Yeah, if I recall correctly you live in something like the equivalent of Melbourne's Chinatown. Which reminds me to remind you that if you get a moment I'd still like to see your book recommendations on the Vietnam War given that I found the perspective you presented in a conversation here about a year ago to be of valuable interest to me. There aren't many critters here in Houston that could kill me. Brown recluses and black widows are pretty much the only significantly poisonous spiders and in my part of town snakes would be a serious challenge to find. Amusingly we do have city coyotes. How they manage I have no idea, but there've been no reports of them threatening human lives. Cats and small dogs are however at risk on occasion. That aggressive funnel web spider y'all have down there is just a nasty little beast. And I reckon y'all must have at least half a dozen incredibly deadly snakes found over all the green growth areas. Then, there's even the ocean critters. Great whites having a surfer's leg for a snack off your south shore there. Those insane blue ringed octopi. Not too mention other beasts like Kangaroos and Cassowaries. What exact animals are you talking about in your backyard?
One of several 'Little Saigons' dotted around Melbourne. Chinatown is right in the middle of the city. I wish I owned property there - sell it & retire. Crap!, sorry. I''l try to remember. If I forget again remind me. One of the killer critters in my yard I mentioned is our version of the Black Widow, the accurately named Redback. I have seen several in my yard and never do any work there without gloves on. We don't have coyotes, but the highest concentrations of foxes in the state live in inner urban areas like mine. Lots of places to live & lots of food, much of it scavenged from rubbish bins etc. We also get the occasional kangaroo, even here in the middle of the city. Plenty of places in the suburbs along the river with roos around, especially when there is a drought. Fortunately the funnel webs only happen in one part of Australia. Unfortunately it is the heavily populated coastal strip that runs from south of Sydney to Queensland. The good news is that since we developed antivenom for them in the early 80s no one has died from their bite. I think we have something like 5 of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world here. Some of those live in unpopulated areas or the ocean, and so are minimally dangerous. At least three live around populations - the eastern brown, tiger snake & taipan. I've seen a few browns & tigers, plus some less deadly ones. It pays to be careful. Sea life here is no joke. Even here in the cooler climes there are sharks and blue ring octopuses. I have seen blue rings at suburban beaches. I work with a number of recent immigrants & always warn them about those, especially if they have little kids. They aren't aggressive, but one bite and you could die very quickly. Head to Queensland and you have stonefish, deadly cone shells, blue rings, sharks, crocodiles and several species of jellyfish that cause so much pain it kills people. Redback spider, bees & European wasps. Bees actually kill more people every year in Australia than any other animal and I am allergic. I also have black spiders, which are not deadly but pack a nasty bite, and huntsman spiders, which aren't dangerous but can be very big and scary looking. I also get orb spiders. They will weave a web across the entire yard & sit in the middle. Not dangerous, but terrifying if you walk into in in the dark & get a spider on your face! Magpies (a bird) regularly visit the tree in my backyard. During breeding season they will attack people near their nests, swooping at their heads & sometimes even pecking at their heads & faces. Apparently they can learn to recognize faces. They are responsible for hundres of attacks & injuries every year. A man was killed last year when he was attacked while cycling & fell off his bike. I also have several species of possums who regularly visit my tree. They are lovely, peaceful animals, though they do urinate & crap in my yard a lot. I once tried to feed one and it bit my finger. My fault.
Here in Sydney, in our suburb we have the usual possums passing trough (or sometimes in residence if I don't keep the trimming of our taller plants up to date), bandicoots digging up the gardens in search of grubs and worms, bush turkeys and the odd wallaby grazing on lawns at night (they tend not survive that long if they hang around due to traffic) plus the odd snake - usually the big pythons because they are quite happy to settle in urban areas if they can find a quiet den in someones property where they are left alone. Then they go to town on the local possum population. Waling down the street a few months ago I was rewarded with the site of one big 3 meter (plus) specimen devouring (half in/half out) a brush tail possum - the grass verge. Everyone just walked around him and let him be.
Yep. “Americans have rather romantic ideas about how their country was founded. We’ve long been fond of the mythology surrounding persecuted people freely traveling to the New World and building the greatest country on Earth. But, like all history, it’s much, much messier than that. Our history includes plenty of genocide, slavery, and just a dash of prison folk — and the latter may be news to many Americans who wouldn’t hesitate to make jokes about Australia being populated by the descendants of criminals.”
Remember The Rum Rebellion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_Rebellion A propaganda cartoon created within hours of William Bligh's arrest, portraying him as a coward. Moi Had Nothing Like The Rum Rebellion was never a prison colony
You have to remember also that the prime reason for sending convicts to Australia in the first place was that after the revolution America stopped taking them! Prior to 1776 they were being shipped off in large numbers to the home of the brave and the land of the free. Makes it kind of hard for an American to make jokes about our 'convict' backgrounds.
As far as I understand convicts were transported to most if not all the colonies with no exceptions. Georgia was supposed to be established as a colony using prisoners from debtors prisons but that plan never worked out for some reason. It's a bit of a myth in Georgia and elsewhere. I dont think they got any more/less convicts than any other colony.
Could you be confusing Bonded labor as opposed to a real prison colony. BTW had legal Bonded Labor into the 1920's if old memory serves
Firstly you had convicts (convicted felons) and secondly convicted debtors (people who couldn't pay their debts and were jailed until they or friends/relatives coughed up). Debtors prisons were a 'thing then but there had to be court proceedings before you you to be sentenced to one - like bankruptcy proceedings but with a prison sentence at the end. As I recall the plan for Georgia was to start a colony using debt prisoners who then, like indentured/bonded workers would work to pay their debts and then be released. I don't believe that plan ever went ahead. Then there what you referred to as indentured or bonded workers - who had not been convicted or anything or sentenced to jail. but who owed money or just couldn't pay the cost of passage to America and wanted to immigrate. In those cases someone would pay off their debts (often a ships captain would 'buy' their passage to the US). Either way the payment was in exchange for the right to sell their labor on to an employer in the colonies for a fixed term as specified in a contract. Tough luck if you got a bad employer. The contracts were legally enforceable so if you ran away and were captured you would be returned. Physical punishment could be inflicted for a failure to perform your duties and of course female laborers had to endure sexual assault from their 'employers'. Come to think of it I think the period of indenture could be lengthened a couple of years if a worker had a child while under contract - to cover the additional 'cost ' of the child. Still, unlike slaves once the term of indenture ended you were a free citizen. In the early days of the American colonies there were lots of indentured workers. From memory they made up almost half the workforce at one time but convicts were also sent over in large numbers. As far as I am aware they were sent to all the colonies, someone might know of exceptions - I don't. Anyway once the colonies decided to get all uppity Australia became the 'go to' dumping ground.
And how "they" did dump Witness India independence as opposed to Australia refusing to be FREE. Whimpering Bi Partisan globalism indoctrinated, programmed Australians Support Australia nationalism And mine & your nationalism too Moi
Apples and oranges. Entirely different historical, political, economic and social situations. I suppose Canadians are all indoctrinated and programmed as well. Now go away and have a nice lie down, your getting over excited. Just because people disagree with you on a particular subject doesn't mean they're zombified, politically inert robots. It just means they disagree with you. Even if you are the clear sighted, revolutionary 'wunderkind' you seem to think you are. And as far as becoming a Republic goes ? Fine, one day we'll have a referendum and we'll either we do it or not. At this stage in Australia's development the change would be almost entirely symbolic, our economic, cultural and political ties having long since parted ways with Queen Victoria's Empire. All we'll end up ding is swapping a hands off Queen for a hands off President. Plus we get a new flag, a new national crest and maybe (but less likely) a Bill of Rights as well. Hooray!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sydney-man-finds-snake-lettuce-102149380.html Sydney man finds snake in lettuce bought at supermarket CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Alex White thought he was watching a huge worm writhing in plastic-wrapped lettuce he’d just brought home from a Sydney supermarket — until a snake tongue flicked. It was a venomous pale-headed snake that authorities say made an 870-kilometer (540-mile) journey to Sydney from a packing plant in the Australian city of Toowoomba wrapped in plastic with two heads of cos lettuce. Before the handler arrived, White said WIRES ( rescue organization ) had explained to him: “If you get bitten, you’ve got to go to hospital really quickly.” Beware the salad when in Australia! What next? Moi
“The Pale-headed Snake is a shy but nervous species, and easily agitated if cornered. When disturbed they quickly assume a threat position by holding the head and neck in a tight S-shaped loop, flattening the head and facing the intruder, sometimes with the mouth slightly open. If the intruder comes within reach the snake will strike without hesitation, delivering multiple bites in quick succession. Although there have been no recorded fatalities from this snake, an envenomation can produce some unpleasant symptoms, including severe headache, blurred vision, localized pain, and abnormal bleeding. Medical attention is advised for anyone receiving a bite from this species.” I haven’t heard of this snake.
4 Corners will be good tonight. “From the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, suspicions fell on China about both the origins of the virus and the Chinese authorities handling of the outbreak. On January 23, 2020, the Chinese government shocked the world by imposing a strict lockdown on the city of Wuhan, home to 11 million people. Transport in and out of the city was ceased and news footage beamed around the world showed the draconian measures used to contain the virus, such as locking people in their homes. What Chinese authorities didn’t reveal, however, was that COVID-19 had been circulating for at least seven weeks and they were going to great lengths to keep this quiet. Tonight, on Four Corners, we bring you an investigation by the BBC into what the Chinese government knew about the virus and compelling evidence of a determined campaign to keep it under wraps. Health workers at the outbreak's epicentre - prohibited from speaking publicly - reveal how the unprecedented health emergency unfolded and the extreme steps taken to silence them from speaking out. 54 Days: China and the Pandemic, from the BBC's This World, goes to air tonight at 8:30 on the ABC. You can also watch live or catch up on ABC iview.”
Meanwhile https://news.yahoo.com/china-australia-relations-first-anniversary-093000420.html China-Australia relations: on first anniversary of trade conflict, hay-import licenses bedevil Australian exportersTwo months after their expiration, Chinese import permits for hay from 25 Australian businesses have not been renewed, as the political and trade conflict between the two major trading partners crosses the one-year milestone. . . Cower Australia! Or maybe expand your beef industry with all that hay. Moi Support Australia Nationalism Esp. if you're Aussie Don't Further ize Australia
I think I would live somewhere near Melbourne if I moved to Australia. The one thing I don't like about Melbourne is the light-rail transit system. It's too slow and stopping at cross streets makes it miserably slow. Weather? Reminds me of Los Angeles where I grew up. Melbourne light rail transit Australia. Australia covid response.
Melbourne can have unpleasant winters with lots of rain and cold wind. Does Los Angeles have winters like that? The trams are a bit slow.
Yet very few people die of snake bites, even though Australia has five of the top ten poisonous snakes. Why do you suppose so few deaths? https://list.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_Australia Forget the snakes, crocs, jellyfish ... it's the bird... Cassowary
We are taught about snakes from an early age. We know not to reach into hollow logs, old jam tins and those metal covers over the water supply gauge. Thank goodness we don’t have cassowaries down here. My aunt worked at the Healesville sanctuary and there was a cassowary which was bad tempered. You always had to have a strong forked stick and didn’t turn your back on him.
