Today we continued our holidays in Victoria's Otway Ranges. We woke up before dawn and drove to Lake Elizabeth. This lake is very modern as far as lakes go. It is a natural lake formed by a landslide n 1952 after heavy rain.
While we drove near the lake we encountered a deer running across the road and just missed hitting a small kangaroo.
The lake is so still and tranquil. As it was early on a cold, weekday morning we had the place to ourselves. You can see the stumps of trees flooded in 1952 (and possibly damaged by a major breach of the lake wall the following year).
Why did we get there so early? To see the lake's platypus residents. Platypus are much harder than koalas to see. They are very shy. The best time to see them is early morning or dusk.
We saw not one, but two platypus swimming around the tree stumps. I have no photos because platypus swim around with their heads just protruding a little above the water. They swim around with their beaks just below the water line and their heads just poking a little about the water line. However, their swimming is distinctive. They power along, then disappear for a lengthy swim under water, popping up somewhere else and a fair way from the place they first dived down.
We spent ages standing still, looking out for a platypus and generally imbibing the peacefulness of the scene. #platypus
Ever wondered what a #Platypus skeleton looks like? Thanks to a new #Web app by the Musee Zoologique de #Strasbourg, you can not only look at but also interact with it!
"Fipronil and imidacloprid are widely used in flea treatments, which are typically applied to the back of the pet’s neck once a month.These two chemicals are extremely potent neurotoxic insecticides and it is deeply concerning that they are routinely found on the hands of dog owners through ongoing contact with their pet. Pet owners will also be upset to learn that they are accidentally polluting our rivers by using these products.”
There will be a review of the 5 year management plan of the Gleniffer Reserves. A meeting will be held at the Gleniffer Hall on Tuesday 23rd January from 9.30am to 12 noon.
Once residents and visitors have frequented the local watering holes in Bellingen, the swimming holes at Gleniffer are the main thing to do on a hot day. The mass tourism is funneled via ' the tourist drive'. The scenic country road has just been reconstructed into a highway-like infrastructure. Motorists are now enticed to race from the watering hole to the swimming hole. Cars park as close as possible to the small creeks and unload dogs and gear. The unwanted waste is commonly left behind for the local wildlife and the next load of visitors.
The reserves have a lot of car parking infrastructure and educational signage about settler explorers now.
A "Go before you go” campaign urges visitors to go to a public toilet before leaving the township. Many motorists/swimmers forget and the dogs can't read.
The 'upgrade' of Gleniffer road channeled the flow of visitors into local waterways that have no toilets.
The use of email #newsletters and #rss could mostly disappear if there were dedicated #ActivityPub apps to ingest/parse feeds and read or listen to articles. The bonus being that we'd also have comments and virality. Then podcasts and video too. #fediverse#OpenSocialWeb
imo the fedi is gonna be undeniable when all these pieces developed separately like Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube etc...come together. when AP is as ubiquitous as HTTP. it becomes "this is just the usually best way to do this" instead of this is how we do it here and they handle this same thing that way over there. #platypus
Most of my reviews focus on the big things: films, cameras, lenses and developers. But what about those handy accessories that make life easier? Well, here are four pieces of kit that have helped me out!
With #ActivityPub, could you have no character limit for the size of posts but then have them for replies? Posts (like articles) should go viral, replies should make for a great conversation and not deter from further engagement.
I want to build a new piece of #fediverse server software that I'd call #platypus. The idea being that it would try to constantly incorporate the best ideas from other projects.
The initial version would have a feed that looks like #mastodon etc but when you clicked on an item, you'd see what looks like #lemmy or #kbin, with replies ranked via up/down arrows. No communities or magazines, just hashtags.
does this make sense? what am I not thinking about? wouldn't it be awesome? how do I start?
But also a success. I had heard rumours that there was at least one platypus in our local creek and this evening, armed with the wrong lens for the conditions, I confirmed it.
Alas, 1/50th sec @ ISO 12,800 is too slow for a speedy platypus.
Many now flock to natural places for the best selfie background
"Trampling plants, damaging rock art, risking your life: taking selfies in nature has a cost."
"Someone goes swimming, puts it on social media and suddenly there’s 100 people a day coming to go wild swimming where the platypus and the glow-worms live. And in a wet year, suddenly all the vegetation around the rock pool is trampled, it turns into a muddy mess."