Amazing Aussie Critters

One of the things I like about Australia is the critters. You got your snakes, spiders, scorpions, marsupials, sharks, and then there's the ants. Aussie has ants! My friends will probably all recall my description of the Bull Ants at the Vijayaloka Retreat Centre.

These incredibly aggressive little Aussie bleeders are about an inch long, and they see you coming they stop what they are doing to watch you, their whole bodies tracking you as you move. If you stop then they run towards you with clear intent to injure. And they sting if they get a chance, and yes it hurts like hell. Some people may have thought I was exaggerating, but National Geographic this month have a feature on them, and you can see that I wasn't!

Google - why I still like them, 2

I've been spending some time on maps lately. If you follow the link you can see a high res image of the site of the ancient city of Mohenjo Daro - (see also left) one of the cities on the Indus River which date (depending who you talk to) from about 4000 BCE or perhaps as old as 7000BCE. This is the Swat Valley/Gandhara region home to many innovations in Buddhism - and closest approach to the silk road. Here is the Mahabodhi Temple marking the site where the Buddha meditated and Awakened.

I don't care what anyone says... this is way cool.

News from Home

I don't see much news from home in the UK papers. So I thought I'd celebrate this one from the Guardian 31 March 2007. The comments of the spokesman are troublesome of course since he assumes that education must show a profit - what a dismal view of the human being this represents.

For those who don't know what a "bogan" is, there is - surprisingly - a lengthy and referenced Wikipedia article on the subject.



Meanwhile two NZ school girls found that, contrary to claims of the manufacturer, ready to drink Ribena contains virtually no vitamin C. Ouch!