Gab and Paul

Malaysia

2009-07-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

On our way back from Australia to Europe, we stopped in Kuala Lumpur.

The old train station:

Hibiscus is the national flower:

And a photo of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building that hosted the superior courts of Malaysia before the year 2000.

A sign in a copy-shop:

Uluru - Kata Tjuta

2009-07-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

With our German friends Anna and Boris and with Paul's brother Fiacre, we traveled from Canberra to Darwin - a 5000km trip - through the Australian desert. We're now in Darwin for our last day in Australia.
We've been lucky to walk in the Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. We slept in an underground camping in Cooper Pedy. Then watched the sunset and sunrise - with breakfast - at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Every night, we camped in road houses or in the bush along the Stuart Highway, we took a shower only every 2 or 3 days. After the heat of the day and the dust of the desert, we were very pleased to swim in the clear Mataranka springs. Then we headed of to the Kakadu National park were we camped at the base of the Gunlom falls, were we enjoyed swimming in pure water, in a beautiful scenery. An aboriginal women told us dreaming stories, stories simple but somewhat shoking of dreaming ancestors, the powerful beings that created the features of the land and were able to change themselves into any animal. We went to a river cruise to watch the crocodiles. Then we left Fiacre on a bus to Darwin at the Kakadu village centre. And went to Lichtfield National park, were we camped near a creek. There are only 8 camping spot, separated by 150 m and spread along the river. We had a swiming hole for ourselves. We cooked eggs on a camp fire and boiled tea with water from the river. We jumped and jumped and jumped again in the swimming hole, and we got a massage from the small waterfalls. For this enchanted place alone, I think it is worth coming back to Australia.

Whakaari / White Island

2009-01-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

We visited an active marine volcano, located on the subduction zone between the Indo-Australian plate and the pacific plate.

The volcano as we could see it from the boat when we arrived.

The steam is very rich in sulfur dioxide and that can be quite uncomfortable that's why the tour guides provided gas masks.

Steam coming out of the crater. There is only hot water and steam visible from the surface. At its nearest point, the magma chamber is located 1km below the surface.

Hot water and steam, looks like a boiling pot of soup.

This big steam column appeared only a few months ago, it is deposing a lot of sulfur dioxide on the walls behind. The sulfur will turn yellow when exposed to the atmosphere.

The yellow color is sulfur deposits and the orange color is due to iron.

The impressive lake inside the crater, temperate varies between 38 and 90 degrees in this lake. It is a super saturated solution of acid, PH is equal to -1!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-20T22:12:00.001-08:00

We are very behind with the updating of our blog! We've been to so many amazing places!!!

Brisbane - Stradbroke Island - Adelaide - Yankalilla - Kangaroo Island - Perth - Margaret River - Boranup Forest and now we're heading towards Braidwood.

Sooooooooo many beautiful beaches and panoramas, strange birds and animals on our ways, as koalas, seals, sealions, huntsman spiders, kangaroos, wallabies, quokkas, kookaburras, gang gang and so on. We snorkeled and biked on the islands and played music with many people. For sure, we'll put some pictures of our travels soonish on the blog!!! :-)

For Christmas, Australians do not decorate their houses for Christmas, but themselves!! Plenty of people dress up in white-red Christmas clothes or as reindeer:-) Merry Christmas!

Margaret River

2008-12-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

After a visit to our Friends Claire and David in Perth, we are currently working as "wwoofers" on an Olive Plantation in Margaret river, 275 km South of Perth. They sell their products under the Brand "34 Degrees South". It is the latitude of Sydney and Cape town in South Africa and it is also the latitude of Margaret river. It rains more in this region and the paddocks are still green. There is no lack of water around here. Their Olive trees are irrigated and look very big for 8 year old trees.
This morning, we've been packing dukkah in little 100g bags. It is a traditional dish from north Africa composed of nuts and spices like cumin and cardamon. They dip bread into olive oil and eat it with the dukkah.

Alpacas on the farm

A Rainbow on a rainy morning

Goulburn

2008-11-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

Goulburn, home of the big merino is a country town, located 90km to the north east of Canberra.

Bush and pastures constitute the typical landscape around Goulburn.

It had been raining, and the pounds were full of water.

A destroyed windmill, probably damaged by a strong wind.

A view of Goulburn from the war memorial.

A description of Aborigines from this region. Goulburn is part of the traditional land of the Gandangara people. (click on the image to see a wider version)

The main street.

The car I'm driving is a Mitsubishi Magna Executive. It has over 360000 km.

Magpies singing

2008-11-08T00:27:00.000-08:00

Magpies are about the size of a small raven. But they fly and walk a lot closer to humans than the ravens we have in Europe. People in Canberra could tell you stories about magpies attacking them while riding bicycles, or stealing jewellery.

Fiacre was playing the guitar while a few magpies game to sing with us.

Magpie in a Eucalyptus in Goulburn.

Monopoly of US corporation over Human Genes - Issue of Public health in Australia

2008-10-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

BRCA1 and BRCA2 - Tests for Breast and Ovarian Cancer

As I am doing an Intellectual Property course this semester, I am more involved in patent issues, especially concerning the patenting of the unpatentable... human genes.

The US corporation Myriad Genetics is the patent owner of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
These genes in question are responsible for up to 10% of cases of breast cancer.

For several years Australian women who have a family history of breast cancer have been able to use the DNA test in public hospitals to see whether they are genetically predisposed to the disease.

None of the testing laboratories has been granted a license by Myriad Genetics, patent owner of BRCA1 and BRCA2. There is only one licensed DNA-testing company in Australia and in New Zealand, Genetic Technologies.

Genetic Technologies has decided to enforce its rights and has consequently ordered laboratories across Australia to stop tests for a genetic mutation in genes linked to breast cancer.

Therefore it will be the only and sole laboratory throughout Australia that continue providing this breast cancer predisposition test.

The consequences are very alarming!!
The access to that test for women will become much more difficult. Furthermore, no competition will impose Genetic Technologies to maintain the price at its current level of $2,100 and will let them free to raise it to much higher levels!

There is a great deal of controversy in Australia, especially the Australian Council for Cancer is concerned. Although, there are ways the Australian Government could prevent the corporation from imposing its monopoly (through compulsory licenses or crown-use), it is extremely unlikely at the moment that action will be taken before the 6th November, the absolute deadline for the 10 laboratories in Australia to stop testing breast cancer.

The laboratories asked to stop testing are not going to defend these matters of public health, as, as you can imagine, they themselves own patents over human genes.

.... this is one example of the current developments and impacts of patent law and public health.

It is of great concern to see that over 20% of the human genome are already monopolised by US patent owners. I don't know if I should be more concerned about private companies or public bodies. Both private and public seem to capitalise the most benefit out of it.

DEVELOPMENT OF PATENT LAW

A long time ago, patents were deemed to protect inventions in order to enhance research and technology transfers.

Nowadays, an invention is no more something really inventive.

To satisfy the threshold criteria of inventive step it is sufficient to isolate an element from its natural environment. The process of isolating (a human gene) constitutes satisfactory human intervention in order to apply for a patent.

Instead of human INVENTION we are considering human INTERVENTION ?!?!?!?!?!

It is true that the granting of patent facilitate the transfer of knowledge, because each patent owner has to disclose the entirety of his invention.

But can another researcher make use of the disclosed knowledge? ... not in the 20 or 25 years of the patent life.

In the meanwhile, the monopolisation of the patent matter prevent enhancing research and forces researchers to request licences from more and more patent owners worldwide.

The critical point is, that there is no logical restriction separating genes and living beings...animals have been patented,as oysters and mice.

The only legislative limit is that an entire human being is unpatentable... but what if I just INTERVENE ....

Yass nursery - Eucalyptus - pots - and watering system

2008-10-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

At Yass nursery, I've potted Eucalyptus plants.

The first plants we took care of where Eucalyptus polyanthemos also called "Red Box". The round juvenile leaves are somewhat similar in shape to those of the judas tree (cercis siliquastrum).

Eucalyptus melliodora also called "Yellow Box".

Eucalyptus Bridgesiana, also called "apple Box".

A Eucalyptus Bridgesiana photographed at the ANU college of law.

We protected those plants with a net to prevent the kangaroos from eating them.

Those special pots have holes on the end of little cones covering the sides of the pot. Those holes increase the aeration of the potting mix. This helps the root system develops nicely.

Roots of a eucalyptus plant after one year in this type of pot.

The building these pots is easy and fast.

The Yass river is located at 500m distance to the nursery.

This is the heart of the water system.

Trees are being watered every three days approximately. They shouldn't be watered to often because the river water is salty.

The owner of the nursery decided to plant a demonstration garden, to show plants to his customers. This photo is a part of the drought resistant plants that we planted last week. He says he plans to open a cafe-restaurant over looking the garden at the top of the hill. "But that's for the next owner..."

Yass nursery

2008-10-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

Last week I worked at a a nursery in Yass, 50km north of Canberra (map).

The office and a glasshouse.

The boss who is Canadian, has been living in Australia for more than 20 years. He's quite friendly. He uses this motorbike to move around in the nursery, because it is quicker.

His wife and him invited me to stay in heir house.

The view from their house, in the morning.

In the evening.
A flying magpie.

Yellow roses - sweet, sweet home

2008-10-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

The yellow roses grow amazingly. We cut them and decorated the house and ourselves with roses

Durras - Camping trip

2008-10-20T23:35:00.000-07:00

There are many different birds: small & big, colored & black-white. Either they sing beautifuly or they give you the geeseflesh ^_^ In the night we heart birds singing like LASERSThe beach in Durras is wounderful and the waves are sooo huge. We had a lot of fun just jumbing against them! ^_^

The cliff between Depot beach and Durras beach.
As you can guess, the sun is powerful !!

A friend of us caught a crabe, which pinced his finger and disappeared quicklyAt night a kangoroo came very close to our fire and watched us with curiosity. Then it jumped back in the bush...

The birds are singing

2008-10-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

On this video you can hear at least 4 different types of birds.

Springtime in Canberra

2008-10-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Fiacre is looking for inspiration

A fairy in the apple tree

A cherry tree in Dikson chop, the "China-town" of Canberra.

The Telstra tower at Sunset as seen from Mont Ainslie.

Sydney - Bondi Beach

2008-10-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

A video of the touristic Icone of Australia as seen from a ferry boat.

Ferry stop at Watsons Bay.

Sleeping at Bondi Beach

T-shirt in the wind. (A very sudden wind rises around 3pm on the beach everyday, I have forgotten the name of this wind)

Sydney harbour & skyline.

Flying foxes video

2008-09-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

A video of the flying foxes in the Sydney botanical garden.

Fruit bats in the Sydney botanical garden

2008-09-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Flying foxes, also called fruit bats because they eat fruits, are living in the Sydney botanical garden.

Hanging on the branches with their left foot, they flap their right wing close to the body to refresh themselves. It was a hot day! 30 C

A nice little head, so cute! ^_^ as long as they stay high up in the tree

impressive wings, even more when they fly

According to this notice, the huge amount of bats appears to be somewhat damaging to the trees.

That looks like a forest of nested young trees. In fact all this is only one tree.

This Ficus macrophylla columnaris drops aerial roots from its branches. (click on the image to read the description)

Wounderful trees in the middle of Sydney's Hyde park.

2008-09-24T01:22:00.001-07:00

On the way to the University of Canberra,

I saw a "packman" monster

At the foot of this tree

I wonder why Eucalyptus always have such massive amounts of "exfoliated" bark on their trunks.

There is a short Wikipedia article on Eucalyptus bark : "All mature eucalypts put on an annual layer of bark, which contributes to the increasing diameter of the stems. In some species the outermost layer dies and is annually deciduous either in long strips or in variably sized flakes"

Citrus tree

2008-09-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed the Sun in the garden in Canberra this week-end. But it was thunderstorm and lightning that our friends could enjoy on Saturday night. They came around for a pizza evening and the thunderstorm gave us a bit of a horror movie experience. It was also a real pleasure to smell humidity coming from the soil after the rain.

On Sunday Gabriele picked up citruses on the tree .

The citrus pieces kept company to the fish coated with eggs in the oven. That was tasty!

On Sunday eve, it was time for Paul to follow those birds to Melbourne.

Animals on the road from work

2008-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

We've seen those animals on the road back from work Satuday:

I didn't know the exact name of this animal, Steward called it a Salamader, but according to this wikipedia article there are no salamander in Australia.
Rod (we met in the internet cafe in Mildura) told me that it is a Blue-tongued skink: "These lizards have different names all over Australia. In South Australia they are known as 'sleepy lizards', in Western AUstralia they are known as 'pinecone lizards', in Victoria they are known as 'shinglebacks', in New South Wales they are known as 'bob-tailed skinks', just to mention a few."

We also went to take a photo of my favorite bush-tree, the peacock head:

Suddenly, Stewart told me to be aware of the spiders. I ran.

I was scared.Of these hunter spiders.

Stewart said it is a wolf spider. Our boss told us that they can chase you. But this one was rather quiet.

Work at the vineyard

2008-08-29T02:51:00.001-07:00

A driling machine used at work to plant vineyard posts in the ground. Very exciting work! The drill injects water as it goes down. The tractor is so noisy that you can shout and sing at ease while your working.

And here is a view of the hydraulic hammer to push those posts in the ground. It pushes a post in a hole full of water. And that splashes mud all over and also on the guy who is holding that post. You get very muddy doing this job. It's good for a first job though, it tests my motivation. Yesterday I ended painting stripes on my face with mud, like an indian.

Lifting the heavy strainers with Marc (also called fog Horn among his friends because he can shout loud ^_^). Marc said I look like a drunken boxer. (Drunken boxing really is a martial art).

Push it down!

When we get bored,we draw smileys on the van.

Trees

2008-08-29T02:19:00.000-07:00

The australian bush in New South Wales.

Sunrise on the way to work. My prefered tree is the one with a second top, it looks like a peacock's head.

A vine plant, August is in winter in Australia, so there are no leaves.

Typical vegetation around Mildura, you can see an acacia in the middle.

Acacia flowers.

Palm trees in the city center of Mildura (grainy photo taken at dusk)

Kangaroos and pelicans

2008-08-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

The first Kangaroos I've seen in Australia.

After a 8 hours walk. I was realy tired. You cannot imagine how happy I was to see these Kangaroos. They were standing still, and started to jump around as I walked by. (I made a video too, Check this post)

2 pelicans on the Mildura river. You can see a Houseboat in the background. As I was walking along the river on the evening, I was invited to a birthday party on such a Houseboat. A man asked if I wanted a beer. I said sure, yes. It was a big family gathering. Then an other member of the family offered me something to eat, delicious lamb and carrots and a glass of wine. 3 of them where talking to me at the same time, they wanted to know what was France like, how big my family was, what I thought of Australia, and so fort. I stayed 4 hours in their boat! We had a great Craig!

Mildura

2008-08-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

Mildura was created as an irrigation settlement. It is a sort of oasis in the desert.

It rains 290mm per year on average in Mildura. That is a lot less than the 700mm or more we have in France. It is in fact near to the 240 to 280mm yearly rainfall in Marrakech.

The ANU

2008-08-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

Let's give you an idea about the ANU campus, where I spend my time during busy days! ^_^

The ANU campus lies just next to the Lake Burley Griffin and to the Black Mountain (in the background of the photo). The Sullivans Creek (on the photo, as well ^_^) crosses the whole campus. That's why we have soooooooo many ducks on campus!!!!!

But ducks are not the sole animals, you might cross possums, as well, especially at night. This week one of them tried to get some of my lunch!!! ^_^

And there are so many trees and colorful birds. ^_^ Some of the birds look a little bit dangerous with their crazy eyes and huge beaks. Don't give them to eat, they will bit you!

But not these ones, of course... ^_^

The Cafeteria just behind the College of Law. ^_^ I use to get there coffees with friends.

The ANU campus with its 130 buildings spread over this huge area. I'm staying right in the middle of it and I enjoy having walks in whatsoever direction over campus! ^_^

CANBERRA in the middle of the Australian bush

2008-08-24T00:15:00.001-07:00

So that's my new HOME.
You can see the neighbourhood and all the trees along the streets ^_^. It's a very green city, with a lot of nature in every corner!

There are a lot of strange birds. For example, the Cockatoo. It's a white bird with yellow 'crazy hair' and it makes a wired noise, especially in the morning, when people try to sleep... ^_^ A Scottish friend of mine sleeps with an open window, and so every morning around 5am, she is woken up by the lovely Cockatoos!!!!

That's a share house in O'Connor.
The photo was taken just after a rainfall, what you can guess from the rainbow. But actually we've got sunshine all the days in Canberra. What for a lovely winter!!!

So, on your right you can see a bit of the bikepath, I use to ride on every day to the ANU campus. There are a lot of these bikepaths in Canberra. They lay far away from the main roads, or any roads at all, so that you've got the impression of being indeed in a small village, and not at all in a capital! LOL

THat's it, for the moment! ^_^

Trip to SYDNEY ^_^ 10th August 2008

2008-08-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Sydney by night

We went to the Sydney Opera, to see a concert of STRAVINSKY's Firebird -ballet fantastique- (1910) and a work of TCHAIKOVSKY, Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23. The firebird was a bit experimental in some passages, but quite nice and impressive. ^_^

There was a little 'marathon' of 14 km in Sydney. We hab no running clothes, but, just for fun, we walked the whole way down to Bondi Beach! Two housemates of Fiacre, Toma and Masahero, were participating in the City Surf Running and they did a pretty good job! ^_^

The Sun Herald City 2 Surf: 14 km through Sydney to Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach - Paul and Fiacre went swimming in the Pacific!!!

Afterwards, we discovered the Aquarium in Sydney and went under water.... ^_^

Paul said that the turtle seemed to fly in the water like a bird. I think it's a beautiful discription ^_^

What is the message to you?? Well, do it like the turtle and fly like a bird!!! ^_^

A long walk in Mildura

2008-08-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

Mildura is a typical Australian Town, with almost all street laid down parallel to each other, like a grid. Today I walked from my backpacker in the 15th street to the first street and then back to the city center. A long walk, about 19km. I've seen a lot of vineyards and some people working and pruning trees.

Not far from the river, I saw 5 kangaroos jumping around. The Kangaroos where very attentive and listening with their heads and their ears up and turning, like sentinels. After scouting the environment for a couple of minutes, they where jumping around again. They behave similarly to the Roe deers we have in France. The only big difference is that kangaroos go on 2 legs!