The Mallee Fowl

[willedoo]

44 minutes ago, Yenn said:

What do you mean by salmon? Are you talking about the salmon caught off the Qld coast, which is a real fish, or that stuff farmed in Tassie and pink in colour, which in my opinion is not real fish?

I wouldn't eat that Tasmanian farmed salmon. Most of what I eat is Norwegian or Danish Atlantic salmon.

[willedoo]

48 minutes ago, Yenn said:

It takes a lot to beat a nice piece of fresh mackerel.

I remember eating a fair bit of mackerel up in North Queensland a long time ago. Fresh caught mackerel steaks done in a mornay sauce.

[Jerry_Atrick]

My favourite by a mile is coral trout.. beats barramundi by a mile. First had it in Brissie at Oxleys on the Wharf in Auchenflower..

 

Otherwise, freshly caught snapper from Port Philip Bay will do me!

Edited August 5, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Marty_d]

5 hours ago, willedoo said:

I wouldn't eat that Tasmanian farmed salmon. Most of what I eat is Norwegian or Danish Atlantic salmon.

You don't know what you're missing Willedoo.  Nice belly portions, bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, on a sizzling hot pan skin side down, cooked for a few minutes then turned.  Served with a salad and a few chips if you want.  Scrumptious.

[willedoo]

I'll have to try it. Most farmed seafood has a reputation for lacking flavour. I like the skin on stuff. More taste than skinless salmon.

 

My sister cooks good salmon. She makes up a mix of olive oil, garlic, parsley, lemon juice and dijon mustard, pours it over the salmon and bakes it in the oven until done.

Edited August 5, 2022 by willedoo

[nomadpete]

18 hours ago, old man emu said:

pesce", the Italian word for "fish," to create the designation pescatarian.

Thankfully, these folk don't abbreviate their moniker to

     'scatarian'

[Jerry_Atrick]

19 hours ago, red750 said:

Maybe this is what they need.

 

The police in Mexico are trying to encourage criminals to change their behaviour.  Notice that no "choke holds" or “knees on the neck” are used. We were fortunate to watch a video of a counselling session between the police and a young man stopped for auto theft. They appear to be making some headway. One counselling session should do it.  

 

 

 

Quite frankly, and you can call me a sap, lilly-livered, or yello-bellied, but that is not much less than torture and I do not support it at all. For two reasons; first, apart from the intention of inflicting physical harm, the bounding of the eyes, and stripping down for a beating is pshycological abuse. Guantonomo Bay, anyone? Second, it is summarily meted out (and who knows what else was done outside the eyes of the camera) in a remote area where the police are unsupervised - which would further compound the issue, because the assailed has no idea what unfettered pain they can inflict.

 

And the other problem I have with this, is that this is that this is summary justice meted out by the police. While the population of the total police force may be small, there are police that let the power to get to their head. Now giving this power to them, would anyone of us want our sons or daughters to be beaten like this because they happen to piss off a couple of rogue cops? OK - the probability may be low (although, the more power you give people, the more it corrupts - so with more power, I would say the probability is higher), but that isn't much solace for the ones who are meted out this punishment for doing not much wrong.

 

And how do these police know he is even the theif? He may have innocently purchased the car from the theif? If they don't do an invesigation and beat the driver just because the car was stolen - hardly sounds like good police work, does it? And, even if he is the theif, why is he stealing? Probably to feed himself and his family or to better his life as he has had not the greatest start to it (while I spent most of my schooling life in deprived areas, and did suffer some abuse, my cognitive years were much different). Or, he may have mental illneses such as autism, OCD, etc, which may make it impossible to get work there?  Who knows?

 

But, chances are he will steal again.. but next time, after that experience, he may well equip himself with a gun to protect himself. Then what?

 

This is bad at many levels.. I could go on.. I have no probs with corporal punishement after due (and hopefully robust) process, as, there are two sides to every story, and people should be given the chance to tell their side.

 

Yes, in western countries the laws of evidence are often [perceived to be] in the favour of the defendant. Maybe they are. But I urge you to look up birmingham 4 and guildford 6 (or is it the guildford 4 and birmingham 6) and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act that came about because the some of the worst miscarriages of justice I have seen. Police doctored the evidence and hit crucial evidence from teh defence; they used every loophole to convict innocents. Also, I believe in Aus (Vic?) not too long ago, another long suffering case of miscarriage of justice due to police corruption had been discovered. And let's not forget the police brutality of an old aged disabled pensioner, in a wheelchar as I recall,  in Preston, Melbourne.. And all the other crap that goes on with pollies and police (Friendly Jordies' producer's arrest by the fixated persons unit), etc, etc. It can happen in Aus, the UK and most defintiely, the US... let's not think that sort of ship in the video is the right thing to do.

 

And, in theft and other similar offences, yeah- they are freeaking annoying and worse ifyou're not insured.. Ther are other offences, where, after due process, would be happy to hang them from their balls and allow peeople to use scalpels to cut peices out of them when they are alive... Well, maybe not quite.. But that, for the alleged crime, and by the police - sorry - NFW - No effin way...

Edited August 5, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Everyone should have access to justice and due process. In Australia only the rich can access it. Including criminals who often get the best.  Nev

[spacesailor]

Corporal Justice. 

Inflicted upon Junior school kids, by burly exsoldiers, with any type of tool .

Cane , strap , belts , shoes , & the FIST.

Am l glad that it has changed for my offspring !.

Has the pendulum swung too far ! ,

Not whilst it,s in our memory , Sychological Trauma linger,s Long after the torture ends .

spacesailor

[Bruce Tuncks]

My son and his partner have tee shirts saying that vegans kill more animals than carnivores. This seems nonsense till you do some investigating when it turns out to be true.

Just travel from the south of Edenhope ( grazing country , mainly meat sheep ) to Horsham ( cropping country where vegan food is produced ) and the loss of wild animals is very apparent.

There would be thousands of animals and insects killed if we changed to cropping to grow vegan food around here. And the sheep have a very good life till they are killed. They are protected from disease and predators. You make more money from happy sheep.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Bruce Tuncks

[onetrack]

I don't know what precise treatment is best for young crims, but there are many things that need to be considered in punishments, as Jerry has clearly outlined. Treatment places for juvenile offenders always used to be referred to, as "Correction" places. And "correction" of their behaviour is what is needed - and for some, only a sharp belting works for them.

But dishing out a belting on an ad hoc basis is definitely not the answer. For a number of juveniles, vile abuse growing up, has led to their descent into criminality, and that takes a long time to address and correct.

 

A lack of upstanding male leadership stands out as a prominent factor in much juvenile crime. Teenagers brains are still developing, even when they're 19. Some don't get any brains until they're 25.

Guidance and correction, and the instilling of self-discipline - normally by the application of fair external discipline, is what generally works best for these young crims.

But the general population sees judges and the justice system as being soft on crims overall, so many people are glad to see crims "get their just desserts", via a good hiding.

 

A mate told me a story about a mate of his, who had his motorbike stolen by a young crim. Unfortunately for the young crim, the victim found out who had stolen it, and went to his workplace.

He caught the young crim just as he was stepping up out of a trench he had been working in, and the motorcycle owner bloke planted a No. 9 boot fair in the young crims face, and sent him flying back down into the trench, causing a bit more damage. Of course, the motorcycle owner bloke was promptly charged with assault, and got heavily fined.

 

So then, he did the smart thing, and went to the young crim's boss and explained the young crim was being charged with motorcycle theft, and would he really like to continue employing a bloke known for thieving? Naturally, the boss sacked the young crim.

Then the motorcycle bloke kept this pressure up, and kept tabs on the young crim, and went to every place where the young crim had found a job again, and advised the bosses there, they were employing a crim (this was in the era before police checks) - so he'd get the boot again, and again.

 

It was a hard lesson for this young crim to learn, that any bad vibe stuff you do, has a nasty habit of following you through life.

[red750]

[Jerry_Atrick]

And... I believe that assault rifles should be able to be carried by everyone, anywhere, and have domestic violence issues, and.... so on..

 

(BTW, respect isn't a right - it has to be earned. Courtesy is a right.. often people confuse the two)

Edited August 6, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

On 19/07/2022 at 12:05 AM, onetrack said:

The ABC has run a great story about the Mallee Fowl in NW Victoria.

That's the beginning of the original post. We've done more than drift. We've been swept away.

[onetrack]

We've degenerated into the subject of fowl behaviour.

[spacesailor]

Sydny has an abundance of " white Ibis " ,or Dump Chook, Bin Chicken , & Tip Turkey. 

Do you want to Swap !. LoL

spacesailor

[onetrack]

No thanks, Spacey, we already have plenty of them here in Perth. It seems their numbers have exploded in line with the growth of the population, I don't recall seeing all that many of them, when I was a kid in the 1950's.

Perhaps it's a result of substantially reducing their habitat - in the 1950's, the coastal sandplain, covering an area about 30kms E of Perth, 70kms N, and about 250kms S of the City, was full of swamps, which were the major habitat of the White Ibis, you never saw them anywhere else.

But the explosion in urban development from the 1960's saw nearly all the swamps filled in and built on, with only a few left for parkland waterways.

The Ibis seemed to thrive on the ready availability of garbage, and despite better control of garbage today, they still manage to get into garbage anywhere they can find it.

[Yenn]

The bird population is forever changing. This yea we have not seen the winter arrival of a solitary Ibis, who has spent the last few winters with us. Red Wing Parrots are now rare and several members of the Honeyeater family are missing. Even the Drongo is seldom seen as is the Blue Winged Kookaburra. Never mind we will no doubt soon see some bird who has never put in an appearance before.

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, Yenn said:

Even the Drongo is seldom seen

Plenty of Drongoes at the recent "Splendour in the Grass"

[facthunter]

Morons in the Mud.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yesterday I counted 13 magpies in the paddock opposite. This is unusual because they are not flocking birds. I just love their warbling calls.

They seem to be benefiting from land clearing, like the white cockatoos have done. Those white cockeys are in plague proportions now and it will be awhile before the politically correct lot see this.

The Kookaburras are in decline, and the cause seems to be the ascendancy of the magpies. Gosh they go for the kookas when they can and they seem to make better packs.

There are also declining numbers of small coloured parrots. I wonder if they can hold their own against foxes and feral cats.

[nomadpete]

I noticed that when the kookas arrived in southern Tassie, the numbe of smaller birds suddenly declined (wrens, etc).

Larger predators prey on the little ones. In Qld & NSW I have seen butcher birds do the same. I wonder if magpies have a go at young kookaburra?

[onetrack]

The magpies can be very aggressive and they're real gang thugs, they don't operate alone, there's always a gang of them. They chase a lot of other birds - crows, red wattlebirds, anything they seem to think is stealing their food line. I really don't know what magpies eat, but they catch a lot of ground-dwelling bugs, and I suspect they eat a lot of slaters. They kill and eat the little grey lizards if they can catch them, but the lizards are pretty fast.

Kookaburras aren't native to W.A., but someone introduced them, so they're here to stay. I don't mind them, they catch and beat the crap out of rats and snakes, and I reckon that's a good thing - we don't have any shortage of either.

The Kookas only come around here once in while, I don't know if they've got particular territories, but I always thought they preferred big trees by river and creek banks, so they could grab fish. They're loud and noisy when they arrive. 

The magpies work the verges and lawns up and down the streets in gangs, always with one keeping a lookout up high. They prefer areas they can get into and out of easily, they don't like areas with overhanging trees or big bushes, it seems they get a bit wary about getting trapped in small areas that are difficult for them to fly in and out of. I read where the Western magpies aren't as aggressive as the Eastern magpies. 

[nomadpete]

That's interesting. The eastern maggies seem to stay in smaller family groups. I wouldn't call them gangs.

Social behaviour by sandcrabs might be more violent than on the eastern seaboard.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I just love the magpies but I agree they can be real aggressive. They are ground feeders, and they can hear the insects ( slaters? ) under the surface. When you watch them feeding, sometimes they cock their heads to show that they are hearing something,