alleged interest in nuclear weapons (they were said to have several members with a background in Russian weapons).

However, critics point out that the reports and investigations were delayed several years from the time of the alleged test, that sightings of fireballs are somewhat common in this area (meteors?), and that the applicable seismometer readings pointed to fairly standard earthquakes. But some will always hold to the cult explanation, and even the Australian Geological Survey (the folks with the seismometers) said there wasn’t enough evidence to conclusively call it an earthquake-meteor combo.

At one cricket match against England in the 1980s, a group of fans brought a cooler with them that contained an entire pig. They told the security guards that it was soon going to be lunch and they were allowed in. However, it turned out that the pig was part of an elaborate practical joke.

To make it appear that the pig was dead, they had given it an anesthetic. Later in the match, when the pig had awoken, it was released onto the pitch with the names of two of England’s chubbier players inscribed on its sides. Everyone had a good laugh, but no one knows what happened to the pig.

The most fascinating fact about the drop bear is that it was completely made up to have a laugh at tourists. The origins of the drop bear myth are hidden, but it’s so well-known to Australians that any tourist trying to check the veracity of it will have the story vigorously confirmed. The Australian Museum even put together adetailed description of this fake creature and Australian Geographic published astraight-faced report claiming that drop bears are more likely to target tourists.

Other pieces of advice tourists are likely to hear include the useful tip that drop bears will stay away if you put Vegemite behind your ears, wear forks in your ear, or urinate on yourself. Admitting that drop bears aren’t real is considered by many Australians to be a worse crime against country than burning the flag.

To the people who own the land and run tourist ventures, the more important question is how they can restore the drawing, as it has faded over time. The people who make money by taking people on flights over the drawing are quite happy with this mystery, but many Indigenous Australians are not so pleased. Some feel that the tourism flights over their lands are insulting to their beliefs and would prefer if the drawing was simply removed from the desert.

As no one knows who drew the figure, it is likely to remain in controversy for years to come. The area that includes the drawing has been the focus of a land dispute between two different Indigenous groups who hold opposing viewpoints on how the land should be used.

1) It is the 6th largest country in the world, occupying an entire continent of some 7.6 million square kilometres.

2) It has the world's 3rd largest ocean territory, spanning three oceans and covering around 12 million square kilometres.

3) Vegetation covers nearly 7 million square kilometres or 91 percent of Australia.

4) The largest Greek population in the world beside Athens in Greece can be found in Melbourne Victoria.

5) Most of Australia's exotic flora and fauna cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

6) The Indigenous 'Dream Time' is the foundation for tens of thousands of years of spiritual aboriginal art, traditions, legends, myths, folklore and culture.

7) The only nation-continent of 20 million people in the world.

The wattle was adopted as the national floral emblem in 1912.

9) The first Australian Friendly Society with the motto of 'Advance Australia' was the Australian Natives' Association (ANA) formed in Victoria in 1871.

10) More than 80 percent of Australians live within 100 kilometres of the coast making Australia one of the world's most urbanised coastal dwelling populations.

11) Over 200 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia including 45 Indigenous languages. The most common non-English spoken languages are Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin.

12) The world's highest proportion of migrant settlers in a developed nation with over 25% of Australians born in another country.

13) Today's Australia is very multicultural with Indigenous peoples and migrants from some 200 countries.

14) Australia's first small step to a fully multicultural Australia was the result of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean after 1945.

15) It contains an amazing ecosystem with unique flora and fauna including pristine rainforest, ancient rock formations and beautiful beaches.

16) The first Australian of the Year award was awarded to Professor Macfarlane Burnet who had won the Nobel Prize in the same year of 1960 for his groundbreaking physiology research.

17) Debate continues today on the calls to change the Australian flag because of the prominence of the British Union Jack, which does not reflect contemporary Australian society.

18) It has 16 world heritage listed sites including historic townships, cities and landscapes.

19) While 1988 was named a 'Year of Mourning' for Aboriginals, it was also regarded as a celebration of survival where the Aboriginal community staged a 5 kilometre march for “Freedom, Justice and Hope” in Sydney.

20) Australia used to be a beer-drinking nation but its quaffing plunged to a 65-year low in 2010-2011 with only 4.23 litres consumed per person.

21) Aboriginal leader, Lowitja O'Donoghue, a recipient of the Order of Australia in 1976 and Australian of the Year in 1984 delivered the first milestone national Australia Day address on 26 January 2000.

22) It is believe that the Aboriginal game of Mangrook inspired the rules for Australian Football, while invented in Sydney became popular in Victoria.

23) Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1902.

24) The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia at over 34,000 square kilometres is the world's largest cattle station. It is even larger than Belgium.

25) It has the highest rate of gambling in the world with over 80 percent of Australian adults engaging in gambling of some kind and 20 percent of the pokie machines in the world are found in Australia.

26) Australia Day today is a celebration of diversity and tolerance in Australian society, embracing all ethnic backgrounds, racial differences and political viewpoints.

27) Kangaroo meat can be purchased from the supermarket, butcher and available on restaurant menus as a leaner and healthier alternative to beef or lamb with a 1-2 percent fat content.

28) Surprisingly Australia is the most obese country in the world as of 2012 with a 26 percent obesity rate despite being a sport loving nation.

29) Approximately 1.35 trillion bottles of wine are produced by Australia.

30) Former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd's national apology to Indigenous Australians in 2007 is viewed by many as
a major milestone in reconciliation.

31) The hold of the old White Australia Policy was broken by Gough Whitlam's Labor Government which adopted a broader approach to citizenship and opening migration to Asia and the Middle East.

32) Australian TV networks love cooking shows, airing one after another upon viewership success of My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef.

33) Canberra was selected as the capital because Sydney and Melbourne could not stop arguing which city should be the capital of Australia. Melbourne is the obvious choice

34) Australians refer to English people as Pome, which is actually the acronym for Prisoners of Mother England.

35) Ugg boots or as local call them 'very ugly boots' are an Australian design where a sheepskin has been turned inside out and made into a boot.

36) Melbourne topped 140 rivals to be crowned the world's most liveable city 2 years in a row since 2011.

37) The only place in the world where you can still find the lung fish which is a living fossil from the Triassic period 350 million years ago.

38) The sports capital of the world has 70 percent of its total population participating at least once a week in a particular recreational activity or sport.

39) Despite having a convict colony history, Australia's homicide rate is 1.2 per 100,000 population compared to the 6.3 per 100,000 in the United States.

40) 80 percent of Australians believe Australia has a strong culture and identity characterised by being down to earth, mateship, honesty, sports and multiculturalism based on research organised by the Australia Day Council of NSW in 2008.