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I think I would much rather share my al fresco lunch with an Emu than the American northeastern yellow jackets. Nasty, aggressive, stingy and violently persistent. shudder... there is no escape as they will follow you. again, shudder.I spent almost three years living and working for Deloitte & Touché in Australia, 1996 until late 1998.
I enjoyed my work and the citizenry of Oz, they liked Americans and were very kind to me. However, their marsupials, wombat, and Emus could sometimes be very annoying.
One summer day our little group were eating lunch in a local park in the outskirts of Canberra. A hungry Emu approached our table, and eventually stole a loaf of bread and platter of sandwiches.
I think I would much rather share my al fresco lunch with an Emu than the American northeastern yellow jackets. Nasty, aggressive, stingy and violently persistent. shudder... there is no escape as they will follow you. again, shudder.
I use bleach for many purposes. I loaded my insecticide lawn hose sprayer with 4 parts bleach and 1 part water. The canister held about 1/2 gallon. Loaded for bees, I returned to about 10 feet away from their hive. Pointed the hose at their hive, and things began to pop. Bees were held off by the solution, started falling immediately upon contact. I was unharmed. The bees lost that day.
Kangaroos and Tazzy Devils can and do tear people up.
True, but don't dismiss the wombat.
Wombats, wallabys, kangaroos, emus, and armadillos, oh my.
Wombats are tank like critters.
Avoid hitting one, because of their natural body armour, your auto undercarriage could be destroyed.
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Wombats can only be found in Australia - the land of dingoes, wallabies, and Tasmanian devils. They look like small, cuddly bears - terrestrial koalas, happy to burrow for roots rather than climb for leaves. The young are cute and playful, making wombats popular attractions at Australian zoos. Wombats move slowly and feed at night. And that's why they show up in math problems.
"Cars arrive along a stretch of road according to a Poisson random process," read my student probability textbook. "What's the chance a crossing wombat arrives safely on the other side?"
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Of Wombats and Armadillos
by Andy Boyd Today, why did the wombat cross the road? The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.engines.egr.uh.edu
When I became a professor, I held to the tradition of my alma mater by entertaining students with stories about wombats crossing roads. But my stories didn't prove to be that entertaining. That is, until a student offered a suggestion. "This is Texas," he said. "We don't have wombats. But we do have armadillos." I changed the story line. And from then on the students never failed to laugh.
I'd seen armadillos, but set out to learn more about them and what, if anything, they have in common with wombats. Armadillos most definitely aren't cuddly. They have hard outer shells made of detached plates. It makes them look a lot like medieval knights in armor. Twenty species of armadillo are found in different parts of the Americas.
The delicate pink fairy armadillo is the smallest, at about five inches in length. One species, the Brazilian three-banded armadillo, rolls itself into a ball when threatened. That's not true of the nine-banded armadillo found in Texas and throughout the southern United States.
But while they're not cuddly, armadillos are likable. They have a soft, furry underside and a gentle demeanor, inspiring some people to keep them as house pets. They're related to anteaters, and ask nothing more than bugs and a little grass for food. Armadillos are so likable, Texas designated them the state's official small mammal. (Large mammal bragging rights not surprisingly went to the longhorn.)
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A two story Texas armadillo as imagined with long horns.
"Cars arrive along a stretch of road according to a Poisson random process," read my student probability textbook. "What's the chance a crossing wombat arrives safely on the other side?"
Why did the Wombat cross the road?
There are so many things in Australia that can kill you. From poisonous snakes to crazy spiders and insects.
True, my friend, but we have many life forms capable of killing you right here in North America, ie... crazed, escaped, deranged prison inmates, dope fiends, alcoholics, pedophiles, perverts, mental incompetents, psychologically disturbed individuals, sexually maladjusted freaks, creepy, mentally disturbed life forms, critters that prowl the darkest shadows/crevices, and iseologigically disturbed, terrorists; along with their "kin" anti-semetic vermin.